A timely visit

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has made a welcome — and doubtless carefully calculated — visit to the troops on the frontline in North Waziristan, where they are engaged in Operation Zarb-e-Azb. He was accompanied by assorted government dignitaries and was hosted by the Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif. The visit was important as it was the first time a prime minister had visited North Waziristan. But apart from that, the visit held significance quite apart from its contrived symbolism. It would be fair to say that the federal government has had its eye off the ball politically and in terms of servicing the needs of the nation, since mid-August when the dual protests clamped themselves to the national arteries in Islamabad. The visit to North Waziristan may be taken as an indicator that the government not only feels secure — for the time being — but is also moving on from the paralysis of the summer, the protest movement duly noted perhaps, but no longer being considered a significant impediment, even if that assessment proves to be incorrect in the future.

A message was delivered to the military as well, along with a healthy portion of deserved fulsome praise at its sterling efforts to rid North Waziristan of extremists. It has been a hard fight. Those the army is fighting against are not rank amateurs, but hardened veterans in many cases, who are well armed and trained. If the blood-and-guts war is won in North Waziristan, it has to be followed by a win in the hearts-and-minds war that goes with building the post-war peace. To pave way for that, the prime minister also visited internally displaced persons in Bakkakhel, who received the usual promises to rebuild and restore their lives to something better than what they had before. Having had their lives comprehensively blighted by the government of the man talking to them, it is small wonder that there was scepticism on the faces of many — but all in all, Mr Prime Minister, a step in the right direction.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2014.

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