The citizens of Pakistan are the real victims of the failure of the state to protect their lives?
KARACHI: When will the authorities ever learn that we did not have to lose the two soldiers in broad daylight on one of the busiest streets of Karachi? That the lives of four Rangers guarding a mosque in the city could have been saved? That the targeted murder of 250 policemen in Karachi was completely avoidable? That the killing of thousands of our citizens by militants every year is not an ordained compulsion?
That there is something fundamentally erroneous about the way we are fighting our war against terror? That wars are not fought by first arming your enemies? That there is little sense in fighting a war without first eliminating the 20 million weapons in the hands of terrorists? That there is little wisdom in fighting a war without first withdrawing eight million fraudulent gun licences? That the state makes itself an accomplice of the terrorists by keeping its eyes shut on the issue of de-weaponisation? That the state has illegally issued thousands of prohibited gun licences to criminals and cronies? That the state is guilty of allowing the creation of hundreds of highly armed private militias? That the prime minister has promised ‘de-weaponisation’ 13 times in the last three years without making the smallest effort to make it happen?
That the citizens of Pakistan are the real victims of the failure of the state to protect their lives? That the mafias, the gun-runners, the arms dealers, the gun licence-makers and private security agencies are the only beneficiaries of this highly lucrative madness? That the best results in any war are achieved by focusing on a few core objectives? That a complete and non-discriminatory de-weaponisation programme ought to have been the first of these objectives? That not initiating such a campaign means that Pakistan will continue to bleed from a thousand wounds every day?
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2015.
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