Pakistan unable to tame monster once it built
Sep 23, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], September 23 : Pakistani chickens are coming home to roost - unpalatable fact - Islamabad is suffering the direct result of a deliberate policy of inciting, financing, training and equipping terrorists and jihadis.
Senge Sering, the President of Gilgit Baltistan Institute in Washington, writing in the Baltimore Post-Examiner said that all the while, the generals could have bettered the lives of citizens by using the country's location for cultural connectivity and regional trade. But they preferred to turn Pakistan into a hub of Islamic terrorism by making hatred for India a national policy.
Dr Frankenstein discovered when he built his monster (terrorism), it is impossible to control the monster once it's built.
According to a report by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, Pakistan saw 42 per cent more terrorist attacks in 2021 compared to the previous year with 40 per cent increase in deaths of its defence personnel.
The policy to profit from terrorism also empowered terrorists in neighbouring Afghanistan at a great cost to the lives and economy of Afghans.
Taliban's control over Afghanistan fosters the interests of Al-Qaida, the Tehreek Taliban (TTP) and other transcontinental terror outfits. This fixation has isolated Pakistan internationally with considerably higher ramifications for internal stability, reported Baltimore Post-Examiner.
While Pakistani generals were busy wasting time and national resources on the doctrine of 'bleed India with a thousand cuts, Indian leadership focused on strengthening democratic institutions and steadily moved up as the world's fifth largest economy, said Sering.
The interference of the military in civilian affairs with generals and brigadiers encroaching on executive posts has exacerbated challenges like energy shortfall, systemic corruption, faltering governance, and food and human security.
Pakistan has secured credit from the International Monetary Fund although it might not help keep the dying economy buoyant. General Bajwa's much-touted shift to geo-economics as outlined in the latest National Security Policy is nothing but old wine in new bottles and wouldn't stop rupee's free fall, reported Baltimore Post-Examiner.
Manzoor Pashteen, who is the head of Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM), says that rulers portray Pakistan as a sanctuary of Muslims relishing in an Islamic welfare system. However, in the last 75 years of Pakistan's existence, no army has massacred as many innocent Muslims as the Pakistani army.
Dr Hyder Lashari, a historian from Sindh while recounting Pashteen's experiences adds that fostering terrorism is highly profitable. Therefore, the generals invest most of the taxpayer's money in this venture and utilize the dividends to purchase private islands for their children in Europe and Australia.
As the local saying goes, when a general is not training terrorists, then he is busy grabbing lands from farmers in Bahawalpur or Sindh, said Sering.
Till date, Pakistani army and its paid terrorists have killed over 70,000 Pashtuns while aiming to secure strategic depth in the tribal belt.
Echoing Baloch, Shafqat Inqalabi, a historian from Gilgit Baltistan says that survival of minorities is not easy without compromising with national identity and losing natural resources to Punjab.
Inqalabi explains that activists who resist against oppression have to face the music of terrorism as secret services confiscate their identity and travel documents, freeze their bank accounts and slap them with sedition charges.
Pakistan's birth anniversary may be a festive occasion for the Punjabis or the Taliban but a majority of inhabitants of Pashtun, Baloch and Sindh provinces hoist black flags on this day to mourn the death of their loved ones as the military has usurped the right to life from common man.
Pakistan's emergence as a security state let the military generals fill coffers while dumping a plethora of socio-cultural and economic challenges on the common man, said Sering.
The undue interference of military junta in civilian matters has depleted the economy, aggravated systemic challenges and deteriorated internal security and regional stability. The situation greatly restricts Pakistan from effectively functioning as a sovereign nation.