Now clean up Punjab

It is becoming ever clearer as time passes that the government of Punjab as well as the federal government, are unwilling or unable for a dark portfolio of reasons, to take the same robust action against extremist groups as elsewhere in the country. Statistics provided by the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) give the lie to government claims of an across-the-board improvement in the security situation. Instances of security-related operations carried out against terrorists and ‘anti-state elements’ under the National Action Plan (NAP) are shown to be higher in Punjab than in any other province nationally.

What can only be described as disgraceful — indeed shameful — partiality, is clearly in play. Claims by the Punjab government that there is no need for Rangers deployment in the province are rendered nonsensical by the numbers. Equally fallacious are the claims that there is no problem with extremist groups in the province, this despite south Punjab in particular being infested with madrassas of known and patently obvious extremist leanings that operate under the blind eye of the provincial administration.



The Nacta data exposes the mendacity of those who for whatever reason are willing to allow extremist elements free rein, and it is difficult to come to any other conclusion than that there is at the very least sympathy within the political and administrative strata of Punjab for extremist groups; and that protection is afforded to them for a political quid pro quo — votes in the ballot box. This conclusion will be loudly denied by those that run Punjab, but with 135 terrorists killed in the province alone and it topping the list of cases of hate speech — 71 per cent of the national total of 1,342 — their denial is mere fatuity. The army in Fata and the Rangers in Sindh are doing what they were tasked to do under NAP, yet Punjab continues to keep snakes at the bottom of the garden. It does the rest of the country a considerable — and deadly — disservice by failing to clean up and then having the audacity to say that it does not need to anyway. Quit the duplicity Punjab and sort it out. Now.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2016.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.