leaders like Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif offering the expertise acquired through blood, toil and tears to those countries that are now gradually finding themselves confronting terrorism of their own making.
It was music to the ears to hear our Prime Minister offering Pakistan’s anti-terrorist expertise to French President Francois Hollande when he called on him in Maltese capital to offer his condolences on the recent Paris terrorist attacks. he extended to France Pakistan’s cooperation in counter-terrorism and the field of intelligence sharing. After all we have now come to be some sort of experts on terrorism having come of age fighting terrorists of all sorts for so long.
Change in command in the Army hierarchy in November 2013 brought in a new thinking and a fresh approach for an effective counter narrative. Though late yet a little later would have been too late. Army Chief Chief General Raheel Sharif launched the over due Operation Zarbe Azb in June 2014 in keeping with the countrywide consensus to root out terrorism of all sorts as well to eliminate violent sectarianism.
However, despite our unaccountable sufferings, one is deeply hurt to hear oft-repeated demand from us to ‘do more’ from those who are responsible for our traumatic plight as well. And it seems that despite our painstaking efforts to dispel the perception that we are the villain of the piece, we have still to go a long way in getting rid of the albatross around our neck, of being accused as harbourers of terrorists.
This perception will not go unless we put our own house in order. Orchestrating of civil-military on one page mantra, divergent statements by the ministers, contradictions on almost every issue between words and actions—whether it has to do with the presence of IS/Daesh in Pakistan or to play cricket with India or not—are a manifestation of a state of mind worst confounded.
No doubt government marketed National Action Plan as a panacea to all our terrorist ills following massacre at APS in Abbotabad. Its stakeholders seem to be at loggerheads on its performance. Here one would not like to comment on the indictment of the civilians by the Corps Commanders recent meeting—a cause for generating so many controversies and unending rumours. However, notwithstanding the fact that the praetorian outburst was a natural reaction in a grave situation, it was surely a transgression of the constitutional parameters.
Pakistan is in a state worst confounded. No one knows whether who is going and who is coming. It is neither here nor there. Foreign visits abroad, so-called red-carpet welcomes, awards and honours are just icing over the cake loaded with a powdered-keg inside. The need of the hour is to convene the Committee of the Two Whole Houses of the Parliament-if need be in camera, to discuss threadbare where we stand and in which direction we are drifting. Let collective wisdom prevail as the final arbiter.
[Author is former High Commissioner for Pakistan to UK Ambassador Wajid Shamsul Hasan ]