Who is not a saholatkar?

Someone may question why Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would himself oversee the enquiry to determine how come a violent mob entered Islamabad despite a strong presence of around 4,000 police and Rangers personnel. Apparently, he seems not content with the enquiry being conducted by Islamabad administration and federal interior ministry. It’s a valid question every sensible man/woman in Pakistan is asking – why the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and other agencies reports were ignored wherein government was warned of exactly what’s happening in Islamabad at the moment. Police and Rangers didn’t offer any resistance and permitted the mob to reach up till D Chowk while destroying en route whatever was there. The so-called containers placed to stop the mob were empty; easily put aside by protestors (no need for a crane as earlier used during Imran-Qadri dharna).

Things are crystal clear — we are fighting a half-hearted war against terrorism wherein an influential part of our society, be it LEAs, bureaucracy, politicians, clergy, media, educationists, students and businessmen, are siding with religious extremists of their respective sects. Even after losing more than 60,000 precious lives, we are building our narrative on half-truth; no one can help us.

National Action Plan (NAP) introduced new vocabulary, now being widely used – saholatkar, the facilitators of terrorists. After what happened in Lahore on March 27 wherein apparently a madrassa teacher of certain sect blew himself to kill and maim countless people including toddlers and children, and on same day another sectarian group was permitted to lay a siege around the country’ capital — we don’t need to do much effort to look for saholatkars – they are all around us. In fact, we have moved to the next stage — who is not a saholatkar?

MASOOD KHAN

Jubail, Saudi Arabia