Daily Times

Pakistan’s murky relationship with militant groups in the region is once again in the international spotlight. Perhaps different this time is that the global pressure to address the problem may not go away so easily. The leaders of the five emerging market BRICS powers (including Pakistan’s key ally China) have for the first time named militant groups based in Pakistan as a regional security concern and called for their patrons to be held to account. Earlier in a rare public rebuke, US President Donald Trump warned Pakistan against providing ‘safe havens to agents of chaos, violence and terror’.

The BRICS statement specifically mentioned the banned terror groups as the Taliban, ISIS, Al Qaeda and its affiliates, including Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, TTP and Hizbut Tahrir. On this list, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is the only group actively fighting the Pakistan state. However, they all pose a threat to the country’s security and sectarian harmony. Undeniably, all groups use Pakistani territory to rest and recuperate, attract recruits and funds. Much of the support they receive is from non-state actors. Yet that does not absolve the Pakistani government of responsibility.

Predictably, Pakistan rejected the declaration of BRICS summit. Trump’s charges were dismissed as an attempt to scapegoat the country for US failures in Afghanistan. Pakistan continues to insist that it has no terrorist safe havens in the country. But there may be nowhere to hide when even your closest allies begin to point fingers at you. Clearly, Pakistan at minimum is facing international embarrassment because of the activities of militant groups in the country. But international isolation and sanctions or worse may follow. Pakistan also has much to gain as this situation offers an opportunity to recognise the seriousness of the problem, to re-adjust security priorities, make a complete break from the past and put the country’s affairs in order.

Because of state apathy, poor governance and violence, foreign investment in Pakistan has virtually dried up in the last decade. No country or society can stay economically viable, let alone competitive, by relying on external loans and aid. International action on militant safe havens could threaten the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Pakistan sees the success of CPEC and its all-weather friendship with China as a lifeline. Thus far, reactionary forces largely unchecked have made profound inroads in society, and the state has shown little or no resolve to fight back. The Pakistani state urgently needs to recover lost ground ceded to extremists for economic and political progress.

Because of state apathy, poor governance and violence, foreign investment in Pakistan has virtually dried up in the last decade. No country or society can stay economically viable, let alone competitive, by relying on external loans and aid

Moreover, for Pakistan there seems little to gain by harping on that in 1979, the country had made a wrong decision and acted like a proxy for the entire next decade. Also that, after 9/11, the country again made a wrong decision and joined a war which was never ours and refer to the uncountable losses of lives and properties in this war. Undoubtedly, Pakistanis with good reason can point to flawed international policies dating back to the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan having contributed to the current proliferation of militant groups in the region. However, this does not distract from the fact that Pakistan was and is a willing collaborator in the carrying out of those imperfect policies, not simply their victim. In other words, Pakistan is and was the final arbiter of its history and shares the same blame for the cost of its decisions.

Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former US national security, cold warrior and patron of the Afghan fighters was once asked whether he regretted supporting the Islamic resistance which amounted to giving arms and advice to future terrorists. Brzezinski’s replied: “What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?”

Plainly speaking, the stirred-up Muslims of the 1980s have come home to roost. Based on their propaganda, militant groups feed on the idea of injustice, and sell wars, repression and destruction by others as a rallying point to gain strength. They share the common objective of establishing an ‘Islamic state’ and the imposition of shariah law. They vow to fight America, her ‘apostate’ allies in the Muslim world and other enemies of Muslims. They are taking full advantage of the wider malaise prevailing in the Muslim world caused by triumph of autocracy over democracy, religious orthodoxy and traditionalism over secularist modernisation and violence and destruction over tolerance and dialogue.

Some steps that Pakistan can take to show the international community that it is serious about addressing the issue of safe havens and the wider issue of terrorism are: 1) offer genuine support for political reconciliation in Afghanistan even at the expense of Taliban militants 2) stop banned groups from using it soil for cross-border terrorist activity 3) repeal or amend cruel, oppressive and dangerous laws affecting the country’s religious minorities and the populace at large 4) guarantee state neutrality in matters of religion, the protection of the freedom of thought and conscience of all individuals and 5) propagate a counter-narrative to the narrow, literalist interpretations of Islam in the society at large.

The writer can be reached at shgcci@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, September 11^th 2017.