The Indian Rebuff

By Amir Zia

August 25, 2014

The News

Pakistan should not do anything more than maintain a prolonged period of cold peace with its big neighbour. Meanwhile, the national leadership must refocus the narrative of Pakistan-India relations on the core issue of Kashmir rather than pressing for secondary issues.

 

Pakistan’s civil and military establishment should be thankful to the hard-line Hindu nationalist Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, for making the rules of diplomatic engagement with Islamabad clear in the opening months of his five-year term.

The much awaited foreign secretary-level talks between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours – supposed to take place in Islamabad on August 25 – have been called off by New Delhi because of the Pakistani high commissioner’s consultative meeting with a moderate Hurriyat leader Sabir Shah.

The Indian foreign ministry declared the Pakistani envoy’s meeting with the Hurriyat leader ‘unacceptable” and called it an “interference” in India’s internal affairs. The crude message remains that Islamabad has to choose between Pak-India “dialogue and hobnobbing with the separatists.”

In a nutshell, it is the Indian way or the highway.

The Pakistani response to the latest Indian diplomatic snub has been lacklustre. The Foreign Office came out with a statement calling the postponement of talks a “setback” and underlining the fact that meetings with Kashmiri leaders have been a longstanding practice prior to the Pakistan-India talks. Similar views were expressed by the Pakistani high commissioner in India as he defended his meeting with the Hurriyat leader.

As the Indian side went on a diplomatic offensive, Pakistan’s political leadership – be it from the ruling party or the opposition – were missing in action and preferred to remain silent on the issue. Perhaps, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his close aides were too overwhelmed by the Azadi (freedom) and Inquilabi (revolutionary) marches and sit-ins by Imran Khan’s PTI and Dr Tahirul Qadri’s PAT in Islamabad.
The Indian rebuff must have jolted Prime Minister Sharif, who is keen to improve relations with India, especially in expanding trade and business ties. He went all the way to New Delhi to participate in the oath-taking ceremony of Modi in a bid to lay foundations of friendly relations with India. But Sharif’s ambitions and expectations of a breakthrough in ties with India are unrealistic and fail to take into account the priorities of the Modi government.

The beleaguered Pakistani prime minister is already getting a lot of flak from critics for showing an undignified haste in his one-sided attempt to improve relations with New Delhi. And in this bid to boost trade and business, he initially failed even to bring all the other key stakeholders, including the powerful military establishment, on board.

Indian inflexibility on the rules of engagement with Pakistan should also be an eye-opener for the ultra-liberal and business interest groups which want to have the “so-called good relations” with India at any cost. By this they mean: putting the core problem of Kashmir not just on the back-burner but forgetting it altogether. Siachen and Sir Creek – considered the much smaller of the disputed issues – in fact remain non-existent for the Pakistani doves.

The new Indian condition on holding talks with Pakistan aims not only to keep one of the key stakeholders – the Kashmiri leadership – out of the loop on any discussion regarding the future of the disputed Himalayan region, but also to shut the doors of any meaningful future engagement on this protracted problem in which the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people is a cornerstone.

But from the very onset, the Modi government intends to rewrite and dictate the rules of even ‘talks about talks’ in a firm departure from past convention in which Pakistan always consulted with the leadership of Occupied Kashmir before holding any negotiations with New Delhi. Such consultative meetings – as the recent one between Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit and Hurriyat’s Sabir Shah – have remained a norm even when BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister.

Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf had a detailed meeting with Hurriyat leaders in New Delhi ahead of his 2001 summit in Agra with Vajpayee. However, in recent years when Pakistan’s civilian representatives visited India, they were asked by their hosts not to meet the Kashmiri leadership – and they obliged.

While the peace lobbies in both Pakistan and India see the indefinite postponement of foreign secretaries-level talks a major blow to the efforts to normalise relations between the two countries, the Indian decision itself should not come as a surprise to those who have been closely following Modi’s election campaign promises to his supporters and the anti-Pakistan rhetoric he and his administration have been indulging in since coming to power in May this year.

