Raoof Hasan

A season of fetters

The Candid Corner

When I returned
I saw that
The red colour of the flowers
Had turned pale

– Adapted from Faiz Ahmad Faiz

It looks like we are living through a season of fetters which are hanging all around in a variety of shapes and sizes. And behind each, one sees the menacing face of orchestrators eager for their chance to pounce and strangulate us of our right to state our opinion and raise our voice, thus turning the society into dead meat scattered around which has already begun to spread an unpleasant odour. Is this what the society is perceived to be transformed into? Is this the implementation phase of the master plan which has been envisaged to regulate it along a pre-ordained path that would cull it of all its character, vibrancy and creativity?

There have been martial laws and there have been these so-called ‘democratic’ interludes fashioned by the despots. Allowed to run a while, they were all systematically abrogated followed by the advent of another military rule. But, this time around, what one is looking at appears to have an air of permanence about it as coups d’état have run their course and are no longer looked upon with approval by those who proclaim to be the champions of democratic values and dispensations.

The situation of human rights has never been satisfactory in the country as there is no check on perpetration of abuse and torture. As a matter of fact, such tactics constitute an essential and integral ingredient of the investigation process which is practised in its most brutal and draconian form. Confessions are extracted from the accused under threat of death with every part of their bodies inhumanly mauled and battered. Though there is no legal significance of such confessions, yet the police would always resort to these methods in order to complete and submit the challan together with the needed confession/s by the accused for judgement to be administered by the courts of law. It could also be that such a confession would be required to complete the cycle of change that has now been designed for the country.

Pakistan seems to be fast regressing into the pit of fascism like never before. The brutal and barbaric manifestations of this scourge are being blatantly practised. Imran Khan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are under assault by the criminal administrators comprising a cabal of convicts, criminals and absconders. They and their handlers have realised that they cannot deal with his growing popularity, so efforts are afoot to eliminate him from the political arena. All kind of cooked-up cases are being planned to be registered against him to disqualify him from participation in the elections. This would coincide with the arrival of the long-absconding convict, Nawaz Sharif, to lead the election campaign understandably to set up a stooge government operating in line with instructions received from the apparitions lurking in the dark who suffer from acute fear of coming out in the open.

This plan is in accordance with the long drawn-out strategy of ruling the country without having to take over. But it suffers from an inherent drawback which renders it dysfunctional: those who have the formal charge of administering the country are vested with no power, and those who have arrogated to themselves unrestrained power have no constitutional relevance. Consequently, it is a clash among virtual legal nonentities with no one empowered to govern the country and no one taking any responsibility for the mess which has been generated. It is thus a downhill slide as the country plunges deeper into the pit of malfunction which, apparently, is not fitted with any brakes to stop.

The strategy of forcing Khan to cave in to pressure or threats of cases is a non-starter. I am sure the orchestrators of this strategy must already have gauged its total irrelevance to the objective of getting Khan out of the way. Not only that it is not happening as planned, he has staged a resurgence which has few parallels in the political history of the world. He commands immense popularity which is increasing by the day; he stands on a high moral ground as he was gravely wronged through a US-instigated and locally-implemented regime change operation; and he has gone through this trial of fire to emerge more determined and more resolute than ever before with irrevocable faith in the genuineness of his cause. Absolutely nothing is likely to stop him from moving ahead with his roster of objectives that he would like to implement for the benefit of the country and its people. But the level of frustration that the criminals in charge of the government and their patrons are suffering from would likely make them commit further blunders, thus rendering the retrieval process even more daunting.

There will be no case when there is none. There will be no fear when the approach is fearless. The surge of people which is intensifying further with time and the clarity and resounding passion with which it is sending its message across can make things difficult for the puppet government and its masters who have the strings in their hands. With every passing day, the canvas of support for Khan is expanding. The Independence-eve rally in Lahore is a living testament of what the criminal cabal is faced with. This is not the kind of crowd which can be handled through violence. This is not the kind of crowd which can be scared away. This is not the kind of crowd that will change its opinion about who have actually looted and ravaged the country. This is not the kind of crowd which will sit back and watch unmoved if any illegal and unconstitutional method is employed to contain Khan. It’ll ignite fire. There will be violence. There will be anarchy.

These are dangers that the government of puppets is playing with. They have nothing in this country. All their fraudulently-amassed assets are stashed abroad which is where most of their family members have already fled to. Once they have used the power of their office to have their names cleared from cases of corruption, they will also take their respective flights out, leaving the country in tatters.

This experiment has not only caused untold damage to the country; it has also brought shame and humiliation to its planners and orchestrators. Fetters will not work. Shackles will not contain the surge. Fear will not stop the flow of revolution. Freedom is the call. The only way forward is the reversal of the ill-conceived experiment and announcing the holding of elections before any further damage accrues.

The writer is a political and security strategist and the founder of the Regional Peace Institute