That the political leadership remains long on the rhetoric and short on action in countering the scourge of terrorism is plain from two reports appearing in Tuesdays papers: One about the proceedings of the Sindh Apex Committee meeting and the other about preparations for the Independence Day parade in Islamabad.
Presiding over the Sindh Apex Committee meeting on Monday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made some general assertions about winning the war against terrorism while the provincial leadership, including Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and his party co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, remained passive participants. The more substantive pronouncements came from the military men. In fact, going by media reports they read the provincial government the riot act, calling it inefficient and inept, even impotent. For his part, Army chief General Raheel Sharif, in an indirect but unmistakable reference to the provincial government's focus on protecting and promoting partisan interests, averred "political expediency could not generate apolitical response. Crimes should be dealt with as apolitical." More to the point he said, "The police must be empowered as an apolitical and effective force." In a coincidental development the same day special public prosecutor pleading the State's case in the Baldia Town factory fire, in which 257 people were burned alive, announced her decision at a news conference to disassociate herself from the case citing a long list of complaints about police non-co-operation.
It is sad indeed that the Army chief should be telling the government what to do or not to do. But he has correctly identified the problem. As a matter of fact, a while ago a Supreme Court bench hearing the Karachi law and order situation case made similar observations. Delivering the verdict former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had noted that the provincial police chief told him that 40 percent of the police officials in the province had been recruited on political grounds, hence he was reluctant to act decisively against those involved in targeted killings, kidnappings for ransom and extortion. In that judgement and later in a different case, the apex court had ordered the provincial government to depoliticize the police as well as the civil service and make appointments/promotions on merit alone. But as the present situation shows, little has changed.
The result is that whatever role the provincial government played in the ongoing operations against terrorists has been taken away from it. Even if for appearances sake, previously the Chief Minister presided over security operations. Not anymore. The veneer is off. Said the CoAS, "the postings should be made without any interference, through the Apex Committee, the operation should be carried out with transparency and sincerity of purpose." In other words, the provincial government no longer enjoys the prerogative to decide which police officers should lead the law and order operations in the province. All security related affairs are to be managed by Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Islamabad's own performance vis-a-vis counter-terrorism measures is pretty disappointing. The much talked about National Counter-Terrorism Authority remains dysfunctional. If that is not bad enough, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan refuses to acknowledge the clear and present threat the madressahs pose. Reiterating his stance during a recent appearance in the National Assembly he rejected the issue as mere propaganda. He would even have us believe that the Lal Masjid-madressah did not harbour violent extremists and that the bloody confrontation with the security forces and subsequent suicide bombings never happened. In fact when civil society activists protested against the Lal Masjid cleric, Abdul Aziz, for his refusal to condemn the killing of Army Public School children or call them martyrs, the minister came out with a sympathetic statement in support of Aziz, an unabashed TTP ally, saying the cleric's father was very close to him [Nisar] and that he was a patriot. Thereby bizarrely suggesting, first that patriotism is a function of genetics; and second that the son too is a well-meaning nice man, no matter if his brand of patriotism calls for killing thousands of innocent fellow citizens in the name of a violent ideology. The minister clearly has a soft spot for such people. No wonder he chooses to turn a blind eye to the existence of a significant source of trouble.
The reality, of course, is very different. According to a press report, in preparation for the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad, security forces and intelligence agencies had asked the interior ministry for a week-long closure of all seminaries and shrines in the designated area. The Auqaf department issued a notification on Monday saying "due to the sensitivity and security requirement of the joint services Pakistan Day parade 2015, scheduled on March 23, all madaris and shrines in the close proximity (two kilometres) of the venue are required to be vacated and closed from March 18 to 24." If it is mere propaganda that most madressahs are linked to TTP and/or sectarian terrorists and act as facilitators for them, may one ask the Interior Minister what is the need to close them for the occasion? And that if they are seen as a threat in the present situation, why should they not be a subject of concern rest of the time?
The Punjab government headed by the Prime Minister's brother, Shahbaz Sharif, too remains in denial about the existence of foreign-funded seminaries in sharp contradiction to amply available evidence. A senior police official from the province recently told a Senate committee that no madrassah involved in receiving financial assistance from the Gulf countries has "come to our notice". It is obvious that the PML-N government is in no mood to streamline the seminaries affairs either out of fear or sympathy. This cannot go on forever. Ultimately, like in Sindh, in case the Prime Minister and his men do not take necessary action, others will. We can only hope the civilian leadership will act sooner rather than later to fulfil its constitutional duty of protecting the citizens' life and property.
saida_fazal@yahoo.com