Who is looking after the Punjab Home Department?

Local units of Ahrar still thrive in Punjab

Terrorists have struck Lahore for a second time within less than eight weeks, killing four military personnel and two civilians detailed for Census duties. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has immediately held Jamaat-ul-Ahrar responsible for the attack. He was also quick to remind the public that those who planned the attack were living in Kunnar and Nangarhar across the Durand Line. The implication was that the total and complete responsibility for the killings was on the Afghan government which had failed to take action against the group. But how does this exonerate the Punjab government?

The plan could not have been executed without the help of the local networks of the Ahrar which provided boarding and lodging to the terrorist, procured for him the suicide belt and guided him to the chosen destination. Someone from the local units of the Ahrar, which continue to thrive in Punjab, must have made a recce of the area and decided when and where to attack the van taking the military personnel. The tragic incident underlines the abject failure of the Punjab government which was supposed to locate and neutralise the terrorists’ facilitators and sleeper cells.

How come Punjab is the only province in the country without a full-time Home Minister since the death of Shujaa Khanzada in a terrorist attack on 16 August 2015? This despite the fact that some of the most lethal terrorist groups had originated from the province which was the only province mentioned in the National Action Plan (NAP) as a place where there should be zero tolerance for terrorism. Punjab’s super chief minister who assigned to himself 8 ministries at the start of his present tenure is currently looking after the Home Department also. Lack of seriousness is indicated by the fact that early this year a special ministry was created to accommodate a crony who was handed over the department of counter terrorism. With Ch Nisar insisting that the provincial government had been duly informed about the attack, the onus is on the CM to explain the negligence.