The Indian decision of not engaging with Pakistan for any meaningful dialogue, let alone resuming the stalled composite dialogue, fits Modi’s domestic agenda in which he wants to push for the controversial move of abrogating Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which grants a special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir. The Modi administration aims to win 44-plus seats in the Jammu and Kashmir state elections due later this year to form its government. It hopes to scrap the autonomous status for Kashmir if it wins the state elections with the help of its majority in the Indian parliament. Certainly, improving relations with Pakistan does not fit in the realisation of the dream of constitutionally making Occupied Jammu and Kashmir India’s integral part.

This explains Modi’s recent anti-Pakistan rhetoric during his recent visit to Kargil where he accused Islamabad of waging a “proxy war of terrorism” against India. This was the first visit to Kargil by an Indian prime minister since the 1999 mini-war with Pakistan in this treacherous region.

India’s well thought-out hardening of diplomatic stance came against the backdrop of an increase in cross-border firing incidents by Indian troops on the disputed frontier. According to military sources, the Indian Border Security Force committed 23 ceasefire violations at the working boundary during July and August. These unprovoked firing incidents occurred in Charwa, Harpal and Chaprar sectors near Sialkot. In August alone, Indian firing killed three civilians and wounded 12 others. Incidents of violation of ceasefire at the Line of Control by Indian troops have also intensified in the recent months.

These renewed tensions have effectively scuttled the little advances the two countries made to normalise their relations, especially on the trade front, during the previous Congress rule.

Even before postponement of secretary-level talks, the Modi government made its intentions clear through a statement in May that it wants to restart the process of trade talks from the point of September 2012 and not January 2014. This means all the gains made during this period on this front now stand nullified and the two countries are back to their previous positions – square one.

It has been a persistent policy of successive Indian governments to reduce the ambit of talks to lesser issues of trade, terrorism and trial of the suspected masterminds of the Mumbai attacks rather than resuming the stalled process of composite dialogue which aims to address all the core issues, including the Kashmir problem, that bedevil relations between the two South Asian neighbours.

India has effectively and proactively managed to set the agenda, pace and tone of its engagements with Pakistan. On the contrary, Pakistan’s civilian leadership is rudderless and appears to be pushing for the unrealistic goal of improved relations without taking account of the Indian mood.

Yes, good and friendly relations with all neighbours is a goal worth pursuing and is also the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy. But the time for this great idea has not come yet – thanks to Indian rigidity.

So what are the realistic options for Pakistan? It should not do anything more than maintain a prolonged period of cold peace with its big neighbour. Meanwhile, the national leadership must refocus the narrative of Pakistan-India relations on the core issue of Kashmir rather than pressing for secondary issues. It should also aim for political stability, economic revival and peace which remain vital for the country’s strong defence. Only an economically and militarily strong Pakistan can hold meaningful peace talks with India.

Aping The March

By Amir Zia
August 18, 2014
The News

The Pakistani idea of revolution or revolutionary struggle falls in the category of the theatre of the absurd. Amidst all the glare and racket of 24/7 television, clever one-liners in the new media, our politicians and many of their innocent followers think that staging revolution remains akin to going to a dinner party or playing an exciting 20/20 cricket match which guarantees instant results. 

