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Thank you, Osama!
"We may in
the not too distant future be able to go to our Masajid and our Imam-bargaahs
without police protection"
IBY
DR FARRUKH SALEEM
If September 11 had
happened ten–years–ago Pakistan would have be come a better coun-try by
now. Thanks to Osama, we were hauled back to senses from the strategic depths
of the Taliban. If September 11 were to happen in the next decade then we
would have been even poorer by virtue of sending additional billions down the
same Afghan hole. Thanks to Osama, again, we may in the not too distant future
be able to go to our Masajid and our Imam–bargaahs without
police protection.
The unprecedented
crackdown on the extremist elements within our society is on. It must be
awfully painful. Just ask anyone who had to put his favourite Doberman to
sleep.
Are we on the verge
of breaking the status quo? If PTV is any guide then we are not. PTV’s
propaganda is not conducive to peace at all. It’s like one arm of the
government goes out to shake Vajpayee’s hand while the other is trying to
sabotage the whole effort. If the government leads the people to believe that
"Kashmir will become Pakistan" and then fails to deliver there is
bound to be a backlash. Ayub learnt the hard way and Tashkent finally brought
him down.
My legal eagle tells
me that all the people who are being arrested or who have been arrested under
MPO (Maintenance of Public Order) in the on–going crackdown would have to be
released. The last time he looked at the Pakistan Penal Code, keeping a beard
or belonging to a madrassa was not against the law. They can be tried
under the anti-terrorism law but the government of Pakistan would come short
on evidence, as it always does.
To be certain, the
state of Pakistan is fully capable of taking care of any non–state actor
within its geographical boundaries. In a country like ours where the writ of
the central government is reasonably strong, sustenance of on–state actors
is actually more of a ‘host–parasite’ phenomenon.
The host almost
always gets sick (read: sectarian killings within Pakistan) but there always
is an underlying state policy that governs most host–parasite interactions.
In our case, the long–held policy has been to facilitate germ–cell
migration through the LoC.
Welcome to Dr.
Musharraf’s new chapter on parasite management and disease control (the ban
on the Lashkar and the Jaish has been extended to Azad Kashmir).
Identification of the parasites is easy and the right vaccine has been in
store for long. Unfortunately, the state was either unwilling to administer it
or our real decision makers thought that it was not in their institutional
interest to do so.
Here are four
questions sent in by a long–distance scribe. First, Kashmir runs in our
blood–a biological analogy — but how can that be if Kashmir has never been
part of our body? Second, if Pakistan is a ‘Fortress of Islam’ then why
are there police squads outside each mosque? Third, in the age of information
superhighways why do we want to remain a fortress (something that only has a
heritage value and no military significance whatsoever)? Fourth, we advocate
self– determination for seven million Kashmiri Muslims but why do we forget
140 million Pakistanis?
Moinuddin Haider
claims that the vaccine has now been injected intravenously. Powell is of the
opinion that the doctor should be given a chance because the vaccine needs
time to work. Deep down, Jaswant suspects that the vaccine is actually a
placebo.
The other issue is
that of the adaptive capability of the parasites. Every parasite uses
strategies to counteract and ensure survival. The only thing that the mullahs
want is a war with India just so that what they now consider as their internal
enemy can be humiliated. How equipped are we to fight the parasites? On a
scale of 1 to 10, I would say, an 8.
In response to the
January 12 "historic" address, the Indian print media exhibited a
lot of political maturity. On January 14, The Hindu, in an editorial,
said that the "political courage exuded by the Pakistan President, Pervez
Musharraf, in addressing India’s concerns raises the vision of a truly
promising turn in the crisis–ridden bilateral relationship." The
Hindustan Times wrote, "Now that India will have to wait patiently
for Pervez Musharraf to turn over a new leaf to begin, hopefully, a new and
more moderate phase in his career...."
The American media,
however, was less forgiving. The Washington Post wrote, "There
were heroic flourishes in his January 12 declaration. But Musharraf’s role
in creating the disasters that led to the need for that speech cannot be
simply forgotten or forgiven, or compensated."
The divide is getting
clearer by the day and the future less cloudy. Within Pakistan, one is either
with the status quo or against it. All that the status quo brought us was
misery and illiteracy. "Kashmir runs in our blood" represents status
quo. Agreeing to resolve Kashmir through blood–less means amounts to
breaking the status quo.
Have the Dobermen
been put to sleep or have they gone into hibernation? The answer really
depends on whether the defenders of the Land of the Pure shall continue to be
the defenders of the status quo or are they now sincere in breaking away from
the status quo. Is the crackdown a bid to cool off pressure from all sides or
does it mean a genuine change in state policy? The settled issue is that what
we have achieved so far we couldn’t have without Osama.
(Courtesy: The Friday
Times, Pakistan. The writer is an Islamabad–based freelance columnist.
farrukh15@hotmail.com) |
