Daily Times

Prior to the botched attempt by the police to disperse the protesters of sit-in, apparently mobilised by the TLYR at the juncture of twin cities Islamabad — Rawalpindi, the discourse was dominated by a challenge to the writ of the state and causing disturbance to the lives of the citizens.

The post dharna narrative, after the police action fiasco against the protesters that consequently ended up into an agreement facilitated by the military between the protesters and the federal government, is a sorrowful tale of the federal government’s surrender.

No doubt, the federal government caved in, capitulated, laid down, pick whatever word or degree of extremity satisfies your anger and a sense of let down by a pliant and toothless elected government. I agree with all of you who have such feelings. My blood is also boiling against this government, on its timidity, castration, loss of nerves and no feet to stand on.

But hold your horses, the mirror just reflects what the face is. The federal government did not fall from the sky but was elected by the people of this country and it is as strong, as empowered, as emancipated as the teeming millions of this country.

A person equipped with the sling cannot be expected to hunt a lion. We, as people, never emancipated politics. We never tried to understand the politics behind and beyond the scene. We never differentiated between leader and demagogue. We always followed the banner of demagogy. We never sifted grain from the chaff. When were the people of this country not defeated, humiliated in the name of religion, state, institutions? Their right to freedom, right to rule was always robbed in the name of sometimes threat, at other times security and national interests, commodified to serve the deep state.

Whenever the civilians are involved, their appeasement and surrender surfaces, discussed, named and shamed. Analysts, anchors and so called big shots who day and night enlighten the common mortals should be grateful that the civilians were made a party to the surrender thus providing them with a field day to kick the dead in the side. We are only aware of a few of numerous agreements in FATA with Taliban against whom jets and tanks were later used for which this nation should be grateful. We are. But at what cost and consequences?

There was another surrender 46 years ago where no civilian was involved. But after a passage of more than four and half decades, how many chattering analysts, journalists and star anchors can dare to discuss that in graphic detail as they do the civilians’ capitulation to a so called band of charlatans exploiting religious sentiments?

The images on mainstream and social media showed the acting protesters who were more of pygmies, the actual movers and shakers no longer cared to be behind the scene. And yet, the blame is squarely put on the ‘neighbour’s baby’.

This is not the first civilian capitulation where it was forced to cave in. Rewind to February 2009 when the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s representatives had to sign on a premeditated agreement with the Swat Taliban through Maulana Sufi Mohammmad at Chakdara.

Later, the government interlocutors revealed that during negotiation a suicide bomber was standing behind each one of them. In the aftermath, the media found a field day to grill the civilians for caving in but none among them had the guts to disclose the elements and factors behind that capitulation and surrender.

What  happened on November 25, 2017, which the unfortunate people of this country watched graphically the next day on social media when the government put back the electronic and social media on air, denotes that the thin veneer is no longer needed for plausible deniability. Social media activists have been picked up and disappeared for merely dropping hints about such occurrences.

But the raging bull sometimes rams into the wall. The unquestionable power displayed the highest sense of overconfidence and lost all sense of imprudence at the risk of exposing itself.

The second smooth civilian transfer of power and the PML-N’s prospects to come back with majority mandate are considered as serious threats by the invisible quarters

The Afghan Taliban used to measure the length of beards and shalwar to determined the level of one’s adherence to Islam. But now in Pakistan a specific sect of religious fanatics will measure faith and belief. The Taliban were using lantern’s glass for measurement of beard, but what will be the unit of measurement of their Pakistani brethren in faith to scale one’s faith and belief?

One of the lessons learnt from the current surrender is that every challenge to the writ of the visible state and its surrender to a selected group or groups of people is not bad.  But these challenges and surrenders become more desirable when they justify and fortify the writ of the deep state.

The takeover of Swat by Fazalullah, Waziristan FATA by Hakimullah, Islamabad by PAT, PTI and recently by TLYR was not a phenomenon as portrayed by the chattering boxes. In all these instances, the bloody incompetent civilians were given a run around. Thus, how can one equate them with the writ of the state?

If Nawaz had taken Islamabad and Rawalpindi by storm and created a hullabaloo on the GT Road for about four days to further boost his inflated popularity, the Rizvi and co were installed to take the air out of his balloon.

The powers-that-be also have another poisonous arrow in their quiver, if the Milli and TYRA duo failed to soften the target, the elusive, apparently softly painted, non-partisan Tableeghi group would be deployed.

Perhaps, the coming elections, the second smooth civilian transfer of power and the PML-N prospects to come back with majority mandate are a serious threat considered by the invisible quarters. Why do they desperately use all the assets at a great risk to strategic exposure that can possibly bring many things, particularly the War on Terror under the limelight? It also indicates that nuclear and strategic human religious assets or not in the control of the bloody civilians.

Notwithstanding the allegedly numerous Achilles’ Heel of the politicos, from 2008 onwards the king’s pawns continuously face degeneration and therefore have to rely on the unreliable PTI, PAT and now the TYRA. Despite Zardari’s confusing signals and ANP’s silence, the deep state could not blast a hole in the political parties, particularly in the parliament.

The current onslaught seems more to paralyse the nerve of the politicos by employing religiously charged sentiments for purely political reasons. According to a hadith, the intensity of a crisis is a solution to a crisis. Each move and passing day is bound to expose the unexposed. The more punches and arm twisting the elected dispensation and politicians bear, the more it is bound to create the opposite and undesirable results for the deep state in the long run.

The writer is a political analyst hailing from Swat. Tweets @MirSwat

Published in Daily Times, December 4^th 2017.