Pakistan: ''Fiddling with fire''

While at least 25 soldiers lost their lives in Bannu cantonment area in a terrorist blast a day earlier, on Monday another 13 people, including six security personnel, were snuffed out by a suicide strike near the army headquarters in Rawalpindi. And as the outlawed TTP claimed responsibility for both the murderous assaults, the ruling hierarchy was just fumbling to get its act together. The prime minister canceled his upcoming trip to Switzerland and convened an urgent cabinet meeting to put together a security policy to counter terrorism that has lately witnessed an unnerving spurt viciously. Statedly, the cabinet has approved a policy, whose soundness could only be adjudged once the details are outed.

But this hierarchy has really stupefied the citizenry all through with its stunning casualness in dealing with the prowling terrorism ever since it took the reins of office. As it stepped into the power corridors, the stalking monstrosity was in a binge of unleashing its bloody vileness in all viciousness. It was lethally targeting both the civilians and the military. And it was generally thought that the hierarchy would set out resolutely at once to de-fang the monstrosity that had taken away from the citizenry all its sense of safety and security and frightened away many a prospective entrepreneur from investing money here. Amazingly, however, the hierarchy showed no such zest. Instead, it fell to red herring pursuits like calling an all-parties conference to think out countering terrorism.

Evidently, never ever it thought that when it comes to the crunch it is the government of the day that has to act in its own best light. Indeed, never it took a pause to understand that what was needed was not an APC but a coherent, thoroughly-considered and concerted strategy to overcome the monstrosity of terrorism. Seemingly, never ever occurred to it that dialogue alone couldn't do it. For, it has to be backed up with robust acts on various fronts like political, administrative, legislative, legal, diplomatic, developmental and educational. Dialogue could only be a part of the scheme, not the whole of it. And the forum for evolving this strategy is not a political jamboree but various arms of the state. What it failed to grasp was even in the best of times not all segments of polity are on the same wavelength. Dissents and disagreements are the common norms in polities.

And it is for the ruling hierarchy to decide what in its wisdom is the best in the nation's interest and act accordingly. It was thus imperative for it to huddle up with official agencies engaged in the national security tasks and hammer out a pragmatic and potentially efficacious strategy to wrestle with terrorism. Appallingly, it didn't and, instead, frittered away time and energies in such frivolous pastimes as APC. At least, on this score its most inept and incompetent predecessors, whose corruption and ineptitude would keep battering this unfortunate nation for times to come, were far better. They did work out a counter-terrorism strategy, at least; though, they then forgot to work it. And it was right in the infancy of their rule that they evolved this strategy; much earlier than has the incumbent hierarchy which has taken more than seven months to do it.

One can say not what it has worked out is workable, really. For, on the face of it the policy that the hierarchy has produced inherently suffers from a baneful debility. Terrorism, inarguably, is not the affliction of the centre alone; it is hurting the provinces as well. Indeed, they, particularly Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the crucial Karachi port city in Sindh and Balochistan, are being mauled variously but devastatingly by terrorism. Their part, therefore, is very critical in grappling with the monstrosity. They have thus indispensably to be part of formulating the security policy. For, it is the provinces that have primarily to fight with terrorism. But it appears they have not been associated actively with the framing of the policy. And that is wrong, indeed making for the ineffectualness of the policy right from the word go.

Not only the governments of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab have to sit down with the federal authority to make for an effective counter-terrorism strategy. As Gilgit-Baltistan has not infrequently borne terrorist assaults and Azad Kashmir too has not been all immune from terrorism's vileness, their governments too have to put in their inputs for making the strategy result-orients. Most of all, since the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have terribly turned into the hotbed of terrorism and militancy, no counter strategy could be worth it until and unless it has full say of the region in its making. But no indication is available even obliquely if the views of them all have been taken into account in the formulation of the security policy. The federal cabinet may have approved it. Even parliament may endorse it.

But it would remain just a sandcastle until it has the inputs and approval of all the four provincial governments as well as of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir and the FATA political administration. Hence, the prime minister must convene a top-level meeting of them all to review the cabinet-approved security policy. That is an inviolable must if terrorism is to be wiped out.