The decision of Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Hameed Dogar, regarding the disqualification of ‘Sharif brothers’ once again threw Pakistan back into the worst politics of 90s.

Such a verdict of the Supreme Court was not unexpected and many political analysts and pundits from the very outset had feared that the coalition of Pakistan People Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) in Punjab and centre is shaky and fragile which soon will collapse. The prophecy of the pundits proved verbatim and the coalition fissured in the midway, hardly going for one year. For all the setbacks the coalition received, and its backlashes that have erupted after the court decision, PPP have lost its fame and weight it had received with the blood of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. Irrespective of legal aspects, the decision of the court was politically as vitriolic for the colt-democracy in Pakistan as poison. After a great deal of efforts, sever opposition, and hues and cries against Musharraf’s dictatorship, at length he was bowed down and he had to resign, because of the mounting pressure from different flanks.

For restoration of democracy in Pakistan, only PPP is not praiseworthy, which lost its elegant leader—Benazir Bhutto, far greater in every respect than Zardari, rather it also is indebted to the lawyer moment, yes the same lawyer moment, which paved way for the entrance of self-exiled political leaders to come Pakistan. Now it is the same lawyer fraternity, which has been thrown away by Asif Ali Zardari, the president of Pakistan and widow of assassinated Benazir Bhutto, as discarded and used as stale food.

Is not the derogation of the wishes of Benazir Bhutto when she claimed, “Muhammad Iftikhar Chaudry is my Chief Justice”. Contrary to the wishes of his late wife, Asif Ali Zardari took a sharp u-turn and walked on branched road instead the main highway of democracy. Sensing the political heat in the political environment in Pakistan, PPP according to some news reports has prepared a list of political leaders to be arrested or kept confine to their residences during ‘long march’ so that the essence of the long march can be constrained. Such acts are the remnants of military dictators. In this regard Rehman Malik, Adviser to PM on Interior, has issued directives and the security in-and-around Islamabad has been tightened. Rangers would back police so that more and more arrests could be made possible. The country in such a scenario when inflation, stagflation, joblessness and the suicide bombings are at its peak, is not in the position to tolerate another challenge which is real in nature and disastrous that all is the new ones—the tug of war among PPP, civil societies and PML-N.

The government could have handled the issue of Sharif brothers’ disqualification some time else and in a better way than now. Nonetheless, sit-ins, demos and strikes are all colors of democracy and an elected government which has been boasting for its strength and fame will have to face it with open hands instead a fist. And why should then an elected government worry about it if it had and had the support of public? When the lawyer fraternity has given spleen and fierce opposition to the unconstitutional step of the former president Musharraf, then it must no be suppressed now from carrying its long march. For his brave and bold step, defying a military dictator, Muhammad Iftikhar Chaudry was awarded with Harvard’s Medal of Freedom previously awarded only to Nelson Mandela and Thorogood Marshall. While at home he was humiliated by Asif Ali Zardari imitating Musharraf. This step earned the wrath of public and made the lawyer moment ever popular.

By doing so, there is a torrent of doubts and questions for instance; is it a crime to demand for the restoration of unconstitutionally deposed Chief Justice, Iftikhar Chaudry? If the answer is no then why Asif Ali Zardari preferred Hameed Dogar to Chaudry Iftikhar? Is it because of nepotism or he wanted to use Dogar as a sword and shield?

Though PPP has been denying the allegations of PML-N and most of the masses that the decision had a political touch but still one cannot ignore the close links of Asif Ali Zardari and Dogar. The entire government machinery in Islamabad shook with the case of Farah Dogar’s numbers.

Why Asif Ali Zardari placed his own party’s fame in ‘salt mine’ by supporting Dogar? There is and was some thing black at the bottom.

Is it a sin to demand for the abolition of 17th Amendment, which has been introduced by Musharraf, a military dictator, only to embank his regime? The answer to this query is also that it is fair in democracy to demand for the abolition of such unconstitutional weapon. Why Asif Ali Zardari has adopted toxic silence over the issue and what is the difference between Musharraf and Zardari for he also had the power of 58 (2b) and Zardari has also. There is no difference between the two except the former was a military dictator and desecrated democracy and the latter is a civil dictator defiling democracy.

Does, the president feel fear of his own prime minister; Yousuf Raza Gillani that Zardari is obscuring the path of democracy by prolonging the issue of 17th Amendment?

Did Zardari come to power through unfair means? If the answer is no, then why he wants to keep this weapon at his hands?

It shows that he is not diligent and sincere in bringing healthy democracy to the country and because of this game; Pakistan went back to the stagnant politics of 90s.

Let me say it with out any hesitation that it is the tug-of-war among politicians that has always paved path for military interventions in past and in near future it can invite for this monster. After them comes the name of judiciary that has always bolstered up dictatorship by providing the ‘cloak of legitimacy’ to unconstitutional regimes of the past military dictators. The person who was a strong believer of ‘doctrine of necessity’ and allied the self-proclaimed Field Martial of Pakistan, Ayub Khan in his snapping of constitution, was then Chief Justice of Pakistan, Munir.

And now following the path of Munir, the Supreme Court of Pakistan-led by Chief Justice Hameed Dogar, passed the verdict of ‘Sharif brothers’ ineligibility.

According to the court decision, senior Sharif is ineligible to contest poles while junior Sharif is disqualified for holding any public office. The decision related with the disqualification of the junior Sharif itself has brought a big question mark on the face of Election Commission of Pakistan. If he was ineligible, why then Shehbaz Sharif was permitted by the Election Commission to contest in general elections from his constituency PP-48 Bhakkar-II.

Another question which badly is poisonous for the credibility of the government is that why Asif Ali Zardari ordered for governor rule in Punjab for the situation there was not so uncertain and out of control? Is not an intrigue against an elected provincial government? Then why to blame others that journalists are terrorists, civil societies are traitors, and PML-N has been engaged in conspiracies against PPP? By imposing the governor rule in Punjab flew out at us that it is PPP itself that wants to undermine its government.

For this service PPP has already extended the tenure of Chief Justice Hameed Dogar for two years so that it can block the way of deposed Chief Justice Chaudry Iftikhar. In case Hameed Dogar leaves the office, there was a chance and probability of Chaudry Iftikhar to come into office once again on his seniority bases. But Zardari is Zardari. He played well on all the fronts. He sidelined Ameen Fahim who was the senior most person of PPP and a reliable hand of Benazir Bhutto. With the tragic murder of Benazir Bhutto, the fame and importance of Ameen Faheem was also murdered. Mr. Yousuf Raza Gillani was placed in the office of prime ministership so that to devaluate Ameen Faheem, who could have made many problems for Asif Ali Zardari. He would have demanded for the parliamentary system of government unlike Yousuf Raza Gillani, who has surrendered to presidential form of government and now he merely is a puppet in the hands of Asif Ali Zardari. What Zia did with Muhammad Khan Junijo, his own introduced Prime Minister, and what Musharraf did with Mir Zafarullah Jamali, is before Yousuf Raza Gillani and he will never commit the blunder to stride for parliamentary form of government. Since the very day of his appearance on the political pulpit as Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousuf Raza Gillani has been going through the agony of inferiority complex for he has been a pawn in the hands of Asif Ali Zardari. Once, Sir Winston Churchill was asked that whether England will win the war against Germany? Upon this question he asked the questioner that whether the courts in England are working impartially and honestly? The questioner replied in ‘yes’. Then he said this historic sentence “if our courts are working transparently and honestly nothing can defeat this nation”.

