Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Taimur-ul-Hassan
Published on The News ( http://thenews.jang.com.pk/ )
http://www.thenews.com.pk/editorial_detail.asp?id=121675
Last week saw the taking of some crucial decisions by the Gilani government to come to grips with rising militancy in NWFP and the tribal areas. The measures were taken at a meeting chaired by the prime minister and attended by senior government and military officials which was held in the wake of the alarming news that the Taliban are gearing up to take over Peshawar. At around that time, in Tank, Baitullah Mehsud's men militants killed 28 peacekeepers associated with the government–backed Jandola Peace Committee. In Swat, too, 11 girl schools were set ablaze by the local Taliban while a soldier was killed in an attack on a check post in Shah Deri. While the menace of militancy is taking its toll in the tribal areas and Swat, Hamid Karzai's government has chipped in with its accusation that Pakistan is not doing enough to stop infiltrations from its tribal areas into Afghanistan. He, quite comically, went on to say that he would send Afghan troops into Pakistan if the infiltration persisted.
However, the fact is that the Americans themselves have been propagating that Pakistan has become a new haven for Al Qaeda and the Taliban, making unsubstantiated claims about the presence of Osama bin Laden and his close aides in the tribal belt. To keen observers of American strategic planning, all the hype about Pakistan's tribal areas being new hubs of al Qaeda and Taliban having link with the Afghan Taliban, mostly active in southern Afghanistan, is meant to conjure up Pakistan as the epicentre of terrorism.
In this backdrop, it would be fair to say that Pakistan finds itself caught in the crosshairs of vested interests of foreign powers and any laxity now on stamping out militancy in the NWFP and the tribal areas could prove catastrophic. To cope with this situation, the prime minister seems to have done well to make a coordinated effort to address this issue that is central to Pakistan's survival as an independent state. By assigning the army chief the task of looking after the military side and entrusting the NWFP governor the job of overseeing peace deals with the local Taliban, including Baitullah Mehsud, and diverting funds to develop the militancy-infested areas, a three-pronged strategy has been initiated.
This decision coincides with a report that American lawmakers led by Democratic Senator Joseph Biden are planning to introduce a law in Congress which will triple non-military aid to Pakistan and to tie the release of military aid to progress in the war on terror. It has also been proposed to stop attacks by drones inside Pakistan and seek the government's approval before launching any such operation. In view of the fact that eight drone attacks have occurred this year alone, and the negative effect they have had on local sentiment, such a proposal is welcome.
Mr Biden visited Pakistan in February to observe the general elections and praised the country's return to democracy. He has also talked about what he claims Pakistan's failure in preventing cross border infiltrations, terming the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as "a freeway of fundamentalism". That is why, in addition to strengthening counter terrorism efforts at the operational level, the US aid is directed at building schools, roads, clinics and develop the extremist- infested regions of NWFP as a broader strategy to remove the root causes of terrorism.
From a wider perspective, the US move is indicative of a shift in the thinking in the US vis-a-vis Pakistan. The Gilani government should feel sufficiently satisfied with this, and should use the new thought in the US to cope with its problems, including the economic crisis, but without compromising Pakistan's sovereignty. This might also herald the era of US's dependence on Pakistan's civilian setup. Giving the principal role to the army in the NWFP and the tribal areas along with peace deals and development projects is a prudent strategy adopted by the government and should yield the desired results. Every support should be given to this effort mounted by the Gilani government in coordination with the army and provincial government of NWFP.
The writer is a freelance contributor.