Corruption, crime and terrorism

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This is reference to reports about crackdown by law enforcement agencies, Rangers and sensitive agencies upon nexus of crime, corruption and terrorism, which are interlinked. Given enormity of benefits which this trillion-rupee criminal industry reaps, having penetrated almost every segment of society, including political elite and paid bureaucracy, it must be put down with an iron hand, otherwise it would destroy us economically and threaten our national security and very survival. Thousands of our soldiers and citizens who offered supreme sacrifice would have died in vain if Pakistan and its institutions fail to restore rule of law and effectively eliminate private armed militias of criminals, terrorists or groups exploiting religion.

The channels deployed by corrupt paid public servants and their political benefactors for transferring black money are the same as used by terrorists and it is this commonality of greed dominated corruption which has blinded state funded security and intelligence apparatus from doing what they were paid to do. If this warrants arrest of Dr Asim, members of MQM or even PML-N or other political parties and few rotten eggs within our paid establishment, then so be it.

Between 2010 to 2012 corrupt executives of CAA pocketed billions paid by non-scheduled airlines as landing and parking fee at Karachi Airport, by not documenting their operations, totally unbothered that this loophole might have been used by terrorists for movement of explosives, channel for money laundering and facilitating their operatives to commit subversive activities and flee this country. If $25 billion could be siphoned out of Pakistan for investment in Dubai real estate through unofficial channels, then the same route could have been exploited by terrorists.

A sovereign state that cannot protect government owned land from being illegally occupied by mafia and sold to citizens is a state that is bound to disintegrate and fall victim to disorder. Public amenity plots and subsidised land on the periphery of big cities earmarked for farms in official records in Karachi and even Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar etc, have disappeared and been sold as commercial projects by powerful public office holders and their land mafia partners. Any public office holder, elected or paid, is not authorised to allocate public amenity plots for any other purpose, yet scams like Kidney Hill Park have happened and nobody punished.

MALIK TARIQ

Lahore