Most of our current set of politicians attempt to sell clichéd slogans, borrowed ideas and half-baked truths to their followers. Originality and creativity is certainly not their forte. The very symbolism of their campaigns, protests and sometimes even manifestos are no more than poor-quality, third-rate aping of great concepts and mighty struggles.
Take for instance the concept of the ‘long march’ which has been lingering in our politics for the past several decades and has been rechristened – once again – as the ‘Azadi March’ by Imran Khan and the ‘Revolutionary March’ by Dr Allama Tahirul Qadri. 
Before these two gentlemen, some of our frontline politicians including Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, and Qazi Hussain Ahmed all tried to stage this or that kind of march – including the Train March, the Million March etc. But the Pakistani versions of ‘long marches’ proved to be not even a passing shadow of the historical Chinese ‘Long March’ carried out by the communist forces under Chairman Mao Zedong’s command in 1934-35. This march spanned nearly 370 days and covered 9,000 kilometres, passing through some of the most difficult terrain.
The Chinese Long March was a retreat undertaken by the Red Army to dodge the counter-revolutionary forces of Chiang Kai-shek and marked Chairman Mao’s steep climb to the power.
The Chinese Long March is seen as one of the greatest physical feats of the 20th Century in which barely 10,000 of the Red Army soldiers survived – out of a total of around 87,000. Mao himself remained in the forefront with his soldiers, never abandoning them for rest or recreation.
Compare Mao with the political pygmies of the world of Pakistani politicians, who in their ‘revolutionary’ zeal travel in first class or plush bullet-proof vehicles and rest in sprawling homes after every few hours. Indeed, even the slightest symbolic comparison of the Pakistani marchers with the Chinese one appears as a crude joke. Barring the farcical copy of the name, there is nothing remotely comparable between the Pakistani and Chinese marchers. For one, Pakistan marchers have always been on wheels. The Imran-Qadri duo is certainly not the only one that stands guilty of bluffing the masses.
Some light stone pelting by rivals, a first few drops of rain or being on the road for 40 hours or so make them yearn for the solitude, peace and comfort of their home as PTI chairman Imran Khan did when he left his troops at Gujranwala to speed up his journey towards Islamabad. Definitely, Imran has not done anything which the current breed of Pakistani politicians normally don’t practice when pitted against the odds. However, in the initial round of his campaign aimed to dislodge Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan has cut a sorry figure before his followers and critics alike. Will he be able to bounce back in round two during his ‘dharna’ (sit-in) at the federal capital and lead from the front? Perhaps it is too early to say this as these lines are written on this cloudy Saturday afternoon. 
But if Imran is serious in getting Sharif’s resignation – leaving aside the debate whether his demand is constitutional or unconstitutional – our former cricketing hero needs to improve his game and put up a better show than what he did by escaping from Gujranwala.
The ‘million march’ campaigns announced at the drop of the hat by none other than the Jamaat-e-Islami since the days of its former ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmed also proves one delusionary exercise. Since my reporting days in the early 1990s to this date, never once were a million marchers at the disposal of the Jamaat. Yes, there had been tens of thousands of people attending their street shows, but the figure of million remains a toll order. Fifty thousand or 100,000, maybe a little more or less did participate. Yet, most of our media rather than calling a spade a spade always went by the figure or the label given by the organisers. That’s what we call intellectual honesty – Pakistani style.
The Pakistani idea of revolution or revolutionary struggle also falls in the category of the theatre of the absurd. Amidst all the glare and racket of 24/7 television, clever one-liners in the new media, our politicians and many of their innocent followers think that staging revolution remains akin to going to a dinner party or playing an exciting 20/20 cricket match which guarantees instant results. This underlines that they remain totally devoid of the understanding of the political process and a sense of history. Their revolution or call of a ‘naya’ (new) Pakistan begins and ends with just a change of faces in the corridors of power. And the new faces are none other but their own. 
The true meaning of revolution – which destroys the old structures, brings sweeping socio-economic changes in a society with one brutal act of violence, and topples the ruling elite and replaces them with a new one – remains nowhere on their agenda. Even revolution becomes a sham slogan in Pakistan just as many believe democracy has already become in this Islamic Republic. 
Our similarity with all the great concepts, symbols and struggles begins and end with the tag, which Pakistani politicians have mastered in adopting for their gimmickries.
The very issues that dominate the narrative of our politics also remain mind- boggling. The top two or three issues dominating Pakistani political scene remain absent from the discourse of the ruling party as well as the opposition.
The challenge of militancy and extremism – the most pressing issue for Pakistan – appears to exist only for the armed forces. The civil government is content by paying mere lip-service to the cause and remains a reluctant partner in the effort to defeat the local and foreign militants. 
The opposition parties demanding Sharif’s resignation do not consider this is an issue worthy even to mention during their protests. The friendly opposition also has a wishy-washy position on the issue.
The effective military operation against terrorists has provided space to the civilian leadership to carry out reforms not just in the conflict hit areas but the entire country. These reforms should aim to de-radicalise and defeat the extremist mindset. But there is hardly any push in this direction. The civilian leadership has also been unable to provide the much needed support to the efforts of the security forces by introducing the required judicial reforms for quick dispensation of justice. The ban on the death penalty continues to remain the biggest dichotomy in our legal system with courts handing down death sentences, but the executive failing to implement them.
The fragile state of economy, poor governance, sorrowful state of social indicators including education and healthcare, soaring crime, the ordinary man’s inability to get cheap and speedy justice and other such issues are nowhere on the radar of our rulers and the pseudo revolutionary or friendly opposition parties wanting to save the system.
There is too much politics, too much political excitement around us to keep the nation on the tenterhooks, but there is too little awareness, too little debate and discourse and hardly any effort to address genuine issues.
Compare the performance of our politicians with India’s hard-line Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on the occasion of his country’s Independence Day, focused his speech not on grand plans but about issues that bother the common Indian every day. Issues like provision of toilets to hundreds of millions of people, highlighting the barbaric practice of killing the girl child, slamming the rape culture and taking pride in the growing and expanding digital India. 
The Indian premier appears to have his hand on the pulse of India. What about our politicians? They seem to dwell on some other planet which remains out of bound for ordinary Pakistanis.

