Debating defeat, disaster and democracy

By Afzal Hussain Bokhari

Debacles in cricket and hockey had the makings of national scandals. The manner in which some television channels initiated the debate and analysis almost opened the Pandora's Box. Retired players Zaheer Abbas, Sarfaz Nawaz and Abdul Qadir popped out of television screens and appeared to froth at the mouth. The national debate had not quite caught the tempo when suicide bombers did some 'face saving' by swinging into action this time in Lahore and Mingora.

Nine explosions in Lahore and one in Mingora eclipsed the debate on cricket and hockey. Media persons focused on hard luck stories and items of human interest. Eyewitnesses narrated how the RA Bazaar blast in Punjab metropolis sent human flesh flying up into the high-powered electric cables where it got stuck and crows and vultures feasted upon the pieces.

Elderly women saw the dead bodies of their dear ones and wailed with arms raised skywards. On hospital beds the critically wounded grimaced in pain as the surgeons struggled to piece together the fractured bones. On stretchers the blast victims held their wounds together to stop the bleeding as paramedical staff carted them away to the operation theatres for necessary stitching.

On Sunday reports from Afghanistan said that a roadside bomb explosion in Kandahar killed a Pakistani construction worker and injured many others. The explosive device hit a vehicle which was carrying a group of people on a road close to Pakistan's consulate in the eastern part of the city and came after a series of attacks overnight by anti-social elements that killed 31 people in several parts of Kandahar.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik issued a warning to three banned religious outfits and forbade them to carry out subversive activities. News analysts on electronic and print media seemed divided over the developments. Half of them were dead sure that Mosad, RAW and Black Water were destabilising the country. More moderate and thoughtful of the speakers said that without proof nobody should poison the atmosphere of peace between Pakistan and India.

News from Mingora and Lahore's RA Bazaar, Iqbal Town and Samanabad sent waves of fear and anxiety among the residents of Peshawar and Swat, who by now have begun to recognise the enemies of peace and humanity. People of Mingora had just started breathing in the air of normalcy. Distributors and exhibitors of Pushto films had recently taken the bold step of reopening the cinemas to romantic and musical films.

In Peshawar, the provincial administration is undertaking a survey of the houses which have elaborate basements beneath them. This became necessary after police intercepted the phone calls of some members of the highly organised kidnap-for-ransom mafia, made a few arrests and raided suspected bungalows in Hayatabad only to recover from the well-guarded basements kidnapped individuals like the City Gastroenterologist Dr Sohail.

Some members of the old generation used to escape the scorching summer heat by climbing down the cool basements and have the afternoon nap without the artificial coolness of the modern air-conditioners. However, the idea of building a basement was later hijacked by the law-breaking sections of society.

The result is that now the police SHOs have their basements, where they take down the arrested suspects and make them talk by using third degree methods of torture without even showing their arrests on the official book. Similarly, the ongoing militancy has forced the law enforcing agencies to put up road blocks at every few furlongs. Therefore, the activists of the kidnap-for-ransom mafia find the basements as a blessing in disguise to detain their victims.

Some traders here and there use the basements to keep stocks of sugar, wheat flour, rice, cooking oil and other essential goods purchased in bulk in advance of the Islamic festivals of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha or just before the month of Ramazan-ul-Mubarak perfectly as a legal practice.

Just one or two basements in Peshawar may have been used once or twice for criminal purposes but the aim of conducting a full-fledged survey throughout the City is to create panic and harassment. Cynical observers may conclude that low-ranking police officials are trying to turn this survey into a possibly new source of income.

Jules Renard once said: "Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it!" Given the fact that they have passed through the most traumatic days of their history, it is amazing how the people of the scenic Swat Valley have maintained their sense of humour, liveliness and ability to get amused at the element of the incongruous.

Some days back they placed a tongue-in-cheek advertisement in local newspapers that simultaneously surprised and amused the entertainment-starved readers. The text of the advertisement said that their elected representative, member of the provincial assembly, Allauddin, had gone missing!

It said that he was last seen in Swat in the general elections of February 2008, when he contested the polls on a ticket allotted by the Pakistan People's Party. However, after winning the elections, the moment he took oath of office as an MPA, he went missing and never showed his face to the voters for more than two years.

This appeared to be a wonderful piece of political satire that seemed to emerge right from the pages of a novel by Jonathan Swift. Militancy, threats and even suicide attacks by the Taliban extremists scared away almost all elected representatives from the valley. Except for the octogenarian moderate leader and former federal and provincial minister Afzal Khan Lala, all MPAs, MNAs and Senators from the area moved to Islamabad and were accessible only by phone to a highly limited circle of very close and dependable friends.

The above advertisement reminded the newspaper readers of the time when a former prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, declared emergency in her country and some human rights temporarily stood suspended or curtailed.

A prominent English-language newspaper based in New Delhi carried a small obituary note under the suggestive and self-explanatory title: "D M Cracy dead!"