ISPR Statement and Repercussions for Pashtun

In a country where exceedingly injurious actions against the constitution and the body politic of the state are not only carried out regularly  but also find easily digestible justifications, it shouldn’t be considered the least out of place to hear dissident voices rise when political authority either overarches into forbidden territory or proposes multiplicity of approaches to issues. That’s how the recent commotion between the military and political elite has surfaced once again as per tradition mentioned afore. And it’s not going to settle anywhere soon. However, it is worthwhile to understand that everyday is not a Sunday and that it’s not possible to keep 200 million people misinformed for ever.

While the defense establishment has done a commendable job in checking insurgency in FATA, however, it’s not out of place to inquire why the flow of weaponry and narcotics from Afghanistan to KPK remained unchecked for two decades but the flow of money to KP has effectively been stopped since the start of international reconstruction effort in Afghanistan. The lion’s share in exports to Afghanistan go to Punjab today while it was the Pashtun who bore the brunt of accommodating the larger half of over 3 million Afghan refugees for over three decades. Is it going to be the destiny of minority communities in Pakistan for ever that they should be used as the scapegoat for the benefit of the dominant majority? Or would the defense establishment go the extra mile to ensure that KP and FATA are given commensurate share in development.

Like everything else in KP and Baluchistan, it is also the job of defense establishment to ensure that the people be given opportunities of education, health and development at par with the test of the country. After all it was General Douglas MacArthur who not only pulled the Japanese people out of post war inertia but also enabled the country to reform its economy and culture and become a world leader in manufacturing and human development.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITH THE PASHTUN TIMES