There are no two opinions about the disaster the PPP has been with regard to governance - however, the particular problem of wahabi petrodollars precedes the PPP government. When the same point is put to our Wahabi members, they advise us to look wthin ourselves for our shortcomings and not place any kind of responsibility for the aions of Wahabis on Wahabism - indeed, when the "religion of peace and forgiveness" crowd is approached, they too say it's has nothing to do with them.
Pointing out that ISI and Armed forces are responsible for the security of Pakistan, leads to deflection to the police, to the railways, to the govt, to the credentials of the Balouchistan Governor.
See, it's really rather simple, regardless of the govt, agencies and institutions have a job to do - can you really imagine that RAW, MOSSAD, Shin Bet, IB, Muhabarat could ever argue that they do not do their job because they think the government of the time is not to their liking???
Try to look at it through a different dynamic :
None of this was happening in the '90s when the so-called Petrodollars were flowing in full force, when both Saudi sponsored religious seminaries & Iranian Cultural Centres were in full swing competing with each other. Why ? Because despite our failure to check that intrusion we had a grip on things because we weren't nearly as preoccupied as we are right now !
Now Pakistan's International Standing is in shambles, our economy has nose dived to depths that one shudders to contemplate, whatever remained of our institutions are either crumbling or already derelict to the point of no return ! All of those are more than contributory towards an increase in violence because no economy equals more lawlessness & no institutions to deal with that leads to a sh*t storm !
Unfortunately in our case this was exasperated by us joining the US led War on Terror that was perceived most negatively in Pakistan from disapproval to outright violence against the State. And that is exactly why this Jihad Narrative was provided to the TTP to recruit their foot soldiers from across the length & breadth of Pakistan; I've heard Maulvis saying - Pakistan provides the US supply routes & bases to continue on their fight in Afghanistan & in that fight the US has killed many innocent Muslims. What follows is that Pakistan is accessory to murder & its justified to pick up arms against the State !
Now most Pakistanis by & large don't think along those lines but the very worst element do - Logic is after all extremely malleable ! Our failure lies in not giving a coherent, easily understood counter-narrative to that narrative & this is where everyone from the media to our civil society to our Government & the Armed Forces have terribly failed ! They just couldn't appreciate the chronic importance of perception. A disgruntled Baloch Youth or a disgruntled Pakistani from elsewhere isn't going to go on a fact finding mission to try to understand what 'comprises' & 'necessities' are in International Relations & what the probable effect of saying a 'flat NO' to US supply lines would have been for our economy, our future & perhaps even our very existence in the due course of time. Hes going to listen to the Molvi, to the Sardar & to other like-minded individuals & target the nearest enemy which happens to be a Hazara, a Punjabi Settler, a Pakistani Soldier, the Pakistani civilians who brought this Government to power, members of the State machinery etc.
Had we been able to influence popular perception on a town-to-town level as was required of us we probably wouldn't be half as bad as we are right now !
Right now the Government is dysfunctional & busy filling up their coffers without a care in the world whilst the army is fighting on multiple fronts without being able to be wholly successfully always or even decisively on a single front ! That coupled with the failure of our economy to rehabilitate these areas is crippling us in a one step forward two step back approach !
This same sh*t was happening in Iraq & the same was happening in Afghanistan in the early '90s - The vacuum created in Pakistan is deafening ! The Army can't juggle so much in so little time without the backing of the civilian apparatus - They don't have any ! The Police is politicized beyond belief, every development project is eaten from the inside & those charged with Governance would rather make a couple of bucks & send them abroad than to actually come up with something !
The ISI isn't omnipotent & omniscient & neither is the army but claiming that somehow the influx of all the aforementioned sh*t thats brewing is evidence enough for complicity is a poor case in my opinion.
