Author: Irfan Husain
Publication: Dawn
Date: September 18, 2004
URL: http://www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/20040918.htm
The military actions being taken
in South Waziristan by the Pakistan army, resulting in rising casualties
on both sides, are beginning to take on aspects of a minor civil war.
Although the principal target of
the security forces are the foreign (Afghan, Arab and Central Asian) fighters
said to be in the area, the fact is that many local tribesmen and their
families have been killed and wounded. These are all people who live by
the code of the vendetta, and who never forgive or forget.
Clearly, the state has the right
- and the obligation - to use force when necessary to impose the rule of
law on any section of the population that resorts to armed resistance against
it.
Equally clearly, what is happening
in several of the border areas is little short of insurrection, with bands
of Taliban fighters and their Pakistani and foreign supporters crossing
into Afghanistan to launch attacks on civilians and government forces.
Legally and morally justified as
it is, this operation underlines yet again what a violent society we live
in. The entire arrangement to do with the tribal areas is an open invitation
to crime and violence.
Here we have a vast area with a
significant armed population where the law of the land does not apply.
Over the years, it has become a hotbed of gun-running, smuggling, the narcotics
trade, kidnapping and car-theft.
But worse than the criminality this
structure has bred, it perpetuates the sardari system that prevents development
from reaching ordinary people. There are few roads, schools or hospitals
in most of the tribal areas, and nobody is willing to invest in job-creating
industries in a place where the tribal chief's word is the law.
Against this backdrop, it is no
surprise that the rest of the country has been infected by the fallout
from the law-and-order vacuum that exists in this desperately poor and
backward area.
The most sophisticated automatic
weapons from Darra, heroin from across the Khyber Pass, and stolen luxury
cars find their way to virtually every city and town in Pakistan, fuelling
the existing violence.
As it is, Pakistanis need no incitement
to violence as we seem to have become a nation divided against itself.
Many countries have their share of hatred and mayhem, but few have so many
violently anarchic strands running through them. Since the creation of
Pakistan, provinces, ethnic groups, sects and ideologies have clashed,
producing civil violence and terrorism on a horrendous scale.
First, the Ahmadi issue sparked
violence in the early fifties with riots in Punjab. This simmered on until
the Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims in the mid-seventies. But despite
this, they continue to be targeted off and on. Religious minorities like
the Hindus and Christians suffer from periodic intolerance and are given
little protection by the state.
For the last two decades, the Sunnis
have been persecuting the minority Shias, and hundreds have been killed
on both sides of this sectarian divide. This mindless slaughter continues
today, with mosques being the favourite killing grounds of the outlawed
Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and its various offshoots.
In Balochistan, Baloch and Pathan
tribesmen have clashed, while Shias have been killed in terrorist attacks.
The peaceful Zikris have been subjected to persecution by fundamentalists.
The terrorist attack that killed
three Chinese engineers in Gwadar shows how even visitors from friendly
countries are unsafe. Indeed, the targeting of American and European nationals
has made Pakistan a no-go area for foreigners.
What has made Pakistan such a violent
place? The easy access to sophisticated firearms is obviously one reason.
The truth is that Kalashnikovs can be hired for a few hundred rupees a
day, while killers charge ten thousand for a murder. So apart from politically,
ethnically or religiously motivated killings, settling scores is a pretty
cheap business.
Another cause is the ineffectiveness
of the police and the court system. Quite often, the killers have links
to religious or sectarian parties that are part of the government, and
use this clout to have investigations into their crimes squashed. Even
when the police do succeed in arresting a suspect, the chances are that
he will be let off the hook.
But what motivates many of today's
terrorists is the conviction that they are right, their adversaries are
wrong and that they are quite justified in killing them. The concept of
civilised discourse and debate has been replaced by violent confrontation:
after all, it is far simpler to pull the trigger than it is to construct
a logical and coherent argument.
This phenomenon has been largely
caused by a progressive debasement of the democratic process. As political
space has been squeezed by the military over the years, people have come
to accept the credo of might is right. Those political parties that do
not have a hope of getting elected in a fair election now employ terror
to advance their agendas.
This breakdown in civilized norms
has been rapid and predictable. Indeed, some of us have been writing about
the effects of cheap guns and drugs; the recourse to religiosity by the
state; the use of jihadi elements for political purposes; and repeated
military intervention for years. We are now reaping what Zia and his colleagues
sowed.
While the past cannot be changed,
we can at least make a beginning towards reducing the level of violence
we have to put up with. One way is for the army to continue its operations
in the tribal areas, and eliminate the gun and drug centres there.
To do this, the government will
have to bring these remote places into the ambit of the law of the land.
This will require a degree of political will our present rulers have not
displayed thus far. But if Musharraf is to justify his continuation in
office, surely he must break the mould and think of larger things than
his own tenure in the presidency.
