Back to business

The reports of a decision to re-open the Torkham border brings to an end the short drama played out between Islamabad and Washington over invasions of air space. Though the government has denied that the closure of the border was a response to the death of some 33 people — including members of the Frontier Scouts — there are few willing to believe the move was taken only on grounds of security.

The whole affair seems little more than a charade. While the Torkham border was closed, that at Chaman remained open. However, the situation was enough to alarm Washington, given Pakistan’s key position as the country through which 80 per cent of Nato supplies pass. The resumption of business through Torkham will reassure Washington that things are back to normal. It is not clear, however, what Pakistan intends to do to deal with the attacks on Nato containers. The inadequacy of the existing security set-up has been demonstrated by repeated attacks seen over the last weeks since the Apache attacks. It seems likely these will increase as anger mounts amongst extremists over the re-opening of the border. The Taliban have already warned that attacks will continue as long as drone attacks go on.

Today, we need to choose what kind of nation we are to emerge as over the coming decades. It is obvious that nearly all the people in the country do not wish to be seen as subservient to America’s wishes. It has become necessary to find a strategy that can enable us to regain our independence and dignity. The farce played out over the border closure will convince no one and indeed only add to public apprehension over the state of our country. As we all know, many factors are involved in the growth of militancy — but hatred for the US is a key one and will in the coming months and years need to be tackled.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2010.