Daily Times

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has yet again given a clear message to Islamabad — to do something about the extremists ‘save havens’ in the country. He said that United States was concerned that extremist groups were finding safe havens inside Pakistan. The US had earlier commended Pakistani authorities in the wake of recovery of Canadian-American hostages from Pakistan’s tribal areas, but it appears that those sentiments were short-lived. The secretary of state made the remarks about Pakistan after meeting his Indian counterpart in New Delhi.

Tillerson has also declared India as a leader in the region and called the country as ‘incredibly important’ player to deal with the challenges facing the region. That Pakistan was named and shamed by the US official once again means the demand for ‘do more’ is still very much there. It might also mean that the Pakistani authorities failed to convince him about the effectiveness of the country’s anti-terror efforts during his recent-day visit to Pakistan.

Despite military and civilian leadership’s claims of carrying out an across the board action against militants, the international community continues to doubt our efforts. The efforts made to dismantle the network of terror groups that Pakistan once considered, as its strategic assets need to be highlighted more effectively before the international community.

Moreover, the call to ‘put our house in order’ given by Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif also needs to be taken forward. If terror groups sanctioned by other countries are given political space by Pakistan’s establishment, in a bid to ‘mainstream’ them, the world will continue to doubt our efforts in the ongoing war on terror.

Pakistan’s civil-military leaders cannot continue to blame Indians for influencing the US strategy. Pakistani officials need to do some homework before we can confront the world leaders over statements about presence of militants’ safe havens in Pakistan.  *

Published in Daily Times, October 29^th 2017.