| February 12, 2007 | Monday | Muharram 23, 1428 |
Peace and solidarity
Pre-empting attacks
We as a people are a lot like crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors ...but they all have to learn to live in the same box.
THE recent spate of some nine bomb/grenade attacks in this northern part of the country, including two in the twin cities of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, is a grim reminder of the capability and potential of miscreants to destabilise Pakistan’s security. At the same time, the attacks are also signs of our weakness in pre- empting such incidents.
Intolerance is abundant in every phase of our social life. From educational institutions to public transport, one sees people fighting over the pettiest of issues.
There has been a great increase in intolerance among our people owing to the continuous political turmoil and dictatorships in the country that have resulted in the deterioration of national institutions.
Intolerance is the actual major issue confronting our society as it breeds separation, misunderstanding, and hostility.
When groups have no avenue to settle their disagreements through discussion, they resort to violence.
If a newborn human child is left to fend in the wild, its nature will be exactly that, wild and chaotic.
Human nature is defined by the values that are taught and the values that society defines, if there are no societal values, human beings are doomed.
Society defines the values and morals for people to live by, these are common values.
Educational institutions can play a major role by inculcating moral values and promoting a culture of tolerance. Unfortunately this is not the case in our society, our education institutions are a hotbed of political rivalry and intolerance. Violent clashes between students’ groups are a routine affair.
During my student days at the University of Karachi, I witnessed clashes over such minor issues like adding the term ‘musical’ with a picnic. The sad thing is nobody is willing to listen to others’ point of view.
The recent clashes at an engineering university and a college brings one to the conclusion that either political activities at educational institutions be banned or a code of conduct devised to check the growing intolerance among youth.
The former is not a suitable option as political activity and difference of opinion nurtures tolerance, broadens vision and teaches co-existence.
The only option is to turn our educational institutions into base camps where our youth are imparted skills to earn bread and butter but more importantly where moral values, tolerance and respect for others’ view are instilled.
A concrete strategy devised in consultation with all the stakeholders to open the doors of interaction, is the need of the hour.
This brings me to another question, most of our political outfits are working for the restoration of democracy in the country, but what are they doing to instill democratic values in their workers and supporters and more importantly leaders to behave as a democratic society.
CLUTCHING babies, rolling their wheelchairs down the road and being pushed on stretchers, the Karachians expressed solidarity with their Kashmiri brethren last Monday, observed as the Kashmir Day across the country and abroad.
Party activists carried flags and held aloft banners inscribed with various slogans and demands as they marched on city roads. It was indeed a massive show of solidarity in which everyone, including patients and handicapped people, took part wholeheartedly. No party had sought permission from the government for taking to the streets. Nor was an NOC needed as the Sindh chief minister, his cabinet members, officials, all marched side by side with the common people.
Pakistanis have always passionately supported Kashmiri brethren in their struggle for independence. It is also a fact that many Pakistani youths have fought and died alongside the Kashmiris. Pakistan has fought three wars with India over the same issue. But it has eluded a solution and there still seems to be no way out of this intricate situation in the near future.
A number of solutions have been presented by the present government and more are rumoured to be in the works. Pakistan has gone several extra miles on the issue but whether India budges even an inch from its stated position is yet to be seen. However, as long as the Kashmiris suffer, Pakistanis - from the tribal belt to the coastal areas - are willing to share their suffering.
Earlier, the Sindh government and its coalition partners were tripping over themselves to congratulate one another for peaceful passage of Muharram. Despite the ominous warnings and consequent scare about violence in the city during the days preceding Ashura, nothing untoward happened. It was a matter of great relief for everyone living in this city. Everyone was happy except, of course, the invisible marauders and hatred wholesalers.
PPP and MQM rallies during the run-up to the by-election on the NA-250 seat passed off without any untoward incident. They both disrupted traffic and city life according to their individual capacities. The MQM won the election, the PPP cried foul. After a couple of violent incidents, and the PPP polling agents decided to leave the field open for their rivals and then rejected the poll result. This supported the claims of the MMA which had announced a belated boycott of the election alleging that it feared violence and rigging in the poll. But generally it was a peaceful affair.
