Pompous asses

Red Zone is the highest security zone, many areas out of bounds for the public. On a normal day it is not possible to move in the Red Zone without being security checked by the police and different security agencies. Quite often, it is a nuisance of necessity by the citizens.

We have a National Disaster Management Commission (NDMC) headed by the prime minister. We have a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of which a retired Lt General, albeit of the shoulder promotion variety, is the chairman. We have the Cabinet Division Disaster Cell. We also have a Disaster Management Cell in the Interior Division headed by a brigadier whose passion for lies far transcends the truth. We have the Intelligence Bureau. And then we have (in addition to the Military Intelligence, the Naval Intelligence and the Air Force Intelligence) the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), the internationally known intelligence service, especially in Afghanistan and India. In the end we have the Islamabad Police who depends for intelligence on their Special Branch, a measly outfit that is neither here nor there.

All these are bureaucratic bodies of enormous size and I cannot even begin to calculate their cost to the public exchequer. In the case of intelligence agencies, some expenditure is budgeted but much of it would be not-subject-to-audit secret funds, tucked away somewhere for covert expenses. These funds have often been used-or misused - for rigging elections etc and similar under cover activity in politics.

But as the dumper truck loaded with tons of explosives drove around in Islamabad with impunity on the evening of Saturday, none of these agencies took notice or apprehend it at any stage.