Need for a genuine change of course
The National Security Committee needs to take courageous decisions to reverse the process of Pakistan’s increasing isolation. Till recently the country had uneasy relations with the three regional countries alone. In February this year the FATF decided to place Pakistan back on its terror financing watch-list putting it among the states that financially aided terrorism. While old friends US, Britain and France voted against Pakistan, close allies like Saudi Arabia and China did not oppose the resolution. Finance Minister Miftah Ismail gave it little importance calling it a “political resolution” and maintaining that putting Pakistan on the grey list would not hurt the country’s economy. This was sheer self-deception.
A major issue on the NSC’s agenda on Friday was preparing for the next FATF meeting. If one was to go by media reports a similar attitude of complacency prevailed in the meeting. It was reported that there was ‘satisfaction over the progress made so far’ and ‘government functionaries are confident that as they were fully cooperating and meeting FATF requirements so the chances of Pakistan’s placement on ‘grey list’ seemed minimal’. What Deputy Assistant to President Trump and NSC Senior Director for South Asia Lisa Curtis said early this week is the opposite. She maintained at Washington’s Institute of Peace that Pakistan’s territory is still being used by “malign actors”.
Political instability and terrorist acts have slowed down the implementation of CPEC which makes China unhappy. The failure to control terrorist networks particularly in Balochistan and the continuous rise of extremism in the country too weighs heavily on Beijing. The on-going SCO moot is expected to announce new measures to build joint security to combat terrorism, extremism and separatism. Indian and Pakistani troops are to join others from SCO member countries for a joint anti-terrorism drill in Russia. Unless those who matter stop interfering in political affairs, come down hard on extremism, eliminate all terrorist groups without cherry-picking and prioritise improvement of ties with neighbours, Pakistan would continue to lose friends and fail to realize its potential.