Lines clearly drawn, the battle seems to be on. There appears no backing off
The war that is currently being waged in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA) is a small but vital first step to fighting a bigger battle that is yet to commence: a battle that, if undertaken in earnest, could potentially eliminate the scourge of militancy from Pakistan. For the moment, one is consumed by the enormous humanitarian crisis that has followed the initiation of the military operation in the NWA to flush out the foreign and local terrorists that are holed up there.
The battle that is being pursued currently is only to target what can best be described as the vile manifestations of the patronage of a narrative that has created hordes of regression-laden terrorist bands in the country, each trying to perpetuate its own brand of violence, all in the name of Islam and the caliphate. Understandably, this operation will meet its desired goals in the shape of either killing the targeted terrorists or capturing them alive. Simultaneously, this operation can also achieve some undesirables: forcing the militants to either cross over into the neighbouring Afghanistan, or filter into the urban slums all over Pakistan. In the former eventuality, this may create tensions with Afghanistan and, in the latter case, it may create unmanageable problems both in terms of deadly blowbacks as well as the venomous effects that their presence may generate for the impressionable youth.
I have been writing endlessly and for a number of years about the need for conducting an indiscriminate clean-up operation in the whole Waziristan agency and throughout the rest of the country. Ever since the induction of the incumbent government, I have continued to stress on the same. When the operation was finally launched about three weeks ago, I welcomed it stating that precious time had been lost. There were those who disagreed. Now, the former Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj. Gen. (R) Athar Abbas has come out with a revealing insider. He has said that the military had taken the decision to launch the military operation in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA) as far back as 2010, but it had to be pulled back at the last moment due to the then-COAS General (R) Kayani’s indecisiveness: “He was very reluctant when it came to the North Waziristan operation. Kayani thought the decision to launch the operation would reflect on his personality and people would take it as his personal decision, which is why he kept delaying the operation”.
It is now abundantly clear that the ongoing operation in the NWA did not have the political government’s blessings at the beginning. It owned up the operation after it had been launched only with an intention to using it as a shield against political unrest that has been brewing for a while now. Of particular mention are the two movements led by Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri. The government started beating the drums of national unity and pumping millions into needless advertising campaigns only when it realised that the two were likely to curry sizeable support at the grassroots level as had been amply evidenced by the huge crowds at PTI’s public gatherings in the Punjab.
Maj Gen (R) Abbas further said that the delay in launching the military offensive in North Waziristan “complicated matters as the militants strengthened their position in the area and also established contact with other militant groups”. He went on to say that the United States added to the complication further by “issuing statements which gave the impression that the US was pressuring them to launch the operation in North Waziristan”. It was conveyed to the US that such statements were not helping as “if we decide to launch an operation now, it would give an impression that we are doing so on the wishes of the US”.
This is a telling indictment particularly when it comes from a former general of the Pakistan Army who was privy to the decision-making process within the institution and who was also the head of its PR wing. What is most worrisome is that a vital operation that was necessary to safeguard national interests was delayed because it may have adversely impacted the image of a former army chief, or it might be construed to have been launched under the pressure from the US. Can anything be more ridiculous than these petulant and self-serving reasons and that, too, when the country was facing an existential challenge?
A colossal human problem has emerged in the wake of the operation in the NWA. An estimated six-hundred-thousand people are reported to have left their homes and are on the move to various parts of the country. Though later retracted, Sindh and Balochistan governments have formally closed their borders to these homeless migrants while Punjab has imposed inhuman curbs on their possible entry into the province. So, by and large, an extremely ill-prepared Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has been left to handle this mammoth human crisis which has created immense social, cultural and health-related issues as well.
The government is now trying to use the military operation as a moral argument in its efforts to abort the impending political agitation against a rigged election of which it was the principal beneficiary. This is so in spite of the fact that it had been put on notice by at least one political party almost a year ago that this would be the eventual action if all legal and constitutional resorts proved inconsequential as, indeed, these have. The government’s intransigence in refusing to employ the thumb verification process in some constituencies has not helped its cause either.
It is now abundantly clear that the ongoing operation in the NWA did not have the political government’s blessings at the beginning. It owned up the operation after it had been launched only with an intention to using it as a shield against political unrest that has been brewing for a while now. Of particular mention are the two movements led by Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri. The government started beating the drums of national unity and pumping millions into needless advertising campaigns only when it realised that the two were likely to curry sizeable support at the grassroots level as had been amply evidenced by the huge crowds at PTI’s public gatherings in the Punjab. But, by then, it had lost the high moral ground and was only reacting to the burgeoning political crisis to save its own skin.
