Pakistan’s ongoing fight against violent extremism continues to provoke a backlash in the shape of reprisal terrorist attacks by hard-core Taliban militants. And yet, the ongoing violence was easily predictable in a country where militant activity has actively grown in the past 36 years since the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union provoked a long-term security crisis for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In tackling the challenge, Pakistan began turning the corner in June last year when its army chose to launch a wide-ranging campaign in the North Waziristan along the Afghan border. That effort has only gained further momentum since December 16 when 150 people, mostly teenaged students, were killed in a particularly brutal Taliban attack on a school in the northern city of Peshawar.
While that attack highlighted Pakistan’s helplessness, it also created an opportunity for Pakistan’s army to step up the fight against extremism. However, evidence available just in the past week has also demonstrated the degree to which the Pakistan army successfully followed up investigating the December 16 attack. Of the estimated 27 militants involved in planning and/or execution of that attack, up to nine have been killed while another 12 have been captured, including six taken into custody in Afghanistan.
Closer coordination
In sharp contrast to the adversity of the challenge, Pakistan’s army-run security establishment led by General Raheel Sharif, the army’s chief of staff, has also firmly made inroads in beating back the Taliban advance. In spite of the growing casualty count, significant progress in the shape of improving ties with Afghan president Ashraf Gani’s administration has laid the ground for closer coordination.
During a trip to Kabul in the past week, General Sharif who now appears to be personally overseeing Pakistan’s Afghan policy, made a landmark statement when he said publicly that the enemy of Afghanistan remains the enemy of Pakistan. So profound were those words for Afghanistan that they were subsequently hailed by Afghan officials as evidence of a new era of unprecedented cooperation.
General Sharif’s visit to Kabul, which followed an earlier visit on December 17 — a day after the Peshawar school attack, reportedly also included follow up discussions to a standing request from Pakistan for Afghanistan to hand over Mullah Fazlullah, the notorious head of Pakistan’s Taliban movement. Fazlullah, according to Pakistani officials, is hiding in Afghanistan’s Kunar province over the border from Pakistan, from where he directed the attack on the Peshawar school.
Fazlullah rose to notoriety as the militant figure who led the Taliban campaign in Pakistan’s northern Swat Valley some years ago, from where he was driven out by the Pakistan army. Though Fazlullah remains on the run, its only a matter of time before he is successfully targeted either by US forces in Afghanistan or Afghan forces on Afghan soil — or on Pakistan’s territory, if he chooses to return.
Meanwhile, on Friday came reports of the resumption of peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and Gani’s government in Doha, Qatar. This brings the two sides to the negotiating table after the process was disrupted a while ago. Western officials have acknowledged the event as a result of General Sharif’s successful behind-the-scene efforts to bring the two parties back to the negotiating table.
While such diplomacy in Afghanistan gathers momentum, the biggest change to resolving Pakistan’s security crisis has indeed taken place within the country.
The speed with which Pakistan’s security and intelligence services identified suspects involved in the Peshawar attack, and subsequently moved to target most of them, marks a sea change from the times when militants would often remain out of the reach of the law.
At the same time, General Sharif’s rapidly growing popularity on Pakistan’s streets speaks volumes for the public’s acknowledgement of his effort. That said, however, the country’s ruling politicians remain many steps behind the need of the hour. In sharp contrast to the tension surrounding security conditions, ongoing stories of large amounts of money changing hands ahead of the upcoming elections for the upper house of parliament, the Senate, say much about the dismal state of Pakistan’s politics.
Out of sync with reality
Clearly, corruption is at its peak and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, as well as the political structure he represents, remain out of sync with the powerful reality of Pakistan’s mounting challenges. In addition to the state of the country’s politics, the economy continues to underperform in ways that remain fairly unprecedented.
An ongoing economic crisis across the country has surrounded Pakistanis as never before in ways ranging from widespread fuel shortages to an outright absence of jobs. And while Sharif’s government visibly remains one of the most incompetent administrations in the country’s history, little has been done to accept political responsibility.
To date, not a single minister has been held accountable for the underperformance of his or her area of responsibility.
In a nutshell, there is apparent hope for the immediate security crisis to begin being tackled if indeed General Sharif and his colleagues continue to make inroads in the space occupied by the Taliban. But sustaining that success remains the job of Pakistan’s ruling politicians who continue to demonstrate one set of failure after another.
Going forward, an end to the Taliban advance, hopefully marked by a reversal of its success, will mark the first step towards regaining space lost by Pakistan. But in the midst of this apparent ray of hope, there is little to suggest that Sharif and his co-politicians are able or willing to rise to the occasion.
Credit: Farhan Bokhari is a Pakistan-based commentator who writes on political and economic matters.
