KARACHI: In its latest report on militancy in Pakistan, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) recommends that the United States should impose sanctions on key Pakistani military commanders and spy agencies if they fail to prove their will to curb extremism.

According to the report, the US and international community should also make military aid to Pakistan conditional on the army taking 'demonstrable steps' to stop the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) from being used for extremism.

'If the Pakistani military does not respond positively, consider, as a last resort, targeted and incremental sanctions, including travel and visa bans and the freezing of financial assets of key military leaders and military-controlled intelligence agencies,' the think tank recommends.

The ICG's suggestions were released following a spate of killings in Pakistan in October, which included a brazen attack by militants on the General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi that left a brigadier and a lieutenant-colonel dead.

The report identified 'poorly-coordinated military operations' along with 'appeasement deals' with militants as the actual cause for increased militant recruitment. It argued that Talibanisation in Fata was not related to tribal traditions and was, in fact, the consequence of short-sighted military policies and the ongoing reliance on laws from the colonial era.

'The military’s resort to indiscriminate force, economic blockades and appeasement deals is only helping the Taliban cause. Despite Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s declaration in June 2009 that 'the time for dialogue with the militants was over,' the military still alternates between excessive force against and appeasement deals with militants, ' claims the report.

The alternating use of force and negotiations in an expanded area, including North and South Waziristan, Bajaur, and Mohmand agencies, has done immense damage, giving militants space to regroup and attack with a renewed vigour.

The ICG points out that it was the April 2004 deal brokered in South Waziristan between the army and militants by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman which helped the local militants to establish Taliban-style policing system and courts.

Once the militants were given breathing space, they spread their ideology from South Waziristan into other tribal agencies and eventually made inroads to the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

'Instead of a sustained attempt to dismantle and destroy the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) network – led by Baitullah Mehsud until his death on Aug 5, 2009 in a US drone attack and now by his deputy Hakimullah Mehsud – the military continues to rely on a two-pronged approach of sporadic strikes and negotiations with militant groups.

'Given that such operations are, by the military’s own admission, restricted, militant networks are ultimately able to absorb the blows even as indiscriminate damage alienates the local population caught in the crossfire,' explains the report.

Suggesting remedies, the group argues that only political, administrative, and economic reforms by Pakistan government in Fata could stop the spread of religious extremism.

The report lashes out at the political system in Fata, saying 'the government should dismantle the existing undemocratic system of patronage driven by political agents as well as tribal maliks (elders) who are increasingly dependent on militants for protection.'

The Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) should be repealed and replaced by the Pakistan Criminal Procedure Code, while Fata should be given provincial rights and merged with NWFP, the report further recommends.

Although the prime minister vowed in March 2008 to repeal the FCR, the idea was put on the back burner after eight months following intense pressure from the Awami National Party and the Pakistan Army.

Moreover, the report recommends that the Nizam-i-Adl should also be repealed, and the NWFP's Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) should be governed according to the provincial and national justice system.

Finally, the ICG has laid great emphasis on developing economic infrastructure and bolstering Fata's education system. It has suggested to the US and the international community that control over development projects from international NGOs should not be transferred to the Pakistan government until the Fata Secretariat, Fata Development Authority, and political agents are not abolished.