A ritual is a set of actions and gestures done in a specific sequence. As a nation, we’ve had a history of being ritualistic to a fault.
Take our government, for instance. After every devastating attack on our country that leaves the nation crying bloody murder, the government initially condemns it, then plays politics with it, eventually calling for ‘national unity’ followed by demands of a national security meeting to discuss it.
All of this eventually slides into oblivion as the news cycle passes on.
Pakistan has been stuck with this ritual for over a decade now and yet here we are again, pretending this cycle will generate a result; that somehow this same group of people sitting in a room having inane discussions are going to magically crack the code this time around.
It shouldn’t be this hard; there is a clear enemy with a specified modus operandi but somehow our government seems to be helpless against it.
Why is that?
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When it comes to matters of national security, it helps to have guts. Presence of guts can get things done while absence of guts will only lead to going around in circles.
One look at the general picture of Pakistan and you know which case our government suffers from. What, really, is bogging them down?
To start with let’s get this straight: TTP does not want peace and has no intention of engaging in anything that leads toward it.
That much is clear because these are people who’re in the business of violence and putting an end to that will be putting an end to their source of income.
One would expect our rulers to have figured this rocket science out by now, but apparently this is too much logic for them.
To break it down further, TTP operates not to push a certain agenda (like they claim) but to retain control of an area which is a crucial smuggling route and safe haven for terrorists of different kinds.
If they had any other intentions they would have actively worked to expand land control over the last decade instead of consolidating themselves in specific areas.
So let’s cut the crap about them being our brothers and all, anyone who kills my countrymen is no brother of mine and I doubt any Pakistani will think otherwise.
So, we have a rental terrorist organization fiercely fighting to protect its concerns (Think FARC in Colombia). While our government authorities somehow want us to believe that negotiations is the way to go.
I understand that the PML–N has gone out of its way to accommodate PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s misguided ideology of negotiating with rental terrorists because it would be a ‘good political move to expose Imran Khan and end his political mileage from this in Punjab. I understand the politics of it and even though I don’t agree with it, I get it.
However, even politicians realise that when your homeland is on fire, you minimise politics and go for whichever move hits the state’s enemy hardest.
I refuse to accept that our security forces are incapable of handling this crisis, given their expertise in Swat and the Southern Waziristan Ops.
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So far I have talked about the bigger picture i.e. what should be done and what authorities need to realise. The day-to-day events are an issue we hardly get to discuss because are too tied up with the bigger picture.
First and foremost: the government needs to create a clear flow chart on what responsibilities a crisis situation will place on each level of government. Pakistanis have the right to know who slacked out if things go sideways.
Currently, all we have is a blame game where the provinces keep blaming the federal government and the federal government keeps trying to explain what it did to help provincial governments.
Secondly: provincial governments need to understand that there is a Home Ministry in each province that’s supposed to ensure internal security of that province. They also need to accept that police forces are provincial and not federal, so day-to-day security problems are theirs to fix.
Additionally, all provinces by now should have realised that they need a special counter-terrorism force that is not elite units or a police force. What I mean by that is, ‘no, these people will not do your protocol duties, they will only fight terrorists’.
It is unfortunate that even a decade of extreme violence has not made the provincial governments realise that. If terrorists are to be battled, Police needs to be urgently overhauled from a force that patrols to one actively able to tackle violence.
Finally: police and the Counter Terror Force need intelligence. That must be internalized at a provincial level. The worst thing is, something similar to this is already built in to the system but is buried so deep into obscurity that it hardly becomes part of any discussion.
It might be a good start to make this provincial setup a basis of security operating procedures. Because all said and done, we are a country at war but our provincial security set ups do not reflect that we are.
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When rituals stop being meaningful, they should be dropped.
This whole charade of national security meetings to address something that everyone already know how to handle is becoming too taxing now. It is more of a sick joke than an antidote.
I understand the temptation to play politics but I also expect my government to understand when to stop doing that.
Negotiations were a joke from day one. While the first committee that the government formed indicated this, the second committee all but proved that our leaders had no real intention to negotiate.
If not then, I’m begging the federal government to stop this façade now because there’s no more political mileage to be gained from this.
Let the forces take on the enemy directly.