Daily Times

Sir: Ever since General Zia and his military junta resorted to using state funds and power to engineer the political structure of this country, the people of Pakistan have suffered untold miseries, death, torture, rise in crimes and abuse. General Zia encouraged the growth of ethnic politics, sectarian strife and all sorts of regional divides so that no unified political opposition could emerge against his illegitimate rule. He deliberately involved this country in the Afghan war, which benefited him and a few other generals who overnight went from rags to riches by pilfering unaccounted billions poured in by the CIA to fund this guerrilla war and tons of weapons that were routed through Pakistan for those fighting the Soviet Union.

It was because of General Zia that Karachi, once a peaceful city, became hostage to an ethnic group that resorted to the use of violence to assert its territorial control. Years of criminal overlooking by the state to hold accountable these criminals emboldened them to expand their illegitimate activities and during the Musharraf era, those actions became so lucrative that target killing, extortion and kidnapping for ransom became a huge business in the battle for turf. Over 180 police officers who dared to challenge these criminals were eliminated through target killings while the state displayed impotence and not a single criminal was prosecuted, with the net result that these criminals have become uncontrollable. In the past four years, this lucrative criminal bonanza induced other armed gangs of major political parties to have their share of tax-free loot. Encouraged by the crime-friendly environment, terrorists such as members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have now moved to raise funds, emulating the organised criminal moneymaking machine being run successfully by Karachi’s political stakeholders. Had the state invested in education, numerous madrassahs would not have emerged to fill the void. A few of them are nurseries for breeding these miscreants and today pose a huge threat to national security. The feudal, political, military and bureaucratic elite that has misruled us for years is responsible for creating this environment.

MALIK T ALI

Lahore