War & peace Catch-22 in Sindh
Whether the Armed Forces act in their primary capacity as defenders of the country’s sovereignty against external aggression or in Aid of Civil Power to ward off the threat of internal subversion, the mission given to them is always a clear statement of intention. Anytime there is ambiguity in the annunciation of their functions it invariably leads to confusion, this has a dire effect on the effectiveness of the Armed Forces. As we are seeing in Sindh, it is extremely clear that the Defence Services have become the only force that is accepted by all concerned to be neutral, as such any action (or inaction) that confuses their mission or does not define it in clear terms leads to subverting their final authority for maintaining internal peace.
Ostensibly there is cooperation between the Political Government in Sindh and the Army hierarchy therein, it does translate into administrative reality but certainly the working relationship needs to be improved. The overriding impression prevailing is that while the Army does not have full confidence in the impartiality of the civil administration, the political government does not have full confidence in the Army’s willingness to eventually return to the barracks, debilitating internecine conflict that does not bode well for the restoration of law and order in the Province of Sindh.
There are a number of democratic principles which are being violated in Sindh at the present, prime among them that the ruling party PPP, which has very rightly formed the governments at the Centre and in the Sindh and Frontier Provinces, seems not to allow democracy within its own party in its major power base of Sindh as it does to such good effect in the Frontier. The Frontier Province is presently the best run democratic unit in the country, the simple reason is that Aftab Sherpao represents the aspirations of the Provincial PPP. In Sindh, Mr Qaim Ali Shah, and then later Mr Aftab Shahban Mirani, have been appointed to their posts by the Central leadership of the PPP, they derive their strength from Ms Benazir herself, not through having grassroots popularity personally among the PPP rank and file. Both are basically gentlemen, essentially capable, the present political morass is beyond them because the lack of freedom of action has eroded the stamp of their authority, vital in such a fluid political environment. Translated into political and administrative indecision, given the nature of the prevailing problem where swift command decisions are the requirement of the hour, waiting for prompting from Islamabad has caused total paralysis in the provincial political leadership structure. While it may be very important for Ms Benazir to maintain a firm personal grip on her power base, she is not Superwoman — and it is now telling! As the PM of Pakistan she has her hands more than full, problems of all shapes and size, internally and externally, compounded by a horrendous economic situation, she really cannot give her attention to the Sindh Province, which needs undivided full-time attention anyway. The net result is that she faces problems on both the Federal and Provincial fronts, Nawaz Sharif to a great extent in the Punjab and Akbar Bugti to a lesser extent in Balochistan have not made life any easier for her, the national interest overtaken by mutual suspicion of each other’s intent. One feels that she is a prisoner of sorts, very surprisingly for Ms Benazir, of her own insecurity. No number of cosmetic changes may be resorted to will ensure the positive support for her policies and for herself she badly needs as a national leader. With all due respects to Justice Fakhruddin Ebrahim, the present Governor, his role has not been as outstanding as the reputation that preceded his advent into office. The stories about pampering his own vested interests while enjoying the perquisites of the Governor’s office are abominable, if true. As the Chief Federal representative in the Province he must have the personal authority to exercise influence over diverse personalities and/or events or he becomes politically excess baggage.
For their part the MQM overplayed its hand after the January 26, 1990 Karachi meeting, a benchmark because of its extremely well organised mammoth happening, it is now clear that it was also the highmark of MQM in Karachi, the facade of mature responsibility having been torn away by the ill-conceived Feb 7 strike call in the face of the Kashmir situation and subsequently the crude attempts to enforce that Hartal. Even to those who would be sympathetic to MQM sensitivities, and one should number Ms Benazir among them because of her political background and western liberal education, the roughshod method of MQM cohorts and the bad timing turned a lot of people off. There is no doubt that some of their grievances are genuine, as the peoples representatives it is their undeniable right for accession to real power in metropolitan rule in Karachi and Hyderabad, but demanding their rights does not mean that they should take away the rights of all the others who live in these cities, in actual majority outnumbering them at least in Karachi if not in Hyderabad. The suspicion arises that since MQM leadership knows that it will at best be confined to urban cities as a minority party always, it may be their attempt to keep democratic rule at the Local Bodies level rather than tolerate it at the Provincial or Federal Level where there is no chance for them anyway except as a minor partner in an alliance. Given the split democratic mandate this is an extremely myopic view and the history of the last two years is a pointer to that, Ms Benazir could only form the Government initially when she had their tacit backing, the Opposition could only launch their failed no-confidence move when the MQM switched sides. The MQM has a pivotal role to play, political maturity gained with experience will certainly see their effervescent role in national politics, if nothing the MQM has given a voice to the aspirations of the Mohajirs, in a democratic evaluation even that is counted as a success. Repeatedly we have stated that the right of genuine Metropolitan rule should not be denied to them, they must have real power to exercise, not the ribbon-cutting, baby-kissing kind. However, the stark fact of their excesses of their militant wing stands out, no civilized society can accept it, in a democratic atmosphere it is totally counter productive. One can understand the needs of self-defence but when such forces become the instruments of aggression they become the scourge of democracy.
