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ALTHOUGH General Raheel Sharif stood behind the president and prime minister on the stage at the Pakistan Day march-past, nobody had any doubt about who was really in charge.
Since he became army chief, he has projected a sense of calm self-confidence while driving a popular security-led agenda. Although this government dragged its feet initially by insisting on doomed talks with the TTP, Gen Sharif has shown no such ambiguity.
I have opposed military intervention into politics. However, given the awful governance and amoral expediency we have witnessed for years, I am happy to support the current drive to eliminate jihadist terrorists and political thugs who have blighted our lives.
Terrorists and criminals have caused havoc for years.
In Karachi, the impotence and irrelevance of the PPP government was revealed yet again as its partner, the MQM, is targeted as part of an ongoing paramilitary operation. Neither party has any say in how this is conducted. Tellingly, the Sindh governor was excluded from a recent meeting on the law and order situation in Karachi. Why he has not resigned is beyond me: surely he would be happier taking up golf.
The army has widespread support for its anti-terrorism campaign. Whatever objections right-wing parties like the PTI and the PML-N, and religious parties of all stripe, might have disappeared overnight in the wake of the ghastly massacre of schoolchildren at the army school in Peshawar.
This attack has given Gen Shareef a virtual blank cheque to go after terrorists of all hues, and he is using it to good effect. Politicians are being pulled along in his wake, alarmed but forced to make supportive sounds.
Thus far, action against TTP members in the tribal areas, and killers and extortionists in Karachi — allegedly with MQM links — has proved popular, and thus carries little political cost beyond the MQM whining. But if and when action is taken against the PPP in Sindh, and the TTP in south Punjab, we might see greater resistance.
The reality is that despite the rhetoric, few politicians have shown the resolve needed to tackle the cancer of terrorism in Pakistan. The search for consensus has replaced action. Endless all-parties conferences on terrorism have taken place, to little avail.
One problem has always been that politicians — and I include Gen Musharraf in this category — have sought the support of religious parties as well as that of the MQM. These tawdry political compromises have permitted killers and criminals to find protection due to their connections with politicians.
Thus, terrorists and criminals have caused havoc across the country for years without fear of retribution. A weakened state has failed in its primary function of protecting its citizens. Hence the huge sense of relief the current operations in Fata and Karachi have given rise to.
But in this hopeful scenario, a couple of doubts remain. Hafiz Saeed, the head of the Jamaatud Dawa, roams free despite being accused of being behind many terrorist attacks, including the infamous Mumbai massacre. Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, one of the men being tried for their role in the Mumbai attack, has been allowed bail by our courts. Although over seven years have passed since the attack, the case is still stuck in court.
These two cases are a test for the army’s resolve. However, both are in the jurisdiction of the Punjab government, and we know the soft corner the Sharif family has for religious parties. Our judiciary has also demonstrated its sympathy for such groups in the past.
The action taken by the army and the Rangers shows that given political will, our security problems can be tackled. It also casts a bleak light on the lack of spine shown by national actors like Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf and Kayani.
Even now, although a National Action Plan has been formulated, many of its provisions remain empty words. The office that was supposed to coordinate provincial action and intelligence agencies remains largely unmanned. Chaudhry Nisar, our interior minister, is certainly good at talking the talk.
But at least he’s an improvement on Rehman Malik, the PPP’s gift to the nation. His appointment to the interior slot signalled the previous government’s lack of seriousness about tackling terror. With his glossy black hair and his glib talk, he was a permanent fixture on our TV screens as he made endless excuses for his government’s repeated failures.
For an outsider, it is shocking that a country at war with terrorists of all kinds should demonstrate such a casual approach to this rising tide of violence. After all these years, our police remains woefully under-equipped and untrained to take on motivated and heavily armed militants. Our intelligence agencies barely speak to each other. And much of our media has been spinning a confusing narrative sympathetic to religious extremism.
This is going to be a long, hard war. But meanwhile, let us be grateful to our soldiers, pilots and Rangers for the wonderful job they are doing.
Twitter: @irfan_husain
Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015
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