Abdullah Mustafvi
Pakistan’s historic struggle against terrorism is a one such reality which is hard to deny. Remarkable sacrifices of the nation and unanimous stance of civil-military leadership in this complicated war eventually brought a significant era of stability and peace all over the country. As a whole, world positively acknowledges this unique aspect of Pakistan. A country with weak economy, inefficient LEAs, dysfunctional bureaucratic setup and relatively turbulent political environment stood fast against the menace of terrorism and so far the balance sheet reflects a success. This success is the outcome of our national resolve. Highly challenging war against terrorism took more than 60,000 lives of innocent citizens including LEAs and armed forces. Undoubtedly, armed forces and premier intelligence agency ISI proved a real national asset in war against terror. Though, a strong realization of this fact exists domestically and internationally but as it is said that exceptions are always there. So in this case too we have few exceptions. There is a popular view that Pakistan is a victim of global players’ dirty gambling. Religious extremism, sectarian violence and linguistic based separatists/militants have undeniable foreign connections vis-à-vis supply lines. Pakistan has started eliminating these dark elements successfully. This reality is not acceptable to a very limited but influential segment of global community which I referred as an exception to the commonly existing perspective. First, in this list we have our traditional rival India which blames Pakistan for sponsoring X-border terrorism. Armed forces and ISI is India’s prime target . Obviously any institution striving for stability and security of Pakistan should logically surface at top of the Indian target list. At regional level, we also have another exception, the puppet government of Afghanistan. Her strings are in the hands of America and India is playing the role of governess. Third exception is USA which at the moment is controlling the affairs in Afghanistan and has recently inked an unprecedented military agreement with India which carry deep implications on China. These three exceptions unanimously blame Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism. America is asking Pakistan to act against Haqani network. Surprisingly, why USA has remained unsuccessful in tackling this network which primarily act at Afghan soil. This blame game has turned into a vigorous campaign and started generating a psychological rhetoric at a crucial stage of Zarb e Azab which can rightly be termed as the life saving survival act for the nation. Simultaneously, Indian sponsored terrorist networks have raised a bloody wave of destruction in the country. So far nation stands fast against these forces of terror. Civil and military leadership has rightly understood the need of hour and positive results await ahead. Unfortunately, the list of exceptions do not finish at count of three with India, Afghanistan and USA. There is fourth exception too and it exists very much in our society; a bunch of ‘Self Styled’ intellectuals, columnists, anchors or analysts damaging the core interest of Pakistan. A story published in Daily DAWN titled “Act against militants or face international isolation- civilians tell military” by one of paper’s famous reporter on front page is a sufficient proof of the existence of fourth exception in our media. It was articulated to radiate few highly venomous impressions. One, Pakistan is sponsoring terrorist networks through ISI. Two, Civil-Military relationships are neither smooth nor they stand united on one page. Three, terrorism is home grown problem of Pakistan. Fourth, discredit the success of Zarb-e-Azab. Surprisingly, this story published on the front page of paper violates the established norms and customs of responsible journalism. Columnist turned reporter, narrated the events of a top level official meeting which he termed ‘undisclosed’ in first paragraph but subsequently kept fictionalizing the minutes having no authentic quotable source. He claimed openly that participants of the meeting though divulged the information but none of them is ready to own the contents. What a journalism! Should we call it a death of journalistic credibility or extreme of fabrication and fact twisting. It is no ordinary misreporting. The story has a straight objective specially once we focus at the timing. It supplements the Indo-USA charge sheet on Pakistan. So it damages Pak core interest by striking at the national stance offered in response to deadly terror sponsoring allegations. Credibility of writer and paper met a serious blow back once it received three clear worded rebuttals from PM house, Ministry of information and Punjab CM house spokespersons. The story was unanimously graded incorrect and undeniably, twisted. Paper displayed significant professional dishonesty by publishing these rebuttals at an inconspicuous space at page 5. It is obvious that Indo- USA nexus is poised against Pak-China cooperation and using the rein of terror sponsoring allegations to force Pakistan for reversing the ties with China. Unfortunately, ‘self styled’ biased intellectuals always serve the purpose of global coercive forces by proliferating their twisted themes in target countries. It is unfair, unjustified and unbearable. Mere clarification from ruling quarters is not enough. Such mala fide tendencies are required to be dealt with firm legal response. Pakistan can not afford chaos , confusion and fabricated psychological degradation at a critical stage of ongoing war against terror. I am sure all sane persons who read the twisted story on 6th morning titled as an ‘Exclusive’ piece would agree with this spontaneous comment that ‘It was a Dawn of Shameless Fabrication’.
