Apex agenda

Pakistan’s Apex Committee on National Security has once again discussed what is arguably the country’s biggest problem at the present time – terrorism. The committee has said all the right things on what direction we must take: calling for national political stability, training of counterterrorism departments, engaging the media in the fight against terror, engaging neighbours and evolving a policy that is in line with the points worked out under the National Action Plan of 2015.

We are all familiar with these points and also familiar with the promises to deal with terror. The real question is how the agenda worked out by the committee and spoken about again and again in the past is to be turned into reality. Implementation on the ground is our true challenge and one that has to be dealt with swiftly and efficiently. The meeting came after a delegation led by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif visited Afghanistan and was told in Kabul that the Afghan Taliban would cooperate with Pakistan regarding the presence of TTP fighters on Afghan soil. According to reports, the Pakistan delegation had gone with an unambiguous message: rein in the TTP. A way must indeed be found to make this possible and in this the Afghan Taliban must also make sure they are coming clean on whether and how much they are willing to help Pakistan. We are well beyond exhortations and hopes. We need full cross-border cooperation on this issue.

We also need complete consensus on the terror challenge in the country. With a TTP in ascendancy, any ifs or buts on this issue should be resisted. Terrrism and its various players are not welcome in this country – this one message needs to resonate across the political and institutional class. No false equivalencies, no talk of good or bad terrorists. That is the only way we will gain some semblance of order and stability so that our people can lead lives that do not include looking over the shoulder constantly in fear of terror attacks.

In the past, we failed to adopt the policy points worked out in 2015, and indeed more or less forgot them as we entered into new rounds of talks with the TTP giving, according to some analysts, a time for the militants to reorganize, revamp and come back with a vengeance. The mistakes of the past must not be repeated. If we are to go after terrorism, it must be with real effort and real willingness. This cannot happen if any of the stakeholders in the country harbour a soft spot for extremist ideology. This is a problem that must be dealt with and the Apex Committee where both political and other leaders sit together is a good place to do so. As a nation, we need to be clear about how to achieve it. Unless this clarity is found, we will continue only to gain a little time before we have new tragedies, the more recent one at the mosque within the Peshawar Police Lines and at the Karachi Police Center a short while ago. The resolve must come first, and action on the ground is as important as drafting out points or making the right sounds. The war against militancy that was valiantly fought over the past few years was only effective because it had buy-in from the entire country. We need the same buy-in and an extra effort to ensure that we also battle mindsets this time.