THIS word, Frefatrape, is a word easily pronounced, formed by an expert etymologist signifying the long awaited free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections with which Pakistan is about to be blessed.

The election of all elections (the mother of democracy) scheduled, as of tomorrow, to change our lives and to convert this nation from being the ‘most dangerous country in the world’ into the most peaceful of havens into which visitors, tourists and traders will flock, into which investors will pour their money, and about which all in the world will be filled with envy by the marvels we have to show. Hope must eternally spring in the human breast.

So far the count of casualties has been low and by and large not high-powered. One powerful and attractive woman has been eliminated thanks to our allies and her friends in high places who considered her to be dispensable when it came to their aims and intent. Those who survive — the rest of them — leaders of the various parties contesting these elections will be regarded by the natives of Sicily to be capis, capo di capis, or even capo de tutti capis. Such are their shining reputations, such are their past miraculous deeds, such has been their power to attract unto themselves the assets of the people of the Republic of Pakistan.

We have heard ad infinitum, and supposedly we will continue to hear, over the scores of independent television channels allowed to us by President Gen Pervez Musharraf that we flip through every day that we are all at great risk over this election period — that is, tomorrow and the days to follow. The press has sustained this dire warning but yesterday’s press brought us a little relief and some good news — at least for all of us in Karachi.

Spread over the four English-language newspapers I read was the news that we have been saved from disaster as our most efficient and on the ball law-enforcement agencies have managed to identify and pick up 10 ferocious individuals who had been dispatched to disrupt the Frefatrape allowed to us tomorrow. Photographs accompanied the news item. The combo of photos released by the police show the portraits of 10 would-be suicide bombers aiming for paradise, mug shots of men we would definitely not like to run into in the fading light of a sunny day.

Bravo to the police. As told us a front page lead news item in this newspaper, “Police have arrested 10 members of a militant organisation linked to the Taliban. They were planning massive terror attacks in the city during the elections, a senior police officer said on Friday,” whilst addressing a press conference.

If we are fortunate enough to escape any attempts to disrupt the Frefatrape and if there are no incidents of terror, the police will be hailed as brilliant, having pulled off a massive coup. The main fear though, of the citizens, is not of the terrorist element but of the party stalwarts who may be instigated to repeat situations such as arose on May 12, 2007, or in the aftermath of Benazir’s senseless assassination. That is the main worry — the political parties themselves and their controlled goondah elements.

Other big news to break in our press yesterday was the story about our honourable attorney-general, Malik Qayyum, whose reputation when it comes to telephone calls is somewhat wonky. He was caught out in Nawaz Sharif’s second term (1997-1999) taking orders from Nabber Saifur Rahman as to what sentences should be levied against Benazir and husband Asif Zardari. This time round, reportedly, he was overheard, when he carelessly picked up one telephone that was ringing whilst still speaking on another line, recommending to his caller that he ‘get a ticket from these guys’ as they have rigged the elections massively. It is not too difficult to work out who ‘these guys’ could be.

The story was first broken over the Internet on Friday by the New York- based Human Rights Watch which had somehow obtained an audio recording. Naturally, A.G. Qayyum has denied the whole thing, dubbed the story malicious, defamatory and manufactured and reserved his right to sue. The PPP, on the other hand, has expressed its shock — the Human Rights Watch disclosure is ‘profoundly shocking’. We are far too easily ‘shocked’ in a country in which ‘shocks’ are almost a daily occurrence.

Meanwhile, the recently appointed chief of army staff, Gen Ashfaq Kayani, who over the past weeks has been desperately attempting to disassociate his army from any civil affairs, who has reportedly succeeded in bringing back to his ranks scores of army officers who had been posted out in civilian posts, has not succeeded in completely divorcing himself and his army from the Frefatrape exercise. He has appealed for peace during the polling, he has sought the support of the public for the maintenance of law and order — he would do better to seek the support of the various political party leaders who have their own militias, one made up of ex-jailbirds.

How peaceful he sees the situation developing can be gauged from the fact that he has deployed 81,000 troops to cover 8,923 ‘most sensitive’ polling stations. In the Punjab alone, 95 battalions are in use to take care of 3,787 ‘most sensitive’ stations, Sindh has been given 27 battalions to cover 1,575 ‘most sensitive’ stations. Balochistan and the NWFP are considered to be less sensitive as they respectively have 15 and 12 battalions.

So grim is the outlook that it is difficult to know what to write when beset with pessimism and uncertainty as to the future. What we can be certain of is that we are looking at nothing new, those old, tried and tired faces will be back with us, bolstered by brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, nephews-in-law, second cousins, mothers-in-law and bounty hunters. The old lot is highly adept at ridding the Republic of its surplus assets and no doubt the bounty hunters will soon latch on to the various known ways and means of supplementing their already hefty incomes.

But before all that happens, we have the ‘peaceful protests’ to look forward to by those unhappy enough to have not quite made the numbers of which they have boasted and even the ‘fixing’ of those who at the last minute perform the lota somersault and defect. It is not a comforting scenario — so buckle up your seat belts, my compatriots, and hold fast.