The latest terrorist attacks in Quetta, Ziarat and Mardan have left more than 55 Pakistanis dead — including students, nurses, elected parliamentarian from Imran Khan’s party, bureaucrats and Frontier Constabulary men. These attacks have come at a point of time when many Pakistanis are hoping that the new democratic government will end the continued political alienation of some Baloch militant groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army and address the critical problem of terrorism. In Ziarat, Pakistan’s founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s final abode, the Ziarat Residency was sadly burnt to ashes and the BLA took responsibility.
In Quetta city, first a bus full of a women university students was blown off. This was followed by first a suicide bombing attack on the Bolan Hospital complex and then a sustained attack inside the complex. Quetta’s short-lived and tenuous peace is repeatedly shattered by such terrorist strikes. Similarly, in Mardan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) where Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Imran Khan’s party, leads the coalition government, a funeral procession was attacked by a suicide bomber. It killed 30 mourners, including a newly-elected PTI parliamentarian. He is the second PTI parliamentarian to be killed in the last 10 days and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility. Ironically, PTI has continuously supported dialogue with the TTP.
For the elected government, there is no honeymoon period as there is no luxury to pursue just one issue. In the midst of all the problems over budget, the new government must work on a comprehensive strategy to tackle the problem of terrorism and Baloch alienation.
Members of Pakistan’s newly-elected parliament have been the first to demand better performance from Pakistan’s security agencies. Breaking their silence on the core issue, several elected representatives underscored the failure of the multiple security agencies, with a large network of check-posts in Quetta, to prevent terrorist attacks. The Interior Minister, Chaudary Nisar Ali Khan, pointedly questioned why the security agencies, despite their heavy presence, failed to provide security to the people in Quetta. Touching on a key aspect of longtime turbulent civil-military relations, the minister also wondered about the control of the security agencies. The provincial government, he reported, had told him that the security agencies were not under its control. What the minister said was repeated by several legislators in Pakistan’s Upper and Lower Houses as the maverick politician of Balochistan, Mahmoud Khan Achakzai, bluntly asked why Pakistan’s security agencies, that can spot a needle even from muddied waters, are unable to nab these terrorists.
The June 18 terrorist attack on a funeral procession in KPK too will force the government and parliamentarian’s to focus on the cardinal question that is linked to the cancer of terrorism in Pakistan — dialogue or no dialogue with TTP. The TTP has repeatedly targeted mosques, burial processions, shrines of sufi saints, elected parliamentarians, political leaders, army and air force bases, Army headquarters and publicly claimed responsibility for these attacks. Pakistan’s internal political confusion, within the institutions and within the civil-military leadership, on the issue of dialogue with TTP persists. It is reflected in public debates, in politicians’ statements and in the statements of officials.
If in Pakistan, space for terrorists has to be squeezed, there first has to be a collective willingness among Pakistan’s civil-military leadership on how to deal with terrorists. A dithering, ad hoc and reactive approach is no substitute for serious policy on an issue that genuinely poses an existentialist threat to the nation. The people of Pakistan, defying the TTP demand that they boycott the elections, came out to vote in the May 11 elections. They cast their votes for democracy, for rule of law and against terrorism. The people of Pakistan showed courage in the face of real and deadly threats.
The recent spate of terrorist attacks have left the newly-elected government with no choice but to show clarity on the key issues linked to the cancer of terrorism in Pakistan. Two main issues here are — firstly, evolving a consensus within Pakistan’s civil-military leadership on how to tackle groups involved in terrorism. And secondly, holding a dialogue with the TTP. It is now the new government’s task to take this public resolve and translate it into a robust and viable policy. This is the precondition to stop these terror attacks.
The early signs are promising. The new interior minister has also announced that he is engaged in the formulation of a new security policy. His responsibility will be to develop an internal security policy and he has rightly announced that such a policy will flow from a civil-military dialogue. With the rising threat of terrorism, with its links to the politico-security developments in Afghanistan and the decades-long role of the army and the security agencies in shaping Pakistan’s policy towards Afghanistan and India, no security strategy can be effectively implemented without taking the military and the security agencies on board.
As the new government formulates a hitherto nonexistent comprehensive internal security policy, the people of Pakistan wait with bated breath, hoping that the government will protect their fundamental right — the right to live.
Nasim Zehra is a writer on security issues.
