Pakistan: What were you thinking Prime Minister?

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif has expressed the army’s reservations to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the “unilateral release” of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) prisoners, Pakistan Today has learnt.

Reportedly, the army chief has claimed that the army was “kept in the dark” over the issue and has expressed displeasure over the release of Taliban prisoners without ensuring the release of the civilians in Taliban captivity. The government released 19 combatant and non-combatant inmates of TTP since March 21 while another 100 prisoners are to be released in the next few days. Reportedly, this move has not gone well with the military top brass. There is no word either from the government or the TTP whether or not the civilians and the security personnel kept by the militants in captivity would also be released in the prisoner swap.

Sources privy to the details of the meeting at the Prime Minister’s House confided that this was perhaps the first expression of serious differences between the army leadership and the government since the dialogue process had commenced. The sources added that if not handled prudently, this move may affect the relationship between the civil and military leadership despite the fact that Gen Raheel was handpicked by the prime minister and both had to develop a good working relationship.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam and PM’s Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi also attended the meeting.

IT WAS AN APPEASEMENT MOVE:

The army’s top brass also conveyed to the premier its concerns that apparently the move by the government without consulting the khakis or winning anything in a bargain was a bid to ‘appease’ the militants who had used pressure tactics to make the civilian leadership succumb to their pressure. The sources said that the army leadership also conveyed to the civilian leadership that classifying the TTP militants as combatants and non-combatants was also childish as approximately all the militants were hardened criminals and getting evidence against them in tribal areas was next to impossible given their might and fear in the area. “Combatants or non-combatants – they all are criminals and murderers. A division can’t be drawn. They are two faces of the same coin,” an insider said.

GOVT SURRENDERED WRIT OF STATE:

The source said that such a step by the government without input and feedback from the military leadership reflected that it was a bid to appease the militants and was tantamount to surrendering the writ of the state which had been challenged. “Thousands of soldiers have laid down their lives to arrest these killers. Now releasing these militant inmates without seeking advice from the security forces leadership is just like serving the objective of the Taliban. This would destroy all the gains made by the army in South Waziristan operation while the Taliban would now have an upper hand in the dialogue process. They have achieved a lot without surrendering even a single inmate and without firing a single shot,” the insider added.

WHAT DID THE GOVT GAIN?

The insider privy to the developments of the meeting told Pakistan Today that there was not a single word mentioned by either side pertaining to the gains the government had made in lieu of release of these 19 militants. “We have not been told what the government got in return of this release. Actually it was a unilateral move under pressure of a threat given by the TTP. It’s like surrender without ensuring the release of the detained civilians or the security personnel in the bargain.”

It is pertinent to mention here that following the meeting at the Prime Minister’s House, a meeting scheduled on Friday between the government and Taliban dialogue committees with the interior minister was postponed for today (Saturday).