Capital suggestion
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s priority is Davos and London – not the Bacha Khan University. Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and his entire cabinet’s priority is Scotland – not the Bacha Khan University. The enemy is serious. We are not. Over the past 13 years, the enemy has taken 59,880 Pakistani lives. On the other hand, all we have is the National Action Plan (NAP). The enemy is serious. We are not.
The enemy’s signature weapon is fear. And we are doing exactly what the enemy wants us to do. They said they will target schools. And we have shut down schools. What’s next? Hospitals, cinema theatres, shopping centres, beauty parlours, barber shops, restaurants, book shops, hotels…. They want to spread fear – and we are letting them to do just that.
Justice Ali Akbar of the Lahore High Court has ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to “provide foolproof security to all educational institutions in Punjab”. There are 186,500 educational institutions in Punjab and the Punjab Police has a strength of 180,000 (40,000 of which are on VIP duty).
No country on the face of the planet can provide foolproof security to all its soft targets. The enemy has to be fought on two fronts – the battleground and the mind. We can raise the walls of all our educational institutions as high as the sky but they will not be safe for as long as we don’t have a counter-narrative.
Before Operation Zarb-e-Azb there have been Operation Rah-e-Shahadat, Operation Tight Screw, Operation Rah-e-Nijat, Operation Sherdil, Operation Rah-e-Haq, Operation Sirat-e-Mustaqeem, Opeartion Zalzala, the battles in Swat, Bajaur, Tirah Valley, Orakzai and Kurram. There isn’t a unit in the army that hasn’t given blood. There isn’t a soldier in the army who hasn’t seen a brother being martyred. The casualty figure stands at 6,216 martyred and 8,671 wounded. Proportionately, more officers have been martyred than troops (meaning that Pak Army’s officers are leading from the front).
The name of the game is: disrupt-dismantle-defeat. On June 15, 2014, General Raheel Sharif broke the status quo on North Waziristan (Operation Zarb-e-Azb). Over the past 1 year, 7 months and 2 weeks close to 80 percent of the operation is complete. Over the past 1 year, 7 months and 2 weeks, nearly 500 officers and men have been martyred and close to 2,000 injured. And yet they gave us Bacha Khan University, Karkhano Market, Mardan’s Nadra office, Imammia Masjid in Hayatabad, the Mastung bus attack and the Karachi bus attack. The terrorist network has been disrupted and partially dismantled-not defeated.
On July 17, 2015, General Raheel Sharif broke the status quo in Karachi’s crime-politics-terrorism nexus. The nexus has been disrupted and partially dismantled – far from being defeated.
On January 27, General Raheel Sharif chaired a five-hour security meeting at Corps HQ Karachi. With the corps commander, DG-ISI, DG-MI and DG-Rangers present, the COAS “vowed to go to any length for a secure and terror free Karachi.”
The message from the civilian leadership is crystal clear: they are not interested in the war that the Pak Army is fighting. The ball, therefore, is in the army’s court. And the army has two choices: go back to the barracks or give everyone a surprise by going it alone.
Who said, “The nice part of about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.”
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad.
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