Pak's war against terrorism hypocritical

Political circles do not rule out army-ISI hand behind the Peshawar blast as the war against terrorism would enhance the image of new army chief Asim Munir, who is a Shia and needs to prove his loyalty toward the nation.

Who in Pakistan runs the government? It is not difficult to identify, because time has revealed the role of the Pak army and its intelligence wing ISI that has dominated the political system in Pakistan since 1947.

It has been witnessed that each four-star general during their tenure has carried forward their own agenda for self-promotion for one or the other reasons, mainly in the name of the "war against terrorism".

Recently, former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa admitted in a statement to a journalist that he brought down the Imran Khan government. On this, Khan as the chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) demanded an inquiry into the matter within the army.

Amid the ongoing tussle between the army and the civil administration, the General Headquarters (GHQ), in a letter to the Interior Ministry, excused itself from providing army men, Rangers and Frontier Corps troops for deployment for security during the byelection to 64 National Assembly seats in four provinces and conduct of provincial assembly elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Even the Lahore High Court told the Election Commission (ECP) that it could not spare judicial officers for election duty in Punjab. The letter has further explained that both the armed forces and the civil armed forces, besides their routine border management tasks, were engaged in internal security challenges in view of the prevalent enhanced threat of terrorism across the country.

The two Provincial Assemblies of Punjab and KP, where the PTI was in government with the help of its allies, were dissolved last month also on the instructions of Imran, who wanted to force the federal government to call general elections in the country. As per the constitutional provisions, elections have to be held within 90 days of the dissolution of the Assemblies.

While pointing out that there was a "serious threat" of terrorism in Punjab, he said that a control room would be set up in each district during the elections. He maintained that holding elections separately would make it harder to provide security for the polls.

It is an admitted fact that the law enforcement agencies would not be able to provide foolproof security if elections were held on separate days. According to official figures, Rs 42 billion would be required to maintain law and order during the elections, when the provincial government was facing a financial deficit.

The ECP requires 4,12,854 police personnel to conduct the polls in a peaceful manner whereas Punjab police only had a force of 1,15,000. To fill this shortage of 3,00,000 personnel, the services of the army men and Rangers would be required.

Pakistan has been hit by a wave of terrorist attacks, mostly in PK province but also in Balochistan and Punjab. But this tragedy should not be watched in isolation. Pak experienced the siege of Lal Masjid, code-named Operation Sunrise in July 2007 between Islamist students and fundamentalist militants and the Government of Pakistan, led by President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. The focal points of the operation were the Lal Masjid and the Jamia Hafsa madrassa complex in Islamabad.

Lal Masjid was visited frequently by leaders of the Pakistani military and government. Former army chief Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who later became the President after seizing power in a coup d'état in 1977, was a close associate of Abdullahs. The mosque is located near the headquarters of Pakistan's military intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and several staff members were known to go there for prayers.

After the Soviet-Afghan War ended in 1989, the mosque continued to function as a centre for Islamic extremist learning and housed several thousand male and female students in adjacent seminaries. Most students in the mosque were from KP, bordering Afghanistan.

The suicide attack happened on January 30, when a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up that killed over 100 people, most of them policemen. Pakistan's law enforcement officials said that the plot to target a highly secure mosque in the capital of KP province was hatched in Afghanistan. The local police in KP hit the streets against the ISI and the army for their involvement in blasts in the mosque.

In political circles in Pakistan, speculations are rife that the hand of Pak army and ISI behind the Peshawar blast could not be ruled out. Because the name of 'war against terrorism' will enhance the image of the new army chief Asim Munir who belongs to the Shia sect. Obviously, he has to prove his loyalty toward the nation.

When the Taliban retook Kabul after two decades in August 2021, the US and Europe blocked more than $9 billion in Afghan central bank reserves, fearing the funds would be used by the militant group for terrorism. Despite the surge in terrorist attacks, the State allowed thousands of armed militants to return to their homes in various districts of KP.

(R C Ganjoo is a senior journalist and columnist having more than 30 years experience of covering issues concerning national security, particularly Kashmir. He has worked with several prominent media groups and his articles have been published in many national and international publications.)

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