This War is Our War
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s statement that his country had the right to send troops across the border to chase militants taking shelter in Pakistan, perhaps reflects the sentiment of his powerful NATO allies, who remain concerned about Islamabad’s efforts to sign peace accords with militants. Karzai’s statement remains in line with the UN Security Council resolutions – 1373 (passed in 2001) and 1566 (passed in 2004) – which make it mandatory for all its member states to deny safe havens to those who finance, plan, support and commit terrorist acts. These resolutions also direct the member states to prohibit their nationals and entities from making funds, financial assets, economic resources, or any other related services available to those who commission or participate in the terrorist acts.
This has put the Gillani government in a quandary at a time when it is struggling to maintain balance between international expectations and obligations on the one hand, and growing pressure from the religious and right-wing forces, including some of its own allies, to change the course of the war against terror, on the other.
On June 25, the government announced that it was handing over powers to the army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, to take action against militants in the NWFP. The PPP-led government has to take ownership of this fight against extremists and terrorists, rather than give an impression that it has been dragged into an unwanted and unnecessary conflict. The Gillani government should fight this war boldly on the ideological front and help build public opinion in its favour, providing security forces the necessary cushion to weed out terrorism from Pakistani soil. The much-neglected Islamic seminary reforms also need to be pushed on a war-footing to stamp out the tide of terrorism and extremism in the long run.
If Pakistan fails to control militants on its own, it will provide foreign powers an excuse to intervene.
However, the PPP – seen as a pro-west liberal and secular force – has so far failed to grasp the initiative in this fight, although its leader, Benazir Bhutto, became one of its victims on December 27 in a gun and bomb attack, which bears all the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda-linked or inspired terrorism. This should give the present government the impetus to confront this scourge with a greater determination.
Extremism and terrorism are not challenges faced by the United States and its western allies alone. They pose a far graver challenge for Pakistan, which served as a conduit for waging the US-sponsored Afghan war against the former Soviet Union and its backed communist regime in Kabul during the 1980s. It is now well-documented history that it was American and Saudi Arabian dollars which fuelled the so-called holy war in Afghanistan for more than a decade during the 1980s with Pakistan’s help. This dollar-sponsored so-called jihad not only resulted in the mushroom growth of Islamic seminaries all over the country, particularly in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, but also attracted thousands of Islamic militants from across the world – especially from the Middle East – who learnt the art of terrorism in the ISI-operated training centres that were financed and armed by American and Saudi intelligence agencies. The Pakistani establishment of those days helped not only radical Afghan Islamic groups, but also the Pakistani militants to organise on similar patterns and used them in fuelling jihad in Indian-occupied Kashmir. This led to the establishment of the vast, resource-rich private jihadi empire, which spun out of control from the hands of its sponsors and started following its own extremist and self-styled pan-Islamic agenda.
The surge in sectarian killings during the 1990s, the phenomenal rise in religious extremism and intolerance in the country and the subsequent building of ties of the local militants with international terrorists, are the result of the myopic policies of General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq’s era and his remnants. And just like the United States, in an ironic turn of events, Pakistan also faces a backlash from this Frankenstein it helped create with Washington.
By joining hands with Washington in the international war against terrorism, following the September 11, 2001 attacks on US soil, President Musharraf, for the first time in the country’s history, confronted these extremists head-on. Not only did Pakistan stop its support to the Afghan Taliban, it also gradually stopped militants from using Pakistani territory against Indian forces in occupied Kashmir, which led to the easing of tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.
However, the task of defeating the extremist forces has so far proved easier said than done. The huge, well-financed extremists’ empire, having tentacles even within the establishment, has upped the stakes by waging relentless terror and suicide attacks in an attempt to undermine Islamabad’s efforts in this war. It is in Pakistan’s national interest to defeat these forces, which remain incompatible with the modern world and aim to drag the country to a barbaric medieval period and enforce the outdated tribal system in the name of religion in this 21st century world.
The PPP, being a popular party, remains in a far better position to fight this war effectively and aggressively, both on the ideological and practical fronts, as compared to the previous government. Prime Minister Gillani should avail the opportunity created by the previous military-led government of confronting the extremist pro-Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, who remain a potent threat to Pakistan. For the first time in the country’s history, the military leadership and the popularly elected government can have a convergence of views on this vital issue. Will the PPP and its democratic allies act now or let go of this historic opportunity and live to regret it forever?
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