What is the state of security – or insecurity, if you like – of the citizens of Pakistan? And what does it mean for the high officials of the administration and law enforcement agencies?
I am not sure if these questions are pertinent in the context of an issue that has attracted some attention this week. The focus, in fact, is on bulletproof vehicles. So, wouldn’t you think of security when you talk about bulletproof vehicles?
Obviously, the peg I am using is that squabble between the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the federal authorities on, yes, bulletproof vehicles. Given other very serious developments that may also have a bearing on national security, including the decision to ban the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), why am I distracted by the little game that is being played between the PTI government of KP and the federal ministry of interior?
The reason is that this controversy has triggered in my mind some images and thoughts that I want to write about. For instance, there is this spectacle of a motorcade of a high official roaring through the streets. You see those bulletproof vehicles followed by one or more vehicles of armed guards, mostly policemen. What is the message conveyed by this level of security for an entire regiment of high officials, including senior police officers?
There is no doubt that bulletproof vehicles are an integral part of a campaign against armed criminals and militants, often in some designated areas. There may be officials who are involved in counterterrorism and suppression of violent crime who deserve the protection of a bulletproof vehicles on a regular basis. One also expects that the security that is provided to high officials is warranted by the threat perception that is evaluated by experts.
Is that so? On the face of it, all top officials and senior government functionaries are provided extensive security. Is this not an indirect admission that the law and order situation is extremely poor? This would also suggest that the high officials who apparently enjoy this show of pomposity are in fact demonstrating their own failure to maintain peace and tranquility. Which is their job, incidentally.
It would be useful to seek the opinion of the relevant social scientists and experts in governance as to what it really means when a society is literally besieged by armed guards and uniformed people who are protecting a number of individuals during their movement from one place to another. Does this inspire a sense of security among the ordinary people? Or they, the people, feel more insecure and insulted by this show of force?
Here, I should concede that those who keep guards and who are driven in bulletproof vehicles are not all officials. There is a substantial number of very rich people and tribal and feudal lords who flaunt their wealth and their (non-formal) power on the streets of our major cities. It is Karachi that I am most concerned about.
As I have said, we need professionals to explain this phenomenon in terms of the state of our society. But I do recall reading in a book that the presence of armed men on the streets is a sign that the power of the ruling authority is being diminished. It is called power deflation or loss of authority.
What I have said so far was prompted by reports in which bulletproof vehicles were mentioned. Let me now refer to the saga of those vehicles. It all began on Monday when the newly chosen KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, chairing his first meeting on law and order, directed the provincial authorities to return the bulletproof vehicles that had been provided by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. He said that the vehicles were defective and old, terming them as “an insult to the KP police”.
There was an expected response by Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry, who alleged that the KP government had returned the vehicles to avoid “fighting terrorism”. He asserted that the vehicles provided to KP were fully equipped with bulletproof and bombproof features. A debate ensued and KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, while echoing Talal, said that the province should accept the vehicles.
On Wednesday, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said that the vehicles returned by KP would now be dispatched to Balochistan. This was in response to a request from the Balochistan Chief Minister Sardar Sarfraz Bugti. But on Thursday, the Sindh government also requested that the said vehicles should be delivered to the province.
Does this mean that the more bulletproof vehicles a province has, the better would be its performance in maintaining law and order? The sad truth is that terror activities in KP and Balochistan, the provinces bordering Afghanistan, have increased in recent months. An increase in the activities of the Tehreek-e-Taliban, Pakistan (TTP) had begun when Afghan Taliban seized power in 2021. Military encounters between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the present ceasefire are a separate story we are not going into now.
Let me conclude with one example of how the authorities are unable to deal with organised crime even when they have not just bulletproof vehicles but proper armoured vehicles and sophisticated weaponry. And this is a story that has continued for a very long time.
A news report published on Thursday said: “Police in Rahim Yar Khan have started running escorted night convoys on the Sukkur-Multan Motorway (M-5) to protect motorists from Katcha dacoit gangs”. What is happening now is that from 7pm to 6am the Rahim Yar Khan police are halting all vehicles at the Azampur service area and dispatching conveys led by two armoured police pickups every half an hour.
A similar arrangement is made for the south to north traffic from Sukkur. This measure was adopted after 10 persons were kidnapped from various vehicles by a particular gang during last month. Disruptions caused by floods may also have contributed to the present disorder.
We do not have to drive on M-5 at nighttime. But why do we feel unsafe in crowded places in, say, Karachi?
The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at: [email protected]
