Thanks to the combined determination and strategy of the government and the
armed forces that Pakistan seems to be out of the dire straits of
lawlessness. One could not imagine a year or so ago that the mayhem in which
Pakistan was caught could be halted and reined in.
The proverbial Augean stables of lawlessness, galloping beast of thuggery and
myriad and all-embracing violence have been markedly cleaned. The culprits
are being chased and apprehended. This magnificent and heroic feat would go
down in the history of Pakistan as an epic struggle for retrieving the
sinking ship called Pakistan. Also this monumental endeavor lays down afresh
the foundations of a new stable and strong Pakistan with glorious destiny for
future generations.
Pakistan has become a hunting place for ubiquitous criminal gangs and
marauding mafias caving into the foundations of Pakistan with daring audacity
and dogged villainy. There were religious militants hovering over Pakistan
like prying vultures and digging deep into the flesh. There have been a whole
range of vicious dacoits, robbers, extortionists, kidnappers' bounty hunters,
rapists, enemy agents and saboteurs stalking the length and breadth of
Pakistan with impunity and defiance mocking the law enforcement agencies,
courts, the justice system and the civil society.
These heinous perpetrators have been turning Pakistan into a banana republic
and bringing it at par with societies riddled with bloody civil wars. These
elements are patronized and abetted by the parties and individuals in power
and commanding portfolios. We have seen the Rangers, police and the army
rounding up the outlaws in Karachi whose predominant lots consist of the foot
soldiers and henchmen of the ministers of PPP, the MQM and religious
crusaders. While a huge number of the combatants have been killed in
encounters several hundreds have been arrested and their connections and
links with the high-ups are being probed.
In Karachi alone the vicious mafias were stealing the water and selling it
privately fetching to them billions of rupees. The kidnapping and forcible
extraction of money had become a normal and routine money making lucrative
business. The public vacant places like playgrounds and parks were occupied
and those who raised alarm were silenced either by bribing or killing them.
The gang and sectarian feuds all over Karachi specifically and elsewhere in
the country kept swelling to the extent that well-fortified military
installations were brazenly attacked and partially or wholly destroyed.
Pakistan had become an utterly unsafe place to live for the business
community and industrial classes to carry on their ventures. The whole
country has been up in flames.
In an email, a fellow writer gave horrifying figures of the military officers
and rangers killed by the well organized and well equipped religious
militants. The terrorists even ambushed a military school in Peshawar and
killed around 150 teen age boys. That horrific incident turned out to be the
beginning of the anti-crime colossal onslaught, still apace.
And then a miracle happens. The army steps forward under the conspicuously
gallant and fearless chief General Raheel Sharif who turned the tables on the
wreckers, and enemies of the country. The army Jawans are laying down their
lives in this war between the patriotic and unpatriotic forces. And we can
now witness that the saboteurs, fifth columnists, the hardened thugs,
heartless murderers and criminals are on the run.
It has been reported in the media that MQM was secretly in league with India
to destroy social life and business activities in Karachi by all kind of
atrocities and fear mongering brutalities. Scores of their underground
operatives have been nabbed by the army and the rangers and startling
information is oozing out.
As usual the MQM could have feigned innocence. But like a bolt from the blue,
their boisterous arch godfather Altaf Hussain, in his harangue from London,
called upon both India and NATO to rescue the Urdu speaking population from
the Pakistan army as if ethnic cleansing of the Muhajir community was going
in Pakistan. It is possible that the trial of treason might be initiated
against him and he is extradited to Pakistan. Perhaps the MQM wants a kind of
rerun of the external intervention in 1971-72 civil war in the former East
Pakistan and now Bangladesh. For MQM it could be Jinnahpur.
In the meantime the Rangers have asked the MQM to hand over 187 murder
suspects. The MQM says that no party member is in rangers list of target
killers.
A 17 members Bench of Supreme Court upheld military courts and rejected
petitions for repealing the 18th amendment by 14-3 votes and the 21st
amendment by 17- 6 .It means that there would be speedy trials and award of
sentences to the proven thugs and criminals irrespective of their backgrounds
or political clout.
The writer is a senior journalist, former editor of Diplomatic Times and a
former diplomat. This and other articles by the writer can also be read at
his blog www.uprightopinion.com
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