Within the duration of a single hearing of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, the delusional incompetence of the government and its staggering lack of seriousness in going after domestic terrorist networks were laid bare in front of the world. Addressing the Senate committee, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry revealed that the much hyped dossiers that were purported to definitively prove Indian involvement in terrorism on Pakistani soil, delivered to officials of the UN and US, were nothing more than a damp squib; however it was obvious by their words that neither Mr Chaudhry nor Sartaj Aziz are themselves aware of the fact as they continue to relentlessly assert that despite lacking the necessary and critical “material evidence”, the dossiers were “meticulously prepared” and had a convincing smattering of “pattern and narrative” of the Indian involvement. While it is one thing for the Pakistani state to delude itself and its public into thinking that all of the terrorist elements plaguing the country get their training and funding from across the border, one expects those in charge of foreign affairs to have the wisdom to realise that the UN and US have enough situational awareness to completely disregard the insincere ‘victim narrative’. The Foreign Secretary then proceeded to improbably top the dossier revelation with an even more scandalous one. Aizaz Chaudhry indifferently disclosed that Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), the well known charity front of the Jamat-ud-Dawa (JUD), was neither banned nor under any sort of state observation while the parent organization JUD, for all its notoriety, was merely under ‘observation’ while free to conduct its activities unimpeded. He assured however that the long defunct predecessor of the JUD, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), was indeed banned. The entire state of affairs is an overwhelming indictment of the state’s failure to embrace its responsibility to tackle the militant threat. In the first instance, they refuse to acknowledge the home-grown aspect of terrorism in Pakistan, owing to our well documented tortured history of state patronage of these outfits, and play to the gallery by piling on all blame on an enemy state. Then they give proof of their inadequacy by steadfastly refusing to target the groups which are, once again, well known as the propagators of religious hatred and militant violence. Even when an organization is banned, like the LET was, it easily reincarnates itself with a different name, in this case as the JUD, and normal business continues. To see government functionaries try to spin this damning show of delusional incompetence is highly frustrating. They are fooling no one with their antics and defiant proclamations. The National Action Plan (NAP) that was designed to target domestic terrorism is being allowed to rot away while well known propagators of terror are free to act. The persistence of such farcical policies must be stopped and the government needs to get its head out of the sand, otherwise Pakistan will continue to suffer from its own pet snakes. *