May 9 violence, national legacy, and next

The recently held 81st Formation Commanders Conference of Pakistan Army, unanimously called for a tightening of the noose of law around the planners and masterminds that launched a politically motivated rebellion against the state and state institutions on May 9 this year. According to the Pakistan Army Media Wing, the elite commanders of the Pakistan Military stressed that the legal trials of perpetrators and instigators have commenced, and it is time that the noose of law is also tightened around the planners and masterminds who mounted the hate-ripened and politically driven rebellion against the state and its institutions to achieve their nefarious design by creating chaos and anarchy in the country.

The May 9 mob violence and attacks against state institutions including military personnel, installations, and government properties is undoubtedly a dark chapter of Pakistan’s political history. On that day, a particular political group declared its political philosophy a battle between the good and bad, a crusade between Muslims and infidels as well as a struggle between proclaimed patriots and self-defined traitors, waged a war by instigating its followers/ supporters to destroy each and everything that disagree with their ideology and resembles with their proposed enemy. Unfortunately, thousands of innocent Pakistanis men, women, and young students fell victim to this tactfully articulated campaign against the LEAs and government institutions that was directed at achieving a well-defined political agenda through pressure and intimidation of state institutions. After all, the words became insufficient and worthless to narrate the events of May 9 and manifest condemnation of those heinous crimes to the nation. The military leadership time and again condemned the May 9 attacks and reiterated its resolve to protect the veneration of martyrs’ monuments, and other military installations that is surely the duty of the military commanders to boost the morale of the troops and maintain the prestige of the institution.

Although the military was the prime target of May 9 violence, it displayed utmost patience and stoicism by not responding to the violent rioters who invaded military installations, equipment, and vehicles in the guise of political workers and the so-called public. However, as an institution military must leave this business to the incumbent government and focus on its professional matters, internal secuirty and rapidly changing geostrategic situation in the region and beyond. Still, the military is under continuous hybrid propaganda war by a certain faction and things are persistently being manipulated for some hidden motive thus the Pakistan Army must share the irrefutable evidence regarding May 9 violence with the public, so no agent provocateur could further misguide the public and cause misperception between the public and national institutions. At the helm of this political anarchy and social polarization, the military must disassociate itself from the controversial issues and the political government has the responsibility to ensure the delivery of justice and maintenance of the writ of the law in the country.

Realistically, there had been the utmost public uproar and criticism from the civil society and intelligentsia regarding the conduct of national institutions, bureaucracy, and judiciary amid an ongoing political tussle, make and break of the contesting groups in the country. Earlier, the Bureaucracy started Project Imran in the past decade, that now has been taken up by the judiciary, now the former hatches a new team of pure that will presumably play a role in national politics in the future. Currently, the common protestors and leg workers are being prosecuted in the military courts while the handlers and high-ups are being released after a mere condemnation or change of loyalty that portrays a very negative image of the ongoing legal action against the May 9 rioters. In fact, there are so many things that need a policy shift for the streaming lining of national affairs, while the theory of necessity and self-defined national interest and security hazard must be paused at this stage if we really seek to revive our national prestige in the community of nations in the globe.