Daily Times

Three of the ten most corrupt countries are also three of the least peaceful. The Global Terrorism Index 2015 did a study of the 15 year period between 2000-2014. In this period 25 percent terrorist attacks were held in Iraq, 14 percent in Pakistan and 12 percent in Afghanistan and it is not a coincident that the very same countries rank highest in corruption too. A terror attack needs a huge amount of “facilitation”. To sustain a terrorist organization massive funding is required that entails the construction of terrorist dens, the procurement of arms, weapons and bombs and hard cash to grease palms. Aside from paying upfront, you need logistics facilitation of moving from underground to overground, crossing borders, entering protected zones etc. Perhaps the most crucial facilitation that you require is organizational facilitation to get fake IDs, bribe supervisory controllers, infiltrate incompetent and indifferent institutions and plant your men incognito. While in the last 15 years, US against whom this so called war on terror was waged, has been largely unaffected by terror, Pakistan that had nothing to do with 9/11, has become an epicenter of violence. The difference is that we have a system that is like a corruptible file in software that will not work no matter what commands you subject it to. This file is infected with so many viruses that it makes any effort of sustainable peace in the country an easy target of political hacking.

The recent terror attacks that have cost 126 precious lives and injured many more have brought a frenzy of responses. There has been heightened security alerts, borders being sealed, suspects being arrested, and intelligence being sharpened. The immediate response by government include the typical statements on Afghanistan and Indian hands being behind these attacks. This may be true but a foreign hand can only be given access to the heart of the main cities if a local hand is acting as its terror guide. The local hand is the one that does the hand holding to facilitate the foreign hand into sending money, giving shelter and infiltrating through institutions and organizations to reach the target. This local hand discovers the weaknesses in the system and weaves through the decorum of greasing palms of needy and greedy hands in key facilitating points. After all terrorism is not cheap; a well-oiled and planned suicide mission can cost around Rs 4 million to execute.

The foreign funding business is an open secret. According to a report earlier presented to the Senate 23 seminaries in Sindh, Balochistan and KP had been receiving funding from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Kuwait and UAE. In that hearing they clearly stated that not a single seminary in Punjab received any funding from overseas. Later a disclosure was made by the special branch of Punjab police in a secret document submitted to Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and Privileges that 1000 seminaries in Punjab were also receiving funding.

These “generous” donors from Middle East have always funded many religious organizations historically and those beneficiary organizations in turn have dutifully promoted the school of thoughts that they have been paid for. The biggest way of sending this money has been through money laundering which is almost legal in Pakistan given the mushrooming of havala and hundi channels and a very weak Anti-money laundering Act 2010. This act has many times been sent to the assembly with no action on the Act. Can you imagine the members of assembly tightening a law that has made their own black money white? In a country where a model Ayyan Ali caught with half a million dollars of cash being taken to Dubai escapes the judicial system and then makes a sign of victory sitting in luxury class of a plane just depicts the ease of breaking through this system.

Once the money is safely in the accounts and a brainwashed mind is on remote control then comes the facilitation through the checkpoints. The local hand then exploits the low points of human capacity. The main target is the police. Here they may not just rely on cash dealings but look for apparently uniformed officers who may not be capable of identifying or combating the threat. Policemen are heroes and are tragic victims too. They get blown away by these deranged minds but it is also because many of them may not be fit for these jobs as their posting and transfer is subject to the whims and fancies of the higher ups who are political appointees. This institutional corruption is more devastating than financial corruption as it makes the local hand wade through these superficial check points and treat these men in uniform as sitting ducks. After the shameful exposé of money pouring out of Mushtaq Raisani’s house another cash outpouring was witnessed in Hyderabad, this time in the house of a police constable and his son who was also a constable. The initial amount estimate is Rs 4 billion which includes suitcases of cash, jewelry sets, 10 cars, documents of innumerable plots and benami accounts. The father after 30 years of service not having progressed beyond being a constable shows the level of competence. However we all know the lifestyles of many custom officers, police officers and tax officers. There lifestyles are funded by money for illicit actions and transactions. Imagine how easy it would be for a facilitator to deliver a stash of cash and get all secret information from him. Here lies the answer to the repeated question of why when the area was on red alert and supervised could somebody stroll through with tons of blasting devises unchecked.

A recent OECD study says that poor governance becomes the biggest facilitator of a terrorist. They enter the country incognito through back and black channels and use paid front men to act as their political shield. The minister of Interior has admitted that almost 250 “black sheep” existed at NADRA who were issuing faked ID cards but blamed the “parliamentarians” for breaking the rules of merit to appoint their loyalists. Similarly IG police Punjab recently admitted to the court that 8500 police officers had been awarded out of turn promotions. The IG Sindh recently regretted that when a political party was apprehended for its target killing and violence they targeted police officers and started killing them. Such news must be music to the ears of those who want to create terror and instability in the country. Raddul Fasaad is another great operation by the armed forces just as Zarb e Azb was. However the total eradication of terrorism is not possible if the indigenous fasaadis that lend their eager hands to foreign hands are not handcuffed across the political and institutional ranks, levels, and schools of thought.

The writer is a columnist and analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com