Looking down

It is important to face facts — and one of these facts is that drones have proved effective in eliminating ‘high value’ militant targets. In this context, the news from the Inter-Services Public Relations that Pakistan has developed its own drones is good. These Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are intended for surveillance and Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has commended the National Scientific and Engineering Commission for developing the technology.



Drones may be controversial in our country with the attacks by unmanned aerial aircraft by the US having most recently triggered a blockade of Nato routes, but there can be no doubt at all that Pakistan will be locked in a battle against militancy for a very long time to come. It is vital to our future that we win this war, which has affected our own country more negatively than any other nation in the world. It is, therefore, our war to fight. Indeed, removing the US from the equation may help to solve many of the problems that today surround this conflict. Our own fleet of drones could play an important part in this. For the future, the aircraft named Burraq and Shahpar could play a crucial role in a situation that endangers our country and all of us within it. They could help us take out the militants and, if used judiciously, do so without the controversy created by the involvement of the US in the equation.

It is also encouraging that we possess the technology required to build our own weaponry, and design it to meet our specific needs. Given our experience over the past years, we well understand precisely what these needs are. The use of weapons by our own forces may well help to convince people that we ourselves need to combat the militants who have killed tens of thousands of our own citizens, and that we are capable of doing this without outside aid. The war we are fighting is one that we openly need to lay claim to, so that the ambiguity and confusion that currently surrounds the issue can be driven away and replaced by greater clarity, giving us a better chance of defeating the people of violence who have created mayhem across our state and today continue to threaten it.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.

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