Did we keep our promises?
Remember how everybody was ‘on the same page’ that sad night in Peshawar? Nobody, not even the government’s and army’s fiercest detractors, doubted their sincerity to the National Action Plan (NAP) that was subsequently hammered out. But then, two years down the road, not much has happened in quantifiable terms. They’ve tossed the blame around the table at least a dozen times. Even the most committed army chief in living memory has come and gone and nobody can say for sure, really, that it will never happen again.
Sadly, there’s nothing to suggest that a change of heart, much less policy, is on the horizon anytime soon. Or that the second anniversary could do more than squeeze a few more promises – never to be kept, as usual – out of the government. Also, lately, the enemy has struck with more audacity than any time since Zarb-e-Azb. Even the honourable court has now slapped the interior ministry, in effect the government, with that charge. Yet nothing but the usual, rusted rhetoric comes out of Islamabad. The prime minister will find selling ‘we have broken the terrorists’ back’ difficult to sell on the campaign trail, especially if he, somehow, really believes it.
But that’s just the internal situation. There’s the outside world to consider too. As we struggle with our demons the Trump administration is putting its final pieces in place ahead of the inauguration in January. And we are just reading it wrong if we think they’ll have a soft spot for us. Regionally, too, there’s not much to write home about. It’s been pretty much downhill since long before the Saarc embarrassment. The Indians, the Afghans, the Bengalis, even the Iranians till recently – pretty much everybody except the Chinese – have written us off. And this downslide has intensified just because we didn’t even take Peshawar seriously enough to force NAP onto its logical course. A question, therefore, begs asking. If Peshawar couldn’t do it, will anything?