Cantt We Reconsider?

Army barricades have been lifted and many cantt roads are now open to all. This decision has been taken in order to ensure public convenience with regard to commuting.

Initially, cantonments were in the outskirts of the city, but with the expansion of population and cities, the situation is not so anymore. An easy way to clear the congested streets is to open the gates to the cantts so that people can pass through paving the way to the prevalence of lesser traffic jams. Travelling becomes easier and safer and speedier transit is a new and plausible task. The forces deal with a high level of hostility from a large number of civilians, which may reduce in this situation.

Laymen tend to not have a great amount of knowledge about the defence and this move may increase their insight and the forces will then be receivers of public goodwill instead of dealing with ignorance. People may finally realise that even the personnel pay taxes instead of throwing parties with the tax money that is paid by civilians. They might just understand the reasons for all members not being deployed to the borders.

More respect will be given and positive outcomes will show themselves. This move to lift the barriers and permit movement within/through cantonments has it's perks (obviously), as it has been taken with the satisfaction of the jantaa in mind.

However, the armed forces will have to bear the brunt of this. Starting with how the defense areas are extremely well maintained and authorising every Tom, Dick and Harry to freely roam around the cantts will lead to a higher need to preserve the tidiness and orderliness of the place.

Basic but crucial information like the daily routine followed or the layout of the cantt will be easily accessible thus leading to what can be a major breach of security.

Previously, the main access point into cantonments was blocked but now even if high security areas are closed off ,there are many ways for people to enter. Intense security cannot be ensured everywhere. We are all humans after all and slip ups tend to happen. For the sake of public convenience if the army cantts can be opened, why is it that areas around the residences of ministers are not dealing with the same consequences to the dire situation at hand?

If ministers care SO much about civilians maybe they can sacrifice a little from their side. Compromising the security of the armed forces whilst knowing that they are under the radar of terrorists is an extremely absurd thing to do.

Some level of discomfort or the making of new roads is not very difficult in order to guarantee the safety of those keeping you safe. It's easy to say that it was the choice of the soldier to be out there and risk their life but well, it was your choice to not be a part of the forces. So don't try to get into their residential area if that's your reason. For those deployed to places away from their families, one assurance that they had was the security of their loved ones. Now that's gone too, successfully bringing down the morale of  a huge number of soldiers. This all isn't an assumption by the people who are over cautious or haven't understood the situation completely.

It's barely been a week since the announcement and there have already been thefts which, we are sure is only the start of an unfortunate series of events. The public demanded for the gates to be opened and the government agreed after serious speculation.

After all, in the cheap world of politics the defense personnel and their families aren't the vote bank. In this game, they're the losers.

While some agree that the pros overshadow the cons others strongly believe that "This nation is going to the dogs" . Between these extremists some of us are having a hard time contemplating whether this decision makes sense or not.

Up until a few years ago the cantonments were open to all but were then closed due to security reasons. What improvement have we seen in this field that it was suddenly deemed adequate to open the gates and let the precarious occurrences saunter in?

Let the controversy begin.