The biggest threat to our internal security is the diversion of those assigned to protect us from their basic task. Pakistan’s khaki establishment must decide whether security of citizens of Pakistan is the objective or their priority is the welfare and housing projects of its elite officers.
All major airports at Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Multan and Islamabad have had residences constructed within the no-construction zone around all these airports posing a threat to safety of airline passengers. Every time one of these jumbo aircraft takes off, lives of over 400 passengers is being jeopardised because of the criminal greed of few.
The construction of new town houses such as the Askari project, right on the fence of the new Allama Iqbal International Airport at Lahore, jeopardises the security of every Pakistani citizen and foreigner who travel by airlines that take off and land within a stone’s throw away from these residences.
There are rules made by ICAO which prohibit such construction within a sterile zone that extends from 5km to 10km around airport periphery. This rule has been deliberately and criminally violated by both the Cantonment Board and CAA Pakistan.
Taking cue from this unauthorised construction, private residential complexes have started construction near Lahore airport new terminal area within the 5 Km corridor next to the Metro supermarket. The CAA Pakistan, which has been monopolised by retired uniformed officers is guilty because its officials stood to gain from such residential welfare projects.
Is security of the state and its citizens to be compromised, so that welfare housing projects can be built near airports, because they have an attractive real estate value? Have we not learnt any lessons from the security lapses at Faisal Air Base and PNS Mehran because of the proximity of residential projects that have mushroomed there with permission of cantonment boards dominated by retired and serving khakis.
SHAHZAD KHALIL
Sialkot
