By Brig® Mehboob Qadir
Email: clay.potter@hotmail.com
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, yet sometimes it is worth a book and more than half a century of years gone by.So is the picture in the inset.It is not really what it appears physically but has more to do with the perception.This is not merely a picture of a piece of an ordinary looking wall but a true depiction of how our state and in that our Police and other LEAs have failed in their primary duty to provide security to the life and property of the people they were supposed to serve in the first place.
This is part of a perimeter wall that was constructed more than a 100 years ago during British times in an area which must have been total wilderness then.But then that wilderness was effectively covered by efficient security umbrella which the British administrators were able to so brilliantly set up in the united India.This confidence in their capability to ensure law and order was reflective of the prestige of their governance and remained visible long after they were gone in cities like Lahore, Quetta, Nowshera, Peshawar,Kohat,Abbotabad and you name it where ever they set up their offices and residences.It was so well founded and ingrained into popular psyche that even by early 60s a lone Police constable on Gujranwala’s busiest intersection over GT Road passing through the city was able to perfectly control the traffic without any hassle and infringement. One remembers Nowshera cantt even in 1980s where it was wide open from all directions,residence perimeter walls were no more than 3 feet high to deter not the trespassers but cattle wandering in and gates hardly ever closed except of the high offices to instill due caution and deference.
Reverting to our chaotic times,as the policing deteriorated and became careless and the security cover provided by the state continued to be diluted and therefore shrink people started to raise their walls higher and higher in a bid to protect themselves. Weakening net of general security and resultant diminished sense of wellbeing became more and more pervasive, increasing a nagging feeling of tentativeness and apprehension all around.To this ever expanding malaise he government institutions reacted the last as by then regrettably few inside really cared for them if not deliberately, then by default.It were actually the terror strikes by TTP against say APS Peshawar, GHQ and Parade Lane Rawalpindi which put fear of God in their hearts to shun drift but again more for themselves and not much to make an effort to get law and order improved for the general public.As the general sense of insecurity kept expanding so did the daring of the goondas, dacoits, kidnappers and looters, correspondingly writ of the state kept eroding.
As people’s trust in the will and capacity of the LEAs and the state to provide security dwindled,streets started to become barricaded,guard posts and CCTV cameras appeared before the house gates and well to do began to be trailed by their armed body guards in double cabin Vigo vehicles.Most of the senior police and armed forces officers have dismounted from their traditional service cars and prefer to travel in tinted glass private cars in convoys of two or more SUVs.This spectacle of officials personal insecurity and not power as otherwise perceived, on our roads is the most visible and loud admission of the state of its abysmal failure to ensure law and order and banner size indictment of almost fully failed security envelop in the country.As a matter of hard fact and inconvenient realism Police, Rangers, police stations,checkposts, armored patrol cars,double cabin mounted police, Dolphin/Elite force, Police Commandos ,traffic wardens , courts and what not have long lost their crime deterrence and law enforcement value.They are mere shells of their past prestige and have generally degenerated into popularly despised tools of state coercion.There is an unsaid and widely nursed but most ominous notion of state as an adversary ,not an ally or protector.
The piece of wall shown in the inset is a graphic display of how our state security apparatus kept dissolving while citizens kept raising their walls, affixed iron grills with pointed nails, followed by razor wire coils and now topped by electric fences.Not only that those who can afford have installed alarm systems and CCTV cameras inside and acquired weapons too.Just look at the huge number of applications by the citizens for the weapon licenses for personal protection which is directly proportionate to the size of security shrinkage.This is not a good omen for a peaceful society and is directly indicative of governance failure in a fundamental area of the state’s duty towards its people.
On another plane see the nature of heinous crimes that are being committed against the vulnerable and the weak in so many daring ways with horrifying frequency. Day light kidnaps, collective murders, forced disappearances, gang rapes, acid attacks,property demolitions and bank/shop robberies have become common.Pinion riding motor cycle mounted killers move around with impunity.These are some of the crimes that impact a common man directly and deeply. On the larger scale are high yield crimes like wheat, oil, sugar, drugs and weapons smuggling which are of a cinematic proportion.Place these next to the rising incidents of terrorism, extremely cruel electricity and gas charges, utterly callous state extravagance and the brew should be ready to explode anytime.The despair and disappointment among the people seem so great and nearly final that almost none is looking towards the state and traditional centers of power for any help or relief.This dreadful gulf between the state as a whole and the people is widening and can have untold ramifications for our national integrity.