Pakistan - Conspiracy of silence

The FIA investigation report will identify the criminals and might well suggest severe punishment. The story will, however, end there

Has it surprised anyone that Jundullah, a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) splinter group, killed 45 people from the Ismaili community in a brutal attack on a commuter bus? Will it surprise anyone if, in the coming months, a similar act is repeated and one of the several splinter groups of the TTP or the TTP itself takes responsibility? Surprises have become a rarity with the pattern known about terrorist attacks and the government’s response to the incidents. The terrorists come, kill and leave. The government sees, observes and condemns the crime without forgetting to order an investigation and announces three days of mourning and the national flag to be hoisted at half-mast. Nothing changes in between. The crime goes on. The government’s investigation goes on and the theatre is set for another scene.

It is hard to accept the argument that Pakistan is a failed state. The eagerness to consider Pakistan a functioning state stems from the fairness of all the investigation reports about a high profile crime or national tragedy. Born either of a judicial commission or of an independent police inquiry, these reports had always hit the nail on the head. In almost all reports, be it the Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report, Abbottabad Commission Report, Model Town Commission Report or Baldia Factory Commission Report, the problem has been identified, perpetrators of the crime recognised and the blame laid where it should be laid. What next?

We find complete silence once an investigation report is out. Accountability for which the whole exercise is carried out suddenly becomes unnecessary. The police, witnesses, parliamentarians, judges and movers of the investigation process return to their comfort zones. Why does this happen, especially when we do not lack people who want to say the truth? Our institutions could provide a credible assessment of the problem and our law enforcement and intelligence agencies can be quizzed to separate fact from fiction.

The government is trying to eliminate a fraction of this silence by hanging the criminals languishing in jails for years. This theory has failed to discourage the terrorists though. The idea of punishment is not about cleansing jails of terrorists; the idea of justice prevails when punishment is delivered irrespective of the criminal’s status, position and rank. The mavericks of our interior ministry cannot be ignored here in understanding how this country spares the influential. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had been indignant, quite rightly, about finding the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), Pakistan’s apex crime investigating agency, mired in corruption. An investigation has been ordered to be carried out by none other than the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB). The report is awaited but, in the meantime, the minister has done another remarkable thing. He has vowed to allow those identified as guilty of corruption in the FIA to remain in service and receive salaries and perks. Those deputed to the FIA from other departments and found to have corrupted the institution will be simply returned to their parent organisations. The only punishment, according to the minister, will be the withdrawal of these corrupt officers from the decision making process. Could there be anything more absurd than this decision, which contradicts the government’s desire to free the country of corruption? Instead of punishing the wrongdoers, they are being rewarded and are allowed to continue in the jobs they perverted.

The FIA investigation report will identify the criminals and might well suggest severe punishment. The story will, however, end there. Silence will prevail. It will be business as usual. The immunity that surrounds the influential will strengthen and the FIA will become a more lucrative place for the new breed of corrupt officers. The apex committee the federal government has formed in each province to root out terrorism seems to have fallen prey to the discrepancy between the desire and the effort of provincial governments to eliminate terrorism. It seems more attempts have been made in arresting the violators of loudspeakers than the terrorists planning another attack on innocent people in urban cities like Karachi.

Everyone knows (and it has become almost a theory now) that only the police are capable of identifying criminals hiding in dense cities like Karachi. Report after report has identified loopholes in the performance of the police. Investigation after investigation has shown the police being deliberately turned into a weak force by the politicians. Analysts on television have given evidential proof about the deployment of the finest police officers for the security of VIPs. No action has been taken on any of these reports, investigations or analysis.

The result is that the criminals had another field day on May 13. They arrived and killed 45 people without discrimination. There were women, men and children. These poor souls had to die because the terrorists had the time, space and free hand to execute their plan without hindrance. In the coming days, the investigation on this attack might reveal staggering gaps in the performance of the police and perhaps in the targeted operation carried out in Karachi by the Rangers. Will anything happen? The chief minister of Karachi, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, does not consider the burden of 45 bodies enough to bend over backwards. He does not find any reason to resign when no other chief minister has done so when faced with a calamity as heinous as the Safoora attack.

So, what makes acceptable the argument that this country has not failed and will never let the hope of survival in its people diminish? This country is at the service of the rich people. It is in their interest to keep this ship afloat. Investigations will keep identifying the culprits. The governments will keep insisting it is not guilty. Innocents will keep falling like ninepins. And nothing will happen. This cycle will never run its course because it favours the powerful, the influential and the rich. Will it surprise anyone if the silence following the Safoora attack investigation report returns with a vengeance?