Mediocre vs. Mediocre

In the fatherland, one trait that reigns supreme is the trait of jumbling up the facts and concentrating on something that has no relevance to the question on hand. Whether this trait is the product of sublime mediocrity of the people concerned or ability to ditch our head in the sand, I really do not know. The only thing that I am certain of is that Ostrich has never been the native bird of my country, which leaves us with the geniuses in every field of national life responsible for this trait.

Benazir Bhutto was murdered, no doubt about it. Facts relating to cause of her death were twisted and bended by the establishment, deliberately or not I can’t say, and everyone followed suit to the satisfaction of the establishment. Media was full of analyses of the videos shot on the scene and everyone was totally embroiled in the process of becoming Sherlock Holmes. Her party raised voices on the issue, but did not come with enough required to communicate to the public that it is not the cause of death that should be the focal point, but the question of who and the motives behind it, which should be investigated thoroughly. They did raise the question of involving UN into the issue, again depicting sheer mediocrity, citing Hariri’s assassination without realizing the fundamental differences of ground realities in both cases and was happily ignored by the establishment in the end. In the end the mediocre of establishment won because the mediocre of Pakistan People’s Party were more stupid than them. Such are the traits that decide the fate of our national life.

Establishment then appointed the Scotland Yard with the terms of reference totally limited to question of how she was killed at the crime scene and was successful in diverting the attention of whole nation including media and masses to the grand question of bullet or sunroof. While the part of investigation relating to who killed her and what are the motives behind it were investigated by the same agencies and forces, which BB herself accused of sleeping with terrorists. As expected till now they have come up with nothing but arrest of a boy of fourteen or fifteen and following the leads extracted from him during investigation.

Two questions arise here. First one is that how these agencies can be trusted as to their competency. Everyone knows that how they washed the crime scene with water hoses and proclaimed their incompetency to the world. This even found mention in the Scotland Yard report, which also showed that our agencies are not able to distinguish sunroof from escape hatch. The second question and more important one is that how these investigating agencies can be trusted whose important Personnel were accused by BB in her letter to the Government.

Today Scotland Yard came up with the report, and as expected it came up with nothing which is helpful because of the limited mandate given to it. Now what remains to be seen is the reaction of Pakistan People’s Party. As expected they have already started to question the report. Sherry Rehman was quoted by GEO TV that it is hard to accept this report. What does she mean by this is anybody’s guess. Makhdoom Amin Faheem was then contacted, and he refused to comment citing that either Central Executive Committee or Asif Ali Zardari will comment on the report. Only Aitezaz Ahsan knew how to react and said that this report carry no value.

What is required here is that the report of Scotland Yard should be accepted as it is, because within the framework that was allowed to the investigators, it is a good report. But at the same time, Government should be pressed to appoint independent Judicial Commission to investigate the whole matter from all angles. The members of this commission should be independent, and should be acceptable to all the parties involved. PPP leaders should recognize that unless they do not play their cards right, the investigation of BB’s case will go nowhere.

Throughout my life, I have always been anti PPP. The current succession at the top of this party is one more reason for me to be against this party. But BB despite many glaring shortcomings was fighting against the monster of clandestine state apparatus, which has rendered the country in situation where we find it today. Ironically, it was her father on whose behest political cell in ISI was established. This is perhaps the last chance for the politicians of the country to get things right.

Let us see whether PPP brass have the brains to force the government to do the right thing, or the newly appointed chairman of the party has some other priorities, which I doubt he has. Let us see who will win - the mediocrity of establishment or mediocrity of politicians.