qsaark, that's no excuse for giving militants a free run of the country. The "cause" is usually just an excuse for cheap demagogues to rile their mobs and gain power by waging "jehad".The real problem is the inability of the Pakistani state to control the insurgents.
The real problem is neither the lack of willingness nor the inability to control the insurgents, the real problem is the lack of confidence of Pakistanis in American intentions and its plans for Pakistan. Pakistanis are totally confused about this whole thing; Pakistanis are aware of the fact that right now they are facing three enemies that are India, extremism, and the USA.
Question is who is the bigger and immediate threat to the existence of Pakistan? India probably not, we know India and its potential. Even with our limited resources, probably we can keep it at bay.
Extremism may be, but who is supporting extremism? First and foremost, it is the failure of the GoP's policies that is the major reason of the extremism. In past 20 or so years, GoP has completely failed in providing the basic necessities to the common people. Corruption is rampant in each and every department and law is only for the weak and poor. Common Pakistanis are oppressed to a level where they are looking desperately for some body that can get them out of this mess. Every ruler came with the high promises and got an initial support by the majority of the Pakistanis that include both, the civilian as well as the military rulers. Unfortunately both missed excellent opportunities and have totally failed the common Pakistanis. The best time was during the Zia's rule; we were literally getting tons of money from the US as well as from the oil-rich gulf countries. However, instead of investing that money wisely into some long term and sustainable projects, we spent most if not all of it on our military. We strengthen the military but weakened the society as whole. Than we missed the chance during Nawaz Sharif's 2nd term into office when we tested our nuclear devices for God knows why, and even after that, kept spending heavily on the conventional arms. Than we missed the chance after the fateful 9/11 and instead of 'assisting' the Americans in their so-called WoT, we literally jumped into a ‘foreign’ war.
Before 9/11, there were no Taliban or if they were, they were never so powerful to challenge the writ of the GoP in any Pakistani-administered territory. And the only reason they were not able to do so was because they did not have the support of the common Pakistani people. What changed after the 9/11 was the sentiment of the people after in-discriminate killing of the innocents in the name of WoT. Those who had never agreed with the Taliban's strict view of religion were now supporting them and if not supporting them, at least not apposing them. It happened only because they saw them (Taliban) as forces fighting against the foreign invasion. Common Pakistanis also looked at them because they were totally ignored by the ruling elites and left to survive on their own. This ignorance and the incompetence of the GoP lead to a vacuum of good governance and eventually to the rise of the non-state acting organizations who are slowly but gradually gaining people’s support. All of non-state actors or organizations are fanatics, but not always religious as in the case of Taliban. In Balochistan and Sindh, we have extreme left wing organizations which are challenging the writ of the GoP in the two provinces. In the PashtoonKhwa (former NWFP) province, however, the religious fanatics are gaining support mainly because of the traditional involvement of the religion in everyday life of Pashtoons and because of their tribal customs. Pashtoons of the frontier province are the people who benefited as well as suffered the most from the Russian and now US invasion of the Afghanistan. They have blood relations on the two sides of the Durand’s line and hence got affected badly due to the loss of lives of their loved ones.
All the mentioned factors were present even before the so-called WoT, but what this invasion did was to turn the sparks into smoldering flames. Instead of convincing the Pashtoons both on the Afghan and Pakistani side, the US used brutal force to achieve its goals and the result is in front of all of us. Even after 8 long years, no goal has been achieved. The million dollar question is though, what was the goal in the first place or was there any at all? If the goal was to capture or kill OBL and his aides, why it was trumpeted? Why he was given all the chance to escape? Why he and his aides were not located quietly and captured or neutralized? But than of-course if OBL is captured or killed, what would happen to the pre-text of the prolonged occupation? It is an un-deniable fact that US had already planned and informed several countries about the regime change in Afghanistan months before the 9/11. It was no contingency plan as several suggest, it was a done deal. And the most tragic mistake of all times was to invade Afghanistan with insufficient force. That made the whole operation ineffective and with not end in sight. So Pakistanis are right in asking the intentions of the USA for their country. It is clearer than ever that US has something else in her mind other than just the pursuit of OBL and his Al-Qaeda. Moreover the US’s actions towards Pakistan are just not helpful in this whole WoT thing. On one side, the GoP is asked to patrol the borders, on the other side, they are denied of the required equipment. On one side GoP is blamed for its inability to curb the crossing of the militants into Afghanistan, on the other side, the US/NATO troops are not effectively controlling the cross-border infiltrations. On one hand GoP is asked to move its military assets on the northern borders, on the other hand, India is encouraged to carry out hostilities against the Pakistan.
Unfortunately the US and her allies refuse to accept that the ongoing hostilities are not the answer here. The answer is to isolate the extremist elements from the rest of the society, and that can only be done through improved economical situation of Pakistan and dialogue, lots and lots of dialogue. Sure, the US and its short sited allies have all the capacity to spread this fire throughout Pakistan and rest of the Muslim countries, but their present strategy will not help containing let alone eliminating it.