Daily Times

With the benefit of hindsight, the authorities in Islamabad would do well to take the deadly suicide attack on an Iranian Revolutionary Guard convoy very seriously. As Pakistan plays a generous host to Muhammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, it must remember that its western neighbour and Gulf monarchies do not see eye to eye on almost all issues of regional concern. In the past, Pakistan’s ill-devised policies amid the regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran have impacted the relations between our minority Shia population and the majority Sunnis, and unleashed deadly sectarian violence. Though the sectarian conflict doesn’t result in as much violence as it once used to cause in the country, things are far from perfect. Only last year, the Shia Hazara community of Quetta suffered a series of targeted attacks.

In this situation, Iran’s call to Pakistan to act against the militia responsible for the Wednesday attack in its Sistan-Balochistan province must lead to immediate action. Iran believes that the militia has an operational presence in Balochistan province which is already under the control of security forces. This necessitates a swift probe and action to the satisfaction of the western border. The gravity of the situation must not be lost on policy makers in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Already, two of our neighbours have had similar complaints regarding operational presence in Pakistan of non-state actors that cause unrest inside their borders.

While the security forces proceed against the militia based on intelligence shared by Tehran, the Foreign Office must pick up the slack on the diplomatic front. A number of economic initiatives of trans-regional significance have been floated in the past decade involving sustained cooperation between Pakistan and Iran, including power sector ventures that can help boost our economy without complete reliance on the Gulf monarchy’s largess. The latter is problematic for a number of reasons, not least the lack of democratic institutionalism in the Kingdom making it a risky foreign partner compared to Iran with its limited yet institutionalised democracy. Thus, the FO must explore avenues for resuming a dialogue with Tehran on these economic fronts.

The bottom-line remains that Pakistan needs to repair its ties with its neighbouring states by demonstrating to the latter that it has a zero-tolerance policy vis-à-vis non-state militias that cause unrest in the region.  *

Published in Daily Times, February 19^th 2019.