New Times, Same Storyline

By Amir Zia
March 31, 2014
The News


Any talks between the PPP and the MQM for the formation of a coalition government will be meaningless if it focuses only on ministries rather than a vision for tomorrow’s Sindh.


These days many leaders and lawmakers of Sindh’s two main political parties – the PPP and the MQM – seem to be overflowing with cordiality, and flashing smiles at one another. A couple of their top-guns do fire a shot or two out of habit, but overall the bitter and harsh statements have been put on hold – at least for the time being.
This newfound feeling of amity between these ‘friends today, enemies tomorrow’ type of political forces is not without reason. The central leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party has renewed efforts to bring its estranged former ally back into the fold of the Sindh provincial government despite serious reservations within its rank and file. The desire for a handshake is equally strong within an influential section of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, though many of its senior leaders and radical workers simply abhor the idea of rejoining a PPP-led coalition. 
Notwithstanding their internal opposition, the two sides appear to be in the final stage of deciding modalities of the power-sharing deal if one buys the carefully leaked information to the press by their spin-wizards. This is what the pro-coalition element within these parties wants us to believe.
But in the complex and unpredictable world of politics, appearances are often deceptive and there can be ‘many a slip between the cup and the lip’.
It is not the simple question of the PPP showing a little more generosity and the MQM making its expectations a bit realistic that will bring these rural and urban forces of Sindh together again. Here the political and financial stakes are too high and wounds of the recent past too fresh; these prevent any genuine and meaningful rapprochement between the two sides. There are also no indications that these parties have done any rethinking or come up with a new progressive vision for reforms and development for their ethnically polarised and divided province. 
According to a PPP stalwart, since 2008 more than 550 members of his party have been “systematically killed in Karachi – mostly by militants belonging to the MQM.” “An alliance with the MQM will only have a negative impact on the Sindh government,” he said requesting anonymity. “The government will again have to tolerate encroachment and extortion rackets…Our own party members get sucked into these crimes when they see activists belonging to a coalition partner free to make money by illegal means as happened between 2008 and 2013.”
You ask an MQM insider and he will give his list of grievances. “Even when the PPP was our ally, the killings of MQM workers continued”, he said asking not to be identified. “The MQM lost nearly 1,030 workers between 2008 and 2013 and 46 so far in 2014.” He further said, “Many MQM workers were killed by the PPP-backed Amn Committee of Lyari”. “We hold the provincial government responsible for this bloodletting and patronising criminals that made (the) life of Karachiites so miserable.”
The MQM’s main complaint remains that its “sincerity and cooperation” was not reciprocated by the PPP as urban Sindh suffered because of poor governance, corruption and soaring crime.
The leaders and workers of both sides can narrate convincing stories of greed, corruption and politics laced with crime about each other. These stories will make your heart sink and your mind lose hope about the future of Sindh and its people, who seem to have been destined to suffer mostly villains, thugs and the corrupt to govern and represent them in the name of democracy and parliament.
Are the PPP and the MQM of 2014 any different from what they were in 2008 when they shook hands with a lot of promise and hope? One harsh reality about the PPP-MQM 2008-13 coalition government was that the cadre of both parties refused to adhere to the publically stated vision of their central leadership. Instead, the PPP and MQM workers remained locked in tit-for-tat killings on Karachi’s streets under the patronage of key second and third tier leaders. They openly and clandestinely worked against one another despite being part of the same government.
The backing of criminals by these and other religious, nationalist parties resulted in an unprecedented surge in crime in Karachi, especially extortion and land encroachment. These crimes turned into multi-billion monthly rackets and even today remain the biggest curse in the lives of many Karachiites. All through this period, the PPP and the MQM played the ethnic card to defend or expand their political turfs rather than stick to their so-called lofty goals of bringing rural and urban Sindh together.
The PPP refused to budge an inch on any of the key urban demands, including the holding of local bodies elections. In fact, the provincial government tightened its grip on many of those departments and institutions which once were the domain of the city government. This is what devolution of power means under a democratic setup.
The protracted PPP-MQM talks on the new local bodies system resulted in the Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance in 2012, which was adopted on paper by more than a two-third majority vote in the Sindh Assembly. But it was scrapped the moment the MQM parted ways with the PPP before the 2013 general elections.
From the MQM’s point-of-view, it failed to deliver on three crucial demands of Karachiites – autonomous and effective local bodies, a modern mass transit system and restoring peace and rule of law in the city. 
The PPP, which has let down its voters in smaller cities and rural Sindh because of its poor governance and rampant corruption, does not seem interested in focusing on issues concerning the large urban centres. This situation stands in stark contrast to that of Punjab where in the absence of the local governments, at least the provincial government is spearheading mega-development projects including mass transit systems in Lahore and Rawalpindi-Islamabad.
But in Sindh, the provincial government is neither leading any meaningful development project worth mentioning on its own nor allowing the local bodies system. Whatever the PPP spin doctors may say, this is the public perception in Sindh – both in urban and in rural areas.
As the Syed Qaim Ali Shah-led government is under severe criticism because of poor performance and the state of inertia in the wake of a drought and famine-like situation in Tharparkar, pressure is mounting on the PPP to bring an in-house change.
If the PPP again manages to rope in the MQM, it will help deflect pressure and criticism on the party as well as help bring a semblance of peace in Karachi for at least a brief period. And that’s all the PPP needs to fight another day under the leadership of Asif Ali Zardari, who excels in winning tactical advantages through his wheeling and dealing and does not mind losing the war.
While Zardari has his master plan, the young Bilawal Bhutto Zardari thinks differently. He wants the MQM to retract its party chief Altaf Hussain’s statements in which he apparently supported a military takeover and demanded administrative division of Sindh if it wants to join the provincial government. The MQM has not reacted to these statements, though a day later Altaf Hussain appealed to Karachiites to defend themselves against criminals by forming vigilante committees since the government won’t fulfil this responsibility.
These statements underline the fraught nature of relations between the PPP and the MQM, which are again trying to strike a deal.
Should these efforts give hope to the people of Sindh? Like the open rivalry between the two parties is damaging for the province, any alliance based on mere political expediency is also dangerous.
The PPP and the MQM are seen as natural allies not just because they represent the people of Sindh, but also because of their secular and liberal outlook. However, to deliver for the people, they need to show political maturity and raise themselves above their narrow self and political interests. Any talks for the formation of a coalition government will be meaningless if it focuses only on ministries rather than a vision for tomorrow’s Sindh. For this, these two parties have to change their act altogether. Is that too much to ask for?

