Working together
Gen Raheel Sahrif looks relaxed after his firm ‘no’ to extension. One can even detect a faint smile on his face. Instead of sitting stiff and expressionless, he has been seen making gestures while talking to the Prime Minister. On Wednesday, the Army chief and the Prime Minister drove along a newly constructed potion of the M-8 with the COAS in the driving seat. Nawaz Sharif, who was known for his headlong clashes with successive army chiefs, also appears to have developed a rapport with Gen Sharif. After the briefing at the ISI headquarters in the company of the COAS, the Prime Minister announced “We’ll collectively defeat all designs of our enemies”. This is a good omen at time when a consensus between the civil and military leadership is vital for eradicating terrorism from the country and the region.
During the briefing the COAS told Nawaz Sharif that the terrorists were externally funded and internally facilitated. In other words, both sides have to be effectively taken care of. The intelligence agencies have at several occasions pointed the finger at Indian and Afghan agencies for being behind the TTP and the Baloch separatists. With the civil and military leadership on one page, there is need to neutralise India and Afghanistan through steps that make the two realise that peace in the region is in their vital interest while tension in relations is not. A serious move should be made to resolve the outstanding disputes with both while turning the Pak-Afghan route into an attractive incentive for peace and cooperation. Meanwhile, both countries should be invited to join Pakistan in the fight against the terrorist networks which threaten them.
Equally important is to unravel the networks of terrorist operatives along with their local helpers and financial supporters. There should be greater concentration on the unimplemented section of the National Action Plan, accompanied by a multifaceted and all out campaign to uproot extremist thinking that provides fresh recruits to terrorist networks like TTP and Daesh.
