Every country maintains a defence force to secure itself from any surprise and known threats. It is self defeating to expect that countries hostile to us would waste an opportunity to inflict damage upon us and make us feel insecure and embarrassed. Why should we expect other country not to exploit the weaknesses in our system and the rampant corruption that have weakened every institution of the state? There is no such thing as a fool-proof security, but there is the fool’s concept of feeling secure without being vigilant.
The attack on PNS Mehran was an attack on a high security base used by all the three arms of our uniformed forces. It is the collective failure of our armed forces who have been caught unawares more than once.
There has been a series of security failures, lapses and breaches such as the attack on GHQ, the Abbottabad incident and now the PNS Mehran episode. Before the attack on PNS Mehran, there had been two attacks on naval buses, and therefore nobody can state they were caught unawares. In any case ,the law of probability states that which is possible, can happen and does happen, if steps are not taken to prevent such an occurrence by a 24/7/365 vigil.
Unfortunately, our armed forces have been a victim of a few soldiers of fortune, men like Musharraf and Zia-ul-Haq, who are instrumental in involving them in political intrigues and ever-widening corporate interests that have adversely affected their professional capabilities.
Mere acquiring of weapons and latest technology by an army cannot by itself protect a state, as was witnessed by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Let us for God’s sake accept our mistakes and prepare ourselves for any future security breaches or lapses.
MALIK TARIQ ALI
Lahore
