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shallowwater · #5 Saturday, April 25, 2009

1. Dual threat.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said relations with Islamabad will be adversely affected if it fails to act against the Taliban. Pakistan finds itself in a position where it faces grave threats from both its eastern and western borders. The Indian posture towards Pakistan has hardened after the Mumbai attacks, while extremists are putting the country's integrity in jeopardy. Pakistan is being asked to change its approach towards India, as the "existential threat" that Pakistan faces comes from internal extremists and not India. To many in Pakistan, this is a one-sided view which fails to take into cognizance the ground realities in South Asia. The Kashmir issue which is the root cause of hostility between the two South Asian neighbours remains unresolved, thanks to New Delhi's obduracy. Unrest in Kashmir, caused by Indian occupation, has a direct impact on Pakistanis who have religious, ethnic and historical ties with Kashmiris. With all Pakistani rivers except one originating from Kashmir, the core issue has economic implications for the country. Pakistan wants a peaceful resolution of the problem. For this, it has tried its level best to persuade India to come to the negotiating table. India has invariably invented one excuse after another to wriggle out of talks. Knowing well that the Pakistan government had nothing to do with the attack, India unilaterally called off talks after the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan is pressing India to resume the composite dialogue while India continues to refuse. The Indian elections have in fact hardened New Delhi's stance. This leaves Pakistan with no option but to station the bulk of its troops on its eastern borders.
This has provided an ideal opportunity to the extremists in FATA and Swat to expand their activities as events taking place during the last week amply indicate. First the Taliban consolidated their hold on strategic Buner, then they advanced to Shangla. They successfully impeded the movement of the Frontier Constabulary by ambushing a police van which was piloting units of the civil armed forces. Earlier statements by Sufi Mohammad and TTP's Swat spokesman Muslim Khan had made many in Pakistan realize the implications of the threat posed by extremists to the integrity of the country. The advance of the Taliban into Buner and Shangla has shaken many out of their complacency.
One can understand the concern being expressed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US joint chiefs chairman Adm Mike Mullen. However, asking Pakistan to do more, and wringing hands or advancing implicit threats when it refuses to shift troop from the eastern border, will not do. Washington should instead move ahead to persuade India to normalize relations with Pakistan and show willingness to address the core issue of Kashmir. This would help Islamabad divert full attention and all resources to fighting the extremists.

2. For a coherent policy.

SUCH is the threat by the marauding Taliban, that even the political parties who were once apologetic in their stance towards them on the ground that the Taliban movement in Swat was for a just cause, have now found it prudent to rethink their approach. PML(N) leader Mian Nawaz Sharif has realized, though belatedly, that the Taliban had exploited the peace deal in Swat to expand their control to Buner and other areas, and insisted that Talibanization was something the people of Pakistan did not want. Likewise, few would have expected that the Jamaat Islami would also express its reservations about the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. JUI(F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who at one point in time was considered very sympathetic to the Taliban, felt it right to warn the National Assembly on Wednesday that if the Taliban continued to move at their present pace, they would soon be knocking on the doors of Islamabad. Even more importantly, it is ANP, the party that negotiated the peace deal by seeking help of Maulana Sufi Muhammad to broker a truce with the Taliban in Swat, which is of the view that the Taliban will not give up their ways unless compelled by use of force. Taking notice of the violation of the peace deal in Swat, NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti felt the need to re-launch military operations in the restive region. That all the mainstream political parties have been forced to publicly oppose the Taliban, speaks volumes about the real motives of the movement. As it turns out, TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad is little interested in the restoration of peace in the troubled valley. After his failure to convince the Taliban to disarm, he has launched a tirade against the government, maintaining that democracy was a negation of Shariat. Besides, given the way the Taliban had been violating different peace deals in the past, it should have been clear from the very first day that the Swat accord likewise would not hold and that the militants would use it to buy time to strengthen their network. But the manner in which the matter was taken to Parliament for approval does not inspire confidence. One cannot help but think that this was meant to show to the West that it was a popular decision taken by the legislators themselves. This reflects poorly on the official strategy of coping with what is undoubtedly the most serious issue today.
There is a need under the circumstances that the government, in concert with all the political parties, put its act together and come up with a coherent policy to deal with the militants.

3. PIA woes.

SEVEN days and $5.5 million later, the pilots' association of Pakistan International Airlines has called off its strike. It is about time. In these extremely competitive times for international airlines, our national carrier could not afford to inconvenience its passengers as much as they did. The hapless passengers, primarily those bound for Europe, were left stranded at the airports. In a show of resilience and ingenuity, some of the PIA higher management, who are qualified pilots in their own right, took the initiative and undertook these flights themselves, if only to cut the pilots down to size a bit. Both sides, now cognizant of their situation, decided to find a way out.
The pilots need to know what the organization can and cannot give them. These are times of recession. All governments know that. All businesses know that. Whereas the problem in Pakistan might have been that of limited public fiscal space - businesses are actually as good or bad as they had been in the previous government - the effects of the global recession are still felt by companies, public or private. Employees, especially white-collar employees of these companies, should realize the predicament their organizations are in. Even when times were good, the situation at PIA was not peaches. It is a bit of a drain on the exchequer. It needs to make better business sense. Granted, as a public sector corporation, it does fly to commercially unviable destinations, but the minuses seem to be outweighing the pluses. It is a top-heavy organization with far more chiefs than Indians. It needs to be streamlined. In the process it is bound to cut down on many jobs, including from the ranks of those who took part in the current strike. Pushing PIA to the brink is going to be counter-productive to their well-being. They don't want to go down in history as the group that laid the final straw on the camel's back.