The war goes on

Trudging along

The army is clearly pretty sure about its business – immediate and medium term – even as increased terror attacks in the New Year have begun calling the impact of Zarb-e-Azb into question. First the army chief laid rumours about his possible extension to rest – or tried to, at least – and now he has expressed an iron resolve to sort out the mess in Karachi once and for all. Considering the increased attacks, and the need to improve intel-intensive operations in urban centres, Gen Raheel’s Karachi visit was as symbolic as it was operationally essential. The operation will go ahead, and the general is bent upon bringing it to a close, or close to it, by the time he bows out.

There is more than one slight problem with that arrangement, though. Zarb-e-Azb will not come full circle without active participation of the civilian government and its various agencies. And going by the interior minister’s outburst in the House yesterday, the overriding theme of the day is still breakdown and disagreements over NAP. The provinces and the centre are still at loggerheads over implementation, responsibility, funds, priority, etc, and seemingly nobody but the interior minister feels the Plan has been implemented in letter and spirit.

Regrettably, this situation has persisted since before the disturbing uptrend of the New Year, yet the government has done little except renew its blame-game. Even the Charsadda attack – just a year after the APS attack prompted the leadership to promise ‘never again’ – came and went as more or less a routine matter. And now schools are closed all over Punjab, with panic spreading to other provinces. People directly affected by this would find little solace in the government’s all-is-well rhetoric. Unless obvious inefficiencies are removed, the Operation will linger long after the military chief, or the government for that matter, has completed his stipulated course. There is an urgent need to pick up pace; the Operation will not do if it limps along at best.