Were things really so bad?

Three interesting but important news items have appeared in the press in the last few days with regard to the military operation in North Waziristan. In one it was mentioned that 400 militants had been killed, the other declared that 80 percent of the area stood cleared while the third guaranteed no space to militants if they tried to return to the area.
If one recalls correctly it was announced at the launch of the military operation that it would continue till the last militant had been eliminated, which essentially meant that the menace would be eradicated altogether. If there was even the slightest of possibilities that the militants could return then why was the operation launched at all? Why uproot more than a million men, women and children? And why trumpet the launch of the operation in advance, allowing the militants to escape, if there was a fair chance of their being able to return to the area? Also if 80 percent of the area has been cleared then why not start the return of the displaced people back to their own homes, which will also help reduce the burden on the meagre resources of the government in looking after them in Bannu?
One can only hope and pray that all this does not prove to be an exercise in futility. Or that it is not preparation for action replay across the border at an appropriate time. While one fervently hopes that the concept of having strategic depth in Afghanistan has been discarded, one cannot discount very persistent whispers that ‘assets’ have been allowed to travel in safety from North Waziristan and ensconce themselves near Tora Bora.
Let us reappraise conditions in North Waziristan and see if things were as bad as was projected over the years. Even if we presume this was so then is it not a reflection of our collective failure that we did not take adequate measures to deny space to militants to prevent them from spreading their tentacles in the region, while we were busy nurturing our ‘assets’ for use in India or Afghanistan while also remaining in a state of denial about the militants and these ‘assets’ having developed links with each other?
There is no doubt there were militants present in NWA but the question is how could the local population have prevented them from entering the area when they could not match the help and resources that the militants received. They were silent spectators waiting for the government to take action, which did not happen and was delayed for one reason or the other.
Who brought the militants there and why they were tolerated for so long? These are two basic questions that need to be answered honestly by the powers that be. The answers are no mystery to the long suffering people living there who continue to needlessly shoulder the blame for this.
It was heartrending to see photographs of the remains of the market in Miranshah in the press the other day; a market built by the people themselves without any help from the government and a source of livelihood for many was turned into ashes because once some militants lived there. Is Miranshah the only city in the country where militants lived? Were not militants also arrested from other cities and handed over to Washington? Were those cities also razed to the ground by our jet fighters?
There is something seriously wrong with the way we deal with Fata. Even now at this crucial juncture when we need to involve and engage sensible heads from that area we find hardly anyone from Fata or even anyone who has either spent some time there or speaks Pashto to be among the top leadership in the country. The president, whom Article 247 of the constitution empowers to administer Fata, has not bothered to visit the area even once. His agent, the newly appointed governor, is also yet to visit all the seven tribal agencies. Will he get clearance for visiting from those calling the shots in that area to do so, particularly the two Waziristans?
The president, prime minister, army chief, governor and minister for state and frontier region – not one of them is a Pakhtun. They know very little of tribal customs, traditions and sensitivities of the IDPs but have to decide matters for them on the basis of one-sided briefings they receive from public servants and other ‘yes men’ extolling the work done by the government. They do not use independent sources who would give them the correct picture on the ground without mincing any words.
A case in point is the recent visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Bannu where he was to meet Sher Muhammad and members of his delegation but that was curtailed by the officer handling the visit simply because Sher Muhammad had insisted that he would apprise the PM of the difficulties faced by the people from North Waziristan and did not agree to be present only as a spectator applauding and raising slogans in favour of the PM.
Those dealing with Fata got the projected number of IDPs completely off the mark before the operation. Their assessment of people becoming IDPs was certainly not more than a few hundred thousand based on figures of the 1998 census. It is universally accepted that in countries with population growth rates like ours, the population is bound to double over 30 years. But with their blinkers tightly in place they refused to take into account the factor of population increase in the last 16 years. That is one of the reasons for the mismanagement of the IDPs whose number is said to have crossed a million a few days back.
While there is no doubt that the primary responsibility for looking after the IDPs is that of the federal government as Fata is its direct responsibility and not that of the provincial government, a disaster of this magnitude cannot be left to the federal government alone to cope with. Others have to put in their share as well. It would have been far better if the prime minister had called a meeting of all political parties or at least those ruling in the centre as well as all the provinces to chalk out a comprehensive well coordinated plan for assistance of the IDPs and not left it the haphazard way it is being handled now.
The governor and chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should have been nominated as focal persons, with full authority, to deal with the situation and ensure provision of assistance through one window but the government instead nominated the minister for SAFRON to do the job. Being a federal minister and not having all the required machinery at his disposal to handle the situation he will be sorely handicapped and will have to depend on the help and assistance given by the CM, governor or military officials already engaged in the work. Lack of cooperation and coordination between state institutions and the hostility between the federal government and the KP government have further complicated the problem. The recent firing of the DG, FDMA, seems to be the result of this mismanagement between various actors.
Who is doing what or who is in charge and who is not is yet to be made clear. Nobody cares; the reason being that Fata has no say in the government nor is anyone raising a voice for the people there. Everything is done for them by others without consulting them. That is the crux of all problems. One can only hope that after all that has happened some sense will prevail and the people of Fata will be treated as equal citizens, at par with others elsewhere in the country and consulted in matters directly concerning them or their area.
The writer is a former ambassador.
Email: waziruk@hotmail.com