Pakistani leader to defend anti-militant strategy

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Pakistani leader to defend anti-militant strategy​

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By Stephen Graham

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani left Saturday on a three-day visit to Washington to defend his government's reluctance to use force against Islamic militants blamed by U.S. officials for soaring violence in neighboring Afghanistan.

The trip comes amid intensifying U.S. pressure for Pakistan, a vital ally in its war on terrorism, to move against strongholds that Taliban and al-Qaida militants have established in its border regions.

It will be the first visit by Gilani since he came to power following Feb. 18 elections.

Before his departure, Gilani told reporters that Pakistan was fighting the war on terror in its own interests.

"This is our own fight. This is our own cause," he said, noting that his ruling party's leader, Benazir Bhutto, had died in a terrorist attack on Dec. 27.

Gilani's three-month-old government is persevering with efforts to negotiate peace deals along the wild frontier and stabilize a country roiled by Islamist suicide attacks. Force will be used only as a last resort, he reiterated this past week.

"Pakistan's national security and internal stability is paramount," Information Minister Sherry Rehman said. "Pakistan is making its own policy for its own problems."

Gilani's first plunge into the center of American power begins with separate meetings Monday with President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Rice.

His hectic, three-day schedule also includes appointments with lawmakers, academics and journalists. Officials say he may meet with the contenders in November's presidential election, Barack Obama and John McCain.

Gilani, whose government is wrestling with daunting economic problems exacerbated by skyrocketing oil prices, also is to meet with members of Bush's economic team and address business leaders.

But the sharpest questions are likely to address the growing disagreement between Islamabad and Washington over how to counter violent Islamic extremists. Al-Qaida leaders are believed to find sanctuary in Pakistan, while American troops in eastern Afghanistan are facing a spike in cross-border attacks by Taliban insurgents.

On Saturday, local newspapers quoted Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik as saying security forces had arrested between 35 and 40 militants, including an al-Qaida commander, during a recent operation in the northwestern town of Hangu.

Since taking over from an administration dominated by U.S.-backed President Pervez Musharraf, the new government has sought peace pacts with Taliban militants.

U.S. officials have voiced support for efforts to woo moderate tribal elders and isolate hard-liners.

Washington also has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for a drive to bring economic development to the border region that Pakistan hopes will dry up support for extremism. It has funneled more than $10 billion in mostly military aid to Pakistan in the past six years.

But U.S. civilian and military leaders — and the presidential hopefuls — frown on the government's decision to strike cease-fires with militants. They also fear that any agreements — especially clauses on expelling foreign militants and preventing cross-border attacks — will not be enforced.

"We understand that it's difficult, we understand that the northwest frontier area is difficult, but militants cannot be allowed to organize there and to plan there and to engage across the border," Rice told reporters in Australia on Friday. "So yes, more needs to be done."

Musharraf, the former army strongman who sided with the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, launched repeated military operations against militants in Pakistan's tribal belt.

However, the new coalition government argues that Musharraf's reliance on the erratic and heavy-handed use of force ended up strengthening militants and turning their wrath against the Pakistani state.

Pakistani leader to defend anti-militant strategy - Yahoo! News

 

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Setting the pace for Gilani's US visit​

EDITORIAL (July 26 2008): Thanks to the majesty of democracy Prime Minister Gilani is better placed for his crucial meeting at the White House next week than the lonely-at-the-top President Musharraf was who couldn't say 'no' to the Bush administration.

In the wake of 9/11 incidents the Americans were too impatient to wait for Pakistan's deliberated response to their demand for total military co-operation in their hunt for al Qaeda and Taliban elements who they thought had taken shelter in Pakistan's tribal areas.

That Gilani should feel confident and not get scared of a threat like 'rendering Pakistan to Stone Age', an elaborate exercise was undertaken here in Islamabad that culminated on Wednesday in a consensual approach forged by the ruling coalition partners, in close consultation with the military top brass. The meeting at the Prime Minister House developed "a clear consensus" that the situation in the troubled region warranted the "evolution of long-term policies across the board with the support of all political partners".

Furthermore, the meeting clinched the agreement that in order to mobilise public support for a greater national consensus on Pakistan's battle against extremism and militancy, parliament will discuss the formulation of a national policy to address this issue".

That, essentially, spells out the elected government's response to the blow hot and cold posturing of the US-led coalition, a posturing, not too infrequently bordering on the threat to cross border in hot pursuit. When asked by his host to 'do more' in fighting militancy in the tribal areas the Prime Minister's reply likely to be is that the decision in this regard will be made by the Pakistan parliament and not by any individual.

Since the change of command of Pak Army, followed by general elections in February which delivered a stunning defeat to President Musharraf's party, Pakistan's perception of co-operative relationship with the coalition forces in Afghanistan has been undergoing a kind of metamorphosis or transformation.

There is a growing feeling that Islamabad is not being trusted and is subjected to unjustified pressure, often at the behest of its regional rivals. Although Pakistan has paid the highest price for its part in the war on terror in terms of military losses and civilian deaths as collateral damage in coalition attacks, there is no appreciation of this reality either.

The tipping point, however, came when President Karzai threatened to invade Pakistan and the Nato forces carried out a murderous strike against a military checkpost in Mohmand Agency killing about a dozen security personnel. Enough is enough, supposedly said the military leadership and put on the back burner the so-called trilateral mechanism for regular contact on combat-related accidents.

How upset and angry is Pakistan over this thankless attitude of its allies the NWFP Governor Owais Ghani's words on the eve of Barack Obama's visit to Afghanistan should serve as an indicator. But that certainly does not mean Pakistan is supportive of militancy in the tribal areas that tends to percolate to the rest of the country with dangerous consequences.

Rightly then the meeting of the coalition heads made it clear that while the government would like to talk to the militants "it was noted that Pakistan's national security and internal stability is paramount and no one will be allowed to challenge the writ of the state".

As against the general impression that insensitivity exhibited by the US-led coalition to Pakistan's concerns, there are some early signs suggesting that Washington would like to re-order its priorities in relation to Islamabad's perspective on the war on terror.

For one, the recently tabled Biden-Lugar bill tends to shift the balance of American policy for the militancy-ridden FATA from strengthening military option to helping the people's quality of life by offering economic and developmental assistance. Then there is another bill that would like the United States to help upgrade Pakistan's F-16 fleet so that its own air force may obviate the need of foreign aircraft in targeting militants.

That is to let Pakistan security forces deal with militants - by implication, cutting down on the charge that Pakistanis cross over the border to join the Afghan Taliban. But such a change of policies is not that the Bush administration would like to undertake happily; the fact is that US and its allies increasingly foresee difficulties in maintaining the momentum of their military-centric presence on foreign lands.

While there is pressure by the Iraqis for a pullout timeline, for the battles in Afghanistan the Pentagon has no additional troops. Surely the Bush administration would not like to lose the 'gains' it has made of late in Iraq by diverting troops from there to Afghanistan and thus end up the Bush era on a note of historical failure. In that background Pakistan's stance to combat terrorism as its own war gets vindicated.

Hopefully, Prime Minister Gilani's visit to Washington would help reaffirm the emerging perceptional commonality. By denying success to his visit the Bush administration would be helping lobbies in Pakistan who are opposed to tough action against the militants and extremists.

A further and very useful contribution, to the developing scenario should come from the projected debate in the parliament. Let this debate be a full-throated, comprehensive and widely participated discourse. Let our elected representatives' ideas crystallise into a definite plan on the war on terror.

Business Recorder [Pakistan's First Financial Daily]