Farrukh Khan Pitafi's Official Website

Tired due to the prolonged special transmission on flood relief, I was trying to unwind in my office when a senior colleague came dancing to my chamber. “What is the good news?” I asked him thinking of some big accomplishment in relief efforts. “Someone has thrown a shoe at Zardari!” he exclaimed in joy.

I was simply shocked. Here was a career journalist, otherwise supposed to be neutral, and tasked with overall responsibility of the office, absolutely radiant with joy, over an incident of national humiliation if not petty worth. I immediately switched my television on to learn more. The media was ecstatic. Most of the channels had forgotten the floods and relief efforts and were obsessed with the apocryphal piece of gossip which lacked even a shred of credible evidence. I surmised that the Islamic republic is back at what it does best: scapegoating.

It is impossible for me to justify the foreign visit of President Zardari. I have little doubt that the time spent abroad could have been put to better use for the sake of morale boosting. But that’s that. Here is a state imploding in front of the burden of its innate contradictions, natural calamities and the sheer opportunism of the entire nation, and we are busy blaming one man. Again, I cannot digest the official claim that the president was oblivious to the scale and nature of the calamity. A head of state cannot hide behind the excuse of ignorance. If he didn’t know at first, he could have obtained information and cut short the visit to rush back to the country. Yet, I cannot deny either that we have this knack of undermining the scope of a tragedy or disaster, sidestepping the main issues and blaming one person for everything.

Tell me what could the president have done? Even if he could ignore the fact that he was nothing but a titular head of the state after the eighteenth amendment? He could have gone to visit some flood affected areas. There our complaint would have been that the president was busy in photo-ops. And due to the mere photo ops the entire district management, otherwise entrusted with overseeing the relief effort, was busy in receiving and entertaining his person. So had he not gone abroad, our displeasure would have still been unaffected.
Frankly there are two major reasons why all this anger is pouring out against President Zardari. One smacks of good ol’ realpolitik, the other of obscurantism. The first reason is that our defense establishment was not too chuffed about our president’s visit to the UK so soon after David Cameron’s statement in India. The very statement in essence is connected to the second reason. The fact remains that our nation, courtesy the very establishment and the mainstream (read right wing urdu media), is highly obscurantist. While the state apparatus has been forced to fight the fundamentalists (emphasis on mental!), our nation (primarily our Punjabi brothers essentially because they can afford such kind of entertainment) think that it is an unjust war and that the Taliban have quite the right idea. Since the war continues, first Musharraf was evil and now President Zardari is. Most of the people I have interacted with think that the Almighty is punishing us through the floods for:

(1) fighting and killing the virtuous (read terrorists),

(2) the presence of the current rulers.

My question is simple. If the Almighty is so angry with the rulers why doesn’t he punish them directly rather than taking innocent lives? Or else the truth is that religion has nothing to do with our current state of affairs and incompetence and ineptness of state has more to do with everything.

Had we not been so obscurantist we could have tolerated any form of government and tolerated enough to let the democratic institution building process take root. But no our zealotry will ensure that this government will go and so will the next and the next. And yet we will never find solutions to our plight.

The real stakeholders were the democratically elected chief executives of the federation and the federating units and the army chief being the uncrowned king of the country. But you will never hear any intellectual or media person complaining about the army chief’s visit to the UAE in this hour of national catastrophe and devastation.

The fact of the matter is that instead of assuming the responsibilities of a nation state, we as a nation want to be a pan Islamic global movement which exports terrorism as a cause. Had our focus been nation and institution building believe me our troubles would have been over already. But we are more focused on supporting the Taliban than actually building bridges and dams (is Kalabagh the only dam that can be built?).

This streak of obscurantism translates in our security doctrine as well and somehow we fail to put an end to the blackmail of the terrorists. To me, anyone who believes that he has a right to coerce me into doing anything represents the Taliban. Till the time we do not finish such people, statements will come from foreign leaders. If you want to know our exact moral fiber, you should go to bazaar in the flood affected areas or even during Ramazan check out the prices being charged staple food. Only then will you understand our double standards and moral decay.

And till the time these issues are resolved, removing Zardari, Gilani, Shahbaz Sharif or any other leader will resolve nothing. A mere incident of shoe throwing can never change our destiny.

