The winds of change blowing across the Asian continent are laden with the pain of those millions who have suffered incessantly through decades at the hands of the US-sponsored autocracies and monarchies. It is strange though that whenever a knock is heard heralding deliverance from the chains of oppression and its diverse and humiliating manifestations, the traditional forces of exploitation re-appear, deceptively clad in attires signifying freedom. Be it individuals, ala ElBaradei, working on the behest of forces they have served to advance their careers, or clandestine representatives of countries or regional blocks with a stake in the exploitative balance remaining unchanged, or tools of oppression available to corrupt regimes, the act is unmistakably monotonous and self-serving.
Ones heart warmed at the sight of hundreds of thousands of Egyptians appearing throughout the country over the last week in a mass display of disapproval of the shackles that Hosni Mubarak had clamped over their freedoms and fate for over 30 years. As the crowds surged with the passage of days, so did the impatience of the patron powers and their local lieutenants. In a crude and cruel display of utter desperation, they unleashed the state power in civvies, riding on horse and camel backs, to attack the multitudes chanting for freedom. In one of his despatches from Cairo, Robert Fisk noted: The democrats or the resistance, depending on your point of view had driven out the security police thugs from this very square on Friday. The problem is that Mubaraks men included some of the very same thugs I saw then, when they were working with armed security police to baton and assault the demonstrators.
Barbaric and indiscriminate use of the state apparatus as a tool for personal survival has been a traditional part of the tactics reminiscent of the demonic cruelties inflicted by the pharaohs through centuries. Hosni Mubarak carries the stamp of history and he used it to chilling effect, pitting Egyptians against Egyptians. Our own version of the pharaohs in the recent past, one dictator Musharraf, did the same trick on the people of Pakistan when he ordered his minions to go on a rampage to block the entry of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to Karachi. Over 50 people were killed in cold blood in a day of carnage.
It is being said that the happenings in Tunisia and Egypt are not likely to impact Pakistan. There may be differences. Tunisia and Egypt may have a long way to crossing a few blood-stained barriers to win the freedoms that we may not treasure adequately: a fiercely independent judiciary and a free media which are, jointly and collectively, confronted with incessant conspiracies to have them conscripted again. But, these freedoms have not been gifted by a corrupt regime. They have been won through a brave and arduous struggle stretching over decades. Another significant threshold has been crossed recently to further consolidate our freedoms the one relating to the framing of charges against some former and current judges of the superior judiciary. In its historic verdict, the Supreme Court noted: We hold that they (the judges) are not immune from proceedings under Article 204 and the Contempt of the Court Ordinance, 2003, for committing contempt of this court. These charges, scheduled to be framed on February 21, would directly impact the doctrine of immunity granted to some stakeholders in the constitution of the country, thus saving them from criminal proceedings through their incumbency in offices.
The concept of immunity, in essence, is a violation of the inherent principles of law, morality and democracy which call for equitable treatment of all irrespective of caste, colour, creed or position. The nuances of selective or partisan justice are tools in the hands of corrupt rulers to continue vandalising the resources of the state and elongating their hold on the reins of power and plunder. Inducement of inefficiency, greed and corruption are the traditional tactics used by the ruling concoctions for creating an all-is-well illusion. Lost in the quest for personal gains, people generally become immune to their stakes in the survival and progress of the state and become inordinately aligned with the survival of a few whom they misconstrue to be the state itself a cardinal mistake that has brought untold misery and disaster through centuries. While most of the civilised world has cast off the yoke of slavery to a few by strengthening their stakes in the empowerment of institutions, rulers in our part of the world continue to weave webs of deceit for perpetuating the tentacles of enslavement to individuals. Mired in the mirage of accruing benefits by continuing to indulge the art of servile subservience, people tend to become unsuspecting victims.
But, the roots of discontent are rather deep this time around and the lacerating symptoms demand no cosmetic changes, but surgical remedies. Be it Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen or Pakistan, the causes of discontent can be traced to the twin curse of autocratic mindsets and a deepening corruption syndrome. This makes for a lethal infusion to numb the minds only temporarily, though. The jolts that are rocking the autocracies and monarchies across North Africa and the Middle East are bound to resonate through the corrupt corridors of the ruling aberration of Pakistan. While other countries may yet have to travel long to find institutions on their side, people in Pakistan are fortunate to have a free media to broadcast their thoughts and an independent judiciary to dispense equitable justice. Inducement to corruption, even an offer of a share in the ill-gotten bounties, may not help the corrupt mandarins any longer. The hour may have struck. The injunction of the Supreme Court with regard to initiating contempt proceedings against former and sitting judges of the superior judiciary may give a direction to the season of discontent. With the inequitable doctrine of immunity gone, the groundbreaking adjudication may pave the way to shaping the desired change.
The writer is a media consultant to the Chief Minister, Punjab.
