PESHAWAR, Aug 19: The lawmakers in provincial assembly on Tuesday proposed to the government to constitute a special house committee on law and order, which should visit violence-hit areas, meet people and investigate the causes of lawlessness.
Deputy Speaker Kushdil Khan, who was presiding over the session, asked Khalid Raza Zakori to initiate a debate on the rising lawlessness in the province. Mr Zakori said it was not a simple issue rather a complex problem being faced by the entire country. “We are fighting a war against many forces. It is not a matter of ordinary lawlessness. Our enemies treat us like a people living on frontier,” he added. He said that frontier was no name for a province.
He congratulated the nation for getting riddance of a dictator, who according to him destroyed each and every institution during his nine years oppressive rule. He hoped that after the departure of Pervez Musharraf, the fledgling democratic system would take roots and the political leadership would work for the welfare of the people. He said the General (retired) Musharraf would consider politicians as saleable commodities but it were politicians, who had sent him home.
NWFP Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Barrister Arshad Abdullah said the matter had slipped out of the intelligence operators’ hands, who were the creators of these so-called militants. He claimed that all kinds of spies had organised and funded them but now they had become a Frankenstein’s monster.
Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz also proposed to the speaker to constitute a special house committee, which should look into the violence and compile a report on it. He asked the lawmakers to visit violence-hit areas and meet the residents, who were victims of hooliganism, lawlessness and rough justice of self-styled crusaders.
He also lashed out at Mr Musharraf and termed him a source of instability and terrorism in the country. After the resignation of the dictator, he said, things would return to their normal course. “The democracy will flourish and peace will return to the affected areas,” he added.
Sikandar Sherpao of the Pakistan People’s Party-Sherapo regretted that neither chief minister, who was chief executive of the province, nor heads of the law enforcement agencies were present in the house to listen to the MPAs, speaking on an important issue. He said it was a serious matter, which involved different groups of militants running their own parallel administration in different areas. He asked the government to separate terrorism from the ordinary and simple incidents of lawlessness and take effective measures to contain the spread of militancy.
He criticised the conflicting measures of the government, saying on the one hand it was engaged in peace negotiations with the militants, while on the other hand it had launched an operation against them. He said the general people had suffered a lot from the half-quail and half-partridge policy of the government. He said it needed a statesmanship to tackle the militancy-related issues. Mere use of force was not a permanent solution to the growing menace, destroying towns and valleys alike, he added.