Afghan Press Author: Rooh-ul-Amin

Swat is that ill-fated region of the country, which witnessed world’s longest curfew, and FATA since long is under the rule of fear. Not only FATA but also Peshawar, which is the capital city of NWFP and once a valley of flowers and fragrance, is now the valley of horror. Like that Balochistan’s capital city Quetta is also bleeding with sectarianism and is jerking with separatist movements. Amid all the chaos we hear news- statements that all is normal. It does not come from the media or the masses but from those who are sitting in the echelons of power.

Two Balochi businessmen were killed by the police in Karachi a few weeks back, which unleashed a widespread condemnation from Baloch nationalists across the country and the other day two Punjabis were shot dead by some unknown people in Quetta. As it is obvious that the capital city of Balochistan has been bleeding with sectarianism but this act of terror is apparently an act of retaliation to the loss of two Balochis in Karachi. If the government either in center or province had tackled it properly the situation must not had taken such a rapturous turn. The nations who don’t learn lessons of the history lost their self-ego and respect in world community and also go into bondage of another nations. Because of this deadly denialism we lost our eastern wing of Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh. But it seems that our leadership did not take lessons of that great historic debacle.

And the same story and episode of denialism that culminated at the breakage of Pakistan in 1970s has been once again in repetition. That was because of our wrong domestic policy and it is today our wrong domestic policy that is responsible for all the chaos around us. Tariq Ali, a UK-based left wing journalist and editor of New Left Review, exiled in 1960s from Pakistan on account of his candor, says “it is a country where everything is on sale. And it is a country, which is on the flight path of American power.” Looking at his views, it is easy to deduce that every country chalks out its foreign policy in accordance with its national interests but here the story goes opposite.

Gallop Survey conducted the past year says that 2008 stood one of the worst years out of the past 25-year. As the government has been in addiction to denialism so denied the Gallop Survey also.

Like past year, 2009 came with a myriad of challenges and crises. But to hear the statements of government officials one feels that as if Pakistan is vying with Norway, a country, which did not, witnessed a single event of violence the past year.

But very much spiteful to the hopes and wishes of the nation are the statements of Yousuf Raza Gillani, the Prime Minister of Pakistan and Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the NWFP minister for information. According to them there is quite a normalcy in Swat and FATA. It means all the hues and cries of the masses against the government and the self-styled Taliban is nothing but gibberish. And the news broadcasted and telecasted is nothing but propaganda against the government.

And equally it means that every body is wrong except the elite class in Pakistan. When the elite class has gone intellectually bankrupt and has fissured a trust deficit between the rulers (themselves) and ruled (the masses) then there must be an end to this culture of elite class exceptionalism. And I think media in Pakistan is playing its role well against this culture of exceptionalism. Though it is rooted in human nature that it does not accept its lapses and wrongs but one at least must try to overcome this fatal trend, which is growing among the elite with leaps and bounds these days. The politicians must keep in their bleak desert of mind that it is not that simple that a reality well loss its weight just to deny it. We have a Pushto proverb that deems fit on the statements of the government officials; “Nmur pha gotha nha pategei,” which can be surmised in English as “a finger cannot conceal the sun rather it is the eye of the seer that feels so.” It is usually said in such times when some one tries to belie a glowing reality. Here it must not be construe that the new government must accept its weaknesses and abdicate the power center. It will bring more disastrous consequences to avoid a possible military overtake, as it has been in murmur that a possible military overtake is to come.

When the government has lost its credibility among the masses, then it is its duty to rebuild it instead defacing it further with denying the ground realities. And it would be no less than a miracle to rebuild its credibility. For that it will have to go a long and pragmatic way. And that is possible with devotion and good governance. For that the leadership will have to put the masses on a pragmatic track, for no supper natural being will come to ameliorate the worsening situations in Pakistan. We have been hearing the masses blaming their leadership, which seems acceptable but yester-night I heard a politician in his interview to a foreign media organisation blaming the masses for all the upheavals in the country. Strange enough it is when he exaggerated his views with a rubbish of arguments. For instance he embanked his frail notions with arguments that the masses rarely pay their taxes and also are responsible for electricity line losses. At that time he must have kept in mind his party’s leadership which has been famous for money-laundering case and which came here after a long exile because of a clandestine deal with the former unquestioned president of Pakistan (Musharraf).

It is very saddening that the federal government is crazy after enlarging its cabinet size and gave space to five new ministers in federal cabinet.

