The acts of terrorism in Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi reinforce the brutal reality that we may have injured this serpent and monster, but not killed it. As long as financial, logistical and medical facilitators are motivated by their convoluted ideological brainwashing, or greed for financial benefits, corruption within law enforcement and border security are not eliminated, this serpent will continue to haunt this country.
The billions we invest in procuring our defence capability are meaningless unless we invest in education and health to improve our human resources, so that these breeding grounds for terrorists to groom are discouraged. The recent attacks are a collective failure of all institutions of state tasked to provide security to citizens of Pakistan and elected civilian leadership which has failed to nip the evil through effective implementation of the law.
The channels for foreign funding of terrorism are same that is used by corrupt elite for money laundering and we cannot eliminate the former unless all loopholes are plugged. If hospitals and clinics are providing medical services to terrorists in violation of existing laws mandating them to inform police, they should be given exemplary punishments irrespective of their political clout. When elected, executive is hesitant to take action against terrorism, they lose their constitutional right to rule, because they stand accused of violating their oath. Similarly, if state funded security apparatus are guilty of patronising private militias they exceed their constitutional mandate.
Pakistan’s national security and sovereignty must precede any other agendas motivated by our strategic location. Security should be the unified priority if the institutions of our country. Nobody holding public office should have conflicts of interest.
MALIK TARIQ ALI,
Lahore, February 16.