Why is the PML-N blind?

By: ST Hussain The Express Tribune

According to a media report, the PML-N opposition leader in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, has said that the military should not launch any operation against terrorists in North Waziristan. The opposition leader has said this despite the fact that Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani declared in a speech at the Pakistan Military Academy on August 13 that the fight against extremism and terrorism was Pakistan’s own war and that the nation needed to support the military in it. The PML-N leader seems to think that the Pakistan Army is fighting America’s war. Why have the PML-N’s leaders ignored the fact that in the past, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), through videos and press statements has revealed its agenda to impose Sharia law through the use of force in Pakistan? It is the duty of every Pakistani to support the Pakistan Army’s fight against terrorism and extremism, and play its role in educating the people about the threats posed by the TTP. Every political party’s leader should get a briefing from the army about the ground realities before making a statement against the military decision to eradicate the menace of extremism and terrorism, which is challenging the very existence of Pakistan and making it a theocratic state — against the vision of its founder Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. The leaders of the PML-N, who claim to be the flag holders of Jinnah’s political party, should at least respect the Quaid-e-Azam’s ideology of Pakistan and listen to his speech of August 11, 1947 in the Constituent Assembly before deciding to support the TTP’s ideology.