Now the Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, has joined the 'our own house in order' party like other PML-N stalwarts, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, the time has come for introspection. While this is the time for introspection to peep into our internal situation at home and identify our weaknesses and strengths, it has also become obligatory upon us to once for all clear the misconceptions surrounding this theme.
Actually, introspection was required to have been done much earlier but most of us, especially those at the helm of affairs, chose the path of acting on perceived (or misperceived) realities instead of seriously trying to arrive at the right conclusions (rather inaction remained the order of the day for quite some time). Terrorism, in particular, was dealt with by the state, in the past, mostly on the basis of deceptive ideas and images like 'good Taliban, bad Taliban'. For years and years together, it was also not understood that a large, empowered segment of the state which was present in the frontier-cum-tribal locations, had turned enemy four, five decades against its own people and followers of the same faith.
Previously, it was not logically or historically wrong to consider this lot the second or third line of defence of the country since empowered people protected through inaccessible terrain form the strength of every state. But, unfortunately, these second or third lines of defence started killing their own innocent, unarmed, unprotected compatriots just for adhering to different sets of ideas and ways of life.
Had we done some introspection earlier, we would have been collectively and unanimously able to arrive at only one logical conclusion that armed persons or militias in possession of illicit weapons and making use of safe havens and unapproachable tribal belt do not constitute our state-or national-strength. No doubt, these elements did act in the beginning as a cogent anti-colonial force and one of the elements of national power of Pakistan but very soon after Independence these elements turned against their own country. The logic being applied to understand these developments is just very simple and does not need to rely on any scriptural theories or complex philosophies to understand this phenomenon.
Isn't this fact known to millions of Pakistanis of ordinary prudence as to which individuals and outfits carried out bombings of schools, mosques and other places of worship, shrines, funerals, markets, armed forces' offices and killing of innocent children, men and women besides the killing of soldiers of lower and superior ranks? They may have been exploited and prompted by foreign agencies and wholesale weapons' suppliers to commit such acts but that they committed these acts, doesn't absolve them of criminal liabilities. Whatever their ideology, how far they were justified on any religious or worldly yardstick to commit these mass killings, intoxicated with their own unbridled firepower and safe havens inside Pakistan's and Afghanistan's tribal belt? Didn't these people of our own region (Af-Pak region) who claim to profess the same faith, kill more Pakistanis than they killed people of any other nationality?
Then, what was the justification in remaining confused as well as in a self-deceptive state for years, causing martyrdom of thousands of innocent, peace-loving Pakistanis? Had we understood the indigenous radicalization and extremism phenomenon much earlier, we would not have experienced so much horror- and killings- for so many years.
This is what is meant by introspection that was needed much earlier at least in the higher echelons of government that remained entangled for years in frivolous debates like 'good Taliban, bad Taliban', 'it is war of others, not ours'. This entanglement clearly led to the emboldening of the enemies/killers of thousands of Pakistani citizens and soldiers who continued destroying the fabric of social peace without any let or hindrance at least till the time the Swat operation was launched with the armed forces' making the top leadership of the country realize the folly of unnecessary debates and confusion.
The more effective and pervasive operations like Zarbe Azb, Raddul Fasad, Khyber-IV and some others launched in the wake of this realization cleared more confusion rather the launching of these operations with the unanimity of views and targets in our civilian and military structures shows that most of our wrong views of the past now stand changed vis-à-vis the anti-state and anti-human elements. The military operations have been successful as they have rebuilt the citizens' confidence in their state but the chaos and fear resulting out of years of terrorism have still not vanished. There are fears that the demon of terrorism has not been wiped out totally from the region across Pak frontiers in the west (i.e inside Afghanistan). So, the extremist elements continue to pose threat.
It will be in the fitness of things if we consolidate the gains that have come our way after clearing the rampant confusions and misconceptions.
The journey of introspection must continue and there is no harm in putting our own house in order as the history tells us that most of the trouble has been identified as indigenous exploited cunningly by external forces.
Fighting the external enemies is a good strategy but putting our own house in order will be a far better strategy.
And one thing more, it is totally wrong to assume that when the civilian leaders talk about putting our own house in order, it means expressing some reservations about the national institutions leading this fight from the front.
The fact is that the armed forces are the frontline institution that has sacrificed thousands of precious lives for securing our homeland which means that they are already doing enough to put the house in order.