As international powers continue to mount pressure on the Pakistan government – the question of whether to conduct a military operation against the Taliban or to pursue dialogue still looms.
The United States and other global powers fear that the Taliban can turn back to Kabul if their talks with the Pakistani government are successful. Similarly India fears that in case dialogue succeeds, Taliban will support jihadi groups operating in Kashmir to create problems for India.
Sources in the PML-N say the government is in constant contact with the military leadership which has informed the prime minister that if an operation has to be conducted, the winter season was ideal for the Pakistan Army.
However, sources said that the government did not want to disclose any such information in this regard.
The PML-N government is wary of facing reactions from Jamaat-e-Islami and other right wing political parties if it pursues a full-scale military operation against the militants in North Waziristan.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2013.
COMMENTS (9)
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The policy of a dialogue with the Taliban from the position of stregnth has been the declared policy of Pakistan army! This has not changed and will not change until the civilian leadership is able to gain the upper hand ove the army. Did Erdogan give some tips to the Prime Minister of Pakistan during his visit how to disengage the army brass from the domestic security matters?
Rex Minor
There is another solution to talks or operations ...........lets bomb them and completely wipe them out
The government in dilemma? The government have heavy mendate and it is an elected democratic regime,it should not be in dilemma, the government should think that how the security dilemma of Pakistan can be resolved.And it should have longterm interests not short time.
Come on NS! this is the time to show your guts, if you have any. Don't drag your feet. One thing is quite clear, the world is not ready to tolerate the kind of people we are hiding and these people won't tolerate us to liaison with the rest of the world. So can we survive in our capsule without anything to do with the outside world? No emotional answers, think carefully, take all the pros and cons.The solution is in front of you. Still, I think it is easy said than done. Actually we are hanging between the sky and the deep blue sea. Main chalon tu nahin miltee hay zameen, main urnaa chahoon tu door hay aasman.....the fruit of our lopsided foreign policy where we gave too much ground to moulvis.
We will save enormous time and money if we hand over foreign relations and internal security to USA. We should also close down other Government institutions. It is a shame on our PM that he is always looking to Washington for instructions.
Its due to PTI or the previous governments
@Abdul danladi Wish I had a sense of humour like u.
I want nigeria government to solve the issue of insurity in our country.
Nice cop out by PML N. Cant start dialogue because of America, and can't start operation because of right wing parties :)