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Tony Blair's Wise Decision To
Call International Conference on Terrorism
Right after 7/7 Pakistan Weekly suggested,
United Nations should call an international conference on
terrorism and try to determine the real reasons of terrorism and
take necessary steps to end terrorism. Our suggestions included
an international campaign against governments that support such
governments which fan terrorism in their own territories and
across their borders in other countries. UN has not moved on
this front, but UK Prime Minister has wisely decided to carry
the ball and call such conference.
However, here is the problem with Prime
Minister Tony Blair’s initiative. He has started talking about
this conference by calling general Musharraf—a wrong guy to talk
about such conference to begin with.
General Musharraf has time and again proved
that he is not sincere enough in eliminating terrorism in his
own country and around the globe.
Here is the test case.
Three former Pakistan Army generals, one of
them former COAS, stated on ARY television that General
Musharraf’s current Information Minister has been running
terrorist training camp in Islamabad’s vicinity. Former prime
minister Mian Nawaz Sharif closed his terrorist training camp
when former COAS, Mirza Aslam Beg, informed him about the camp.
The continuity of alleged Information
Minister’s job after these allegations shows General Musharraf’s
lack of sincerity about his commitment with war against terrorism. If
General Musharraf were sincere about eliminating terrorism he
would have immediately removed the alleged Information Minister
form his job and start an inquiry about him. Since General
Musharraf is not interested in eliminating terrorism, and
Pakistan Weekly has stressed this point time and again, he did
not take any action against his Information Minister.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush
need to understand that terrorism problem is much deeper in
Pakistan than General Musharraf’s eyewash actions taken against
terrorists.
The religious groups carrying terrorist acts
in Pakistan and around the globe were created by ISI. The list
includes all those Pakistan based organizations which were
blacklisted by the US government. After US government
blacklisted them, General Musharraf also banned them in
Pakistan, but they remained operative under different names.
As a matter of fact, they are still continuing their criminal activities under different
names. General Musharraf didn’t do enough to disband them. Why?
Because, ISI, a government within government, is still
interested in keeping them operative and the General doesn't
have control over ISI.
If General Musharraf is sincere to end
terrorism, and before Prime Minister Tony Blair calls an
international conference on terrorism, General Musharraf should,
and Prime Minister Tony Blair should rightfully demand, disband
ISI or all those cells of ISI which created and operate these groups.
Terrorism is a serious issue. Common people
around the globe are losing their lives because of the bloody
activities of terrorist groups. The people who died in gory
events of 9/11, 7/7 Bali or Turkey were common folks and they
lost their lives because terrorists picked those sites for
committing such heinous crimes.
Prime Minister Tony Blair Must hold
international conference on terrorism, but we also need someone
in Pakistan who is democratically elected, who seriously
believes in rule of law, and who has legal and moral
authority along with genuine commitment to eliminate terrorism.
A general who illegally took over Pakistan, who doesn’t believe
in rule of law, and who is more interested in preserving
terrorists instead of eliminating them may not be of much
help.
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