You have the watches, we have the time
Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has stirred up a hornet’s nest by sharply digressing from decades old policies that were being pursued by the state. The enigmatic Khawaja, not known for mincing his words, while addressing the Asia Society in New York has admitted that Islamabad needs to ‘do more’ to root out terrorist networks from its territories.
Earlier, in an interview with a private TV channel, he expressed the need for a little bit of introspection and space to set our own house in order before blaming others. But in New York he singled out the Haqqani Network and Hafiz Saeed’s Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist organisations as relics of the US policy in the region.
The foreign minister is counselling patience on part of Washington to sort these groups out. Of course time is of the essence here. But whether the Trump administration is willing to be patient is a moot point.
The PTI chief and a large swath of the media are not happy with Khawaja Asif’s candour. The Khan and his ilk contend that the foreign minister, by engaging in such irresponsible talk, is strengthening the hands of Pakistan’s enemies.
Interestingly, the recently reconciled PML stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan also speaks the same language. Both the Khan and the former interior minister are strong advocates of negotiating with the jihadist groups.
But so far as Nisar is concerned he has a bone to pick with Khawaja Asif. Both senior members of Sharif’s inner circle have not been on speaking terms for more than a decade now.
Nisar and his erstwhile Aitchison College friend, the Khan, obviously also want to curry favour with the military establishment by criticising those whom they reckon are deviating from the officially certified truth.
What is the officially certified truth now? Khawaja Asif has rightly blamed the US for its flawed policies in the region. He contends that the same groups that the US wants Pakistan to flush out by doing more were wined and dined by the White House.
Of course there is a kernel of truth in the foreign minister’s contentions. More than three decades ago Pakistan became a willing tool in ‘Charlie Wilson’s war’, on late Zia’s watch.
The so called Afghan jihad oiled by Washington’s largesse shored up Zia’s autocratic regime that ruthlessly ruled Pakistan for eleven years in the name of a distorted version of Islam. Under Zia Pakistan became the largest training ground of ‘fi sabilillah jihadists’ from all over the world.
Even after the US cut and run from Afghanistan, only to return in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, successive Pakistani regimes continued to foster such groups with their nefarious agendas on its soil. Only during the past decade there has been a somewhat belated realisation that the chickens had finally come home to roost, and the hydra headed monster of terrorism is now devouring its own creator.
The so-called strategic depth theory since the ‘Afghan jihad’ had become a benchmark of our flawed security paradigm. Things somewhat started changing under General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani while he was COAS. But essentially they remained the same.
Kayani was very fond of telling the Americans that they were fighting a futile war in Afghanistan. He would say quite bluntly: “you (the US) have the watches, they (the Taliban) have the time.” In response to Washington’s consistent demand to flush out terrorist groups based in Pakistan Kayani used to tell them, “Afghanistan is our neighbour and we cannot wish away our neighbours as we have to live with them.”
Kayani was of the view that if the military launches an all-out offensive against the jihadists it will be spreading itself too thin. He would glibly claim that India remained an existential threat that cannot be ignored at the expense dismantling the jihadist enclaves on Pakistani soil.
The Pakistan army under Kayani did clear Swat by flushing out Mullah Fazlullah and his group from the valley. But a more comprehensive offensive against the TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) was launched by his successor, former army Chief General Raheel Sharif, fully supported by Sharif’s civilian government.
But the distinction between the so called good and bad Taliban somewhat remained. The ‘good’ being India specific jihadists who were nurtured so carefully by General Musharraf when he was at the helm of affairs.
There is a belated realisation now that this cherry picking is not in Pakistan’s long-term interest. Perhaps the BRICS statement, spearheaded by China naming Pakistan based jihadist groups, was the proverbial last straw.
In this context unsurprisingly Khawaja Asif is making statements quite in variance with policies that were so assiduously pursued in the past. Khawaja Asif owes his job not only to the dint of circumstances but also to the fact that the military for long had been pressing the Sharif government to appoint a full time foreign minister.
Whatever the US, Afghan and India policy the foreign minister has been espousing was discussed threadbare in the National Security Committee (NSC) meetings. Such structured meetings while Nawaz Sharif was prime minister were rarely held. But under the new dispensation there is complete harmony and coordination between the civilian and military leadership.
The latest NSC meeting was called on Friday by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in which, among other important issues, the revised US policy towards Afghanistan and the prevailing regional situation were discussed.
In addition to the high level civ-mil huddle army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa also stopped in Kabul on his way to Moscow to meet senior Afghan officials and discuss a plan to bring the Taliban to the table for peace talks.
Islamabad’s nuanced response to Trump‘s diatribe while espousing his Afghan policy has been deeply appreciated in western capitals. Hence it was no surprise for those in the know of things that Trump deliberately avoided naming Pakistan while addressing the UN general assembly.
Perhaps that is why Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also avoided playing to the gallery by not directly attacking the US president. In any case Trump is too preoccupied with attacking the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un calling him ‘rocket man’ and also castigating the Iranian regime.
The prime minister’s meeting with the US vice president, Mike Pence, on the sidelines of the UNGA reportedly went quite well. At least a roadmap to resume bilateral dialogue was agreed upon.
Both Washington and Islamabad have pressed each other to do more. Pakistan is being urged not to let jihadist groups use its soil as a launching pad to infiltrate into Afghanistan.
While Islamabad wants more time to flush out such groups any terrorist incident with heavy collateral damage that could be traced back to Pakistan-based groups would be an unmitigated disaster.
Pakistan also wants the US administration to treat it with the respect it deserves. But despite beleaguered Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s tall claims, Pakistan’s economy is in doldrums.
This might entail Islamabad being forced to go around the world with a begging bowl. It would need not only Washington’s largesse but also of the international finance institutions (IFIs) it controls.
Hence Pakistan is tied to the west’s apron strings. Perusing a truly independent and sovereign foreign and security policy has its limitations. Even China, our long and trusted friend, speaks the same language so far as reining in Islamic militant groups is concerned.
