Fight Or Perish

Amir Zia

The News 

Monday, December 29, 2014

Pakistani armed forces and its people have all the capacity and ability to root out terrorism and extremism from its soil, but all that requires long-term, unwavering commitment. Let’s prepare ourselves for a prolonged mid- to low-intensity conflict. The only choice we have is to fight or perish

The December 16 Peshawar tragedy seems to have finally stirred the country’s top civilian leaders from their long, deep slumber. All of a sudden, it has dawned on them that religious extremism and terrorism pose the biggest existentialist internal threat to Pakistan. 

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his top aides finally seem to have corrected their course. From being passionate proponents of ‘peace talks’ with the local Taliban not so long ago, they are now saying that Pakistan won’t survive if terrorists are not wiped out. Many committed Taliban apologists, from Imran Khan and his PTI to the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl Group), have been quick to state that they stand united to defeat the scourge of terrorism, which has claimed nearly 60,000 lives of both civilians and armed forces personnel since early 2002.

This newfound national consensus among the mainstream political players, including the PPP, the MQM and the ANP, is indeed a big step forward in Pakistan’s protracted war against terrorism. Our ever-bickering, squabbling politicians finally managed to put their act together against the backdrop of a swift and resolute response to the Peshawar massacre from the military leadership. 

Army Chief General Raheel Sharif cut short his Kabul visit and returned home to spearhead and intensify the anti-terror campaign following the Peshawar massacre. As the armed forces started hitting back at local and foreign militants both through ground and air strikes within hours of the Peshawar incident, the civilian leaders were also nudged into action – albeit in a reactive mood.

They partially lifted the controversial and unconstitutional moratorium on the death penalty, at least for terror convicts, after a gap of six long years. The revival of the death penalty has long been a pending demand of the security forces. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that the first two terror convicts sent to the gallows were the ones condemned by a military tribunal.

Decisions such as setting up special military-led courts to try hardened terrorists, strengthening the National Counter-Terrorism Authority, banning hate literature and many other steps to counter the challenge of extremism and terrorism – as announced by Prime Minister Sharif on December 24 following a marathon meeting with the representatives of political parties and the military leadership – have also been long overdue. 

But the civilian leaders agreed to take these necessary and unavoidable steps only after prodding from the military establishment and amidst the unprecedented national grief and anger over the Peshawar barbarity. The government had been dragging its feet on these vital issues in exactly the same manner as it did in taking ownership of Operation Zarb-e-Azb – at least on paper – until it was coaxed in doing so by the military leadership.

At that time, it was the atrocious attack at the old Karachi Airport which finally led to the launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb on June 15. Prior to that, the civilian leaders had been wasting precious time by holding so-called ‘peace talks’ with the TTP.

This wavering and lack of initiative by the civilian leadership raise serious doubts about its commitment, will and vision in taking on and defeating the challenge posed by all sorts of violent local and foreign non-state actors. So far, it has come up only with a timid response to every brutality and crime committed against the people of Pakistan by the various bands of terrorists rather than taking the ideological leadership of this conflict.

This tragedy of delay has cost the nation dearly. On the one hand, it provided political space to militants to operate relatively freely and on the other created an unnecessary wedge and lack of trust between the civil and military institutions. Whole-hearted support, which should have come long ago from the two successive civilian governments, was wanting all these years.

The newfound aggression in the tone of Prime Minister Sharif against extremists and terrorists is indeed a welcome development. But in the past too, the civilian leaders have made big promises and tall claims, but failed to match their words with actions.

The real challenge is not the announcement of new policies and planned steps, but their implementation and sustainability. And on both counts, Pakistani governments have a dismal record. We have seen so many times in the past that in the heat of the moment announcements are made, but they are abandoned once the emotional state is over and politicians realise its subsequent cost – which in this case means that they too would become a legitimate target of the militants as that of the armed forces and civilians.

As a result, successive governments have remained more in a fire-fighting mood and going for insignificant relief measures rather than opting for hard choices which requires bold, but painful short-term measures as well as long-term structural reforms.

To begin with, while the security forces are taking on the militants from the rugged mountains in the north to our densely populated cities and towns, producing a counter ideological narrative to defeat the extremist mindset remains the responsibility of the civilian leadership. In the short-term, it entails forcefully countering the propaganda of the religious extremists, who distort the message of Islam for their narrow political ends. In the mid- to long-term it requires reforms in the education system, especially seminaries, rehabilitation initiatives for second and third tier militants and socio-economic uplift measures, particularly in conflict areas.

Secondly, setting up of special military courts for a two-year period through a constitutional amendment may be the short-term answer to the existing dysfunctional prosecution and judicial system, which allows militants to escape justice through many of its loopholes, but the long-term solution is still sweeping reforms and capacity building of our existing judicial system. That means increasing the number of judges at every level as well as modernising the investigation and prosecution systems. It also requires providing protection to witnesses, prosecutors and judges.

Thirdly, cracking down on extremist clerics is definitely a must-do-task in the immediate context, but in the mid- to long-term there is a need for a comprehensive strategy to free our mosques of hard-line, sectarian clerics to ensure that they emerge as centres of harmony, inter-sect and inter-faith tolerance and peace in our society.

Fourthly, the role of military and paramilitary troops in countering the internal challenge remains of paramount importance, but the long-term solution to fight crime and militancy requires an efficient police force. For this, our civilian rulers must ensure police reforms, which give the force operational and organisational autonomy and free it from political interference.

Fifthly, our political parties need to break their nexus with crime mafias and terror groups. This has been a bane in our urban centres – particularly Karachi.

Since Pakistan abandoned its support to the Afghan Taliban in 2002, the establishment has gradually moved away from its policy of supporting various militants groups, which has resulted in blowback and relentless terrorist attacks in the country. However, the armed forces have scored major victories against these terror groups which were bent upon using Pakistani territory to foment violence both here and abroad. The indiscriminate operation against all the militants targeting Pakistani security forces, sensitive defence installations and civilians is the key to rooting out terrorism from our soil. Operation Zarb-e-Azb articulates this paradigm shift in Pakistan’s security policy, which started shaping up since the days of the last military-led government.

The most important aspect of defeating the twin ghost of extremism and terrorism is that the military and civil leadership work together and keep the nation united for this cause. Today, the nation stands united in its support to the armed forces in confronting this challenge, but going forward there will be a greater need to keep this unanimity intact. Pakistani armed forces and its people have all the capacity and ability to root out terrorism and extremism from its soil, but all that requires long-term, unwavering commitment. Let’s prepare ourselves for a prolonged mid- to low-intensity conflict. The only choice we have is to fight or perish.