[DAWN] IS it that the gunnies have brilliant strategists orchestrating their every move against the state of Pakistain or have they struck rich purely by chance?Whatever the case, they have been left free to pursue their toxic agenda for so long that each time they strike it is to telling effect. In their attempt to pull Pakistain into the medieval age it would be a natural first step to isolate the country and separate it from the rest of the world.
It is in this context that their campaign against polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccination needs to be seen. No different should be the case of the recent attack on Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
airport and the firing on a PIA aircraft as it came in to land at Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
airport.
The spurt in polio cases that followed the murderous attacks on polio workers by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain was followed by the World Health Organisation advisory requiring polio vaccination certificates for all travelling abroad from here after living or being here for more than four weeks.
If security is not tightened around all airports, the next incident could trigger a sterner response from foreign airlines.
Now with the start of the operation against the gunnies in North
Wazoo and the consequent civilian displacement, there are renewed fears that the virus might forcefully raise its head in areas far and wide as the internally displaced are travelling to places as far away as Karachi in search of succour.Admittedly, the government says that those being registered, for example, in Sindh are being vaccinated against polio but given how porous the interprovincial borders are, it would not be an exaggeration to say some carriers will still get through. Hence the need for enhanced vigilance.
The continued discovery of polio cases and the traces of virus from all over the country were being dealt with and the authorities were trying hard to keep the threat in check, also keeping the possibly devastating international repercussions in mind, when the Karachi airport attack happened.
It is in the nature of news that attacks on civil aviation targets are very dramatic and arouse huge interest: in this day and age so many people fly that a connection between an attack on an airport or an aircraft and most of the media users is immediately established.
And why wouldn't there be a connection? Most of us use airports and planes. Any threat to either appears to be a test of our own vulnerability. Before you draw misleading conclusions, this isn't an attempt to play psychologist as I have no such pretensions.
What is being attempted here is an explanation of why the media attaches significance to such attacks and threats and also why audiences are held captive by the episode while it lasts. Only a conclusion, a resolution would shift the focus of media users.
We all know over the years a number of Western and other foreign airlines have scratched off Pakistain from their schedules. Our link with the outside world is now mostly kept intact by our limping national flag carrier and Gulf-based airlines.
Even if the presence of a Gulf-based carrier's aircraft on the tarmac with a heavy passenger load was coincidental as the Karachi airport attackers launched their assault, with one passenger live-tweeting to the world the unfolding nightmare, it couldn't have provided an iota of comfort to passengers and airlines planning flights to Pakistain.
Therefore, it was no surprise after this week's firing (which claimed one life) on a PIA plane on its final approach to land in Peshawar, that the Gulf-based airline with the most frequent flights to multiple destinations in Pakistain suspended its flights to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
capital