KARACHI: The visible improvement in the Balochistan situation came about not by imposing force but by ruling the hearts and minds of the people -- by accommodation.
These views were expressed by Lt-Gen (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua, Adviser to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on National Security, while addressing a gathering at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) comprising members of the institute, the media, and diplomats on Friday evening. His talk was titled, “Pakistan’s security environment and future prospects”.
He acknowledged that the initial fault lay in our failure to integrate Balochistan. However, he asserted that it was not only our failure to integrate Balochistan but also the failure of sections in Balochistan to get integrated. The root cause of insurgency, he said, was sub-nationalism.
This, he said, boiled down to formulation of a viable strategy. So, he said, a people-centric civil-military strategy was formulated. “We saw to the needs of the people of Balochistan, tried our level best to redress them. We brought people together through events like horse and cattle shows and games, tournaments, with the result that there was a thaw in the bickerings harboured by the people. Over due course of time, the situation transited from flag burning to flag raising," General Janjua said.
Change in the hearts and minds of the people in Balochistan had not been brought about through force. It came about through love. The people there were made conscious of the fact that they were as much Pakistanis as the others.
The situation changed from Jeevey Jeevey Balochistan to Jeevey Jeevey Pakistan, he said. He showed slides of various events like horse and cattle shows, cricket, wrestling, and other game tournaments, as well as dancing camels and dancing horses. “We took it upon ourselves to mitigate the prevailing sense of deprivation there."
He further said, “Of course we had to resort to a selective use of force. We had to resort to intelligence-based operations and this resulted in a large haul of arms and ammunition," he said.
“Consequently, we have covered the journey from flag burning to flag raising," he said. The insurgency, whatever of it was left, was among the Baloch who were residing overseas and, by and large, it had been marginalised.
Balochistan, he said, had the maximum potential in agriculture, wind energy, solar energy, and mineral resources. It had close to 50 trillion dollars worth of resources. Balochistan, he said, had the potential of a massive trading hub. Asia was becoming an economic giant and Balochistan would have a pivotal role to play amid this scenario. Asia contained 70 percent of the globe’s population, he said.
In reply to a question about the appointment of Gen (retd) Raheel Sharif as the head of the Islamic Military Alliance, he assured that Sharif would play a balanced role. “The Muslim world will gain from his presence," he said. Talking about the CPEC, he said, “We will bring about economic connectivity with the world."
He started off his talk by the question, “How are we seen?” and answered his own question by saying that we were seen as a terrorism-prone country. We were viewed as a country with negatives because of terrorism. “We have to carry out a reality check and see the actual situation for ourselves. We are a beautiful country," he said and to illustrate his point, he showed slides of Pakistan’s breath-taking natural scenery encompassing all kinds of topography including Lake Saiful Malook in Kaghan; Hunza, Gojal, Shangrila in Skardu; dancing horses, dancing camels and racing bullocks; Hanna Lake in Balochistan; the deserts of Sindh and Balochistan, the lush verdant fields of the Punjab; fairy meadows in Gilgit-Baltistan, and others.
“We are largely misunderstood and under-estimated," he said. “We have been acting as a frontline state and saved Afghanistan," he said. He said had Pakistan not stood by the US and the West as regards Afghanistan, things in the region would have taken a very serious turn. He queried, “Was the invasion of Afghanistan Pakistan’s doing?” and answered the question himself, “This is the role and character of Pakistan which has not been valued by the West."
He said that the USSR’s dismemberment and the hasty abandonment of Afghanistan by the West resulted in the Al-Qaeda-Taliban compact. Pakistan, he said, stood with the world against those who perpetrated the 9/11.
Massive indiscriminate bombing of Afghanistan by the US left the Afghan society grievously bruised and bloodied. Terrorism in Pakistan, he said, was the result of siding with the West. “It is easy to level allegations against Pakistan but where is the proof," he queried.
About the Operation Zarb-e-Azb, he said that Pakistan suffered the maximum casualties in 2013-14. As such, the Zarb-e-Azb (ZeA) was launched in June 2014. As a result of this operation, 250,000 people returned to their homes; terrorism incidents in Karachi registered a visible decline, and 6,867 anti-social elements were arrested.
