A time to be valiant

In August 2013, David Brooks began his column in The New York Times with these words: “What’s the biggest threat to world peace right now? Despite the horror, it’s not chemical weapons in Syria. It’s not, for the moment, an Iranian nuclear weapon. Instead, it’s the possibility of a wave of sectarian strife building across the Middle East”.
The focus at that time was on Syria. Yemen was just not mentioned in the column. But perceptive observers had seen that sectarian rivalries within the Muslim world had the potential of disturbing the world’s peace. In any case, the Middle East is the arena where, as the poet said, “ignorant armies clash by night”.
In a sense, this has been a clash within a civilisation. And Pakistan has been embroiled in this fateful struggle because of foreign policy choices made many years ago. But the moment of reckoning has arrived this week, when Saudi Arabia sought Pakistan’s assistance in its campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Naturally, this has raised a storm at a time when Pakistan is totally involved in its own internal strife against terrorism and militancy.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told the National Assembly on Friday that Pakistan has not decided to join the ongoing war in Yemen but would defend Saudi Arabia against any threat to its territorial integrity. However, the minister did not rule out the possibility of sending troops to the area. He said that “if a need arises at any moment to commit forces, parliament will be taken into confidence”.
Khawaja Asif, who spoke a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had consulted with his top national security aides in a meeting that was also attended by Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif, explained that “we are also keeping a close eye on Pakistan’s own security situation and will not take any action which may leave any negative impact”.
Earlier, on Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s official SPA news agency released this statement: “Pakistan declared willingness to participate in Al-Hazm Storm Operation in response to the welcome by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab states as well as international community”. Meanwhile, our Foreign Office kept insisting that the request was being examined.
Against the backdrop of critical developments in the Middle East, Pakistan is confronted with some hard choices. Opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah reflected popular concern on this situation when he said that jumping into this fray could have serious consequences for Pakistan. The headline in this newspaper on Saturday summed it up: ‘Getting into Yemen conflict to ruin country, says Khursheed’.
As far as Pakistan’s own security situation is concerned, we have to be mindful of how it has changed with the campaign against terrorism in the light of the National Action Plan. Events that have taken place in Karachi during the past three weeks have become an extension of this campaign. What is relevant in the context of the storms that are raging in the Middle East is attention that is now being paid to sectarian terrorism in Pakistan.
I have quoted David Brooks at the outset to underline the impression that our rulers have taken a long time in understanding the implications of the sectarian killings in the country and the role that a number of extremist outfits were playing in stoking the fire of sectarian hatred. It seems hard to believe that the massacre of the Hazara community in Quetta had not readily provoked the authorities to take concerted action.
All these years, Pakistan seemed to have remained the battleground of a proxy war. We could see why our rulers were inclined to look the other way while deep animosities were injected into the body politic. In this process, we were also diverted from our specific cultural and historical legacies. Pakistan has consistently suffered from an imposition of a deeply divisive and obscurantist approach in social and religious matters.
Unfortunate, we did not have the time to understand and analyse this drift. What we have now is a cumulative influence of policies that played havoc with our religious and social harmony that initially justified the establishment of Pakistan. After all, the founder of this country would be identified as a Shia and it is worth repeating that its first foreign minister was an Ahmedi and its first law minister was a Hindu. Look where we have arrived now, thanks to the choices we made in charting this journey.
Is this the moment to stop and draw a fresh route map to be able to at least travel hopefully? A pledge to defend Saudi Arabia in case of any danger to its territorial integrity may be obligatory, considering the recent history of our bilateral relationship. But to join the Saudi-led coalition in the war in Yemen would patently have no justification.
The Middle East is in a flux and the prospect of a nuclear deal between the United States and Iran has sent shock waves through the region. It is interesting how unforeseen events can shuffle old enemies and friends into new groupings. Irrespective of the threat that is posed to world peace by sectarian strife in the Middle East, this is certainly a time of change and upheaval.
In some ways, the crisis prompted by Saudi action in Yemen provides an opportunity to Pakistan to undertake the necessary course correction in the context of its foreign policy. We should be conscious of the war that is our own. We also have our lessons to learn from our relationship with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. More importantly, we have to contend with our jihadi mindset. If the war against terrorism is professedly being waged without any discrimination, it should be the same in the conduct of our foreign policy.
Sadly, the timing of this major distraction is not propitious. Pakistan’s own security situation is critical and grim political consequences are planted in how the Karachi operation is progressing. Revelations that relate to the militants affiliated with the MQM are expected to lead to more action on the ground. A delegation of the MQM met the prime minister on Friday in Islamabad and the message from the government was that the operation against the criminal elements will continue to make Karachi a crime-free city “at all costs”.
For the time being, we have to wait and watch. What is certain is that the more things change, the more they cannot remain the same. We confront opportunities as well as extreme hazards. But this specifically is the time to be valiant and unflinching in our pursuit of national interest.
The writer is a staff member.
Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com