Agreed, but?

Blocking NATO supples will only delay the departure of foreign troops, tempting the Haqqani network to keep attacking.

Agreed, that the global war on terror (GWoT) is not our war. Agreed, that it is solely and wholly that of the US-led Nato nations. Agreed, that the war we are fighting against our own terrorists is the direct outcome of our involvement in the GWoT on the side of the US. Agreed, that our terrorists will go home once we get out of what many of us believe is somebody else’s war. So, let us chalk out a plan to achieve the objective. No need to call an APC for that.

The federal government in consultation with the army could and should make the plan on its own because the nation has given it the mandate to do all that is needed to do to make Pakistan a safe and secure place to live in and not to waste time by convening APCs. If at all it needs to take the nation into confidence on such plans, which in civilised countries are disclosed only on a need-to-know basis, it can debate them in a closed door session of the joint parliament and/or circulate them to the provincial governments for comments.

But before doing all that Pakistan is obliged, being a member of the United Nations and also because it was the UN Security Council that had, in the first place, sanctioned the invasion of Afghanistan by the Nato troops way back in 2002, to make an announcement on the floor of the UN General Assembly that it is withdrawing from the equation of the GWoT. In any case, we don’t have any troops in Afghanistan, though we did provide the invading troops a couple of air bases for air-lifting them and for flying sorties in aid of land troops, and for emergency supplies and later for launching the drones, but we have already withdrawn this facility. Another facility that Pakistan provided to the US-led Nato troops was the over-land supply routes from the Karachi port to Afghanistan and back, which are most likely to be closed down in the next 11 to 12 months as that is the deadline for the major drawdown of foreign troops from Afghanistan. This has been the most important element of our involvement in the GWoT.

The other equally important element is the ‘air corridor’ reserved within our airspace to allow unhindered flight of US drones to North Waziristan and back home. Drones come in presumably in ‘hot pursuit’ of those Afghan Taliban led by the Haqqani network that mount targeted attacks on foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan from the safe havens located on our side of the Durand Line. International law allows countries to cross borders in hot pursuit of intruders. However, it is only logical to presume that once the foreign troops leave Afghanistan, the US will have no reason to send in its drones.

So, it would be very much in the self-interest of all those who want Pakistan to withdraw from the GWoT at the earliest, to facilitate, rather than block the departure of Nato containers from Afghanistan. Blocking would only delay the departure of foreign troops, tempting the Haqqani network to continue attacking from across the Durand Line, which in turn would instigate the US to send more drones, which in turn would infuriate our terrorists and force them to continue ambushing our security agencies, their installations and innocent civilians with IEDs and suicide bombings.

“The choice was between boots and drones,” responded the then foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Quraishi, when I asked him “Why drones?” The place was London, the year 2009. I had approached him in a London hotel where he was scheduled to meet his British counterpart, David Miliband. He did not say so but I assumed that Pakistan preferred its sovereignty to be violated by drones rather than US boots.

Let us keep in mind that this choice would not be available to Pakistan if the Haqqanis continue their bloody game from the safe haven of North Waziristan even after the departure of the foreign troops from Afghanistan because the 350,000-man well trained and well equipped Afghan Army is hardly likely to possess drones. It would be the Afghan Army boots that would be chasing after the intruders in hot pursuit.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2013.

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