A comment in The Nation puts the spotlight on President Musharraf and the showdown he cannot afford. “Musharraf has created an unprecedented alliance of liberal, centrist and right-wing religious parties against him…Politicians, indeed most Pakistanis, are now more focused on Musharraf’s vaulting ambitions and his tight rein on power than on helping him—or Washington—win the war on terror. Ordinary Pakistanis are not yet calling for Musharraf’s ouster…but their tolerance is shrinking to dangerous levels.”

And Farrukh Khan Pitafi in The Nation has this telling comment on the plummeting popularity of the armed forces. “Never in the history of Pakistan the armed forces were made to stand against desires of its people the way they are today. At times it seems that a plot is being unleashed to dismantle the prestige of the army in the eyes of its own people…In his bid to stay in power our dear Mr President has dragged the whole army into the cesspool of unpopularity…”

“A nation half dead” says Abid Ullah Jan in The Nation  “The half dead Pakistani nation is silently inching towards death on the cross of what Bush Junior called a ‘crusade’…”

An opinion piece in The Nation decries too much concentration of power in the person of General Pervez Musharraf.It is one megalomaniac replacing another plus the problem with General Musharraf is “that he is too much self opinionated…

“He (Musharraf) had better declare that he must rule this country for as long as he deems fit. Given the crises that our country is facing today it is imperative that we refrain from making a mockery of democratic values and culture.”

There is trouble ahead for Musharraf as for instance the warning by the chief of the fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-elslam, Maulana Fazle ur-Rehman.(Munir Ahmed, AP in the Washington Post). “The cleric’s warning was the latest sign of discontent among conservative Muslims in Pakistan amid a widening government campaign of reward offers, arrests, and growing military force against extremists…”

There are dark predictions too as for instance former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s reported comment on the numbered days of dictatorship in Pakistan. “ The people of Pakistan would not and must not allow one man to have his way with the constitution…”

This against the backdrop of news report speculating the return of Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan. Reportedly under a deal the Americans had brokered with the military junta.(Report in The Nation that said “the government of Saudi Arabia has contacted American officials for the return of Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan).

And there is an interesting report in The Times by Zahid Hussain that tells us “the radical redrafting of Pakistan’s constitution would create a ‘shadow military state in the garb of democracy.’”

The move, it is felt by observers, would make General Musharraf an all-powerful leader preventing the return of the country to a true democracy.

Pakistan has lost more soldiers in the gun battle at Wana in south Waziristan to nab Al Qaeda men “than all the US casualties put together in the US-led operations in Afghanistan since last October…” says the edit in The Daily Times of June 30. “The operation against Al Qaeda terrorists hiding in Pakistan is going to be a long drawn affair.” We are told. “The last thing we want is a tribal uprising on our hands in which more Pakistanis are killed and that too by Pakistani hands.”

According to a report Afghan Defence Minister Mohammad Fahim was quoted as saying that he had turned down US advice to forge a security pact with Pakistan to boost the fight against Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives still at large. Ostensibly due to the fact that Afghans doubt Pakistan’s sincerity.

An edit in the Daily Times examines terrorism in the historical perspective.

“When the policy shift on Afghanistan came post –Sept.11, the Taliban –Al Qaeda elements were declared terrorists but a distinction was still made between these terrorists and the jihadis fighting in Kashmir.Indeed, at one point General Musharraf went so far as to claim that he had sided with the international community in order to protect Pakistan’s nuclear and Kashmir jihad policies. The phenomenon of non-state actors and groups that do a state’s ‘national security’ bidding and in the process become infected with criminality is not new” it is stated with certitude. And further: “ Drug trafficking, gun running and other criminal activities not only help finance groups, they also help create fear and allow groups to extend control over the area they want to lord over…Therefore what we are witnessing today is the natural course of events after the state decided to take a policy course.” And finally the question is asked,  “Can we hope that the present regime will preside over the denouement of this phenomenon?” 

The picture of Pakistan as reflected in the media is pretty ugly on the political and military fronts. But even more shocking and beyond belief on the social plane are incidents like the gang rape of a teenaged girl on orders of tribal jury.

An edit in The Dawn, July 3,says: “Surprisingly, no mainstream political or religious parties ever take a stand on such reprehensible acts of violence against women. Just goes to show how cosmetic their commitment to civil society and human values is.”

And comments The Nation on the ghastly incident. “Viewed at a larger social plane, the incident (gang rape of an 18 year old girl ordered by tribal jury) is reflective also of what is wrong with our feudal-dominated society.”

In short, there seems to be the law of jungle operating whereby “ privileged scions who ride roughshod over the rural hinterland or even in urban areas know they have the family or biradari clout to evade or circumvent the law.” And we are told “that a former chief minister would often himself beat up lawbreakers in his village with the police ‘chittar’… Selective applications of law and its loopholes have snapped it of its deterrence.” And summing up the state of society in Pakistan, the edit concludes: “As in all tribal societies, women here are often treated as pawns in the game of family honour. There have been many incidents of parading women of rival groups naked in public to avenge perceived insults. But a public gang rape, and that too ordered by a panchayat is a unique felony. Its punishment too should be unprecedented.”

An edit in the News tells of the barbarity of man and what the people of Pakistan endure by way of suffering. “Confronted on a regular basis by extortion, brutalisation, even slavery, sectarian killings and now suicide bombings, pure survival instinct has numbed their minds and hardened their skins. It is not easy for them to be shocked anymore. Yet, the terrible calamity that befell an innocent 18-year-old girl in a remote village of Punjab’s Muzaffargarh district on June 22 was beyond anyone’s worst nightmare…”

An opinion piece by Dr Ijaz Ahsan in The Nation says it all: “The degeneration of our society and resultant complete anarchy is increasing day by day.” And then generally on the status of women: “In our country whenever two men fight, any abuse is always directed at a woman: a mother, a sister or a daughter. Larrai mardon ki hoti hai, gaali aurat ko parti hai. (men fight but women are heaped the abuses). This shows how utterly base we have become. The whole thing appears to have been treated as spectator sport, as in the Roman Coliseum of old times…”

New Delhi July 18, 2002

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