Our Ethos

By Amir Zia
Thursday, August 14, 2014
The News

No matter how irresponsibly our packs of politicians behave in their mad lust for power and greed, ordinary Pakistanis – people like you and me, our peasants, workers, and soldiers – remain the best guarantors of Pakistan’s future.

The piercing calls for revolution, the vociferous trumpets of ‘Azadi March’ and the cyclical chorus by the government and its cheerleaders of some evil conspiracy being hatched against democracy may have overwhelmed the new and old media these days, but for the majority of ordinary Pakistanis August remains a month of festivity and joy – come what may.
Despite all the lurking uncertainty on the political horizon and the grind of daily life, there are still these soothing clouds in the sky – as they always are in August – providing relief from the scorching sun and filling many hearts with music, merriment and romance. Yes, that’s what the monsoon season means for the people in our region. As Europeans celebrate the sunshine, we rejoice the rain. Power failures and flooded roads fail to dampen our love for heavy, dark clouds and the resultant downpour. 
With August also come Independence Day celebrations, which need no official patronage, prodding or the unfurling of some mammoth flag to inspire and energise the nation. These celebrations are a spontaneous affair. Different sized national flags dot almost each and every home – from our remote villages, towns to the sprawling cities. Be it the tiny huts of the have-nots, the houses and apartment buildings of our lower and middle class neighbourhoods or the sprawling mansions of the rich, there are green and white flags fluttering in whichever direction you look. People hoist and wave these flags on their own – from their hard earned money.
The majority of Pakistanis just flow with the tide as they mark August 14 festivities. It is the small display of their love for the country and the pride they take in their identity. Despite our electricity woes, buildings are illuminated… there are streamers and a sea of small colourful paper flags. National songs blare, special events are held – mostly organised by the people themselves in almost each and every neighbourhood.
You realise that one fine August day you are relieved of your duty of hoisting the national flag at your house which you have been performing since your teens. This duty has now been taken over by your son or daughter. It was you who inculcated in them this tradition when they were young just as your father did in your good old days. The spirit of Independence Day passes from one generation to another. This transition happens so naturally and quietly, but you feel elated and proud when you grasp its meaning.
Luckily, there are still a few of those around us who witnessed history being made… the dawn of independence. They can still recall the fervour of those days, the struggle, the lofty dreams and the great vision for Pakistan, which defied all the odds to become a reality. An independent country meant to ensure the social, economic and political rights of the Muslim-majority provinces of British India. Many of us got their first lessons in history in the lap of those who witnessed and played some role in the independence movement and the formative years of the country.
You ask representatives of this generation and they will tell you that the founding fathers of Pakistan had to walk though a minefield to realise their goal – fighting on two fronts, the Congress and the reactionary bandwagon of Muslim clerics, who opposed the creation of an independent Muslim homeland tooth and nail. Most of the leading religious parties of their time – from Majlis-e-Ahrar-e Islam to Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind to the Jamaat-e-Islami and the clerics in the pocket of the Congress – opposed Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah and his idea of Pakistan.
It was the moderate, enlightened and educated Muslims, particularly students, who became the vanguard of the Pakistan Movement and stood like a rock with the Quaid. Their idea of Pakistan was of a moderate, progressive and a modern country in contrast to the concept of a theocratic state. And this very idea of a moderate, progressive and modern Pakistan became the rallying cry for the majority, from poor Muslim peasants in the rural areas to the small-time urban workers, and lower and middle classes.
