External-internal conundrums
Rashed Rahman
Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has demanded in a press conference that the Afghan Taliban government arrest, prosecute and hand over the terrorists of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) based on Afghan soil found responsible for the March 26, 2024 suicide attack on Chinese engineers in Bisham. Five Chinese engineers and their driver were killed in the attack. Naqvi said the caper was planned in Afghanistan and executed with the help of handlers and facilitators in Pakistan. For good measure, the Minister threw in the usual accusation of enemy intelligence agencies bankrolling the attack, without naming any country. Not content with all this, Mohsin Naqvi went on to demand the arrest and handing over of the entire TTP leadership based in Afghanistan. Naqvi made Pakistan’s desire for good relations with Afghanistan contingent on the Afghan Taliban regime cooperating as demanded. It is no rocket science to predict that this stance will further strain the already tense relations between the two neighbouring countries. Since the Afghan Taliban regime has been consistently refusing such repeated demands from Pakistan, the Minister’s answer to a question what Pakistan would do if its demands were not met (“The government will take a unilateral decision”) spells trouble on the western border if not cross-border hostilities.
Pakistan is paying the price of creating and supporting religious extremist proxies, namely the Afghan Mujahideen and later the Taliban, for its unclear (with hindsight) strategic objectives. The Afghan proxies operating from Pakistani soil for decades gave rise to their local equivalent here. When these Pakistani Taliban, as is the wont of such religious extremists sooner or later, clashed with the state, the military operations in erstwhile FATA failed to crush them and were unable to prevent the TTP from retreating into Afghanistan. However, as this latest revelation from the Interior Minister confirms, they left behind sleeper cells that are now assisting their Afghanistan-based brethren to carry out attacks like the one in Bisham.
Pakistan did not learn the appropriate lessons from 9/11 and its aftermath. The Afghan Taliban in power then not only rejected the US demand to hand over Osama bin Laden, they did not even heed the Musharraf regime’s argument to save themselves by sacrificing bin Laden (although reports at the time also indicated that the Musharraf regime here too may have played a duplicitous double role). An impervious to logic, prepared to die rather than practice the art of survival regime should have rung some warning bells in the hallowed corridors of real power. Regardless, Pakistan played “Yes, sir!” with Washington, reaped much military and economic benefit, and merrily carried on supporting the Taliban not so surreptitiously (after all they were operating from Pakistani soil). Now things have come full circle it seems as the ‘ungrateful’ Afghan Taliban ‘brothers’ have cocked a snook at Islamabad’s entreaties, which are now increasingly cloaked in potential threats.
Our inability to learn from the past is by no means confined to strategic issues. On the question of freedom of expression and the media, we continue to plod along in the same old ruts, with those persecuted in opposition yesterday introducing the very same kind of laws they protested against when on the receiving end. One such recent example is the Punjab government’s Defamation law, rammed through the provincial Assembly without so much as a nod at parliamentary debate and consideration. The predictable reaction from journalists’ bodies, human rights activists and others reflects the alarm the rushed legislation has raised. Such a draconian law with little or no protection against arbitrary judgements or huge fines as punishment flies in the face of any conceivable notion of a free media or freedom of expression enshrined as a citizen’s right in our much abused Constitution. Actually, if one delves a little deeper into the matter, what emerges is the true purpose and thrust of this draconian measure. The mainstream media, print and television, has been ‘tamed’ a long time ago and does not, the odd bit notwithstanding, pose any threat to the real rulers of this country. The problem is that the world has moved on technologically from the era of mainstream media, the latter still capable of being subjected to constraints that can only be described as ‘muzzling’. The problem, it seems, is the social media. Now this is a creature of an entirely different hue. Anyone and everyone has access to it, anyone and everyone can post their thoughts on it. While this ‘democratisation’ of media was initially enthusiastically hailed, it soon displayed its darker side. Until the advent of social media, no one could have imagined humanity’s profound ability to spout incredible nonsense amongst the intelligent, informed, objective bits. However, our Punjab government’s Defamation law brings a sledge hammer to a task requiring nuanced argument. Mainstream media already ‘tamed’, social media next.
Sargodha teetered on the brink of a repeat of the horrendous Jaranwala alleged blasphemy incident that led to widespread attacks on the lives, churches and houses of the Christian community. Again, an allegation of blasphemy (burnt pages of the Quran) immediately instigated a lynch mob that went for a Christian family residing near where the burnt pages were found without any attempt to investigate the matter. Reports also reveal that a son of the family in question had an argument with some Tehreek-i-Labbaiq Pakistan (TLP) people a few days before the outrageous mob lynching attempt. TLP cadres are said to have led the assault, loudly accusing the head of the family, a 70-year-old Christian, of being the perpetrator. If true, the mob lynching simply boils down to revenge behind the pious curtain of defending Islam and the Holy Quran. Does this sound familiar? Does it, as a responsible citizen of this country, make you hang your head in shame?
What sort of a state and society have we morphed into? A transparently undemocratic order installed through what is by now generally accepted to be a rigged election by the real powers that be. A society adrift amidst the clinging desiderata of past ‘Islamisation’ drives that have arguably driven us miles apart from the spirit and even letter of Islam. A country stumbling along in a by now classic debt trap, unable therefore to exercise real sovereignty. A youth bulge of some 60 percent of our population that has lost hope in its future within and seeks desperately legal or illegal paths to fleeing abroad. A deindustrialising economy in the 21st century. A once renowned food belt for the entire Subcontinent making such a mess of agriculture, structurally, land ownership and policy wise. Where, you may well be asking while scratching your head, is all this headed?
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