Buner bombing

The suicide bombing at a polling station in Buner, adjacent to Swat Valley, is a reminder of how great the militant threat in the area remains. Months after the start of an operation against the Taliban in Swat, the authorities seem to have got no where at all. Local Taliban commanders have stated the suicide bombing, staged by a boy believed to be about 18 who rammed into the station in a car plastered with election posters, was carried out to revenge the killing of six militants in the area a few weeks ago. The blast disrupted a by-poll that had been made necessary by the death of an MNA from the ANP. As per the results so far available, the ANP and the Jamaat-e-Islami locked in a close battle for the seat. Local ANP leaders have suggested the blast may have been intended to scare its voters away. The ANP has remained the target of several major terrorist attacks over the past year, both before and after the February 2008 general election.

What the attack does prove is that even after what the military has described as an ‘all-out’ push, the militants seem able to strike at will. This is hardly reassuring. The latest attack targets democracy as well as what remains of the writ of the state. Perhaps it is time for the federal government to sit down with the military and the ANP government in NWFP to assess the state of this operation. The chief minister of NWFP had recently expressed concern over the failure to make headway against militants and also over the death of innocent people. The heavy bombardment, without any evidence of victory over militants, is obviously leading to severe discontent among the people of Swat who have now suffered month after month of conflict. There have been insinuations that the authorities are unwilling to use full force. Allegations along these lines need to be investigated by a government that has stated it sees militants as its worst enemy.

Recent incidents in Swat have been distressing. The body of a local ‘Pir’, killed in a gun-battle with militants, was strung up in public by the Taliban; schoolboys have been kidnapped and people executed without trial. It seems obvious that civilized behaviour no longer exists in the area. Militants in turn accuse military personnel of atrocities. The well-planned bombing at a polling station is the latest example of the scale of the threat terrorism poses. We must, from somewhere, gather together the will to vanquish it.

Mystery murderers

In brief comments on the case involving the assassination of his wife made on the first anniversary of her death, President Asif Ali Zardari claimed he knew the killers and would reveal their identity at the ‘right time’. This is mystifying. If Mr Zardari is indeed able to answer the question as to who killed Benazir Bhutto, there seems to be no plausible reason why he should keep up the suspense. Almost every citizen wishes to know the answer. Slogans raised at Naudero, where tens of thousands gathered to pay tribute to their leader, indicates there is growing impatience over the failure to bring them to book. At present, with the PPP in control in the centre and with a role in government in three other provinces, it would seem it is well-placed to deal with the killers. The failure to do so, to continue to talk about a UN commission, is baffling. So too is Mr Zardari’s call on friends to help. It is uncertain what they are expected to do in a situation where a PPP government has failed even to set up an inquiry team to investigate a murder that changed the political destiny of a nation and has apparently taken no interest in the ongoing trail of five persons accused in the murder before an ATC Court. It is reported even a case regarding the blasts in Karachi during the welcome rally for Benazir, which was quite obviously a bid to kill her, has not been registered. Surely, the PPP does not truly believe that the notoriously bureaucratic UN, which six years after the event has still to come to any conclusion regarding the murder of Lebanon’s Rafik Hariri, can be trusted to unravel the case as though its possessed a wand.

All kinds of questions have been raised from various quarters as the death anniversary of Benazir was observed. Many doubts, many suspicions remain. These have in fact grown over the last year. Mr Zardari and the PPP leadership must take note of prevailing sentiment. If the president can indeed name the killers, now is the time to do so when the government is in a position to bring them to justice and thus act to avenge a murder that shook nearly everyone in the country regardless of political affiliation.

Foggy days

Just for a change there is something that the government cannot be blamed for – the fog. Nothing can be done to prevent it and it is the cause, every year, of dozens of fatalities and perhaps hundreds of injuries; and the Rawalpindi-Lahore motorway is regularly closed during foggy weather. There are two principal reasons for this. One is that there is no adequate fog-lighting system that would enable traffic to pass easily; and it could be argued that the cost of such a provision which is only going to be used a few days every year outweighs the value of installing it. The second reason for the closure of the motorway is that those who drive on it have not a clue as to how to handle driving in fog and blithely carry on as if the fog was not there. The motorway police wisely prevent the widespread carnage which they know will ensue if the Pakistani motorist is given free reign, and close the motorway. It is one of the few instances of proactive traffic management anywhere in the country and there can be little doubt that it saves lives.

Whilst the fog is a problem, it is the drivers themselves whose carelessness creates the conditions in which accidents are more likely to happen. Driving at speed, using headlights on full-beam rather than dipped, overtaking blind, driving on the wrong side of the road – all are contributors to the inevitable toll that ‘the fog’ takes. Responsible driving has never taken root in our national psyche, and cars are an extension of the domestic space in which the prince of the steering wheel is all powerful, to be obeyed at all costs. Sadly many of these princes will come to a sticky end if they do not obey a few basic rules … Don’t overtake, do drive slowly. Stay in lane, dip lights if driving at night and only drive in fog if your journey is absolutely necessary. Reckless driving endangers others, not only you. Remember that as you pull out to pass a cotton wagon at fifty miles an hour and your lights on full beam. In the fog.

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Regards,
P.R.