The art of prevarication

We are told by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar that the government is “in the process” of banning Jamaatud Dawa

There are any number of ways that the government can avoid doing something it is not inclined to do whilst at the same time creating the illusion that it is doing the exact opposite. Banned groups are a case in point. A rational mind might reasonably conclude that a group that was banned would have its activities curtailed, its assets frozen. But to get to that point, the group in question has to get itself banned in the first place, and despite what a rational mind may think or assume, that is no easy matter in the Hall of Mirrors that is governance in Pakistan. We are told by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan that the government is “in the process” of banning Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), a charitable organisation that India (among others) cite as being a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba. This is the group that is accused of masterminding the 2008 attacks on Mumbai and has long been on India’s list of ‘most wanted’.



Being ‘in process’ is the time-dishonoured way of looking busy whilst doing nothing. Apparently, there are ‘legal issues’ to be resolved before JuD can be put on the fourth schedule of the Anti Terrorism Act that would limit the movements of JuD members and associates. Exactly what those legal issues might be we are not being told, but under this cloak of flummery there is the elephant in the room. JuD is very large, very wealthy, very organised, very well-connected across the political spectrum and enjoys immense popularity in sections of the population. It has a long track record of rapid response to natural disasters in the country.

As long ago as January, 2015, the same interior minister was talking about the banning of the same extremist group and the only ‘process’ in evidence since then is endless prevarication. Unless the state is willing to tackle extremist groups and ideologies head on and with all groups equally examined and/or banned, then this is an exercise in futility. These groups have to be disarmed and their infrastructure dismantled. Anything less is just smoke and mirrors.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2016.

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