Unlike England and other free and independent nations and countries, here judiciary has been a tool to play with, and used against political opponents in almost all governments. It is the same judiciary which passed death sentence against PPP founder and elegant leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and allied then dictator Zia-ul-Haq. And now it is the same judiciary which has allied PPP against PML-N.

And once again the court decision and political dispersion has unhinged the political atmosphere in Pakistan that has prepared the grounds for another likely military coup. It seems that Pakistan is not familiar with democracy and it always has been very dear and heavy for the public.

After Munir, the judiciary has been used as a stilt for the military regimes. Ayub Khan, the first dictator, Yahya Khan, Zia-ul-Haq, and Musharraf, all the four military dictators came to power with abet of judiciary. Chaudry Iftikhar has been an accomplice for taking oath under Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) for two times but for third time he as an expiation of his past two sins stood as adamant rock in the path of stern Musharraf, and became champion of freedom.

PML-N, by demanding for the restoration of deposed judges, the abolition of 17th amendment, went in heights with flying colour whilst PPP came to the ground and smashed for its deceptive role.

PML-N had the support of private media in this fair game of restoration of free and transparent judiciary and it is the only reason that Asif Ali Zardari’s attitude has been becoming intolerant against the journalists.

The political atmosphere still is not that much worse if Zardari tries for rapprochement with PML-N lest the genie will come out of bottle with irreparable damage to the nation as it has endured four military coups partially because of political blunders and partially because of military quest for power politics.

The writer is a FATA-based freelance journalist.

Once an indolent cobbler got a tear in his shoe. He observed that there was only a single split in his shoe and went on ignoring it that some time else he would mend. For nine days, he could not stitched it, because he was too busy in mending the shoes of others. After nine days, when he sit to mend it he found that the single split has reached to nine rips. As repentance, he felt that, had he repaired it in time, the matter would not have reached this point. The moment he accepted his sloth, this valuable saying came out of his mouth that a stitch in time saves nine. Similarly the NWFP government after receiving a huge loss, at length, inked a truce with Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM). The provincial government in this peace deal has full support of the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari.

When, he visited Peshawar February 06, 2009, Asif Ali Zardari, who is Karachi-based Balochi, threatened the militants in this language, “the militants must know that I am also a tribal and we (the government) will never be lily-livered before them.” Most of the people, who have no political education, whistled that the government this time, is serious enough in coping with the issue of terror, in FATA and Swat. With that he also announced different developmental projects, (but I am sure none of them will come true as I have been hearing such announcements since my childhood but on the ground there is no development either concrete or abstract), will be carried out. For instance, the establishment of factories, the construction of Bara dam, and educational institutions, were the main points of his address to tribal elders. Nonetheless, contrary to past and present announcements, you will see only bleak and barren land, bleak and barren mind and bleak and barren future. These are elusive promises, and announcements, made by the rulers of Pakistan, since the creation of Pakistan. Because of such hollow slogans and keeping the masses of eastern Pakistan deprived of their basic rights and sidelining them from the mainstream of politics, we lost it forever. Now the same has been in repetition here.

When Richard Hollbroke, US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, called to Asif Ali Zardari, he ensured the envoy that, it will be a temporary deal. It, indeed is, a hazardous path. If it is a temporary peace deal, then what would be done for those displaced people, who are making their return to Swat. In case once again the violence breaks out, it will let loose a more catastrophic series of violence and vitriolic abhorrence and consequently the returnees will join the ranks of militants. Why did the armistice and peace deal in 1994 could not last? The only reason that I could remember is that the government was not serious in overcoming the issue created by TNSM. The then Chief Minister of NWFP, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao played a ploy with TNSM by replacing the word ‘Magistrate’ with ‘Qazi’ and the when Maulana Sufi Muhammad felt that he, and his TNSM has been beguiled into signing the peace accord, it disappeared like a rainbow. One thing, which must be brought into focus, is that, at that time, insurgency was not that much vitriolic and organised, as currently is. Then, in 1999, the peace treaty with TNSM did not bear fruit, and the whole peace journey, dashed headlong.

And once again let me say, the governments since the creation of Pakistan deliberately have ignored this part of the world so that they can milk out aids from America and international philanthropist organisations.

Those, who have some know-how of political education, turned down the announcements of Asif Ali Zardari, mere announcements.

Shortly after his visit the news echoed that NWFP government with the support of Asif Ali Zardari inked truce with Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM), a banned Taliban outfit led by Maulana Sufi Muhammad, instead meeting the militants with iron hands. I am not lamenting that why the government carried out truce with those who had challenged the writ of the government rather I complain that why the government let off them with such a long-margin. The militants did surge overnights rather they made their debut one by one. That was a pragmatic season for their blockade.

The chief minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti called it an historic event but it sparked a volcano of controversy. Since then there is an endless debate on media. It will encourage other factions across the country to impose their own brand of Sharia. It is too much controversial and convoluted. Sun can rise from east, lion and lamb can drink water from same spring but religious leaders belonging to different schools of thoughts cannot be yoked under a unanimous Sharia Law. Each group declares and considers the others to be ‘Kafirs’ or infidels. For instance, a high level judicial Committee of Inquiry (into sectarian riots in 1953), led by the country’s two most prominent judges, after summing up the evidences taken from all major religious groups wind up as follows: Going through the collected evidences it is concluded that neither Deobandis nor Ahl-e-Hadith nor Barelvis nor Shias nor Sunnis, are Muslims. And in an Islamic state, if the government is in the hands of the group, which considers the others to be Kafirs, then in such a case they (Kafirs) must be sentenced with death penalty. When we have seen their intolerances and now been witnessing then why to allow them for such an act, which does not go in favour of nation, and state also. Is not lunacy and madness? According to Einstein, it is lunacy when an experiment is repeated for so many times, chasing different outcomes when it is already gone barren. When there is no unanimity among the different religious outfits and Taliban factions then enforcing of Sharia is a kind of collective suicide. It will yield disastrous and irreparable chaos and cracks.

Indeed, there is no gainsay that before 1969, in Malakand, Sharia was functional, and going well, but now it does not go with the trends of the times. Imitating them, Tehreek-e-Taliban in Waziristan will announce its own brand of Islamic Sharia, and another faction elsewhere. Consequently the state will fall into the hands of intolerants.

The spokesman for Awami National Party (ANP), Zahid Khan extolled the peace deal to the extent that he called Maulana Sufi Muhammad a non-violent Taliban leader. It is as if to call a snake, non-poisonous, and sans fang. A militant cannot be non-violent and a non-violent cannot be a militant. Here we will have to accept that according to the ‘Zahid Khan Theorem’ A is equal to B; hence violence is equal to peace. Accepted, but still there is a “but”. And that “but” is, it can be his political kiting and political jugglery and he must be doing it for his party’s fame that it has succeeded in bringing Taliban to the table of dialogues but Maulana Sahab is not a non-violent leader.

It is vivid than sun that, he is the same Maulana Sufi Muhammad, who led a group of thousands of gullible Pathans to wage a holy war in Afghanistan against America and leaving them in the bleak and barren land he fled back to Pakistan. Hundreds of ‘holy warriors’ were arrested in Afghanistan and kept in cells where they have been languishing until the Afghan government handed over them to Pakistan.

Upon his return he was arrested and thrown behind the bars.

