Lahore - The situation in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi has gone out of control of the political parties in power. Punjab, relatively peaceful, is spared by the terrorists, perhaps, as a matter of policy, as they seem to achieve their target in the other three provinces; they might turn to the country’s most populous federating unit later.
What has been going on in the three provinces for the past many years reflects the collective failure of all major political parties ruling them.
(According to a report carried by this newspaper a few days ago, over 2,600 people, including 2,109 civilians and 500 security personnel have been killed in terrorist attacks in various parts of the country during the first seven months of the current year).
In troubled Balochistan, Dr Malik, a nationalist leader, was elected as chief minister in the hope that nationalist forces in the province would give up their militancy, although the PML-N was in a position to bring its own man to the coveted post. But that failed to pacify the extremists. Now, with him stand condemned the PML-N and other coalition partners.
Terrorism in the province is not a new phenomenon. The situation was almost the same when PPP’s Aslam Raisani was in the driving seat and all other political parties had representation in the cabinet.
The jailbreaks and other terrorist activities in KPK may be called a failure of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf, the Jamaat-i-Islami, the Qaumi Watan Party and AJIP, which are part of the coalition. The PTI-led setup can, however, argue that it has inherited this situation from the previous regime, of which the Awami National Party and the PPP were the major components.
In Karachi, terrorist activities and extortion have been going on for the past several years. Although at present it is only the PPP which is ruling the province, in the previous government the Muttahida Qaumi Movement was also a power sharer.
This means no party has been able to take on terrorists. The PML-N seems to be an exception because of its comparatively better performance in Punjab, but it’s a failure in Balochistan.
The question is why political governments have failed to control the scourge of terrorism and whether they will be able to do so in the future. Another important question is the role of parties which have links with the Taliban but are not using their influence to stop them. In fact, in mosques of a particular sect ‘dua’ is offered for the ‘victory’ of the ‘Mujahideen’ after Juma prayers.
The army is fighting militants in tribal areas but is keeping silent elsewhere in the country where terrorists are quite active.
This all-round failure to deliver is quite depressing; for this does not raise hopes of a better future, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan’s claim in Quetta that the government would do ‘this and that’ notwithstanding. He said nothing about what the government had practically done to retrieve the situation.
Unfortunately, our political leaders belonging to different parties are incompetent and are more interested in grabbing powers than doing anything else. They want to be more powerful than the prime minister and ministers of Britain, whose model of democracy is supposed to be followed in Pakistan. They forget that they are not comparable with their British counterparts and don’t qualify to be all-powerful.
To deal with difficult situations, Gen Musharraf had set up a National Security Council under the chairmanship of the president. The prime minister, the Senate Chairman, the National Assembly Speaker, the four chief ministers, the leader of the opposition, the interior minister, the services chiefs and the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and some other ministers were its members. This was a good platform where the civil and military leadership worked together.
(The formation of the NSC had actually been proposed by Gen Jehangir Karamat, who was immediately removed by Mian Nawaz Sharif as prime minister for transgressing his jurisdiction).
When PPP’s Yousaf Raza Gilani became prime minister, he dissolved the NSC on the first available opportunity. He did not want the army to give its input on political matters. The NSC would have been disbanded even if the power had gone to the PML-N after the 2008 elections.
Not many people remember that after the dismissal of Benazir Bhutto’s government in 1996, then president Farooq Leghari had also set up a Council for Defence and National Security (CDNS) with similar objectives as of the NSC’s. Before power was transferred to Mr Sharif as a result of 1997 elections, he was asked to give an undertaking that he would retain the CDNS. He agreed that the CDNS would be allowed to stay intact. However, after becoming prime minister for a second time he let this body die its own death.
The Defence Committee of the Cabinet is a forum where the civil and military leaders sit together and discuss matters of urgent and serious nature. But this platform is not as well represented as was the NSC.
Mian Nawaz Sharif wants the head of government to be all-powerful, no matter whether the holder of this office can use his authority judiciously and honestly or not. He has failed to gauge the gravity of the present situation and take ‘urgent’ steps required for the purpose.
He had decided to hold an all-party conference on July 12 to discuss the security situation and chalk out a strategy to check terrorist activities and drone attacks. Today is August 12 but so far there is no progress on this front.
His experience of the past two terms as prime minister and another two terms as chief minister has not benefited the country much. And the poor performance of his government on the terrorist front has dashed the hopes of millions of his countrymen.
In case the government did not take immediate decisions to tackle terrorism, the enemy would jeopardise the unity of the country.