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IS it that the militants have brilliant strategists orchestrating their every move against the state of Pakistan or have they struck rich purely by chance?
Whatever the case, they have been left free to pursue their toxic agenda for so long that each time they strike it is to telling effect. In their attempt to pull Pakistan into the medieval age it would be a natural first step to isolate the country and separate it from the rest of the world.
It is in this context that their campaign against polio vaccination needs to be seen. No different should be the case of the recent attack on Karachi airport and the firing on a PIA aircraft as it came in to land at Peshawar airport.
The spurt in polio cases that followed the murderous attacks on polio workers by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan was followed by the World Health Organisation advisory requiring polio vaccination certificates for all travelling abroad from here after living or being here for more than four weeks.
If security is not tightened around all airports, the next incident could trigger a sterner response from foreign airlines.
Now with the start of the operation against the militants in North Waziristan and the consequent civilian displacement, there are renewed fears that the virus might forcefully raise its head in areas far and wide as the internally displaced are travelling to places as far away as Karachi in search of succour.
Admittedly, the government says that those being registered, for example, in Sindh are being vaccinated against polio but given how porous the interprovincial borders are, it would not be an exaggeration to say some carriers will still get through. Hence the need for enhanced vigilance.
The continued discovery of polio cases and the traces of virus from all over the country were being dealt with and the authorities were trying hard to keep the threat in check, also keeping the possibly devastating international repercussions in mind, when the Karachi airport attack happened.
It is in the nature of news that attacks on civil aviation targets are very dramatic and arouse huge interest: in this day and age so many people fly that a connection between an attack on an airport or an aircraft and most of the media users is immediately established.
And why wouldn’t there be a connection? Most of us use airports and planes. Any threat to either appears to be a test of our own vulnerability. Before you draw misleading conclusions, this isn’t an attempt to play psychologist as I have no such pretensions.
What is being attempted here is an explanation of why the media attaches significance to such attacks and threats and also why audiences are held captive by the episode while it lasts. Only a conclusion, a resolution would shift the focus of media users.
We all know over the years a number of Western and other foreign airlines have scratched off Pakistan from their schedules. Our link with the outside world is now mostly kept intact by our limping national flag carrier and Gulf-based airlines.
Even if the presence of a Gulf-based carrier’s aircraft on the tarmac with a heavy passenger load was coincidental as the Karachi airport attackers launched their assault, with one passenger live-tweeting to the world the unfolding nightmare, it couldn’t have provided an iota of comfort to passengers and airlines planning flights to Pakistan.
Therefore, it was no surprise after this week’s firing (which claimed one life) on a PIA plane on its final approach to land in Peshawar, that the Gulf-based airline with the most frequent flights to multiple destinations in Pakistan suspended its flights to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa capital
If security is not tightened quickly around all airports in the country one fears the next incident could trigger a sterner response from foreign airlines. Of course, their motives in coming here aren’t altruistic but the concerns for the safety of their staff and assets could far outweigh the profits from lucrative, yet potentially hazardous, routes.
Newspaper reports do offer grounds for optimism. A report in last Thursday’s Dawn said the director-general of Rangers inspected measures in place at the Karachi airport and ordered the construction of watch towers inside and outside the perimeter to better observe the area from a vantage point.
This, one can be sure, was one among many steps taken to bolster security at the country’s busiest international airport. Equally important would be to remove the rubble of the destroyed part of the burned cargo terminal. It presents a haunting image to passengers looking out of the windows of taxiing aircraft.
A news report from Rawalpindi suggested that the ISI and police picked up a militant belonging to an organisation which was once known for its close ties with the country’s security establishment. There can be no better news than the realisation that there are no ‘good’ Taliban or their like.
Any non-state actor who takes up arms against the Pakistani state or uses our soil as a launching pad to target other countries should never have been acceptable. But now that the militant is striving to isolate the country from the global community he should face the full wrath of the state and surrender or be crushed.
It isn’t as if we have rich pickings of options before us. With the government focusing on the economy it was shocking to hear an advertising executive saying that he saw advertiser (investor) confidence plummet post the Karachi airport attack.
“We have had to deal with very shaky big business as, unlike the patchy law and order situation in the country already factored in by them, the Karachi airport attacks spooked big money spenders like nothing else. I hope there is no repeat of that,” he said.
All one can say is that the militants must not and cannot be allowed to succeed.
The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
Published in Dawn, June 28th , 2014
