PESHAWAR, Dec 8: Experts at a seminar here observed that lack of political clarity in the ongoing military operation in the South Waziristan Agency had affected its strategic effectiveness.
They said that despite repeated statements by the ISPR about the "mission accomplished" army operation continued in the tribal region, which gave birth to speculations. The Area Study Centre of the University of Peshawar and Hanns Seidel Foundation, Islamabad, jointly organized the seminar on tribal areas.
ISPR Director-General Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan claimed that most of the areas in the troubled region, particularly those dominated by the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe had been cleared after local militants gave up resistance.
Speaking on the final day of the seminar on "Federally-Administered Tribal Areas" here on Wednesday, the army spokesman claimed that certain vested interests were politicising the situation in South Waziristan.
"Useless political debates have complicated situation in the region," Gen Sultan remarked, while giving updates on South Waziristan. He defended a shift in the government policy in the aftermath of the US-led war on terrorism and the use of military might to eliminate militancy from the tribal region.
An elder from South Waziristan said that during the Afghan war the government declared foreigners as "Mujahideen" and encouraged the tribesmen to help them. "But, now the government declared these people terrorists," he added.
Gen Sultan argued that the policy in the '80s to support Jihadi elements was part of its overall national policy, but maintained that the time had changed and national interests defined Pakistan's new outlook towards Afghanistan.
"Now it is our national policy to discourage extremists and give voice to the moderates," he said, adding that Islamabad could not isolate itself from the world community. "This is 21st century and we cannot live in the situation faced by the country in '80s as the present day demand is entirely different," he said.
The ISPR chief denied remarks made by Brig (retired) A. R. Siddiqi, who had earlier said that Pakistani and American troops had conducted joint operations in South Waziristan. "The government has never allowed US troops to launch operation in the Pakistani territory," he claimed.
He said the government adopted both direct and indirect strategies to flush out militants from South Waziristan. Gen Sultan said that when tribal jirgas, Lashkars and other tactics failed then the government opted for the military action.
Former ISPR chief Brig A. R. Siddiqi said that the Wana operation - the longest after the Balochistan insurgency - militarily lacked political clarity. The 'high value' targets identified and pursued, escaped and remained untraceable, he said, adding that sudden shifts in the government policies regarding South Waziristan did unavoidable harm to its politico-military effectiveness.
Col (retd) Yaqub Mahsud while presenting a paper on "Unrest in the Mahsud area and the negotiation process" said the fact that the army had been unable to capture any known militant since March 2004 points to the difficulty in capturing main militant leaders in future too.
He said even after deploying three divisions of the army and bulk of the Frontier Corps, the forces occupied only one-third of the Mehsud area which had better road network.
The remaining two-thirds highly mountainous area with no mention able roads remained unoccupied and provided safe havens to the militants, said the ex-army officer, who also played a key role in bringing the militants to negotiations with the government.
He stated that only full combing of the whole area would enable the army to fully destroy, capture or expel the militants from the South Waziristan. Former MNA from Khyber Agency Latif Afridi suggested that the government should change constitutional position of Fata into the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) and give them a legal system to restore their basic human rights.
Criticising the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), he said that the government had removed the FCR from certain parts of Punjab, Balochistan and the NWFP but it was still effective in Fata. He said that political agents were enjoying absolute powers and the FCR was being used as a tool to victimize innocent tribesmen.
He alleged that the government had encouraged tribesmen in the past not to pay electricity bills and introduced drug trafficking during the Afghan crises to enable the Jihadi leaders to raise funds for the Afghan Jihad. Mr Afridi suggested that local government should be introduced in Fata and the FCR should be replaced with a full-fledged legal system.