Jihad Against Terrorism
The beginning of the 21st century has seen advances in science and technology force-multiplying terror as a deliberate creation of man. Terror was previously the domain of the unknown, the perception was that of animals in the jungle and of spirits in the night. High-tech equipment rapidly becomes obsolete as sophisticated terrorists innovate circumventing of their potency. What to talk about individuals and communities, entire nations can be held hostage to terror, case in point presently the mightiest nation on this earth, the US of A. Terrorism is a potent weapon for those who lack numbers and weaponry, money may be important but innovation overcomes that deficiency. The targetting of soft targets put forces of law and orders initially in disarray because of the variation in the threat perception, the level and mode thereof. Organized criminal activity desires anarchy i.e. the collapse of the State’s machinery. The international terrorist has a far bigger canvas, the collapse of world order as is evident from the present dangerous split in the UN Security Council and NATO. The globalization of terrorism makes it difficult to counter terrorism, dominating it altogether is almost impossible. Countries without resources must depend upon each other for precise sharing of intelligence, denial of funds, sanctuaries and/or supply of weapons/equipment to terrorists as well as promptly addressing requests for extradition. On the negative side, countries like India are using the bogey of terrorist groups as either surrogates or motivated propaganda to achieve their own motivated objectives against adversary States like Pakistan, India has now started targeting Bangladesh also.
Accountability
While everyone seems to understand that the first priority of the military regime should be the economy, public anger about the loot of the national treasury engineered over the last 50 years (but far more pronounced over the last two decades) makes accountability the primary objective in the public perception. For “the great silent majority” who have seen the quality of their lives deteriorate even as a privileged few became rich beyond compare, it is important to take the looters to task. The disparity between the haves and have-nots has to be seen to be believed, the middle class has virtually been wiped out, bringing the 23% of the nation’s poor to a high of 40%. Since the economy is inter-connected with the accountability process the success of the government will lie in effecting a fair but ruthless exercise in this respect. What is recovered of the ill-gotten wealth will show up in the balance sheets of the nation’s economy as positive cash flow. The credibility of the Chief Executive and his team will largely rest in the public perception of whether and how accountability is carried out, without fear and/or favour or selectively and/or as an eyewash.
One of the first moves of the Chief Executive has been to appoint newly promoted Lt Gen Syed Mohammad Amjad as the Head of the Accountability Cell. Amjad who has an excellent reputation both of integrity and competence, will have his work cut out for him even though he will have the benefit of having plenty of material on politicians and some bureaucrats from Ms Benazir’s period of rule about Mian Nawaz Sharif, friends and associates and likewise during Mian Nawaz Sharif’s governance stint on the likes of Ms Benazir, etc. Sifting through the material to locate fact from fiction will be quite an exercise. This represents just the tip of the iceberg when one takes into account the highway robbery carried out on a wholesale and continuing basis by the bureaucracy for over five decades. To assist the new head of Ehtesab, the Chief Executive has made an excellent choice in Maj Gen (Retd) Inayatullah Khan Niazi, a man of impeccable character and integrity. A soldier to the core Gen Niazi has a history of being blunt, forthright and unswerving in doing the task given to him. Together they will make an excellent team.