Urgently needed: A realistic, implementable policy
The outlines of a draft national security policy supposedly patterned on strategies devised by Malaysia and China have appeared in the media. While it might be useful to keep in mind the experiments of the sort by other countries, what must not be lost sight of is that militancy in Pakistan has peculiarities of its own. While extremism in Malaysia and China was driven by ethnic perceptions, in the case of Pakistan it is another kettle of fish, with the partial exception of Balochistan. The policy draft rejects the anti-terrorism policy pursued under the PPP as a single facet approach depending on military operation alone. An important aspect of the draft is that it shifts the focus away from yet another single point view that relies solely on talks with the militants. The draft advocates a multi-layered approach meant to address the five dimensions of the problem comprising dismantling, containing, preventing, educating and reintegrating. While the policy envisages a qualitatively better coordination between the agencies and a more efficient response by the LEAs to acts of terrorism, it also stresses the role of the civil administration in containing militancy. The plan to seek the support of religious parties and tribal elders is abandoned in favour of a less ambitious plan of using imprisoned terrorists to approach terrorists who might be willing to renounce violence in return for reintegration.
The document also exhibits some of the biases of the PML-N government as it traces the origins of the extremist militancy. While naming Russia, Iran, India and Afghanistan as regional powers that supported the growth of extremism and terrorism in Pakistan, it conveniently leaves out Saudi Arabia and Gulf states which were accused in the US diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks of bankrolling militancy in Pakistan. Unless the government is willing to remove its blinkers, it cannot prepare a realistic national security policy.
The document is to be presented before the heads of political parties in Parliament, presumably on July 12. Besides the COAS Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chiefs of ISI, IB, MI, NACTA, Crisis Management Cell, the FC along with IGP’s of the four provinces would also attend as would the four chief ministers. The presence of important political, military and security figures makes the event highly significant. The absence of Imran Khan would give birth to questions about his sincerity as he had himself been pressing for a meeting between Nawaz Sharif, the PTI and the COAS to resolve the issue of terrorism. The questions would be all the more relevant as the PTI chief had refused to attend the two APC’s on terrorism sponsored by the ANP and the JUI-F earlier this year. One wonders if he shares Shireen Mazari’s cynical view that the government had nothing concrete to discuss at the meeting and that like the earlier APCs the proposed meeting too would turn out to be a futile exercise.
