Pakistan: Where are we heading?

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Syria is in the midst of a civil war, and the entire world is immensely perturbed over civilian casualties. Although, there is no civil war in Pakistan, the law and order situation is profoundly precarious. Take a count of deaths and injuries the people suffer on a daily basis, our situation is not very different from whatever is obtaining in Syria. In Pakistan, only a dozen or so so-called Red Zones and a few dozen high-profile politicians and officials are safe and secure from the agents of death - thanks to the 24/7 security cordon available to them. For the rest of people the ambience is that of a state of nature where violence abounds and criminals stalk streets freely and confidently. Consider, just in the last 48 hours no less than a dozen and half of people were murdered; target-killers killed three in Quetta and six in Bolan; about three thousand tourists are shut up in Skardu because terrorists have turned the Gilgit-Baltistan province into a no-go area as the government so far has done next to nothing to rescue them - as if there is peace and harmony in tribal areas. What the people of Pakistan suffer in terms of mayhem and arson in a week may be much more than what entire Europe suffers in one full year. The sad coda is that there is no hope that the reign of terror will abate anytime soon - essentially because the government and the establishment are busy somewhere else. For them it's an election year in Pakistan and they cannot afford diversions from their single-purpose pursuit of state power. Judging by the hype created by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf's appearance in the Supreme Court on Monday it looks as if the people and the elite are living on two different planets. This indeed is apocalyptic. The state that fails to protect citizens against unlawful and illegal excesses forfeits its right to maintain its writ; it is a cardinal principle of jurisprudence and an invariable provision of every governance. But there is scant realisation of this inescapable responsibility on the part of the elite. No serious effort seems to have been made to closely focus on the lingering curse of violence that takes so many lives every day. All we have are words of sympathy, messages of condolences and fire-fighting - for tomorrow will be another day. Terrorism is being dealt with on a day-to-day basis, instead of any concerted action under a well-thought out programme and policy. If there is a foreign hand, as we have been hearing it every now and then, more vociferously and regularly now, why then we don't make it public. Whatever the dictate of diplomatic discretion, the foreign powers involved in destabilising Pakistan, directly or through proxies, must be exposed. At risk is not 'friendly relationships' but the survival of Pakistan. Sectarianism, the most ruthless serial killer of innocent people, has a pronounced foreign dimension. It should be taken up with its patrons and promoters in a frank, forceful manner to the exclusion of political and diplomatic niceties. On the domestic front, the problem lies at the door of law-enforcement agencies that have so far performed much below par. More importantly, the performance of our legislators in relation to anti-terrorism legislation-making is profoundly abysmal as the existing anti-terrorist laws are inadequate and outmoded. The problem also lies in the minds of our establishment and political forces who in many cases tend to nurture culture of violence by harbouring terrorists and criminals. And all of it has to be done on an urgent basis. Time is no more on our side.