Are they not Pakistanis?

It was unthinkable to believe that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his political government would go for a military operation in North Waziristan without having first exhausted all possible options for a peaceful solution, especially keeping in view the promises he made before and after the May 2013 elections.
The feeling among all was that he would not give the go ahead to the military without taking other political parties into confidence like he had when entering into negotiations with the Taliban. Whether he took the plunge of his own volition or was pushed into doing so only time will tell but many believe that he did not consult even his very close aides. Anyway he has crossed the Rubicon and now there is no turning back.
Now that the operation has been launched there is no other way but to lend support in the hope that it really does accomplish the purpose for which it has been launched. If elimination of militancy and militants from Fata is indeed the objective one should ignore the terrorist bases in Punjab and other places in the country. One has to take care of homespun and imported terrorists alike if we really want to rid the country of the problem once and for all. It should not turn out to be like the one conducted earlier in the tribal areas.
It would have been in the fitness of things if the political government had taken the lead, at the very least, by issuing a statement spelling out the reasons leading to the failure of the talks process before the operation. This could have brought some sense or clarity to the minds of millions in the country who were pinning hopes on return of peace through negotiations. Nothing of the sort happened nor did any minister explain the position of the government until the prime minister addressed parliament, by which time the ISPR had already let the cat out of the bag thereby making his speech sound more like mere announcement of a fait accompli than anything else.
What should not have happened has now happened and the consequences are to be borne by the long suffering residents of North Waziristan as the only ones to be at the receiving end. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, having had to leave their homes behind to seek refuge wherever they could. Reliable sources already put this figure to more than half a million, with the UN and other relief agencies predicting that the numbers are bound to increase sharply in the days to come.
While a large number of the internally displaced are stated to be in Bannu, around 70,000 of them have taken refuge in Khost and Paktia in neighbouring Afghanistan. What an irony that in their hour of distress, when we should be providing them all possible help, Sindh and Punjab have taken measures to ensure that no IDPs cross over into these provinces to seek succour. I am no constitutional expert but to my layman's mind this is a breach of provisions regarding freedom of movement laid down in the constitution. I can only say that there could not be a more callous approach towards those who deserve all our sympathy and compassion.
It was an open secret for months that sooner or later a major military operation would be undertaken against militants in North Waziristan thereby causing large scale uprooting of the civilian population making hundreds of thousands of men, women and children refugees. But the government is acting as if it was taken completely by surprise by not having made any arrangements whatsoever in anticipation of arrival of the IDPS. At the very least sufficient food and provisions should have been stocked, well in advance, in warehouses at places where the IDPs were to be put up, along with arrangements for weatherproof tents, medical facilities etc.
But leave alone such necessities, even basic transport was not provided to them and they were left to fend for themselves and hire whatever transportation they could find, at exorbitant prices, with some transporters having a field day fleecing them. On arrival no marquees or shades were available to shield them from the scorching summer sun nor was water available. To add insult to injury, there was no electricity in the few tents that were pitched overnight more for media cameras than for relief of the IDPs.
We have all seen on TV, a number of times, scenes of hungry and thirsty IDPs being baton charged and tear gassed when they broke distribution queues, tired of standing under the sun, to grab some food for their families upon learning that supplies were not sufficient for all of them. In the context of our treatment of IDPs it is with a heavy heart that I quote from the British newspaper Guardian of June 26: “…soldiers have fired live rounds to deter furious crowds of IDPs who complain that there is no shelter, not enough to eat and that they have been barred from moving to other areas of Pakistan...”
I can only hang my head in shame and pray to The Almighty for forgiveness and mercy lest He punishes us for treating helpless people in such a brutal manner.
The destruction that operations of this type cause was one of the reasons that people there were concerned about it as they had witnessed from close quarters the destruction caused in the Mehsud area of South Waziristan where the operation started in 2009 and has still not officially been closed. So for all practical purposes it is still on. The IDPs there were left to find shelter themselves and NGOs were not allowed to visit Tank and D I Khan to provide help or assistance.
I would like to reiterate that no one opposes action against militants and elimination of militancy. If there are any differences, they are there only on methodology. The use of jet fighters and gunship helicopters on our own people could have been avoided had some common sense prevailed and those in power listened to saner elements in media, the civil society and even within the security forces if not the people in Fata.
This scourge of militancy could have been thrown out of Fata and the country at large without resorting to military operation if we were all on the same page right from day one but we were not and now the blame is put solely on the people of Fata. Very few people realise that they are caught in a nutcracker between the atrocities of the militants on the one side and the excesses of the military on the other.
I must point out that Wana in South Waziristan had the largest concentration of foreign militants but when the security forces decided to get rid of them it was done within no time and without resorting to full-scale military operation or displacing the people there. Why was a similar approach not adopted in North Waziristan? This would have saved the people from the misery and humiliation they are going through now.
The writer is a former ambassador. Email: waziruk@hotmail.com