It is also worth mentioning that it is not the duty of a citizen to wage or declare jihad (a holy war). It is the duty of state and its strong organ–army. It is the dilemma in Pakistan that has created the havoc and hellhole in the country. The day until we change our mindset there would chaos in the country in one form or the other. And the day until the government does not introduce FATA and tribals into the mainstream politics, there would be no development in the country. As Sharia Law is parallel to the constitution so is Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR). Is not the duplicitous role? Beyond any doubt it is. Instead enforcing Sharia the government must have abrogated FCR, which is anti-constitutional and anti-humanity. Why the people of FATA want to have Sharia law? It is because; FCR allows collective punishment, where a political agent is omnipotent and more than a monarch. He is judiciary, he and he is executive. It means if he wills he can punish you and if wills he can absolve you. And a tribal has no right to defend himself. This is why tribals prefer Sharia to FCR. It is this black law, which has erupted a sense of hatred and abhorrence among tribal against the state and system. It is on the record that Quaid-e-Azam, the founder and first Governor General of Pakistan was not given permission by the then political agent of Khyber Agency to visit Torkhum then what is the value of an ordinary man in the eyes of a political agent. This is why there has been always revolt and insurgency in this land. Looking into the past peace deals and accords one can easily connote that this one is also a fragrance, which will disappear soon.

The first augury of its failure is that the second day of armistice, Musa Khan Khel, a Swat-based correspondent to Geo News, a private channel and an English daily The News, was killed when he was covering the TNSM-led peace-march in Swat. It is the fourth case of journalist’s murder in Swat. The killing of a journalist was that still there are some forces, which don’t want peace in the valley. Muslim Khan, the spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat, denied that its outfit has involvement in this case. Since then different news organisations and civil societies have given vent to their fierce resentment to the murder of Musa Khan Khel. The third day (on February 19, 2009) of peace deal with TNSM, Dera Ismail Khan witnessed a violent scene of suicide bombing. A young man ran into the funeral prayer of a Shia leader and blown himself up. The suicide bombing resulted at the loss of 35 human lives and 150 other casualties. It is the second incident of suicide bombing in funeral prayer. It means the situation is not coming to normalcy.

Though these incidents reduced the importance of the armistice yet there has been a series of debates.

The delegation of TNSM met with the faction of Maulana Fazlullah, the son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Muhammad. Now it is also worth mentioning that how much exertion TNSM and Maulana Sufi Muhammad has in Swat, which is a district of Malakand Division. Maulana Sufi Muhammad has a good circle of influence in Malakand while Swat comes under the noose of Maulana Fazlullah. If there is no consensus between father-in-law and son-in-law, the peace deal will be undermined.

In such a scenario it is not hard to say that the story of Swat and FATA has gone worse. And the truce will be nothing more than a rainbow-armistice, which will disappear soon.

No other profession demands for the sacrifice of one’s life except army whilst equally with that in South Asian context is going the profession of journalism, which demands sacrifice of life. There have been 8-12 cases of journalists’ murders only in Pakistan the past year, which is a clear indication that this ill-fated community has been facing myriad challenges and hurdles. Here it would not be futile, if said that state and non-state actors are responsible alike for obstructing the free flow of information and impartial analysis.

Once a Soviet nonconformist, Yevgeny Yevtushenko said, “when the truth is replaced by silence the silence is a lie. ”

He may have said it for the deadly silence of rulers when they prefer to stay mute especially when there is an hour of crisis, nonetheless if media remains silent then it not only comes under the category of lie but a sin also. A country without rule can go well than a country without press and media. Being impressed of the force of media one of the kings of England said that Times newspaper is powerful than river Thames. It is the fear of press that President Asif Ali has banned, “The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power”–a critical book penned by Tariq Ali. As it is beyond one’s capability to check and gag the flow of information altogether then he must have faced it with open heart instead banning it. And this bane could not mitigate and gag his voice rather the ban catapulted its fame many notches higher than it could have. Going through the history of past despotic monarchs of the world, one can conclude without hesitation that they had faced failure in burying the voice of truth there must not be any uncertainty that in present age of information it will be gagged. And the people, who think that by killing those who raise the voice of truth, they will be triumphant, are badly mistaken. The voice of truth is like flowing water and flowing water makes its way through any means.

The clamant of Islam must keep in mind that it also says, “confound not truth with falsehood, and whosoever confound it, he surely, is a sinner.” Thus beyond any doubt it comes quite clear that it is the utmost duty of a journalist to provide the masses with factual information. In a society like Pakistan and many other developing countries it is possible only when one keeps his or her head at palm. In most of the developing countries the threat is more from non-state actors than governments. Still it is the splendid deed of media that it paved way for democracy in South Asia. It is media, which lashes the rulers for their lapses and voice the grievance of afflicted. It is media in Pakistan, which played a vital role in the knocking down of bigheaded Musharaf. It has been performing its duty well and dauntlessly against the military dictators since long. Many dictators tortured journalists but it was under the regime of Zia-ul-Haq, wherein they were lashed and whipped physically. Beside that many journalists were granted perks and parks but his policy of ‘carrot and stick’ could not prove a magic wand for him and the criticism goes abreast with his persecution. Though, he succeeded in corrupting many journalists and his successors also the same path but could not chock the voice of righteous and conscious.

Musharraf went ahead of him and introduced vilified tradition of ‘abduction and missing’.

During his regime hundreds of journalists mysteriously were abducted which still is a dilemma, as no one knows about their whereabouts.

Still, the dauntless journalists kept free voice up, where as Musharraf had to leave the political arena while licking his wounds. The quandary did not remain only confine to Pakistan but it also affected the entire South Asia.

One can title 2008 as a harbinger of change, as it witnessed general elections in Pakistan. The same year the Rana regime in Nepal came to an end because of the pressure from in and out of the country. In this regard different civil societies including media is worth praising.

Afghanistan is enjoying a bit little freedom but still it has to go a circuitous way against the non-state actors.

Bhutan also said adieu to the centuries-long kingdom and a swanky welcome was given to democracy. In Maldives, the 30-year long dictatorship sagged to pressure from media and other civil societies. When criticism and denigration mounted from multiple corners, at length, general elections in Maldives were held, where the despotic monarch, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom faced a drub by his rival, Ibrahim Nasir, who was journalist and an adamant critic of dictatorship. It all was, is, and would be, indebted to the blessings of media. The freedom that it has today has not been achieved in charity rather journalists watered it with their blood and liver. It is, though relatively a bit little free in west and the US, but to claim that there exists absolute freedom of press and media is no less than a myth. In the US one cannot discuss American foreign military bases, which speak volumes of its military adventurism. And similarly one cannot discuss the US and Israel close ties with a candid-pen.

As media is supposed to be fourth pillar of the state, and reaching this point media fought a long way against the elements, which trammeled its path with iron obstacles. With that change there was a great uproar and tumult not only in Pakistan but also across South Asia. If not exaggeration across the globe the situation remained the same. And 2009 has arrived in a great episode of violence. The past year remained really very much fatal for the journalists in Pakistan where at least eight journalists washed their hands of their lives. The report, issued by the Paris-based Reporters without Borders, says that Pakistan had the second highest death toll for journalists after Iraq where 15 journalists hugged the lap of death. But the report of International Federation of Journalists says that 12 journalists in Pakistan sacrificed their lives in their line of duty. Both the reports are crdible but the latter report was issued recently than the former one.

