CNIC advice
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Dawn, Pakistan
Sunday, 31 May, 2009
DISCRETION is the better part of effective administration. A careful administrator will always weigh the pros and cons of his decision before implementing it in order to ensure positive results and minimise the risks of a negative fallout. In advising the residents of Lahore to carry their original Computerised National Identity Cards with them at all times, are the police following this golden rule? Surely not. Issued a day after the deadly terrorist attack of May 27 on law-enforcement agencies in the heart of the city, the advice comes across as yet another knee-jerk reaction to a situation that demands a cool-headed approach and well-thought-out planning and implementation of safety measures. Nevertheless, residents might still be prepared to comply with the advice meant to stave off dangers to their city if they are sure that some good would come of it. If, in this specific exercise, policemen can distinguish between troublesome elements and ordinary peace-loving citizens, it is fairly certain that Lahore residents would not hesitate to extend their cooperation to the police. On the contrary, if it becomes yet another ruse for cops to intimidate and harass anyone they believe is in need of official mauling, then the city’s people would be justified in questioning the wisdom behind the decision.
However, in both cases, and under the current circumstances, it is not clear whether carrying the CNIC at all times would prove to be part of the solution to protect the city from crime and terrorism that are fast assuming horrendous proportions. A comprehensive security strategy that works on multiple levels including capacity-building and morale-boosting among police ranks is what is urgently required at the moment. Such a strategy cannot work through any official advice issued on the spur of the moment, without taking the medium- and long-term consequences of any such action into consideration. That there can be no substitute for a well-thought-out policy cannot be stressed enough. It is this lesson that the government needs to learn if it wants to put up an effective fight against terrorism. No piecemeal measures can resolve Lahore’s security problems.
Source
Sunday, 31 May, 2009
DISCRETION is the better part of effective administration. A careful administrator will always weigh the pros and cons of his decision before implementing it in order to ensure positive results and minimise the risks of a negative fallout. In advising the residents of Lahore to carry their original Computerised National Identity Cards with them at all times, are the police following this golden rule? Surely not. Issued a day after the deadly terrorist attack of May 27 on law-enforcement agencies in the heart of the city, the advice comes across as yet another knee-jerk reaction to a situation that demands a cool-headed approach and well-thought-out planning and implementation of safety measures. Nevertheless, residents might still be prepared to comply with the advice meant to stave off dangers to their city if they are sure that some good would come of it. If, in this specific exercise, policemen can distinguish between troublesome elements and ordinary peace-loving citizens, it is fairly certain that Lahore residents would not hesitate to extend their cooperation to the police. On the contrary, if it becomes yet another ruse for cops to intimidate and harass anyone they believe is in need of official mauling, then the city’s people would be justified in questioning the wisdom behind the decision.
However, in both cases, and under the current circumstances, it is not clear whether carrying the CNIC at all times would prove to be part of the solution to protect the city from crime and terrorism that are fast assuming horrendous proportions. A comprehensive security strategy that works on multiple levels including capacity-building and morale-boosting among police ranks is what is urgently required at the moment. Such a strategy cannot work through any official advice issued on the spur of the moment, without taking the medium- and long-term consequences of any such action into consideration. That there can be no substitute for a well-thought-out policy cannot be stressed enough. It is this lesson that the government needs to learn if it wants to put up an effective fight against terrorism. No piecemeal measures can resolve Lahore’s security problems.
Source
Labels: CNIC, Extremism, Lahore Blast, Taliban, War on Terror
posted @ 11:19 AM,
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