The need for curbing of the militant wing is also true for the PPP, it must control its youthful gun-bearing activists who have increasingly taken law into their own hands. It is rumoured that the late assassinated Najib of the PSF was as feared by some of his own political associates within the PPP as much as by the MQM, in particular they talk about a slapping incident involving a high PPP political personage of Sindh. One edifying sight was of 150 or so Kalashnikov — totting gunmen keeping vigil over the stricken Najib in the Aga Khan Hospital. The responsibility of maintaining law and order falls to the democratic PPP Government in Sindh, they have to curb their own militant factions to have some credibility as it is giving excuse of self-defence to the other political groups to bear arms.
There are a number of militant factions violently disturbing the peace in Sindh today. The most brutal faction are RAW trained and paid gunmen infiltrated by India whose criminal hand was seen to great effect in Sri Lanka, which we are now witnessing in Sindh. Essentially RAW is the only organisation in the world that exports state terrorism, gunning down of bus and van passengers, bombs in crowded places, assassinations by paid hitmen are essentially RAW signatures. No doubt RAW cannot function without some support within the Sindh Province, it is high time ISI and the MI Directorates did their job they were meant to do and exorcise this Province of RAW and their adherents who have succeeded in infiltrating into other militant factions as well. The Jiay Sindh activists have been badly compromised by RAW infiltration, one of the leaders Dr Qadir Magsi has recently been arrested. Drawing their training and material support principally from the rural areas of Sindh, Jiay Sindh activists have been infiltrated increasingly by RAW and have resorted to various criminal and terrorist activities. This is a most dangerous alienation from education and a civilized society, it will have repercussions in the decades to come. The other faction getting succour from the disturbed peace are the dacoits, some of whom are also RAW trained and supported, some of whom have infiltrated Jiay Sindh to cover their material interests under nationalist garb. Dacoits have existed in Sindh rural areas in one form or the other for centuries, with modern weapons, equipment and a complicated socio-political environment they have become a very dangerous element to civilized society and must be eradicated by the exercise of all the forces available to the democratic Government. Even common criminals have found cover under nationalist garb, nowadays it serves dual purpose, it is fashionable and is an adequate camouflage of true criminal intent. The PPP and MQM militant wings have already been discussed at some length. It is quite possible that even these may have been infiltrated by enemy agents.
The Pakistan Army should really be at the national borders facing India, not looking over their shoulders at the cauldron in Sindh. If that was bad enough, to get involved in internal security operations at this time is even worse, you cannot fight a war on two fronts. RAW’s sowing of internal dissension has succeeded beyond imagination. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for Pakistan their timing was somewhat off, the South Asian summer is no time to launch an all-out war, T-72 tanks can be quite hot even standing. While keeping their guard, the Pakistan Army has allocated part of its forces to turn inwards to deal with the internal situation, a respite of 10-12 weeks available from a possible war with India. Whatever the Armed Forces do is still limited by time and space, and by political sensitivities. The Army must be surgical in its operation and fair in its actions, it cannot afford to alienate any portion of this population, yet the grounds for military and police action contain the portents of such ambiguities. If indeed, however, it is the intention of vested interests to besmirch the reputation of the Armed Forces, then we are talking another ball game and if the Army is stupid enough to fall for such a ploy, they deserve it!
It is easy to blame the Sindh Police without understanding their handicaps such as the lack of personnel and equipment, inadequate training, bad service conditions, no motivation, indifferent morale, etc. Enough has been said to demoralize them and some of it is blatantly unfair. Given impossible tasks, it is too much to expect them to carry this out keeping all political nuances in circumspect view. While it may have been very necessary to take action to recover illegal arms, the action could have been better modulated in Pucca Qila, experienced and better trained manpower could have been used. However, the role defined to the Army has essentially the same ambiguities, whether to carry out justice according to the given norms (or inadvertently) according to the dictates of political leanings.
The role defined to the Army under the Constitution thus becomes very important. The Army has to come across as squeaky clean in its dealings, to be completely even-handed in restoring law and order as well as in eradicating potential future problem creating entities. To do this they must have a free hand, if politicians dither over legal squabbles, the task is going to become that much more difficult. The civil administration should provide lists of all terrorist factions in toto without fear or favour in the supreme national interest, a partisan attitude would be very counter-productive. People of conscience whose job is to uphold the law must not be seen to be partial in any sense of the word, it will destroy the personal confidence all of us have in their credibility and honesty.
Having caught some of the criminal elements, what then? Are they to be left to our civilian courts, badly compromised by cumbersome laws, not able to render swift, effective justice? If one were a miscreant, given the judicial circumstances availing at present, it would be safer to surrender then face the uniformed juggernaut in open conflict, the better to laugh oneself out of jail whenever one pleases. Apprehension must be followed by swift trial, murderers must be given a short shrift, no pun intended. This can be possible only by Army courts, a dilemma for civilian rule given the connotations of creeping Martial Law. The problem for the Army arises that if they apprehend some people and those of any factions are let free despite their perceived guilt this will seriously impinge on the Army’s impartiality, giving the Armed Forces a bad name. There is a check and balance situation here and it bodes an ill wind for democracy if the ruling party is perceived to be partial by the instrument of its grand design to restore law and order, the Armed Forces. Somebody must resolve this Gordian knot, Ms Benazir has the will and the means to do this, her political circumstances dictate that she take tough decisions, now. She must rise above the fray, the only way she can remain mistress of the situation is by not becoming a party to it.
In Sindh today, we are living a Catch-22 situation.
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