The Islamic Republic, this Land of the Pure, is a funny place. Here not only does a democratically elected prime minister come on television in the dead of night after a hurriedly scribbled press release but also announces a huge extension in the service tenure of the army chief. And not just that. The next day he talks in ancient Greek or Sanskrit, I would not know, and justifies this in the name of the strengthening of democracy. Meanwhile, good old logic takes leave pending retirement (LPR), goes home sulking and hangs itself from the ceiling.

Not that it matters any more. A country that seems to be going to the dogs in any case can hardly harm itself any further. It is just that I was reminded of the first phrase of every military ruler, “meray aziz humwatno” (my dear countrymen). Again I am not a big critic of General Kayani. I think if he stops considering the Taliban a strategic asset, things will improve dramatically. No, my concern is that while democracy is supposed to build institutions, not individuals, everything out of the ordinary is detrimental to the nation’s prospects. Having said that, since what has been done cannot be undone, I also try taking solace in the fact that there must be something good in this extension because Hamid Gul has opposed it. But while retired generals take special pleasure in criticising or analysing the country’s politics, if you try inviting any of them to your show to comment on the appointment or extension of the army chief, the snappy retort that comes back is: “I do not think this question should be discussed in the media.” Okay, then please impose martial law and bring back Zia’s draconian media managers. Or let us please put an end to this blind servitude and find answers to all important questions.

An interesting conspiracy theory, and by Jove I want to believe it, is that all recent misfortunes of the government, especially the fake degrees issue and the conflict with the judiciary, were a product of the establishment’s (read the army chief’s) discomfort with it; the extension would put an end to all this. And for a day it did. But then came the saviour of democracy from Lahore and made some hair-raising statements. Yes Mian Nawaz Sharif sahib says only time will tell who stays in power till 2013. Of course he is not talking of the army chief or the chief justice. His statement has to be about the political government. Welcome back to the politics of the 1990s then. Another of his emphasese is on the fake degrees issue. Until recently he was avoiding a direct comment on the matter but all of a sudden he is the champion of this ‘cause’. Stability, then, should also go on LPR and join logic in its fate.

Meanwhile, terrorists and accidents alike keep hunting Pakistanis down. If things progress at this speed, my fellow citizens might soon be an endangered species on the face of this planet. Once upon a happy time, we could bemoan the human rights abuses against Pakistanis in, say, Saudi Arabia or the safe houses of our own agencies. But no longer sir! At home, we are threatened by the terrorists, grinding poverty, natural catastrophes (which incidentally appear to be growing by the day) and internecine strife, and abroad by the never-ending stupidity of our own.

As a citizen I need a break. And so we got what we wanted. Another general with the potential to become the president. A three-year extension, of course, means that the matter has been pushed to the ‘someone-else’s problem’ category. Of course, this democratic government will not be in place after three more years. Its term will officially come to an end slightly before that. That is to say if the current arrangement or the lack of it can survive that long. But no matter who is in power, I want to know when in the name of sanity our problems will be solved? When will the murder of innocent citizens come to an end? Of course no messiah will come to rescue us. Or if he does, he will soon become part of the system. Our best bet was the institution building that is usually thought to be an innate part of democracy. But somehow it seems that the institutions that were supposed to supervise the process cannot spare any time from infighting. Parliament’s supremacy is under question in the apex court. The impartiality of the courts often also comes under question thanks to the statements of Lahore High Court’s Chief Justice Khawaja Mohammad Sharif and the fact that the reference filed against him in the Supreme Judicial Council is yet to be processed. And the media, our darling media, wants to dance the conga even at the slightest sign of insult to the politicians. The only group given a wide berth is that of the terrorists. They can hunt us all at their will. Meanwhile, if any natural disaster occurs there is no preparation for it.

I am bitter about the prime minister’s late-night speech because I was expecting that the issue of the rescue efforts for the people of Barkhan and Rajanpur would also come under discussion. Despite this repeated and appalling tragedy, my prime minister could not find even a few words for my affected co-citizens. And I do not see things changing in the coming days.

So here is a great idea. Either we all go on an LPR and join logic and stability in their final journey or else we give Pakistan the status of a hospice so that the citizens and the voters can at least die and rest in peace without any false hope. Maybe that will satisfy the crypto-fascists swarming my country these days.

The above column first appeared in Daily Times dated 29th July, 2010. Click here to visit the original.

