What would you say of a leadership that instigates the mourning of a mass-murderer?
Raoof Hasan
Suspended animation is best described as “a temporary state of interrupted breathing and loss of consciousness resembling death”. Pakistan’s insane push for talks with the militant groups is tantamount to virtually putting it on course to embracing such a fatalistic state – that is if it has not already done so!
It has now been over four months since the conclusion of the All Parties’ Conference (APC), announcing of its declaration of ‘giving peace a chance’ and authorising the government to take steps to initiate the peace process with the militant groups (who were criminally dubbed as ‘stakeholders’ on a par with the state of Pakistan).
That was an unmistakable indicator of appeasement of the militant groups which have systematically thwarted the initiatives of conducting a dialogue, save on their terms and conditions, that effectively spell the onset of a theocratic state ruled by a regressive and degenerate mindset. We have heard innumerable harangues regarding the drone attacks and the death of Hakimullah Mehsud as having sabotaged the peace talks. We have also seen the mantle of talks being passed on from Maulana Fazalur Rehman to Maulana Samiul Haq, understandably as a consequence of the former’s failure in breaking the ice – of course, much to his angst!
We have also read statements coming from the government’s luminaries regarding a level of success in the dialogue process, but nothing concrete has emerged so far. One understands the need for confidentiality regarding any such process, but independent reports emanating from sources that are close to the quarters engaged in the effort (of initiating the dialogue) sound extremely pessimistic about the prospect.
This is understandable. I am one of those who have consistently opposed the narrative based on initiating a dialogue process with the militant groups principally because of little hope that I have regarding a positive outcome. This is so because the militant groups, being the perpetrators of terrorism, have always opposed the idea of engaging in negotiations that would be conducted along pragmatic and rational lines for any sustainable solution of the scourge of militancy.
They only believe in one narrative which is what they propound. They are not sensitive to either its impracticality or its inadvisability. It is like commanding the government to accept what they propose, or else there would be nothing at all. How can one penetrate such a mindset? The government and the leaders of other political parties thought there was hope, so they decided to initiate the process.
Over four months wasted with little to no outcome, but, based on statements of the government functionaries, the quest for the elusive peace continues. Understandably, leaders of some political parties have already reneged from the original stance that they had taken at the APC, but is there someone who has the courage, character and integrity to come forth and announce the end of this process that was stillborn at the outset?
Another key factor that must be kept in mind is that the existing precarious balance of power between the state of Pakistan and the militant groups, some of whom are dubbed as the Taliban, is shifting perceptibly in favour of the latter. In the wake of events leading up to the US drawdown in 2014, the militants hope to gain further influence within Afghanistan, both in terms of raw power and territory under their control, which they would use to lethal effect.
For the present, it is the militants from across the Western border who cross over into the FATA region for refuge. After the drawdown, the likely scenario would change and the militants fighting in various parts of Pakistan would have a larger secure area for refuge inside Afghanistan, thus making the fight even more difficult for the Pakistani forces. They would also be much more powerful in terms of numbers and the attendant wherewithal and would, consequently, be more emboldened to initiate daring incursions into Pakistani territory. Is that what the government and its allies and supporters from the religious and the neo-religious parties are waiting for? It is a tangible prospect that would effectively shift the control away from Pakistan and land it effectively in the lap of the conglomerate of militant groups.
Pakistan’s anti-terror policies have always been flawed, mostly criminally negligent of the ground realities and the long-term strategic needs of the state. Like in other matters, the key effort has been directed at perpetuating appeasement in return for securing political gains from the militant groups and elongating to perpetuity the rule of the family fiefdoms.
This flawed thinking has not been more visible anywhere in the country than in Punjab where a gory cross-section of divergent militant groups have continued to operate and prosper under the patronage held forth by the government of the province. Political bargains have been concluded with these criminal bands to advance the interests of the PML-N and its leadership. It is the same regressive mindset that is reflected in the APC announcement and the steps that have been taken since then, fully aided and abetted by the religious and neo-religious outfits of the country.
Pakistan lives in fear: fear of the militants on the one hand and fear of the regressive mullah on the other. There is the tyranny perpetrated by the guns and bombs, and there is the tyranny of the distorted proclamations from the pulpit. There is the ever-present fear from the extortionists, the arsonists and the rapists, the preachers of violence along sectarian lines and the dead-meat, gunny-bag merchants of Karachi and their political patrons. There is the fear of being kidnapped, of being tortured, of having sisters and mothers paraded naked through bazaars and of coming back to burnt houses because someone in a position of importance wanted it that way. Worse still, the institution that is tasked with providing security to the people has become complicit in illegal undertakings and a brazen instrument in inflicting indescribable torture, both of the physical and the mental varieties. There is no respite. Pakistan and its people live from one tragedy to the next – then preparing for the one that is yet to come!
There is a well thought-out plan of deception which is being endlessly heaped on the nation. There appears no end in sight. Pakistan has lost much time. More time is being wasted. Pakistan seems stuck with polemics when the need is to stop circumventing the core issues and getting down to facing the ground realities. There is no will, character or courage on the anvil to undertake a task of such magnitude and challenge. From one cycle of deceit to the next, the focus remains on the mundane: how to last through today. Tomorrow is another day and we’ll deal with it when we are faced with it.
The perpetual cycle of violence has taken its toll. Losing hope in the ones who are supposed to provide protection, more and more people are becoming trigger-happy. They have bequeathed upon themselves the right to defend in ways that suit them which, mostly, are in contravention of the law and its ascendant principles. That is what it degenerates to when the state begins to disintegrate. The process had commenced a long time ago. It is now that it has picked up in momentum and magnitude. The downward slide appears unstoppable. The state has long since lost its writ and has begun to lose its relevance. The institutions that are meant to safeguard the lives and properties of the people are busy vandalising the same. The people who are supposed to reflect subservience before law have taken on the task of annihilating the difference between the right and the wrong: right is what suits them and wrong what does not.
Democracy has been reduced to practising the whims of an illiterate and economically-captive majority, mostly dominated by an egotistical preoccupation with the past. Raw vengeance is being wreaked in the name of forestalling the prospect of military coups. The slide to oblivion is rampant and there appears no one in sight to stop it. The onset of regression is alarming. Security of people is being sought under the scourge of the militants. The country is being surrendered to the diktat of the renegade pontiffs. Institutions of the state are being bulldozed in the name of privatization and its assets secured in personal coffers in foreign lands.
The tentacles of regression and degeneration have dug in deep. The government is bending over backwards to initiate a peace dialogue with criminal bandits whose hands are immersed in blood with over 50,000 barbarous killings. The nation is made to mourn the death of a criminal who spearheaded the unleashing of mayhem throughout the country. His elimination is dubbed as an attack on the prospect of peace!
How much more can a leadership degenerate? How much more can a people take the ravages of deceit and deception? The decline is steep and the precipice is a straight fall. A victim of extreme paucity of capability and capacity, the one plonked in the driving seat has both his feet on the accelerator. Chased by criminal bands puking venom and hatred – the ones the government is desperately trying to appease – the journey in front is an unending blur with the state tottering to an inevitable self-destruct.
The writer is a political analyst and the Executive Director of the Regional Peace Institute. He can be reached at: [email protected].
