Pakistan: Absent leadership

AS the shock and distress over the Karachi airport attack refuses to subside quickly and the numbing questions the attack has raised refuse to go away, this much is clear: the state, both civil and military, has failed to reassure the public or demonstrate that it really does have a plan to keep the country safe. Even the post-attack restoration of calm has been shattered. How, for example, did the security forces declare the airport secured when there were still some civilians to be recovered? How was it possible for a second attack — rejected as an attack altogether by some sections of the security forces — to be launched and for all the attackers to simply melt away hours after the initial attack? Where has the leadership been at the provincial and federal levels? For the Sindh government to foist all responsibility on the federal government simply because airports fall in the federal domain of responsibility is absurd. Surely, with the central leadership so shockingly absent, a quick Sindh government response would have been both appreciated and accepted.

Yet, much of the attention must rightly turn to the two principal actors in the state’s fight against militancy: the army and the federal government. Start with the army — if only because it seems keen on action against some militants, where the government is not. For days before the Karachi attack, military action in North Waziristan had targeted hubs of foreign militants. Then, elements among the foreign militants turned around and hit the Karachi airport. Can anyone be surprised by this? And yet, it seems the military was, even though, after the split in the outlawed TTP, military officials themselves talked privately of the threat to Karachi. So, was the army-run intelligence apparatus in Karachi put in overdrive? Were all decks on hand and every spare resource dedicated to monitoring and intercepting communications among militants and movement of terrorist cells? Even now, what exactly is the plan? More retaliation it seems, according to media reports sourced from army officials. If retaliation didn’t work before, why will it work now? And does more retaliation mean the army will this time put its vast intelligence network on the highest state of alert to try and thwart another Karachi airport-style attack?

As for the federal government, it has taken inaction and indecision to truly tragic levels. The interior minister talks of the country being in a state of war now, but says nothing about what his government is doing to prepare for or fight that war. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has given dialogue his all — but it hasn’t worked. Mr Sharif is the prime minister of Pakistan — and the buck stops at his desk. It is time for him to display some qualities of statesmanship and reassure an alarmed nation that the government will not tolerate such incidents and will take strict action against all those responsible for the growing violence and acts of terrorism from the tribal areas to Karachi.