Time bombs threatening the political landscape

Islamabad diary
Despite the fervent prayers and earnest efforts of the potential victims there are two time bombs refusing to be defused: a) the Model Town firing incident; and b) what in popular shorthand is known as the Asghar Khan case.
Fourteen persons, including women, shot dead in cold blood by police firing, scores injured from direct bullet wounds, this not in the wilds of Rajanpur along the banks of the Indus where encounters take place and no feathers are ruffled but right in the heart of Lahore…indeed in the very Model Town where the chief minister holds court. But, and this would read like a fairy tale if it was not real, no one in the wide echelons of the Punjab government is charged with this massacre – what other name does one give it? – or otherwise held to account.
Amidst tall claims of doing the right thing, a judge of the high court, Milord Ali Baqar Najafi, was appointed to conduct a judicial enquiry but his submitted report hasn’t seen the light of day. Anyone would draw the conclusion his findings were not to the liking of interested quarters.
Worse crimes have been covered up and forgotten. So 14 people shot dead, given the historical context, is no big deal. Only trouble is that in our national life we have turned a leaf and times are changing. What was possible before may not be possible anymore. The Taliban were untouchable. Altaf Hussain was above anyone’s notion of the law. Malik Ishaq wore bullet-proof and law-proof armour. And few optimists expected the NLC case, in which influential generals were indicted, to come to any conclusion.
But in the changed Pakistan we are seeing unfold – although trust the army-bashing liberati not to see it – the previously unheard of is coming to pass.
So in this new climate in which the previously mighty are being felled, does anyone in his right mind think that the Model Town massacre can remain consigned to the book of forgotten memories? Does Model Town sit within the jurisdiction of the city of Lahore or does the law not apply to its broad and leafy avenues?
If generals charged in the NLC case have felt the winds of disgrace, can Punjab high-ups who ordered the barriers removed around our favourite cleric’s house in Model Town, which is how the trouble started, continue to feign ignorance, that they had no clue to what was happening?
In the Asghar Khan case the Supreme Court, then headed by Milord Chaudhry, held that in distributing Mehran Bank money in the 1990 elections – the list of recipients headed by the honourable Nawaz Sharif and including a cast of luminaries who over the years have lectured the nation on virtue and integrity – the then army chief, General Aslam Beg, and then ISI chief, Lt Gen Asad Durrani, had violated (that much-abused document) the constitution.
The basis of this case is a sworn affidavit of Gen Durrani, citing the names of the lucky recipients, who incidentally include some high-minded journalists. Milord Chaudhry was assiduous in pursuing cases pertaining to the PPP, even dismissing a prime minister for flouting the court’s orders. When it came to the PML-N the court’s attitude was more indulgent, testifying to the truth of Orwell’s timeless observation that whereas all animals are equal some are more equal than others.
The Federal Investigation Agency, as per the SC’s direction, is pursuing the Asghar Khan case. So far its pace has been that of the tortoise. But will it remain this way? Will the immunity in this case that Nawaz Sharif and others have enjoyed over the years last?
The test will come in the form of Gen Beg’s immunity. So far he has ignored the FIA’s summons. But he can be summoned through due legal process. That would be an earthquake of sorts.
And if he and Lt Gen Durrani have to face the music, are the political worthies involved bigger holy cows than them? This is not someone’s imagination at work. This is virtually an open-and-shut case, everything in black-and-white, so and so receiving so much money. The bigger or original crime may be that of the two generals, who set the process in motion. They took money from a banker, deposited half of it in the ISI’s accounts and distributed the remainder amongst Islami Jamhoori Ittehad leaders – the rightwing, Islam-pasand election alliance put together (you’ve guessed it) by the ISI.
But what about the recipients? Aren’t they accessories in the crime? What happens then to their eligibility to contest elections? The possibilities are many and mindboggling.
But the FIA, the investigating agency in this case, has to get serious. We have the example of the National Accountability Bureau whose chief, Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, said to be close to the ruling circles, was reportedly summoned by the right quarters and told to get serious. It was after this that NAB put a list of important pending investigations before the Supreme Court, a list which includes the name of the prime minister. The FIA’s attitude should tell us something of what may be happening behind the scenes.
So we are going through interesting times. Unlike in the past when the army’s bark was worse than its bite – much ado about nothing, shouting from the housetops and drum-beating and then nothing much happening – this time, from Fata to Lyari, from Lyari to Nine Zero, from there to Bilawal House, and from Sindh to Punjab where the unimaginable in the form of Malik Ishaq’s killing has occurred, the army is moving on a broad front, upending many things but not blowing unnecessarily its trumpets. More bite, less bark.
The results we can see: ‘jihadi’ terrorism hit like never before, Lyari quiet, Nine Zero less vibrant party centre and more like a funeral parlour, the silence of Bilawal House reaching out to the sea, the leadership of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi decimated, and NAB, Allah be praised, beginning to show signs of life.
Asif Zardari has been rendered irrelevant, his threat “eent se eent baja den ge” a source almost of national satire, Altaf Hussain getting a slow work-over which is having a telling effect on his nerves (is there any other explanation for his recent statements?). The PML-N has had a series of lessons in realism read to it since last year, from which it has gained a clearer sense of the limits of its power. But with the two time bombs ticking away, its troubles may just be beginning. If generals are not above being touched, on what basis can civilians hope to remain inviolate?
Never has such a cleansing – subtle and quiet – been attempted in Pakistan before. I can’t say whether there is any design to this. My own feeling is there is none, all this happening fortuitously, one thing leading to another. Or this could be a dead wrong assessment and there may be more to all this than we can see.
This much is certain: the civilians in the face of the Taliban threat virtually abdicated leadership last year and the army took up the slack. Since then the country has been moving in a certain direction…and the civilians are not in the driving seat.
What makes it worse for the civilians, the army has public opinion behind it. Where all this ends who can tell?
Email: bhagwal63@gmail.com