On 29 December 2016 Najam Sethi vowed again to hold the 2017'
final of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in Lahore. Talking to the media
persons in Karachi he says “I am very much hopeful that the final will be
played in Lahore on March 7th,” and further disclosed that the Punjab
government has assured him to provide the required security to hold the event,
besides the security arrangements are being discussed with the authorities to
make the one-day event safe and secured. However, the chairman of
Pakistan Super League and PCB’s Executive Committee also clarifies “Look,
if there is any untoward activity, then we’ll not opt for compromising on the
quality of the league", which means in case of any untoward incident or
threat to Lahore the final will be as usually held in the UAE.
Ever since the attack on Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009, Pakistan
team and national cricketers are forced to play their home series and PSL
league matches at abroad because of poor law and order situation and
international cricketers are also reluctant to play in Pakistan citing security
concerns. However, after the huge success of the 1st edition of the PSL, Najam
Sethi announced to host the 2017 final in Qaddafi Stadium Lahore.
And, he
repeated the same stance again in the PSL 2017 Players Draft ceremony held in
October. Like always that moved the FICA
Chief Executive Tony Irish to issue warning that ‘playing cricket in Pakistan
for foreign teams and players constitutes an unacceptably high security risk’
citing independent security consultants. However, in negating the FICA' statement
an official of Pakistan cricket came to defend by stating “They (FICA) are
the usual naysayers and such statements don’t matter. We are already in touch with
the security agencies including the army to formulate a foolproof plan for
hosting the final.” The Spectator magazine of UK on the 31st December 2016
issue, is also agreed that "The country is safer than at any
point since George W. Bush launched his war on terror 15 years ago."
However, for hosting high profile cricket match having an
assurance is one thing and providing security clearance is other, for which the
Punjab government will have to also seek the support of the other security
agencies of Pakistan, apparently work under federal government but it has been
observed that this security establishment has more say in managing and
executing national security measures and policies than the elected government. The
decrease in terror violence in the country, specifically in Karachi and
Waziristan, is largely due to the efforts of this military-led security
establishment, who drafted the National Action Plan (NAP) and had gone to
implement it even when the government authorities remained neutral in it's implementation.
It has been also reported in recent days that in order to
execute the NAP in Punjab in letter and spirit, from the side of security
establishment there is strong pressure on Punjab government to begin
military-led operations as soon as possible in the southern or rural Punjab,
which are supposed to be the hide outs of terror groups. On the other hand the Punjab
government seems reluctant to conduct such operation because if it starts that
may retaliate the millitants in shape of terror attacks in urban city Lahore or
other Punjab' urban areas as happened in the past. That would jeopardise the
security as well as all international events that are in the offing. In this
scenario the hosting of PSL 2017 final at Lahore will all depend upon the
mutual decision of both Punjab government and security establishment to direct the Para military
operation in rural Punjab. In case the operation starts in near days then the
law enforcement agencies would prioritise to put their all attention on attack
against militants rather divert their energy in protecting game event in
Lahore. In these circumstances all the arrangements in Lahore for the PSL 2017
final will be at risk.
However, if the final is shifted in Karachi where law and
order situation in terms of statistics has sizably improved, it can be a safer
approach. Karachi security situation is sizably improved according to security
experts and since the last couple of years Karachi has been safe from any major
terror incident, specially any sports terrorism incident The city rating in the
international crime index has also got better. Most importantly some five years
ago Karachi host safely a friendly One day international in which foreign
cricketers arrived to play the match.
By Muhammad Wasim
mwasim.370@gmail.com
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