KARACHI: In a thinly veiled reference to the government’s decision to unban Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday said that appeasement of one group might have serious repercussions as other sectarian outfits would also demand the same gesture.

       “Therefore, a nationwide consensus is required by all the stakeholders to deal with these home-grown problems,” he said while talking to a 60-member delegation of the National Security Workshop of National Defence University here at CM House.

       He said that in recent times, some extremist parties and other sectarian organisations had emerged as a product of post-9/11 narratives, wherein Sufi Islam was promoted to counter the extremist ideologies of Al Qaeda and its allied groups.

       “Now the range of sectarian conflict has scaled up, a banned and now ‘unbanned’ [party] has challenged the writ of the state in recent times,” he added.

       Also check: Govt revokes TLP's proscribed status

       He said that the national security was understood as strengthening military and other law enforcement agencies against external aggression and internal threats. “The concept of national security has evolved overtime to include food security, health security, energy security and environment security and others.”

       He referred to the 5-Es — Employment, Education, Energy, Environment and Equality — of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto for prosperous future of the country in 2008.

       ‘Security challenges’

       Mr Shah said that the post-9/11 biggest threat that Pakistan had faced was from terrorism and extremism.

       He said like other parts of the country Sindh was no more immune to the security challenges such as the militant Islamic State group (IS), extremism among religious/sectarian subsets, terrorism, narcotics trade, arms proliferation and illegal Immigrants.

       He said like other provinces, Sindh had also witnessed sectarian conflicts.

       He said that mob violence, intolerance, vigilante justice towards religious minorities was a consistent threat to peace and order in the society.

       In this context, he said appeasement of one group might have serious repercussions.

       The CM said that the overall budget of the Sindh police for current financial year was Rs106 billion. He added that the performance of the police had improved considerably.

       “Due to corrective measures and day-to-day targeted search operations, the situation with regard to targeted killing in Karachi has improved,” he added.

       He said that Karachi was at number six in the World Crime Index in 2014 and now it had improved to 122 in 2021.

       Mr Shah said that he had undertaken a large number of development works. “After constructing Sharea Faisal, Tariq Road, University Road and various underpasses and flyovers we have constructed a road to Manora,” he said and added it would attract tourism and improve image of the city.

       The chief minister said that his government was working on development of road infrastructure especially in Katcha areas, establishment of special protection unit for minority worship places, Karachi Safe City Project, Forensic Science Laboratory Project, rehabilitation centres for drug addicts, housing schemes for police officers, installation of tracker device in motorbikes and provision of mini-scanners to the provincial police.

       The CM presented a shield to the NDU delegation head Major General Ehsan Mehmood who also presented him a memento of his institution.

       The programme was also attended by provincial ministers Imtiaz Shaikh and Nasir Shah, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah and others.

       Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2021