A security personnel showing shells of the bullets fired during the attack on the Express Media Group’s offices in Karachi on December 2, 2013. PHOTO: MOHAMMAD NOMAN/EXPRESS
The idea of Pakistan being a security state is one that has given rise to the prevailing gun culture in the country. The authors of this idea and its promoters need to realise that continuing to adhere to this kind of obscurantism is likely to undo the very state they are trying to preserve and protect. We need to get rid of all non-state actors before they take over the state, which they seem almost on the point of accomplishing at gunpoint. Their main strength does not lie in their obscure ideas but in the guns and gold that they have easy access to. It is almost impossible to believe that our state agencies do not know the sources of these two most important elements that help these criminals to impose their ideas on innocent masses — and the routes through which these reach the local terrorists. Once they are deprived of these elements in their armoury, they would wither away without the need to mount any operation against them.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2013.
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COMMENTS (3)
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Mr. Editor: This is the 2nd time you have not seen fit to publish my comment-the last one was my comment last week on Lt. Col Ehsan. Nice to know you, ET! Good luck-all I spoke about was the need to support press freedom after the dastardly attack on you. You will not hear from me again. I know my comments reach you-because you publish the 2nd comment asking why you did not publish the 1st one. RR Iyer New York
Where do they make / buy their ammunition and guns from? How does their money reach them? ........... there is no dearth of knowledge ............. why the inaction? Is there a plan to actually bring these people in power?
"We need to get rid of all non-state actors before they take over the state, which they seem almost on the point of accomplishing at gunpoint."
Think of what you're saying. Without non-state actors there would never have been a violent divorce from India rather than a velvet one. Without non-state actors most Kashmiris would live under Indian rule without the massive presence of Indian forces, federal rule, and unlawful detentions. Without non-state actors many Pakistani leaders would lose key tools they use to keep their populace cowed. Without non-state actors lawlessness would not be extreme and people might be free to see how corrupt their leaders really are. What would Pakistan be like without non-state actors?