Provide security to those in the line of fire
The TTP is zeroing in on three political parties. While the MQM and the ANP have lost one candidate each, three belonging to the latter have sustained injuries in terrorist attacks. Dozens of ANP’s activists have died in the unending TTP offensive against the party. Last week theANP candidate for NA-4 Arbab Ayub Jan survived by the skin of his teeth, while on Wednesday it was the turn of Asfandyar Wali’s election campaign coordinator Farooq Khan. On Tuesday 17 persons were killed when the TTP attacked the ANP candidate Haroon Bilour. The same day a grenade was thrown at the house of PPP’s nominee for NA-1 in Peshawar. In Balochistan at least four people died, including Sanaullah Zehri’s son, brother and nephew, when a blast targeted his convoy. Zehri was proceeding to attend an election related gathering,
One simply fails to understand why the security provided to the leaders of the three parties was withdrawn despite the threats to their lives. Asfasndyar Wali and Sen. Zahid Khan have questioned the motive behind what he considers a studied negligence. The ANP chief has called it a conspiracy against the party. The MQM supremo has gone a step further. He maintains that this is a part of a well thought out plan to keep all liberal forces out of the assemblies and facilitate the right-wing extremists. Taking note of the militants’ sparing Punjab while making it increasingly difficult to continue the election campaign in other provinces, he has asked whether those who matter wanted to hold elections only in Punjab or in the entire country. He has asked the ECP if it wanted Pakistan to be limited to Punjab only and if so other provinces would be forced to follow their own path according to their inclinations. Few would disagree that as far as Karachi is concerned the alliance that ruled Sindh was itself responsible for the deterioration of law and order in the city. This is all the more true about the MQM which remained in power for 10 years straight. This however cannot be argued against the ANP’s KP administration which fully supported the campaign to establish the writ of the state in Swat and its leaders stood up to the threats posed by the TTP for five years.
The ECP has thrown the ball into the caretakers’ court. The KP chief minister has shifted the responsibility to the country’s political parties by issuing a call for the APC. This amounts to abnegating his responsibilities as a caretaker CM. Unless immediate measures are taken, the parties under attack might be forced to demand the postponement of the polls or worse still withdraw from the elections. This would call into question the genuineness of the polls. There is a need under the circumstances for the caretakers at the center and the provinces to take firm measures to ensure the safety of all participants in the line of fire.