Brave words by army chief, but only following them will deliver results
It would be a timely exercise to review the role of army in Pakistan at a moment when terrorism has turned into a global threat with the ISIS drawing recruits from every nook and corner of the world. Pakistan, where terrorists have killed over thirty thousand civilians and military personnel and where the army is still fighting them in North Wazirstan and Khyber Agencies, cannot afford to be oblivious of the challenge.
On Tuesday, at the IDEAS 2014, CJCSC Gen Rashed Mahmud maintained that the traditional paradigm of strategic stability had been consigned to the past. He also maintained that the defence and security operations were no longer restricted to the realm of physical space. On Wednesday COAS Gen Raheel Sharif was more specific when he said that the current enemy ‘lives within us and looks like us’. Further that security does not refer only to external threats but is a concern in terms of politics, human rights, economy, water security, terrorism and insurgency. There must therefore be conflict resolution in these areas because security could not be achieved by securing borders alone, but also by protecting ways of life, culture, ideas and sensitivities.
Brave words, but these would be wasted if not followed by appropriate actions. Have we de-linked elements within the security agencies from the non-state actors and religious hardliners working as proxies in regional turf battles or for pressurising the civilian government? If the current enemy is within, there is also a need to reduce tensions in the region to be better able to concentrate on the enemy within. Again considering military action sufficient for eliminating terrorism would be a fallacy. For this military and civilian intelligence agencies have to work together by sharing information at one platform. Has this been ensured? Again there has to be a systematic campaign to eliminate extremist thinking which breeds terrorists. This requires the use of media and modifications in the school curriculum. Most of all it requires strengthening democracy.
