We have to understand the fact that General Zia used all means necessary to stay in power.
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to Khalid Aziz’s article of January 7 titled “Musharraf’s strategic blindness”. We have to understand the fact that General Zia used all means necessary to stay in power. After the Afghan jihad ended, the fighters should have been rehabilitated and integrated into the mainstream, but what does one do with men who are born out of war and the only thing they know is war?
It was our own shortsightedness to use these fighters for our own purposes after the jihad in Afghanistan ended. Zia radicalised Pakistani society and someone like Musharraf had to face and tackle that when he took over. But at least Musharraf had the courage to stand up and speak against the extremists. People like Hameed Gul or Imran Khan think that they can control extremists if they were to come to power, but they are badly mistaken.
The media should stop romanticising the extremists in our midst and should start giving some coverage to the more sane voices in society.
If not for ourselves, we need to do this for our children and their future.
Shahryar Ahmad
Published in The Express Tribune, January 8th, 2011.