Stories So Ordinary

By Amir Zia 
March 24, 2014
The News

Almost every second or third citizen of this restive city of roughly 18 million people has a first-hand personal story or that of his friend or relative to share regarding street crime
 
The first time I faced a gun menacingly pointing at me it was held by a boy barely in his late teens. The inexperienced hand that clutched the pistol was shaking. My foremost fear was that his raw hand could pull the trigger by mistake, out of nervousness or in a sudden rush of blood. 
His two young accomplices demanded whatever cash and valuables my family had as we stood outside our house located in an apparently peaceful neighbourhood of Karachi that night. The gang’s fourth member waited in a car with its engine running. We had to cooperate. Surprisingly, one of the muggers politely apologized for this conduct before driving away. This happened in 2006.
The second time I got unlucky was in the vicinity of the DHA offices sometime in 2011. Two youngsters, riding a motorbike, pulled in front of me in broad daylight as I unlocked my car in a quiet street. They were smooth operators. One ordered me to sit inside the car waiving his pistol, while the other gave him cover without dismounting from the bike. “Do you carry a gun?” I was asked by the one standing beside me as he searched the vehicle – underneath the seats and inside the dashboard. 
My answer: a man with a face like me possibly can’t. The youngster had some sense of humour. He smiled and demanded for the mobile phone and wallet. I gave him the phone and offered cash instead of the wallet to save my national identity card, driving licence etc. He agreed. Then foolishly, I asked for my SIM card. The mugger returned the phone. But in those tense moments, I requested him to do this favour. He obliged and gave the SIM back. It was during this give-and-take that the biker noticed my wristwatch…They snatched the car-key to prevent a chase, but returned it when in a broken sentence or two I explained the hardship I would face without it. “Please don’t get upset”, were the parting words of one of them. “We have no choice.”
The third time my luck ran out was in November 2013 outside the office at I I Chundrigar Road – Pakistan’s so-called Wall Street. I had just gotten into my colleague’s car that I noticed a lean teenager’s head popping inside the vehicle, demanding cash and our mobile phones. His partner in crime – a bearded fellow – was on a bike armed with a gleaming pistol. We offered no resistance, but I couldn’t help saying that “you are looting poor people.” In return, we heard in Karachi’s chaste Urdu some explicit four-letter words. The unkind duo fled along with my colleague’s car keys.
This first person account offers a slight glimpse of what a vast number of Karachiites daily endure in the city – often with graver consequences. Some get beaten, others sustain bullet injuries and the unfortunate ones lose their lives along with cash and other valuables. Mugging is now way too common in our city. No area is safe enough. No major road or street – even in the heart of Karachi – is out of bounds for criminals. A mere walk on the road exposes you to these small-time daredevils floating around 24/7.
In a city plagued by killings, terrorism, bank robberies, kidnappings for ransom, extortion, vehicle theft and snatching and other such big crimes, mugging is now not even considered news worthy. Police seldom register the First Investigation Report (FIR) of such incidents. At the most a complaint is lodged in the police roaznamchas (daily reporting registers).
The much-propagated Karachi operation against criminals and terrorists, which started on September 5, has failed to make a difference when it comes to beating street crime, though killings and extortion cases have registered a drop.
The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee figures reveal that from September-February – the first six months of the operation – a total of 12,542 mobile phones were snatched compared with 10,050 in the same number of months (March-August) before the start of the crackdown.
