Opinion
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News Analysis
Time for a review
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Opinion-makers in Pakistan are urging Gen. Musharraf to seize the moment and re-fashion foreign policy.
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WITH THE military campaign in Afghanistan in its `final stages', those who matter in Pakistan are no longer shy about admitting the changed realities. Gen. Pervez Musharraf is trying hard to sell his decision to align with the U.S.-led coalition as a great achievement. But there are no takers for the argument. The overwhelming view is that the military government had little option.
What is more, important commentators and thinkers in Pakistan are urging Gen. Musharraf to seize the opportunity and re-fashion foreign policy. The dominant opinion is that jehad as an instrument of foreign policy has run its course in the post-September 11 world.
The prestigious English monthly, Herald,ran its December issue under the title ``end of jehad''. The first two paras of the main report penned by the Editor, Mr. Aamer Ahmed Khan, speak volumes. ``As the U.S.-led campaign against the Taliban nears endgame, what has already been bombed out of existence is Pakistan's 27-year-old Afghan policy. While foreign policy may not have been Pakistan's forte, never before has any Pakistani state policy exploded at such a global scale...
``President Musharraf and the military dispensation will now have to rethink the entire jehadi regime that was created inside Pakistan to sustain the Afghan policy and its most critical spin-off - the jehad in Kashmir. Their immediate task: to seek a viable formula for dismantling the jehadi regime before the U.S. runs out of patience and takes the task upon itself''.
With the collapse of the Taliban regime, Islamabad lost not only 2500 km of strategic depth on its western borders but also the ideological justification for continuing jehad in Kashmir. The prospect of the fallen warriors heading home and the growing voices around the globe against militant ways to espouse political causes should be matters of serious concern to Islamabad. After all, world attention is focussed on the region and the country like never before.
Gen. Musharraf is conscious of the dangers involved in pursuing the old policy of jehad in the `new world', but the moot question is: can he afford to abandon it without endangering his own position? It is difficult to answer the question at this juncture given the fluid situation.
There have been half-hearted attempts by the Musharraf regime before September 11 to rein in the jehadi outfits. But they never made much headway as the policy from the top was never clear and the state apparatus was too scared to touch the religious fundamentalists given their linkages with the establishment.
The much touted de-weaponisation programme and the ban on forcible collection of funds in the name of jehad best illustrate the point. The Interior Minister, Lt. Gen. (retd.) Moinuddin Haider, came under vicious attack from the fundamentalists for his `un-Islamic' utterances and that was the end of the matter.
The military establishment is now trying to demonstrate a new sense of urgency to tackle the extremist elements. A new ordinance is on the anvil to regulate the functioning of religious schools.
The impact of the American war on the fundamentalist outfits is beginning to be seen. Two interesting developments in the last few days throw some light. The Lashkar-e-Taiba insists that it has always been operating from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and not Pakistan. The Jaish-e-Mohammad has a new name. Now it is called Al-Furqan. Incidentally, the U.S. on December 6 put both the outfits on the `terrorist exclusion list'.
The jehadi outfits continue to be in a defiant mood despite the developments in Afghanistan and the mood of the U.S.-led coalition. The general view is that elements in Pakistan continue to provide patronage and rely on them in pursuit of their objectives within and without. If Gen. Musharraf has to succeed in taming the jehadis, he will have to put his own house in order.
- B.M.R.
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