Needed — a united effort

Provincial, federal govts now need to go beyond issuing statements and drawing up plans to undertake these initiatives

The pushback against militancy and terrorism has seen some significant successes in recent months, and while the military has been at the forefront in this effort, there is still some way to go before we can declare victory in this most important of wars. Operation Zarb-e-Azb has had its impact as has the one conducted in Karachi against terrorist and criminal elements. But to back the bayonet and the gun, we now need the civilian government to also step in and play its part. Terrorism cannot be defeated through the use of force alone. This point was brought home at a meeting of the apex committee, chaired by the prime minister and attended by the army chief, the interior minister and other key officials on September 10, in Islamabad. The meeting was held to review how the National Action Plan, agreed upon by various stakeholders after the bloodbath at the Army Public School in Peshawar, was proceeding.

It seems that the authorities have only now diverted the kind of attention that was needed from the outset towards the important areas of registering madrassas, monitoring their funding sources and activities, monitoring hate speech, including putting a stop to the practice of declaring people belonging to different sects apostates, and cracking down on terror financing. In fact, it is understood that the military has asked the government to pay special attention to the area of eliminating terror finance, a crucial factor that has played a part in fostering militancy in the country. All these initiatives will be important and there is a need to realise that while military force can dismantle terrorist infrastructure, it cannot necessarily eliminate the underlying problems that allow space to terrorists and militants. The provincial and federal governments now need to go beyond issuing statements and drawing up plans to undertake these initiatives, and need to actually start implementing these plans at all levels. Only a united, coordinated effort between the civilian governments and the military will be able to achieve this. This is going to be a long-drawn, tedious effort, but it must be undertaken at the earliest.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th,  2015.

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