These numbers, however, don’t reflect the true picture since many street crime incidents are never reported. Many victims do not bother going to the police or reporting mobile phone snatching to the CPLC that offers services of blocking phone sets. Most victims just thank their stars for having survived one more day in this urban jungle where crime and lawlessness remain the order of the day.
Almost every second or third citizen of this restive city of roughly 18 million people has a first-hand personal story or that of his friend or relative to share regarding street crime. The victims belong to all age-groups and classes – from the low income to the affluent.
A few days ago, a fellow journalist got beaten up by two gunmen for not carrying enough cash and for having a cheap mobile phone. The muggers thought that they would find a laptop in his bag, which only had some papers. People just watched as the journalist was slapped, punched and threatened with a pistol pointing at his head. The incident occurred when the victim was walking on the busy M A Jinnah Road on a Sunday evening. 
One hears countless such tales…in many drawing-room discussions one finds victims narrating their similar ordeals like school boys who like to boast about their adventures and trysts with trouble often with pride and awe. You hear from a leading businessman about how he saved his valuable wristwatch which he got from his grandfather at the peril of his life. A corporate leader describes how he pays monthly protection money to a gang to reach his office located in an industrial area of the city. A high-flying professional tells you how he lost his mobile telephone while driving on a key road. 
Those from low-income backgrounds are deprived of their cash, mobile phones and other valuables when their passenger buses are stopped by armed men in the city’s outskirts, during a motor rickshaw ride in the middle of the city or while walking on a footpath.
Last week, my friend’s brother had a narrow brush with death at Korangi when his vehicle was stopped late night by armed men. The victims were handing them their valuables when one of the gunmen, who was drunk, tried to fire a shot aiming directly at the head of one of the victims despite warnings by his accomplices. He pulled the trigger twice, but luckily the shot was not fired. 
The mugger tried again, but the victim pushed away his hand. There was a bang and the bullet wiz passed, grazing his face and wounding the wrist of my friend’s brother, who was sitting beside him. The gunman’s accomplices and the victims all ran for cover. There are countless such horror stories unfolding everyday in Karachi.
According to Ahmed Chinoy, the CPLC chief, most muggers are not part of organised gangs. “But mugging is their first step in the organised world of crime.”
These criminals are mostly dwellers of slums, located in the heart of every middle- and upper-class neighbourhood. In the words of Chinoy, these slum areas are like rural pockets in the city where poverty and unemployment force many youngsters to take this path.
But it is not just the poor who resort to crime. Many youngsters belonging to the middle and even upper middle class join the dark side for adventure and extra cash.
The weak writ of the state and dysfunctional law enforcement and judicial institutions, coupled with the unholy nexus between crime and politics, make the situation more complex and beating crime more difficult.
With the Karachi operation running out of steam since November according to D G Sindh Rangers Major General Rizwan Akhter, Karachiites seem to have little hope for security and peace on the streets of their beleaguered city. The grand illusion that a crackdown on hardened criminals would help reduce street crime has been busted. Surely, there is no glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. It is only the reign of fear, terror and criminals in the dangerous city called Karachi.

A Witches’ Brew

By Amir Zia
March 17, 2014
The News

The government needs a holistic approach for peace in Karachi. And the first step starts with political will. Are the leading parties, including the PPP and the MQM, ready to stop supporting criminals? Apart from offering lip-service to this objective, our politicians have not moved an inch in this regard. 

