Incidents of violence have gripped the whole of Pakistan including tribal areas situatated on Pak-Afghan border. Terrorists have been trying to establish a state for themselves where they can carry out terrorist acts in all parts of the world.
According to a comment, As the Swat warlord Fazlullah beheads the
troops captured by his men in the style made current in Pakistan by Al Qaeda - remember Daniel Pearl? - Pakistani politicians mirror the violent act with violent language. And it will not be too long when verbal assault leads to physical assault before and during the electioneering in the next three months. The language has been intemperate since the beginning of the decline of the power of President General Pervez Musharraf, but particularly after March this year when he fired the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
The slanging match has not only been between the ruling party and the opposition, but also among the politicians on the question of "deal" or no "deal". In this contest the electorate has also been participating, setting up the "give no quarter" yardstick as the true sign of popular politics. Instead of collectively discovering a common enemy, the people of Pakistan are designating one another as enemies and having the most hostile discussions on the street and in the drawing room. Does the physical violence of Al Qaeda produce violent words among us? Do our violent words give courage and sustenance to what Al Qaeda is doing to our people?
The political theatre began with early hostile exchanges between the ruling PML and the ousted Nawaz League, flecked with venom that only a splinter can have with the rump. After the falling out between President General Pervez Musharraf and the clerical alliance MMA, the hard word spread further and began to dominate the electronic media. The PPP was equally seduced and some of its members ditched the party, but its firebrands were restrained by Ms Bhutto from abroad as she trimmed her sails to the global winds blowing in favour of President Musharraf.
The PPP soon acquired a profile that aroused interest in the West as the only hope left in a violent Pakistan bent upon destroying itself. By voting in favour of a women's rights bill in parliament when the ruling party was hiding behind the clerical skirts, it kindled interest in President Musharraf too. Negotiations, dubbed the "deal of the renegade" by the media where anchors lost their objectivity, were followed by a "national reconciliation ordinance" that no one in Pakistan liked as he was interested in seeing a good battle leading, with luck, to martyrdom. Ms Bhutto arrived, not carrying flowers but a bunch of accusations; she was greeted by her myriad followers and by Al Qaeda with suicide-bombers. What has followed is a virulent verbal exchange.
PMLQ president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain fired the first volley with his famous "bon mot" raat gai baat gai. Ms Bhutto accused his cousin Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi of trying to kill her. Chaudhry Pervaiz has been firing back in language that verges on the violent. Meeting after meeting, he is teaching his voters to focus on her past corruption and her dishonourable designs on the office of President Musharraf himself. Looking at the duelling in the amphitheatre that is Pakistan, President Musharraf has told a gathering of the PMLQ elite that he prefers the ruling coalition to the PPP: "the PML is dearer to me and will remain so".
The world outside sees Pakistan as a most dangerous place to live in and to be visiting. It is mainly focusing on the warlords and crazy mullahs subjecting the country to all kinds of jihad obligations that it can hardly undertake. It is struck with horror by the use of vigilante action under Islam which crushes the spirit of the common man in general and the "common woman" in particular. It must also have noted that Pakistan did not even register the beheading of two women in Bannu recently. It is horrified to also note that Pakistan army surrenders to the ragtag religious fanatics most probably it believes less in the idea of the state of Pakistan and more in the nihilism of the caliphate propagated by Al Qaeda.
Unless the politicians decide to abandon the tongue-lashing they have started administering to one another, violence in the run-up to the general election will come, not from Al Qaeda, but from the people themselves.
The End
