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Muhammad Amir Rana
The outcome of February-18 parliamentary elections has proved a great blow to President Musharraf and his policies especially the ongoing war against terrorism. He has successfully been maneuvering his policy on war on terror for having financial gains from the US, mainly the military assistance, and the political gains for securing his position in Pakistan.
And more significant has been his success to create the impression that Pakistan had adopted this role under pressure from the US after the 9/11 attacks and his government fought this war for western interests and not in the best interest of Pakistan.
Musharraf-backed Q League, which has been routed awfully in the elections, has always supported his vision while trying to prove that they were fighting the war against terrorism mere under global compulsions. Even during a debate in Parliament on Pakistan’s foreign policy last year one Q Leaguer had raised the slogan of al-Jihad and stressed that Pakistan should revert to previous policies of before 9/11. He was not an ordinary member of the parliament but an important figure and a parliamentary secretary Defense, Major (Retired) Tanveer Hussain. This long association of Musharraf and his allies with the US is now hindering the western policy makers from even imagining that Pakistan would be able to fight against terrorism without President Musharraf.
This wrong impression of fighting an American war also contributed to defeat of the Musharraf allies in the general elections. No doubt they capitalized upon the troubles in Pakistan for their political gains and made our own war the war of western interests.
Pakistan has been a victim of terrorism for the last 30 years. Thousands of the innocent Pakistanis paid the price of Afghan Jihad during 80’s and got killed in terrorist attacks allegedly by the Afghan secret agencies. There was witnessed, in the aftermath of Afghan Jihad, a grave sectarian conflict in the country during 90s which also took thousands of lives. Now we are facing a new transformed wave of terrorism having a mess of sectarian, local and global Jihadist agendas. This wave of radicalization is killing innocent people, security forces and soldiers on daily basis. Pakistani society is facing severe consequences of radicalization and intolerance; radical ideologies are prevailing in the society. Wrong polices and impressions have just added fuel to the fire of extremism.
The prime challenge for the new government is to address the radicalization problem; either it will own the problem or will continue the Musharraf regime polices.
The co-Chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party, which has emerged as the leading political party after election results, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, has said that his party will redefine the war against terrorism and will try to convince the common man that the fight against terrorism is not mere America’s war. This may give a new dimension to war on terrorism with an indigenous approach and local policies.
It is not only the PPP which has shown a firm stance on fighting against terrorism but the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the second largest party in the new parliament and about whom the US has concerns regarding war on terror, has also shown commitment to rout out extremism from the country. Nonetheless, Awami National Party (ANP), which has emerged as a single largest party from the most troubled frontier province, has declared its prime condition for collaboration in formation of the government as it will cooperate only if the federal government will make fight against terrorism its top priority.
New leadership is very much aware of the problems of terrorism and radicalization as they had experienced it in their previous governments when the sectarianism was on its peak and jihadi culture was prevailing every where. But their governments at that time did not have much control over the “strategic jihad polices” and were helpless to develop any comprehensive counter-terrorism polices. Even then they had taken some significant steps especially the establishment of anti-terrorist courts and controversial campaign against sectarian terrorist outfits. Former Punjab Chief Minister, Mian Shahbaz Sharif is still facing cases of extra-judicial killing of sectarian organizations’ activists. Interestingly, Musharraf-backed Q League has not only used this issue against PML (N) during the election campaign but also blamed it for betraying Kashmiri Mujahideen. Although no one can favour any extra-judicial killings but at least this precedent confirms the commitment of PML (N) against terrorism. In the meanwhile the PPP has always been criticized by the pro-jihad lobbies in the military and establishment. Now these parties are again going to be in power and the biggest challenge for them is to introduce new anti-terrorism policy, which should be Pakistan-centered and not US-dictated. They should fight against terrorism as their own war and in their own way. They should clearly indicate to the West, especially to the US, that the war against terrorism can not be won only through ‘intelligence sharing’ and small scale counter-terrorism operations. It needs comprehensive strategies. If the US and West really want to curb the terrorism they should support the democratic process in Pakistan and the peace initiatives taken by the representatives of the people. At domestic level, there is need to build consensus on the definition of terrorism. This is also desired to differentiate the nationalist insurgency from Islamic insurgency. Development of a set of diversified policies should be the outcome. And the most important, new government’s any counter-terrorism initiative will need the support from military establishment and we can only hope that no hurdles are created from this end. The elected government should also take them into confidence for evolving and implementing more effective measures.
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