Karachi’s bloodletting has an eerie pattern. Operation or no operation, there is always a modest drop in the day-to-day killings and sometimes even a brief period of lull. But then the haze of relative calm is blown away by one big act of butchery or a series of similar such acts and this grim fact manifests itself again in loud and clear terms that Karachi remains among the most dangerous, crime-ridden and lawless megacities of the world.
Therefore, the atrocious gun and grenade attack in the volatile neighbourhood of Lyari on March 12 that killed 16 people, mostly women and children, should not come as a surprise. The city has all the ingredients that make it a keg of gun-powder – ready to explode anytime.
There are politically-backed gangsters organised under various banners such as the notorious People’s Amn (Peace) Committee of Lyari. Due to the infighting among its various ring-leaders over the spoils of their criminal empire, this so-called peace committee now stands divided into two main groups – each baying for the blood of its rival faction members. 
The latest deadly attack, too, was the result of their continuing strife as various key political players continue to back this or that band of criminals. However, this time there has been a deviation from the set pattern of violence even by Lyari standards. It is for the first time that innocent residents were targeted in such a brazen manner – all because they happened to be in the area dominated by the rival faction of attackers.
Director General Sindh Rangers Maj General Rizwan Akhter hit the bull’s eye when he told Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his recent visit to Karachi that some of the key members of the Pakistan People’s Party, which is running the show in Sindh since 2008, continue to back the Lyari gangsters. No wonder that one of the most wanted criminal kingpins of the committee – Uzair Baloch – is cooling his heels abroad. How he managed to sneak out of the country underlines his connections with the rich and the powerful. 
Then we have the militant wings of all major political and religious parties, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, its dissident faction the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Awami National Party, and various Sindhi and Baloch nationalists, who operate with impunity in Karachi – each according to its size. Many of these parties fight with one another to maintain or expand their turfs and extort money from small and big shopkeepers, businesspeople, industrialists, professionals and even ordinary low-income group citizens – often in the name of donations. Some of them also patronise land encroachers and other crime mafias.
The presence of heavily armed sectarian groups complicates the situation a little more. They carryout tit-for-tat killings and fan extremism and hate. These groups thrive and breed on the vast network of seminaries, raising funds from local sources both legally and illegally and also from their foreign patrons and supporters in different ‘brotherly’ Muslim countries. 
The list of promoters, abettors and executioners of crime and terrorism does not end here. A deadly challenge also comes from the Al-Qaeda inspired militants operating under the banner of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other shadowy terrorist cells and groups.
This witches’ brew also includes the small and big dons of the crime world, drug-peddlers, weapon smugglers, gambling den operators, local thugs and petty street criminals who operate independently or associate themselves with one or the other party. Indeed fighting violence, terrorism and crime in such a vast city, with its myriad socioeconomic and civic problems and so many destabilising factors, can be a nightmare for any police force of the world. 
The effectiveness of the police, Sindh Rangers and the other law-enforcement agencies is compromised because of the political interference, expediency, opportunism and apathy of the elected representatives, who are more part of the problem than the solution. Playing by the book is not their article of faith. They are driven by short-term political goals and narrow self-interests.
Ask Karachi Police Chief Shahid Hayat to name the gravest of all these destabilising factors and he will say that it is politically-motivated violence that overlaps organised crime – from land encroachments to the extortion racket. To put it simply: it is the criminalisation of politics and politicisation of crime that remains the mother of all that is evil in Karachi.
For Hayat, the Al-Qaeda inspired militants too pose a big security challenge and have the capacity to stage massive deadly terrorist attacks, but they are devoid of support from the local population. Therefore, they are manageable. The real challenge is political violence, he says.
And his line of argument seems to make sense. Police will be able to take on criminals and assassins more effectively if political parties remove the umbrellas that protect them.
The turmoil and lawlessness in Lyari – a gift of the PPP rule in Sindh – is a case in point as it emerges as the biggest disruptive factor in today’s Karachi. Gangsters not only hold the entire population of Lyari hostage, but also operate the extortion racket and other heinous crimes, especially in the city’s old parts where key wholesale and retail markets and businesses are located.
The short-sighted policy of some of the PPP Sindh stalwarts of patronising criminals damaged the party in its main stronghold in Karachi. The locality – once the hub of democratic movements – is now controlled by gangsters, who have sidelined the local political activists.
In this situation, should one take heart from the prime minister’s announcement that the operation against criminals and terrorists would continue till the restoration of peace in Karachi? In a way yes, but shouldn’t fighting crime and terrorism be a round-the-clock job?
Operations have limited objectives and a set timeframe. Karachi’s complicated case cannot be handled through a mere operation, though it did manage to bring the rate of killings down to 1,005 in its first 184 days (up to March 7) compared with the 1,448 killed in the same number of days before the start of the crackdown. However, incidents such as the one that took place in Lyari should serve as a grim reminder that until the root-causes of lawlessness are not addressed, Karachi’s pot will remain on the boil. More than 10,000 arrests and killing of 150 plus criminals and terrorists can only give short-term relief. There will be new gangsters, militants and terrorists to replace them.
The government needs a holistic approach for peace in Karachi. And the first step starts with political will. Are the leading parties, including the PPP and the MQM, ready to stop supporting criminals? Apart from offering lip-service to this objective, our politicians have not moved an inch in this regard.
The other important step is to ensure that the police force is not compromised by political interference. It needs independence and autonomy to do its job. The federal and provincial governments should move to introduce the much-awaited police reforms including appointment of officers on merit and for a fixed term.
Police training on modern lines, introduction of latest investigation techniques, effective prosecution and capacity building, including expansion of the force and provision of modern weapons and communication facilities, should also be the part of the package. Karachi needs double the size of its existing police force of 34,000 personnel. For instance, the four police stations of Lyari until recently had only 300 men available for all three shifts. Recently this strength has been raised by another 400. But is that enough? 
Judicial reforms for quick dispensation of justice and lifting of the ill-advised moratorium on death penalty are also some of the must-needed steps.
It will all be mere talk of bringing peace in Karachi if the government fails to take these steps. It is time for rulers to match their words with action. Failing to do so means that Karachiites should be prepared for more horrific incidents such as the one that recently occurred in Lyari. Yes, the bloodletting will continue in the same old fashion.