Respected Sonia ji,

I hope this letter finds you well. I write to express my frustration at the failure of the peace process between our two great nations. Recently, when the Indian Minister for External Affairs, S M Krishna, visited Pakistan, like many others I was hoping that finally courage would be shown to bring the peace process back on track but, alas, it could not be. On the contrary, hawks on both sides of the border now appear to be winning.

Madam, I am not an India hater. As a citizen of Pakistan, I have always madly loved my country and, at the same time, I have never failed to admire India’s democratic accomplishments. My childhood and youth have been spent under the perpetual threat of open war between the two countries. Indeed, when our nations were not at war with each other, our mutual Cold War was so intense that it would have shamed the one between the USSR and the US. While war always brings with it destruction, a cold war too has its own demons like impoverishment and the squandering of valuable public money. Now that I am a father, I want my children to breathe in an environment of true peace and harmony. Is that asking for too much?

I know you are not the prime minister or president of India, even though you would have proven to be the best by far. Yet you have tremendous influence over your own party’s government and, as a national leader, your people look up to you for inspiration. You most certainly can play a very crucial role in building bridges between the two countries.

I know it is not easy to forget the Mumbai carnage but believe me, my country faces such acts of butchery every other day. I am sure the terrorists would not have been so eager to slaughter us if our state apparatus was not in pursuit of them. To expect from a country, which is in an existential war against the forces of darkness, that it can prevent every benighted assault on its neighbours or friends is asking for too much. However, the silver lining is that if we succeed in this monumental struggle against extremism, our neighbours will be free of any such threat. This is exactly where we need you.

The enemies of civilisation that are attacking my nation like locusts draw their power from an environment of mistrust and hate. The grand narrative that has, unfortunately, evolved throughout our history, blames India for most of our woes. We want to change this narrative but, in this current state of affairs, it is not an easy thing to do. I am afraid that if the hawks are allowed to prevail, matters may worsen further.

In my country, democracy is already under duress. And, unfortunately, the impression we are getting in Pakistan is that India does not want to engage with a democratic government here through dialogue. If this impression is allowed to strengthen it will be most tragic. I can understand if New Delhi resists international pressure but to actively ignore the wishes of its own people is hardly good politics. You will remember, ma’am, that just before the last elections, Manmohan ji had expressed a desire to build lasting peace with Islamabad and also revealed that, during Pervez Musharraf’s time, the Kashmir issue had almost been resolved. It is my impression that this desire was so radically different from the BJP’s stated stance that people voted again for your party, even in a time of recession.

Many claim that real peace was only possible in the Musharraf-BJP era when the hawks were in sway on both sides. However, what is not often mentioned is that, while the rulers of that time would have encountered less opposition in building peace, by nature they were less germane to any such efforts. Frankly, expecting that from the two sides that brought India and Pakistan so close to a nuclear war over Kargil is not quite realistic. In truth, if there ever was an opportune time for peace, this is it. Let us not spoil this golden chance.

It is true that neither the US nor any other power can actually force India to resume the peace process. And even if someone could pressure India, would the outcome ever be worth calling genuine peace? I think not. And the Indian government, I understand, is under severe pressure from the hardliners not to resume the dialogue process. I know it is not easy to move beyond the Mumbai attacks but here are my two cents worth on the matter. The Pakistani government would have been in a far better position to either stop the attacks or then to go after the terrorists responsible for the ghastly acts had the composite dialogue mechanism still been in place and delivering. Candidly speaking, Pakistan has so many issues of its own that a majority of the country cannot afford the luxury of hating its neighbours. In their heart of hearts, even our critics of India also know that, one day, peace has to be built between the two countries.

It is often argued that India is the main reason why Pakistan has not been able to evolve into a stable democracy. The argument goes like this: Indian refusal to accept the reality of Pakistan’s creation was the first existential threat to the nascent state. And since this threat was only too powerful, this country had to build a considerably bigger security infrastructure. And, given the relative weight of the new defence establishment, it was only a matter of time before the military dictators seized control. I do not know what to make of this theory but I have never been able to satisfactorily refute it. It is time that people like me, who believe in real peace, find more convincing arguments against the cynics.

Respected ma’am, the absence of a stable democracy in Pakistan is the reason why extremists were allowed to grow in Pakistan. Today, there is a democratic government in Islamabad. If the democratic process continues, I am sure the country will grow in pluralism and extremists will find no place to hide. However, there is need to stress one point here. India too has its own brand of hardliners. You will also have to give no audience to them. India and Pakistan have tried to destroy each other but the two countries still exist. Let us come to terms with this reality and build peace.

