Miriad internal conflicts throw Pakistan into an never ending cycle of mini-civil wars: families killing their women for “illicit affairs”, human right activists beaten to death for testifying against abusive police practices, politicians assassinated without any retribution. The Economist draws the line and counts the victims:
Pakistan, a tolerant, hospitable and friendly country, has become a very violent place. Over 30,000 Pakistanis have lost their lives in terrorist-related violence in the past four years. Even in the comparative lull in suicide-bombings in late 2011, the newspapers carried a litany of horror stories: terrorist attacks; “honour killings”; ethnic violence in Karachi; assassinations. Not all the carnage can be blamed on “the American war”. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, at least 675 women and girls were murdered in the first nine months of 2011, mostly for having “illicit relations”. Some were raped or gang-raped before being killed. Of course this is illegal, but the state is too weak and too unwilling to enforce the law consistently. Very few of the culprits will be brought to justice.
Violence also permeates politics, from top to bottom. One former president and prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was hanged in 1979; a serving president, Muhammad Zia ul Haq, was assassinated in an aeroplane explosion in 1988; Benazir Bhutto was killed in a bomb attack in Rawalpindi in 2007. At the grassroots, landowner-politicians rely on muscle-power as well as patronage. In the cities, too, politicians have their guns and goons as well as gold. Nowhere is this truer than in Karachi, a city of 18m people, plastered everywhere with the flags and posters of political parties and prey to appalling levels of violence. In the past four years 7,000 people have been killed, including 1,891 last year.