Reports about youths from Chitral getting recruitment in the
Afghan National Army (ANA) are currently circulating in the media making
for an alarming situation. Having these reports coming out is in itself
suspicious, because it is becoming the cause of distress for Pakistan
Army and the ISI. It diverts their focus and concerns, making them use
their manpower elsewhere too. Such wide-spread news has every print of
being a slice from a specific agenda against Pakistan Army and ISI.
The fact of the matter about Chitral’s youth is that they are
overwhelmingly unemployed and some of them despite their education.
Taking advantage of their dire condition and conservative understanding
of the world, the ANA had offered them essentially what they consider
their “job security”. However, the issue is not to be taken as lightly.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home Department is rightly looking deep into it
and had sought details from the Malakand’s commissioner about the
identities of these Chitrali youths. This is as a good a measure on
their part to nip the evil in the bud.
The
lure for these unemployed Chitrali youths is salaries they are being
promised. It is said to be double of what the government was providing,
which prompted the government to give pay-raises to its security
personnel and also open new vacancies. But just as it is relatively
easier to convince the rest of the youth in the country to join their
own forces to protect with honour their homeland, it is comparatively
difficult to impress Chitrali youths about the same idea. They already
feel neglected by the government and in terms of their territorial
demarcation question the government’s policies.
The punishment in their view is to be sold out to apparently what can
lend hands in support to Pakistan’s enemies. This is how rebels are
bred, in neighbouring lands only to return later to create chaos and
turn against their own state. Pakistan Army and the ISI have been
labouring hard to stop just these kinds of recruitment activities which
play into the enemy’s hands.
Merely being unemployed, which is not the case with the Chitrali
youths alone, is a weak act on which to join the ANA. Being recruited by
the ANA, they can also be used as part of the NATO forces in
Afghanistan. Using local people for intelligence and
counter-intelligence against Pakistan Army and the ISI has been already
happening. Now, the Chitrali youths are foolishly participating against
their own state. It becomes really difficult for the government and
Pakistan Army to keep such locals under control when they are willing
themselves to perform acts, the severity of which they don’t realize,
just for money.
Pakistani youth and forces work with such friendly countries as the
Gulf States and are also part of international peace-keeping forces
under the United Nations. But despite Pakistan Army’s own fully trained
soldiers and Jawans, the ANA is casting a doubt on its transparency by
taking in unemployed Chitrali youths in this manner. The youth across
the country are also facing hard times in securing jobs despite their
education, but they don’t sell their plight. Hence, the Chitrali youths
have acted in a very disappointing manner. Another eager question that
comes to mind is where has Chitrali youths’ spiritual leader, Aga Khan
IV’s wealth and business ventures gone to, which cannot help employ
these educated youngsters?