- What happened?
Gen (r) Janjua’s sudden resignation as national security advisor comes at a crucial time and raises a number of questions. An explanation doing rounds in the press, that he stepped down because the government that hired him no longer held office, is not very convincing. PML-N was, after all, hardly the driving force behind Gen Janjua replacing Sartaj Aziz just when the military, under Gen Raheel Sharif, was in sensitive negotiations with USA, Afghanistan as well as India. He never gave anybody reason to complain, and seemed to have facilitated army-government interaction just as well after the change of command in Rawalpindi.
He was particularly successful, reportedly, in back-door dealings with India, especially when the neighbour was increasingly hostile under the Modi dispensation. His meetings with his Indian counterpart and senior intelligence officials have helped keep the balance even when the two governments were openly belligerent towards each other. And he, just like everyone else with a central role in the war against terror, must have spent his share of sleepless nights in the multi-national effort to engineer an endgame to the Afghan war.
With the recent Kabul-Taliban Eid ceasefire experiment playing out relatively well, even though fierce violence returned as soon as it expired, there is reason to believe that a doable solution might finally be within reach. Pakistan, of course, will play a crucial role in setting up any formal negotiations that help end the war. But with Janjua suddenly out of the picture, Islamabad might not immediately find an ideal replacement – one with long working knowledge of complex negotiations with a number of countries, and personalities. Whatever made him quit such an important position so suddenly should be made public. Pakistan’s security situation affects everybody and there is no reason for such events to be shrouded in secrecy.