AS Operation Zarb-i-Azb in North Waziristan enters its fourth month, has army chief Gen Raheel Sharif hinted that the operation may have to be expanded to other areas or simply reiterated that the slow progress in North Waziristan will continue until the entire agency is cleared?

On Wednesday, the ISPR reported that Gen Raheel has pledged that terrorists will be pursued to the “remotest corners” and military action will continue until all militant “sanctuaries are taken out”.

Also Read: Gen Raheel meets Chief of Air Staff

What is known is that clearing and holding territory by the military in North Waziristan is incrementally moving ahead, but that it may take a while yet — perhaps several months more — before the military can claim to have regained territorial control of the agency.

In addition, what is often speculated — facts being difficult to independently verify in a war zone that is sealed off — is that many militant groups have already melted away from North Waziristan and re-established themselves elsewhere in Fata.

So can the so-called decisive operation in the agency really be a turning point in the fight against militancy unless, after Zarb-i-Azb succeeds in retaking control of North Waziristan, the fight is taken to new sanctuaries established elsewhere?

The military leadership though prefers to share information in a piecemeal manner with the country and seems more intent on the public relations aspect of the war than sharing meaningful information on the overall strategy to fight militancy.

Also Read: Countrywide actions avert Zarb-i-Azb backlash: ISPR

Set aside the issue of what comes next for a minute though and consider what the military’s plan is for the ground it has already covered — and reclaimed.

With devastation left in the wake of the military machine cutting a swathe through North Waziristan, there is simply no question of IDPs returning to their homes unless a massive rebuilding effort is undertaken in the towns and areas shattered by the war machine.

Yet, there is simply no word from the military about when and how the rehabilitation effort will begin. Surely, equally important as ensuring that the territory is properly cleared and secured is to make certain that the civilian population can return as quickly as possible and pick up the pieces of their lives.

Ghost towns do not amount to territory that is held and secured in any meaningful sense.

Inevitably, when the question of the return of IDPs, rehabilitation and reconstruction is raised, the question of quite where the civilian administration is must also be debated.

Displaced inevitably and enormously by the presence of a massive war machine in Fata, the civilian administration stands marginalised.

To revitalise it, to get the administration back into some kind of shape to address the urgent needs of a returning population — when the population does return — the civilian administration itself will need to be revived first. Is there even any thinking happening on that front, in either military or civilian circles?

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2014