During the past few years Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad were plague spots for journalists while the environment for journalists in Tribal belt and NWFP was relatively normal. These days the order seems inverted and FATA, PATA and NWFP is a black zone for journalists. Ibrahim who had been working for Express TV and Daily Express from Bajaur was silenced forever in 2008 but those who wanted to burry the voice of free conscience failed and the reporting of violence news goes constantly from that area. Another journalist, Shoaib, who had been a correspondent for Pakistan Press International (PPI) from the militant infested area Mingora, Swat, was shot dead by security forces when he was coming home, back from a hospital of the vicinity after visiting his daughter. After a great deal of resentment the security forces confessed that he was killed mistakenly. The same year Abdul Aziz from Swat linked with daily Azadi was killed in the hideouts of Taliban when the security forces pounded their havens. Allegedly he was abducted by a gang of Taliban and confined to jail until the security forces shelled the entire area.

Such is the life of journalists in the region nonetheless the threat is hovering over the heads of hundreds of journalists still they are carrying their duty out. Currently at least 200 hundred journalists have been working in tribal belt but facing an inscessant series of threats in one way or the other.

A few of them, while giving way to the menaces from state and non-state actors, have preferred to say departure to thier journalistic career. And above all is the cruelty of media owners, who have fired more than 400 journalists across Pakistan under the pretext of global financial crisis. The media owners even did not think for a while how they will feed thier innocent childern in this sheer times of materialism.

The writer is a FATA-based freelance journalist.

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.

Since the Mumbai carnage the clouds of war have been hovering over the heads of the two nuclear states.

With each passing day the war-hysteria was mounting which invited to the foreign influence. From America to the Britain and from China to Saudi Arabia all the countries exerted their influence over the two countries. The issue was bedeviled by the obduracy of India. The media in India, Pakistan and the US fanned the war phobia equally. Especially the electronic media left no stone unturned in igniting the war hysteria. The three media in the countries behaved ridiculously and the US media had already done it in the case of Iraq invasion.

According to Atique Saddique who writes from New York for an Urdu daily being published from Peshawar, says an his column that in the US, the public opinion is fully moulded for the invasion on Pakistan. According to the American media, Pakistan is a plague spot for nursing and importing terrorism on this planet. His prognosis surely is convincing that public opinion in America is leveled for the attack on Pakistan whereas it is debatable that the US will attack. It will never until it hopes that the war on terror is winnable in Afghanistan. If it fails, then beyond any doubt, it will kick back at Pakistan. If it succeeds then also it will try to smother its non-Nato ally. But right in a few months it is premature that such an evil befall on Pakistan.

The US is not here really to combat terror rather it is here to fan it alive. In this regard possibly Russia and even Iran will burry the hatchet and will join hands with the US against Pakistan.

Since the Mumbai mayhem of 26th November 2008, wherever I went the words, which stroke my ears, were whether India will attack Pakistan or not? The answer they received from my side was surely not now. It was their discussion that dragged me towards writing this article. Why it will not? Is Pakistan is cousin to the US? Indeed the answer is no. Then why it is not attacking Pakistan or why it is exerting India not to attack? The reason is not that it is a nuclear state rather the environment is not fertile for the invasion. As a part of the great game the anti-Pakistan hands want to bleed it so profousedly that it will succumb without any invasion.

A few months back when the Tehreek-e-Taliban plundered the trucks of Nato forces in Khyber Pass, the Nato forces refused to attack Pakistan. And the US is also fully aware of the importance of Khyber Pass that it is as important for the Nato and American forces in Afghanistan as a windpipe. In case the US forces attacks Pakistan the Pass can go to the hands of Taliban and the war on terror in Afghanistan is lost. Moreover, destabilise Pakistan means a safe haven for Al-Qaida and other militants’ forces. And destabilise Pakistan means a constant threat for India, for it will be easy for the Al-Qaida and Taliban to expand its area of operations to the revered land of Baharat Matha. Initially India was searing with rage and the smell of possible war was clearly coming from New Delhi towards Islamabad. But the recent statement of its Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee that terrorism is not a bilateral enemy rather it is a global enemy and hence should be fought congregationally, shows the u-turn of Indian aggressive policy towards Islamabad, which was likely to erupt war. It was also alleging Islamabad that New Delhi has provided proofs of its involvement. However Islamabad went on denail and the issue wnet from bad to worse. India intruded its aircrafts into the Pakistani air-bordr but Mr. Asif Ali Zardari tried to avoid the possible clash by calling it an outcome of a technical mistake. Interpol which is a global police agency termed the stance of India unsatisfactory. The Interpol Chief Ronald K. Noble visited Islamabad also after his visit to New Delhi on December 20, 2008. After that the clouds or possible war saw its decline. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Mehmood Qureshi demanded Indian government to relocate its troops to peace-times position.

Condollezza Rice has been harsh on Pakistan but in today’s visit to India she will exert its pressure on India to tone down its pungent language. What the US all is doing to assign Pakistan the security over the Nato supply. Hence in the US interruption the threat of war is gradually coming down.

The India External Affairs Minister, Parnab Mukargee also discussed the issue with the Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal durinh his visit to India on 26 December 2008.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to visit Saudi Arabia in coming few months where he would request Riyadh to scotch funding Jihadi outfits in Pakistan. By now India has plying well but it has concerns over the statement of Obama.

When Barack Obama exposed that he will take a keen interest in Kashmir issue the next day, daily “The Pioneer” published an article as a reaction to his statement carrying the headline “Mr. Obama, Kashmir is not an issue”. Here it shws that India is creating obstacles in the solution of Kashmr issue. It is the major hatchet between the two neighbouring countries since partion of india in 1947.

It is Indian obduracy that compels it to make it a part of its constitution.

Indeed in Indian constitution it has been declare “Uttoot Ung—unbreakable organ” but it is the public of Kashmir who has the authority over the fate its land, the UN and the world community to solve the issue. Among the world community the US is the only power, which has the propensity to solve the Kashmir issue, and no doubt a ray and air of hope went over the heads of Kashmiris and Pakistanis that as Barack Obama has shown his interest in Kashmir issue, so a possible solution will come in way. The Mumbai mayhem disillusioned the Kashmiris and Pakistanis that it will remain still a hatchet between the two rival countries. There would be war between India and Pakistan but one thing, which was witnessed that New Delhi drubbed Islamabad in ambassadorial efficiency across the world. The statements and steps taken by our leadership caused us ridiculous and the image of Pakistan received a sever setback. Like the masses of Pakistan, China also is stunned with the attitude of our leadership that how it gave way to Indian pressure and how India succeeded in trouncing it in the UN.

The US and India have been making efforts to lasso ISI since May-June. But they got the opportunity after the Mumbai mayhem.

We are the runner in the war on terror not the US, India and the Taliban or Al-Qaida. The whole fiasco of Mumbai carnage was carried out very deftly and India succeeded in demonising Pakistan and banning Jamat-e-Dawa—formerly Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, which has been operational in Kashmir against the eight lakhs Indian troops. The Mumbai incident also affected the Kashmir freedom movement seroiusly.

India has been crying for it’s banning and found an opportunity now to eradicate this constant thorn out of its path. China has imposed a technical hold on this issue in the UN and had stridden to keep it postponed. But Pakistan heaped to the US and Indian pressure and beseeched Beijing to abrogate the technical hold. Beijing, which is also facing the trouble of Muslim separatist movement but still it tried to veto the UN sanction on Jamat-e-Dawa. The US pressurised Pakistan to soothe China over the issue. After that China accepted the bane on Jamat-e-Dawa. The US and India have been striving to keep such outfits and some of the retired ISI officials including Hameed Gul and three others to keep them in the UN terrorist-list. It was only China that has been trammeling their efforts. But now, Russia, Ukraine, India and even Iran have joined hands against Pakistan. The war on terror proved very dear to Pakistan but still it is in its deep slumber when it will awake to overcome the backlashes it will be too late. The war probably will not erupt but the clouds will remain hovering. Pakistan has a short possible leeway to rethink and re-chalk out its foreign policy before it is destabilised to the extent wherefrom there is no way to come back.

