Drone strikes have been a hot topic in Pakistan since their inception in 2004. The debate has only heated up along with Imran Khan’s rise to power in Khyber Pakthunkhwa (KP), and now with Nawaz Sharif’s first meeting with Barack Obama, in which he demanded an end to the drone strikes in Pakistan. This demand coincided with two separate reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which called drone strikes a violation of international law and an act of war crimes.
While Pakistan demands an end to drone strikes on the basis that it is against the sovereignty of Pakistan, and it is quite a popular demand among the masses, what it lacks is any sense of self-analysis and reality check. The most common argument used in Pakistan for opposition to drone strikes is that it is against the sovereignty of Pakistan. Although on the surface this is a valid argument, two points arise here: first, one needs to look at the reasons for the drone strikes in the lawless region of Waziristan. The drone strikes are being utilised there, effectively or ineffectively, to counter al Qaeda and the Taliban elements in the tribal areas, which are not only involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan but also use this region as a hub to carry out ‘jihad’ in neighbouring Afghanistan. This, therefore, raises the question of the sovereignty of Afghanistan. If drones are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, and they are, then its targets too are unabated, undiscussed violators of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and even that of Pakistan’s.
The second point that arises here is that there have been numerous reports suggesting that many of the drone strikes were, in fact, conducted on the request of the Pakistan military, and for years they were carried out from a base within Pakistan. It has also been suggested that since the invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan has had one or more secret deals or ‘understandings’ with the US that allowed it to carry out drone strikes in Pakistan. This tells a miserable story of a security state that bowed before the US by allowing it to carry out strikes within its territories, and also before the Taliban by not taking any action against them on its own.
Another argument frequently used by opponents of the drone attacks is that drones are causing civilian deaths, and thus are producing reactionaries that are the main source of extremism in Pakistan. Without any doubt drones are causing civilian deaths and must be producing reactionaries, but one needs to remember that drones are not the root cause of extremism in Pakistan. The foundations of this religious intolerance in Pakistan were laid back in the dark days of Zia’s regime when fundamentalism flourished in Pakistan and was injected into its constitution, textbooks, society, and even found its way into the ranks of the security forces of Pakistan under the blanket of the CIA-sponsored so-called Afghan jihad. Also, if drones are the sole reason for terrorism in Pakistan, the Taliban’s demand for the implementation of their version of Sharia laws, targeting of civilians and polio workers, bombing of girls schools, sectarian and other extremist tendencies of the Taliban cannot be explained.
One must also remember that reactionaries produced as a result of drone strikes can only be exploited and used as foot soldiers, whereas the top command of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan predominantly consists of war veterans close to the Afghan Taliban, al Qaeda and its fractions in Uzbekistan, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Iraq, Syria and other al Qaeda-infiltrated countries. They also maintain close relations with Laskhar-e-Tayyaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which have their own goals unrelated to drone strikes. Therefore it is imperative for Pakistan to realise that the sufferings we are facing today, from both terrorism and drones, are the direct results of the flawed policies long pursued by our security establishment and require a change in policy rather than just mere opposition to drones.
Pakistan must continue to fight its case against drone strikes. However, it must also realise that merely opposing the drone strikes while lacking any will or the ability to control the miscreants will only lead Pakistan deeper into the chaos and further alienation within the region and the world. Pakistan’s words of protest and condemnation must be accompanied by the actions of a sovereign, responsible state. The ugly truth, unfortunately, is that with every terrorist activity in any part of the world, there is always a fear that somewhere down the road into the investigations or confessions, Pakistan’s name will be put to shame with the terrorists either having been trained in Pakistan, funded from here, or having some sort of support from the Taliban or al Qaeda fractions based in Waziristan.
Finally, the purpose of this article is neither to offer an apologia for drone strikes in Pakistan, nor to gather any support for them. The aim is to encourage the readers to consider that the case of drone strikes should not be accessed in isolation, and definitely not be used as a diversion or excuse for our long held disastrous policies. We not only need to protect our sovereignty from the US but also from al Qaeda and the Taliban. The state must protect its people from both internal and external threats, and, at the same time, not let its territory be used against any other country. The sovereignty and authority of Pakistan and its institutions must be established and then reflected in its responsible policies.
The writer is a freelance contributor