THE political class in Pakistan is a maligned bunch even where there is no justification but where it falters, people in general and commentators in particular swoop on it with vigour and glee as it is seen as a soft target.

Very few among our current crop of commentators trace the roots of the country’s current travails to three to four distinct and mostly prolonged periods of military rule during which the corruption, patronage and terrorism that plague us today were institutionalised.

Of course once the current military leadership decided that militancy, at least of the denominations it didn’t or couldn’t control anymore, had to be rooted out, there could be no discussion on how and why terrorism bedded down in the country.

Politicians present themselves not just as a soft but an inviting target.

Then, every day a soldier falls in the line of duty; the latest image is fresh in my mind of the young and handsome infantryman Capt Omar Farooq who laid down his life in the Tirah Valley along with two other members of a team trying to defuse an improvised explosive device.

In a message to me, a colleague of his recalled the valour of the young officer belonging to the 35th Punjab Regiment when he was injured earlier in an assault to take and retain a strategically important feature of the so-named Kidney Ridge to block the escape/supply route of the militants.

Against the backdrop of such sacrifices and daily tales of courage being penned by the men in khaki with their blood, it definitely appears in bad taste to try and look at the history of GHQ-sanctioned ‘jihad’ via non-state actors, including the question of who ideologically motivated, trained and equipped this monster that, even in its death throes today, continues to inflict pain in a fight to death with its creator.

If it were merely a matter of bad taste it would have been one thing. Discussion is also skewed because of two more factors. Firstly, many of those in the media currently feel their journalistic duty, which is a sacred trust, is subservient to the will of the khaki.

It isn’t that these media practitioners are not aware of their professional shortcomings or, in cases the far graver dishonesty, but they justify their conduct and content in the name of patriotism and the larger national cause, howsoever that’s defined by the security apparatus.

The second, and under the current circumstances, the most critical factor is how politicians present themselves not just as a soft but an inviting target by their mindless shenanigans when all that is required is an honest acceptance of facts, reality.

Look at the Kasur child abuse case. When the story resurfaced with a bang in Lahore’s The Nation last week, the first and foremost reaction of the Punjab government was typified by the response of the point man, Rana Sanaullah.

Instead of hanging his head in shame and promising to look into the allegations and prosecute and punish whosoever was found guilty, the key lieutenant of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif launched into a how-and-why-now-and-it-is-a-conspiracy argument: a disastrous mix of arrogance and paranoia.

Like Rana Sanaullah, the PML-N’s other leading lights were not just trying to duck the issue but also accusing those truly horrified by the allegations, and demanding justice, of having ulterior motives such as serving the cause of the NGOs and/or defaming the country abroad.

Why would child abuse allegations in a village, backed by video clips the arrogant perpetrators made themselves with the specific purpose of blackmailing the victims, be seen by the Punjab government as a conspiracy to destabilise it is anybody’s guess.

Perhaps, it hints at self-awareness of its own ineptitude and the consequent insecurity. Or perhaps because a member of the provincial assembly belonging to the PML-N is being cited by the media as being involved in pressurising the police to go easy on the perpetrators.

The situation was so bad that a Tweet from an account purportedly belonging to Tehmina Durrani, the author of My Feudal Lord who is the Punjab chief minister’s spouse, had to ask Rana Sanaullah to “stop embarrassing me”.

Given the inexplicable initial reticence of the Punjab government to act, I suspect, if the victims have any hope of getting justice the media (notwithstanding PML-N apologists in its ranks) will need to remain watchful and not let other stories such as the MQM legislators’ ‘resignations’ distract it.

Yes, this brings me to another politician and political party, Altaf Hussain and the MQM. A vivid account of the background to the party legislators’ decision to resign from parliament was written by intrepid reporter Azfar-ul-Ashfaque in this newspaper on Thursday morning.

Altaf Hussain, a magnetic and charismatic figure for his diehard supporters, who has the power to make them weep and wail one moment and whip up their fury into murderous rage the next from distant London (even if he forces you to cover your ears in horror with each speech), is also a brutal leader who tolerates no dissent and balks at the first hint of loyalty less than 110 per cent.

Therefore, when Mr Hussain berated his party legislators for not being vocal enough in condemning ‘state oppression’ in Karachi against the rank and file (read suspected militants, mostly) and for not defending the leader when he was being attacked in parliament by the interior minister, it was clear what was bothering him.

The irony is PML-N has everything going for it but its own attitude continues to be its Achilles heel. The MQM has its back against the wall but its leader, known to wield absolute power in the past, seems unable to reconcile with the present.

These unreal expectations of what they can get away with in the current environment, whether it is the PML-N over Kasur or the MQM in Karachi, can only mean one thing: they don’t need enemies.

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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