| January 15, 2008 | Tuesday | Muharram 05, 1429 |
Selective ‘inefficiency’
SO then, some ‘inefficient’ members of Rawalpindi’s fire-brigade just innocently came and hosed down Benazir Bhutto’s assassination site, eh? This was just plain ‘inefficiency’ as our Commando (once a Commando, always a Commando!) tells us?
Well then, this was only the second instance that a site of bloody carnage was immediately hosed down — the first time in Karachi where too Benazir Bhutto was the target.
In which case, might one ask why the fire-brigades are ‘inefficient’ only when it comes to attacks on those the establishment considers enemies? And most efficient when an ISI bus is bombed or the chief of joint staff’s house is attacked in Rawalpindi cantonment, or when the police is attacked outside the Lahore High Court when they do not hose down the site for days, allowing investigators to do their job by searching for clues?
Or is it the case, because we talk about our very own Pakistan which we know so well, that not only municipal workers of the local authority but even high falutin’ bigwigs, even government ministers would go to the bathroom at least twice at the mere thought of hosing down the scene of such a gigantic, gargantuan assassination? And that orders to hose the site of a crime of this nature just had to have come from a very high authority?
I mean really, in a country where, leave alone sanitary staff, even senior government officials do not have the initiative or the gumption to change the position of their ink-wells (in these days the position of their pencil holders) on their office desks without permission from their supervisors, how does anyone expect us — and remember we are born and brought up in the Fatherland these many years — I was 62 last Saturday to put things in perspective — to believe that some ‘inefficient’ firemen hosed the crime scene clean for no other reason but that they wanted to have the road opened immediately? I ask you.
This is ridiculous, this is insane, yet our Commando has the gall to tell us that it all happened by accident; that there is no need for a United Nations-supervised investigation into Ms Bhutto’s ghastly murder because we have an excellent investigative service and are already getting Scotland Yard’s help in the matter? I have the greatest regard for the Metropolitan Police’s professionalism and prowess in solving crime but should the Yard have even come in when the scene of the crime had been obliterated? I think not, for no matter what the finding, the Yard will lose credibility.
I now go to three statements; one from a 19-year old Oxford undergraduate and two from a retired full general, a man who has worn many, many hats during his service, the most important of them all being the hats of the chief of army staff and president of this hapless country, none other than General (retd) Pervez Musharraf.
The undergraduate: “I was called, and I stepped up and I did what I was asked to do,” said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at his press conference in London on Jan 7, 2008.
And bully for you, young man, you spoke so well, you spoke so true, and acquitted yourself admirably during your first press conference before the world’s media.
And you did not even have your Dad to help you out as he did in Naudero, when Asif said you were of tender years and that he would answer the questions for you.
I was most impressed with young Bilawal who came across as a thoughtful, intelligent young man. His tone was measured and correct; he was not verbose; and he seemed a man far beyond his years. I wish him well and pray for his safety. I must also castigate the too clever by half questions put to him by people older than his father and more, who had scant regard for his tender years, or for the fact that he had just ten days earlier lost his loving mother in the most horrific manner. I mean, really!
The retired general (1): “Believe me, on the day when I arrive at the conviction that the majority of the people don’t want me any more, when I believe I can no longer make a contribution to my country, I will not hesitate a second. I will go,” Online quoted Musharraf as saying in an interview to German news magazine Der Spiegel recently.
Oh yeah? And how will you find out that the majority of the people don’t want you anymore? Will an angel come to you in the middle of the night much as one came to Abou Bin Adhem, and tell you that?
Forget about the ‘majority’, why don’t you ask just the candidates who are standing in the elections on the King’s party’s tickets? All the reports suggest that these people are campaigning only on family or caste or tribal lines to remain as far from any connection with you as possible.
The retired general (2): “I would like it (Benazir’s body) to be exhumed,” Newsweek quoted him as saying. “Because I know for sure there is no bullet wound other than on the right side.” Meaning what? That you now agree that Benazir was shot but only on the right side of her head?
Well, where does that leave your interior ministry, minister, spokesman and all? Is there to be no cognisance of the massive lie told to the world by your toadies?
In the end, congratulations are due to the junta on the arrest of Justice Rana Bhagwandas, recently retired from the Supreme Court after long and meritorious service as a judge, after he gave a speech to lawyers in Karachi.
A warm send-off by our very brave junta surely, and one that will prove to the rest of the world that we are indeed a civilised people living in a civilised country.
And promote Pakistan’s ‘soft image’ which will result in thousands of tourists falling over themselves trying to get into this country. Good, well done, as our drill instructor at PMA, the good Havaldar (later subedar major and honorary captain) Muttawali Khan used to say.
And now for the clincher. Answering Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria’s question if he thought he was the best “person to fight this war against the jihadis”, General (retd) Musharraf said: “The United States thought Benazir was the right person to fight terrorists. Who is the best person to fight?
You need three qualities today if you want to fight the extremists and the terrorists. Number one, you must have the military with you. Well, she was very unpopular with the military. Very unpopular.
Number two, you shouldn’t be seen by the entire religious lobby to be alien — a nonreligious person. The third element: don’t be seen as an extension of the United States. Now I am branded as an extension, but not to the extent she was. Pakistanis know that I can be tough. I can speak out against Hillary Clinton. I can speak out against anyone. These are the elements. You be the judge.”
I always knew, and have said it, that the Army hated Benazir (as it hated ZAB), but for him to say it at this very tragic and difficult time for the country is beyond the pale, beyond even imagination. I am dumbstruck, gobsmacked, amazed, stunned! Only the Almighty can save this country now …
No Bushism this week either. Laughter is the furthest from my mind as I grieve for my country.
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
