Harm at home

Allowing party workers to take the law in hand for selfish political reasons today would only embolden them in future.

It is not easy to say quite how the blockade of Nato convoys passing through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) was intended to prevent the drone strikes the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf says it is protesting against. Clearly, Washington has been left unmoved, with the Pentagon announcing a halt of supplies being pulled out from Afghanistan via Torkham, and transported south to Karachi. While the PTI insists this is a ‘moral victory’, it does not explain how an action that hinders livelihood for the many engaged with the convoy passage through our country can in any way be useful.



What is more, the Pentagon decision to hold trucks in Afghanistan for now, because of the safety threat to drivers, given the strong arm tactics of PTI workers, damages Pakistan’s image with regard to security and stability. This cannot be good for it. Given that Washington has also made it clear that it has other options to pull equipment out of Afghanistan — the reason for which the convoy movement continues for the most part — it is odd the PTI would want to stop this. It must also be noted that allowing party workers to take the law in hand for short-term selfish political reasons today would only embolden them to act in a similar manner were they to protest against the K-P government at some future date.

The real question is what the federal government intends to do about the situation, given possible implications for Pakistan-US relations and other complications given that the war in Afghanistan has been sanctioned by the UN. Moreover, such actions may also hurt other Muslim countries like Turkey, along with other friendly countries. While law and order fall under the K-P government, the highways which run through the province are controlled by the centre. The Nato issue, too, involves national-level policy. The US has said it is willing to watch and wait for a while. Action is necessary before patience runs out to get things back on track, restore the routes and prevent the unnecessary hardship this is causing. The farce needs to end so that things can get back to normal. Decisions need to be taken now rather than being unnecessarily delayed for no good reason at all.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2013.

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