Summary PTI chairman says government seemed least interested in giving security issue top priority.
ISLAMABAD (ONLINE); PTI Chairman Imran Khan has expressed his grave concerns over government’s inability to formulate a viable, holistic Counter-Terrorism policy and a strategy to implement the same.
In his recent press statement issued on Sunday, he lambasted the deteriorating security situation in the country, stating that the government seemed least interested in giving this issue top priority.
“Talks of an APC are meaningless until the government has a counter-terrorism policy to present before it”, he stated, while declaring that, “If the government is unable or unwilling to present a holistic counter-terrorism policy, it should extricate itself from the “US war on terror” and stop drone attacks.
The PTI chief also reiterated that a comprehensive counter terrorism policy was required to identify the different types of terrorism impacting Pakistan and use politico-economic measures alongside security measures to counter this challenge on emergency basis, as “governance is imploding and the state cannot bear the growing pressure”.
He regretted that the security apparatus was overstretched and exposed in the absence of a holistic counter terrorism policy, with the under-equipped and under trained police force being the greatest sufferer.
Outlining the very first step in effecting an effective counter-terror policy, of which KPK has been directly hit, mainly out of the Pakistani state’s support for the US WoT and covert support for drone attacks on Pakistani, Imran Khan stressed that Pakistan has to get out of the US War on Terror (WoT) which had allowed terrorists to misuse the narrative of jihad against the Pakistani security forces, the police, paramilitary and military.
“By isolating ourselves from the US WoT, the Pakistani state will deprive the terrorists of the narrative of jihad and allow it to combat them within a more viable environment”, he suggested.
Understanding that this was not the only policy component of an indigenous counter-terrorism strategy especially in the context of major victim, the Province of KPK,, he termed it as yet a critical component, especially when accompanied by an immediate end to acceptance of drones’ attacks.
As Khan reminded, the illegality of drones is now well-established internationally and the Peshawar High Court decision is still pending implementation by the federal government. What is equally well-established, Khan went on, is the negative impact of drone attacks through creation of more space for terrorists.
This would be the PTI’s first suggested step.
The ill-equipped police in KPK have made immeasurable sacrifices in the front line of fighting terrorists who are equipped with latest weaponry and night vision devices’ “ something the Province was unable of bearing the costs of such a disastrous policy any longer”, he reasoned.
Assuring that PTI was formulating a strategy to protest the continuing participation in the WoT and continuance of drones, he promised, that “we will announce our line of action soon after the bye-elections”.
