By Wednesday, the capital city Islamabad had become as dangerous a place to live as Mogadishu or Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic. 'The capital city was at a high risk... It has sleeper cells of members of banned organisations including al Qaeda, TTP and LeJ', said the director general of National Crisis Management Cell of the Interior Ministry as he briefed a committee of the National Assembly. Not those other places in the country were less dangerous and relatively secure against terrorism, they too are unsafe and dangerous to live in given the looming threat of terrorism all over the country, he added as he dished out graphic detail on the ubiquitous presence of the terrorist outfits. No surprise the otherwise self-assured residents of Islamabad enjoying a relatively longer terror-free ambience felt fear passing down their spines, setting off frantic phone calls to each other over the deceptive calm the city guardians had obtained for some time. In some cases, the foreigners living outside of the Red Zone asked the private security agencies to increase the strength of guards on their gates.
There was the painful hark to the past when terrorists attacked a five-star hotel, blasted the city markets and carried out assassinations of a federal minister and a provincial governor. But then something happened; the very next day the same city was declared the most secure and safe city in the country - by none else but Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali. No foreign agency was at works in Islamabad, nor there are so-called sleeper cells of terrorists in the city, he told reporters. But he did concede having received a number of calls from foreigners who were 'scared by the impression of the threat to the city'. As to why all this panic was created by his ministry, because 'the threat perceptions concept could only be comprehended by people having an understanding of the technical language'. May be so, if one were to believe that the residents of Islamabad live on another planet where there are no terrorists and what does the expression 'sleeper cells' mean. Give us a break Mr Minister, it is you who owes an explanation as what happened that the same Islamabad which a day before was under thick shadow of terrorism had come out in the sunlight of peace and tranquillity in just 24 hours. Is it that the interior minister and his team are not on the same page and speak from two different tongues on an issue as critical as the menace of terrorism? Of course, Chaudhry Nisar needs to put his own house in order. And also there the work cut out for the members of the National Assembly committee who were fed his blatantly contradictory perspective on national security. If the minister is correct and the National Crisis Management Cell head was incorrect the parliament is supposed to move against the person who led its committee up the garden path.
Lies could not be and should not be told by the government functionaries to the members of parliament. Maybe - there is this minority point of view - the interior ministry had acted the way it did to mentally prepare the general public for the military action against the terrorist hideouts in the restive tribal region. And once the action was over the minister thought it proper that he should dispel the fears the report to the NA committee had generated. But irrespective of the design and intention behind this quick somersault the impression begins to form that even today, almost after a decade of suffering at the hands of terrorists, what we have at hands in terms of a national security policy is nothing but a few time-serving gimmicks. What an irony; the government remains confused and tentative while its nemesis the terrorists are dead on spot. Certainly this is that crucial aspect of psychological warfare where the government is always on the back foot. And this got to change and change without losing a day more. The upcoming sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate we hope the government would pass the long-delayed national security policy.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Pakistan: Islamabad a safe place?
By Wednesday, the capital city Islamabad had become as dangerous a place to live as Mogadishu or Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic. 'The capital city was at a high risk... It has sleeper cells of members of banned organisations including al Qaeda, TTP and LeJ', said the director general of National Crisis Management Cell of the Interior Ministry as he briefed a committee of the National Assembly. Not those other places in the country were less dangerous and relatively secure against terrorism, they too are unsafe and dangerous to live in given the looming threat of terrorism all over the country, he added as he dished out graphic detail on the ubiquitous presence of the terrorist outfits. No surprise the otherwise self-assured residents of Islamabad enjoying a relatively longer terror-free ambience felt fear passing down their spines, setting off frantic phone calls to each other over the deceptive calm the city guardians had obtained for some time. In some cases, the foreigners living outside of the Red Zone asked the private security agencies to increase the strength of guards on their gates.
There was the painful hark to the past when terrorists attacked a five-star hotel, blasted the city markets and carried out assassinations of a federal minister and a provincial governor. But then something happened; the very next day the same city was declared the most secure and safe city in the country - by none else but Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali. No foreign agency was at works in Islamabad, nor there are so-called sleeper cells of terrorists in the city, he told reporters. But he did concede having received a number of calls from foreigners who were 'scared by the impression of the threat to the city'. As to why all this panic was created by his ministry, because 'the threat perceptions concept could only be comprehended by people having an understanding of the technical language'. May be so, if one were to believe that the residents of Islamabad live on another planet where there are no terrorists and what does the expression 'sleeper cells' mean. Give us a break Mr Minister, it is you who owes an explanation as what happened that the same Islamabad which a day before was under thick shadow of terrorism had come out in the sunlight of peace and tranquillity in just 24 hours. Is it that the interior minister and his team are not on the same page and speak from two different tongues on an issue as critical as the menace of terrorism? Of course, Chaudhry Nisar needs to put his own house in order. And also there the work cut out for the members of the National Assembly committee who were fed his blatantly contradictory perspective on national security. If the minister is correct and the National Crisis Management Cell head was incorrect the parliament is supposed to move against the person who led its committee up the garden path.
Lies could not be and should not be told by the government functionaries to the members of parliament. Maybe - there is this minority point of view - the interior ministry had acted the way it did to mentally prepare the general public for the military action against the terrorist hideouts in the restive tribal region. And once the action was over the minister thought it proper that he should dispel the fears the report to the NA committee had generated. But irrespective of the design and intention behind this quick somersault the impression begins to form that even today, almost after a decade of suffering at the hands of terrorists, what we have at hands in terms of a national security policy is nothing but a few time-serving gimmicks. What an irony; the government remains confused and tentative while its nemesis the terrorists are dead on spot. Certainly this is that crucial aspect of psychological warfare where the government is always on the back foot. And this got to change and change without losing a day more. The upcoming sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate we hope the government would pass the long-delayed national security policy.
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