Fantastic article asking right questions from PM Nawaz. As I suspected, political leadership is busy in calling APC after APC with no concrete action. Those 20 points that were laid out in APC charter are nothing new and the key is execution.
On the other hand why blame Nawaz. We all saw the criticism Musharaff faced from every corner of our society when he conducted the lal masjid operation. Even those who were pushing Mushy to take action against lal masjid turned against him after the operation. Very complicated situation.
COAS’s patience is running out and believe me this country cannot afford one more army rule. So politicians need to put their house in order and show serious execution on terrorism front.
[Opinion](http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrint.aspx?ID=9)
Some questions, Mr Prime Minister
[Khayyam Mushir](http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintWriterName.aspx?ID=9&URL=Khayyam%20Mushir) Wednesday, December 24, 2014
From Print Edition
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Mr Prime Minister there are questions that remain unanswered and burn in the minds of civil society over the Peshawar tragedy. I’ll begin with the disturbing and sinister silence emanating from the rank and file of your government over the November 26 video prepared by the Jamia Hafsa, in which the burqa-clad acolytes of that radical seminary declared their unconditional support for the IS, urging it to avenge the murders of Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden and establish an Islamic caliphate extending beyond Iraq and Syria to Pakistan.
In the last week, the concerned citizens of Islamabad have peacefully agitated against Maulana Abdul Aziz who is husband to the head of the Jamia Hafsa, with a curriculum vitae teeming with acts of sedition and anti-state activities, not to mention 26 criminal cases, and who continues to enjoy state patronage. He refused to condemn the Peshawar tragedy, and on the evening of November 19, the Islamabad Police were ordered to guard the Lal Masjid, which was cordoned off on all sides and guarded at all points of entry with barricades and policemen.
Even as the protesters chanted slogans demanding he condemn the attack or face criminal prosecution, the maulana went live on various television channels warning the state, and the people of Islamabad in particular, of dire consequences and bloody reprisals should a finger be laid on him. An FIR has now been registered at the Aabpara Police Station, Sir and just yesterday the young man leading the protest, Jibran Nasir, received a death threat from the spokesperson of the Jamaat-Al-Ahrar, a splinter TTP group.
The citizens of Islamabad and Pakistan wish to know when the government intends to act and take the maulana into custody, exercising powers that are conferred on it through the constitution and through the Pakistan Penal Code? Surely you agree, Sir, as will the interior minister, that whether such threats are issued from one percent or ten percent or ninety percent of the religious seminaries of the country, they are nothing short of a direct challenge to your authority as chief executive of this country.
Secondly, there is the matter of anti-terror security measures across the country, but in particular in major urban centres like Lahore, your hometown, and Islamabad, Multan, Karachi and Faisalabad to name a few. Since the TTP has vowed to unleash its response to Zarb-e-Azb in these cities primarily, Sir, what measures are you intending to announce to enhance the security of public places and schools in particular? So far all schools in Islamabad have been shut down in the wake of the Islamabad police receiving intelligence reports that they will be prime targets in the coming weeks.
Heaven forbid, the barbarism in Peshawar is repeated, but here’s the plain fact Mr Prime Minister: the majority of private and public schools across the country have little or no preventive security infrastructure, people or training. Schools are designed to impart learning and cannot be turned into anti-terrorist command centres. With the cost of security upgrades – required to safeguard against any kind of terrorist assault, as occurred in Peshawar – running into a few million rupees at least for each school, does this mean we should take our children out of school indefinitely?
Third, there is the proliferation, not just of madressahs, but also of full-fledged armed fortresses in Punjab, your province, including in Muridke and Pattoki, where radicalisation and mass indoctrination is being carried on unchecked since over two decades; where a curriculum of hatred is not only disseminated in mosques and schools but also through social media, private print media and over the loudspeaker every week. I passed through Muridke on a Friday evening just a few weeks ago Sir, and I can tell you it is worth a Friday afternoon visit should you feel bored in Raiwind. One that is sure to inspire much soul searching and reflection should you care to engage in such honest introspection.
What the citizens wonder in this regard, Sir, is when will legislation be passed in parliament to outlaw all militant religious and sectarian outfits, the known sponsors of these seminaries, together with an official ban on their foreign and local funding? That legislation should also involve the formal documentation and nationalisation of seminaries and the imprisonment of all clerics involved in hate-mongering.
Fourth, Sir, are questions regarding the enabling environment that exists across the economic landscape of Pakistan. There is, as I’m sure you are aware – having been awarded the unique laurel by the people of Pakistan of being elected to the position of prime minister for the third time in this country’s dark history – a crushing poverty that extends across the length and breadth of the country. I could try to make matters easier for you by excluding Punjab, being the most populous and prosperous of all provinces, but even that is sadly not possible; things are as bad in Punjab. What happens when the state is unable to come up with enduring mechanisms and projects to ensure long term poverty alleviation? What happens when IDPs created through floods and the war in NWA are unable to find economic and infrastructural relief from the government, to enable them to repatriate to their homes?
In both cases, while your government is unable to come up with bold, practical measures supported with legislation to tackle poverty; and while the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, the Fata Disaster Management Authority and the National Disaster Management Authority, squabble among themselves and with Nadra over the identification of IDPs and over the building of a consensus aimed at forging a practical and aligned strategy to deal with the issue of repatriation of IDPs, militant madressahs have the resources to step in to offer these distressed men, women and children three square meals a day and shelter over their heads. That is the final nail in the coffin of your good intentions, Sir – and I don’t need to spell out the obvious solution.
Pakistan stands on the brink of a possible social, political and security collapse. It will no longer do for us to promote our strategic depth doctrine, the cornerstone of which has been jihad through proxies, to gain political and strategic advantage in the region. The cat is out of the bag on that strategy and if recklessly pursued any further, it will spell certain doom for our country.
For the sake of Pakistan then, Sir, and for those members of civil society in particular who have supported your government through the dharna crisis of the past five months, on the belief that democracy and due process must endure, it is time to break free of the shackles of self-interest and political expediency and boldly step forward with a no-holds-barred approach to end this reign of terror that challenges our safety, our tranquillity and our sovereignty.
The writer is a freelance columnist.
Email: [EMAIL=“[email protected]”][email protected]
Twitter: @kmushir