Opposition senators support military operation

The opposition political parties in Senate on Monday endorsed the government decision of launching a military operation 'Zarb-E-Azb' against the militants besides demanding similar crackdown on all militant outfits in the rest of the country especially in Karachi and Southern Punjab.
Speaking in the House, the senators belonging to various political parties welcomed the crackdown decision on the militants but called upon the government to undertake special arrangements to facilitate the internally displace persons (IDPs). "On behalf of all opposition political parties, I would like to extend our full support to the military operation launched in North Waziristan agency," said leader of the opposition in Senate Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan following Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's policy statement in the House.
"We not only welcome the decision but we also support the armed forces and stand behind you [PM] at this critical stage Mr Prime Minister," Aitzaz asserted with a humble request to the prime minister to take every possible steps to facilitate the IDPs. Afrasiab Khattak of the ANP, while extending his party's support to the government, said that similar actions should also be taken against all the militant outfits elsewhere in the country especially Karachi and Southern Punjab.
"North Waziristan is not the only base for terrorists but the ideology also exists somewhere in South Punjab," he said. He also stated that maximum care should be taken of innocent people and proper arrangements should also be undertaken for providing shelter to the IDPs.
Another ANP's Senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilor said the government has handed over major installations and big cities to forces but completely ignored Peshawar, adding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, being a front line province in the war against terror, should not be left at the mercy of the militants.
Supporting action against militants, the PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar demanded answers to a number of questions. The first question as to why the military and not the civilian government announced the operation. He said the widespread perception is that the military decided to launch the operation while the foot dragging civilian government followed suit, which would only exacerbate the civil-military divide and will not serve the purpose of a united front against the militants.
Secondly, he asked as to what plans had been put in place to rehabilitate the internally displaced persons as was done by the PPP coalition government at the time of the Swat operation in 2009. "In the absence of a proper plan to tackle the mass exodus of people from North Waziristan, we will only add to the frustration and alienation of the affected people," he said. Thirdly, he asked about the status of the so called national internal security policy announced with much fanfare by the interior minister some three months ago.
He said that the security policy had promised to develop a national narrative on militancy, de-radicalisation, carrying out legal reforms, reforming almost 23,000 seminaries and bringing the 26 intelligence agencies under one platform. Babar said that no allocations had been made in the budget for achieving any of these goals. Senator Raza Rabbani said the attack on Karachi airport has exposed the so called co-ordination between the 26 intelligence agencies promised in the internal national security policy.
He said there was not a single sentence in the finance minister's budget speech about ending extremism or about achieving any of the goals laid down in the national security policy. PPP Senator Taj Haider blamed the provincial government of Punjab for giving shelter to the banned militant outfits in Southern Punjab. He said that there should proper co-ordination among all the provinces including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Senator Hasil Bizenjo of National Party welcomed the decision, however, stated that it should have been taken two or three years ago when the Nato forces were present across the border. He further said that there should have been proper co-ordination between Pakistan and Afghanistan to eliminate the terrorism in both the countries. He further said that the notion of "good and bad" Taliban should come to an end and crackdown should be undertaken against all the non-state actors alike.
PML-Q Senator Syed Mushahid Hussain said if Sri Lanka, which is neither a nuclear power nor having much resources can defeat the South Asia's most dangerous terrorist organisation Tamil Tiger then why not Pakistan with big forces.
ANP's Abdul Nabi Bangash lashed out at the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan for his absence at this important occasion. He termed the Interior Minister's ailment as "political ailment", saying he [Nisar] become ill when the decision was principally taken to launch the military operation. "He is just suffering from political ailment, if he is really not feeling well, the government should appoint some one proactive and a brave one to deal with the militants," he added.
Earlier, some senators including Raza Rabbani, Zahid Khan and Farhatullah Babar opined that the Prime Minister should have announced the decision of launching the military operation himself instead of through a press release issued by ISPR. The house was later prorogued by chairman Senate Nayyar Hussain Bokhari who readout the prorogation order.