Daily Times

Producing two hooded terror suspects before the media, Tahir Alias ‘lamba’ (tall) and ‘Mama’ Junaid, purportedly from the MQM, Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Malir, Rao Anwar, claimed that they had been trained in India by Indian spy agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing). That RAW has been engaged in terrorist attacks in Pakistan is not new nor news, and neither is the fact that those doing their dirty work belong to any one political party. Some elite persons in the media (and some in corporate circles) are in this up to their necks, relying on freedom of expression to escape accountability. A failsafe line must separate risking the freedom of the country at the altar of freedom of expression.
It was unusual that a middle ranking police officer could have the audacity to damn the MQM for “spreading terror in the guise of a political party. All the senior leaders of the MQM including its chief, Altaf Hussain, are involved in spreading terror in the country,” claimed the SSP. Alleging the funding of terrorist activities from London, SSP Rao demanded that the “MQM should be banned the way the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant outfits already are because of their terrorist activities.” Anwar was immediately transferred from Malir on the instructions of Chief Minister (CM) Qaim Ali Shah taking “serious notice of his press conference levelling serious allegations against the MQM.” What hypocrisy, and we are supposed to swallow such a canard!
Known within and outside police circles as an “encounter specialist” and an Asif Zardari favourite, Rao Anwar does not enjoy a very savoury reputation. A recent petition before the judiciary claims he has killed over 50 persons in the last six months alone. Five attackers, their identities still unknown, were killed when attacking his convoy two days after his media show. The policemen protecting Anwar all miraculously escaped unhurt. Was this another staged ‘encounter’?
Instead of targeting Anwar, the Sindh government and/or the PPP, the MQM Chief went off at a tangent disparaging the army, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Military Intelligence (MI). The army reacted swiftly and unambiguously with Major General Asim Bajwa’s emphatic tweet: “Altaf Hussain’s speech on TV tonight containing remarks about the army and its leadership was uncalled for and disgusting”. “Won’t be tolerated” was followed by “the matter will be pursued legally”. The immediate political reaction was also universally adverse for the MQM, symbolised by the Balochistan Assembly’s unanimous resolution on how “Altaf Hussain used hateful language against national institutions. Such language against the Pakistan army will not be tolerated. The MQM has taken the entire Karachi city hostage and such language against the Pakistan military comes in the treason category.” The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly followed suit in more or less the same tone and tenor, and the Punjab Assembly is soon expected to as well. No surprise that the Sindh Assembly, with the PPP in majority, is dithering. Sensing the direction of the political wind, the Prime Minister (PM) chipped in. Aware that he had crossed a failsafe line, Altaf Hussain’s contrite apology may not have mollified many but at least it was a step in the right direction.
Almost every political party uses militant muscle in Pakistan as a self-defence mechanism to fend off its opponents. Harbouring of militants for enforcing their own version of law is illegal but that is how feudals stay in power. While the MQM, PPP and ANP are the normal ‘suspects’ for having militant wings in Karachi, did Gullu Butt of Model Town fame appear out of thin air? As a weapon of offence and/or of subjugation to keep the party’s recalcitrant in line, it crosses the failsafe line into criminality. Such criminals depend upon their political bosses to keep them out of jail and, even if they are incarcerated, to be provided with five-star comfort. Potentially they are a sword of Damocles over the heads of their political bosses if they turn state witness, e.g. Saulat Mirza, Zulfikar Mirza and the rumoured 1,500 page statement given by Uzair Baloch to the Dubai police. A mountain of evidence is not good enough to convince the judiciary about anyone’s guilt under the present tenets of the Evidence Act (even modified by the Qanoon-i-Shahadat, 1984). With most witnesses fearing for their lives and for their families, the judiciary is either legally straitjacketed obeying the wording of the rule of law or intimidated.
Rao Anwar’s performance out of the blue ostensibly had “nothing official about it” so it was on whose motivation and for what purpose? No one really censured him for “misusing authority”. Being very close to Zardari, his ‘punishment’ was his transfer to Badin for “misusing his authority”. Who else but Zardari’s most trusted policeman to target his former friend and present tormentor, Zulfikar Ali Mirza? A PPP insider, Mirza, has ad nauseam been on primetime television denouncing Zardari and his political aides for unimaginable crimes. No surprise then that Mirza is presently under police siege in his farmhouse in Badin. To quote Henry the Second in Becket, “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?” Fahmida Mirza, former speaker of the National Assembly, raised serious concerns about the safety and security of her husband.
The PPP cannot wish away the People’s Amn Committee (PAC). As the man overseeing the PAC as Sindh’s home minister, where did Mirza’s orders emanate from? He has not been “born again”; he may simply be stalking the television channels to become a possible ‘approver’. The PPP apprehend they may be next to feel the army-generated heat. Interrogation has uncovered a wealth of information implicating many across the political hierarchy (and country’s elite) from the political divide. Defaming the army was simply meant to politicise criminality but desperate times require desperate measures. One suspects complicity with anti-Pakistan elements attempting this set piece diversionary tactic.
Addressing the Corps Commanders Conference last Tuesday, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif called the surge in operations against terrorists and criminals apolitical, across the board and focused on achieving peace in the country. He took serious notice of RAW whipping up terrorism in Pakistan, vowing to take all measures to eradicate this scourge: “We will take the war to its logical conclusion.” One word of advice, Raheel, get your people to study the nature of hybrid warfare being conducted against Pakistan from within Pakistan; how influence, connections and corporate money is used to attack the uniform.
Zardari’s diversionary ploy has evoked vociferous popular support for the army across the country, across the board, bringing focus on criminality under the garb of democracy. While the gameplan to create political confusion could not have been planned by RAW any better, the backlash across the country was not reckoned with. The diversionary tactic has backfired!

The writer is a defence analyst and security expert