Mehmood Qurishi, Pakistan’s foreign minister was there to India to patch the already tattered rope of ties between the two rival states. Amid his four-day official visit to New Delhi, some alleged terrorists from the banned Lashkar-e-Tayyeba unleashed a wave of terror in Mumbai on 26th of November by attacking Taj and Obroi hotels and a Jewish community centre. The attacks resulted at the loss of nearly 200 people and left more than 300 injured. The Mumbai holocaust received an extraordinary coverage in American press and electronic media for among the 14 foreign nationals six were American citizens. Another factor that added to the importance of the issue was the attack on Jewish community. It is not the first instance that Pak-India peace process suffered a setback for there have been always a sporadic series of vicissitudes. And there have been many incidents, which have embittered the relations of the two neighbouring countries. For instance the attack on Indian parliament in 2001, the incidents in Jaipur, Ahmad Abad, Kerala, the attack on Indian embassy in Kabul, Malegaon bomb blasts and so on. Like Samjhota Express incident it was carried out by its own tow ex-officials of Indian army. India, in first phase of the incident alleged Student’s Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and LeT in Pakistan but later it worked on into tracing out the hands behind it honestly. And India succeed in its invisatigation and Dayanand Pandey who was behind the terror plot was given at the custody of Mumbai Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) for remand till December, 1. The MCOCA Court admitted the plea of ATS for the custody of Pandey, after they produced some evidences collected from his laptop.

As India had never been hesitant to accuse Pakistan always responsible for all the violent incidents in India, partially true and partially contentious and this time too it turned the mouth of its furious media towards its western neighbourig country.

During Musharraf regime Samjhota Express terror incident took place in February 2008, which was designed by Hindus bigoted outfit with the connivance of Indian state agency Research Analysis Wing (RAW). It was their Indian Lt. Col Prasad Purohit, who had provided the Hindu extremists with explosive materials. after him comes the name of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur who was his accomplice in this whole game which resulted at the loss of 68 people who were present in the ill-fated bogeis.

And it was indeed their own official team that unearthed his links with the Hindus extremists. Pakistan did not allege India for the massacre of Pakistanis in the incident and involvement of Indian military official but proffered for peace process instead.

But with the explosion of very first grenade and firing of the gun in Mumbai hotels the entire political class and Indian media was hell-bent on blaming Pakistan.

Like past stories it led to the US interruption in the matter and prodded Islamabad to cooperate with New Delhi in probing the case of Mumbai carnage. Right after the attacks Islamabad announced that it will send Director General of ISI, Ahmad Shuja Pasha to India.

For counter arguments the nerve of media in Pakistan also came in movement, which ignited public fury, and a rumour emanated from both the sides the two rivals nuclear states have now reached the brink of war. The war phobia invoked sense of unity among the masses and political parties. It also affected Northern Waziristan, which is a no go area for Pakistan army, also threatened India with dire consequences in case of attacking Pakistan. Supreme commander of Lashkar-e-Islam, Mangal Bagh and the spokesman for Amar-bel-Maroof Munsif Afridi also showed their spirit against India. Soon after the incident of November 26, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rushed to Pakistan and reeled Islamabad with undeniable proof of the involvement of officials of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Pakistani militant groups in Mumbai incident. They demanded of the government to arrest Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the head of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, which is allegedly involved in November attacks on Mumbai. After the 9/11 attacks, Musharraf the then president of Pakistan had to ban this Jihadi outfit because of mounting pressure from the US. This outfit resurged with another nomenclature “Jamat-e-Dawa”. However it abandoned its Kashmir liberation policy and it went unhindered until the earthquake of 8th October 2008 in Kashmir and northern areas of Pakistan.

During the relief campaign it went unmatched in humanitarian efforts and relief campaign and the US noticed its flying fame and tried to pressurise Pakistan for its abolishment.

Asia Times Online unearthed that how high-level meetings on November 19 between the US intelligence and the ISI chalked out different plans to cripple the support systems of the Taliban and al-Qaida in Pakistan. During the course of planning the names of retired Lieutenant General Hameed Gul who had headed ISI and a retired Squadron Leader Khalid Khawaja came up for discussion as abettors for the support of Taliban. The government gave way to the US pressure and decided to bring ISI, which is the ear and eye of Pakistan army, under the thatch of interior ministry. Soon the decision was rolled back and the Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gillani announced the abolition of the political wing of ISI. In and out of the country the decision of the government was acclaimed but the Mumbai carnage on 26th November brought once again pressure on Islamabad.

This time, four names of ISI officials were given to the United Nations Security Council to put them on a list of international terrorists with no exemption of Gul. Khawaja, a middle-profiled former ISI official, has confirmed the news that his and Gul’s names had been put on the Pakistan’s Exit Control List–ECL. After the departure of Mullen and Rice, Republican presidential runner John McCain arrived at Pakistan. Over his arrival the lips of government officials are too tight to leak any information regarding his visit. But it shows he is also to pressurise Islamabad to cooperate New Delhi to investigate into the case. There have been hundred of terror incidents in Pakistan but how world community reacted to the Mumbai incident is not something unprecedented and unexpected. When John McCain was here in Pakistan, a car laden with explosive material exploded in the thickly populated area of Peshawar “Koucha Risaldar–Risaldar Lane” which left 35 dead and 72 other injured. Terrorism and violence cannot be justified and it will go always condemnable irrespective of creed, colour and nationality. But he did not utter a single word of condemnation and the public inferred his silence over the incident with the American biasness. He visited India to condemn the terrorists attack in Mumbai hotels while here in Pakistan he remained mute over the Peshawar blast.

Though he is the same Republican McCain who had chided president-elect Barack Obama during presidential election campaign for calling Pakistan as a battleground for the US.

(To be continued)

The writer is a FATA-based freelance journalist.

What is occurring around us is not something, which is unexpected and eccentric. A country, which has been 2nd biggest CIA camp outside USA, was, is, and would be vulnerable for such terror incidents as are surging around us. There is hardly and very hardly a day whose dawn has not witnessed news of violence. Pakistan, since the very day when it started poking its nose across its western border, invited the monster of terrorism to its own land. It entrapped its own public that curbing the USSR expansionist design was a holy war and the need of that times. Our textbooks and media at that time were replete with such kind of propaganda.

The then military dictator Zia-ul-Haq in Pakistan initiated a war against Communism. He was titled as Mard-e Momin Mard-e-Haq (a man of faith and a man of righteousness). Thus it produced a glut of religious fanatics at the name of Jihad among gullible and susceptible Pukhtoons. If we plow through the press of those times, we will fail to find out even a single news revealing the Soviet Union had violated the frontiers of Pakistan. If we go through the press of present times, it is hard to miss a single day where the US has not violated the frontiers of its non Nato allied Pakistan, where there is no news about suicide bombings and death toll as a result of military operations. Here the comparison between USSR and US must not be taken as appreciation of the former. For, USSR was also an imperialist power, which cannot be lauded in any form.

