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WEEKLY
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Opinion Archive
The News International Pakistan
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| Save Islamabad, please |
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By Tasneem Noorani
The statement of the interior minister that he has suspended the SHO in whose jurisdiction the recent terrorist act by a pillion-ridden motorcycle took place, and that any SHO in whose jurisdiction pillion riding is not stopped would be arrested, is a proclamation of the collapse of the system.
Firstly, it is no business of the interior minister to suspend an SHO. It is at best the duty of a SSP. Secondly, the threat of arrest of civil servants for dereliction of duty is a phenomenon unknown in our model of government, and I suppose any governance model. Islamabad is not the only part of the country whose governance has reached such levels of desperation. Governance in the provinces is in a similar state of chaos. Arresting officials for dereliction of duty or mere allegations of corruption spreads panic and demoralisation in the rank and file of the bureaucracy.
Islamabad is not alone in being short on governance, but it is not any other city, it is the capital of the country. A punch to the belly does not knock out a boxer but a punch to the head does. The extremists know this, and that is why they are specifically targeting the city. From a serene, safe and lovely town, it has been turned into a bunker. If our security strategy stays the same, I do not see things improving significantly, even if the government is able to destabilise the Taliban in South Waziristan, because of the illegal infestation of people and institution that have taken place in Islamabad.
The burgeoning number of madrasas in the city translates into safe havens and a source of intelligence for intruders from outside. Even if the local owners of these madrasas do not participate in terrorist acts, they leave the security apparatus very vulnerable. Similarly large illegal “abadis” have developed in the outskirts of the city since the influx of Afghan refugees in the eighties. These have been partly demolished from time to time, but have reappeared with a vengeance. There are parts of such “abadis” with narrow streets, where no law enforcement agency has any presence and therefore has no clue of what is happening there. Both these phenomenon, which have been allowed to grow by repeated administrations, on the principal of “let my tenure pass without any unpleasantness” are monsters which will continue to make Islamabad a city difficult to secure.
In Islamabad schools in residential areas are repeatedly hounded and encouraged to move to school sectors especially created by the CDA/ICT. Except for universities, no educational institutions are allowed to have boarding houses. Why is it not possible to apply this policy to madrasas too? Why can’t we implement the uniform policy of having only day-teaching institutions both for the schools and the madrasas in the city, the only exceptions being the universities. The madrasas can continue to function for children who come in the morning and go back to their houses in the afternoon. For madrasas which insist on having boarding facilities, the government should make a special sector, far away from the city and even provide them funds for new infrastructure, to counter the argument of where to go. Day madrasas, where children go to learn the Quran, are a part of our culture and that is how it should stay. What is the logic of having children from far-flung areas come to study the Quran in the completely incongruous environs of Islamabad?
Similarly, settlements of illegal immigrants next to the capital for one-time refugees continue to pose a security threat. Such settlements should be relocated to a safer distance and the government should build new settlements to relocate them, in order to soften the blow of this action and not to make it look inhuman. But the precincts of the capital need to be restored to the master plan of the city.
The third thing that the government needs to do is to raise a special paramilitary force under the police to perform static guard duties and also for VIP protection. Such a force under the IG of Islamabad should be given thorough training, even if it takes a year or more to raise and train it. Proper housing and transport facilities of the same level as army troops should be given to this force. Because this force will be paramilitary in nature, it will need a separate law, and because it will be specially trained for urban protection and combat, it will be more useful than the Rangers and the Frontier Constabulary that are currently used to supplement Islamabad police.
Someone needs to take the bull by the horn and do the essential tasks, however unpleasant, if Islamabad is to return to being a capital where diplomats businessmen and government functionary of other countries can come and go, without having to take out expensive insurance policies and special permissions from their governments.
Before you say why I did not do what I am suggesting in my tenure as secretary of the interior, I will tell you that I tried my best to do two of these three things five years ago, but made no headway because of lack of political resolve. I decided to write this piece anyway, knowing full well that the rulers even now do not have the time and inclination to do any of what has been suggested, because simply staying in power for the moment is and has been the top priority of any government in this country.
The writer is a former federal secretary. Email: tasneem.noorani@tnassociates.net
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ISSN 1563-9479 