The Resurgence Doctrine By Jehangir Mirza

Year 2007. In comes a rookie Indian pacer. Misbah shuffles, and then swivels, and eventually sinks to his knees. Almost in slow motion, everything comes to a standstill for a few, painful seconds. Shadows in blue go up in unison as one error of judgment becomes lifelong agony for those in green. The image of a distraught Misbah, however, was to become much more than a symbol of our decline in the sporting arena alone. That evening in Johannesburg arguably set a nation’s mood for the years to come; a nation that had only recently been liberated from the hounds of a delusional dictator. Self-belief dipped, misfortune mounted, uncertainty reigned, aggressors emerged and dead-count propelled.

Meanwhile old horses locked horns again in a new, NRO-infested power sharing arrangement. As one would anticipate with Zardari, moral authority vanished in a jiffy. A conservative Kiyani watched from a distance, almost Lady Macbeth-like, even as his own men fell in the line of duty. Perhaps the sins of his predecessor had been too grave for him to over commit. Political vacuum emerged and so did Iftikhar Chaudhry, to fill it. Liberals advocated drones, clergy looked sheepish and apologists bathed in glory. Amid this chaos, a bewildered nation of twenty million stood bruised and battered on the forefront of a treacherous Taliban offense. Yet we meandered on with no end in sight.

In a society where law and morality find themselves at loggerheads with one another, a systematic structural collapse isn’t hard to predict. And so it happened one dark December morning, almost on queue. Calamity struck and we hung our heads in customary shame again. Except that this one time there was no place to hide. There no longer was one particular entity or institution to shift blame towards; it was a collective failure. We didn’t see it coming but we weren’t surprised when it did.

And thus began the Era of Resurgence with a decorated Army Chief at the heart of it. The General who had already placed himself on a higher moral pedestal by refusing to become party to the Imran-Nawaz showdown earlier in the year, now took centre stage. So once Peshawar happened, the advent of military courts signaled that administrative control and policy decisions would also shift from civilian command to GHQ corridors. Print and electronic media riding on the back of vociferous civil society protests ensured the transition was smooth. The rest as they say is history.

Doctrine Raheel, as we now know, is fully operational across the board albeit murmurs of a ‘soft coup’. Latest in the long list of casualties is the poster boy of white collar corruption better known as Dr. Asim. The spirit of resilience which emanated from GHQ has successfully transpired the urge for accountability in civilian ‘boots’ that walk the doors of the previously defunct FIA and NAB. Society being a system of subsystems has suddenly found the flair and flamboyance it had grown oblivious to in the past decade of doom. When artists, cricketers and journalists begin to echo sentiments expressed over billboards across town, you know a new social order is taking roots.

Despite its momentary effectiveness, the doctrine is not free of flaw. The vulnerability lies in the fact that it is central to one man’s resolve to do justice to his title and thus time-bound. Minus the man from the equation, there is an obvious dearth of political goodwill that could institutionalize this new wave of change. So the fun could either end come November’16 or likely get an extension. Whatever the case, for now we can take a back seat and cherish this little revival of sorts while it lasts. It is after all a luxury afforded to us by the 145 APS souls that we do not deserve.

by webmaster@insaf.pk (tkiadmin)