On January 2, General Musharraf ended up at the Armed
forces institute of cardiology in Rawalpindi, a rather long
detour from his residence to the court, which had made
a third unsuccessful attempt to summon the ex-
president on charges of treason.
With speculations ranging from whether there was a
deliberateeffort afoot to prevent the general from
reaching the court to how smartly once gain a court
appearance had been avoided, the General remains
hospitalized. After the initial hoopla about the whys and
whats of the event, it is just another news item, till the
next big audience. However, one wonders what if
instead of the quiet yet highly professional new chief
justice Jillani, it was the media’s darling Justice
Chaudhry still holding the office, could these deferments
be possible? Every word uttered by the Chief Justice
would make proverbial breaking news across the
television channels, and for many the trial appeared
more on the personal grid than its merit.
An unfortunate situation, as very often public weds itself
to popular sentiments and opinions about what the truth
should be, than what it actually is. Should Musharaf be
handed out the guilty verdict on high treason? For
some, the answer is in affirmative, as it would prove a
deterrent for future khaki interventions and perhaps
cosmetically redress the civil-military imbalance. Yet a
review of the state of affairs, indicates problems where
the military appears least zealous given the
circumstances than civilian administers, who need to do
their necessary bit.
While the media remains preoccupied on providing
situational updates on Musharaf, the most urgent and
pressing concern in the first two weeks of the new year
has been the rising number of terrorist bombings. Not
less than fifty people, including civilians and law
enforcement officials have perished as a result. Yet
again, there has been a divided house when it comes to
dealing with the non-state terrorist elements. Where the
KPK provincial government under the PTI prefers
dialogue with the “disillusioned brethren” over direct
military action, the federal government appears totally
ambivalent about how to tackle this critical and most
pressing issue.
Both the provincial and federal governments seem to
disregard the drawdown of foreign troops from
Afghanistan and a different politico-military
arrangement, which appears nightmarish for Pakistani
security forces. The forces have been preoccupied
domestically for more than a decade, and the non-state
elements, have a bigger playfield and target practicing
to carryout.
The social and traditional media cannot get enough out
of the deaths of Aitzaz Ahmed a young school boy, who
bravely lost his life by thwarting a suicide attack on his
school mates and that of Chaudhry Aslam, a daredevil
policeman, who for long led a charmed life and stood
out as a symbol of defiance and destruction for terrorist
elements in the troubled port city of Karachi. These two
brave sons of the soil are not the only one lost in this
brutal war against terrorism and militancy. There have
been many who precede them and unfortunately many
who would gladly follow their footsteps, but is this a
fair price to pay.
What is required is an actual implementation of the
anti-terrorism act, the draft bill already prepared by
NACTA (the purpose built National Counter terrorism
Agency), with a zero-tolerance approach and full inter-
agential coordination as well as cooperation. Dialogue
can only work, if the government and not the militants
are at a superior footing with adequate deterring
physical capacity. The latter is actually not a problem,
although the law enforcement agencies remain lacking
in their capacity, but (at the cost of disregarding
security sector balance) the military somehow fills the
vacuum. It is the will and determination of the decision-
makers that matters. At any religious festivity, a
complete lockdown of major cities, with a total blockade
of communication and road access can temporarily
manage the problem, but is no way a long term to
permanent solution to a menace, which cannot be
addressed symptomatically alone.
The PML-N government emphasized on “3-E’s” during
and after the elections, Energy, Extremism and
Economics. With regards energy sector, the pipelines
and alternate energy sources are being worked on, but it
would take several years before a true relief is brought
about. Extremism as mentioned above needs an iron
fisted approach with no appeasement and political
patronizing of any sorts. With regards economics, unless
there is adequate energy and safe environment,
commercial and industrial output will be affected
drastically. The PML-N, a party which comprises of
feudal and industrialists more than any other should be
aware of this.
As part of better economic opportunities, the
government has in its traditional manner been more
proactive on improving relations with New Delhi, the
January 16-18 agreement between the trade ministers a
positive indicator, but one can only hope that the
relations between the two countries do not remain
focused on one issue area alone, but equal investment
and positive output be made on contentious issues
without preconditions and time delaying tactics.
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