The Balochistan insurgency has intensified with a widening outreach, with its ferocious militia - the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) – attacking targets from the extreme western town of Noshki to Winder at a small distance from Karachi.  More vicious than BLA have been the religious terrorists of Tehrik e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and IS or the Islamic State. They wreaked havoc in the outskirts of Quetta recently attacking the resort valley of Hanna Orak and the police outpost in the prohibited area of Mangi dam killing over 40 police personnel and citizens. Khaiber Pakhtunkhwa KPK faces serious security challenges in its regions adjacent to the previous Federally Administered Tribal Agencies, posed by the TTP. 

The federal harmony has been seriously overshadowed by the growing controversies among the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan over irrigation waters caused by the repeated violation of the water accords of 1991 by the upper riparian Punjab, building controversial canals and water channels, and exacerbated by the indecision of the Council of Common Interests for intervention in the mattes falling within its purview, though it has to meet at least once in ninety days, to review the complaints of the federal provinces.  

The continuing ailment of the economy, notwithstanding huge internal and external loans taken during the past four years, and the stubbornly tenacious political polarization with the systematic erosion of the opposition’s role, has greatly restrained our capacity for sovereign decisions in internal and external matters confronting us in the fast expanding Middle East War. The Middle Eastern situation, chronically underlined by unending intrigues, rivalries, competition and confrontations, dictates us to follow a cautious approach without taking sides. Diplomacy is the art of conveying one’s views in the most inoffensive language.     

This paints a gloomy picture of the national security. The decades-long wrong policy decisions, and the violation........

© The Friday Times