Shahbaz Bhatti.....Fiddling with enormity

Fiddling with enormity
Right in Islamabad, the seat of the national state power, was murdered not long ago Punjab governor Salman Taseer in broad daylight by his own security guard. And there now has been shot to death Shahbaz Bhatti, federal minister for minorities affairs, by unknown gunmen, again in broad daylight. And yet Islamabad’s hierarchs are just fiddling with an enormity of grave dimensions, playing the flute and harping customary condemnations and lofty vows not to bow down before terrorists or get cowed down by their vile trade of murder and mayhem. This has been their constant refrain all through since their advent three years, unchangeably and unabashedly. Every time thugs strike, they sing this hymn, probably thinking chanting of a mantra is enough to frighten away the merchants of death and destruction and nothing more is needed to put them out of their evil business. Three years is no little time. It is quite a period to impart a crippling dent on such thuggery, provided a thoughtful strategy is worked out and then worked on intently. But this Islamabad hierarchy has demonstrated this capability to be none of its forte. A counter-terrorism strategy that it had hammered out at a high-level inter-provincial conference under the prime minister long time ago, it has, by every indication, consigned to the official rut to rust. No letup is in evidence in thugs’ wickedness. They are on prowl; the state is gasping to hobble them. They come blithely, attack civilian and security targets alike bloodily and return to their lairs safely. Internal security czar Rehman Malik claims terrorism suspects do get caught but are let off by courts. But he is still to plug off the holes in the anti-terrorism law, enabling the suspects to wriggle through in the courts, although we are hearing of this tightening up of the law from him since long. If reports doing the round in the capital are to be believed, a draft of the amended anti-terrorism law to this end is merely shuttling between the interior and law ministries routinely, leaving one shuddering about the disinterest of their ministers-in-charge in a matter of such a great urgency that should receive their fullest immediate interest. But if a higher hierarchy is so tardy and dawdling in vetting this crucial law and bring it up to the parliament for its quick approval, what could one expect from it in providing security to judges, prosecutors and witnesses of terrorism cases, which the people who are in the know contend accounts no lesser for terrorism suspects’ easier release by courts? There are widespread suspicions too that for the thugs’ fear and threats, even state investigators evade to probing terrorism cases so meticulously as to stand in the court. There indeed is an imperative need to give a penetrating look to the whole issue so that at least the suspects that are caught are brought to justice and do not walk away laughing merely for the anti-terrorism law’s debility, a slipshod probe or lack of protection of judges, prosecutors and witnesses. But this could only be a tall order for a hierarchy that is so sportively toying with the establishment of a national counter-terrorism authority. Months have passed since the prime minister had announced the setting up of this authority to act as a nodal agency to fight out terrorism and extremism from the country. And as yet it has not come into existence even in embryonic form. A mere proposal on the paper is travelling from one official table to the other in just a raw form, one knowing not if ever will it get a final shape and land on the ground to become a functional reality. The latest on it is that it is now resting on the cabinet’s table, getting one postponement of deliberation on it after the other, with a section of ministers suggesting its reference first to the provincial governments for their views and recommendations. If it is to be that, and which certainly is a very sane proposal, why is this dilly-dallying? Why doesn’t the prime minister immediately convene a conference of chief ministers, who may come along with their home ministers and other relevant top officials, and have the issue of this counterterrorism authority settled in just one sitting? At least now, the Islamabad hierarchy must come alive to the bestial enormity of terrorism, playing havoc with our people’s lives and blood so grievously. For once, it must pull up its socks and jump into the ring to grapple with this monstrosity manly and effectively. The military, it must understand, can take on and vanquish organised terrorist outfits in their strongholds. But fighting urban terrorism is primarily the civilian security apparatus’s job. And so is the hounding and dismantling of extremist outfits preaching hate and practising hate crimes.