Pakistan: (Nawaz Regime) Time to come clear

EDITORIAL

The Prime Minister’s (PM) Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz had assured the members of rthe Senate’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs the other day that the US would halt drone strikes

while the government negotiates peace with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). While the debate over this newly found assurance was still to conclude, a drone strike in Hangu on a madrassa trashed the claims of the PM’s adviser. Keeping to its usual diplomatic demeanour on the drones issue, the US did not reject or accept the PM’s Advisor’s claim when approached by the media. The government on the other hand failed to provide anything in black and white, as was demanded by the opposition members in the committee, to prove its claim right. In the absence of any authoritative statement from the US over the policy on drones, the opposition was sceptical about the government’s new assurance even before the Hangu strike. That strike was the first in the settled areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is not yet known whether the attack was a one-off strike in the settled areas, reportedly to target Sirajuddin Haqqani who was believed to have visited the area, or a policy decision to expand drone strikes beyond FATA. For those like Imran Khan railing against this latest ‘violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty’, they seem blind to the policy of duality that the Pakistani security establishment has pursued for many years of running with the Taliban hare and hunting with the US hounds, a duality that has invited drone strikes on Pakistani soil against high profile targets. There is a clear US policy on drones, according to which the US will target terrorists living in safe havens in the tribal areas of Pakistan (and now the settled areas too?), until they are eliminated or their strength crippled sufficiently to prevent attacks on the US and allied forces in Afghanistan. Since Pakistan has been unwilling (the US view) or unable (the Pakistani mea culpa) to do the needful, i.e. eliminate the terrorists, the US is doing it itself. There is also so much ambiguity surrounding the drone program, starting from the agreement that Pakistan has allegedly had with the US over its usage to the collateral deaths it causes that the case for or against drones is far from a settled matter. The original objection to drones violating Pakistan’s sovereignty now has the additional objection added that they sabotage the government’s efforts to bring about peace through negotiations with the terrorists. Where does the government find itself now after the latest drone strike? Did Sartaj Aziz not breach parliament’s privilege by saying something that had no firm basis? About negotiations, the much trumpeted talks are conspicuous by their absence, especially when Maulana Fazlullah, the new chief of TTP, has refused to talk to the government. The approach of the government towards terrorism is simply adding more layers of confusion to the already confused situation. It is time for the government to truthfully come clear about the real situation.