Time to ‘divorce’ Pakistan?

Letter October 24, 2012
The question is whether Pakistan is ready to divorce the terrorist groups freely operating within its soil?

JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: The moderator in the third and final US presidential debate asked a stunning question — “Is it time for us to divorce Pakistan?” Republican presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney was prompt and clear in his response: “No, the US cannot divorce a nation that has 100 nuclear weapons and is on the way to double that at some point; a nation that has serious threats from terrorist groups within its soil.” President Barack Obama nodded his consent to what Romney said about Pakistan.

The US may not be in a position to divorce Pakistan for the sake of its own interests but the question is whether Pakistan is ready to divorce the terrorist groups freely operating within its soil? A country, which has lost 40,000 civilians and military personnel at the hands of religious militants in the last 10 years, still seems to be non-serious about the way to handle this menace.

The other day, President Asif Zardari said that as he could not build consensus with opposition parties on an imminent military operation in North Waziristan, therefore action against militants hiding in the tribal agency has been deferred. Parliament failed to make any effective antiterrorism laws, no changes were made to the penal code to ensure arrested militants remain behind bars for some time. At present, it is a game of swinging doors — terrorists are caught but get released by courts within days and weeks. How many terrorists have been hanged for their heinous crimes against humanity? None. As President Zardari himself mentioned, terrorists have the full support and backing of religious schools (madrassas) and will unite at a minute’s notice and react against any action taken in North Waziristan. Yes, they have got moral and material support from religious-political parties and seminaries but should that mean that we accept defeat and surrender in front of these terrorists?

Americans may not be ready to divorce us for the safety of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal, but we Pakistanis have to divorce ourselves from the mindset that refuses to acknowledge facts and inadvertently supports militants. This mindset has made us suffer again and again; this has turned us into a country that is recognised as the only one in the entire world with non-state terrorist actors. We are living in the post-9/11 world wherein time for non-state actors to advance state interests is over. We have to first learn to be honest with ourselves and then set our priorities right. If not timely checked, things may go beyond marriage contract and divorce.

Masood Khan

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25th, 2012.