Pakistan must stop appeasing jihadism

It is hard to overstate the political and social disaster wrapped up in the deal Pakistan’s government has struck with jihadi extremists, ceding them control of the Swat valley.For all that Yusuf Raza Gilani, prime minister, and Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, dress this up as a “home-grown strategy” to fight insurgency, this is capitulation. Until this week it was a deal struck by a regional government. Now it is the policy of the government. It could hardly be otherwise, since it was the policy of the army, Pakistan’s overmighty subject.Pakistan’s rulers have a point when they complain that US and western policy in the now conjoined Pakistani-Afghan arena has: driven al-Qaeda and its allies into Pakistan’s frontier badlands; alienated the population by indiscriminate bombing; backed the barely disguised military rule of General Pervez Musharraf while the army and military intelligence alternated between attacking jihadis one week and dallying with them the next.This double game, hunting with the hounds while running with the hares, continues. No wonder army commanders see Swat as a model. Yet, it still amazes by its disregard for the security and ultimate survival of Pakistan. Leaving aside the affront to human and women’s rights implied by jihadi rule, those who think Swat is a good idea have delusions about their ability to contain revolution. The Taliban triumph in Swat relied on: anti-Americanism; a local thirst for the justice and order Islamabad has ceased to provide in much of Pakistan; and shrewdly exploited class animus against feudal local landlords.This formula could easily translate to the rest of the Punjab, the last, half well-governed province of a federation fraying at the edges.There is no way forward without rebuilding Pakistan’s institutions, in particular a policing and justice system under the rule of law.It is, of course, vital to separate jihadi extremists from mainstream Islamists. The Swat capitulation does exactly the opposite. Jihadis are being allowed to establish separate legal jurisdictions and political fiefs – against the wishes of hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis who have fled as refugees. Pakistan’s federal government is yielding up territory to rival powers, creating safe havens in the heart of the country. Why would its citizens believe it has the will to win?Pakistan uses jihadi proxies because it is obsessed with arch-enemy India. Western policy needs to engineer a situation where India recedes as a threat. But Pakistan needs to understand that jihadism is the real threat to its survival.