TACKLING TERRORISM
LIVING WITH TERRORISM: AN ACCOUNT OF A NATION’S PAIN
Terrorism is a global problem; but no country is paying a higher price than Pakistan where daily attacks kill dozen of innocent citizens and threaten the country’s institutions, including its democratic governments, says a prominent Pakistani Parliamentarian. Some in Pakistan are contributing to the threat; but rather than blaming Pakistan for terrorism, she calls for global support for the country and its people as they fight a threat which they did not create.
Dr Nafisa Shah, MNA, in Islamabad. Dr Shah has been Member of the Pakistan National Assembly for the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians since 2007. A journalist and social anthropologist, she is the Chairperson of Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Development. She is also the Vice-Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
On 10 January, 120 innocent people were killed in terrorist attacks across Pakistan, three successive attacks in Quetta and one in Swat. Among those killed in Quetta were journalists, cameramen, daily wagers and breadwinners of families as well as the law enforcement personnel responding to the attacks. The second attack targeted the very rescue workers and law enforcement officers who came to protect the people.
A daily onslaught This was a numbing tragedy, but was not simply a case of an isolated day when something awful happened. Such days, when hundreds of innocent lives are lost in bloody attacks, have become part of the norm. Not a day passes when we do not hear and see tragedies unfold with deaths of innocent citizens with the entire emergency machinery – ambulances, fire fighters, emergency workers, hospitals – severely challenged in the process.
14 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue One
These explosions and attacks in
our midst affect not only our unstable border regions but all parts of the country. They take place in large cities, in congested places, in rural areas, anywhere and at anytime. And destroy all in their wake, killing young and old, men and women, leaders and workers alike. Terrorists’ enemies include everyone: religious minorities, students, teachers, health workers, politicians and just anyone who stands for a modern and progressive Pakistan. About a month back, one of the
most charismatic politicians of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and senior Minister in the provincial cabinet, Hon. Bashir Bilour, MPA, was killed in Peshawar, succumbing to a suicide attack. In 2008, we had lost Pakistan’s best icon of democratic struggle, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, again in a suicide bombing and Governor Punjab Hon. Salman Taseer and the Minister for Minorities Hon. Shahbaz Bhatti, MP, became victims of extremism, as assassins targeted
Dr Nafisa Shah, MNA
them for their progressive views. My country is witnessing one
of the most traumatic periods in its history and going through the pain that no other nation is experiencing in the contemporary world. In fact, if any nation is the victim of terrorism, it is the Pakistan of today. Yet, there seems to be little understanding and empathy from the international community for the suffering of our people.
All the truths The present-day rhetoric on
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