Needed: A consensus on foreign and security policy

• Troubled US-Pak-Afghan triangle

Since long, Pakistan is poised at a ‘crossroads’ at any given moment in time. But the crossroads were never so defining, the dangers of taking the wrong fork so fatal, or the existential threats more pronounced. Policy mistakes and errors in judgment are luxuries no longer affordable, failure can spell irreversible catastrophe. Since Trumps’ new Afghan policy, the retired generals now occupying high US administrative posts, and under their influence, the serving ‘office’ and field commanders, are all single-mindedly fixated on Haqqani Network and its alleged safe havens in Pakistan, and increasingly frightful consequences thereof. US threats are becoming grave, last week Rex Tillerson ominously warned that Pakistan risks losing its territory to pampered terrorists, and in a recently released Pentagon report to Congress, the key sentence, amid diplomatic meandering, is that the US will take unilateral action in case of ‘areas of divergence’, in other words, US national interests take precedence over Pakistan’s. The report embodies the familiar ‘do more’ refrain, demands ‘fundamental change’ in so-called terrorist safe haven policy, states over 20 militant groups operate on Pak-Afghan border, but in a sly bit of semantics, talks of ‘sanctuaries’ in Pakistan and only ‘presence’ in Afghanistan. The western border and Balochistan remain restive, courtesy New Delhi hawks, who never tire of upending CPEC and ‘conventional’ war with Pakistan.

The National Security Advisor’s speech at the National Security Policy seminar on Monday highlighted the grim regional picture. He noted that nuclear war in South Asia was a real possibility. He pointed to the flawed US vision, which first sponsored militancy against the USSR, and subsequently failed in the 17 years long Afghan war. It has now turned Pakistan into scapegoat as American strategic interests converge with India over China. Today’s COAS-DGMO’s security briefing to the Senate will hopefully provide answers to question being raised over the last many months. Further a policy with inputs from all stakeholders would be presented before Parliament for approval.