Pakistan’s New Friends

By Amir  Zia
March 10, 2014
The News

The time for taking a decision on fighting the twin spectre of terrorism and religious extremism was yesterday, but our rulers seem to be waiting for a tomorrow that will never come
 
A clear majority of the local Taliban fighters are ‘not the enemies of Pakistan.’ This ‘good news’ was shared by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on the floor of the National Assembly on March 6 as the government announced direct talks with the Mullah Fazlullah-led outlawed group.
Wow! This was one official statement the nation has been waiting to hear from a government stalwart. Going by the logic of the interior minister’s statement, if the Taliban are not enemies of Pakistan then they must be friends.
Should this priceless disclosure lift the spirits of this beleaguered nation and give comfort that the country remained a victim of friendly acts of terrorism all these years? Should it give clarity and confidence to our soldiers, policemen and all the security personnel that so far they have been fighting not with the enemies of the state? And if yes, then does it mean that they had been sacrificing their lives in vain.
If the interior minister is to be believed then the beheading of our soldiers by the Taliban should also be taken as an act of friendship. So should be their ghastly game of kicking around the heads of our martyrs. The attacks on the military headquarters and other defence installations – from Karachi to Peshawar – were also not carried out by the enemies of Pakistan. The interior minister believes that the Taliban are ‘not anti-Pakistan’. Then should we say that the pro-Pakistan Taliban executed all the bombings and suicide attacks, killing thousands of men, women and children? If this is not Orwellian double talk, then how else can it be described? 
The next best thing our interior minister can do now is bestow a certificate of patriotism to these Al-Qaeda inspired militants, who openly declare the armed forces as their number one enemy and never hide their intention that they want to dismantle the state called Pakistan. 
Our elected government continues to live in a state of self-denial. Many of its misfiring big guns, from the interior minister to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, continue to give confusing signals about the nature and scope of the challenge Pakistan faces from within. And by doing this they are giving legitimacy to all the shadowy bands of non-state warriors whom we usually lump together under the common and simplistic definition of the Taliban. They are strengthening the internal enemy and damaging Pakistan.
Today these protectors and defenders of militants are entrenched in the echelons of civilian power structure, in the media and in the mainstream religious parties. They twist facts, tell half truths and even blatant lies in their zeal to shield terrorists and avoid doing what the nation expects them to do: defend Pakistan, its people and help establish the writ of the state. 
But political expediency, narrow self interest and lack of moral and intellectual courage never allows them to call a spade a spade. Instead, they give us mumbo-jumbo of all sorts of conspiracy theories including that some foreign hand is fomenting these acts of terrorism. No wonder many Pakistanis are disillusioned and depressed with the democratic setup as they see no ray of hope at the end of the tunnel. The plight of Pakistan is manifested through all the disorder and lawlessness that we see around us, the crumbling of its institutions and the erosion of the state authority. 
The interior minister has taken the dark comedy played in the name of peace talks too far. His statements – such as the one on March 6 – indeed seem like a cruel joke. By declaring the majority of the Taliban as friends, he has ridiculed and insulted all civilian and armed forces martyrs and their families and friends.
And this was not the first time that Chaudhry Nisar came out on the floor of the house to defend the Taliban. He has done this on countless occasions both inside and outside parliament with conviction and passion. When a US drone strike killed the former Taliban chief, Hakeemullah Mehsud last November, our interior minister’s display of grief and emotions rattled even many of the treasury members – not because of his melodramatic performance, but because they could see the fallout of his sayings on the country. His brash statements and soft corner for militants expose his political acumen and underline his insensitivity towards all those who died, wounded or lost their near and dear ones by terrorists.
Seen as the main architect of the policy of peace talks with militants, Chaudhry Nisar is defining and articulating it on behalf of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. And the way the interior minister is doing his job, he is putting the entire system at stake. 
This government will be remembered for giving legitimacy to a ragtag band of terrorists and bringing their narrative into the mainstream. This decision to appease and hold talks with militants has been taken and owned by a coterie of friends and families of the prime minister. Even the input of all the treasury and cabinet members was not taken while deciding to extend an olive branch to the enemies of the state.
The voice of smaller provinces articulated by the Pakistan People’s Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Awami National Party, and the Baloch nationalists is also being ignored. The concerns of the civil society and the armed forces on treading this dangerous course are also not being taken into account. 
The Sharif government let the foreign and local militants off the hook when the Pakistani armed forces had put them on the mat through successful airstrikes following a spate of recent terror assaults. The Taliban have warded off the pressure by announcing the ceasefire and retaining their capacity to fight another day. They managed to buy crucial time when the last days of winter restrict their fighters’ movement. They have again been able to give centrality to those issues that should be non-negotiable – supremacy of the constitution and state’s undisputed writ on its territory. They offered the bait and the Sharif government fell for it hook, line and sinker.
With rulers such as Sharif, does Pakistan need ‘a foreign hand’ to destabilise it?
Now our civilian masters want the Pakistan Army to be part of the farcical dialogue process and take the brunt of their follies that threatens Pakistan. Mercifully the indications are that the army is not in a mood to oblige and has declined to jump into the pit where Sharif and his key team members have placed themselves.
Trying to push the armed forces directly into talks with the Taliban is indeed a trap for the country’s last line of defence. The peace deals brokered with militants during the former military-led government are not justified examples when the country is run by an elected government. Today, the civilians should take responsibility of all such actions with the past knowledge that all those deals were violated by none other than the militants. 
The onus of imposing this internal war rest solely on these Al-Qaeda linked militants. The state institutions remain justified in trying to stop the use of Pakistani territory as a safe haven for global and local terrorists and fomenting violence and terrorism around the world.
The days ahead are indeed tough for the country as the US/Nato troops start their drawdown from Afghanistan. This will embolden the militants and allow them freer movement on both sides of the Durand Line. Another round of internal strife and war stares at Pakistan, but this time it will be messier and bloodier. Unfortunately for us, there is no courageous and visionary civilian leadership in sight that can steer the country out of this minefield.
The time is running out fast. The indecision and policy of appeasement is costing the country dearly. The time for taking a decision on fighting the twin spectre of terrorism and religious extremism was yesterday, but our rulers seem to be waiting for a tomorrow that will never come. Are there any saviours who can stand up and fight for Pakistan? The nation awaits a miracle.

VIPs & The Roads

By Amir Zia

The News

March 03, 2014 

 

Our ruling elite – has made high walls and they will raise them even higher in the days to come in the name of security, but won’t strive to create a society that can exist without them. The high and mighty ones import even better and costlier bulletproof and bombproof vehicles, but take no concrete step to eradicate this problem.  

 

President Mamoon Hussain wants to stay away from the roads of Karachi as much as possible in the larger public interest. The reason: he does not want Karachiites to suffer due to the mandatory security arrangements for the presidential cavalcade that results in blocked roads and massive traffic jams. Therefore, he usually takes a short helicopter ride from airport to the city centre. He declines invitations even from friends who want to throw a party in his honour, and comes out of the State Guest House only for vital official engagements. 

“A friend of mine complained that I have become arrogant as I do not visit his place anymore”, Hussain told a select group of journalists in a recent meeting in Karachi. “But when my friend himself got stuck in a traffic jam because of some VIP movement, he realised the wisdom of my decision”, Hussain said in a lighter tone. “He told me that it is better both for me and the public if I avoid roads.” 

Being a Karachiitie himself, President Hussain appears sensitive towards the ordeal of citizens whenever high and mighty government officials – known as VIPs in official jargon – move on the roads of this teeming megapolis or in fact any major city and town of Pakistan. Hussain’s conduct remains an exception, but it hardly makes a difference in the overall scheme of things.

In the normal world of these abnormal times, traffic always comes to a complete halt for top civil and military leaders when they are out on the roads. The lesser VIPs (depending on their seniority and clout) move in small and big cavalcades, bullying and terrorising ‘unimportant’ mortals through armed guards, hooters and the share speed and aggression of their vehicles. 

The passing reference to the problem of ‘VIP movement’ in the president’s lengthy talk, which covered many other issues, came to my mind when on Friday I saw one of Karachi’s most prominent police officer whizz by in his white bullet-proof four-wheel drive vehicle on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road.

There were at least six vehicles, or maybe a couple more, that followed him in top gear. Policemen dangling in the escort vehicles waved automatic guns in the air, signalling to motorists and pedestrians to clear the way for the officer, who himself was in the driving seat. That’s all one could grasp in the fleeting few seconds amidst the mad rush while standing on the footpath and struggling to cross the road. Such sights are now too common – an everyday experience in our metropolitan lives.

The cavalcades of grade two, three or four ‘VIPs’ – who are unable to get roads blocked when they move – brazenly harass motorists to clear the way for them. These so-called VIPs and their security bellow hooters as they want you to abruptly change lanes if they are behind your vehicle. They force you to jump the red light as they think it too risky to wait for the traffic signal to turn green. They point and wave the barrels of their automatic guns directly at you if your vehicle happens to be behind the ‘VIP’ convoy so that you dare not cross it.

Of course, all this is being done for the sake of legitimate security needs of these ‘very important people’ of Pakistan. They face a genuine threat (no pun intended) from all sorts of terrorists and criminals, allowed to run amok under their watchful eyes. Names of many military and police officials, politicians, bureaucrats – and even judges – come to mind, who were killed in bombings or hit-and-run attacks by terrorists across Pakistan.

Then we have those rich and powerful citizens who can’t get official security and move with their private security guards. You see them trying to ape the official security personnel as they too threaten, terrorise and harass the lesser beings on the roads. The legality or illegality of their conduct hardly matters. They can afford to hire guns and gunmen. These superrich too have a legitimate reason to flaunt 24/7 security. They do not want to be kidnapped for ransom, fall victim to the bullet of extortionists, car snatchers or street criminals.

Now state or private security is no longer just a matter of sheer egoism, but an actual need – for those who can afford it. Those who can’t, feel vulnerable. 

We live in abnormal and cruel times that have indeed brutalized the society and made everyone feel insecure – from the top to the proverbial man on the street. 

The only problem is that the common man has been caught in a two-way bind. He gets squeezed both by the law-breakers and the custodians of law. He can neither buy his own protection nor get it from the state. He can’t even maintain his self-respect while commuting on the road and walking on a footpath (if there are any left by encroachers for him to walk on).

Terrorism and crime have changed the way we once used to live and take for granted some very basic rights. For instance, finding a major road open cannot be taken for granted now. In the same way, there is no assurance that you will be allowed to walk on a footpath if it happens to be adjacent to the residence of any proclaimed or self-proclaimed VIP or any important official buildings.

In Karachi, the portion of Dr Ziauddin Road outside the Chief Minister House can be taken as a case in point. It can be closed for traffic without warning any time of the day or even for days at a stretch – depending on the security threat or whims of our masters. At nights, one always finds it closed to the public.

The same road also houses the headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers. Here, one of the footpaths and a traffic lane has been encroached upon for the security reasons. It is prohibited even to walk on the corner of this road. It is a small dare to take a stroll on the lane adjacent to the Rangers’ headquarters under the unfriendly stare of guards armed with G-3 rifles and heavy and light machine guns.

And there are scores of government and security institutions, including the Pakistan Coast Guards and the police, which have completely or partially closed various roads and footpaths for the general public because of the terror threat. Top politicians, ministers, civil servants too have encroached public spaces for security reasons.

What is now a normality of our daily lives is unarguably an abnormality, which no civilised society can tolerate. But being civilised and creating a civilised society is not even a point of discussion in our national narrative today, let alone any genuine push or agenda to change the way we live – and now die.

We have accepted and learned to live with whatever is around us and appear prepared to brace even the worst. It is all part of the package now, which is becoming weightier and pulling us down bit by bit, slowly and surely. 

Our ruling elite – has made high walls and they will raise them even higher in the days to come in the name of security, but won’t strive to create a society that can exist without them. The high and mighty ones import even better and costlier bulletproof and bombproof vehicles, but take no concrete step to eradicate this problem. They will close many more roads and footpaths for the general public, place more barricades and surround themselves with many more security personnel, but will not address the root cause of any of the problems and continue trying to appease and wheel and deal with the violent non-state actors and law-breakers. 

They will not do anything to end this disorder and lawlessness, which has created a society where citizens are even denied the right to drive peacefully or even walk without being threatened and bullied by guards and terrorists and criminals alike. Can one see any glimmer of hope? If so, please do share. Let’s all search for it.

Present Imperfect

By Amir Zia 
The News
Feb 17, 2014


Our history will be a sorry saga of inaction, political expediency, opportunism and betrayals by those in power. It will show our weak and meek rulers begging and pleading for a compromise and some give-and-take from parochial clusters of non-state actors who stood against the tide of times.

How would a historian of the future – let’s say someone in 2114 – analyse and describe the present-day conflict and unabated religiously-motivated terrorism within Pakistan? Will the future historian be saying that the world’s lone Muslim nuclear-armed power of its time got overwhelmed by a much powerful and advanced internal enemy or hold the incompetence, indecisiveness and cowardliness of our rulers responsible for the country’s plight and turmoil? 
When seen in retrospect, will the local Taliban fighters of 2014 emerge as a force epitomising the collective ethos of these ill-fated times or the historical verdict say that those in power proved too small for the challenge thrown at their door step by the small organised bands of religious zealots whose time had run out a long time ago? 
From Pakistan’s perspective, its history of 2014 will indeed be a painful read. It will tell the story of a leadership, which despite having the world’s 7th largest army of 600,000-plus brave men at its disposal, allowed a ragtag force of extremists to undermine the state and kill its citizens with impunity. It will highlight how nations crumble and the writ of the state evaporates when leaders fail to act.
Our history will be a sorry saga of inaction, political expediency, opportunism and betrayals by those in power. It will show our weak and meek rulers begging and pleading for a compromise and some give-and-take from parochial clusters of non-state actors who stood against the tide of times.
Yes, when all of us be gone and buried (or maybe some blown to pieces by a suicide bomber fired by the desire to get hold of 70 virgins in the afterlife), history will certainly not remember the names of Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar and his likes and how they shed tears over the killing of terrorists and gave justifications for a compromise with an enemy of the state and the people. They will be irrelevant in the big picture of today’s Pakistan when looked at from the distant eyes of the future – say 50 or 100 years from now. After all who remembers Yahya Khan’s cabinet members today? Who wants to know the members of the last cabinet of the defunct Soviet Union? 
But the names of these two leaders we all know. In the simplistic and popular historical narrative, they are the ones who carry the entire burden of the collective failure of the ruling classes of their age in all times to come. So, here it would be Nawaz Sharif, one of our country’s most experienced politicians and the third-time elected premier, who would carry today’s cross into the future. The historian will judge him and not his comrades-in-arms. Our traumatic times will be seen and defined by Sharif’s actions and inactions – his lone testament for history. 
And in that history, Imran Khan and his league of players such as Munawar Hasan, Maulana Samiul Haq and Maulana Abdul Aziz will also be forgotten – or at best serve as a footnote. The confusion they spread in our political narrative through half-truths and distortion of facts will also land in the lap of Prime Minister Sharif, who will solely be held responsible for all the troubles of today. Indeed, such are the cruel verdicts of history. Our pseudo intellectuals, extremist and pro-extremists media persons and the so-called intellectuals in these intellectually barren times will also slide into the oblivion. At the best, they will be remembered the same way as today we remember in a sentence or two those religious scholars and clerics of 13th century Baghdad who endlessly discussed, debated and fought over non-issues of metaphysics and sectarian differences when Mongol armies were sweeping through the Muslim world and knocking at the door of their grand city.
Even in the present-day context, how else can one describe these Al-Qaeda-inspired local militants other than similar barbaric hoards, but this time committing every atrocity, cruelty and crime in the sacred name of Islam and Shariah of our Prophet Hazrat Muhammed Mustafa (pbuh), who taught, preached and practiced compassion, justice and love and respect for human life and humanity? 
The Taliban have made their agenda clear not once, but every time they communicate with the world. In that sense one must give them the credit of clarity of mind and steely commitment to their beliefs, which is found wanting on this side of the divide.
The Taliban declare the Pakistan Army as their number one enemy. This position has again been repeated by the Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid in a recent interview with the weekly, Newsweek, published against the backdrop of the much propagated peace talks. They target our sensitive defence installations and kill our soldiers. What a pity that the armed forces are vulnerable in the supposedly safe boundaries of their own country. 
The Taliban reject the Pakistani state and its constitution. In their worldview, there is no room for pluralism and civilised dissent. From the small Kalash community living in Chitral to members of other faiths, including various Islamic sects – that do not see eye-to-eye with the Taliban’s narrow and controversial interpretation of Islam – remain a just target for subjugation or complete annihilation. As the Taliban make their agenda crystal clear, their apologists advocate acceptance of their demands for the sake of a bad peace.
What do the Taliban and their defenders mean when they ask the state to concede?
Officially handing over parts of Pakistani territory to the local and foreign extremists so that they can use it to foment violence and terrorism within Pakistan and abroad. In a nutshell, they want the state to compromise its sovereignty in the first phase. (And the Taliban apologists expect that by taking this course, we will be able to halt the US drone attacks once for all.) 
For some government stalwarts and Taliban mouthpieces – the one and only Imran Khan and his strange and familiar bed fellows – it is of no consequence if the state fails, or its institutions surrender or collapse. In their zeal to appease the enemies of Pakistan and to keep themselves away from harm, they do not want to see the domestic and international fallout on the country if their not-so ‘innocent demands’ are accepted.
The mantra that if peace talks collapse, it will result in terror attacks in Punjab, which by-and-large escaped terrorism in recent years, simply means that they can’t look at the bigger picture called Pakistan. They want to accept the Taliban demand that our forces pull out of the troubled areas and accept the Taliban’s control over them. They want terrorists freed so that they can rejoin their terror cells. 
Imran Khan disclosed that the armed forces have 40 percent chance of success if a full blown operation is launched against militants. For him, this means that talks and the so-called peace deal should be the preferred course, which ironically have 100 percent chance of damaging Pakistan and its short- to long-term interests. The continued killings and terror attacks are a proof of the kind of monster we are dealing with. If the situation is as bad as described by the Taliban cheerleaders, then the armed forces should take a gamble even if there is one percent chance of winning this conflict for the sake of the country. This one percent chance will translate into 100 percent success if barracks and the people are on the same page. 
It is now time to play one memorable, bold and courageous innings for Pakistan. And such an innings is hardly expected from trader-turned-politicians. They only know the art of give and take and selling and buying. Such leadership may perform tricks in normal times, but not in times like these. It will not come from a player-turned-politician. The challenge is too big for a small time player and his narrow mind. 
In this barren landscape, the nation has nowhere to turn to but towards the armed forces which are Pakistan’s first and last line of defence – our one and only hope. Can someone suggest any other force that can lead and win this battle for us? For the future historian, the story can only be different if someone with courage accepts this gauntlet.