Best regards,

A patriotic and peace-loving Pakistani

(The above column first appeared in Daily Times dated July 22, 2010. Click here to visit the original.)

It was not a silent march. People were swarming the streets and on the day of the long march there was no nook or corner where we could not hear one slogan and one slogan alone being repeated ad nauseam. Not a demand for the restoration of the judiciary or even the Sharif government in Punjab. Not quite. Only one slogan attacking the president’s person. The government, I thought, should have understood how much it needed to work on its image.

I was covering the event for my channel and despite all fears of a terror attack it was my explicit wish to be there. Before the 2008 general elections I had spent months upon months spreading an illusion that I then thought could become a reality. Indeed I kept parroting that once free and fair elections were held and democracy restored the politicians would follow the spirit of the Charter of Democracy (CoD). The chief justice along with other deposed judges would be restored and all segments, including the media, would work in harmony to fight the twin wars against terrorism and poverty. But that could not be.

Today the battle between the executive and judiciary has intensified. Politicians are bickering among themselves and the media has sustained heavy damage to its economy and credibility. For a citizen like me it is hard to divine where the current leadership of the army stands on the national issues. And in this constant state of pandemonium, terrorists are hunting us as easily as wolves take out herds of sheep.

Quite visible among the threats to democracy is the issue of fake degrees. I do not hold any brief for anyone but the way we, the media people, are rebuking and insulting the political class on the matter is downright sick. No matter what they do, they are elected representatives and in that capacity the laws that have been framed should never be questioned. Similarly, if Jamshed Dasti’s case is any example, we can say with confidence that the voters, unlike the Musharraf regime, do not care about the degree issue.

I know through this argument I cannot justify any act of deceit but nor should the issue of fake degrees be employed to discredit the politicians en masse. There is need for empathy, if not sympathy, on this issue. Let me build a case to rationalise what was done, if not justify it. Please remember that in doing so I am not trying to portray politicians as heroes but to understand the choices that led to the current situation.

I believe that the graduation restriction was not merely an ill-conceived idea but also imposed with malicious intent of limiting democracy. Indeed a similar technique was employed by the Republicans in Florida when felons were barred from taking part in the voting process and by doing so they managed to engineer the 2000 elections. It will never be remembered as a triumph of democracy. I know you will say that no matter what the restrictions were it does not give anyone the right to present fake degrees or circumvent the law through deceit. I can understand this argument but consider this:

I will always have great respect for Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry because his one simple refusal managed to weaken Musharraf’s rule and helped us get rid of his thinly disguised dictatorship. However, remember that in the follow-up of that refusal, emergency was imposed and during the emergency as per the law of the land, no citizen had any rights. Public gatherings were banned and yet the chief justice and his supporters, including yours truly, kept gathering and protesting. The cause of democracy and justice is such that little do we care while breaking unjust laws. Those who participated in those rallies are not known today as criminals but something hardly short of heroes.

When the time of the elections came, it was clear that the results could have been easily managed if the popular candidates of the pro-democracy parties were kept out of the race. Politicians in order to fight that situation did whatever they could and through their own means managed to get elected. The elected government and parliament have managed to do away with the dictator and his laws, restored the deposed judges and built national consensus on issues as divisive as the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award and the new name of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. I do not want them to be proclaimed national heroes. I know that the judiciary and the constitution were restored in a delayed and confused fashion that must have left behind bad feelings and hence led to the current situation, but still you cannot deny the constructive role these assemblies have played. Remember, it is very easy to lash out at these politicians but the institutions that are functioning could not even begin to think of doing so in their absence. I am in their mortal debt for doing so and think that others should also feel obliged.

Another example often quoted is that of Bill Clinton. I will invoke the Lewinsky case. While good ol’ Bill lied under oath, he was not impeached merely for the sake of democracy. I think, while I cannot justify what was done in the fake degree case even if I want to, unseating a sitting MP or disqualifying him/her is too harsh a punishment. If a point needed to be made, symbolic punishments could be handed out. How, for instance, would fine and withdrawal of salaries sound to you?

The problem you have to understand is that I did not write the constitution and as it was envisaged by our founding fathers, parliament is supposed to be the superior pillar of the state. I know that today the army, judiciary and the media all can make an example out of the political class but I pray that for the sake of our posterity they do not. I appeal to the best among them in the name of the same patriotism that runs in my blood not to let the system get sabotaged. Institutions can be built and the quality of human resource improved only when the democratic process continues unabated. If we can achieve some harmony, the country will never lose against its enemies and detractors.

