Pakistan must investigate its royal mess

War on Terror

24 Jun 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com

Pakistan must investigate its royal mess

…now that the Pakistani security state has strictly been ordered by its paymasters to stop its own creation and its children from the mayhem they were at, it is imperative for the government to immediately order an extensive probe by a high-powered commission to investigate the delay in taking on the Yahoos and related matters to do with their sudden rise. This is imperative because the intelligence failure and the consequent delay resulted in the Yahoos getting stronger, which in turn allowed them to look for other prizes after Swat i.e. Buner which they took in a matter of days, and which "victory" in turn spread fear and despondency across the land because districts like Haripur and Hazara were next in line, some villages in Haripur already in their thrall. The body, set up on the lines of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission, should be made up of the many eminent gentlewomen and men we have in Pakistan…. The commission must go into the details of the Commando's and his coterie's handiwork: from giving Sufi Mohammad refuge in the Dera Ismail Khan jail in 2001 when his own people wanted to lynch him for getting their innocent children killed in the American assault on Afghanistan, to the rise of Fazlullah and Baitullah and Mangal Bagh and other such Yahoos, to the complete detriment of the country. It must be noted that the security establishment will oppose this investigation (for that is what it will be, and will seek to apportion blame) with all its might but the political leaders simply must take the bit between the teeth and go for it. Let me add here that the commission might well find that politicians are to blame, or civil servants. Well, so be it, but it is high time that all those that have made the country a plaything to kick about as it takes their fancy be held to account and be firmly told that this is the end of the line for them. -- Kamran Shafi URL of this page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1498 --------------   An inquiry into a royal mess  By Kamran Shafi June 24th, 2009  FIRST, many congratulations to Pakistan's cricket team for winning the T20 World Cup! Our cricketers' Herculean efforts are to be acknowledged even more because they won against other very gifted teams at a time of great stress for all Pakistanis: What else, but the deadly shemozzle in Swat and Fata. It is a complete and utter shemozzle because we still don't know whether we are coming or going after a full nine years that the Yahoos have been at it: Destabilising the state; taking Swat over bit by bit; increasing their influence in Fata because of the stupid policies of the Commando and his cohorts who generally made a right royal mess of things. Moving on, now that the Pakistani security state has strictly been ordered by its paymasters to stop its own creation and its children from the mayhem they were at, it is imperative for the government to immediately order an extensive probe by a high-powered commission to investigate the delay in taking on the Yahoos and related matters to do with their sudden rise. This is imperative because the intelligence failure and the consequent delay resulted in the Yahoos getting stronger, which in turn allowed them to look for other prizes after Swat i.e. Buner which they took in a matter of days, and which "victory" in turn spread fear and despondency across the land because districts like Haripur and Hazara were next in line, some villages in Haripur already in their thrall. The body, set up on the lines of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission, should be made up of the many eminent gentlewomen and men we have in Pakistan: jurists such as Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim and Justice Rana Bhagwandas; former senior civil servants who have served in the Frontier as "politicals" and whose integrity is above reproach; politicians such as Afzal Khan "Lala" who saw the murderous Yahoos from close quarters; and representatives of the respected Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. And why not Maulana Edhi Sahib who has never shrunk from telling the truth? Or, and indeed, Air Marshal Nur Khan? The commission must go into the details of the Commando's and his coterie's handiwork: from giving Sufi Mohammad refuge in the Dera Ismail Khan jail in 2001 when his own people wanted to lynch him for getting their innocent children killed in the American assault on Afghanistan, to the rise of Fazlullah and Baitullah and Mangal Bagh and other such Yahoos, to the complete detriment of the country. It must be noted that the security establishment will oppose this investigation (for that is what it will be, and will seek to apportion blame) with all its might but the political leaders simply must take the bit between the teeth and go for it. Let me add here that the commission might well find that politicians are to blame, or civil servants. Well, so be it, but it is high time that all those that have made the country a plaything to kick about as it takes their fancy be held to account and be firmly told that this is the end of the line for them. The commission could ask, for example, why Fazlullah who had clear links to Baitullah's Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) set up his headquarters in Imam Dhehri in 2002, and neither the federal government, ably commanded by the Commando, nor the one led by the MMA (aka the Mullah-Military Alliance) challenged him? It could investigate the circumstances under which Afghan writer Fazal Wahab was assassinated in Swat for writing against Al Qaeda in 2003, and why Fazlullah was not stopped when he set up more than 30 illegal FM radio stations in 2004 to spread fear and terror among the populace of that once idyllic valley, even stopping on pain of agonising death innocent pursuits such as people wanting shaves? And attacking schools and music shops? The commission could summon the Commando from his London penthouse and ask him why his government did not operate effectively between July 2007 when he ordered troops into Swat, and October 29, 2007, by which time Fazlullah with a few hundred murderous terrorists grew in strength, killing wantonly all who came in his way. Why were Fazlullah and his Yahoos handled with kid gloves by the Commando and his government(s) when the number of police and paramilitary and military personnel who lost their lives rose to over 100 with hundreds more wounded, many critically. Civilian casualties during this time were even higher, both killed and wounded. It could ask him what happened to his "enlightened moderation" — a term reportedly coined by Henry Kissinger's lobbying firm — when Fazlullah set up his own courts in Swat in October 2007? Or when he began to behead people? There is much, much more which could be included in the commission's writ. By the by, could one ask why Nasim Ashraf who has so much to answer for in the way he ran his human development racket and the Pakistan Cricket Board, asked the England and Wales Cricket Board to "invite" the Commando and Private Banker Shaukat Aziz to the final of the T20? Apart from the damage they have done the country they are rich enough to have bought themselves tickets to the game. What is Ashraf's locus standi anyway? Source:  Dawn, Karachi URL of this page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1498