Daily Times

Sir: The army has now been deputed to help polio vaccination programmes in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. They are already in the lead delivering relief to the famine-hit areas of Thar. They are also expected to maintain security and if necessary engage the Taliban, all while carrying our their national duty of securing the western and eastern borders. Unfortunately the army is overstretched and it is because of the incompetence and corruption of the elected provincial governments. Their incompetence is in fact the greatest threat to democracy in the country because the army has to constantly step in to save their skins whenever anything happens. Eventually they end up feeling that they may as well step in to run the country since the politicians are doing nothing other than lining their pockets. Most Pakistanis now understand that military dictatorship is eventually more harmful to the country, and even the army understands this. But one cannot criticise the army, blame it for interfering in politics and then expect it to haul one off the coals as well. The government in the Centre needs to get its act together vis-a-vis the Taliban, while the provincial governments need to actually govern. Given the army’s current dispensation, it is not a coup we need to worry about, but the demise of Pakistan as a unified and functioning state and the imposition of barbaric rules and laws that will make this country a hell for anyone who is not a Taliban.

ZULFIQAR CHAUDHRY

Islamabad