The media, complain the other federating units, covers, almost exclusively, issues of the Punjab and Karachi. And within that, only the urban centres. That is not too outlandish a claim. A comparison of how a suicide bomb blast in Lakki Marwat that killed more than a hundred people and any of the ones in Lahore, which have yielded far lesser casualties, played out of the news cycles is a ready case to be examined.
Yet there are some aspects of the Punjab that are underreported by the mainstream media. The widespread network of religious militants in the Punjab does not make it to the headlines so often. A reason for this might be the relatively less frequent instances like the one that took place in Chakwal the other day, where four intelligence personnel were targeted. But many analysts feel that instances like these are the tip of the iceberg. That the still-submerged structure of these networks is comparable, even larger, than the ones found in KP or Balochistan.
Even those who acknowledge the scourge limit themselves to discussing only southern Punjab. But central Punjab is rife with the problem as well, and this includes Lahore. Islamabad itself is another problem that needs to be confronted. A true picture of the proliferation of these networks in the federal capital itself packs enough of a punch to give anyone the jitters.
These groups are increasingly making the elected representatives irrelevant. Rather than seek their favour, it is usually the lawmakers that seek out these groups in matters of constituency realpolitik. In making the positive framework of the state irrelevant lie the seeds of failed states. In this lopsided republic where one federating unit takes up about 60 per cent of the population, it is rare to state that the Punjab is being neglected, in any department. But that may well be the case.
