Pakistan’s crisis is linked with the espousal of an inimical narrative that has sunk in deep
Raoof Hasan
There has been an unprecedented spate of violence in the country over the last week resulting in the death of countless security personnel and civilians. Yet, the cabinet session convened to extend approval to the proposed National Security Policy, albeit half a year too late, was adjourned without performing the ritual. Even copies of the draft of the proposed policy, circulated earlier among the cabinet members, were retrieved. This reflects poorly on the seriousness of the government in confronting a crisis that is propelling the country inconsolably towards a possible self-destruct.
Much that the prospect may seem improbable, the palpable lack of action appears to be part of the strategy that is being unveiled systematically. The paralysis-afflicted band of leaders who appear determined to push Pakistan into unfathomable depths of regression and degeneration – the ones in the government, the religious parties and their neo-religious compatriots – refuse to condemn the perpetrators of this mayhem. Each new attack elicits an equally condemnable alibi for the merchants of death, the blame generally resting on the US role in this part of the world and the government’s involvement and collaboration in furthering their agenda.
The army action in Mir Ali area of the North Waziristan is a belated effort to stem the tide of violence that appeared to be getting out of hand. If this is a one-time salvo, it would bear little dividend. However, if this is indicative of a change of strategy in confronting the scourge of militancy, then it would be a welcome development. The test would be to see if the operation that appears underway continues and how it hits out indiscriminately at the sanctuaries of the militants in the tribal belt and other areas that generally go unnoticed.
The divide between the political and the military mindsets has been evident for a considerable period of time. The more the government functionaries asserted on the two being on the same page, the more doubts it created – and for good reasons! The inherent non-seriousness of the political leadership led by the prime minister, who has much to hide tucked away in the closets, and his cohorts in the government as well as the stalwarts of the religious conglomerate and the neo-religious converts, has not been hidden from anyone. Their insistence on appeasing the abominable bands of terrorists by elevating them on a par with the state of Pakistan is proof enough of the lack of wisdom, moral authority and political will. Some of these criminal bands comprise the very people our so-called national leaders have been hobnobbing with to win political support and strength.
Of particular note is the role of the PML-N leadership in protecting and patronising the vast network of nurseries of terrorism through the length and breadth of South Punjab. The popular narrative only focuses on the FATA being the hotbed of fanning the germs of militancy. That may well be so, but the role that a number of the defunct militant organisations continue to play under one garb or the other in sustaining and further strengthening the criminal network of terrorism and militancy in the country is unbelievable. The reason they have not been targeted so far lies in the support they elicit from the PML-N leaders and their political goals for now and the future. To lend credence to their shameful pursuits, they have successfully hired the services of certain groups within the society who have been given the specific task of spreading the false notion of others being responsible for the militant scourge, most notably the simplistic claim of it all being a reaction to foreign occupation of Afghanistan and the nationalist struggle that is underway to push the Americans out. This mindset is effectively reflected in the inaction of the federal government over the last seven months and its insistence on initiating a process of dialogue with a vast array of criminal militant organisations.
This, in turn, springs from the flawed narrative that we have pursued for the state of Pakistan through decades. Borrowing the words of a gentleman whose comments have been forwarded to me vide the internet, this flawed narrative, in actual effect, means the“constitutionalisation of Talibanisation of Pakistan”. Another gentleman looks at it from a different angle: “The state is a concept, a notion, an idea. It does not possess any biological attributes like having a mind. It is not a living being. It, therefore, cannot have a religion. State religion is an absurdity”.
Much of Pakistan’s misfortune emanates from the manner in which we have pursued this narrative, refusing to acknowledge that it was a key mistake made in the initial days after the creation of the country by a group of leaders who had little legitimacy and even less political wisdom. They tried to fill the vacuum left behind after the death of the Quaid by using the tool of religion that they expected would meet the least resistance and would also strengthen their hold on the power base. Nonetheless, the country remained gripped in political turmoil with one prime minister following another in quick succession, paving the way for the first military take-over. Instead of taking credible steps to undo the damage by annulling the proclamation, succeeding leaderships, suffering from an equal if not more lethal doses of lack of legitimacy and wisdom, have perpetuated the crisis by putting Pakistan effectively on course to a fatal embrace with regressive and degenerate forces. These forces are, today, represented by these myriad criminal militant bands that are wreaking havoc throughout the country.
There is little ambiguity as to the strategy that needs to be formulated and pursued to rid the country of the scourge of militancy, but the political leadership only have trite condolences to offer to an increasing number of families that have lost their dear ones to the mayhem unleashed by the terrorists. This is in addition to the fear syndrome that has been created as a consequence of these frequent hits with parents reluctant to send their children to schools or allowing the administration of the polio vaccine. Thus Pakistan’s agony increases with the passage of each day with the prospect of an illiterate and physically-handicapped nation on the anvil becoming a potent reality. Consequently, the country would be reduced to breeding only leaders with no one left to follow them!
The state needs to go back to the basics and start all over again from the beginning. It needs to undo so much that has become an unbearable burden for it to sustain. Brave initiatives need to be taken which, in turn, require a leadership that is ably equipped with the qualities of moral credibility, a futuristic vision and the requisite political will to enable it to go through with doing what requires to be done. We don’t need a leadership that is gravely complicit with the forces of regression. We don’t need a leadership that is intellectually jaundiced and gravely handicapped due to suffering from paucity of qualities that separate the wheat from the chaff. We are dealing with a humiliating parade of people, each one of whom is singularly committed to furthering their self interests even at the cost of the national paradigm. They are driven by selfish motives that have innumerable beneficiaries, some of them residing and prospering in the domain of criminals who are perpetrating the scourge of militancy in the country. The selfish interests have intertwined to an extent that it is no longer possible to distinguish among them along any credible benchmarks. They all stink.
If we expect that the process of elections would, at some stage, throw up leadership that would be qualitatively different from the parade of people who routinely get elected and who have systematically ravaged the country, denuding it of its riches and wealth, we are mistaken. This is so because the people who constitute the electorate are driven by their own grave limitations encompassing gross illiteracy, lack of understanding of the national dynamics and the economic captivity in the hands of the very people who have guided their destinies through decades. The motives for getting elected remain unchanged. Only the faces are different.
The situation is as simple as it actually is, or it would be as difficult as the vested interest would turn it into. The state needs a drastic change of narrative. It needs to urgently embrace the culture of pragmatic and rational discourse in place of an emotional commitment to the demands of religiosity. This has worked to the detriment of Pakistan and its lethal impact is only going to augment manifold now that the country is under the microscope. Continued appeasement of the religious fanatics and patronisation of one or the other band of militant groups is bound to drive the country back to the cave days. The state of Pakistan does not have the wherewithal to sustain the pressure that would consequently be applied, both from within and outside. There is a clear prospect of it wilting under. The time to change course is now. Hopefully, the initial military salvo against the terrorist hideouts is part of a proper operation to eliminate the criminal bands wherever these exist. The guideline should be that there are no exceptions. Militants have no religion. Their only religion is inhuman, indiscriminate violence.
The writer is a political analyst and the Executive Director of the Regional Peace Institute. He can be reached at: [email protected].
