The day is saved – or is it?

The Chotu saga and our khakis

When the police totally failed to get rid of Chotu, and even ended up with many of its men as hostages to Ghulam Rasool or Chotu, the army gracefully paraded into the scenario. Consequently, the gang had to surrender, release all the prisoners and the army vowed to clear all the no-go areas of Punjab on Wednesday. Rajanpur is saved, the local police officers are saved, but our civil-military balance is in deep trouble.

It goes without stressing that Pakistan has hardly seen any epoch without a coup. We do talk about democracy on various platforms, but our khakis stay predominant in the helm of affairs

Javed Jabbar has extensively talked about the civil-military relations in his book, From Chaos to Catharsis. Written in a sensitive era, the 1980’s, Jabbar very well stated that the rigidity and inflexibility inherent to the army is undoubtedly an asset in the military terms – however, a liability in the political terms. While, the major chunk of both brains and brawns centers with the army, it goes without saying that the civil-military balance, rather imbalance, is not very favourable. And incidents like Chotu add fuel to the fire.

It goes without stressing that Pakistan has hardly seen any epoch without a coup. We do talk about democracy on various platforms, but our khakis stay predominant in the helm of affairs. Most of the analysts will tell you that soft coup has somehow become the norm. The reasons behind are twofold; we treat our army – in terms of resources – as well as the apple of our eyes. Our civilian instruments and the police are kept devoid of equipment and money – the right kind of money, hence succumbing to political interference and corruption.

While getting rid of Chotu after years is something worth celebrating, this incident does posit serious questions. In an attempt to answer these questions, one retired army officer, one journalist and one civilian military scientist were interviewed by DNA.

Army crushing Chotu – why not the police?

Ideally, a police operation should have been sufficient to get rid of a local gang. But that did not happen. This raises the question of why we could not carry out such a small task without borrowing some brawn from the army.

Security analyst Saad Muhammad is a retired brigadier who has served on various important military assignments. He thinks that procrastination and not nipping the evil in the bud is the main flaw of the civilian machinery.

“We let the problem grow, and then it gets out of the control of the police,” he said.

“In case of Chotu gang, initially an SHO could have solved the problem, only if the problem had been taken care of in the earlier stages. However, we let the problem linger on so much that apparently small issues get out of hand, and the army has to intervene.”

However, in this case the Punjab police first carried out an operation against this gang six years ago – in 2010. Three other operations were also carried out. However, either the police lack essential equipment or the gang was so massive that only the operation Zarb-i-Aahan carried out by the army could make the gang surrender. Apparently, the first scenario seems more applicable.

Ali Arqam is a journalist and researcher based in Karachi. He thinks the lack of investment in police and the colonial structure still prevalent are the reasons the police can hardly solve anything that is important.

In Punjab, apparent violence is less, however the authorities allow these people to come, have refuge, take funding and recruit from over here. The motto is ‘you don’t bother us, we won’t bother you’

“If we look at our police, it is still following the colonial structure,” he explained. “Well, colonial times, this structure had one main purpose of retaining control in different areas. Modern police structures are different. There are reasons why such matters are never controlled by civilians. Firstly, many of such groups have political backing and support for mutual benefits, and working relationship is generally maintained. Secondly, even police has links with such gangs to sustain the balance in certain things.”

Dr Ayesha Siddiqa is a civilian military scientist, a former bureaucrat and author of Military Inc. She thinks this deplorable capacity of the police is largely due to lack of investment.

“There are two answers to the question,” she explained her take. “One answer can be of the different reasons why we have to turn to the army always. Firstly, we have never invested as much in police, as we have on the army. If you take the figures from the comparative budgets of both, if you had spent even half of what you spend on the army on the police, probably much improvement would have been seen. Again, there are political reasons too. Thirdly, there is no coordination between the army and the police. Army keeps itself separate. It does not coordinate with the police, which it ought to. At the end of the day, it is the same country that we are working for. The second answer lies in the fact that army itself was interested. It used this case to get into Punjab, and get a hold of the governance of his province.”

“All over the world, there are certain problems that come up in the institution of police,” Ali Arqam pointed out. “For instance, even in America, police does cover up certain crimes, just as in the case of Chotu or the way things have been going on in Karachi”

Keeping all acrimony out of the writing, this is however natural that some things get out of the hand of the police. However, should they go straight to the army? Ideally, no. Brig (R) Saad pointed out that we do not have a middle way.

“There is nothing in the middle of police and army,” he stated. “Yes, paramilitary is there but that comes under the army, so that cannot be counted. We do have the elite force, which is very poorly led, and although it is trained by the army, it does not stay up to the mark because of poor leadership. Its members are generally put on duty with the prime minister, his family, or other ministers. There, they get lazy, they get fat, and they become inefficient. They do not remain well-organised and they do not even have the necessary equipment provided to them.”

Hence, too much involvement of the army and the civilian space ceded o the military due to gaps in the civilian set up are the baseline evils that need to be eradicated if we want peace and stability.

Punjab, how safe

Sindh has been under the accountability drive. KP has faced various terrorist attacks. FATA has an operation going on. Baluchistan does not like the idea of Pakistani nationalism. And what about Punjab? Well, it is safe, prosperous, fertile, educated and peaceful. This is the image we get.

Dr Siddiqa thinks that despite flaws Punjab still is relatively peaceful. “A comparative look would tell that Punjab is relatively more peaceful and has a smaller number of attacks,” she gave in her views. “Yes, there have been hard targets. And militants and extremists do exist in this province, but it has been relatively safer and less violent than the rest.”

The recent events however tell a different story. Last summer Shuja khanzada, the NAP man of Punjab was assassinated. We had this horrific attack in Lahore on Easter. Again we see gangs like Chotu in South Punjab. Can Punjab really claim to be safe?

“Chotu was not a big problem. We need well-trained and equipped civilian institutions.” Brig (R) Saad commented.

However, lesser number of terrorist attacks does not signify a militant-free region. It might have other reasons.

“In Punjab, apparent violence is less, however the authorities allow these people to come, have refuge, take funding and recruit from over here. The motto is ‘you don’t bother us, we won’t bother you.’ Despite lesser attacks, the madrassas, the trainings and the ideologues of the militants exist abundantly in Punjab. Punjab might look peaceful from the top, but if you look closely there are under-currents which are definitely problematic.”

Ali Arqam too explains how a working relation with the militants is maintained in Punjab. When this relationship is disturbed by the authorities, there is retaliation – and sever one.

“If we look at Punjab, the ruling elite – the PML-N has always had this predisposition of maintaining a working relation with militant and sectarian groups. That is precisely why there are lesser violent attacks.”

“But after Zrab-i-Azab, incidents like Malik Ishaq being killed did take place. Consequently, the militants took off Shuja Khanzada. These groups have the capacity to show their retaliation today, just like they have always had historically. Whenever, they get this chance, they do take actions.”

Hence, there is a dire need to clear all the regions of the country from militant networks. We cannot keep snakes in our back yard and expect them not to bite us. This is what Hillary Clinton told us and this is what we need to keep reminding ourselves.

And this clean up cannot be done, if we keep relying on the army alone. We need to make our civilian instruments and our police proportionally stronger too.