The development dilemma

Finding the root cause of terrorism is a challenge we have to take up. Only then will we be able to halt the militant trends that have created havoc across our country, and put an end to the actions of criminal gangs that have converted Karachi into a city where death visits swiftly and unexpectedly. Lt-General Naveed Mukhtar, corps commander Karachi, has pointed to the administrative failure to develop infrastructure and sufficient services to meet the needs of people as one of the factors that have pushed forward crime of all kinds including militancy. He was speaking at a seminar arranged in collaboration with the National Defence University. Gen Mukhtar may have hit the nail on the head when he said that the lack of facilities available to people forced them to turn to other influential forces, including crime syndicates, as a means to gain security. This has been a factor in the rise of the Taliban in the tribal belt as well. As experts have pointed out, it is surely not entirely accidental that militant forces are strongest in the least developed parts of the country such as Fata.
The message in all this is that to keep the allegiance of the people and prevent them turning to other actors who operate in society, it is essential for the state to fulfil its most basic task of giving them the rights that are their due. These include security, livelihood, education and healthcare amongst other factors. The corps commander of Karachi has linked the failures in this respect to the rapid rise of criminal activity. The remedy lies in our hands. It is essential that the basic rights which are guaranteed to people under the law of our land be given to them. When this does not happen, the result is chaos and the kind of mayhem we see now. To correct this, we will need to take drastic steps. Administrations at every level must move into action and measures to improve basic amenities available to communities, the civic situation in cities, the working of institutions such as the police and the provision of other services must go hand in hand with any operation directed against crime. This is essential to our success; the link between development, crime and violence needs to be assessed more fully than has been the case so far in our country.