Ironically, these ideological battle lines drawn in the pre-independence days between the moderates and the extremists exist even now. The heirs of the conservative, anti-Quaid and anti-Pakistan clerics want to sell their violent, intolerant and highly flawed interpretation of Islam through the use of brutal force, killings, sectarian strife and terrorism. This is a scourge that has consumed tens of thousands of lives of both civilians and security personnel since 2002 and against which our valiant armed forces are pitted even now.
In the 1940s, the collective will and consciousness of the people defeated these extremist and reactionary forces to win their independence. Today again they need to be vanquished to preserve this independence and ensure progress and development of the country.
On August 14, 1947, the challenges for the new state, which comprised some of the most backward and underdeveloped areas of British India, were indeed staggering. There were last minute unjust changes in the demarcation of the boundaries which gave even some of the Muslim-majority districts of Punjab and Bengal to India, forcing Quaid-e-Azam to say that he inherited a ‘mutilated and moth-eaten Pakistan.’ There was an influx of refugees amidst harrowing incidents of carnage and slaughter on both sides of the divided frontier. 
Pakistan was denied and deprived of its share of resources by the Indian Congress in the initial months of independence; the aim was to stifle the new country soon after its birth. The predictions by detracters of Pakistan were that it would collapse. But despite all the odds, traumas of Partition and injustices, we as a nation survived and the country’s foundations were laid brick by brick – staggering at times, committing mistakes and blunders, but managing to remain afloat nevertheless.
The British left a festering wound in the scenic Himalayan region of Kashmir – the divided Muslim-majority princely state the heart of which was seized by India and is still one of the unfinished agendas of Partition.
This is one crime against Pakistan that we as a nation can never forget or forgive. Our current momentary weakness should never make us sacrifice the long-term interest of the state. A few decades, or even a century, are just a dot in the flow of history. We must keep the issue alive and continue all possible political and diplomatic support for the freedom struggle in Kashmir.
No matter what prophecies of doom and gloom cynics of the ultra-right and the ultra-liberals make about the future of this country as they try to dilute the state and its identity, no matter how irresponsibly our packs of politicians behave in their mad lust for power and greed, ordinary Pakistanis – people like you and me, our peasants, workers, and soldiers – remain the best guarantors of Pakistan’s future.
It is the ordinary Pakistani, our man on the street, who produces and creates wealth. It is the armed forces which defend the frontiers and fight both our external and internal enemies. Parasites living on forced donations, on alms or wealth acquired through loot, plunder and corruption are not the representatives of the real Pakistan. You have to just see beyond the small bubble of the television talk show world and the virtual universe of new media to see this vibrant and resilient nation, which despite all political uncertainty and chaos marks its Independence Day. Nations brace tougher times and far graver challenges than Pakistan faces today, but there should be no room for despondency. We as a nation can overcome these hard times. We must have hope and unwavering belief.
“The story of Pakistan, its struggle and its achievement”, in the words of Quaid-e-Azam, “is the very story of great human ideals, struggling to survive in the face of great odds and difficulties.” We must have faith! Let’s wish a happy Independence Day to every Pakistani.

Escape To Nowhere

By Amir Zia
August 11, 2014
The News

Even if Sharif manages to weather the storm, he is likely to emerge as a much weakened prime minister for the inevitable next round. Dr Qadri and Imran can smell blood.
 
