Shifting sands

Army Chief General Raheel Sharif has ordered a Punjab-wide operation against suspected militants

The compact between the PML-N government that is running Punjab and the military may have been revoked if the evidence of recent days is to be interpreted as a shift in power-balances. Hitherto the military has, unlike other parts of the country where it appears to have evolved a consensual unilateralism, been very ‘hands off’ as far as operations in Punjab go. The various national police forces, corrupt and often simply inept, have never been equal to the task of fighting terrorism and as seen in Karachi when the military become proactive they tend to get results.

Army Chief General Raheel Sharif had ordered a Punjab-wide operation against the numerous suspected militants, their operational bases and their supporters in the community following the Lahore bombing. Raids have been conducted in towns and cities large and small, some involving elements of the Rangers, contrary to comments made by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is reported as saying that “there is no room for any [military] operation in Punjab as there are neither any safe havens of terrorists here nor a territory is controlled by militants” — a statement bordering on the delusional.

Whilst it is true that there is no territory directly controlled by militants or extremists in Punjab, there are wide swathes of the population that are the sea in which extremism and militancy swims. Despite the apparent denial of necessity by the prime minister, he went on to urge the provincial administration to “own” the ongoing operation by military and paramilitary forces. This is a paradox similar to that posited by Schrodinger’s Cat which at least theoretically can be both alive and dead simultaneously. Arcane semantics aside, it may be several weeks before the fog of obfuscation clears and the real picture vis-a-vis the operation in Punjab emerges blinking into a new day. The Lahore bombing of March 27, as was the Army Public School attack in Peshawar, is proving to be catalytic of important change. It remains to be seen, however, whether the operation in Punjab will be able to root out the deep-seated problem that the province has faced for long.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2016.

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