Deadly WAGs

That the current crop of politicians in Pakistan leave much to be desired would be to state a truism. As crisis after crisis hits the country, the politicians seem to be solely interested in bickering with each other. And when they aren't doing that, they seem to be actively fomenting more trouble.

And it is interior minister Rehman Malik who takes the cake for the looniest quotes. Recently, while commenting on the renewed unrest that has hit Karachi, with scores killed in what seems like ethnic or political battles, Mr Malik came up with the startling suggestion that 'wives and girlfriends' were behind most of the deaths.

Pakistani men, or rather those residing in the melting-pot port city of Karachi, apparently are so beastly and awful that disgruntled womenfolk are having them shot by the dozen. Now, we know decades of an unchecked gun-culture has contributed significantly to slightly shortened life expectancy in many parts of Pakistan.

But surely, Mr Malik was talking through his hat when he insisted that 70% of the recent killings were about people wanting to get rid of husbands, boyfriends, wives and girlfriends. Amorous relationships, one is aware, can lead to unintended consequences but a state of affairs as outlined by the interior minister should really give prospective partners some food for thought.

As luck would have it, though, Mr Malik himself brought some sanity, or rather normality, back to proceedings by confirming the unrest was being stoked by a 'foreign hand'. Of course, he had started off by blaming the Taliban for the killings, before blaming women. He then concluded by insinuating that the use of Israeli-made weapons proved that deep, dark, hostile external forces were at work. Forget the idea that unresolved ethnic fault lines might be responsible. It's the WAGs. Or other suchlike baddies.