Pakistan’s nascent democratic order again appears to be gasping and battling for survival. It is not just the government, but the entire system that now seems to be at stake. There is, indeed, a rare consensus on both sides of the sharp political divide while painting this gloomy scenario.
Those who want Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to complete his five-year term see a conspiracy afoot against the democratic system in the form of Imran Khan’s ‘Azadi March’ and Dr Tahirul Qadri’s call for a revolution. Those determined to send the government packing also hear echoes of drum beats and marching boots if Sharif continues to act as – what they term – a ‘monarch.’
It is ironic that a little over one year after the 2013 elections – which gave Sharif a comfortable majority in parliament – the political space is rife with speculation on whether the elected government will survive or not. The guessing game is on. Is the unthinkable going to happen this month, this year… or will Sharif defy all the odds and be able to survive all the googlies of Qadri and toe crushers of the great Khan?
If you are a born optimist, even in these times of uncertainty and days of political turmoil there is a glimmer of hope. Yes, the good news is that most traditional political forces – be they at the centre or the provinces – are on one page to save democracy and the beleaguered PML-N government. The PPP wants Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to complete his term. The Jamaat-e-Islami is working overtime to broker a deal between Sharif and his arch-rival Imran Khan. The Baloch and Pakthtun nationalists, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and many other significant and insignificant lovers of democracy all want this wobbly and dysfunctional system to continue. Period!
The optimists see this commitment to democracy as a sign of maturity of our key political players, who are refusing to be part of any alleged conspiracy to derail the democratic order. One of our national leaders summed up the sentiment of the democratic forces in this oft-repeated cliché: ‘the worst kind of democracy is better than a dictatorship’. 
Those who are politically correct believe that, given time and space, the democratic forces will learn and unlearn through trial and error and be able to emerge as dependable stakeholders in the system. 
But if you are a fatalistic realist – like many Pakistanis are – the haunting question is: do we have time for all this trial and error which is considered part and parcel of democracy in a country like Pakistan where the democratic institutions are weak and appear to be non-performing? For many, the very faces of our champions of democracy are enough to sink one’s heart. The batting order may appear impressive on paper, but the scorecard is indeed dismal.
We have Prime Minister Sharif, who started the journey with a lot of hope and promise in 2013, but despite parliamentary majority now stands vulnerable – thanks to making wrong choices, stoking unnecessary and avoidable conflicts and a highly autocratic and personalised way of running the affairs of the government. All the days of exile and political wilderness failed to transform this third-time elected prime minister into a statesman, which the country desperately needs at this crucial juncture. 
Then we have the former president, Asif Ali Zardari. The very name and his doings bring either revulsion or satirical smiles on most faces. The people of urban and rural Sindh are still caught in the twin web of the PPP-MQM rule which is known for its rampant corruption, criminal misrule, nepotism and lawlessness. 
One can keep counting the names and deeds of these defenders of democracy – only to realise that there hardly seems any light at the end of the tunnel. Even if mid-term elections are held tomorrow – as Imran Khan wants – the complexion of parliament is unlikely to change. There will be scions of the same old tribal and feudal families and crony industrialists dominating the house as they do today. Their way of governance will also be the same no matter which political party they belong to. This is a harsh fact, unlikely to change unless sweeping socio-economic reforms are introduced in the country. But then who will bell the cat?
Nevertheless, the battle royal continues…and despite efforts by some of the traditional stakeholders to prevent the showdown and break the political impasse, the writing on the wall is ominous.
The government is resorting to the same old tried and tested oppressive administrative tactics to prevent protesters from assembling in the federal capital against the backdrop of the much delayed move to reach some kind of a deal at least with Imran Khan and his PTI. The mood of Dr Qadri and his supporters seems grim as they take on the police, resulting into sporadic incidents of violence in Lahore and some other parts of Punjab. The government also appears to be in no mood to extend an olive branch to him as it is doing in the case of Imran Khan.
The stakes are high. It is now a battle of nerves. Who will blink first? 
Dr Qadri, being the odd ball, has no stakes in the system and appears determined to go at any length to make his ‘dream revolution’ happen. Imran Khan, despite having stakes in the system, does not see himself as a traditional political force and takes pride in being the harbinger of change. His protest plans have not just put Sharif into a quandary, but also taken him to a position from where he cannot back out without losing face. And if he goes ahead with his march, the outcome could not be of his liking and possibly beyond his control.
It is a test case for the traditional political forces as well; will they be able to broker a deal that offers a face-saving opportunity to both the government and Khan? The task seems difficult in the limited time at their disposal, but then as the German strongman Otto von Bismarck has so rightly said: politics is the art of the possible – the art of the next best.
However, for conspiracy theorists what still remains a pertinent question is who gave the duo – Dr Qadri and Khan – the confidence to up the ante and believe that the time is ripe to shake the tree? Who will be the ultimate winner in this politics of confrontation and brinkmanship? And the most important question is whether the current turmoil can be blamed just at the doorstep of undemocratic forces or are our elected representatives also responsible for bringing themselves to this sorry state of affairs.
At a time when the armed forces are locked in the operation against foreign and local extremists, this kind of a political crisis remains the last thing which the state and its institutions could have wanted at their hands. But the focus and priorities of our politicians are seldom right.
Conventional wisdom says that the army would never want to pit itself against the people to save Sharif. Similarly, Sharif would not like army to be dragged into the mainstream of the political fray – for that will have a cost. Imran Khan, too, would not want to be seen responsible for pushing the red-lines to an extent that results in the collapse of the system. He too will be a loser in any such eventuality.
Then what? Perhaps all the political forces should attempt to settle for the next best and decide to fight another day. But, it is also a fact that one becomes hostage to circumstances and left with no choice other than to match words with actions. Unleashing the genie of public wrath is sometimes easy, but controlling its outcome often proves next to impossible. 
Even if Sharif manages to weather the storm, he is likely to emerge as a much weakened prime minister for the inevitable next round. Dr Qadri and Imran can smell blood.

