Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presided over the apex committee meeting in Peshawar to discuss the security situation after the deadly suicide attack in Malak Saad police line on 30 January killing more than 100 people, mostly cops.
While speaking to the forum Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated that the previous federal governments have given 417 billion rupees to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the NFC award since 2010, which was enough to have built more than ten safe cities, but the previous (PTI) government could not establish even a single one.
He also criticized PTI leadership for not attending the meeting even in the face of such tragedy while in the same breath; he called its security failure with a cliché terminology “Security laps”.
This, of course, is a security lapse but the onus of the tragedy shall not be put solely on the security establishment and one shall look into the political void as such elements manage to play on ambiguities and lack of a national narrative against terrorism.
This void was glaringly visible in the said meeting in which the biggest political party in the country was absent in the pretext of indecorous invitation by the second-tier leadership in the government.
Earlier senior leader of the PTI and ex CM Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mr. Parvez Khattak confirmed that an invitation to join the apex committee meeting have been extended by the government but that was an informal call from a friend Ayaz Sadiq, PMLN senior leader and ex speaker in the National Assembly.
He maintained that the government should have invited his Chairman Imran Khan, as without his permission no PTI leader shall join any such meeting. Unfortunately, Prime Minister also resorted to use the highest security forum in the province in a dire security situation for settling political scores and fired many rounds towards its political opponent Imran Khan and his party PTI.
During his speech, he invited PTI Chairman Imran Khan to join national debate on terrorism in a Multi Party Conference (MPC) in Islamabad on 7 January but we are waiting and yet to see any response at least until the writing of this piece.
How big are the political differences and how different or better is one against the other that they are not shaking hands or sitting together to steer the nation out of a turbulent situation.
Incidents like Army Public School, suicide bombing inside police lines and other such attacks are not just security laps as how one can stop a motivated attacker who has decided to kill him/herself.
This indeed is a political laps and if the political and religious leadership along with other segments of the society failed to establish a national narrative against terrorism and extremist mindset any time soon then I am afraid we yet to see the worse.