It has been only 2 weeks since the Pakistani army launched an offensive in North Waziristan, and the nation finds itself on the brink of another refuge crisis. But this time of gigantic proportions. On June 25, 2014, the Pakistani government officially announced that 450,681 internally displaced persons (IDPs) had been registered so far, and that the number could top 600,000 as the military operations continue. Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadri Baloch claimed that the government was fully prepared to look after IDPs, but later he contradicted himself, when he appealed to the Pakistani public to donate money. He said, “It is the national duty of every Pakistani, particularly people with means to open up their pockets for the brethren in need.”
This is not the first time; Pakistan is faced with a massive refugee crisis of its own making. In August 2009, the army under America’s tutelage launched Operation Black Thunderstorm against the Taleban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and this resulted in 1.2 million Pakistani citizens being displaced. Judging by the inept response of both Pakistani government and the military in dealing with IDPs in 2009, it is very unlikely that Pakistan’s present refugees will find any respite from their man-made ordeal. Back then many generous Pakistani appalled by the sheer incompetence of both their government and army leadership stepped in to look after the IDPs. But the size of the task now is simply overwhelming, and frankly speaking is a by- product of Pakistan’s lopsided relations with America.
Ever since, Pakistan sided with America’s war against Islam in 2001, internally displaced Pakistanis have become a permanent feature of the Pakistani landscape. What started out as a trickle in 2001 has become a flood in 2014, making Pakistan’s one of the largest internally displaced populations in the world. Things are bound to become worse, as the Raheel-Nawaz partnership spares no effort in pleasing America by conducting further operations all over Pakistan to weed out not just militants, but anyone opposed to America’s hegemony over Pakistan
Let’s not forget that when Pakistan sided with America in 1980s to contain the advance of the Soviet Union, Pakistan ended up with 3 million Afghan refugees who are still holed up in the country and are unable to return. Now Pakistan has to contend with circa 4.5 million refugees as a direct consequence of American instigated operations in Pakistan’s tribal belt. Added to this refugee calamity are the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Pakistanis still reeling from Pakistan’s earthquake in 2005 and the country’s worst floods in 2010. These people were simply abandoned by both the government and the army, as assets and money were diverted to fight militants at America’s behest.
In siding with America, the civil and military leaders over the past decade, have lost Pakistan’s strategic depth in Afghanistan, gravely undermined Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir, compromised the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, plunged the economy of the country into an abyss of debt, strengthened Pakistan’s arch enemy India and have displaced millions of Pakistani citizens.
Yet for some strange reason some Pakistanis still cling to the vain hope that somehow their civil and military leaders will lead the country out of its present predicament and create a better future for them and their children. And how naive they have become… Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّى يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنْفُسِهِمْ وَإِذَا أَرَادَ اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ سُوءًا فَلَا مَرَدَّ لَهُ وَمَا لَهُمْ مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ وَالٍ
“Surely Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition; and when Allah intends evil to a people, there is no averting it, and besides Him they have no protector.”
(Al Rad: 11)
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Abu Hashim