Fox News reported that Gen David Petraeus, Commander of US Central Command, had told US officials the next two weeks are critical to determining whether the Pakistani government will survive. United States believes, given earnest will, two weeks’ time is sufficient for Pakistan to eliminate talibaan operating from its turbulent tribal region. In fact they consider it a two days’ job. Both the USA and Britain believe that turbans may take over Islamabad any time they like to. Amid such apocalyptical, rather hysterical, statements, president Zardari will be visiting Washington D.C.
The British and American attitudes appear to be out of sync with facts, historical perspective and ground realities. Pakistan is no Somalia. At least 55 per cent of Pakistan’s 170 million- population lives in the most densely populated Punjab province. Population of the Punjab and Sind provinces, together, account for about 85 per cent of Pakistan’s total population. This population is composed of a heavy concentration of urban middle class. There are no signs of talibaanisation of these two provinces. You need a microscope to see infinitesimal minority of the turbans in these two provinces! The so-called talibaan live in harmony with the urban elite. In fact, it is the educated and well-off people that provide financial sustenance to the religious madaaris, the alleged breeding nurseries of the talibaan.
General Ashfaq Kiani, Benazir’s former military secretary, is no Taliban-hugger. He is on god terms with US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen, but definitely abhors military coups which the media relishes so much to see happen. Currently, about one lac troops of the 550,000-strong Pakistani army, the sixth-largest military in the world, is carrying out combing operations in the turbulent FATA areas. The talibaan are on the run. It is not understood how the rag-tag band of talibaan could rout the professional army that has withstood the Indian colossus in battle so many times?
Since times immemorial, these tribal areas are called ilaqa ghair (“no-go areas”). The British red-coats could never succeed in establishing their writ in these areas. It is now that Pakistan has deployed about one lac troops in the turbulent areas, along the border with Afghanistan to forestall inward and outward movement of militants. Pakistan has lost hundreds of its soldiers in operations against the militants. Pakistan’s loss is more than the total casualties suffered by the coalition and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.
The operations bore fruit. The country has handed over 700 Al-Qaeda fugitives to US authorities. Suspected satellite telephone transmissions, e-mails and other internet traffic are being tracked. Key arrests include Abu Zubaydah, Al-Qaeda’s field commander (March 28, 2002), and Ramzih bin al Shibh, planner of September 2001 terror attacks on the USA (September 11, 2002).
Pakistan provided basing and over-flight facilities to coalition forces for bombing talibaan strongholds in Afghanistan. About 60,000 US military sorties originated form Pakistan territory. Having done all that, do Pakistan still has to hear raucous “do more” cries?
The West appears to lack understanding of the traditional complexion and socio-economic milieu of the tribal areas. The tribal area is about 27,220 square kilometers and is equivalent to about three per cent of Pakistan’s territory. Pakistan has dotted the area with check posts. But, it is not possible to plug all the loopholes.
The area is also called yaghistan (the land of the defiant). Every conqueror (Alexander, Babur, et al) had to first fight with the tribes in the NWFP before making inroad into India. But, the `conquerors’ could never sway the area completely. Despite the Englishman’s stick-and-carrot policy to woo the tribes, the area remained a “forbidden land” (ilaqa ghair), mired in ironclad traditions. One tradition is to lay down one’s life for the protected guest, whether he be a jihadi, outcast or outlaw. The British controlled only about 20 per cent of the area. Pakistan now controls about 85 per cent of it!
Be it noted that the FATA enjoys special status, as enshrined in Pakistan’s constitution of 1973.To create goodwill and integrate the tribal areas with the rest of the country, Pakistan’s founder, Quaid-e-Azam, withdrew armed forces from the cantonments in tribal areas. Two new agencies, Bajaur and Orakzai, were created to bring another 50 per cent of the tribal area under the government’s influence, in 1973.
The tribal territory includes five agencies (Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, and Kurram), besides North Waziristan and South Waziristan and six frontier regions. In the wake of West-sponsored Afghan-jihad, fighters (jihadis) of foreign origin (Chechnya, Central Asia, Libya, so on) have taken refuge in the rugged tribal belt. The fighters keep moving over the Pak-Afghan porous border. These fighters are the West’s own legacy of the war against Soviets in Afghanistan.
The drone attacks have to be stopped. They kill innocent people, including children. But, they have never been able to kill uber-bogeymen, Osama and al-Zawahiry, not even Baitullah Masood (whose dossier Pakistan gave to its `friends’).
The West needs to understand that it has to lend an ear to Pakistan’s point of view. It is wrong to bundle too many issues into one over-arching theme “do more on terror”. West’s notion of gender equality and female education has to be circumscribed within confines of shariah. Madaaris, under the control of government’s wafaqul madaaris, must stay on.
The `overseas contingency operations’ policy, successor to `global war on terror’, should have concern for Pakistan’s woes and needs. There should be massive inflows of economic aid to help Pakistan’s fragile economy, as also for displaced families. We should give financial compensation to bereaved families of the `collateral damage’, build damaged or destroyed houses, schools and buildings. Remember: Not every pushtun is a militant taalib.
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