Daily Times

There was a marked similarity between two images portraying the plight of Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal. First image is of 2007 when the Islamabad police tossed and tried to fling Iqbal at Zero Point Islamabad, preventing him from reaching the airport to receive Nawaz Sharif, whose attempt to come to Pakistan in defiance of dictator Pervez Musharraf was botched.

The second was the scene of accountability court on October 2, 2017 in Islamabad when the Rangers, a paramilitary force under the command of minister of interior, was not only mysteriously deployed without the knowledge and permission of the ministry of interior, but it also barred the minister from entering the premises. According to Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, he had rushed to the spot to inquire on whose orders the deployment was carried out.

However, in 2007, Ahsan Iqbal’s party and leader were considered the main opponents of the dictator who was still in power. But ironically, presently his party is in the government and he himself is a federal minister. This situation indicates and predicts much more, brewing on proper temperature to signify that the powers that be no more care about maintaining the thin veneer to provide plausible deniability. This is also obvious from the tone and tenor of a section on the mainstream electronic media, which no longer feels the need to hide its affiliation and source of information, presenting civilians as villains and a source of misfortune for this country.  But the October 2, incident blared on television screens, leaves no doubt about the plight of the civilian rule and how much space it is forced to concede.

It is most unfortunate to know that the elected do not govern and those who govern are not elected. Unaccountable power is a more serious threat to a polity than the proverbial enemy on the border

Perhaps, it is a matter of satisfying the ego to demonstrate crude power to cut to size a sitting interior minister. But is it necessary that the entire population and international community should draw the same conclusion and project it on the same lines as intended by the powers to be?

Surely, it provides more aspects for analysis than the obvious: for the last one decade, we portrayed to the world and our people that Pakistan was undergoing extraordinary situation in the form of war on terror requiring extraordinary measures that necessitated to infringe the civil rights and liberties of the citizens. To combat this extraordinary situation, we also sought assistance from the international community.

Administratively, the ministry of interior under its minister has a pivotal role to play as the implementation and monitoring body of the National Action Plan and other measures to encounter extremism and radicalism. But the world saw the worth of the minister and his authority.

It was constantly poised that civilians failed in their responsibilities to carry out their part in war on terror. But it transpired that they have no worth in the system for not having any or nominal writ. It goes beyond the domestic bounded civil-military imbalance question with sinister reverberations pointing to the conduct of the state on international level.

More importantly, sending an elected prime minister packing unceremoniously through a verdict of the Supreme Court and reducing the current civilian dispensation to a mockery, we invite the wrath, isolation and insult of the world which is more ominous for the state. Still, constitutionally, the civilian government has the prerogative to represent the state on the international level to explain its stance on various extraordinary situations. But when an elected government faces circumstances circumventing its authority domestically, no one takes it seriously on the international forum and the finger ultimately points to the powers that be. In the past, portraying the inefficiency of the civilian dispensation went in favor of the non-civilian quarters presenting themselves as an alternative. But in the current situation, it may paint them as part of the problem that has regional and international consequences.

Nearly after seven years of successful operation in Swat and the Malakand Division, the extraordinary measures were not reversed in that area to restore the rights and liberties of its citizens.

How can the interior minister be blamed for not taking action against power abuse of Islamabad police, if the SSP writes a letter to the deputy commissioner for Rangers deployment without informing or consulting the minister? How much toll can it take on the system of responsibility and accountability if a local administrative officer takes orders from other than legitimate authority or the officers obey orders from invisible but powerful quarters?

Even I, as a non-influential citizen have lost faith in the Interior Minister about whether he can take action against the SHO of the Shaliamar police station for abuse of power. He arrested children working at a tea stall for not carrying identity cards or Form B and charged them with ‘awarragardi’. After investigation, I discovered that it was routine for the Islamabad police to arrest such working children for not carrying identity documents. Despite enjoying a cup of tea at these stalls, or at another pretext, the police round up those young boys to lock them up with adults.

It is most unfortunate to know the elected do not govern and those who govern are not elected. Unaccountable power is a more serious threat to a polity than the proverbial enemy on border.

The writer is a political analyst from Swat and can be reached at talimand.khan@gmail.com and on Twitter @MirSwat

Published in Daily Times, October 5^th 2017.