Pre-Emptive Inaction

"The discussions on this case continue; they continue very frequently. They are taking part both locally, nationally, internationally."
Spokesperson, Canada Border Services Agency

"We don't want them to just walk away."
Nazia Khalid, press secretary, Pakistani High Commission, Ottawa

Stewart Bell / National Post   A video screen shows Jahanzeb Malik, 33, making an appearance at the Immigration Refugee Board hearing in Toronto on Monday, May 11, 2015.

What does any self-respecting nation do when it is alerted to the fact that members of terrorist groups have appeared on their soil, and may be planning terrorist attacks? Why, just what Canada has done; arrested the presumed threats to the country. And, since they are citizens of another country, their deportation is a matter of primary importance.

The first action is to ensure that they are not left at large to pursue any nefarious, injurious-to-society activities, the second is to rid the country of their presence.

Pakistan is a Muslim country whose relations with its neighbours are fraught; both India and Afghanistan have Pakistan to thank for violence and ongoing threats to their own security. Pakistan and its military and its infamous secret intelligence service is well infiltrated with violence-dedicated Islamists; both Afghanistan and India can attest to their neighbour's deadly interference in their own affairs.

That Pakistan's mountain tribes are independent of central rule, and pose an internal and external threat as well, is another factor in the country's instability with the spectre of this nuclear-armed country failing to safeguard its nuclear warheads from capture by tribal Islamist jihadis. Pakistan's own paranoia and its threats to use nuclear weapons should it believe that neighbouring India may invade, describe it as a menace to the entire geography.

That menace does not stop in the near abroad, but travels elsewhere across the globe. And Canada is the beneficiary of lone Islamists appearing on its shores, portending no good. Muhammad Aqeeq Ansari and Jahanzeb Malik are two men from Pakistan known to have jihadist terrorist connections and aspirations whom Canada is determined to deport to their native Pakistan. Ansari is a member of the terrorist group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.

And Malik, who has family living in Canada and who arrived in 2007, was arrested on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks, backed by an arsenal of weapons and Islamist materials also in his possession. They both claim concern for their safety should they be returned to Pakistan. As for Pakistani authorities, they would prefer that the two men be kept incarcerated in Canada, courtesy of the Canadian taxpayer.

While neither man faces criminal charges in Canada, their deportation is critical; neither is a Canadian citizen, and the Immigration and Refugee Board has ruled that both represent security threats to the country. The Canada Border Services Agency and Department of Foreign Affairs authorities have been meeting with the Pakistani high commissioner and the Toronto-based consul general of Pakistan.

That the government of Pakistan has not yet arrived at their final decision whether it will agree to the deportations is intolerable. These are their nationals; claiming that they may represent a threat to Pakistan security is an absurdity, given the obvious reality that the entire machinery of government is well infiltrated by threats to their own security. The government policy of the country represents a threat to the country's security.