Whether the law-enforcement agencies could be credited for the law and order is doubtful. It is likely that the terrorists were engaged somewhere else and decided to spare Sindh. The incidents of lawlessness that followed the Muharram days showed that the government agencies still cannot overpower the outlaws. Consider the daring robbery in the Aga Khan Hospital, where three robbers, one in police uniform, shot dead a security guard and made off with Rs8 million. If terrorists had decided to target such a place, they could really play havoc with lives. Besides, there has been an upsurge in street crime as the media daily reports incidents of murder, robbery, car and cellphone snatching.
Dinner for the Quaid
Of all the elitist clubs of repute that Karachi had on the eve of Partition, Karachi Club was the only one where the natives could enter. The other three - Sind Club (it's not yet Sindh Club, mind you), Boat Club and Karachi Gymkhana - were meant for the Europeans. Non-Europeans were allowed to become members well after Independence. It was not until the fifties that the locals could become office-bearers.
Karachi Club was set up by the locals--Muslims, Hindus and Parsis--in the first decade of the 20th century as a reaction to the racist attitude of the colonial government. This explains why the Father of the Nation accepted the dinner invitation of Karachi Club readily.
A member treasures a copy of the specially printed menu folder for the occasion. The banquet was in honour of "His Excellency, Qaid-e-Azam [not Quaid-i-Azam] Mohamed Ali Jinnah, Governor General of Pakistan and Miss Jinnah" and the date was Thursday, August 14, 1947. It was sometime in Ramazan that the banquet was held, most probably on the 27th of the holy month.
The menu begins with grapefruit, followed by asparagus soup. The next three courses are "sole and prawn Italian, braised chicken and bagatelle-aux-fruits". Then there is dessert (not specified) and coffee. Highly westernised menu!
The dinner was followed by a music programme (all western music) and dance. One wonders if the Father of the Nation and his sister stayed late because the day must have been hectic. The time of the banquet is not mentioned on the menu folder. It must have been 8pm, which was when all dinners were held in those days. Maybe someone who has a copy of the invitation card could tell us the correct time.
A painting of the Quaid, done by Mirza Ahmed Jameel, one of the two inventors of Noori Nastaleeq, adorns the reception of the club.
Bread and music
He works at a government office as a grade-17 officer but at least two of his nights are devoted to singing to supplement his monthly income as well as to satisfy his passion for music.
"I have my own group of singers, dancers and orchestra. We earn a handsome amount every month to live a decent life," says Majid.
He says he commands as much respect at the office and outside as any person of his stature does, and music has caused no adverse effect on his personality.
"Music is my passion. I love to sing and dance and play the guitar and it is wonderful to earn something which you pursue your interests," he says.
Majid's group is one of the scores of music groups which perform at weddings and other parties nightlong and pocket a reasonable amount of money before reaching home at daybreak.
"It really leaves us dead tired. But it is okay if it is weekend. On working days it becomes a bit taxing," Majid says.
His group charges Rs15,000 but almost always earns more when generous hosts shower money on them as a token of appreciation.
"We earn good money in such functions but over-excited people sometimes cause a nuisance mainly to the female members of our group," Majid says.
Shumaila has been performing as a stage dancers at these parties for years now but she had to make an effort initially to get used to it. She was the sole breadwinner of her family.
"My father had died and I was the eldest among my five siblings to support the family along with my ailing mother who would work as a housemaid. I could not afford to quit it and later got adjusted to the rules of the business," she says.
She says her dance experience during her schooldays had come in handy.
"I also sing at the parties but dancing is my speciality. Some audiences are good and sophisticated who remain at a distance and shower money on us but we often have to come across impolite people," Shumaila says.
Shoaib is an amateur singer who has joined the music group to get some experience and establish his profile in search of a breakthrough. These youngsters get a paltry share from the earnings but they are quite happy to have a limited audience all the time.
"I do my best despite the fact that our orchestra often fails to synchronise with me and the audience sometimes responds violently but this does not let me down. I have a long way to go," Shoaib says.
He then refers to Tufail Sanjrani who was once a part of an obscure music group but is now a known singer on Sindhi satellite channels.
"I believe in hard work and believe it will pay me off someday," Shoaib says.
— Karachian
Email: naseer.awan@dawn.com
Given our much-publicised role in helping Britain last August to thwart a major ‘liquid bomb’ terrorist plan to blow up some 10 airliners across the Atlantic while flying from Heathrow Airport in London to prominent cities in the US, it is expected that we do the same when it comes to thwarting would-be attackers in our own country.
