The demand for a formal apology and a guarantee that an attack such as the Nato air strike on Salala checkpost inside Pakistan’s Mohmand Agency will not take place, at least intentionally, is fair enough considering the extent of loss suffered by the Pakistani side. However, war dynamics do not allow anyone to issue a guarantee that casualties would be restricted to just a specific area and that the possibility of error remains predominant. Wasn’t everything supposed to be fair in love and war? To get beaten up by your own ‘ally’ included? But then this significant war principle ought to be applied to all and sundry in the war.
That Pakistan gets a good smacking by the international media and officials in Washington every time it fails to thwart a militant attack upon the Allied Forces inside Afghanistan shows that the rules are different for every stakeholder and certainly don’t draw on the fairness paradigm. Threats to block military and civilian assistance to Pakistan, translating to a miniscule amount considering the sum already spent by the Pakistan government, hardly does anything for either the ongoing long war or for the survival of the country. Yes, it may however be instrumental in stealing the warmth right out of a few very large high level pockets.
So, what ought to be done when the Isaf commander refuses point blank to issue a ‘guarantee’ that an attack of such a magnitude will not happen again? How does he propose to develop a ‘balanced relation between Pakistan and Nato’ in this backdrop? Upon what pretext can this relationship possibly develop? The next best and acceptable option would be to issue at least an apology for such a blatant act of barbaric violence with no apparent reason, something that the Pakistan army and the people of Pakistan are expecting.
Pakistani officials have still exhibited their commitment towards eradicating militancy from their territory but with a renewed strategy that focuses on achievable and sustainable goals, as it is always the slow but steady that wins the race.
PROFESSOR KABIL KHAN
Peshawar