Only during the past 30 days the US drones have carried out more than eight air strikes in the tribal belt. Ironically the rest of Pakistan is totally dumb and numb over the occurrences in NWFP. Those, who think the fire erupted in the land of Pukhtoons will remain limited to this land are deluded.

A few days back I went to the land of Taliban where I heard an active leader of Taliban network, threatening through FM, those hidden hands with retaliation. It was easy to sniff an impression from his words that some hidden hands have been using them as a pawn in this great game of chess.

For the first time a Taliban leader overtly confessed that some one sitting behind a thick curtain of darkness has used them.

The words, gushing out of his mouth were full of rancorous feeling for trans-Attock Pakistan. Such a person who has been overtly announcing its exploitation, is easy to be used by CIA and other foreign secret agencies.

Whenever I visit the tribal area and hear their naïve notions about their invincibility, heroism and acumen, my heart sinks with grief and dolorousness. They have no sense that how in past they were exploited by state agencies in the war against Communism. And the same old game surged its head in the tribal belt after the US invasion on Afghanistan.

Thus both the countries, the US and Pakistan have tried to exploit the Afghan war and mentality of Pukhtoons towards their own ends and objectives. Here, Pakistan started using the same old card, which it had already used against Communism in 1979 till the disintegration of USSR in 1992. But this time it is not the Soviet Union, which was besotted with its power rather this time it is the US, who already has taken 47 nations in confidence under the ambit of Nato in present war on terror.

And using the old card in current flow of circumstances is tantamount to keeping the entire nation on the brink of hell and collapse. This is the same use of the old card that has aroused anti-Army and anti-establishment sentiments among its own masses. The elite class, which has been rearing under the thatch of west and western universities, has no knowledge about the ground realities, which is equally also responsible for the vacuum created by their unripe and so-called intellectual debates. The Inter Services Public Relation (ISPR) has been denying most of the news related with the US drones, which is nothing but escapism of the ground realties. The recent drones attack over the far-flung valley of Tirah of Khyber Agency, linked with the Nangrahar province, where eight people were died but Maj. Athar Abbas, the Spokesman for ISPR denied the incident. Among them was a 22-year old, nick named Qari, also lost his life. His aunt succumbed to the news of her nephew’s death. What is done cannot be undone with the denial of ISPR.

And this escapism has alienated even the non-violent population of the tribal belt also. This is the reason it considers Pak army its adversary instead defender. It is that detrimental trend of the two-segments, the tribal and the Army, which is responsible for all the chaos. It is a deliberate attempt to involve, the name of foreigners in the list of suicide attackers and those who die in the continued military operations in Swat and Bajaur. On the ground they’re the tribals who are involved in this series of violence. Why the foreigners are shown involved in the episode of terror? It is because; the establishment and Army can show it’s pubic and make it believe that it is our war. Beyond that there is no logic.

As a backlash, the militants carried out the past month more than a dozen terror plots. When indefatigable provincial sports and culture minister Syed Aqil Shah arranged inter-provincial games, personally I was very much upset and worried that amid such a crisis, arranging games will invite to militants attacks. Though behind it there was a positive logic to wash away the negative and demonised picture about Pukhtoons and can show the world community that they have a peace-loving nature but the law and enforcing agencies must have tightened the security measure. Their negligence was as if to put at risk the lives for more than 10,000 spectators and 1,200 sportsmen and sportswomen were participating in the games, who were there at the sports complex.

The target of the incident was apparently some high political figure from ANP.

Because for the suicide attacker it was easy to explode among the sportsmen and sportswomen but he was intended to kill another target.

The terror, smoked out of the incident was not disappeared that the militants murdered Stephen D. Vance, a contractor for USAID, assigned with bringing aid to the tribal belt. Contrary to the statements of government officials and those journalists, sitting in Islam, the possible factor behind Stephen D. Vance incident is the denial report of ISPR and the US drones attack on Khyber Agency.

The killing of the 52-year Vance gave birth to a contention that its name was not registered with police. Before Vance, the militants had attacked American Consul General Lena Tracy but she survived. America wanted to consume an amount of $ 750 million on developmental projects but Vance death will surely trammel the path. There has been a spate of kidnappings and killings of foreigners as well as Pakistanis. By now the militants have kidnapped Afghanistan’s ambassador-designate Abdul Khaliq Farahi, from Hayatabad a nearby posh township on Sept 22 and an Iranian diplomat, Hashmatullah Attarzadeh, a commercial attaché at Iran’s consulate in Peshawar from the same locality of Hayatabad. His security guard Sajjad Hussain, who was a Pakistani, was shot dead. Hayatabad is a favourite kidnapping spot for the militants, where, a Japanese journalist Yotsokura Matoki along with his Afghan friend Abdus Sami Yusafzai, received wounds at the hands of kidnappers at the same expansive and posh area of Hayatabad.

Peshawar ASP Jawad Qamar told a national news agency that the gunmen chased the journalists and started firing on them near Shakas, an appendage between Khyber Agency and Hayatabad. The Japanese journalist Motoki Yotsukura from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper was shifted to Islamabad while his friend Abdus Sami Yousfzai is under treatment at Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar. Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi’ who is finance minister for Afghanistan, his younger brother; Zia-ul-Haq Ahadi was also kidnapped from the same area. Looking and pondering over the incidents a question arises in most of the minds that whether it is the revivalism of Afghan Taliban story with the connivance of state agencies or whether it something coming with the backing of foreign agencies. No body is cocksure in pointing at one obvious factor but it is easy to say that it is the same old game once played in Afghanistan. One thing is clear that in yesteryear this land and Pukhtoons had been used in the game and even today it is the same land and population, which is under the monster of this terror game but this time by new players.

There has been a great deal of discussion on this hour of multifarious challenges.

Starting from terrorism, financial crisis, price-hiking, judicial crisis, good governance, restoring the 1973 Constitution in its genuine form, the cabinet issue with a queue of politicians for getting ministries, ruler’s foreign trips and the their prodigality, joblessness, to the US drones intrusions, there is a long list of afflictions. Contrary to the cries of politicians, the series of crises is intrinsic rather than extrinsic. When a party comes in power, its president, prime minister along with its beneficiaries shares the bacon equally with great relish. When the party fame starts waning, the news start trickling down that the party had been involved in corruption and defalcation. When Musharaf was in power, he had given a piece of land (reckon it in acres not feet), to the gang of MMA government. The piece of land was already allocated for Army in D.I Khan. But there was no name of any army-men or martyrs in the list of its receivers.

The nation is not weeping that why the former president Pervaiz Musharraf gave it to the MMA, as a bribe, for prolonging his issue of uniform which he had promised the nation that he will shed by 2004. But it’s weeping, why the news was kept under a thick layer of darkness for such a long time? Since long every leader has entrapped the nation in linking the challenges and problems to the blunders and dishonesty of the past government’s, coupled with extrinsic plots instead seeking ways and means for overcoming it.

Right from the out set of the acquisition of Pakistan, the elite of the country is addicted of begging and then lavishly using it, just with a few exceptional characters. When the saddle of the country was in his hands, Nawaz Sharif, used state treasury on foreign trips but his adversary Musharraf, after toppling his government went ahead of him. He clinched the title of championship and trounced his predecessor Nawaz in the race of foreign trips.

Every second month, he circumambulated the Khana-e-Kaaba (The House of Lord), with a flock of his yes-men and photojournalists.

