Not a laughing matter, this

When Prime Minister Imran Khan was asked about a certain, reported abduction in that television interview late in October, he laughed and said that he saw that as a comedy. And, yes, the friendly interviewer had also posed the question in a playful manner.

You would easily guess what that question was about. What is now known as ‘the Karachi incident’ had caused ripples in the media and deep concern in some quarters. There was this allegation that the Inspector General of the Sindh police was forcibly picked from his house in the small hours and then taken to an office where he was persuaded to sign an FIR against Capt (r) Safdar for what had happened earlier in the day at the Quaid’s mausoleum.

Eventually, Capt Safdar was arrested in a highly dramatic encounter at the hotel where he was staying with his wife, Maryam Nawaz, the star of the PDM rally held the previous night. The immediate impression one got was that the raid was intended to create a rift between the PML-N leadership and the Sindh government of the PPP, whose guest the couple was.

This nocturnal operation and what transpired in its wake should remain a point of reference in the crisis that is building up in Pakistan’s politics. One may even see it as a catalyst that has brought out some deep-rooted contradictions into the open. In any case, it shook the administration and ultimately prompted an intervention at the level of the chief of army staff after he was invited to do so by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, chairperson of the PPP.

By way of a summing up, let me cite the action announced by Pakistan Army on Tuesday this week. Officers of ISI and Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, were removed from their current assignments after they were found acting “over zealously” in the alleged kidnapping of the provincial police chief that had caused “misunderstanding between two institutions”.

The ISPR press release said: “The Court of Inquiry has established that on the night [of] 18/19 October officers from Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) and ISI sector Headquarters Karachi were considerably seized with the fallout of [the] desecration of Mazar-e-Quaid. They were under increasing public pressure to ensure prompt action as per law … Assessing the response of police authorities against this developing yet volatile situation to be slow and wanting in a charged environment, the concerned ISI/Rangers officers decided to act, rather over zealously”.

I am surely tempted to examine this explanation in the context of Pakistan’s political history and the role as well as the powers of the various national institutions. However, this would not be possible. But this is not the end of this affair. As it is, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif readily rejected this action and said that it was a cover up and the officers were made scapegoats.

On his part, Bilawal was pleased with this outcome. Apparently, the PPP is cautious in its dealings with the powers that be. Or was Bilawal too preoccupied with his campaign in Gilgit-Baltistan and had no time to look at and think over the army response. Meanwhile, the report of the Sindh government’s ministerial committee is pending. Will it go further in its scrutiny of the entire circumstances in which this episode was played out?

Now, let me revert to how Imran Khan had dealt with the matter in that interview that was taken on October 23. The idea to laugh it off would be in keeping with the standard behaviour of this government when confronted with serious issues that demand a well-considered and clear-headed response.

As would be expected, the report of the army’s inquiry was an embarrassment for the PTI leadership and Imran’s clip – laughing at the abduction reports – was shown in some talk shows. And then it faded out of the prime-time circuit. Besides, speeches made by Maryam and Bilawal and their BBC interviews have incited new debates and controversies.

The pace of political developments is hectic and Nawaz Sharif’s narrative is intruding into new territories. Against the dark clouds of the emerging national anxieties, ‘the Karachi incident’ is a bolt of lightning. Such surprising misadventures have taken place in many countries during this period of pandemic. In an occult sense, this is a time for revelations and the weakening of authoritarian systems.

So, what does ‘the Karachi incident’ tell us about the power structure that exists in Pakistan and will it have any impact on the future of our civil-military relations? Sadly, our capacity to understand these questions has increasingly diminished but the great wave of distress and unrest that is rising in the lower depths of our society is bound to shake us out of our complacency.

We can be sure that Imran Khan was fully aware of all the relevant facts when that question about the alleged abduction was posed to him. But just as ‘the Karachi incident’ itself is a coded message, Imran Khan’s response raises some questions about the quality of his leadership.

One interpretation would be that the PTI leader is not really willing to acknowledge realities that exist beyond his obsessions about the opposition. And even in this pursuit, he prefers a rather theatrical or dramatic approach. This is what happens when a leader is in denial.

The true measure of this approach is his choice of spokespersons whose performance sometimes borders slapstick comedy. They are ever ready to lampoon the opposition, without resorting to any serious rebuttal of the issues that are raised by the opposition. Sheikh Rashid is a federal minister for the railways but he has set the tone for PTI’s political rhetoric.

It is very much like playing a game – and the opposition is also in the field. But beyond these shenanigans is spread the nightmarish reality of Pakistan. One glimpse of it this week is provided by the terrifying story of a gang-gang rape in Kashmore. I cannot even bear to talk about it. This reality is so grim that we perhaps look the other way to protect our delusions.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com