by Imtiaz Gul Pakistanis are great talkers. Charmers. Populists. High on complaints and diagnosis. Low on solutions — pro-active and reactive actions for course correction. The chorus of pontifications and lofty rhetoric from top positions grows ever louder. And people, at large, watch in awe and suffer in misrule. Their expectations, therefore, keep switching from politicians to the military to the judiciary and vice versa. This context also prompted Justice Amir Hani Muslim (March 24) into remarking that 17 judges of the Supreme Court could not make the system of the country right. The nation should not assume that the 17 judges of the Supreme Court could streamline the system of the country. Similarly, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Anwar Zaheer Jamali last week lamented the low conviction rate and called for greater introspection collective efforts within the justice sector and to turn things around. He was addressing a National Judicial Conference on ‘Transforming the Criminal Justice System’. “I have no doubt that the low conviction rate is a matter of concern for us all… no one organisation acting on its own can significantly change the conviction rate, as it requires a collective sector-wide coordinated and concerted effort from all parts of the justice sector,” the CJP said. Legislature, in its wisdom, had taken steps, but “we, as the justice sector, also need to address this scenario… in our respective areas of competence and available resources,” the CJP said. He hit the nail on the head when he pointed that the system’s apparent “inability” to provide justice to the aggrieved, adversely affected public confidence in the formal justice system, encouraging citizens to seek justice by whatever means possible, thereby undermining the formal rule of law. The phrase “justice by whatever means possible” — coming from no other person but the CJP himself — reflects a bitter reality as well as an admission of a bitter reality; in Fata, for instance, the...

by Imtiaz Gul On what we can call another Black Sunday, terrorists mowed down at least 72 innocent citizens and critically injured dozens of others in Lahore. And in Rawalpindi, a few thousand pro-Mumtaz Qadri protestors left a trail of destruction from Liaquat Bagh to the Parliament House in Islamabad, where they finally descended for a sit-in. The rampage by Qadri protestors, according to the Punjab Metrobus Authority (PMA), caused losses worth Rs100 million to public infrastructure at and around the D-Chowk. The Lahore carnage is a continuation of the terror and destabilisation campaign. It is nearly impossible to preempt or prevent a terrorist from committing this heinous crime at a time and venue of his choice. But the violent assault by Qadri supporters and its aftermath — theoretically — was not difficult to predict and prevent. It again brings the capacity of state institutions and the will of the leadership into question. There are two big issues arising out of this, and they revolve around adequate preventive action and management of an evolving crisis. The funeral on 29th February should have been an eye-opener even for the politically blind. The emotionalism of the mourners and the possible fallout was imaginable from the word go. Why, then, allow them to congregate and descend into vandalism of the worst kind? Was it a security lapse, apathy and absence of mob management skills? Some observers interpreted the advance of the mob as “deliberate” to draw them into the remote D-Chowk, cut them off from the cellular networks and wear them down. It is a good postulation but why was the interior minister then fuming a day later and admonishing the entire police administration for allowing the protestors to get close to the Parliament House? Why did the Punjab police allow them to march on to Islamabad despite the knowledge of the militant intent, made evident by the 10 demands that the Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool (SAW) has tabled for bargaining? This charter...

by Harris Javaid At least 72 people have been killed and hundreds more injured by an explosion outside Lahore’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, where Christians celebrated Easter on Sunday. The death toll is expected to rise. Here is a list of major attacks by militant groups, including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), since 2007: – 2007 – October 18: Bomb attacks targeting former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto kill 139 people in Karachi as she returns to Pakistan for the first time in eight years. She was killed in another gun and suicide attack on December 27. – 2008 – August 21: Twin suicide attacks kill 64 people outside Pakistan’s main arms factory in Wah near Islamabad. September 20: Sixty people are killed when a suicide truck bomb brings down part of the five-star Marriott hotel in Islamabad. – 2009 – October 28: A car bomb destroys a market in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 125 people. – 2010 – January 1: A suicide car bomb kills 101 people at a village volleyball game in the northwestern district of Bannu. March 12: Twin suicide attacks on the military in Lahore kill 57. May 28: Gun and suicide attackers storm mosques belonging to the Ahmadi religious minority in Lahore, killing 82 people. July 9: A suicide bomber blows himself up in a busy market in the northwestern Mohmand tribal district, killing 105 people. September 3: A suicide attack kills 59 at a Shia Muslim rally in the southwestern city of Quetta. November 5: A suicide bomber kills 68 people during Friday prayers in the northwest’s Darra Adam Khel area. – 2011 – April 3: Fifty die after two suicide bombers attack a Sufi shrine in the central town of Dera Ghazi Khan. May 13: Two suicide bombers kill at least 98 people outside a police cadet training centre in Charsadda. August 19: A suicide bomber hits a mosque during Friday prayers in the tribal district of Khyber, killing at least 43. – 2012 – January 11: Thirty-five die when a remote-controlled bomb detonates in a market in the northwestern...