| Corps§ Peshawar |
XII Corps§ Quetta |
| 7 Infantry Division Mardan |
33 Infantry Division Hyderabad |
| 9 Infantry Division Kohat |
41 Infantry Division Hyderabad |
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
For any army in the world, the biggest nightmare is when its personnel, installations and assets stand vulnerable to attacks from within its own territory. This is a sign of the erosion of the writ of the state and its failure in resolving the internal contradictions that allows disgruntled small or big armed groups or sections of the population to flout the law of the land and take on the civil and military institutions. It is considered a bigger national security threat compared with the one emitting from abroad or a hostile nation. The decay in the writ of the state creates chaos and lawlessness and the establishment of parallel centres of power. The situation, if allowed to fester for long, often results in the collapse of the state from within or its dismemberment.
Unfortunately, today Pakistan faces a similar grave challenge to its national security and cohesion in which non-state actors not just hold large swaths of land in the rugged northern parts of the country, but are also trying to undermine the country’s most powerful institution – the armed forces – by waging direct assaults on its personnel and bases.
The August 16 attack on the Kamra airbase is just one of the many against the Pakistani security forces by Al-Qaeda-inspired local Islamic militants that underlines the severity of the crisis. The official assertions that preparedness of the security personnel at Kamra prevented any major loss of lives or Air Force assets remain only a small consolation, given the fact that our protectors now stand unsafe in their own backyard.
The ever-looming internal threat is, indeed, more ominous for the armed forces rather than an external one for which they are basically trained and should ideally remain focused.
If these are not the worrying times for the Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and his top brass than what other calamity could they be waiting for? No wonder, in his August 14 Independence Day speech, the general finally declared that the fight against extremism is our own war.
But this war has not suddenly become “our war” following General Kayani’s statement. It has always been “our war” for more than a decade now when former military ruler Pervez Musharraf tried to shift Pakistan’s policy, with limited success, by banning various militant groups in 2002 and starting a selective crackdown on these retrogressive forces which remain bent upon using Pakistani territory not just for terrorism in various parts of the world, but also within the country.
The loss of more than 40,000 lives, including thousands of security personnel, during this period is living testimony to how the local Taliban and their allies brutalised the society and tried to undermine the state in line with their narrow interpretation of Islam.
Yes, there has been frequent wavering in this war against extremism as the civil and military establishment struck doomed peace deals and attempted to neutralize various bands of militants through a policy of appeasement.
This produced only confusion in the minds of many Pakistanis about the legitimacy of this war and gave more space to these non-state actors, creating an international perception that Pakistan is a reluctant partner in the global fight against terrorism and is following a policy of duplicity. As a result, the country suffered on every front – politically, socially and economically. Its international isolation grew, providing an opportunity to the critics of Islamabad to portray the country as an irresponsible state. This negative international perception remains ironic given the fact that the kind of price Pakistan paid in the fight against al-Qaeda and their local allies, both in terms of human lives and financial and economic losses over the last one decade.
The civil and military leadership’s half-hearted measures, an apparent lack of commitment and absence of a cohesive anti-terrorism policy, focusing both at operational details and an ideological narrative, also hurt the overall morale of the country regarding this fight.
Our soldiers need clarity of purpose and conviction to fight and win this war. It is a must to keep the unity and cohesion of the armed forces, which by-and-large have maintained their discipline barring a handful of dissensions at the lower and mid-level when security personnel were found involved in aiding terrorists or themselves becoming part of terror plots.
General Kayani’s statement of owning the war against extremism will certainly help in removing the cobwebs in the minds of some of the confused not just within the rank-and-file of the armed forces, but also those civilians who are being duped in the sacred name of Islam by militants and radical Islamists.
What is now required is to aggressively push and reiterate General Kayani’s message at every level to counter the organised propaganda that this war is not our war. In Pakistan, the army alone has the operational capacity and ability to stand up to and defeat the extremists. The political leadership – both in the government and the opposition – should take the cue and provide an ideological narrative to help build and mould popular public opinion on the need for winning this war and defeating the extremists who threaten the Pakistani state and should be seen as enemy number one.
Luckily, a vast majority of Pakistanis are moderates and they abhor religious zealotry, violence and extremism which also directly hurt their social and economic interests. This remains an encouraging factor.
However, there is also no dearth of those religious and rightwing forces who try to misguide the people by portraying the conflict as an American war. Some of these religious parties have their direct vested economic interests tied to this stance. For supporting and sponsoring militancy has become a huge business empire since the early 1980s when Pakistan decided to join the war in Afghanistan against the former Soviet troops through its proxies and non-state actors with the support of the United States and its allies. It is now big money raised in the name of donations and charity.
For some other forces opposing the fight against extremism, it is just one quick way to fame and tapping into the rightwing vote. They intentionally or unintentionally choose to live in a state of self-denial and find a foreign-hand in our misfortunes, which in fact are of our own doing.
This happened again in the case of the Kamra attack in which many so-called analysts, public opinion makers, politicians and even television anchors were seen trying to find a grand international conspiracy behind the assault, conveniently forgetting all about the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. But this kind of self-denial is always self-defeating.
If one would have listened to the advice and recommendations of Pakistan’s politically astute clerics and closet clean-shaved Taliban, who want the Pakistan Air Force to engage US drones, seal the NATO supplies and give a free-hand to militants to plot terrorism across the world, Pakistan would have long ago been declared a rogue state or gone into a self-destructive war with its neighbours and the world powers. We should thank God that despite our penchant for adventurism in our civil and military corridors of power, somehow a little bit of sanity always prevailed and we managed to avoid the doomsday scenario. But perhaps this is the time for us to shed the weight around our neck once for all and free the country of warlords, militant movements and private armies. For this is now a battle for Pakistan.
The writer is editor The News, Karachi. Email: [email protected]
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
