By Kamran Shafi
THE blinding speed with which the army high command is claiming success upon success in Buner and Swat, and now, increasingly in Waziristan, is astounding to say the least.
It is so particularly for those who have watched with dismay its non progress during the many years that the Commando held this country by the throat, and indeed, for those who followed its accomplishments with consternation and alarm, during its first foray into Swat two years and more ago.
Let’s get an important matter out of the way at the very start i.e. when one questions the strategy that the army high command employs, one in no way questions the dedication of the unit commanders and the young officers and jawans who are in the frontline in the battle against the terrorist Yahoos. One only questions the wisdom of the brass-hats; questions fuelled by top generals saying not too long ago that the likes of Baitullah Mehsud and Fazlullah (aka Mullah Radio) and Mangal Bagh were ‘patriots.’
So then, according to the army’s PR wallahs literally tens of Yahoos have been killed, among them some middling commanders. Hang on though. Why, pray, have their corpses not been shown to the media? We hear too of the plush and well-accoutred bunkers with caches of ‘sophisticated weapons’ (whatever that means), marble floors and all, which have been discovered. Why are we not taken on a tour of these underground palaces might one ask? Why are pictures of the seized weapons not shown in the print and electronic media? Indeed, why is the media not allowed in the war-zone; why is it not ‘embedded’ with the forward units so that credible reports could get to a highly agitated and sceptical nation?
Actually, all we are seeing is dated footage of a tank with a dodgy engine, belching masses of smoke; and of troops charging and hitting the ground, over and over again. The only worthwhile pictures we have seen thus far were those of five wild-eyed Yahoos, seemingly foreign jihadists, to a man cruel- and sadistic-looking, who were reportedly arrested during the present operation.
Let me repeat what I had written last week: that transparency was sorely needed to repair the damage done to the army’s image. GHQ should realise too that repeatedly saying that the army is succeeding now because the people are behind it is most disingenuous. Who asked the people if they were with the army when it first went into Swat years ago? Who has asked the people now? The fact of the matter is that for reasons best known to itself, it did not acquit itself well earlier, and that is that. The fact of the matter is that every report that came out of Swat left a confounded country even more baffled as it struggled to understand just why the Yahoos were being given free rein to murder and slaughter and pillage and steal and whip and execute, sometimes under the very noses of our troops.
Let me encourage GHQ to allow access to the frontline to journalists so that a bewildered and frightened nation can see independent reports of operational success against the Yahoos. This will not only set the people’s fears at rest, it will also impel them to salute our country’s fallen sons. Also, and this is critical, the operation will not be deemed anywhere near being successful unless some of the Yahoos who are the main culprits, are not arrested/killed.
Indeed, how is it that not one of the main criminals is dead yet? How is it that their locations are not known when they are giving long interviews to the press, both domestic and foreign every other day? Indeed, how is it that our expensively funded intelligence agencies have not been able to ferret out even one of them in all this time?
Transparency, gentlemen, complete transparency, please. And perhaps a little introspection to see what went wrong and who let the matter fester until it became the monster it has become? And, perhaps, an inquiry to lay blame at the offender’s door, followed by severe punishment so that never again will our country’s affairs be trifled with.
The way the PML-N acted against its elected MNA from Rawalpindi for cheating, and against a Punjab provincial minister for misbehaving with customs officers at Lahore airport are lessons in accountability. These actions should be welcomed by all those who cherish democracy, because it is imperative that political parties who say they espouse the rule of law show that they will hold even their own to account. Kudos, then, to Mr Nawaz Sharif and Mr Shahbaz Sharif.
Which immediately brings me to the shenanigans of M/S Kaira and Gondal, ministers in Mr Asif Zardari’s cabinet, in New York, during the alms-seeking mission just recently concluded. The two are seen in widely circulated pictures on the Internet (I got at least 30 mails containing them) alighting from a Hummer stretch limo; dollar bills being showered on them; and the bhangra being danced to the beat of a dhol. And all of this a mere four days after the Swat operation/the mass exodus of refugees with just the clothes on their backs, began.The fact that this is a family paper prevents me from using colourful, or shall we say explicit language, but by golly did you trample all limits of decency, of humanity? One must ask too what their hosts were thinking when they went overboard as they did? We hear so much nonsense about ‘hamara piyara mulk’ and other such high-sounding, holier-than-thou nonsense from the Pakistani diaspora. Well, where did the piyara mulk and its travails go when they behaved so disgracefully at a time when mourning should have been more in order?
The PPP, which has already hurt itself so deeply for reasons we all know well, should discipline the ministers concerned, who in their turn, should at the very least have the courage to tender an immediate public apology.
Let me end with saying that the latest attacks on Lahore and Peshawar by the criminal and cruel and unfeeling Yahoos should be answered with the utmost aggression. ‘We will gouge your eyes out if you so much as dare to target innocent citizens of this country, you brutes,’ should be the clear message. At the same time the country must defend itself against such attacks by the political leadership gingering up the intelligence agencies to do a better job, and by sacking people out of hand if they do not come up to mark.
Also, there are many types of explosives detectors in the market which should be procured on a war-footing and installed on all the country’s major roads. Every activity should take second place to the control of terrorism – the only way to send a clear message to the Yahoos that we will not succumb to their evil.
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