The defence forces and their top brass are delivering very loud and lucid messages vis-a-vis taking the terrorists to head, so much so that they find no abode anywhere in the country. A day after an in-camera briefing to the National Assembly on national security matters, a meeting of Corps Commander chaired by Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir on Saturday affirmed to eliminating of terrorism, extremism and instability in the country by a whole of government and whole of nation approach.
There is no denying that when resources and capabilities are appropriately put together, these accrue positive outcomes. Also, national security, as it is known, encompasses all elements of power and that it can never be guaranteed by a single factor no matter how dominating that might.
Military, political, and diplomatic at all have to get mobilized to cope with the challenges. It is a matter of great satisfaction that our top military leadership is fully aware of this very fact in order to achieve substantive results in the fight against terrorists and take it to a logical conclusion. According to the statement of the ISPR, the Corps Commander meeting resolved to shoulder its constitutionally mandated responsibilities with the support of the resilient people of Pakistan.
The entire nation is proud and greatly owes to the sacrifices rendered by our security forces in the war on terrorism. Those who sacrificed their lives for our better future should and will always stay in our memories as well as the future generations.
In fact, the unity demonstrated by the whole nation in the wake of the Army Public School attack in Peshawar needs to be replicated again to crush the terrorist elements which have resurfaced because of the soft policy of the previous government and enabled them to regroup and move even to settled areas.
Indeed this is not a time of doing politics or point scoring on such a sensitive issue, but we need to learn from our mistakes to ensure that these are not repeated for a more stable and peaceful environment.
As regards the whole of the government approach is concerned, it means that apart from the defence forces, the civilian agencies will also be engaged to counter the menace. Indeed through better coordination between them, better results can be achieved, and more importantly, it will also help build the anti-terrorism capacity of our civilian law enforcement agencies.
While a Whole of the Nation approach, which sometimes is also called a comprehensive approach, also involves other segments of the society, including religious scholars, academics and definitely the political circle. Given the current polarization, which has never been seen before, a whole-nation approach appears to be difficult to accomplish but definitely not impossible.
Over the last many decades, our country has seen many ups and downs, but it managed to come out of dire straits through collective efforts. At this point in time, too, we need to set aside our differences and act together to deal with serious national security issues and put the country in the right direction.
Our defence forces are fulfilling their responsibilities in an impeccable manner, but those faltering need to correct their course. Especially our political leadership will have to demonstrate greater maturity and sagacity to sail the country through these difficult times. Not only in words but also in their actions, they will have to prove that they keep the country’s interests supreme.
It is only through a whole-nation approach that an effective and robust counter-narrative against terrorism can be chalked out and implemented in letter and spirit. This approach must also involve steps that trigger economic activity and create income-generation opportunities for our youth so that terrorist outfits no longer find easy recruits.
