I am trying to work out which one is the greater challenge.
That there are Taliban in Swat or that the police and judiciary fall short of minimum standards.
To say that a militia of a few thousand fighters at best, is likely to run over a 600,000 strong Pakistan Army stretches creduility. Even the mighty Rustum feared taking on such odds in his own legends. That Taliban can run over Pakistan is similar to chicken little’s hue and cry about the sky losing altitude. However, absence of consequences for criminals CAN plunge the country into lawlessness.
In fact it already has and that is the clear and present danger.
Defense from external threats has always been on top of national agenda without exceptions. However, it appears that defense from internal threats, or law and order has been relegated to use in slang.
The per capita expenditure on law enforcement in District Rawalpindi, one of most well policed district, is Rs350 per person per year, with one police person for every 800 people. I don’t believe a scholarly effort is required to prove that this department of the state is badly dysfunctional.
The Lahore high court has 36 judges that adjudicate the disputes of about 90 million people. That is less than one Judge per 2.5 million people. No wonder LHC and its lower courts have 1.3 million cases pending as of April 2009
Peshawar High court has 13 judges that mind the disputes of 21 million people. That is one judge for every 1.6 million people. PHC and lower courts had 200,000 pending cases as of 1 April 2009
We need to fight the battle in NWFP. However, fighting a battle without a strategy for winning the war is another fanciful enterprise. That containing the Taliban will somehow cause the people of Pakistan to be more satisfied with their grievious lot is silly. To expect that if someone’s daughter is raped and there is no justice in court, they will sit tight and not pick up a gun or an axe and go for walk, is rather optimistic.
One in ten registered FIRs make it to court. That coupled with 1.6 million pending cases in the court system of Pakistan, says we are sitting on dynamite, getting dryer by the day, and starting to crackle.
Taliban is not the core issue. The core issue is effective policing and dispensation of justice.
It is not a tall order to appoint another 1,000 judges countrywide. Such a measure may re-motivate people to respect the law. That is a priceless dividend for a cost which is slender in comparison. Yet, the police is far from effective and the judiciary remains crippled.
Such neglect may be deliberate on the part of the government, but it seems there is a lot more that certain organized segments of the society, particularly the media, and civil society can do to motivate the government to focus on this issue. If a thousand militants, in an ex-tourist resort, armed with guns, can literally grip the attention of the world, what can a million organized voices armed with pens do.
Its funny to see that Taliban, the intruders, are taking over pakistan and pakistanis are still blaming the U.S and everyone else other than themselves.
Swat was once tourist hot-spot, now a shit hole because of Taliban and pakistanis are happy blaming the court system, police etc. Country is under siege and pakistanis are happy, period.
There is lawlessness every where in Pakistan, don’t blame the justice situation in SWAT for taliban take over. People who have lived in SWAT for ages are fleeing to refugee camps and all you people can do is blame the U.S and everyone else other than yourself.
We do need reform, you don’t need Taliban to bring the reform as their idea of reform is stone ages… where ever they go, it is beheadings, destruction and tyranny.
“We need to mend ourselves. How many of us actually took a driving test when we got our license? How many of us employ household help but don’t care if our servants’ kids get an education? How many of us pay taxes on our actual income? How many of us break laws with impunity because we know we have a father or an uncle or a friend who can get us out of trouble if we need it? Why do we blame our leaders when they are corrupt? They are not any more corrupt than us. They merely have more opportunity.”
The Pakistan Khurram Farooqui is talking about is the Pakistan responsible for her problems. You know the Pakistan that talks about “driving test and license and household help and servants.”— The ‘privileged urban upper middle class’. As he says: “it need to mend itself first” if Pakistan has to come out of the mess she is in.
@Obaid
Good article,thanks for sharing.
Nosheen Ali tries to clarify misunderstanding that causes for Talibanisation are rooted in the recent past.
[quote]
The crisis in FATA and Swat has increasingly become reduced to a narrative of the evil Taliban versus the helpless state and society. That the Taliban have instituted a horrendous regime of terror is beyond question. But it is evasive and dangerous to think that the Taliban are the only bogeymen. We need to understand the ongoing crisis in terms of Talibanization as a historical process of Islamist moral policing and militancy, which has been an established part of state policy in Pakistan since its inception. Until we refuse to acknowledge this reality, and tackle it head on, we will be unable to address the existential mess in which we find ourselves today.
