The butchers of Lahore

The Sharifs should be consigned to the abattoir to indulge their penchant for killing

“As I look back, there is a parallel theme to my four-and-a-half years at war: love. By that I mean love – there is no other word for it – I came to feel for the troops, and the overwhelming sense of personal responsibility I developed for them. Toward the end of my time in office, I could barely speak to them or about them without being overcome with emotion. Early in my fifth year, I came to believe my determination to protect them…was clouding my judgement and diminishing my usefulness to the president, and thus it played a part in my decision to retire.”

Robert Gates: “Duty”

In an act of unprecedented savagery, sickeningly reminiscent of the medieval times, ten people were shot dead in cold blood with another ninety admitted into hospital some of whom are reportedly fighting for their lives. The incident occurred when the police, in a pre-dawn swoop, tried to remove the barriers from the roads leading to the office of Idara-e-Minhajul Quran of Allama Tahirul Qadri. The police officers and jawans were reported to have fired directly into the crowd. Two of the dead were women.

There has been widespread and intense condemnation of the brutal assault. Mutthida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Idara-e-Mihajul Quran have called for countrywide protests. Other parties protested inside the assemblies and staged walkouts. There have also been calls for the resignation of the prime minister, the chief minister, Punjab, the interior and law ministers of the province and the sacking of the inspector-general and the deputy inspector-general of police.

I could sense some such thing coming. With political pressure mounting, the Sharifs, driven by an inherently undemocratic and brutal instinct, were bound to launch some kind of surgical operation. Even then, one did not quite grasp the mindset that must have forced them to this kind of savagery perpetrated against men and women, even children. It happened, and it happened in broad daylight for all to see. One of PML (N)’s touts, Gulu Butt, alias Sher-e-Lahore, protected by the police, unleashed danda-terror against the vehicles parked in the vicinity, most of which were destroyed. As bodies fell, the firing continued disdainfully. The killing spree lasted a full twelve hours.

Not far from the offices of the Idara-e-Minhajul Quran where the police operation took place are the residences and offices of the Sharifs which have been barricaded with not a soul allowed to pass through including those who live in the vicinity. One is at a loss to understand how two divergently different laws would apply to barriers that guard the Sharifs and the Idara-e-Minjajul Quran offices and residences. Or, just take a look at the citadel that Raiwind has become, completely inaccessible to the ordinary mortals. One would need an invitation from the Sharifs to even get within a few miles of the area that has been completely cordoned off and is guarded round-the-clock by hundreds of security personnel who are paid their salaries from the government exchequer. Or, go to Gulberg 111, an area where a close friend of mine also lives, which has been completely blocked to public. Understandably, one of the chief minister’s wives lives there. There are 10-12 feet high bullet-proof bunkers, looking right into people’s homes, made to guard the area. The public has been barred to enter the park in front of the house. Walls up to eight-feet high have been built for additional protection. Even those living either side of the house occupied by the lady are stopped at the barriers to prove their identity to enter their own homes.

I could sense some such thing coming. With political pressure mounting, the Sharifs, driven by an inherently undemocratic and brutal instinct, were bound to launch some kind of surgical operation. Even then, one did not quite grasp the mindset that must have forced them to this kind of savagery perpetrated against men and women, even children. It happened, and it happened in broad daylight for all to see. One of PML (N)’s touts, Gulu Butt, alias Sher-e-Lahore, protected by the police, unleashed danda-terror against the vehicles parked in the vicinity, most of which were destroyed. As bodies fell, the firing continued disdainfully. The killing spree lasted a full twelve hours.

Having been left with no option but agreeing to the launch of a military operation to rid the country of the scourge of militancy, the Sharifs have tried to use the occasion to move against their political opponents who were threatening their malevolent and dictatorial rule. They have chosen a time which, instead, should have been used for rallying public support for the military and the operation they are conducting at the risk of their lives. But the military it is that they hate and the military it is that they want to undo. I remember those times when the elder Sharif would go red in the face at the mention of the military or any of its officers, most particularly General Musharraf.

I cannot believe for a moment that such an operation could have been launched without the patronage and guidance of the chief minister and the prime minister. It was a criminal and pre-meditated assault on everything that the country may have gained through struggling with a democratic dispensation. It was as much a message to Tahirul Qadri and the workers of Idara-e-Minhajul Quran as to the people within the PML (N) who have begun to voice serious reservations regarding the dictatorial manner of their governance and the palpable lack of commitment to the state institutions that are engaged in fighting an existential war to protect Pakistan’s sovereignty and long-term interests.

