It
all started with the resolve of a 70 year old Mama Qadeer Baloch, who left his
home in search of his missing son but soon became father of thousands of
missing persons. His historic long march, apart from being a tale of courage
and resolve, carved such a democratic space which no one could have imagined
before him. Few months later, a young activist of BSO-A, Latif Johar, further
capitalizing on the space created by Mama Qadeer, launched a hunger strike in
Karachi for recovery of his missing chairman, Zahid Baloch.
Political
and human rights activists saw these two events as a beginning of democratic
era in Pakistan. The success of Mama's march inspired many young Baloch and
Sindhi activists to take up the path of democratic struggle instead of armed one.
But, unfortunately the hopes of democracy lovers shattered soon, when most
vocal journalist on missing persons was attacked at Karsaz, one of the
cantonment areas of Karachi.
Soon
after this attack, different groups launched a campaign against Hamid Mir and
his channel, while paying rich tributes to intelligence and law enforcement
agencies of Pakistan. In following months channel faced legal and illegal bans,
while advertisements dried from its associated newspapers. After few months channel
got aired again but missing persons are now missing from Hamid Mir's prime time
slot and newspaper columns.
The
treatment met out to the most reputed journalist and most influential channel
of Pakistan was enough for the rest of the electronic media to understand the
red lines very neatly drawn by the powerful state institutions. Within months
all the private channels, instead of acting as a counter-narrative to PTV,
turned into a propaganda machine of these institutions. It is ironic how the
space occupied by the media during martial law regime of Pervez Musharraf has
been taken back during democratic regime of PML-N.
After
successfully taming the media channels and curbing the freedom of speech, the
Third political force took up the task of demonizing political parties. The
tamed media kept throwing mud on the government and the parliament while Imran
Khan and Tahir ul Qadri were provided 24/7 coverage during the scripted
'Dharna'. Though 'Dharna' gradually move towards decay, but events taking place
behind the scene turned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif into a rubber stamp.
While
democratic government was recovering from this crisis, Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan
attacked Army Public School, Peshawar on 16 December 2014 which killed more
than 140 people including 132 children. In response to this horrible event, new
civil society actors emerged and captured the whole anti-extremist narrative in
favor of the same institution which gave birth to Islamic militancy in 1980s.
It is almost unbelievable how in coming days all the blame of terrorism was
shifted on the political parties while other state institutions emerged as the
resistance against these militant outfits
The
attack on APS is beyond any doubt most tragic event of national level and
demanded for extraordinary measures against extremism and terrorism but the way
it turned the fate of democracy is ironic. It provided all the justification,
if lacking, to the operation Zarb e Azb, which was reluctantly approved by the
government after a strong demand from armed forces. Instead of any structural
change, this event forced the parliament and all the mainstream political
parties to pass each and every bill, even if conflicting with basic democratic
and human rights, demanded by the Army Janta.
After
taming the media and breaking the spine of the elected representatives,
military establishment garnered such power and public support that even martial
law regimes failed to enjoy. The same Hamid Mir who was giving space to Mama
Qadeer in both print and electronic media a year ago, did not utter a word when
'Un-silencing Balochistan' was forcefully silenced by the intelligence agencies
at LUMS, this year.
A
brave social worker of Karachi, Sabeen Mahmood, despite of knowing what
happened in LUMS, tried to un-silence Balochistan but only to get silenced by
unknown attackers just after the talk. Sabeen's brutal murder is a strong
message to all the activists that the democratic space created by Mama Qadeer no
longer exists. The same Mama Qadeer who travelled from Quetta to Karachi and
Karachi to Islamabad, is not allowed to speak even in a close hall today.
More
tragic than Sabeen's death is the way how media and civil society activists
have spin it away from the Balochistan. More tragic is the fact that how today
'Un-silencing Balochistan' has been transformed into 'Un-silencing Pakistan',
which only depicts the deep silence prevailing in Pakistan. More tragic is the
way so called democratic parties have given up all the democratic rights of the
people just to complete their own tenures.
The
operation from KPK and Balochistan has now spread to rural and urban Sindh as
well, and even a parliamentary party of Karachi is claiming to be a victim of
extrajudicial killings and undemocratic treatment. On the other hand the intellectuals
instead of questioning this treatment are found justifying such actions on the
pretext of decreasing crime rates.
Missing persons of Balochistan, KPK and Sindh are not silent but we are ignoring their whispers…
Democracy Betrayed!
