Plenty, apparently
In hindsight, it would have taken a Ch Nisar, no less, to do what he did, both prior to and after the Karachi airport attack. Let’s start from where he started mattering, to the prime minister, no less. Remember the talks with the Taliban policy was something of a turnaround? The PM had hinted military action himself, and then surprised everyone, including the assembly and the brass, by embracing the Nisar doctrine at the last minute, literally.
In a way, this typifies Nawaz’s way of doing things – first there’s indecision, then there’s paralysis, and finally a strong liking for an abstract idea. And more often than not, such back-and-forth wastes precious time, which in turn allows ‘other’ players to make their presence felt. A classic example was letting things turn sour over the recent Geo incident.
But back to Ch Nisar. The talks have gone on for some months and despite a superficial ceasefire, the only thing tangible they could achieve was a select prisoner release in favour of the Taliban. Yet the N-clique refused to revise its position, and only grudgingly accepted unilateral military strikes as “same page” policy. Even so, as time went on and the N-league drew criticism for leveraging APC unanimity to legitimise its own core, religious-right constituency, Nawaz & Co refused to revise policy, with the result that differences with the military increased, so did N’s own isolation, and a sense of detachment from the people.
By the time of the Karachi airport attack, though, it seemed the only people still favouring talks were Maulana Sami and Ch Nisar. And that the two seem hesitant to change their position even after the incident betrays a divorce from reality that might have an audience in Akora Khattak, but simply cannot be allowed in the country’s most sensitive corridors of power. Perhaps Mian sb has had just such a realisation of late. And perhaps that explains the chatter in the capital, that the prime minister might have chosen a more rational mindset to lend his ear to.
Certainly, the airport attack would not have pleased the prime minister. And it wouldn’t have helped matters that his interior minister was not taking any calls, allegedly, during the attack. And when came time to explain matters, Ch Nisar simply uttered the old ‘outside forces’ and ‘foreign hands’ excuses. There is still no mention of the T-word.
It is true that insurgencies are proxy battles carefully stoked, and funded, by foreign, hostile elements. But the government is advised that instead of always pointing fingers abroad, it must first put its own house in order. And the way the N government has tried to deal with the TTP threat has not been very impressive. It must overcome its indecision and paralysis immediately, and understand that the threat level has gone up several notches since the botched talks began. And now, following Karachi, it can spread like a cancer through the length and breadth of the country if urgent, and necessary, steps are not taken to nip this evil in the bud in North Waziristan.