This is not the first incident reflecting the savagery that the Sharifs are capable of displaying. Back in older times, there used to be rumours circulating regarding the manner they dealt with protesting workers at their factories. The younger Sharif, who lords over the province of Punjab, is notorious for having staged fake police encounters in the nineties that resulted in the death of countless alleged criminals. He is reported to have boasted on a number of occasions that this was the only way to deal with them and that he would continue doing so. The Sharifs have also kidnapped journalists in the past, at least one of whom has now forged a close political liaison with his tormentors. They have also resorted to attacking the Supreme Court and used bags-full of money to bribe their way out of a brewing judicial crisis. The one who carried the bags to Quetta was later rewarded with the office of the President of Pakistan. They would stop, literally stop at nothing to save their illicit political office/s contrived through a fraudulent election with the support of a hand-picked administration, an inept and inefficient Election Commission and a complicit judiciary.

The chief minister Sharif is notorious for degrading much lower than the rest. He works with a demonic preoccupation with how to further strengthen his illegitimate hold on power and how to add to the coffers that are already brimming with illicit wealth that rightfully belongs to the state of Pakistan and its more deserving people, very few they may be, who fulfil their obligations by paying their taxes and other liabilities only to be laundered away to foreign countries by the Sharifs and their criminal cronies, further adding to their lustful and insatiable grab. His megalomaniac preoccupation with developing an unchallengeable ascendency has resulted in eroding whatever legitimacy remained of the so-called democratic system that no one tires of propounding. The setting up of a one-man commission to investigate the brutal assault and apportion the blame and responsibility is going to remain just that: a commission like so many others that were constituted with little to no result. His comical antics notwithstanding, there would be a concerted effort to regulate the commission to secure a pre-dictated verdict.

In one of my columns published in another newspaper a couple of years ago titled “The faces behind the face”, I had written that “trickery and duplicity can take you only as far as it can. Beyond that, the path is strewn with pitfalls that cannot be traversed by people of mediocre mettle and debatable integrities. The path beyond would be traversed by individuals who display the qualities of fortitude in adversity and maintain their dignity in trying circumstances. This is the path for no ordinary mortals whose ranks are swollen with myopic and self-perpetuating proclamations cloaked as service to the people. Let’s be done with it. Let’s get on course to accountability – more of those who go around pontificating to others. Let’s unmask the faces behind the face.”

The Sharifs wear masks on top of masks. Their corruption and indulgence in demeaning political tricks stink from miles away. Their continuing indulgence has brought the country to the brink of ruination. Now, they have added the venomous culture of the nineties to their vast repertoire of criminal activities to subdue their political opposition, this at a time when the nation needed to be rallied to unite behind their armed forces. This reflects their unstoppable quest for absolute and unquestioned power. The choice for the Sharifs is between the Emirate of Punjab where they feel they could rule to eternity using coercive and inhuman tactics, or a unified Pakistan where they would be just another political party and where they would be forced to abide by the constitutional provisions and legal benchmarks.

Having been left with no option but agreeing to the launch of a military operation to rid the country of the scourge of militancy, the Sharifs have tried to use the occasion to move against their political opponents who were threatening their malevolent and dictatorial rule. They have chosen a time which, instead, should have been used for rallying public support for the military and the operation they are conducting at the risk of their lives. But the military it is that they hate and the military it is that they want to undo. I remember those times when the elder Sharif would go red in the face at the mention of the military or any of its officers, most particularly General Musharraf. Only if he could, he would move with alacrity to crush the institution and consign it to the dustbin of history. Not much is different with his close cronies who sing his praises when he is puking venom against the institution of the army and the premier intelligence agency.

The Sharifs wear masks on top of masks. Their corruption and indulgence in demeaning political tricks stink from miles away. Their continuing indulgence has brought the country to the brink of ruination. Now, they have added the venomous culture of the nineties to their vast repertoire of criminal activities to subdue their political opposition, this at a time when the nation needed to be rallied to unite behind their armed forces. This reflects their unstoppable quest for absolute and unquestioned power. The choice for the Sharifs is between the Emirate of Punjab where they feel they could rule to eternity using coercive and inhuman tactics, or a unified Pakistan where they would be just another political party and where they would be forced to abide by the constitutional provisions and legal benchmarks. They have unmasked their preference through a cruel, calculated and brutal use of the state machinery and have thus laid the foundations of a return to the divisive culture of the past. The comic antics of the chief minister notwithstanding, the likely outcome of the one-man judicial commission can be easily foretold.

The Sharifs are no political leaders. More appropriately, they should be dubbed as the butchers of Lahore. A civilised country cannot be their domain. Instead, they should be confined to the abattoir to indulge their penchant for killing and leave the country alone.