The federal government by opting to take none of these actions became a de facto complicit with militants
KARACHI: If Pakistan learnt nothing from the barbaric massacre of 142 schoolchildren in 2014, there is not the slightest possibility of doing so now, after yesterday’s attack on the Chinese embassy. The IG Police, the CM, the governor and the PM will repeat the standard jargon – “take notice, order an inquiry, condemn the incident, announce awards”, before getting on with the daily routine.
Three actions ought to have been taken after the 2014 Peshawar school tragedy – (a) Order a nation-wide deweaponisation, (b) implement a nation-wide crackdown on militant ‘clerics’ and hate-preaching individuals, madrassas and political parties and (c) create a nationwide vehicle management system to purge millions of fraudulent vehicles on the road – often involved in crime and militancy.
The federal government by opting to take none of these actions became a de facto complicit with militants. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that it actively supported the proliferation of weapons and consistently surrendered before the religious zealots.
The Sindh government wastes some 4,000 policemen to protect its rich and powerful elite at the taxpayers’ expense. Its militant ‘waderas’ have received stay orders to retain their prohibited bore weapons and thousands of SUVs openly carry weapon-wielding militias. It has a broken-down vehicle management system that allows some 200,000 fraudulent government and private unregistered, non-tax paid and fake number-plated vehicles to blatantly ply on the roads. Most crimes have a link with one of these vehicles, including the loaded white Suzuki that arrived at the Chinese embassy yesterday.
The Sindh government, the E&T Department, the Sindh Police, the Sindh Rangers and the Sindh CPLC need to first investigate the possibility if their own inaction and apathy has something to do with the militancy of the militants and the meltdown of the state.
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2018.
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