MAD SCIENTIST YOU SEEM TO BE QUITE IGNORANT OF THE SITUATION & THIS POLL IS VERY VERY IMMATURE....ENLIGHTEN YOURSELF BY READING THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE....FROM THE NEWS...
Pakistanis in Waziristan
Ahmed Quraishy
The real problem in Waziristan is that we are on our way to winning the battle and losing the hearts of the people in an important part of our homeland, maybe even creating a dangerous schism and dividing loyalties. Our government and some people in our media are finding it hard to balance the two. Our country and its interests are dear to us all. And so are the lives of our fellow citizens, especially our noble and gallant compatriots who live in the magnificent valleys of Waziristan.
The Father of our nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, had a special respect for this precious part of our country. Recently, some of our respected columnists such as Mr Hafizur Rehman and M A Niazi brilliantly took us back to how the Quaid resisted our civilian and military bureaucracies who wanted to maintain a military presence in Waziristan after Pakistan’s independence.
The Quaid believed the people of Waziristan were capable of rising in constructive ways, through development work. "The Quaid," wrote Mr Niazi, "had confidence in his people." Our tribesmen repaid the Quaid’s trust in kind. The people of Waziristan embraced their compatriots in the rest of the country. As astutely noted by Mr Niazi, on the very day our bomber planes began pounding Waziristan last week, resulting in the displacement of thousands of our people, a proud son of that region was leading Pakistan’s team to a precious victory in Rawalpindi.
The international media, possibly in ignorance and good faith, is dubbing Waziristan as another version of America’s ‘wild wild west’ and its people as outlaws. Some of our own commentators, by picking up the international news coverage, are inadvertently contributing to showcasing the Waziris as ‘bad people’. This is already alienating scores of Pakistanis across the nation especially those who have family and blood ties in Waziristan.
It’s important to stress that the vilified tribesmen are loyal Pakistanis. They fought the first Kashmir war and have shown their mettle in all our difficult times. If some of them find themselves today facing off with their brothers and cousins in our armed forces, it is not because the tribesmen are disloyal but because they are simply sticking to their honour and hospitality. Apart from a misguided minority, the majority’s fervour is not ill intentioned.
Most Pakistanis have trust in the able leadership of President Musharraf and Premier Jamali. Most of us know they’ll always do a good job of protecting our interests. And they have demonstrated this by doing the unthinkable: They introduced unprecedented development work in places such as Balochistan and FATA, including Waziristan. And they have fairly convinced our American friends that one way of dissuading people from providing sanctuaries to potential terrorists is through development work, not just the wanton use of force. And President Musharraf flew down to Peshawar to personally engage tribal elders and convince them of the need to purge their areas of potential terrorists. Here’s where the government is right: The possible terrorists hiding in the area must be expelled. Their presence unnecessarily undermines the interests of the tribal areas and gives the excuse to others to interfere in our internal questions.
But here’s where the government is wrong: The operation in Waziristan should have come hand in hand with a media PR campaign targeting our domestic audience to dispel two impressions: One, that the government is not attempting to kill its own people and, two, that the people in Waziristan are not outlaws. It is not too late yet. The hunt may slow down in the next few days before it picks up pace again. The people running the show in Waziristan must bring Waziri faces, both tribal and educated, to our television screens to talk to our nation and show them that the people in Waziristan are not evil and that they share the government’s belief in doing everything that needs to be done to dispel the impressions that terrorists are hiding in our country.
It will not help just to have government spokesperson repeat rehearsed lines. The government must put a Waziri face to its official line. The main task of this effort must be to show Pakistanis that the operation is not against the people of the area but is meant to assist the people get rid of unwanted infiltrators.
A second important element of the Wana operation is the question of the presence on our territory of Chechen and Uzbek opponents of their respective governments. This might be the most distorted and under represented facet of the whole argument of alleged terrorist presence in our tribal areas. Most of the Chechens and Uzbeks in our tribal areas are probably not even terrorists and have nothing to do with al-Qaeda or Taliban. These are basically political dissidents who cannot return to their homelands where they will be persecuted by ruthless governments. These Chechens and Uzbeks have no ill will toward our country. In fact, the contrary might be true. Many of them came to this region relatively young and have married into our tribes. Many of the Pakistani tribes and these Chechens and Uzbeks are actually relatives now.
It is some of the Arabs who are diehard al-Qaeda. They are the ones we’re after, not the Chechens and the Uzbeks, who are not involved in any anti-state activities here. This of course does not mean tolerating their unusual presence. A solution must be found to put them out of their business without turning their local Pakistani relatives, who are entire tribes, into enemies of the Pakistani state.
Our American friends must also understand these real and genuine constraints. The Pakistanis are keen to expel any possible terrorists if they happen to be on our territory because it enhances our national security. American-style hot pursuit in our territories can be good for the Americans who are facing tough elections ahead and need quick victories. But this will be disastrous for Pakistan’s long-term integrity and stability. Such measures will plant the seeds of future conflict in a sensitive part of our country and might push our fiercely independent minded people into the arms of terrorists.
The best course is a policy of carrot-and-stick combining development work with intelligence gathering and isolation and punishment for the wayward. Our armed forces are already doing this. And it is encouraging that our American friends are joining hands in this effort. But it must be expanded. Washington must show more trust and faith in Islamabad’s own methods of dealing with the alleged terrorist presence in our tribal areas. This is the best recipe to achieve joint Pak-American goals without harming anyone’s interests.
The writer is a freelance contributor
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:k:
the greatest sin someone could ever do would be destoying a nation, and that is not what we are rying to attain. People like me only want us the Pashtuns to unite, got it.