Peshawar bleeds

Letter October 01, 2013
The Pakistan Army should take control of the situation in Peshawar and K-P.

KARACHI: Scores of innocent lives have been lost to the bomb blast at the Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar. Another bloody Sunday afternoon with charred bodies and injured blast victims. This has been the third blast in a week. Where is the provincial government? Where is the writ of the state? What is the role of our intelligence agencies? The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has failed to provide security to the citizens of Pakistan. The ruling party believes that dialogue with terrorists must take place even when they continue to massacre Pakistanis brutally. The PTI chairman believes that every bomb blast is an attempt to stop a peaceful dialogue from taking place.

I do not know what Mr Imran Khan’s commitments are to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or why he continues to insist on having a dialogue with them, but I do know that hundreds of innocent Pakistanis have been brutally murdered and the K-P government shows all signs of failure to stem the killings. The Pakistan Army should take control of the situation in Peshawar and K-P. If the armed forces still do not step in, the situation has the potential to turn even bloodier. The provincial government, like the erstwhile Balochistan government under Mr Raisani, has failed miserably in providing safety and security to the common man. It is time for an intervention. The people of K-P have paid a high price for electing a weak political government, which has seemingly surrendered to the terrorists.

Dr Jahanzeb Effendi

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2013.

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