With so much going on in Islamabad, one is often seized by the mad desire to bring one’s own paradigm to the table. I most certainly have dreams for a Pakistan that our children will inherit from us. And then, of course, there is the sad reality of what we inherited from our elders. Perhaps, in order to talk of dreams, we have to appreciate the reality first.

What we have here is the product of decades of a deficit of imagination. Today our politicians are fighting among themselves while repeatedly vowing to continue for the strengthening of democracy. Courts are taking judicial activism to an altogether new level where, at times, you feel that they are also responsible for running the legislative and executive functions of the state. Our defence establishment is busy fighting the monsters that it once so lovingly honed. The media meanwhile is full of sound, nay noise and fury, signifying hardly anything. And it is hard to make any sense of our economy. Then there is the actual matter of our suffering humanity. Yes, we have already been marginalised by the everyday bomb blasts, terrorist assaults, power outages, water and gas shortages, ever-rising prices and news of people committing suicides.

Our relations with our neighbours are also at an all time low. We take one step forward and two steps back on critical issues linked to projects like the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. Our Afghan policy is in shambles. Personally, I am not too hopeful about the peace process between India and Pakistan. China once was our great ally. It might still be but our failure to reinvent ourselves as an attractive and enduring partner may finally take its toll.

Meanwhile, our nuclear capacity and missile programme appear only as liabilities for we have so conveniently managed to get ourselves framed as proliferators. And things do not end here. In sports, while we are all going mad about the FIFA World Cup, it is painful to see that our sports crazy country is not even represented in Africa.

In this fog of war, taxes, heat and poverty, perhaps there is a need to revisit the premise on which this country was founded. Or at least the Pakistani dream that attracted so many to abandon their homeland in India in order to adopt the nascent state as their new home. A Pakistani dream, if you please. What was it? I know many would drag ideology and the Two Nation Theory into the discussion. But to me it was a dream of better opportunities and equitable economic environment. It is clear that we have done nothing to translate that dream into reality but perhaps we can still try.

If you ask me, I want a country driven by ethics. Here I draw a distinction between ethics and morality because, while ethics can be secular, morality is marred by ideational trappings. And I want an equitable future for our posterity. Is that even closely possible? Why on earth not? We are all human beings and, no matter how much cynics tell you that nothing will change, the truth is that even the worst among us have some sort of conscience. Gone are the days when the corrupt could think that, after committing crimes and making a lot of money, they could flee the country and stay in eternal bliss abroad. Pakistan is now equipped enough to drag back those who have assailed it once or more. I know in certain cases there is lack of political or at least public will and we have a lot of bottlenecks but still, Pakistan now has the capacity to fight such demons.

Let us think of a future where there is no fear of implosion, where even the poorest of the poor live above the line of basic subsistence. And where merit is rewarded open-heartedly and those with limited capacities are helped to reach their maximum potential. These things may seem impossible to you but remember the history books are full of examples where nations have cast away the yolk of slavish complacency and have managed to rid themselves of their major demons. Why go anywhere else? China once was known for its Opium wars. India too once was renowned for its crippling caste system. While some of these evils might still exist, they have been marginalised, at least to an extent.

Now let us talk of the solutions. If we were to begin reforming where would we start? The root of all evil is illiteracy and ignorance. Since a majority of our citizens cannot even read, they cannot keep abreast of everyday developments in the world, in their own field or even their own neighbourhood. I know the media is supposed to fill this gap but without any organised system to process such information, what people may internalise may well prove to be a double edged sword. So what we need above everything else — and I have been saying this for ages — is to impose an educational emergency. If I recollect properly, there is also a mobile company advertisement that shows an improved Pakistan courtesy better education. I wish we could pay some heed to this crucial sector.

Then there is a need to have a firm belief in institution building through democratic continuity. No matter how bad or dysfunctional, the democratic process can build institutions and this is where the supremacy of parliament or the legislature should be emphasised. And last but not least, we need to reform our madrassas and stop wincing at the word “reform”. If we can be brave enough to start confronting our weaknesses, even at a micro level, I am sure we can deliver a better Pakistan. Let us then wipe the slate clean, forgive every past folly and unite to strive afresh.