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Friday March 29, 2024

Pakistan’s post-Pulwama challenge

By Mazhar Abbas
March 05, 2019

Pakistan has certainly gain a lot of goodwill and appreciation from all over the world for its role in the post-‘Pulwama’ politics and border tension with arch rival India and it appears as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to answer lot more questions from its own people not only over Pulwama but also regarding Indian Air Force ‘intrusion’ and fake success stories. But there are still quite a few challenges ahead for Prime Minister Imran Khan and Pakistan, both on diplomatic front as well on dealing with the ‘non-state actors’.

PM’s decision to handover the Indian pilot within the 24-hour also went well for Pakistan and despite Indian media’s rhetoric the move was appreciated by the international community as well as noted Indian journalists.

Today the media hype and war hysteria which most of the uncontrolled Indian TV channels created have somewhat also returns to normalcy and they are now asking questions from their own government regarding its tall claims about killing 300 to 350 suspected militants of outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad, targeting its madrassa in Balakot, story regarding F-16. Now even PM Modi himself was raising questions about ‘airstrike’ success.

It appears as the post-Pulwama misadventure in a bid to influence Indian elections in favour of the BJP has also caused self-inflicted injury to Modi’s government and the BJP.

In a sign of defusing tension both India and Pakistan have agreed in resuming Samjotha Express and apparently India will also not boycott match against Pakistan in the World Cup 2019 after ICC rejected BCCI’s plea against Pakistan.

But India likely to persist and pushed Pakistan to take action on the basis of ‘Dossier’ it had sent regarding the alleged involvement of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in Pulwama suicide attack, which had killed 44 Indian soldiers as they still want some kind of face saving.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Foreign Office said they are examining it and will soon reply to the Indian government. Prime Minister Imran Khan whose role in the crisis got applause not only from abroad but within the country including from the Opposition also made a smart move when he clearly showed displeasure over the campaign for Nobel Peace Prize saying the man who would resolve the outstanding issue of Kashmir would deserve such a price.

Imran Khan’s role has been appreciated by none other than the US President Donald Trump over Afghanistan and Pakistan’s efforts in bringing Afghan Taliban on the negotiating table with the Americans.

Pakistan in the past had faced embarrassment at times due to the activities of some of the outlawed or Jihadi outfits. The government last week had imposed complete ban on Jamaatud Dawa and its Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF). Now reports suggest that some decisive action will be followed against JeM too.

If news regarding Pakistan’s decision to review its earlier stance on United Nation Security Council resolution on JeM leader Masood Azhar, it would go a long way in support of Pakistan’s resolve that it is not only serious regarding eliminating terrorism from the country but also promised by PM Imran that his government would not allow any outlawed group or individual to indulge in any terrorist activities within our outside the country.

In the past China had taken the position not to support the resolution and in case Pakistan decided to review its decision, there is every possibility that it would be in consultation with China and may be with Saudi Arabia too.

The National Security Committee in its meeting on February 21 had taken some important decisions for complete implementation on 2014 National Action Plan (NAP) which includes decisive action against all the outlawed groups.

Pakistan must be relieved over the recent resolution passed by the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) despite its absence or boycott over inviting Indian foreign minister; some believe that the presence of Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi would have further helped in presenting Pakistan’s case over post-Pulwama situation and its position on Kashmir.

Some of the decisive actions against militants, outlawed groups would help Pakistan to come out of the grey list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), some believe that it is high time that Pakistan in its own interest should strictly ban all such outfits, some of whom were still capable of creating problems for the government. Civil-military relationship at present is not only on one page but they have decided to ensure that all the points of NAP would be fully implemented.

Apparently Indians have not given any major evidence regarding Pulwama incident as it has already been established that the suicide bomber was a Kashmiri and never visited Pakistan nor the explosive found in the truck have anything to do with Pakistan. The only claim they made was his link with JeM and groups claiming responsibility through video message.

Pakistan had first banned sectarian outfits in August 2001 and in January 2002; it also banned jihadi outfits as well including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizbut Tehrir and others.

Prime Minister Imran Khan since he assumed power had offered India to resume talks on all the outstanding issues including Kashmir and terrorism. He even said before coming to power when he had met Indian PM Modi, he warned him of the problems they could confront while holding negotiation but advised him not to fall in such trap.

After Pulwama, IK in his first reaction denied Pakistan’s involvement but assured India of cooperation if anyone was found involved in Pakistan. Imran and his government have welcomed the offer of the UN and other countries for any mediation between the two hostile neighbours who had fought three wars and a mini-war in Kargil.

How PM Imran and Pakistan capitalise the gains it got in the last few days and pushed his Indian counterpart and the media on defensive would be the real challenge. Can his government be able to convince the world to put pressure on India for defusing tension and come to the negotiating table? Only time will tell as tension was somewhat defused but in case of the two arch rivals it can flare up again in no time.

The writer is a columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang

Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO