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"Black Day" in history of Pakistan 11 May 2013 - Protest 11 May 2014

"Black Day" in history of Pakistan 11 May 2013 - Protest 11 May 2014

Article by Atta-ul-Haq Qasmi on ASG Saifullah Niazi's response: Daily Jang

The indictment

The indictment

With a government found complicit, who will administer the treatment?

It is a combination of perceptible predictability and an eerie unpredictability that characterise the political and security environment prevailing in the country. The predictability factor relates to the manner in which the political mafias have indulged in wanton loot of the country’s riches, deprived the people of their inherent right to security and rendered the system corrupt and completely untenable. But the grave challenges this multi-faceted rampage is likely to throw up for the country’s sovereign existence remain predominantly a matter of conjecture.

The Supreme Court judgement in the suo motu notice of the security situation in Karachi is a powerful indictment of the sitting governments at the centre and in Sindh. The vast repertoire of observations, the stated and implied centres of blame, the manner in which the governance responsibilities have been abdicated at the altar of personal survival resulting in a surge of crime and loot, and the invocation to initiate remedial steps are all based on the premise that the government stands indicted. In its comprehensive judgement, the apex court observed: “…overwhelming material is available on record to persuade us to form an opinion that bloodshed, arson, kidnapping/abduction for ransom, widespread violence, illegal collection of money (bhatta) from traders, etc. were being committed within the knowledge of the State through Provincial Government /Executive, but it remained a silent spectator and, prima facie, failed to take appropriate action, may be for some political reasons. But, the Constitution does not allow the Executive to compromise its position at the cost of innocent citizens who lost their lives, property, liberty and dignity because of the expediency of the Provincial and Federal Governments”. This is as incisive as any indictment can be. The court has held the Federal and the Provincial Governments directly responsible for the destruction that Karachi has witnessed in the recent and not so recent past and has also highlighted their inability and lack of willingness to take remedial measures because of ‘political considerations’.

The judgement is also an indictment of the political parties that are accused of patronising criminals and nurturing militant cadres within their ranks.

Holding the governments responsible for the mayhem, the court, as remedial measures, has recommended that police force should be de-politicised and strengthened, political parties should denounce their affiliation with criminals, boundaries of administrative units like police stations and revenue estates should be altered so that members of different communities may live together in peace and harmony, Karachi should be cleansed of all kinds of weapons by adhering to laws available on the subject and, if need be, by promulgating new legislation, a comprehensive new law should be promulgated to eliminate and punish land grabbers and encroachers, ‘no go’ areas in Karachi should be eliminated, an independent and a de-politicised agency should be deputed to conduct investigation of cases fairly, honestly and without being influenced in any manner and DG NADRA and IGP should set up a special joint cell with specialised officials and experts to identify illegal foreigners so that they could be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of law. The judgement further stated that the IGP will present a report to the court about the disappearance or elimination of police or other officials who took part in the Karachi operations of 1992 and 1996 and the Federal Government should move under Article 17 of the Constitution against any party for actions that are, directly or indirectly, prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan. A committee will be constituted, headed by the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, to supervise and ensure that law-enforcement agencies take action indiscriminately across the board against the perpetrators involved in causing disturbances in Karachi.

If one tries to evaluate this prescription against the hasty embrace that brought the two estranged partners of the coalition government in Sindh and Centre together just a day before the judgement was announced, one would easily gauge the manner in which these recommendations would be rubbished just like all previous adjudications of the apex court have been. There is no way a criminal would beget a criminal and when bands of criminals are operating together, they would only strengthen the operational mechanism to evade detection. The ailment may have been correctly diagnosed and the medicines prescribed, but who will administer the treatment? Do we expect the government that has been found complicit in the crime, or a police force that stands politicised or a bunch of political parties that have been found patronising militant elements to do as recommended?

We are up against a creek and even the basics have not been sifted to undertake a journey that is long and arduous. The Supreme Court judgement may have shown us the path to ultimate salvation in Karachi and elsewhere in the country, but it has washed its hands off the responsibility of administering the bitter medicine. It may have hinted at the need for banning the MQM and other such outfits, but walks clear of doing so itself and has left it to the Zaradaris, Sharifs, Gillanis, Chaudhrys, Altafs and the ilk to undertake administering the painful procedure that would result in their own demise. That is as grave as any predicament can be.

The system has been politicised to damnation, political parties are found patronising criminal elements, political leaders hold their assets and their allegiances abroad and governance has been abdicated to criminal mafias that are operating with gay abandon in destroying whatever little may have been left of the national fabric and character. There is no hope in hell that, as long as these criminals and their attendant ailments are not eliminated, the country could even begin its long and painful treatment to recovery.

Articles favouring PTI on the rise

Of doctorates and dengue politics

Of doctorates and dengue politics

The grand coalition of the corrupt coming apart

In spite of having written on politics for over two decades, the Machiavellian art continues to spring surprises at every turn of events. But something that has really caught everyone’s imagination is this all-pervasive penchant for ‘securing’ doctorates by our practitioners of the dubious trade. The latest recipient of the singular honour is none other than Rahman Malik – the erstwhile interior minister who is reviled with such gay abandon by his former colleague and the Sindh home minister Zulfiqar Mirza.

The citation of the award by the University of Karachi recognises Rahman Malik’s “matchless services to the country in the war on terror and particularly in restoring peace to the city of Karachi”. The award of the honorary degree has been vociferously condemned by the university’s teachers and students as also a broad spectrum of communities across the country. The president of the Karachi University Teachers’ Association (KUTS), while expressing his resentment, said that this was the first time ever that the administration had bypassed the syndicate in deciding an honorary degree. The general secretary of KUTS described the event as an ‘ambush’ on the authority of the statutory bodies of the university. He went on to say that “the decision cannot be a one-man decision. The chancellor and the vice-chancellor do not have the authority to confer the honorary degree on their own”. It is also understood that the decision negates the overwhelming will of the faculty members. It is widely believed that the vice-chancellor of Karachi University, Dr. Pirzada Qasim, succumbed to unremitting pressure from the chancellor and the sitting Governor of Sindh Dr. Ishrat ul Ebad in agreeing to award the degree, thus losing his good face and reputation that he had built over a lifetime dedicated to the profession of education.

Awarding an honorary degree to someone with such controversial credentials reflects a state of depravity of the people associated with the decision. Rehman Malik, besides other grave failures, has been accused by one of his former colleagues in the government of associating with criminal elements in decimating the peace of Karachi. He is directly responsible for the mayhem that the city has witnessed over the last few months resulting in the brutal death of hundreds of innocent citizens as he kept dancing to the tune of the killers, extortionists and criminal mafias whose support the federal government needed to stay in power.

Through this conferment, Rehman Malik joins the illustrious band of the doctorate recipients under dubious circumstances. The other consummate wheeler dealer of the government, Mr. Babar Awan, also ‘bought’ a doctorate degree from a university whose credentials, even existence remain controversial. What an invaluable duo Mr. Zardari has at his beck and call to use to untold advantage! Under the command of these inveterate warriors, the nation can truly hope to go far on the road to attaining unbelievable levels of depravity. To say the least, it is a moment of utter shame for the entire community associated with the vastly recognised noble profession of education in the country. To atone for his sins, the least that the vice-chancellor of Karachi University can do is to quit his position for which he has rendered himself ineligible.

There are other manifestations of shame which the political stalwarts are trying desperately to bury incognito. The deaths due to the pervading dengue in Punjab have crossed the double hundred mark as the chief minister of the province continues to enact one drama after the other. Having failed abominably to control the virus by taking adequate preventive measures, he is seen trying to make amends by delivering disdainfully insensitive speeches and crudely publicising interactions with people. His party has also upped the ante on the political front by first engineering the street protests against power outages and subsequently joining them by announcing a movement to topple the corrupt regime installed in Islamabad.

Well, that is only half the truth. The other half squarely belongs to those who are leading the protests. In fact, it is a grand coalition of the corrupt that has ruled the country for the last four years. Nearing the elections of the senate, PML-N was primed to raising the political temperature as they fear that the capturing of the senate by the PPP and its associates would effectively dent their objective of becoming the undisputed masters of the country.

The ailment the province of Punjab suffers from can be traced to the manner in which the chief minister selects his team members and the lack of merit that distinguishes them from the rest. Take his information team for example. It is headed by a person who is allegedly a bank defaulter. The post of the secretary of the department rests with a person who, in writing, tried to sabotage the process of justice in the case of a fraud of Rs. 220 million perpetrated at the DGPR, Punjab and the person responsible for all the sentimental jargon that the chief minister dishes out with such monotonous frequency is a former DGPR, a former secretary information who is currently placed as media advisor to the chief executive of the province. It is alleged that the involvement of the last mentioned person is the reason why the enquiry into the embezzlement has been allegedly stopped by the chief minister’s office.

The likes of the president’s duo and the chief minister’s trio constitute the reasons why the country is on a downhill slide. Like I said, it is a grand coalition of the corrupt that is busy defrauding the country endlessly of its resources and wealth. They came together, have indulged together and are destined to exit together. Because, in the event any of them stays under one garb or the other, it is the state that would continue to take the badgering.