Lahore blast, siege of red zone a govt failure: PTI

Moves a motion seeking exclusive debate on law and order situation

ISLAMABAD: The PTI has moved a motion to discuss the recent incidents – including the suicide attack in Lahore and siege of red-zone by pro-Mumtaz Qadri protestors – as it has called these happenings a manifestation of the government and security forces failure to protect people’s lives and property.

On March 27, a bomb blast outside a park in Lahore claimed more than 70 lives. On the same day, thousands of protestors also entered Islamabad high security red-zone after removing all barricades and started a sit-in, which continued till Wednesday evening.



“The terrorist attack in Lahore on Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park and the entry into Islamabad’s red zone by stick and baton-wielding protesters has exposed the complete failure of police and intelligence setups resulting in a grave threat to the life and property of citizens and state property,” said the motion, signed by 27 MNAs.



The PTI, which staged a 126-day long marathon sit-in at Islamabad’s D-Chowk in 2014, has called these issues ‘a matter of grave national concern affecting the security of the people’. Interestingly, the motion did not mention how the PTI’s sit-in was different from the pro-Mumtaz Qadri protesters.

However, the PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday rejected the parallels drawn between the two protests and said the ongoing sit-in lacked a definitive purpose. “We were trying to raise voice against massive rigging in the 2013 general elections by the ruling PML-N,” Imran had said.

The motion has sought an exclusive debate over law and order situation in the country.



Commenting on the role of government, it said, “This complete failure of the government and law enforcement agencies has raised serious questions and must be taken up by the National Assembly especially in the wake of the National Action Plan (NAP).”

Also referring to the last week arrest of an Indian operative in Balochsitan, the motion says the development has also raised serious security issues. The government on Tuesday had released a video of Kulbhushan Yadav, an Indian navy officer, who confessed he had been working for India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to carry out subversive activities in Balochistan and Karachi.

“The arrest has put a question mark over security of the country,” it says.

Imran Khan had earlier demanded the government to take the nation into confidence with regard to the arrest and activities of RAW. He had also asked the government to tell what steps have been taken on Eastern and Western borders to prevent terrorists from entering Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st,  2016.