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Beware the ‘volcanization’ of Punjab
Mian
Saifur Rehman
P the Pygmy: Where had you gone last week?
Fair & Square: I was in quarantine.
P: Had you contracted some disease?
Fr & Sq: Yes, WWS.
P: What kind of disease is that?
Fr & Sq: Wild Writing Syndrome.
P: Are you inspired by WWF?
Fr & Sq: Anything wild appeals to me, whether positive or negative.
P: Oh, I see! That is why you got emotional while telling the
‘Khaadime Alaa’ Punjab that his entire province stood ‘volcanized’.
Fr & Sq: Yes, the matter is serious but no one is paying heed to it.
P: Not even the ‘Khaadime Alaa’ Punjab?
Fr & Sq: He admitted the seriousness of the situation but considered
it an extremely difficult task.
P: What in fact is the problem?
Fr & Sq: Amassing of most lethal weapons in the provincial
metropolis and other cities which have virtually turned into
‘volcanoes’ that can erupt any moment.
P: Horrible! What is the count?
Fr & Sq: For decades, hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons are
in the possession of people from different areas, walks of life and
schools of thought. These hard nuts consider allegiance to law an
act of cowardice or even a vice.
P: What was the reply given by ‘Khaadime Alaa’?
Fr & Sq: The answer was three-pronged. One, that in order to check
the inflow of arms from northwestern region, the cooperation of
Centre and other agencies was required.
Fr & Sq: That the task was uphill but it was essentially a matter of
implementation.
P: And the third?
Fr & Sq: That sudden, prompt crackdown on some people with a
peculiar ethnic identity would trigger bitter conflicts between
Punjabis and non-Punjabis.
P: What does that mean?
Fr & Sq: That nothing so rapid can be done to arrest this dormant
but highly eruptive wave of violence.
P: But isn’t the establishment of Nigraan (supervisory) Police
Committees a good step towards checking the rising tide of crime and
violence?
Fr & Sq: It can work provided the institution of SHO is restructured
with public participation to do preventive policing.
P: The said committees will also include public representatives.
Fr & Sq: Then, there is no justification in losing hope.
P: Sure! But tell me doesn’t all that mess on our holy soil owe to
‘Khadime Ala of the world’?
Fr & Sq: Make your point clear.
P: I am referring to the United States of America.
Fr & Sq: But there should be some difference between a servant of
the masses and a nose-poker.
P: Whatever the differences of their missions, both are in the
spotlight.
Fr & Sq: Being in the spotlight is not the question.
P: It certainly is otherwise why our analysts, politicians and other
leading lights always put the blame for all our failures on the US.
Fr & Sq: It is because the US leaders have been poking their nose in
others’ affairs in every nook and corner of the world.
P: But we some times treat the US as some omniscient and omnipotent
power (God Forbid).
Fr & Sq: Aren’t you inviting the wrath of Lord?
P: Not I but all those sane anchorpersons and intellectuals are
inviting Lord’s wrath who consider the US not only as a foreseer of
events yet to take shape but also as a master of destinies of the
entire world.
Fr & Sq: What rubbish? The US has committed many blunders and also
suffered failures like, for instance, in Vietnam etc.
P: Now you got my point. I was in fact trying to tell the same
thing: that US is as much fallible as any other nation. So there is
no reason to consider it the wisest or the sole decider of our
fates.
Fr & Sq: Yes, I think we better shape our destinies without going
into this silly debate.
P: Thanks for showing sanity.
Fr & Sq: Now you show sanity by giving serious thought to a new
idea.
P: What is that?
Fr & Sq: The title is ‘(Dis) United States of Pakistan’: Taliban
state, Swat State, NW (North Waziristan) state, SW state, Punjab
state, Balochistan, gun-and-explosive ‘free trade state’, suicide
jackets manufacturing and training state, and what not.
P: It smacks of sedition and nothing else.
Fr & Sq: Have you heard a journalist attributing our sorry state of
affairs (over-Talibanization etc) to one-time US-USSR understanding
on division of this region’s oil resources?
P: But what has that ‘Oily’ understanding between global powers to
do with the public flogging of clean-shave men and innocent
womenfolk, bombing of schools, killing of Muslims by Muslims,
whimsical declaration of Jihad and attacks on funerals and holy
places?
Fr & Sq: Now you answer one question.
P: Sure!
Fr & Sq: What is the difference between strategic thinking by
security experts and thinking by think tanks?
P:
Thinking has nothing to do with things strategic, strategic.
PUN OF THE DAY: Pepco chief is
‘ex-officio’ Prince of Darkness. How would you rate Mian Shahbaz
Sharif? Ans: Prince of Fastness. saifee2010@gmail.com
The News: Friday, May 15, 2009
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