‘Double Whammy’

Extremism, bigotry and terrorism

What is happening in Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Pakistan is almost surreal. The past few weeks have seen religious zealots ruling the roost on the streets of Islamabad and Lahore, the writ of the state hardly to be seen.

A dharna (sit-in) by the clerics and their followers lasting over a little over three weeks only came to an end after the military brokered an agreement between TLYR (Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah) and the government. The so-called agreement was nothing short of capitulation.

While the TLYR chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi was placated through blandishments and incentives, another claimant to the chair of the network Ashraf Asif Jalali was holding the fort on Charing cross the Mall. Yes, the main artery of Lahore ironically named Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam. Clamouring for Punjab’s law minister Rana Sanaullah’s scalp Jalali claimed that he was not bound by the government’s agreement with Rizvi.

Finally, the dharna at Lahore also came to an end late Friday night as a result of protracted negotiations between the zealots and the provincial government. For the time being Rana Sanaullah can keep his job.

Ironically it was decided that the “court of Pir Hameed Ullah Sialvi” an influential cleric of Punjab close to the PML-N will decide Rana’s fate. The two sides have also decided that the so-called Muttahida Ulema board would review the educational curriculum of the province.

The interior minister Ahsan Iqbal should be commended for taking chicanery to a new art form

If clerics courts are going to dispense justice in the name of religion and curriculum has to be decided by them where is the writ of the state? Obviously in the process the National Action Plan (NAP) formulated with much fanfare when General Raheel Sharif was the army chief for all practical purposes has become meaningless.

The plan was supposed to change the narrative. But now Jinnah’s vision that envisaged Pakistan as a democracy guaranteeing fundamental rights to all citizens irrespective of their beliefs is dead for all practical purposes.

No one except a few had heard of the zealots’ leadership before the dharna. But now they are calling the shots for all and sundry to see.

The state is running around like a headless chicken helter-skelter shamefacedly submitting to their demands to save their own skin. The interior minister Ahsan Iqbal whose body language exudes a mixture of an inflated ego and narcissism has the gall to say that he had not ordered a botched and half-hearted operation against TLYR last week.

It was the capital’s administration that was acting on the orders of the Islamabad high court, Iqbal claimed. The interior minister should be commended for taking chicanery to a new art form.

In any civilized democratic polity, he would have been asked to hand in his papers for showing sheer incompetence. But resigning voluntarily is not a tradition followed by our politicians.

The hapless federal law minster Zahid Hamid whose resignation was the bone of contention from day one was finally made to fall on his sword. If capitulation was the only way to end the dharna why did the government let it linger for three weeks causing enormous hardships to the citizenry and loss to the economy?

Despite knowing the ground realities, the federal government had the gall to summon the army in aid of the civilian administration under article 245 of the constitution. This was a mistake, as the military was never going to use brute force to quell the sit in. Had it done so it would have led to disastrous consequences.

Finally, it was a meeting between Prime Minister Abbasi and the COAS (Chief of Army Staff) General Qamar Javed Bajwa that broke the impasse. In the process however, the government has become a laughing stock.

The prime minster was nowhere visible trying to resolve the crisis. Nor the freshly anointed PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif play any overt role.

Sharif’s political currency has been somewhat devalued in the process. Ironically the religious lobby is the core constituency of the PML-N. That is why the clerics were handled with kid gloves.

But there is nothing to cheer about either for the rest of the mainstream political lot. Ceding space to clerics hitherto little known is at the cost of mainstream political parties. This is a precursor to anarchy.

The apex court hearing a case on disturbance to public life as a result of the sit in has come down hard on the country’s premier spy agency the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) for its incompetence or perhaps indifference. The enigmatic Islamabad high court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on the other hand, made some very harsh comments about the role of the military.

The army chief instead of following the orders of the chief executive became a mediator, according to Justice Siddiqui. However, the army chief’s advice to the prime minister to handle the matter peacefully was the only sane way to end the crisis.

Unfortunately, there are no winners in the crisis except the anarchists. The endemic perception – no matter how misplaced – of a mullah military alliance has been strengthened as a result of recent events.

Meanwhile despite claims that the terrorists are on the run their activities – albeit drastically reduced – continue to take their toll on innocent citizens. On Eid Milad un- Nabi day gunmen belonging to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan managed to storm the hostel of Agricultural Training Institute in Peshawar killing at least six students.

As usual we are told a big tragedy was averted as a result of prompt action by the police and security forces. But this is scant succour for the families of the victims. Only a week ago the Additional Inspector General (AIG) Ashraf Noor was martyred in suicide blast in the city.

Credit for minimising the death toll is being claimed in all quarters. But none of those stakeholders have bothered to highlight the huge intelligence failure that allowed the burqa-clad terrorists to enter the university in the first place. Especially considering that this is the same province where the APS tragedy took place.

Obviously, it is a double whammy. On the one side the state is confronted with the existential threat of terrorism. While on the other, as recent events have amply demonstrated, the writ of the state is demonstrably weakening at the hands of bigotry, intolerance and extremism.

Both the civilian government and the military need to close ranks on the sole subject of extremism and terrorism. Unless the malaise is nipped in the bud the country can morph soon into an anarchic state beyond the control of anyone.

Too many extraneous issues have become a source of distraction for the ubiquitous establishment. Now is the time for it to keep its eyes single-handedly on the ball.

Perhaps the government also needs to get its act together. Competence should be the sole criteria for a cabinet berth rather than a combination of sycophancy and ego driven decision-making. For the time being poor governance and incompetence has become its hallmark.