Plugging loopholes
The news of Awais Ali Shah’s recovery was conveyed to CJ Sindh High Court by the COAS himself at 3am on Tuesday. The CJ gave all credit to the army for securing the release of his son. The details of the operation were presented before the media by DG ISPR. Shah returned home within a month while the sons of Salman Taseer and Yousuf Raza Gilani took respectively four and a half and three years to gain their freedom. There were fears that the high profile victim might be used as a bargaining chip, creating problems for the establishment. A failure to recover him would have also demoralised the judiciary. The security agencies therefore deserve unstinted praise for securing his release.
That despite Operation Zarb-e-Azb and the ongoing combing operation the kidnappers managed to take Shah to the borders of the tribal area, crossing two provinces, raises questions about the efficacy of the security agencies and those manning several posts on the way. It is disturbing that the TTP still has helpers and facilitators who sheltered the kidnappers for nearly a month. The episode indicates that despite the army’s successes in the tribal agencies much more needs to be done before one can claim that the backbone of the terrorist networks has been broken.
Shah was kidnapped from Karachi in broad daylight. Despite receiving timely information, police moved extremely slowly. Days after the kidnapping the provincial police chief claimed that the victim was still being kept inside the city. The police and Rangers failed to stop the kidnappers from removing Shah from the city.
Arresting criminals is not the responsibility of the army. It goes to the discredit of the civilian government that it has handed over this responsibility also to the army by default. The government had undertaken to set up NACTA more than two years back. The interior minister has singularly failed to hold even a single meeting of its governing body so far. Had NACTA been activated, the announcement of the release would have come from the interior ministry rather than ISPR.