The latest US State Department report on Pakistan is an admixture of both fact and fiction. It acknowledges some facts and denies others. It calls Pakistan an important counterterrorism partner which has succeeded in eliminating anti-state elements from the tribal areas. This is what the State Department knows firsthand, as did Senator John McCain, who during a recent visit to the region flew over areas the Pakistani forces have cleared of terrorist sanctuaries. But then it comes to say what it learns secondhand from governments in Kabul and New Delhi, as was the case with Senator McCain after his briefing in Kabul by the artful President Ashraf Ghani. So there is this assertion in the US State Department report that Pakistan has not taken "substantial action" against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. And much to the relish of the Indian media, the report also claims that Pakistan did not take sufficient action against externally-focused (read Indian-held Kashmir) groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, which have "continued to operate, train, organize, and fundraise in Pakistan." Hundreds of Kashmiris have been killed and thousands blinded by India's trigger-happy occupational forces, but the spirit of offering sacrifices refuses to die, and you conclude all of this is the product of some externally-focused entities. What a joke. The report does accept that terrorism-related civilian deaths in 2016 were much lower than in 2012-13. And then says Pakistan suffered some major attacks, particularly in Balochistan. That's right, but why to be chary of recognizing that these major attacks were the output of the extensive Indo-Afghan spy network in that province, so copiously confessed by Kulbhushan Jadhav. When US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski pointed the gun in the direction of Afghanistan, where his country was engaged in a do-or-die battle with the rival Superpower, and fired, we clapped. We didn't know then that a time would come when the leadership of the same "ally" would turn around and accuse us of being selective in fighting terrorist groups and thereby undermining the United States' fight against its erstwhile "moral equivalents of Americas founding fathers," to quote President Reagan who was eulogizing an Afghan Mujahideen delegation visiting him at the White House in 1985. Obviously, Pakistan feels hurt over State Department's "Country Reports on Terrorism," that Pakistan did not take adequate action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. In actuality, the shoe is on the other foot - Pakistan is itself a victim of terrorism which is spawned both by our neighbours both in the east and west. These are the safe havens in the bordering areas of Afghanistan that seemingly enjoy official patronage and foment violence. From our east, enter the agents with bags full of money to breed and feed terrorism.
From Islamabad's perspective, the US State Department's take on Pakistan's contribution to regional and international counterterrorism campaigns is seriously flawed. No wonder that the Foreign Office has rejected it, particularly its allegations of Pakistan's selectively targeting terrorist groups and entities. Now when the Trump administration is trying to evolve a new strategy of its role in Afghanistan, let us hope that it will accept the ground realities, and instead of winning (or losing) the war against Afghan Taliban it will try stitching up Afghan wounds and promote national reconciliation. More war is just no solution, much less a military victory. If more than a hundred and fifty thousand coalition force could not defeat the Taliban, a mere four thousand won't. It is time the Americans treated the Afghan Taliban as "insurgents" and join the various regional and international efforts to find a solution which can bring peace and stability to Afghanistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017
