Date: Thursday, October 27th, 2016, 2016
All is not lost
Reports that Pakistan is to attend the Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan to be held shortly in India are much to be welcomed. The Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs is to journey to Amritsar on 4th December to take part in discussions with ‘other stakeholders’ as to futures for Afghanistan, a matter of vital importance to Pakistan. The various attendees are agreed that whatever tensions bedevil their complex interrelationships the necessity of achieving a form of consensus regarding Afghanistan overrode their evident tensions. This is in itself a positive move forward. Riding along with the announcement of Pakistan’s attendance at the conference was an acknowledgement that a three-member Taliban delegation was in Pakistan for talks with the administration. It is perhaps unsurprising that no further detail was forthcoming, and the agenda for any meetings was not revealed.
Both developments suggest that despite the frigidity on the surface, relations between India and Pakistan have continued via the back channels and the presence of the Taliban delegation as well as the decision to attend the Heart of Asia conference are unlikely to be simple coincidence. The day-to-day business of governance and diplomacy remains functional despite threats of siege and the shutting down of government by a basket of political parties led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) that is currently hurling around a range of accusations about Indian meddling in affairs of state in Pakistan. None of them thus far are supported by empirical evidence beyond a self-admitted Indian spy and one or more pigeons none of whom are cooing on the record. Some sabre-rattling rhetoric by the Indian PM Narendra Modi has done nothing to nurture the peace process, neither the persistent violations along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary.
For its part Pakistan has displayed constructive restraint in this instance and refrained from echoing the anti-Indian blame game that would have India responsible for all our ills no matter what they are. Once again there is an opportunity for Pakistan to present itself as a moderator, a facilitator, a broker if one with patchy backstory. A player that is rightly at the Heart of Asia and yes, far from isolated.
Mixed messages again
It is difficult to reconcile the messages being given on the one hand by the Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who is claiming post to the Quetta atrocity that ‘militants are no longer operating from Pakistan’; with that of the Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah who has said that there are 93 madrassahs in Sindh alone that have links with terrorist or banned organisations. The IM view is that any terrorist activity is generated and coordinated from outside the country (there is alleged to be evidence that the Quetta attack was run from Afghanistan). He went on to say that incidents of terror were the result of flawed security and intelligence and that agencies should cooperate more effectively. He may well be right in that respect, but his assertion that militants are no longer operating from Pakistan is a hostage to fortune he can ill afford.
It is no secret that some madrassahs have links as described above and have funding streams that are at best opaque and at worst invisible and untraceable. They have operated under the noses of provincial and federal agencies for decades and are about as secret in that respect as the recipe for chapattis. The CM has directed that the police and Rangers conduct operations against the 93 suspects forthwith because they ‘harbour terrorists.’ Not so says the IM who appears to contradict the Sindh intelligence agencies that seem very sure of their ground. It appears that around 250 madrassahs nationwide have been shut down in the wake of the National Action Plan (NAP), but these may only be a portion of those suspected by intelligence agencies of anti-state activities or having the potential thereof.
Terrorists do not spring fully-formed from the soil, they have to be grown and nurtured. Some of them are grown and nurtured within the madrassah system. We do not wish to tarnish the reputation of all madrassahs, because not all of them harbour or foster extremism — but some do. Mixed messages confuse and ill-inform an already confused and ill-informed public. We suggest a harmonisation meeting between the Sindh CM and the Interior minister at the earliest possible date.
House cleaning
It is apt that immediately following the massacre at the New Sariab Police Training College, a special meeting was held at the Chief Minister House in Karachi to discuss the lurking danger of extremism in Sindh’s madrassas, creating an impending threat of a similar scenario observed in Quetta on October 25. It has been neglected for too long the realisation that Sindh, with its uncontrollably growing population inviting residents from all over the country and region, has its own house cleaning to do. Some 93 madrassas have been placed on an intelligence watch list for links with banned outfits — which should be extirpated without delay — along with a plan to register every legal and illegal immigrant of Sindh, a much lauded step.
The measures, indeed, receive our approbation but it is no easy feat. The term ‘immigrant’ in Sindh is technically applicable to millions of people, depending on where the starting point is chosen on the timeline. A better strategy is to register all residents of Sindh in rural, urban and surrounding areas. Once records are completed to accuracy, anomalous practices by individuals should be earmarked for investigation, for example, participation in questionable seminaries and organisations. Coming to madrassas, a bold step has been taken by the leadership as questioning places of religious authority or belonging has been controversial in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Madrassas provide an easy cover for troublemakers and thus need to be vetted by intelligence and government officials. Civilians should also take ownership and report hateful and divisive speech during sermons. We have been saying for a long time that a sole entity cannot operate without taking on board other leadership in the province. Decisive and meaningful action can only be taken in unison with civil and military law enforcement and intelligence, which finally seems to be happening. Pakistan’s role in the war on terror began over a decade ago, so we would have wished to see the leadership enhance its record keeping long before the intricate and tortuous mess we are in now but alas, better late than never.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2016.