The Pak-US turnaround
Some very important points must have come up during Gen Sharif’s recent visit to the US. Zarb e Azb has impressed the Americans enough to initiate a number of confidence building measures. They immediately began an intense drone-hunt for Mullah Fazlullah on the Afghan side – a long-standing Pakistani demand – eliminating a number of TTP commanders in the process. Some reports suggested that Fazlullah might have been seriously injured. The CSF is back as well, although with certain conditions. And they also turned over Lateef Mehsud, former TTP commander Hakeemullah’s number-2, and long a source of dispute between Islamabad, Washington and Kabul. Mehsud is not only a senior TTP figure, but also has knowledge of the Afghan secret service’s networking with Hakeemullah.
Pakistan has also responded in kind. The military operation quickly killed two of America’s most wanted al Qaeda fighters; ironically the first high-level targets to be named since the operation began. And despite Sartaj Aziz’s untimely and ill-informed comments about the Haqqani Network, Gen Sharif obviously made a convincing case before the Americans. Therefore for the moment, at least, it seems that the mistrust of all the years of the war on terror is gone. Instead, there is a realisation that nothing short of a constructive partnership will keep the AfPak situation from spiralling out of control when the Americans leave the region again.
Gen Sharif’s visit has also led to the resumption of defence consultation talks to combat militancy. The Afghans are also more cooperative under the new dispensation. There is a need now to build on the goodwill generated in the wake of the Afghan election, the American pullout, and Pakistan’s NW operation. The common enemy is on the run. With the Russians and Chinese also eager to stem the tide of terrorism and drug trade once and for all, a better opportunity will not be found anytime soon. The Pak-US relationship will, of course, be the lynchpin of any efforts to stabilise Afghanistan and the region. That it has grown to a point where diplomats are describing it as “more convergences than divergences” is a welcome break from the recent past. If such cooperation had come before, the war on terror might not have lasted this long.
