Tragedies abound in Pakistan

Tragedies are abound in Pakistan, but the tragedy that struck 145 people including 132 students of the Army Public School Peshawar on December 16, 2014, indeed has no parallel in the country’s history. Never ever before, anywhere in the world, has such a huge number of innocent children been ruthlessly killed.

On the morning of December 16, 2014, when the shocking news of the dastardly terror attack on the Army Public School Peshawar spread like wild fire across the length and breadth of the country, it tore the hearts and sent tears rolling down the cheeks of not only the aggrieved parents of the children who lost their valuable lives in the attack but every parent across the world who adore their children from the core of their hearts.

What happened was truly very sad. What happened is condemnable in the strongest terms. However, the good that this tragic incident has done is that it has brought people belonging to every segment of the Pakistani society on one platform. More importantly, the Peshawar school tragedy has brought all the political groups, the government in saddles and the Army of the country on the same page vis-a-vis the issue of terrorism. It is unfortunate though that the convergence of these groups have come at a very high price; at the cost of the lives of 132 nascent and adorable children and 13 other equally valuable lives.

World leaders, including the US President and UN Chief, profoundly condemned the dastardly attack of the militant group which claimed to have undertaken the brutal massacre of the innocent students and others at the Army Public School Peshawar on December 16, 2014. On the other hand people from all walks of life in the country, including all major political parties and public representatives, despite all their political differences, converged on one platform and vociferously expressed their utmost indignation over ruthless killing of the students and staff of the Peshawar school. Pakistan’s Army also didn’t lag behind. It not only sternly slated the act of brutality committed by the perpetrators of the heinous crime but also vowed to root out terrorism from the soil of Pakistan, once and for all.

The aftermath of the Peshawar carnage has given birth to the creation of military courts with the consensus of all political parties, barring of course a few exceptions. The National Assembly and the Senate of Pakistan unanimously passed the ‘21st Constitutional Amendment Bill 2015’, on January 6, 2015, by more than two-third majority, thus paving way for the constitution of military courts to conduct speedy trial of the terrorists. Both the houses also cleared the ‘Pakistan Army Act, 1952 (Amendment) Bill, 2015’ extending the jurisdiction of military courts to try terrorists. A decision more befitting to deal with the disgraceful menace of terrorism couldn’t perhaps have been taken. One now only hopes and prays that the vital decision taken to establish military courts to deal with the terrorists bears desirable results, and Pakistan is rid of the menace of terrorism for all times to come.

M FAZAL ELAHI

Islamabad