As early as the 1950s, senior government officials in Pakistan had begun to authorize hypocritical and intolerant religious policies in the name of promoting an Islamic identity for the new nation. For example, in The State of Martial Rule, Ayesha Jalal discusses how Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan issued an official injunction urging Muslims to fast, which subsequently paved the way for populist Islamist moral policing – mobs stormed restaurants that did not close during fasting hours, non-fasters were paraded through bazaars in NWFP with the support of the local police, and the judiciary in Haripur sentenced people for eating in public.
In such an environment, fundamentalist parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami flexed their muscles even more. By 1953, we had already succumbed to certain aspects of religious terror that we associate with the Taliban: in organized riots all over Punjab, religious parties as well as the Muslim League government collaborated in the extensive looting, arson, and murder of fellow Ahmadi Pakistani citizens.
Both the Pakistani state and society have thus been implicated in the process of Talibanization right from the start, reducing politics to cynical uses of religion instead of substantive citizenship, and encouraging a singular and authoritarian interpretation of Islam which is now being brought to its logical conclusion by the Taliban. Civilian and military governments have pandered to the fundamentalist lobby at every step for short-sighted political gains, and introduced Islamist policies themselves to strengthen their power.
[/quote]
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=1711 40
I don’t know if Taliban are the core issue or not, but I agree that they are not the only serious issue we face as a society, and we need to attack all our major issues. They fall in four broad categories (in my opinion):
1) The Taliban (or, failure of the government to enforce the rule of law in all parts of the country). This requires a serious effort on many fronts. First, we need to commit more forces to the effort, even if it means moving them from our Eastern border. Second, we need to make sure we take care of the refugees and the civilians caught in the conflict: open schools in the refugee camps, provide food and shelter, etc. Third, we need to fight the bogus ideology that the Taliban spew out with a moderate, religious message of our own.
2) We need to get serious about providing basic services to our people: Education, an impartial and speedy judicial system, and improvements in our infrastructure (power plants, utilities, etc.)
3) We need to mend ourselves. How many of us actually took a driving test when we got our license? How many of us employ houshold help but don’t care if our servants’ kids get an education? How many of us pay taxes on our actual income? How many of us break laws with impunity because we know we have a father or an uncle or a friend who can get us out of trouble if we need it? Why do we blame our leaders when they are corrupt? They are not any more corrupt than us. They merely have more opportunity.
4) Finally, we need to decide if we want to be a nation ruled by a fuedal system, or if we want a democracy where people are elected based on ability and merit. If we are serious about fixing our country then we need land reform and tax on agricultural income.
I think you are right. The way to start countering the taliban - in addition to military - is to counter their argument and take away teh reasons why people are feeling so helpless. Law and order is a main part of that.
I think you forgot to mention the fact that the police is perhaps them most corrupt department in the entire country!
Even a fool has a right to his opinion. Fool is not the writer here but some of the commentators. The author has said nothing but a right thing. These two problems are not that disconnected, but does show only one aspect of a bigger bizzare picture of what we know as Pakistan.
I don’t life in Paksitan anymore. I do care for paksitanis and my beloved country from all my heart. I did live in one of the middle class neighborhood in Lahore and learned first hand various aspects of every day life of an average paksitani citizen. And let me say that “Its horrific and its terrible”. And where do I start from? its bad in every manner.
Lets start from how the day begins.
“No electricity” Uncertainity
“Water” Uncertainity
“Medical help” uncertainity
“Justice” rarely
“Safety & security ” Not at all
“Traffic” Lawless and horrible
“Bribery & Fraud” unlimited
In all honesty, there is hardly any truly functional, make you proud kind of, unit in every day life. There is no accountability, no justice, no pride, no law, no manners and no hope. That is truly every day life of an every day man. In the evening, more and more people smoke, after inhaling tons of smoke from wagons and trucks, rikshaws and cars.
And an average man wants to do nothing but get out of the country. Millions of applications for lottery visa is just an indication of desparation. They don’t feel strong enough to change anything, they can barely survive every day, how can you even think about fighting and bringing a change.
Talibans are a threat, but to threat to what? already crippling dying society. We may roar emptily and run around for some more time, but we will only be delaying the inevitable.
I strongly feel, that all of us, everybody should openly accept, egos aside that Pakistan needs major reforms in all areas. From the constitution to judiciary to police to scholars, reglious beliefs. How … I don’t know, but it will not start until we recognize and be honest with ourselves. 160 million awam can bring on any change, throw over any throne. That is where the hope is.