It was then the duty of those journalists to manage for space in front pages of newspapers to achieve the wish-image of their present. During his regime a retired Army official, who was running a private hospital at Rawalpindi, beguiled a naïve kiln-lady-worker into selling her kidney for getting rid of loan and its interest, which she had taken for the treatment of her son.

The owner of the hospital brazenly said this inhuman sentence that it’s the gift of God that a human has two kidneys and in case of poverty s/he can sell it. The event went unnoticed until the BBC leaked it, and it was then, the public gave vent to its resentment. When PPP was in opposition it used to beat the drums against the profligacy of the rulers on foreign trips. But now the same PPP and its leadership have fallen prey to this leper. The headlines in national and local dailies regarding the flight of the two top leaders of the present government eclipsed the importance of the news events of suicide bombing incident, death toll in Swat and Bajuar, the suicide of tow youngsters of 18 and 22-year because of poverty. The caravan of the president with a legion of 300 VIPs was to make its flight to Saudi Arabia. While, the same day, the Prime Minister along with his gang was on its verge of flight to Turkey.

If we analyse the record of his foreign tours during his rule of 9-10 months, it is obvious that the new government towered above its predecessors in its marathon of foreign trips and shopping. It is estimated, if the president keeps his pace with such a ratio the day is not so that his name will find place in the “Gainer’s Book of World Records” for winning and making a new record in this race. Before embarking on his flight the president gave a tiding of enlarging his cabinet to 55 ministries to his nation.

The US, the solo super power that is striding to bring the entire world under its ambit of influence, has only 15 ministers for running state affairs while here is a flock of 55 ministers. It shows as if our country is four times greater and influential in world community than US.

England has been running it affairs by 12 ministers for the past century and plus but no leader could dare to increase its numbers. It is only here that every leader considers this land of gullible masses as its own exploratory laboratory.

Canada, which is the second largest country of the world by virtue of its area, has a cabinet of 38 ministers. Brazil, which is the largest country of Southern American, keeps only 23 ministers. China, which is an emerging power of the world, where our legion of beggars went for mendicancy, has 25 ministers. France, which can boast for a pool of GDP, more than the entire Muslim block of 57 countries, allows only 21 ministers to run state affairs. Iran, which is striving hard to win a mirror image in world community, has 31 ministers. This is the difference, which has divided the globe into developed or first world and developing or third world. Now, it is obvious that it is the ministerial profligacy of the governments, which has sapped the resources and economy of Pakistan. When Zardari went to participated in UN Security Council, the minister for information Sherry Rehman started singing that the president set an example of political frugality by making flight in economy plus class of the plane. The same minister was never tired of beating the drums that the president has not taken any unwanted person on his tour to china. Actions speaks louder than louder than words so where are her tall claims now. Though the holy Quran has declared it succinctly “Innal Mubbazereena kanu ikhwanashayateen—those who are squanderers, are the bothers of devils”.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhuttu, second legend character in Pakistan’s political history, is still under battering just for a laps for violating the traffic rule at a chowk of Rawalpindi when he ordered his driver “don’t stop, go ahead, for I am the prime minister of Pakistan”. But history did no condoned his trail off, though he was endowed with a host a qualities. But they are doing it with such a political jugglery that the nation has been deceived for a couple of times but every now and then the political class is the winner and the public is the runner.

Today, even for a low profiled political figure, roads are blocked for hours of hours, but the pubic is in no position to grudge this discriminatory attitude of the leaders. It is totally numbed with mind-reeling price hiking and poverty, thus it cannot come out in the streets against its leadership. Because of this pro-upper-class ruling system the rich and tycoon class is rising with a catapulted speed while the poor and slum class is tumbling with a windfall.

The definition of democracy in Pakistan must be the government of oligarchs by the oligarchs for the oligarchs. It is the backlash of this oligarchy that today the entire nation is hugged with a congregational suicide. It is not an individual that is committing suicide rather no body is safe across the country, which is in a sense congregational suicide of the society itself.

No body is born-poor or born-rich rather it is the class conflict that has brought this discrimination among human. The nation has sustained nearly every political party in their office but it is futile to hope for a positive change in the country. To dream for an emerging Pakistan, will come true only, when there will be new faces and entirely new leadership instead these political conjurers. In other words the story would be running for centuries unabated, with no sign of betterment for working class in the country, where the quandaries of poor will go unsung.

The writer is a FATA-based freelance journalist.

Contrary to the policy of raising local lashkar, it is commendable that Pakistan, following the footprints of Indonesia, also invoked its scholar to inculcate the evil picture of terror and suicide attacks. When Indonesia was mired in the issue of terror, it effectively curbed it with the help of its Islamic scholars.

Thus the Muttahida Ulema Council (MUC) of Pakistan also declared the suicide attacks, banned (haraam) and totally un-Islamic. Now that MUC has declared its viewpoint, then why, these militants outfits are not abstaining themselves from this social leper, which has given nothing to Islam but distortion? The militants turned it down alleging that all the convened scholars were the puppets of the government. Thus it lost its affectivity and the country witnessed a constant rise in terror with three incidents of suicide bombings after the unanimous viewpoint of the MUC. The first one in Mardan, targeted at the DIG office but he nearly escaped death, with second in Swat security checkpoint and the third one on November 4, 2008 Tuesday in Hangu which claimed more than six lives.

Back to the era of Musharaf, when Imam-e-Kaabha, Sheikh Sudais Abdurahman was invited to Pakistan, to help the government in solving the Laal Masjid issue, the religious factions did not accepted the peace-appeal even by the Imam-e-Kaabha. Thus looking to the militants’ obduracy the doomsayers opine that the declaration of the Ulema will not yield better results but according to many, some is better than nothing and one day it will turn out some thing good. The spectators hit the bull’s eye, so it is easy to criticise but it is too hard to come up with a pragmatic idea.

After the assassination of the three Pious Caliphs (Khulfa-e-Rashida), as there was a murmur that Islam is in danger. But Islam nourished with leaps and bound until it reached us here in the motherland for three religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. When here in the revered land of revered water, there was no Muslim how it eclipsed the three religions on their own land? By virtue of its inherent qualities or violence? Surely, by its qualities.

Islam survived for 14-hundered-year and it has the propensity to survive for thrice of its age. But today we are hearing the same murmur but grown into a slogan by the purported Islamic mentors that Islam has been in danger. There must be at least a halt to this lethal hoax by these religious mentors, who are dragging the sons of others into a blind alley of terror and violence.

Every self-imposed religious faction has an audacious slogan that they are here to save Islam and under this slogan they are killing mercilessly none but their own brothers.

In reality Islam has never been in danger. But it has been the cry of the hypocrites to hamstring the unity of Muslims which is obvious of their past and current plots.

Hazrat Usman Zinnoorain, the first Hafiz-e-Quran, being the Ameer-ul-Momimeen and in the helm of the authority did not prefer for the path of violence. “ I know that they are a handful miscreants and if I call my governors and Army they will engulf them but I want to avoid the path of violence”, these were his last words until the miscreants martyred him while he was reciting the Holy Quran. The miscreants kept him under house arrest and did not let anybody to feed him or give water. Ummul Momineen Hazrat Aisha dared to manage for water and stepped out of her home with a mashkeeza (a hides-made-water-bag).

One of the miscreants strokes it with a spear and the water gushed out of it. On one hand Hazrat Usman was not given water and on the other the offender committed the sacrilege of the daughter of Sadique Akbar and the mother of believers. The sun witnessed such a heinous crime for the first time in Islam’s history. But his sacrifices and his model have indelible imprints on the history of Islam but unfortunately its followers are nowhere.

