Islamabad - Going all-out tough on former and incumbent caretaker governments, security apparatus and the parliamentarians for their failure to act against rising terrorism, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked the parties concerned to stop “deceiving the people” and morally accept their failure.
“Instead of deceiving the people and themselves by blaming the ECP for security situation in the country, all those who are dealing with security should morally first accept their failure and then they better do something about it to provide state protection to life, property and honour of people of Pakistan before it is too late,” cautioned a strong-worded statement by the ECP on Tuesday. Some part of the visibly extraordinary statement was written in capital letters apparently to put stress on the relevant arguments made therein.
The ECP has also recommended setting up a security commission comprising the officials of all the security agencies and departments concerned under the direct supervision of the prime minister “who should sit together under one roof at the PM Secretariat and adopt necessary measures on daily basis to solve this problem in the short-term as well as long-term.”
Reportedly authored by the Secretary ECP Ishtiak Ahmed Khan in consultation with the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (Retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, the statement came in response to the repeated terrorist activities in Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and some other areas, which point to the notable incapability of the caretaker set-up and the security agencies to deal with over decade-long problem.
“The results are before all of us to see and still no one is making any concrete effort to find a way-out except routine statements like: ‘serious notice has been taken;’ ‘authorities have sought a report in 24 or 48 hours;’ ‘so much amount will be paid for dead and injured,’ and so on so forth,’ the question is: who are we kidding with? and all quarters concerned must realise that the helpless people are watching closely and that there is a limit to their patience!” the ECP further warned.
The commission minced no words to impliedly take on the former governments led by the political leaderships and a military dictator for their negligence to respond effectively to the terrorism problem.
“The Election Commission of Pakistan and caretaker governments can plan only for a short period of about 50 days whereas this problem has been wreaking havoc for more than a decade and obviously some preemptive remedial measures were required to be initiated and implemented in the past decade to provide security to life, property and honour of helpless people of Pakistan on permanent basis.
Apparently nothing was done to achieve this goal so vital for smooth running of the state affairs.”
The media release, although, recalled some pertinent recommendations against terrorism made by the Raza Rabani-led Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS), yet it remembered the fate of these recommendations in a grim vein.
“One such serious effort, however, was made by the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, which, after detailed deliberations spread over many months, submitted its recommendations to the Parliament in 2009 in the form of a ‘Report of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security’ but unfortunately, as has been the fate of all such reports, it was conveniently shelved and in spite of occasional demands made by some quarters to do something about it, nothing came out of it.”
The ECP said, it handed over the copies of the aforementioned report to the four caretaker federal ministers - interior, law, information and information technology - when they called on the commission on April 22, 2013, with the suggestion to implement them.
Under the constitution, the commission said, it is responsible for holding elections and all executive authorities are bound to assist the ECP fulfil its constitutional duty.
The electoral body referred to two meetings between the centre and the provinces held in January and the April this year to discuss the security issues, saying, the governments had assured that all possible security measures would be adopted to provide security to the candidates, political leaders, and all matters allied to the election activities.
“However, unfortunately, tragic events are taking place on daily basis and, therefore, all security and law enforcement agencies need to sit together, identify the root causes, propose action plans and then implement them in a well coordinated manner within given timelines.
It would be appreciated that the ECP can only show a way put as the state’s law enforcement apparatus is working under the directions of the provincial governments and the federal government,” the Election Commission of Pakistan statement suggested.