And the government hasn’t got one
Successive governments failed to create a narrative, or an understanding based on religious dictum that terrorism has no space in our religion
Brigadier (Retd) Ghazanfar, Ali Sitara-e-Imtiaz Military, was commissioned in Infantry regiment in 1973 and holds a masters degree in Defence and Strategy Studies and also an alumni of National Defence University.
He has commanded ISI in Punjab and has commanded military intelligence set ups in Punjab and Kashmir.
He has also been Director Counter Terrorism in Pakistan Army and Secretary Crisis Management in Government of Punjab and has served in various positions all over Pakistan.
Brigadier Ghazanfar is reputed defence and geostrategic analyst who has written for reputed publications and appears regularly on various national TV channels.
DNA sat with the retired brigadier and had a conversation about recent tragedy in Parachinar and what the apathy and aloofness of various quarters, including media and politicians, could mean and translate into in both the short term and the long run.
Question: Do you believe that the government machinery is less responsive, at least immediately, to terrorist attacks that carry sectarian connotations of the likes of Parachinar? And are the Shi’a – who have been target-killed, mass murdered, etc, since well before the war on terror – the so-called dispossessed of this war?
Brig Ghanzafar Ali: If you see the onslaught of sectarian conflict and relate it to the terrorism, then you’ll have to go back at least 15 years or further back till Zia-ul-Haq’s era. When Sipah-e-Sahaba came into being with their Salafi school of thought and immediately after the Iranian Revolution, there was some upsurge in Pakistan as far as Shi’a community is concerned. Both Shi’a and Sunni formed their militant wings in Form of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Muhammad and other outlets.
There the active clash started, before those days there was less involvement of foreign powers in Pakistan. Since then one can count the number of incidents where the Shi’a were massacred. Also one can identify incidents where the Shi’a were the attackers, like attacking a mosque in Multan a couple of years back. The foreign proxies had been at the helm of affairs in intriguing Shi’a-Sunni conflict in Pakistan. It is a tribute to the resilience of people of Pakistan that to date despite the serious lags on part of governments things have not gone out of hand.
Successive governments failed to create a narrative, or an understanding based on religious dictum that terrorism has no space in our religion. What we see are physical operations by intelligence agencies or police or army. We desperately need a counter narrative against the allure that extremism has for the disenfranchised. The ultimate responsibility lies on the government, we should have formed syllabus in our institutions right from the beginning that banishes sectarianism once and for all. We have failed to apprise the general public of the games that are afoot as well.
Just going and sitting with them won’t solve a thing, the government has to go further. So far they have not been attentive to the entirety of the problem and must wake up to it sooner rather than later.
Q: How do you explain the media and official blackout, by and large, of the Parachinar dharna in its early days? It seems popular media was more interested in men getting facials for Eid than the fallout of the pre-Eid attacks in fata. Your thoughts?
GA: What has happened today is that basically, whether it is print or electronic media, it runs on marketing. And I am not talking about marketing of the products sold by manufacturers and corporations and others. Marketing of the news now dictates the priorities of news organisation. They pay more heed, and hence allot more time slots, to issues that are more attractive to viewers or readers. Issues that revolve around the mighty and powerful get more attention in media, an example is recent appearance of prime minister before the Joint Investigation Team probing Panamagate. The whole media had its eyes and ears on it.
However, I personally feel that the coverage of the incident in Parachinar has to be partially controlled for various reasons. And for this I would like to give an example. Americans have been fighting in Afghanistan, there have been number of casualties. But recently on a visit to the US I wanted to know about the coverage of Afghanistan, as I tuned into channels there was hardly any news. They controlled their media, so that people don’t panic about it. They should compel government as there is a dharna going on and force the government to come out and lend a helping hand.
Q: It is pretty clear that securing fata, despite the years of Zarb-e-Azb, etc, remains a problem. In this backdrop, what is the medium term future of the region? Are sporadic attacks, that often claim mass casualties, just a feature of life everyone will have to adjust to?
GA: That is a very ,very sensitive thing and when we talk about it, let us keep in mind that the forces have cleared fata, they have clearly removed enemy safe havens. However, still there are folks who have been sitting there and have patronage of CIA, Mossad, RAW, NDS and they all have a joint nexus in Afghanistan.
We have grey areas, we have fault lines, and those fault lines are based on our specifically religious divide. And instead the ulemas of various factions cementing that divide, they are increasing the gulf. That is one of reasons that terrorists are exploiting this divide for their personal ends.
No doubt FATA needs immediate reforms, but it does not need reforms that can stretch to 20 years. By not undertaking reforms, we may very well be creating another basket of terrorists
The Taliban have misled the people and government has left the affairs to army and its agencies. There has been a complete lack of vision on the government’s part. People like Mangal Bagh, Khalifa Khurasan and others, sitting abroad, are mainly responsible for it. Afghanistan has become a puppet in the hands of America and India and both have a huge role to play in it also.
Q: What about the FATA reforms? Why is the process stalled? And can it help the security situation in the long run?
GA: I would only say that reforms have long been neglected. The state of backward areas like fata, where there had been no education, no health care facilities, no electricity and no improvement since the inception of Pakistan has never gone down well with the common man. They are still living in the age of pre-independence. So, to undo the 65-70 years of repression and neglect, we need a highly visionary leadership.
We need a leadership that could look into the future of this country fifty years ahead. We need those leaders who have the ability to turn the events. I ask a simple question. Do we have that leadership? And if we don’t, which is self-explanatory, everything will be in the doldrums.
Whether we have fata as a province or incorporated in KPK, what will happen when you have to allocate resources? You’ll have to create a system of governance, what does the government have to offer on that front?
No doubt FATA needs immediate reforms, but it does not need reforms that can stretch to 20 years. By not undertaking reforms, we may very well be creating another basket of terrorists. See, people in a deprived society have no other choice but to take up arms.
Q: We’ve been told, yet again, that ‘the enemy’ is fanning sectarian tensions in Pakistan. Who is this enemy, and why can’t we stop it?
GA: Your question has got a very wide angle. I’ve already told you that we have got our fault lines. Having said that, there is nexus of some international powers hell bent to destabilise Pakistan. There are already proxy wars going on in Pakistan initiated by other states, so we have enemies sitting down there.
Mr Modi and Mr Trump, and their evil nexus, are also our enemies in their guise. Then there are terrorist organisations that have been created, abetted, funded and organised by foreign intelligence agencies. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar had a recent meeting with RAW operatives, all the fighting in fata has been sponsored by the these intelligence agencies, so you have enemies planted within as well.
People who have been alienated are at the forefront of such initiatives. So, there are a number of hidden and overt organisations that are at the forefront of these initiatives. Recently, the Indian army Chief said it loud and clear that they don’t need surgical strike ability as they have other ways of destabilising Pakistan.
