Pak editorial urges nation to call a spade a spade and end era of 'good militants /bad militants'

Pakistan should now call a spade a spade to make it easier for people to believe that the era of good and bad terrorism has ended as the government fails to give honest answers even in the most straightforward of cases, says an editorial in a leading Pakistani newspaper.

The editorial "Banned or not?" published in the Dawn questions the country if it has taken any measures against the militant groups like the Haqqani network and Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) in the recent past.

The editorial accused "the otherwise voluble and media-attention-loving" Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan that he has remained silent on the issue of curbing militancy and anonymous bureaucrats of giving contradictory statements.

The editorial further said that no public office has shown any tendency towards informing the public of what is exactly being done or not being done in their name.

It also says that whatever steps are being taken, it is all at the behest of the United Nations to pacify an "angry India" and help the Afghan government.

Such theories, the editorial stresses, only confuse the public and strike at the heart of the consensus the country needs that the battle against terrorism in Pakistan's own and not imposed by any other nation.