ISLAMABAD - Criticising the government for not taking political parties on board, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leadership has said that the issue of terrorism should be dealt with in totality as ‘selective operation’ in North Waziristan would not end terrorism in the country and demanded of the government to come up with a clear and unambiguous policy against militancy.
Giving a policy statement on behalf of JUI-F, the spokesman of the party Jan Achakzai said if the operation has limited aim to target a few militant groups, which are operating and sustaining infrastructure of terrorism in the country intact and while leaving others, things would not improve for better.
He further said that the doors of dialogue should not be closed, as still there are militant groups, which wanted negotiated settlement of the dispute and the government must engage such elements in dialogue process.
He said that the government simply did not understand the fact that no matter how many tactical operations are carried out, they will not end the militant landscape in the country. “Until and unless, a clear policy at strategic, ideological, political and foreign policy levels is adopted and backed up by concert steps, we will see more of the same.”
He added that in the past many successful tactical operations were carried out but due to “revolving door phenomenon” militants simply moved from on area to other areas strategically defeating our muscular policy.
“We need to address militancy in all shapes and colours rather then focusing on particular group of militants so as to restore the writ of the state in very corner of the country,” he observed.
He said that denying space to militants in Waziristan will not end terrorism in the country as militant landscape sustaining terrorism will remain. “On tactical level, as seen in Karachi, we have not improved policing and civilian laws enforcement capabilities.” He said that there is no fusion between civilian and non-civilian enforcement institutions in intelligence, surveillance, control and command and combat advising capabilities.
He said that flawed dialogue mechanism led to Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s estrangement and IDPs’ movement to Afghanistan and creating more proxies. He said the JUI-F is of the opinion that there are still groups which want to surrender peacefully.
He criticised the government for not taking political parties into confidence on the North Waziristan operation.
He said that operation should be against terrorists and all efforts be made to ensure the safety of ordinary people and all-out efforts be made for taking care of IDPs. He said that piecemeal approach at the cost of holistic strategic policy framework would not end terrorism in Pakistan.