So the concept of terrorism in Islam is not a new phenomenon.

But one thing is obvious that nothing has undermined the roots of Islam as severely as the hypocrites under the cloak of Islam or in other words Political Islamism.

In today’s world the militants are toeing either the path of those who had assassinated the last three Caliphs of Islam or the path of Church, consciously or subconsciously.

In Christianity, when the church was dominant, it has turned the lives of public into a hell. On one hand it started issuing the certificates for paradise, expiation for sins and indulgences. On the other this tradition proved very fatal for the image of Church. Thus it led towards the corruption of Church and the Pope, the Abbots and Bishops were left only to slander each other and this practice later struck roots to the extent that the Pope started death penalties to those who were a likely-threat to his ends. To achieve his nefarious designs the Pope set up courts. A short guess tells us that such courts executed more than 3,400,000 people and 32,000 others were thrown into raging fire. Among them one was the eminent mathematician Galileo and looking at his fate, a prominent name in astronomy, Copernicus, deferred from his book. But this tradition proved a social plague and Christianity lost its weight forever.

During the dominance of Church, only selected people were put to death, while here the story is totally deferent because every one is prone to it, with no exception of children and women.

Today in this hour of crisis we need a charismatic leader like Umar the great, who once feared that if a dog dies of hunger on the bank of river Furrat I will be answerable for it before the Lord of the universe. It is in case if we want to keep on the real and tolerant track of Islam. If not then we need a leader like King Martin Luther who stood in the way of Church more adamant than a rock. He changed the thinking prism of the youth. He gave them a vision.

The church could not budge him of his path, though he was labeled a heretic and infidel. As a result of that the Protestants made its debut and today it is the protestant, which is, regarded the most faithful of their apostle—the Christ. Luther was the first man who translated the Holy Quran into German. But the question is wherefrom to ring this kind of leadership who can put a halt to surging militancy and anarchism? Surely it will be a Herculean task but not impossible.

The government, in collaboration with Maulana Abdul Wahab and his Tableeghee Jamaat (preachers’ constellation) with its moderate and non-violent motto must start preaching the youth with anti-suicide campaign. The delegations must be sent to the tribal belt where they can preach fair and human-loving picture of Islam. The Quranic Chapter “The Declining Day” exhorts us in such words “By the declining day, lo man is in state of loss, save those who believe in Allah and do good actions. Who exhorts one another to truth and exhorts one another to endurance”. Looking to the nature of this Quranic Chapter, then it’s the duty of Tableeghee Jamaat to start exhortation of tolerance and truth. By the way they can save the youth from getting into the hands of those who are misleading them with hollow religious emotional appeals.

If we read the list of those involved in suicide bombings, were all of them the youngsters.

On one hand, the youth, which is the most vulnerable for falling into the hands of these outfits, would be protected, and on the other, it will be hard enough for these outfits to challenge this move because majority of the factions hold the Tableegee Jamaat in esteem. As diamond cuts diamond. So the religious reformist (Tableeghee Jamaat) can extinguish the fire erupted by the religious fanatics (Islamic militants).

Other routs—raising local lashkars have already proved bleak and detrimental. The political administration has erupted anarchy while it will evolutionise unity and brotherhood.

Today we have this opportunity; tomorrow it will be too late. So lets to embark on this path and give the world a clement picture of Islam and give a certain future to our posteriors.

The writer is a FATA-based freelance journalist.

Change in the American Strategy in Afghanistan is a hot topic these days and is most probably aimed at creating a new hope in the increasingly becoming hopeless citizens of Afghanistan but if it is once again one of those Washington-made strategies, which are in many cases based on the false assumptions of people who are considered to be experts on Afghanistan while in reality they even do not understand the basic psychology of the Afghan society, will be a last pin on the coffin of Afghan hopes.

Any disheartening comments on in-pipeline new American strategy may be premature but if some of its pillars are what have been circulating in the news then it is extremely important that prior to its finalization it is given a very cautious second look.

Lessons learned from one experience can be very useful in any other similar exercise but only when both are in somehow similar environments. Iraq and Afghanistan are two different countries with different social, economical and political environments. A relatively successful surge in Iraq does not mean that such a surge will have the same success in Afghanistan, and the role of Sunni Iraqis who have had a big hand in weakening Al-Qaida in Iraq can not be played by tribal militias in Afghanistan in any way.

Al-Qaida members in Iraq were and are mainly non-Iraqi Arabs while Taliban in both Afghanistan and Pakistan are mainly Afghans and Pakistanis having roots in local community. Will the mostly illiterate and conservative Muslim Afghans and Pakistanis rise against the Taliban especially with the support of America?

A kind of local resistance against Taliban in some parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan is emerging and is in very early stages which should not be endangered by linking it with western support. If it is misperceived by common people than it may end up in that early stages but if it is indirectly strengthen with other mechanisms such as conditional development assistance it will get momentum.

A military surge in Afghanistan with a different terrain from Iraq will mean more collateral damage and more civilian casualties that will in turn further alienate common people from both the Government and international community.

Creation of tribal militias is a dangerous game, if it is being considered as part of an exit strategy than it may work otherwise its longer term outcome and impact will have wider adverse effects which will not be bearable for this war torn country. The tribal structure in the hot spots of insurgency is divided by different lines and the conflict of last three decades has seriously damaged this once unofficial structure of governance. During the communist regime, then during the mujahedeen era and finally during the Taliban regime, tribal leaders had been weakened and they have not remained as powerful as they were once and their vacuum has been filled by commanders which are now called warlords. Any other effort to further strengthen the warlords will mean a potential anarchism.

Talks with Taliban will have certain positive impact but it will not put an end to insurgency. Actually, it is hard to divide Taliban by pro Al-Qaeda and non-Al-Qaeda Taliban instead they can be distinguished as political and military wings. Even during the Taliban regime, the role of its political wing was not very influential. Negotiations with the political wing may weaken the ideology of talibanization and if brought to the main stream politics will be an affective achievement.

It will be better that new strategy focus on and the new American administration invest in the Afghan National Army, and increase the involvement of local communities in a comprehensive counter insurgency strategy through conditional development assistance. Under the current anti-narcotics strategy those provinces are being provided with alternative livelihood assistance that are free of opium or has drastically decreased its production. The same can be applied in the counter-insurgency strategy, and this approach has been successfully used in some community based projects in most volatile parts of the country where assistance has been given with the guarantee of security.

The claims by some journalists of western media who come to Afghanistan on short visits and stay in four and five star hotels are not evidence-based that the Afghanistan National Army is failing. In view of their numbers, equipments and resources and a parallel corrupt and weak civilian administration which have disappointed and alienated people from the Government, the achievements of national army are admirable.

The support received by Taliban from both their external supporters and local people is greater qualitatively than that is received by Afghan army from international community and common people. There is a hope that with the declining oil prices the support of Taliban will decrease but it is again the responsibility of international community to dry up its stream that originates from the oil fields of gulf and reach to the tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan through main urban centers of Pakistan. The proportion of money that Taliban may receive indirectly from narcotics is much lower than what they receive from Arab Sheikhs yet the later is mostly neglected in efforts aimed at drying up the financial support of Taliban.

No solution can be a good remedy for the bleeding wounds of the country that is being going through many natural and man-made disasters unless it is not produced in Kabul with extensive inputs from the people who have been in this country during the last three decades and not those who have come in parachutes.

atiq.nashna@gmail.com