Imitating the federal the provincial government is running after increasing the salaries of its provincial ministers. In such a scenario what the masses should do and where it should go? Should they look forward for Taliban to come and snatch the power of these political jugglers? Surely no. For, they also are vandalists and deeply sexists.

Then the government must end the fiasco of terror. The rulers must keep in view that now the age is over when the politicians had the art of befooling the masses with hollow slogans.

Mian Iftikhar Sahab no parents will to put the lives their children at bet by sending them to schools in Swat. Then what meaning should be taken of your statement that all the government schools would be opened in time and the schools were not closed because of the threats from the Taliban but winter?

If it is so, then why the government has decided to deploy well equipped and quick response security teams on educational centres in Swat? The decision of government is welcomed but it is not an affective solution of the issue because it is equal to playing with the lives of the children of the nation. The issue is not that much easy to be addressed. It turned more convulsed when Maulana Fazlullah issued a list of 86 politicians keeping them in “wanted” category. The list includes the names of former ministers and incumbent ones and it became public when he named them during his speech on his illegal FM channel.

Now it is the real test of the government and the politicians that whether still they deny it or take it serious, for this time the monster has fallen on them. And the government officials will know whether the entire region is under the reign of abnormality and anarchy or not which they have been belying. A person is free until he or she is let free by the Taliban. If they want to kill their targets they can kill anytime—day or night. Some militants, near Bajri, an area which is an appendage to Sarband Peshawar or in simple words where the writ of the provincial government and its police ends and the writ of political administration starts, snatched away a van of lady teachers. When the teachers went to the near by police station to lodge an FIR, the police refused to register it, calling the area out of its duty-line and when they went to lodge FIR with Khyber Khasadar Force, it also refused to do so. It does not mean that the area does not come under the duty-circle of either party but because of fear and terror from Taliban, no party was ready to investigate into the case.

Then the question is what the government really wants by assuring the masses with hollow statements instead seeking ways and means for its solution?

Does it mean the candid journalists, who put their lives in risks for fair reporting, are constantly misleading the public, providing them with first hand and critical information as the president in Peshawar Chamber of Commerce during his visit called the journalists as terrorists. Its forerunner government under the dictatorship of Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf used to allege the journalists responsible for fanning Talibanisation by depicting the Taliban as heroes. Being a dictator, Musharraf did not attack journalists in Pakistan that much seriously as Asif Ali Zardari has been doing now. Looking at his attitude it is far easier to conclude that civil dictator is more detrimental than military ones. Here the comparison must not be taken as the appreciation of military regimes. Dictatorship in any form and any dress is condemnable and intolerable. But is it fair to call journalists as terrorists, and it is then, when they are reporting the stark facts.

By now the self-imposed and state agencies grown Taliban have torched more than 175 schools and other dozens of government buildings in Swat but the masses hear the statements emanated from the government officials that there is no chaos in the region and if there is a small scale disturbance, and soon it will be subdued. The masses are waiting since long for that “soon” to come and see the chaos at it wannig scene. The demolition and detonation of the educational intuitions have affected the future of nearly 75,000 students in valley Swat. Each single school requires Rs. 03 million to be rebuilt and collectively it will take 525 million. The construction of a school needs a span of two years. Now it is easy to feel the aggregate loss inflected by the Taliban on Swat. With that equally goes in the region the tourism and hotel industry in loss.

Looking to the bitterness of the situations in Swat the Eliot Police Force of 3,000 Jawans has refused to carry out its duty in this terror-stricken region. It is a region where Maulana Fazlullah-led Taliban have severed the ears of police constables and many have been hacked to death. Then where is the weight and reality in the statements of the government officials? And where is the writ of the government. And blaming neighbours is also futile and immature. I f there is a tinge of reality that RAW, Mosasad and Khad are hell-bent on creating violence in Pakistan then why like India it does not take the case into UN’s Security Council?

Surely there is no tinge of reality. That is all acts of naked hypocrisy against its own masses by its rulers and Islam says that the lowest place in hell is reserved for the hypocrites. And quite resembled to that says Danton, a great French revolutionist, “the lowest place in hell is reserved for those who opt to stay neutral in an hour of crisis.” But here the people who are there in the helms authority have not only stayed neutral in this hour of crises but also denied it. I don’t know which place in hell they will find but it is obvious that equally accomplice with the terrorists and vandalists, the denialism of the rulers is a deadly dilemma.

The writer is a FATA-based freelance journalist.