‘Fight Till The End’

By Amir Zia
August 4, 2014
The News

The operation has provided the much-needed space to the government in which it can focus on mid- to long-run reforms that should aim at defeating the extremist mindset... Do our civilian lords and masters have any plan of action to vanquish the enemy on this front? So far it seems business as usual.  

‘No more hideouts,’ announces the cover title of the Pakistan armed forces’ monthly magazine ‘Hilal’ in its latest issue. ‘Zarb-e-Azb: Fight till the end,’ it displays in bold letters, underlining the mission statement of Pakistani soldiers and officers pitted against the Al-Qaeda-inspired local and foreign terrorists, who pose the biggest internal security challenge for the country in recent history.

 If the magazine marks and pays tributes to the first martyrs of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, it also provides the rationale on why winning this war remains crucial for Pakistan and its future. One of its main articles, written by leading journalist and analyst Ejaz Haider, explores the ‘centre of gravity’ of the enemy in this irregular war, which he terms as the ‘idea’ that motivates militants.

“The CoG (centre of gravity) in this war… is not the leaders and fighters (of the enemy). It is not the physical infrastructure, which in any case, will be very basic…

“The CoG in this war is the idea. The state has to fight the idea with an idea. That front requires bringing the state in sync with society. Operations can merely provide the space to the state and society to that.”

 For many ultra-liberals and hard-line rightwing politicians and activists, who still doubt the resolve and commitment of the armed forces in getting rid of the scourge of extremism and terrorism in the country, this bilingual magazine, carrying separate sections in English and Urdu, offers a window into the thinking of Pakistan’s defenders in unambiguous terms. This thinking has been articulated so many times before not just through public statements of the top military leadership, but also in the way our soldiers are taking on the terrorists in one of the toughest and most treacherous mountainous terrain of the world.

However, many sceptics are continuously trying to undermine the sacrifices and resolve of Pakistani soldiers by saying that the operation remains selective and keeps the distinction between the so-called good and the bad Taliban. In doing this, they are echoing the much-repeated propaganda of hostile foreign powers who find it convenient to blame the Pakistani armed forces for providing safe havens to global terrorists, ignoring the fact that Pakistan itself has been the biggest victim of extremism and terrorism in the region. 

Then there are those who try to raise doubts about the effectiveness of the military offensive against terrorists and still call for the revival of talks with them as our self-proclaimed prime minister-in-waiting, Imran Khan, recently did while talking to journalists in Bannu.

