Time for action
JUST a few days after losing Bashir Bilour, Pakistan has moved on to the next news story — something the country now tends to do after every tragedy it suffers at the hands of violent extremism. But the danger in moving on so rapidly, without doing anything about such a serious threat, is that the threat only gets bigger. The last 10 days alone have brought us face to face with the outcome of repeatedly brushing this problem under the carpet: an outbreak of attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including against military installations, and the assassinations of Mr Bilour and polio workers. Karachi’s sectarian violence, which has taken several lives and nearly brought the city to a standstill, may be a local phenomenon, but that too seems to have links to the militancy based in the tribal areas.
What this means for the country has been eloquently laid out by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and the head of the ANP over the last couple of days as they mourned the loss of their colleague, and they have called for immediate
decision-making by the civilian and military leadership about how to tackle the threat. The key here is urgency; if militants are not willing to renounce violence, there needs to be decisive military action against them, and soon. As importantly, the ANP leaders spoke out against misleading arguments that are routinely used, including by the leaders of some mainstream parties: claiming things will improve as soon as Western forces leave Afghanistan; making distinctions between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban; and focusing on drone strikes when attacks by Pakistan-based militants, both foreign and Pakistani, are violating the country’s sovereignty just as much as drones are.
Their comments got to the crux of the issue — what is needed now is speed and clarity. First, clarity on what specific steps will be taken next. And if decisive military action is not possible at the moment, a clear and public explanation for why it is not possible. Ideally this would be done with the input of all major political parties, but there is no time for absolute consensus. Once there is broad agreement within parliament on Pakistan’s stand on extremism, it is the responsibility of the government and military to take specific decisions and actions. This is turning out to be one of the most delicate moments in Pakistan’s nearly decade-long struggle against militancy, with the list of targets expanding and the attackers demonstrating that they have recovered from any setbacks they may have suffered at the hands of earlier military campaigns. Our leaders ignore it at the country’s peril.
may God give our military enough sense to stop playing with fire…we have already suffered so much at the hands of these terrorists yet we rely on them ironically for peace…there should be a srilanka style military assault on militants which should continue for decades if need be..
An excelent article. We need more like that. The problem will only go away, as we take some actions too, just by writing and reading these kind of articles will not take us any where. The impending threat of Pakistan to become like, once mighty Soviet Union, will only go away, if our general public, instead of burning and killing our own innocents, go after the real culprits(And every one knows, who they are). Some times, you have to make the ultimate sacrifice to get rid of such elements. Aqil Siddiqi (Canada)
Politicians have repeatedly failed Pakistan. When the country is in the midst of terrorism and energy shortage, political parties are too busy on electioneering and building alliances to get re-elected. Only the Government can instruct the Army to go in and rid the country of dark forces.
Declaring this war an American problem doesn’t seem to make you any safer. Anti American blather is so popular in Pakistan that your afraid to defend yourselves. In the long run the govt’s only job is to make you safe and if they are afraid of that you have already lost.
The editorial is right to point out that it is high time to take action as soon as possible sooner the better. This monster must be eliminated.
At present the state is fragmented into conflicting self-interests and the urgency is to bring all of these bits into phase to confront the existential meance against the country whatever its source.
Easy said then done. Who will stand up and be counted??????