The attacks on two churches in the Youhanabad area of Lahore, and the public lynching of two people the crowd deemed suspects highlights several alarming facts. These intersect, coalesce and amalgamate to create a highly volatile and unpredictable atmosphere which then self-perpetuates, relentlessly continuing the cycle. Step one in this cycle is the failure of the state and its institutions. If this was a singular failure, a tumor that could be treated or excised, it would be a different story. But this is a systemic problem, one that has permeated every aspect of state functions and institutions. First and foremost, the state is completely unable to protect its citizens. The most basic and fundamental tenant of the social contract is that citizens give up certain rights in exchange for certain freedoms, principal among them the right to live and work peacefully. Citizens of today’s Pakistan, especially minorities, are under siege from a faction of the extremist strain that pollutes our collective national ideology and washes our streets in the blood of the innocent. Since the enactment of the National Action plan (NAP), in the wake of the atrocious attack on schoolchildren in Peshawar, minorities have been especially vulnerable against attacks. The enemy is already well-aware that the state response will be meek at best, so minorities remain easy fodder for their quest for relevancy. The state’s response has been immediate condemnation, public avowing to avenge the fallen, and then quietly waiting for the next catastrophe, to repeat these tried and tested tactics. Our politicians, our law enforcement agencies, and even our judiciary, are unable to protect our citizens and provide speedy justice. This breeds distrust, and inculcates a sense of abandonment and helplessness. Step two of this cycle stems from the massive trust deficit in the citizens, once again, especially minorities. The public faith in state institutions, especially those that are responsible for...

The senseless lynching of two terror suspects in Lahore, manhandling of policemen, and the destruction of infrastructure that followed the twin suicide bomb attack on two nearby churches in Lahore reflects the pent-up frustration that most Pakistani citizens reel from. The only difference between these acts and similar acts by the Islamic State is that the latter executes and burns its captives in a premeditated manner. What happened in Lahore was a violent, headless reaction to the terrorist attacks. It was a shameful and outrageous episode nevertheless. All government institutions knew trouble was brewing, but we saw the rampage continue as if it had happened on the spur of the moment. The hair-raising two-day-long carnage led by the aggrieved Christians simply exposed the political inertia, absence of vision and deficient institutional capacity to preempt such incidents. At the same time, this delivers a stern warning to our rulers. Surrounded by unbearably large security escorts and huge walls, most of the VIPs feel protected and insulated from criminals and terrorists. This incident should be a wake-up call for the self-serving political leadership. Where were the people’s representatives – members of the provincial and the federal assemblies elected from those areas? Where was the civil administration? In the end, it was para-military forces who quelled the unrest. During a press conference on March 16, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said he had returned 35 Rangers troops who had been tasked to protect him, implying that they had been escorting his predecessor Rehman Malik too. His comments on the crucial files missing from the ministry, and the role of police and ministry officials in helping two convicts who had been extradited from the UK escape were equally stunning, and only underscored the decay and corruption that exists within our state institutions. Instead of bringing criminals to justice or preventing them from violating the law,...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are prone to a large outbreak of polio if they do not reform their immunization drives. The story of the two-year-old Hanifa from Balochistan’s Pashtun-dominated Killa Abdulla district is shocking and disturbing. A year ago, her father Abdus Salam turned back polio vaccine workers from his doorstep. In February this year, doctors diagnosed the little girl with the polio virus. Because of an ignorant decision by her father, Hanifa will suffer for the rest of her life. Her parents are now running around frantically to find a cure for their daughter’s illness, but chances of extricating and salvaging her limbs from the deadly virus are distant. There were 25 reported cases of polio in Balochistan last year. Of them, 13 were in Killa Abdullah. At least 11 cases resulted from parents’ refusal to administer anti-polio immunization drops. Similar refusals in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province led to the arrest of over 700 parents in the first two months of this year. Nearly all of these reluctant parents consider the polio vaccine a western conspiracy to sterilize their children. They believe it will cause impotency and promote immoral behavior in their children. They have been told by clerics and religious militants that the polio vaccine contains monkey, donkey and lion meat and brains. Such propaganda gained considerable currency after it was reported that the CIA used Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi and paramedics employed by Save the Children to find and kill Osama bin Laden under the cover of an anti-polio campaign. Militants have since campaigned violently against polio vaccination. UNICEF says as many as 71,131 caregivers refused vaccination last year, with over 250 polio virus cases across Pakistan, compared to 63 a year ago. The field staff also encounters stiff resistance from parents and caretakers, who refuse to cooperate with mobile teams. More than 55 polio workers and accompanying guards have been killed in Balochistan...