National salvation

Altaf Hussain’s prognosis of the Karachi situation displays a fair quotient of desperation. His latest salvo alleged that the government (read PPP and ANP) had completely failed to control the worsening law and order situation in the city. He asked President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah “to stop the official patronage of terrorists and criminals of the People’s Amn Committee and gang war thugs”. Repeating his earlier demand, he called upon the army (and Rangers) to step in to protect the lives of the innocent citizens and save the city from plunging into a horrific bloodbath that may consume the whole nation.

Of great significance, and fraught with danger, is his appeal to the international community “to consider Mohajirs citizens of Pakistan”. He wondered aloud whether “India would accept the return of 5 million of them”! A reference to the days of the partition when the Mohajirs left various parts of India and migrated to the new-born state of Pakistan, the statement is gravely reminiscent of the initial days of the struggle that ultimately resulted in the creation of Bangladesh in what was formerly the Eastern wing of the country.

While Karachi may have become the pivotal point signifying the complete meltdown of the state and its authority, the malaise is spread deeply and extensively throughout the country. Gradually but irretrievably, Pakistan is being pushed into an inferno that is all-pervasive in its intensity. Karachi, and to a great extent the rest of the country, is a victim of the political games that the corrupt ruling elite are playing to strengthen their respective turfs. While the fear syndrome has been an effective weapon in the hands of the MQM to subdue its electorate, the PPP has never quite accepted a claimant to power in its home constituency. The ANP is a later-day aberration that is also out to create a constituency to evade the tag of being a regional outfit only.

While a tenuous balance had existed between these oft-warring powers, the Haqiqi factor that the PPP has been lately trying to push indiscriminately has radically disturbed it. In this game plan, Karachi has been handed over to the criminal mafias that are operating with abandon and with active patronage of one or the other faction of the ruling elite. Equally disturbing is a lot of noise emanating from other political forces in the country, most notably the PML(N) and PML(Q), but insignificant little they are actually doing to arrest the decline. So, there appears to be homogeneity of purpose among all the political players in the tragic and self-defeating power game that has been unleashed in the country.

While the army has maintained its consistent aloofness from all political games, the judiciary has markedly failed to take note of the fast-deteriorating situation in Karachi. The judges are fully aware of the mafias that have been let loose on the hapless city who have their headquarters in the monstrous structures of the federal capital as well as inside the parliament house. Long are the strings that the dons of the Karachi underworld can pull. It would be no small wonder if the judges present in close proximity of all the habitations of these mafias and their patrons cannot hear the evil reverberations and the possible havoc they can wreak.

The perennial cynics and the poor apologists of a corrupt system may differ, but the judiciary was expected to play a role far more significant in scope and impact than what it has done so far. While it has been quick and clinical in taking note of the governmental lapses and its deep-set corruption, it has, more or less, failed in delivering on a method and mechanism for permanently undoing the practices. It has also failed in disposing of cases with effective judgements and is seen sitting on numerous review petitions. On the one hand, this has contributed to the piling up of massive pendency dossiers and, on the other hand, it has also created a lingering uncertainty about its intentions. If the judiciary feels constrained in any manner, whether it be a perception of its intervening in the domain of the executive or its inability to mobilise other institutions of the state to have its decisions implemented within the constitutional parameters, there is no stopping it from coming out clean by stating the obvious.

The army, wary of the criticism it has received on account of its past roles, is caught up on two fronts: fighting terrorism within its frontiers and blunting the US incursions from outside. Its personnel, its arsenal and its resources are gravely stretched – more so in the post-Abbottabad environment when the US practically moved in to decimate the army and its intelligence wing so that it could translate its vision of an India-dominated region into practice. The manner in which the army has been able to fight the onslaught speaks of the inherent inner strength of the institution which is a propitious sign, but that may also have rendered it unable, for the time being, to take on the burden of having judicial decisions implemented. The unwillingness could also be traced to the active role that it played in the induction of the incumbent criminal ruling mafia vide the NRO.

It is time for all institutions to shed the weight of their past and undertake a journey for national salvation. That cannot happen either by perpetuating the existing corrupt system or by allowing its decrepit extenuations to continue playing their scripted roles. An effective way to do that would be to attain a minimum intra- and inter-institution convergence on the fundamental objectives and devise a transparent and credible mechanism to attain them sans fear, sans compromise. The bumps along the way are necessary attendant detractions.

The writer is a political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]