On to the front foot

Afaint outline of a countervailing narrative is beginning to emerge on the eternally active terrorism front. After years of wandering in an equivocal wilderness, assorted individuals and institutions are beginning to assert themselves the latest being the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), General Qamar Bajwa. He used the opportunity of Defence Day on Wednesday 6^th September to lay out a ‘to-do’ list that if seen through is several steps in the right direction. Pakistan has of late taken a drubbing from Uncle Sam for allegedly sheltering, providing safe havens, for groups that fight the government in Afghanistan. Pakistan has itself fought these groups in long and bloody conflict, and is currently preparing its strategy on the future of engagement with the United States post to the announcement of the new policy on Afghanistan and South Asia.

It was significant that the army chief referenced the National Action Plan (NAP) as well as the perceived need to repatriate Afghan refugees and secure the 2,600km border. He spoke of reform of seminaries and educational institutions, the police and legal structures — all central to the NAP and all unfulfilled in large part. Enhancing border security has already produced tensions with Afghanistan in the last year, and relations remain strained between Kabul and Islamabad to say the least.

The speech also touched on the need for other states to work with Pakistan and that our own security concerns need to be addressed. Keeping a distance from the Afghan imbroglio is not going to be easy and to quote the General “We cannot fight Afghanistan’s war in Pakistan.” He is right but clearing up the residue of post-colonial adventurism means that Pakistan has to be more assertive in the way it presents the optics — and follow through rather than leaving essential work half-done, unfinished. This failure was being obliquely alluded to and it is a not-particularly coded message to the politicians that they still have to deliver on a range of discomforting commitments. Moving on to the front foot after years as the whipping boy needs to be a team effort. We look forward to a similar civilian assertiveness.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2017.

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