New narrative?

Some telling signs

Nawaz Sharif is not known of springing too many surprises, especially the liberal-progressive type. Yet lately he’s been pulling a fair share out of his old hat. The one about turning Pakistan into a liberal country, for example – not to mention celebrating Holi and praising Dr Abdus Salam – shocked not just his core conservative right wing lobby. And there’s more; some of it far more serious. With the LeT warning, Islamabad has set a precedent of sharing intelligence with India. It goes beyond rhetoric; it is a quantifiable, measureable gesture. And after finally coming clean about hosting senior Afghan Taliban, Islamabad has also assured the international community that the militia will talk otherwise we will turn them out.

If that was not enough, the interior minister also ventured into unchartered territory, enlightening the House about how our many non-state actors are destabilising and demonising Pakistan. And, finally, there’s something to be said about the way PML-N has handled the Saudi bloodlust – and all the demands that came with it. We are game as far as intel-sharing, etc, is concerned, it has apparently been conveyed, but we will not interfere in another Muslim country’s affairs, and we will not harm our relationship with Iran because of someone else’s war. Soon we will host the Iranian president and make business deals, while helping Saudis with intelligence and training, which is how it is supposed to be.

From the looks of it, therefore, there seems a recalibration of sorts of the security policy and associated revision of foreign policy. No doubt this stems from the realisation, however belated, that the old way of doing things will not work anymore. We must not only clean the stables but also mend fences where national interest dictates regional cooperation. But promising as some recent signs have been, they amount to merely touching the surface of our multi-faceted security dilemma. It does not, realistically, even solve the problem of the crucial national narrative. Nonetheless, signals are important in wars. And hopefully these are a reflection of more changes to follow.