FATA has been in the eye of the storm for the past 10 years and other than drones, bombs and shells, what pacification measures have the government taken, other than to be scared witless of the terror merchants and their cronies?

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The news to which the commentary responds:Suicide attack on Pakistan court leaves 11 people dead days after Taliban announced month-long ceasefire | Mail Online – 3/3/2014.

On that horrific and too familiar a kind of story, one of my friends in Islamabad, Asad Khan, who states on his Facebook page, “every human has the right to communicate with the creator, in the manner s/he thinks best . . . “, provided me permission to relay his thoughts here.

As an editor in this process, I’ve added paragraph breaks to help ease the reading, question marks to the interrogative statements, and applied rote grammatical corrections (“has” to “have” for example) where needed.

“MPAs” refers to members of the Provincial Assembly; “MNAs” to members of the National Assembly.  There are a few other acronyms sprinkled about (“FC” refers to “Frontier Corps”), but the reader is online too and look-up works fast.

Guest Post by Asad Khan

The Police Service is the most vilified, most underfunded, most politically manipulated, probably most demoralized, and most undertrained of all government services.

With this background of our own home grown “keystone cops”, should we be surprised that the terrorists came calling to the courts and turned it into a shooting gallery, shooting innocent people as if they were sitting ducks.

I think what has happened in Islamabad should not come as a surprise to anyone, least of all to the current political leadership. I have always expounded the view that we should have job descriptions and selection criteria for ministers and other leaders and policy makers. For example what are the qualifications of the interior minister, other than the fact that a whole bunch of nincompoops have voted him to the national assembly on false promises?

The same holds true for the rest of that galaxy of greats and near greats that adorn the corridors of power in Islamabad.

First of all I would like to ask the interior minister to define the roles of the police departments/service, the FC and various other “law enforcement” agencies that he lords over?

Probably he will not know the answers to this/these question(s).

Next what is the internal security policy for the nation as whole, not just Raiwind, Lahore, and Punjab in that order, and not just security for the star spangled generals, judges, ministers and MPAS or MNAS?

Does the interior minister know the shelf life of a cartridge in the bandolier of a Police Constable, or when it was purchased, and to how many rain falls and sun shines that cartridge has been exposed to?

Probably it is beneath the dignity of that snotty, arrogant minister to know such trivia.

Why must the Police Constable die in the line of duty protecting a judge who does not value his (police constable’s) life?

What has the government done for Malakand, post 2009 conflict other than some nicely written fraudulent reports?

FATA has been in the eye of the storm for the past 10 years and other than drones, bombs and shells, what pacification measures have the government taken, other than to be scared witless of the terror merchants and their cronies?

We are adopting the line of appeasement not because of our love for the Taliban, but because we are scared blue of them.

Has the Interior Minister, or the PM or the CM ever been to the funeral of a police constable or an FC jawan killed in the line of duty in KPK?

I don’t think so.

Has a survey ever been conducted to know the views of the police or the FC?

I don’t think so.

If I were a Police constable or an FC jawan I would not throw my life away for the protection of some judge or politician.

Have the powers that be ever stood in the shoes of a police constable and thought of these things?

The post-event inquiries ordered by the Head Judge, the PM, CM and what not make me laugh.

It is a joke on the nation.

Pakistan can only get out of the morass it is in if we have honest, decent men and women at the helm of affairs, but unfortunately this will never be. The West is rooting for parliamentary democracy because they know that this sham “democracy” is our nemesis and will be the cause of our eventual downfall. Robber barons will keep on replacing one another and this game of musical chairs will keep on going, and we will keep on sinking deeper and deeper until the sands of time will cover us and there will be no trace left, and the freebooters will take their loot and head West, to out their miserable lives there.

For the present, this country is being run by mafias and unless their hold is broken, and they are made accountable for their actions, we can bid sayonara to any hope for the better.

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