Imran Khan’s isolated cry for a deal with violent non-state actors – trying to create small lawless states within the state and responsible for the killings of thousands of civilians and security personnel since 2002 – manifests the confusion and opportunistic mindset of many of our politicians, who until recently were shamelessly advocating a similar path at the cost of the writ of the state and national sovereignty.

In the pre-operation days of uncertainty and the paralysis of the civilian leadership against the backdrop of mounting attacks by the terrorists, it was the military leadership that remained clear, even then, that peace and rule of law could not be established in the country without fighting and winning this war.

Long before the launch of Zarb-e-Azb, the armed forces appeared clear on what needed to be done to save Pakistan from internal collapse and to prevent bands of religiously-motivated extremists from running wild into the length and breadth of the country as being witnessed in today’s Iraq, Syria and Libya.

As the politicians wavered and wasted precious time in the so-called peace talks to nowhere with militants, the armed forces persistently kept articulating the gravity of the internal challenge and the need to go after these internal enemies of Pakistan. Whether it is through the public statements of the top military brass, the countrywide marking of the Martyrs’ Day on April 30, or the way the armed forces practically trained and prepared themselves for this new challenge…their message has been loud and clear.

Shuja Nawaz, the author of ‘Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within’, and the director of the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council, Washington DC, in his article for Kaiysa Houga 2014 (a joint publication of the Jang Group and the reputed international magazine The Economist) said that General Raheel Sharif’s one key achievement was altering the training curriculum of the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul, where he was commandant prior to taking over the Gujranwala Corps. 

“He introduced new methods of teaching officer cadets to undertake operations against militants. He was instrumental in shifting from exercises purely based on the Foxland-Blueland (India vs Pakistan) construct to scenarios that involved operations against bands of irregulars led by a mullah. During a visit to PMA during his tenure, I learnt of profile images of bearded mullahs being placed on easels in such training exercises at the PMA…He took great pride in the physical training course he had introduced that involved an indoor automated firing range imported from Germany (where he had been trained and also served on attachment) and numerous physical obstacles involving fighting against militants and terrorists.”

It is ironic that the initiative and vision to combat terrorism has not come from politicians, but from the military leadership which in a subtle manner managed to nudge Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to publicly declare war on extremists in North Waziristan.

But even now, the civilian leadership appear to be reluctant partners in this war as they have failed to provide the ideological impetus that is vital to counter the narrative of the extremist forces – seen as a prerequisite for a decisive victory.

While the nation stands solidly behind the armed forces in defeating terrorism, for many of our key politicians making Operation Zarb-e-Azb successful seems to be the responsibility of the armed forces alone.

The contrast between the priorities of the civil and military leaders could be gauged from the fact that the Army Chief General Raheel Sharif spent Eidul Fitr visiting troops in the forefront of the war against terrorists in North Waziristan, while Prime Minister Sharif celebrated Eid in Saudi Arabia along with his family from where he returned on July 31 after taking a 10-day hiatus from the backbreaking work of running this Islamic Republic.

If on Eid day, General Sharif assured Pakistanis that the terrorists’ infrastructure in North Waziristan has been destroyed and they will not be allowed to stage a comeback, our politicians – be they from the opposition or the ruling party – continued with their smear campaigns against each other as they always do in the normal times.

Unfortunately, there appears hardly any acknowledgement by politicians of the fact that Pakistan remains locked in its make-or-break internal conflict. They appear to be content in paying half-hearted lip service to the national cause, which many of them do in an attempt to undermine their rivals.

Winning the battle of narratives – which should be the main front for our politicians – appears nowhere on their list of priorities. The initial success of Operation Zarb-e-Azb can be seen from the fact that the much-feared blowback from militants in our major cities and towns has not yet occurred as their command and control system has been smashed. However, this does not mean that the terrorists have altogether lost the capacity to stage any spectacular strike. But for now they are in disarray as the security personnel have taken the brunt of their initial reaction.

The operation has provided the much-needed space to the government in which it can focus on mid- to long-run reforms that should aim at defeating the extremist mindset that thrives on the misinterpretation of the sacred message of Islam and misguiding the youth. Do our civilian lords and masters have any plan of action to vanquish the enemy on this front? So far it seems business as usual.