‘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.