Be a bully

Here is a much-asked question: what to expect in the months ahead in Pakistan’s seedy politics? There can be several answers to the query, and all fairly accurate. Let us give one: Expect bullies to rule the roost of attention and centrality in national politics. Bullying will be the order of the day.

Obviously, this isn’t something that will be happening in Pakistan for the first time. Bully politics has been around for as long as the country’s history. Street agitation primed to cause chaos and craft change in the system or the government has for long been an effective tool. Lahore in 1954 was dress rehearsal. It paved the way for later repeated assertions that the country could not be governed in a normal way and, therefore, required special arrangement like military regimes, puppet civilian orders, rigged elections and installation of imported experts.

In all such scenarios, bullying of some sort either preceded or followed political events. Those on the receiving end of bullying had to suffer various fates, from hanging to assassination to total banishment from the political realm. Less costly forms of bullying took the shape of loss of government, position, privilege. But unlike the past, today’s bully politics has acquired a mass scale and is no longer targeted at individuals or focused groups. It has mass targets. From ordinary citizens to neutral groups, to administrative institutions, to professional groups – anyone and everyone is in the bull’s eye. This massification of bully politics is unique and recent; it is likely to expand in the days ahead.

The most recent example of bully politics was the work of the Khadim gang. In case some of you have forgotten the finer details of this particular episode, some recapitulation is in order. This is what the bullies did.

They occupied the federal and Punjab territory – of strategic value – for nearly four weeks, established a genuine no-go area spanning both Islamabad and Rawalpindi, and spread strife across the land. They brought all business of the state and government to a standstill causing deaths, mayhem and losses worth billions to public and private property. As they did that they were equated with the government, which was told by its own army chief that it should not use violence to sort out its problems with them. In the end a humiliating documented was waved as a great success.

Before the mayhem erupted, the group and its leaders had left nothing to imagination when it came to hurling abuses. They spared no one except the serving military high command. No one escaped the barrels of filth beamed across the country through social media, and in the near neighbourhood by boom speakers. Sitting judges, politicians, journalists and different representatives of religious sects heard their names being dragged through mud via references involving their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.

The group acted in the true spirit of mass bullies. They dared the law – and won. They bashed the ordinary public with rods – and escaped punishment. They comprehensively damaged an already shaky reputation of Pakistan as a stable liberal society – and were garlanded. They hijacked debate on critical issues of regional security, instilled fear and hopelessness among the general public about the state of affairs in their country – and got rewards and generous smiles.

No special meeting of the National Security Committee was called to deliberate the systematic destruction of the essence of the National Action Plan’s aim to keep extremism in check. No one discussed how the group and its activities breached the heart of Operation Raddul Fasaad. The government was spineless, personified by a petrified Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who totally absented himself from taking lead in this matter leaving it to be handled by the professorial fluff of Ahsan Iqbal of Banana-Republic comment fame.

The interior minister then only reinforced his reputation as a hollow talker when he supervised what had to be the world’s clumsiest police action against a mob. The Punjab chief minister, whose bumbling administration simply sent the caravan of bullies on the doorstep of Islamabad almost as if it were an alien land, topped the tally of folly by having a similar arrangement with the Sialvi gang in Lahore a few days later.

The horrors experienced by daily travellers combined with the loss of business, jobs, life-time opportunities, critical operations, wedding dates, school, college and university learning and teaching hours created a tyranny unparalleled in modern times in any state other than those beset with chronic civil wars, foreign occupation or whose parts are laid to ruin by natural disasters. And yet nothing happened. This would have continued for another few weeks had it not been for the visit of James Mattis. Pakistan needed to look clean and stable for this important guest.

The ISI’s report as cited by the two-member bench of the Supreme Court order said that it was meant for political purposes. The precise formulation of the intelligence assessment quoted in the order went like this: “The TLYRA is determined to exploit the situation and gain political mileage to gain support for next general elections”. This led the honourable judges to conclude in their order that “it appears that the protesters have a political agenda to fulfil.”

That characterised the whole fasaad in realistic terms. It was a political manoeuvre through and through aimed to gain political advantage. Here are the gains. The group is now a household name. Its notoriety is gilded by the cause it propagated to champion – a claim that attracts those who see only holiness in the group’s actions. With nearly 39,000 registered mosques in Punjab alone (minus mega rich and popular shrines) the group or conglomerate of likeminded sub-sectarian bodies, can muster enough support to be a factor in national politics. It can factionalise the patchwork of the support system of the ruling party and wean away some traders, middle men, government employees, labourers, unions, lawyers etc on sectarian grounds. Therefore, it will have significant bargaining power with parties that are engaged in a do-or-die battle for influence in Punjab. It can, in slim-margin constituencies, be a kingmaker. There is no doubt that this group was a direct beneficiary of this calamitous situation and has enhanced its political fortunes in no uncertain terms. This makes the model of bully politics something for others to copy and follow or replicate. The return of Tahirul Qadri (another bully in chief) to the market of intrigue is just one example. Sialvi’s demand list is another.

But the political ambitions or plans of bullies do not automatically get them currency. They need sponsorship. Which entity in this country can operate with such impunity, turning highways in strategic areas into makeshift homes to carry out the worst kind of bullying against the state? Very few have been allowed free passage to the pinnacle of such astounding power as recent-day bullies have.

Bullies are now mainstream entities. They are here to stay. Agreed, the concept of mainstreaming bullies is oxymoronic. The mainstream controls bullies, not the other way around. In this instance, bullies make the entire state and government apparatus look like an extended joke. Their leaders do not recognise the writ of the state. They do not bother about constitutional authority. They have no regard for their responsibilities and the rights of others. And yet they thrive.

This new form of mass bullyism in the name of mainstreaming of sectarian groups has it definitive downside. The idea of sectarian groups scuttling the entire government machinery might look tasty if you can’t wait to see the government fall, but its toxic potential is exponential. Bullies replicate themselves. They multiply. It is one today. There will be a dozen tomorrow. With or without sponsors, they will play havoc at a scale much larger than what we are seeing now. They will produce reaction from the opposing sects, who are watching the trends with great interest. But this is a thought that hardly matters. We have entered the age of mass bullies. The coming months will be months of the bullies, for the bullies, by the bullies. What to do? Rent a bully, or buy a bully. Better still, be a bully and thrive.

The writer is former executive editor of The News and a senior journalist with Geo TV.

Email: syedtalathussain@gmail.com

Twitter: @TalatHussain12