“What does it take to maintain integrity in a system rife with corruption? Tariq Khosa’s gripping memoir offers a rare, unfiltered look inside Pakistan’s corridors of power from a man who refused to compromise on his principles. Over four tumultuous decades, Tariq Khosa rose from a young police officer to head of the Federal Investigation Agency, facing down terrorists, crime lords, and political pressure at every turn,” says the blurb of Tariq Khosa’s memoir Walking a Tightrope published by Lightstone Publishers.

People generally find it hard to believe that Police Service of Pakistan has among its ranks upright officers who can hold their head high in times when genuflecting before the powers wielders has become a norm.

Our department of police is a colonial legacy. It was designed as a force not to serve the people but rather to make them acquiesce to the colonial dictates. It was given a carte blanche to control the people, at all costs. Humiliating people and brutalising them became a habit with it, which it hasn’t shed even after independence because the vestiges of the anti-people power structures put in place by colonialism still linger on. But there can be exceptions. Tariq Khosa is a good example. When we were together as class fellows in Government College Lahore ( now a university, and something lesser than what it used to be) I could not imagine that one day he would join the police force. The reason was that he was no nonsense student who was more interested in books than girls or displaying his muscle. He seemed to be cut out for foreign service and administrative service. He never appeared to be a tough guy fit to be a policeman. In our culture a policeman invariably carries unmistakable signs of machismo. But beneath Tariq’s demeanour there was an intellectual strength as was proven by his years in police service. Police being one of lynchpins of the system brought him face to face with the tough guys on the ground and string pullers ensconced in the echelons of power.

As a sub-divisional police officer in Jhang he had to deal with sectarian politics in the 1980s. Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan - a Sunni organisation - came into being as a response to the emergence of a Shia outfit Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Fiqah Jafaria in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution. The Sipah was headed by what he calls ‘a diminutive firebrand Haq Nawaz’. When a Shia procession was passing on its traditional route in the Jhang city, Haq Nawaz, violating the code of conduct, entered a mosque on the way from the back door and delivered a provocative speech against Shia who refused to proceed and wanted to attack the mosque. “It was a moment to decide quickly: to allow a bloodbath or stop the madness…I asked the policemen to take off their shoes, and we stormed the mosque…Getting hold of the cleric by the neck, we dragged him out of the mosque, put him in my jeep, and headed straight to Totwali police station.” What happened next was unexpected. “I was filing the report of the incident when I received an urgent call from DC Jhang asking me to go to his camp office. When I arrived, I found DC Shehzad Hasan Parvez and SP Ahmed Naseem standing in the camp office with worried expressions. The DC told me that he had received a call from General Ziaul Haq, who wanted ‘Maulana’ Haq Nawaz to be released immediately.”

Nexus between sectarian outfits and ruling clique wreaked havoc with the social and cultural fabric of the society on the national level. Similarly, collusion between criminals and local politicians posed a constant threat to law and order. Tariq tells us how he dealt with the crime situation in Gujranwala, a most crime infested district of Punjab.

Mian Azhar, the then governor of Punjab, who wanted an operation against the criminal gangs called him. He wanted to start from Gujranwala. “The governor looked me in the eyes with assurance, and with a stern expression, said ‘Go do it. I have faith in you. Produce results.” In a well-planned operation “scores of outlaws and hardened criminals surrendered.” Henchmen of the MNA and MPA were arrested. “Mian Azhar was elated. He had posted a stamp of being a firm administrator by starting his anti-crime campaign from Gujranwala. He patted me, and a look of gratitude in his eyes was humbling for me. I had done my duty.”

The memoir provides us insight into the inner workings of the system we inherited from colonial times which is an amalgam of pre-colonial, and more importantly, colonial socio-political oddities. Our polity has all the laws in the book but Tariq shows us how the laws are bent and circumvented to the advantage of the powerful. The law is a matter of convenience. Lawmakers are lawbreakers. Tariq discreetly exposes the rot in the system. There is no reason to doubt what he says because of his integrity and uprightness. Hadn’t I known him I wouldn’t have believed that such an officer was a member of our otherwise tainted police force. He offers many an insight into the socio-political process in which our panjandrums come up with make-or-break decisions. The book is a rewarding read.

“Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Teachings of the Sufi Elders” is a document with an interesting format of coffee table book that has colourful illustrations to bring home Sufi message of peace and harmony relevant to contemporary life. It has been compiled and arranged by Fr. Sohail Patrick and published by Suchet Kitab Ghar, Lahore. It carries trilingual text i.e. English Punjabi and Urdu. Punjabi translation of the text has been done by Maqsood Saqib. Verses of poets/saints such as Baba Farid, Kabir, Shah Husain, Sultan Bahu, Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah and others have been rendered into English by Farhana Tabassum. Paintings/illustrations used are by Rishma Aiman. The document “outlines the basic rights and freedoms every one is entitled to, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, to equality, to migration, to association, to freedom of opinion and expression, to education, and many more rights fundamental to our existence.” The document should be on your table. — *soofi01@hotmail.com*

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2025