COMMENT – There is a website called The Onion on the Internet that creates an alternate, comical version of the leading stories from around the United States of America. Sometimes when reading the local scribes of this country, I wish it wasn’t reality they were reporting. Instead it was a comical version just like on The Onion.
All ruling parties in their brief stints in the history of Pakistan have been incompetent and corrupt; or so has been the perception among the general public. But the present government really takes the cake. The fiasco of the Rangers operations in Karachi where it is yet to be determined who was in charge justifies the popular perception I mentioned. A city-wide operation was conducted, over 300 people were arrested. Who ordered their arrest?
Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza openly criticised the federal government for keeping him, the Sindh chief minister and even other local law-enforcement authorities namely the city police office in the dark. This was beyond ridiculous that such sweeping action against recent target killings and continued mob battles would be taken not only without the consent of the provincial interior ministry but also without their knowledge.
The situation is then made even more absurd by Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik denying having prior knowledge of the operations as well. A Rangers brigadier quoted in a newspaper made the sensible observation that the order clearly came from somewhere and that the Rangers had not initiated the operations on their own, a spin Mr Rehman tried to give to things. So who is this someone?
Pakistanis by nature are very receptive to conspiracy theories. The public admission of Mr Rehman Malik – the man supposedly responsible for the safety and wellbeing of every citizen of this country – that he had no knowledge of the Karachi crackdown intensifies theories that some other power is taking a hands-on role in the governance of this country.
Has the incompetence of the present political structure become so low that the chain of command of security operations has become irrelevant? Should we, who always worried about external influences on our policies and administrative decisions now have to mull over the prospect of our armed forces taking direct orders from someone else? Is this the integrity of the penchants of democratic freedom that the PPP brands itself to be? The truth is that the ruling party at present is a joke worthy of The Onion.
These are times when so much of Pakistan is still trying to recover from disastrous floods, an energy crisis is crippling the country, inflation and unemployment are at a record high, there is a continuing war against terrorism being fought at great human price in the North West. Times like these could have been a golden opportunity for the PPP to stamp its name in the hearts and minds of the nation.
At a time when a show of unity is needed on all fronts, the ruling party cannot insure order in its own ranks. The attack on Sherry Rehman’s house by PPP’s own workers, the fiasco surrounding the resignation of a PPP federal minister, Nabeel Gabol, and now this public rant by Sindh home minister about being kept in the dark by his own party members about the Karachi crackdown operations shows anything but unity and strength.
In fact, their lack of strength and inability to establish the writ of the government in Karachi has led to the petition in the Supreme Court to allow military control over the city. Times are hard, as is common in this country. But the comical incompetence of the ruling party and its inability to assess the gravity of the different crises that grip the country are creating an increasing feeling of disillusionment and hatred among the general public.
Much ails this country – the PPP is proving to be the worst of all ailments.
