From Hakimullah Mehsud to Haqqani Commander Subari
The first Trump era drone strike in Kurrum Agency killing two sends a message which those in authority can ill-afford to ignore. If the report regarding one victim being a guard and the other a commander of the Haqqani network is authentic, the signal is: “if you cannot locate them, we will.” That Ch Nisar did not immediately resort to condemning the attack as a “gross violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty” by the US it would indicate that the government had prior information of the attack.
In his address at the National Defence University, Ch Nisar stressed the need for good civil-military relations to run the country. This was quite understandable. But what raises questions, are his remarks about such relations being “a sore sight for all those masquerading as our friends”. The opposition parties present themselves as the government’s rivals and not friends. So the shoe doesn’t fit them. Does he think that some of his colleagues are out to ruin the civil-military bonhomie? The latest issue between the army and the government was a report in a national daily which had claimed, among other things, that the government had warned the army during a high level meeting to act against the militants or face international isolation. The matter remains unresolved not because of those “masquerading as friends” but the interior minister himself, who – despite repeated promises – has failed to release the report of the inquiry, if he had conducted any, to name those responsible.
As usual Ch Nisar fails to own his ministry’s shortcomings while blaming the PPP government. Despite a tongue in cheek acknowledgement of failure to meet “many challenges” he chooses to compare the situation to the one prevailing in 2013 which he maintains was much worse. Many think that, left to Nisar (who was the arch supporter of talks with TTP and its lethal brood and who cried in the NA while condemning the drone attack that killed Hakimullah Mehsud), he would never have opted for military operation that restored the writ of the state in NW and forced the terrorist to take shelter in Afghanistan.