Intelligence operations in Pakistan, which included the arrest of seven people here in August 2006, reportedly provided ‘vital information’ which subsequently helped the British authorities to arrest some 24 people in the UK and thus apparently foil the mid-Atlantic bomb plot before it could be executed.
Could we not have acted similarly before the current spate of bomb attacks in this region? The fact that two of the recent attacks were carried out in the high security alert twin cities — the first at the Marriott Hotel on January 26 in which the bomber and a security guard was killed, and the second at Islamabad Airport on February 6 in which the bomber was killed — is all the more unnerving.
The other attacks took place in Hangu (January 25) where a car bomb in a market killed two passers-by and injured four others; in Peshawar (January 27) where 15 people including six policemen were killed and many more injured in a religious procession; in Dera Ismail Khan (January 29) where two persons including a policeman were killed and six others including two policemen were injured; in Bannu (January 29), where 13 people were injured when a rocket was fired near a mosque; and in Tank (February 9) where a bomb exploded outside a shop but caused no casualties.
Apart from these attacks on civilian targets, there have been two reported attacks against military targets in this region during the past three weeks. The first took place on January 22 when a suicide bomber blew himself up near Mirali in North Waziristan Agency killing five soldiers and injuring 20 others
The second occurred on February 3 when a suicide bomber rammed his jeep into a military convoy in Tank killing two soldiers and wounding seven others.
The twin cities were fortunate in that the two attacks appeared to have been foiled by security guards before the miscreants could do what they had apparently set out to do at Marriott Hotel and Islamabad Airport. But could we have predicted and prevented these two incidents and possibly the other attacks as well if we had better intelligence surveillance and coordination, and perhaps even tougher anti-terrorism laws?
After all, it was reported in one local newspaper on February 7 that according to intelligence sources, a group of five terrorists had entered Rawalpindi on January 29 with explosive material. Also on February 7, another local newspaper reported that the intelligence agencies had unearthed at least 10 terrorist plots to attack hotels and buildings commonly used by VIPs and the targets are said to be mostly high ranking officials of the law enforcement agencies.
More attacks in this region can perhaps be expected, especially given the fact that explosives were found in both Islamabad and Dera Ismail Khan on February 9 lying in open public places. In Islamabad two mortar shells and two anti-aircraft shells were found in a green area near the Convention Centre and in Dera Ismail Khan, 12 bombs were found in a field near a military base.
In countries like the US and the UK, counter-terrorism operations since the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks in 2001 and 2005 respectively have been focused on actively pre-empting attacks rather than merely reacting to them.
It was reported in a local newspaper that Pakistani and British security agencies have agreed to boost cooperation in monitoring the activities of British nationals of Pakistani origin when they visit Pakistan, purportedly to stop them from hatching up plans to launch attacks in the UK.
Hopefully this greater cooperation does not translate into lesser concentration and focus by our intelligence agencies on the security situation in our own country, which is as vulnerable as the UK to attacks, as evident by the recent spate of bomb/grenade attacks.
Particularly so if we are to continue with the kind of policies that we have been pursuing in the Tribal Areas, in Balochistan and vis-a-vis the religious elements over confrontational issues like illegal mosques in the capital city, it is only expected that we provide the utmost protection to our citizens, whether they be VIPs, officials (including policemen and soldiers) or ordinary citizens.
This protection should take the form of enhancing the law enforcement capability of the police with more resources, including more personnel, training and equipment; enhancing intelligence coordination among the security agencies, including establishing a clear set of standard operating procedures on intelligence sharing; and finally, perhaps even strengthening the existing anti-terrorism laws to give the security agencies greater investigation powers and more ability to act pre- emptively against attacks.
However, while there is a need to ensure the security of our citizens by enhancing the capacity of our law enforcement apparatus, we have also to straddle a dilemma between security imperatives and the need to ensure that the civil rights of our citizens are not violated, specially by their becoming victims of enforced disappearances.
If anybody is a suspect, and therefore a danger to the security of fellow citizens, then he should be detained and charged according to the law. If we don’t have appropriate or sufficient laws for this, then it’s high time we enact them.
While strong security measures are important, this should not be undertaken at the expense of civil rights. One way of protecting civil rights is to ensure that laws regarding investigation and detention of suspects are reviewed annually in the National Assembly in order to enhance accountability and prevent abuses.
Enforced disappearances and overzealous prosecution without due regard for civil rights can only backfire and deal a setback to our efforts to counter and pre-empt miscreants trying to destabilise the country.