Loud Thinking June 14, 2014 at 10:06AM

Is the CHANGE on cards..?

Pakistan in quest of political change

Dr Mahboob A Khwaja

By the daily “Pakistan Observer”.

Saturday, June 14, 2014 – Karachi is on flame again. The raging smoke from the Karachi Jinnah International Airport tells a lot about the people, political governance and its future under the constant guns of a renegade group. Within a short span of 48 hrs, there were twice large scales running gun battles at the nation’s most vital and busiest airport. The news media reports 29 deaths in the first encounter and close to 100 or so wounded. The dark clouds of smoke and fires could well be interpreted as if there is no responsible political governance to ensure the safety, security and integrity of the innocent people – the net fatalities of the Taherk-e-Taliban Pakistan- TTP brutal attack on the biggest civilian airport.

Why this senseless killing spree on the people of Pakistan? Pakistani nation is fast becoming degenerational in a culture of continuing violence, killing of the innocents and lost sense of national security. These were not unexpected and unknown attacks where deaths and destruction are a common place in minds and sensitivities of the masses. The only people who did not care or lacked advanced knowledge of the insane attacks are the politicians and the nation’s security and intelligence apparatus.

Analyzing critically, you may assume varied scenarios for these brutal attacks on human rights and dignity and safety of the masses. (1) The masses and their security is left open to political conjecture and in-house rivalries between the politicians and the intelligence establishments. (2) The civilian administration responsible for protection of the vital national infrastructures are incapacitated by continuous challenges and the use of limited resources lacking advanced know-how and sophisticated systematic mechanism to ensure effective security framework. (3) Obsessed indifference and incompetence raging across the local-regional and national security establishments to plan and organize coherent and unified resolve and practices to deal with situations of unusual events and emergencies calling for swift actions. (4) A prevalent culture of corruption and tyranny appears to persist across all the major walks of social, administrative, political and economic life that needs to be changed and remodeled to serve the best interests of the nation.

Against this background, the continuing attacks by the TTP and other splinter groups should not go unchallenged for short-long terms consequences of their triviality and viciousness. But such challenging discourse could only come from people of political vision, leadership and integrity who are not part of the political gangsterism. But for too long, Pakistani politics failed to produce any leaders of moral, spiritual and political force demonstrating intellectual vigor and political prowess. The filthy politics breeds and brings forth thugs, known criminals and most incompetent people proven shameful to the honor of the nation.

Pakistan’s problem rests with power politics. Those who grab the power through intrigues, political conspiracies, military coups, sectarian killings and large social-economic disruptions do not foresee any exit to their hegemonic control. These are household names of hatred and disgrace to thinking Pakistanis. The Nation that allows criminally indicted and most corrupt people to hold offices of national governance and responsibility cannot be viewed as a nation of moral values and honor. This is how East Pakistan was lost. The political curse and disintegration of the social, moral and intellectual culture goes on for ages without an end in view. The TTP groups seem to be exploiting these inherent weaknesses across the Pakistani political culture. Disillusioned and disconnected with its roots, Pakistan continues to move forward – not towards change, normalcy and progress – but towards tragic events fomenting planned deaths of the citizenry, destruction of the social, economic and political infrastructures, incapacitated and broken lifelines and ultimately to become a battle ground for mindless ethnic and regional divides and national collapse.

TTP is one of the factors in these imposed cruelties on the masses. If these trends resulting from the inhuman and barbaric policies and practices of the ruling elite remain in the pipeline, the nation could end-up losing its freedom and integrity. You might wonder, “Is the problem insolvable?” The Taliban appear to be a collection of rogue and lose groupings of many associations and liabilities. Some could well be doing the proxy wars on behalf of the foreign master chipping-in cash dollars and obsolete weapons left-over across the old Afghan graveyards. Mr. Sharif and the Pakistani intelligence networks are not competent enough and have no foresight how to manage the hidden conspiracies of the few against many impinging on the public nerve for a decade.

In situations of emergencies, competent leaders offer hope and build trust of the nation to articulate workable remedies. But Pakistani politicians are used to blame game, often pointing fingers at India and others for their failure. Pakistan is being destabilized and dehumanized by its own wicked so called leaders who lack understanding of the ideology of the Muslim nation. Pakistan’s future is not linked to Nawaz Sharif or peace talks with the TTP. The Government and the Taliban are buying time and opportunities to readjust to the changing geo-political climate of the region. America is set to withdraw its NATO led forces in few months. Pakistani officials and the TTP would hurry to fill-in the gap and to acquire upper hand in future strategic priorities. Pakistan security forces are relentlessly watching which way to turn the table and to counteract the tide of bloody insurgency dipping into the political psyche of Pakistani culture.

How can there be a change in the political cruelty and tyranny of the few into a new value-based political system of institutions, responsible leadership and governance? Was this attack planned by somebody to overshadow the continuing failure and irrational policies and practices of the Sharif regime? Western analysts claim Pakistan to be a ‘failing state’ as it is run by dubious political-military elite. Pakistani leaders exhibit deafening silence to respond to the US-European accusations. Often when sadistic politicians cannot solve one set of problems, they could come up with smart but naïve ideas to create more critical problems to distract the masses. What is the solution to the morally and intellectually sickening political culture of Pakistani politics?

In view of the obvious failure of the current regime under Nawaz Sharif, the National Assembly should initiate immediate action to set up a new Government of National Unity replacing Nawaz Sharif with a non-partisan, intelligent and honest leadership. This appears to be the urgent political shift to restore normalcy and sustainable political governance. If the Assembly fails to act and shows indifference to the national interests, it will reaffirm its irrelevance and incompetence being a stooge of the rulers and unable to provide workable democratic option under the circumstances – when facts of life warrant a change, the responsible institutions must respond to facilitate change to safeguard the national interests, freedom and integrity.

—The writer specialises in global security, peace and conflict resolution and is author of several publications.

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