This reactive mould created its own problems. The state terrorism unleashed on Tahirul Qadri’s supporters in Lahore that resulted in the death of over fourteen people was as brutal an operation as any evil dictator would have launched which only proves my point that the Sharifs can never become democratic in their approach to handling national issues. The proceedings of the judicial commission that has been set up by the Punjab government, and which has been boycotted by just about everyone else, seem to be entirely devoted to recording statements of the chief minister’s cronies who are bending over backwards to give him a clean chit about the crisis. No one appears willing to accept responsibility for what happened between 9 am and 11 am when a number of people were shot at from point blank range. It is like a void in time. I have hardly been a witness to any comparable happening reflecting the absolute lack of character and accountability like the one that is being gruesomely enacted before a hand-picked judicial commission.
The ill-advised diversion of the plane to Lahore that was carrying Tahirul Qadri and his rather large entourage under the plea that it would have created a law and order situation in Rawalpindi was another manifestation of an insane and dictatorial mindset. The drama that ensued at Lahore airport gave Pakistan a bad international press at a time when it can ill-afford it.
The government is now trying to use the military operation as a moral argument in its efforts to abort the impending political agitation against a rigged election of which it was the principal beneficiary. This is so in spite of the fact that it had been put on notice by at least one political party almost a year ago that this would be the eventual action if all legal and constitutional resorts proved inconsequential as, indeed, these have. The government’s intransigence in refusing to employ the thumb verification process in some constituencies has not helped its cause either. On the one hand, it proves its culpability in rigging an entire election process and, on the other hand, it also establishes its absolute unwillingness to make use of an available mechanism to prove the veracity of its claims that the election was not rigged. More so, it is not the accusation of rigging on a few constituencies. Allegations are now being voiced about extensive and well-coordinated rigging that practically impacted the whole election process. The members of the judiciary, the district administrations and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were equally involved in conducting this mega scam that catapulted the PML (N) into power.
This battle regarding changing a corrupt system should have been fought a long time ago. It was not because every time an effort appeared to be on the anvil, it was thwarted by the forces from within who were each thrown a few morsels to savour. Now, the stakes are much higher. The battle is between the traditional beneficiaries of the system and a loose outfit that combines a coterie of disgruntled former beneficiaries and some new kids on the block who are not willing to wait any further knowing full well that if the incumbent system were to determine their electoral fate, they don’t have a chance in hell to come into power anytime to eternity. The mess has been further aggravated by the noises of protest from within the PML (N) hierarchy regarding the disdainful and authoritarian manner of governance of the Sharifs and their propensity to retract on commitments made in times of crises.
Conceded that attention need to be focussed on the human crisis that over six-hundred-thousand people are facing today as a consequence of the launching of the military operation. Conceded also that, ideally speaking, the political agitation should be left off for another time and all forces should join hands to mitigate the sufferings of the migrant population. But, then, when the stakes have been upped to their present level, and when the threatened agitation has been a gradual progression of an opposition party over months, and when the incumbent government is not only unwilling to do anything to meet the opposition halfway and, instead, is bent on laughing off the accusations as a figment of someone’s imagination, the situation is bound to get worse, as it unmistakably is.
A division of political forces has also taken place along pragmatic lines. Those political forces that want a perpetuation of the status quo politics as they have been its principal beneficiaries in the past and plan on being so in the future also, have retreated to one side in opposition to all street agitation that they dub as a violation of the spirit of the constitution, while the rest of the political forces that are loosely connected in their endeavour to change a corrupt system and its attendant ills, are joined together in an opposition that wants to use the tool of agitation to change a dispensation that has been inducted through a rigged and non-transparent election process. Is there still a prospect of the feuding parties retreating from the edge and sitting together to sort out the mess that is getting more gruesome with the passage of each day?
I figure not. This battle regarding changing a corrupt system should have been fought a long time ago. It was not because every time an effort appeared to be on the anvil, it was thwarted by the forces from within who were each thrown a few morsels to savour. Now, the stakes are much higher. The battle is between the traditional beneficiaries of the system and a loose outfit that combines a coterie of disgruntled former beneficiaries and some new kids on the block who are not willing to wait any further knowing full well that if the incumbent system were to determine their electoral fate, they don’t have a chance in hell to come into power anytime to eternity. The mess has been further aggravated by the noises of protest from within the PML (N) hierarchy regarding the disdainful and authoritarian manner of governance of the Sharifs and their propensity to retract on commitments made in times of crises.
The lines are clearly drawn and the battle appears to be on. Hail the new Caesar!