Sarah Khan
The day of 16 December
has been extremely horrifying and painful twice in 68years of history of
Pakistan. One, in 1971 when Pakistan was dismembered and East Pakistan was
created. Second, in 2014 when 144 innocent students and teachers of Army Public
School in Peshawar were brutally killed by terrorists of Tehreek e Taliban
Pakistan. Though a year has passed but the horrific flashes of the incident are
still alive in hearts and minds of all Pakistanis. The incident was unfortunate
and terrible in nature but it has proved to be a defining moment in the history
of Pakistan. Today, the entire nation is standing united against the menace of
terrorism which had deteriorated the country’s image and stalled its progress
since a decade.
In the immediate
aftermath of the incident, the government lifted the unofficial moratorium on
the death penalty; military courts were established to ensure speedy trial of
perpetrators of terror activities. Despite bitter criticism from international
community on resumption of death penalty in Pakistan almost all terrorists
involved in the Peshawar massacre have been hanged.
The National Action Plan
is being implemented in true letter and spirit by civilian and military
leadership of Pakistan. There has been a crackdown against hate speech; some
suspected Madressahs have been closed down; the leadership of sectarian
organisations has been largely neutralised. Operation Zarb e Azb has achieved
tremendous success in clearing hideouts of terrorists in Waziristan and now
Pakistan Army is playing a key role in rehabilitation of locals of FATA. With
the help of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, our police and rangers have been
able to carry out raids on facilitators of terrorists throughout the country.
The credit goes to Armed Forces of Pakistan that 2015 was comparatively a
peaceful year since 2007.
At the same time, there
is sufficient room for improvement to flush out the remnants of sleeping cells
of terrorist across the country. Karachi, the economic hub of Pakistan had
become the hub of extremism and militancy in the past few years due to
financing and training by RAW. This has been proved even by various reports of
foreign media (BBC). There is a need to empower Rangers in Karachi in order to
eliminate the terrorists and their facilitators. Madrassah reforms and its true
implementation is the need of the hour throughout the country.
Pakistan has achieved a
significant milestone by signing China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but
many anti-state elements are trying to politicize the project in order to
deprive the nation of its fruits at the behest of foes abroad. There is a need
to overcome all hurdles in order to bring Pakistan on track of economic development.
Last but not least, Pakistan may play a constructive role in Afghan
reconciliation as stable Afghanistan will be more beneficial to Pakistan. But
the issue of Afghan refugees and Afghan militants hiding in Pakistan under the
guise of refugees needs to be addressed.
As stated earlier, the
incident of Peshawar massacre was unfortunate but it has placed Pakistan on the
right track and there is a need to follow it in the coming days to ensure a
prosperous Pakistan. We all Pakistanis will always remain indebted to blood of
those 144 innocent martyrs’ students of Army Public School who sacrificed their
present for our better future.
No comments:
Post a Comment