August 6, 2015
By
Saeed Qureshi
Thanks to the combined
determination and strategy of the government and the armed forces that Pakistan
seems to be out of the dire straits of lawlessness. One could not imagine a
year or so ago that the mayhem in which Pakistan was caught could be halted and
reined in.
The proverbial Augean
stables of lawlessness, galloping beast of thuggery and myriad and
all-embracing violence have been markedly cleaned. The culprits are being chased and apprehended.
This magnificent and
heroic feat would go down in the history of Pakistan as an epic struggle for retrieving
the sinking ship called Pakistan. Also this monumental endeavor lays down
afresh the foundations of a new stable and strong Pakistan with glorious
destiny for future generations.
Pakistan has become a
hunting place for ubiquitous criminal gangs and marauding mafias caving into
the foundations of Pakistan with daring audacity and dogged villainy. There
were religious militants hovering over Pakistan like prying vultures and digging
deep into the flesh.
There have been a whole
range of vicious dacoits, robbers, extortionists, kidnappers’ bounty hunters,
rapists, enemy agents and saboteurs stalking the length and breadth of Pakistan
with impunity and defiance mocking the law enforcement agencies, courts, the justice
system and the civil society.
These heinous perpetrators
have been turning Pakistan into a banana republic and bringing it at par with societies
riddled with bloody civil wars. These elements are patronized and abetted by
the parties and individuals in power and commanding portfolios.
We have seen the Rangers,
police and the army rounding up the outlaws in Karachi whose predominant lots consist
of the foot soldiers and henchmen of the ministers of PPP, the MQM and
religious crusaders. While a huge number of the combatants have been killed in
encounters several hundreds have been arrested and their connections and links
with the high-ups are being probed.
In Karachi alone the
vicious mafias were stealing the water and selling it privately fetching to them
billions of rupees. The kidnapping and forcible extraction of money had become
a normal and routine money making lucrative business. The public vacant places
like playgrounds and parks were occupied and those who raised alarm were
silenced either by bribing or killing them.
The gang and sectarian
feuds all over Karachi specifically and elsewhere in the country kept swelling
to the extent that well-fortified military installations were brazenly attacked
and partially or wholly destroyed. Pakistan had become an utterly unsafe place
to live for the business community and industrial classes to carry on their
ventures. The whole country has been up in flames.
In an email, a fellow
writer gave horrifying figures of the military officers and rangers killed by
the well organized and well equipped religious militants. The terrorists even
ambushed a military school in Peshawar and killed around 150 teen age boys. That
horrific incident turned out to be the beginning of the anti-crime colossal
onslaught, still apace.
And then a miracle
happens. The army steps forward under the conspicuously gallant and fearless
chief General Raheel Sharif who turned the tables on the wreckers, and enemies
of the country.
The army Jawans are
laying down their lives in this war between the patriotic and unpatriotic forces.
And we can now witness that the saboteurs, fifth columnists, the hardened thugs,
heartless murderers and criminals are on the run.
It has been reported in
the media that MQM was secretly in league with India to destroy social life and
business activities in Karachi by all kind of atrocities and fear mongering brutalities.
Scores of their underground operatives have been nabbed by the army and the
rangers and startling information is oozing out.
As usual the MQM could have
feigned innocence. But like a bolt from the blue, their boisterous arch
godfather Altaf Hussain, in his harangue from London, called upon both India
and NATO to rescue the Urdu speaking population from the Pakistan army as if
ethnic cleansing of the Muhajir community was going in Pakistan.
It is possible that the trial
of treason might be initiated against him and he is extradited to Pakistan. Perhaps
the MQM wants a kind of rerun of the external intervention in 1971-72 civil war
in the former East Pakistan and now Bangladesh. For MQM it could be Jinnahpur.
In the meantime the
Rangers have asked the MQM to hand over 187 murder suspects. The MQM says that
no party member is in rangers list of target killers.
A 17 members Bench of Supreme
Court upheld military courts and rejected petitions for repealing the18th amendment
by 14-3 votes and the 21st amendment by 17- 6 .It means that there
would be speedy trials and award of sentences to the proven thugs and criminals
irrespective of their backgrounds or political clout.
