Post-North Waziristan Operation

Gen Raheel Sharif must be complimented on the bold initiative of a military operation in North Waziristan to eliminate terrorist outfits threatening to destabilise Pakistan by refusing to accept writ of constitution and enforce their concocted version of religion. After years of dilly-dallying by his predecessors, he had courage, professional integrity and commitment to embark upon this much delayed operation, which if had been carried earlier would have saved thousands of precious human lives, apart from billions of dollars loss to national economy.

However we need to learn some lessons about post-operation measures necessary to achieve the desired results. It must be understood that failure to restore order after the chaos of war will create a vacuum. It is important that military commanders on ground work in coordination with civil administration to put in place an effective system of governance which can provide relief and justice to people. The old decadent system of Political Agents is a relic of the British Raj and must be replaced by a more representative system of governance with local population having a role.

This can only be achieved through constitutional amendments and laws enacted on emergency basis to bring FATA under the ambit of constitution laws, giving its people uniform fundamental rights enjoyed by all citizens of Pakistan. If we fail to do so, the present terrorists will be replaced by another brand of extremists, and these precious human sacrifices of our soldiers and citizens would have been lost in vain. There will be a lot of opposition by powerful vested interest groups for whom status quo has reaped a bonanza in terms of illegal trades they have been involved in.

It is time to adopt Quaid’s doctrine of a modern democratic welfare state, with zero tolerance for corruption and apolitical civil-cum-military bureaucracy, with an effective independent judiciary and shelve these failed doctrines of Zia, Musharraf, Zardari, Kayani and Nawaz etc. We must also try to re-evaluate our security policy in coordination with our regional neighbours, like China etc, instead of singular reliance on one superpower.

MALIK TARIQ ALI

Lahore