Islamabad must build on the unusual goodwill in Kabul to prove it is sincere in cooperating against terrorism. Our governments – past or present – possess a remarkable propensity to embarrass us every now and then with their reckless statements. Often, they open their mouth on critical issues to the total disregard of possible consequences for the interests and the image of their country. The latest bravado came from the commando General Pervez Musharraf when he admitted (AFP, February 13) that “in President Karzai’s times, yes, indeed, he was damaging Pakistan and therefore we were working against his interest. Obviously we had to protect our own interest”. In saying that, he only proved what the Americans, Indians and Afghans had so far alleged. In fact, in their public hearings and press appearances, most Congressmen in Washington said the same. The ISI and Pakistan Army have defeated us in Afghanistan, a number of officials at Pentagon used to insist, and they are responsible for the killing of our boys. Amrullah Saleh has a point when he criticizes the duplicitous role of the Pakistani security establishment  That is why, on February 14, a day after Musharraf went public with his admission on ties with Afghan Taliban, former Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh threw Musharraf’s statement in our faces at a counter-terrorism conference in Geneva, to counter my response to his argument that “Pakistan is the source of all ills in Afghanistan.” “Your own president has made the confession of having cultivated and supported Taliban,” Saleh retorted when I requested him through an intervention not to mislead foreigners with his one-sided Pakistan-bashing. The Taliban are terrorists for you, but it is not just Pakistan, China and the United States who are trying to reach out to those terrorists. Your own president Hamid Karzai kept asking them for dialogue, I pointed out. During his speech, Saleh even decried China for “pushing us to talk to Taliban terrorists.”...

The ongoing War on Terror, militancy, operation Zarb-e-Azb, and now sectarian terrorist attacks; it seems as if Pakistan's terrorism woes are still far from over. In the past three weeks, the country has witnessed many major terror attacks in Shikarpur, Lahore, and Peshawar. Although the attack in Lahore, killing 8, targeted the Pakistani Police, the other two, killing 81, specifically targeted Shiite Muslim places of worship. Pakistan had witnessed a sharp fall in terror attacks on places of worship and public spaces since the initiation of military operation Zarb-e-Azb in 2014 in the lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the country's border with Afghanistan. But this long lull presumably was just the calm before a backlash for which terror outfits were apparently preparing. Since the onset of US War on Terror in Afghanistan, more than 40,000 people have lost their lives in Pakistan - a majority of which were militants from major terror outfits. Sectarian terrorism - a two-decade-long nuisance - spiked post-2001 in Pakistan. Since 1989, close to 5,000 Pakistanis have lost their lives in various incidents of sectarianism, 3,500 of whom have died since 2001 alone. These numbers not only indicate a serious security dilemma, but also speak to the complexity of the country's terrorism and extremism problems. Sectarian violence in the past was merely confined to a handful of regions, but the recent spate has expanded as far as Sindh Province, along Pakistan's southeastern border with India. In order to tackle this challenge, the government must pay special attention to law enforcement agencies, especially police, who could effectively tackle and counter various militant outfits based in rural areas of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In such a dire situation, Pakistanis are looking forward to December 2014's National Action Plan (NAP) put forward by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif-led government. The NAP, presented in the wake of a deadly extremist attack on...

As of now, Pakistan-Afghan relations are currently undergoing an unprecedented transformation, manifest in Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s latest phone call to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Ghani not only thanked Sharif for sending Army chief General Raheel Sharif to Afghanistan” but also apprised him of the impending talks with the Taliban. Ostensibly, Ghani and Pakistani leaders are also wary of detractors who may try to vitiate the air through media leaks and conspiracies about the impending talks. This way, he resonated the concerns which General Sharif expressed last week in Kabul. Both Ghani and the Pakistani civil-military leadership fear that proponents of the former Northern Alliance — heavily represented in the Afghan security establishment, including Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan’s former intelligence chief — could keep undermining the reconciliation process through their rhetorical posturing, as witnessed at a recent conference in Geneva. As usual Saleh not only painted Pakistan in black but even decried China for “pushing us to talk to Taliban terrorists.” It’s ironic indeed that China is asking us to make peace with the Taliban while it is cracking down on the (Chinese Taliban) associated with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement as a terrorist group, the former Afghan intelligence chief argued. He also wondered why pressure is being exerted on nuclear Pakistan which supports the Taliban terrorists. A Chinese official present on the occasion shot back to tell Saleh that Beijing was only trying to facilitate intra-Afghan reconciliation in Afghanistan. Don’t call it a surrender to terrorists. The Taliban are your people and your president, Ashraf Ghani, has been requesting the world community for help in reaching out to the insurgent group. Pakistani delegates also pointed out that most conflicts do culminate in reconciliation. Diplomatic circles in Islamabad, Washington and even in Kabul, meanwhile, agree that China has, for several reasons, emerged as...

On January 5, 2015 the Pakistan Parliament in a joint session of both Houses (Senate and National Assembly) passed 21st Amendment to the constitution of Pakistan, establishing military courts for trying Islamist terrorists. The 21st amendment was the consequence of the Army Public School incident of December 16, 2014 in Peshawar,  where Islamist terrorists belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Fazalullah faction cold-bloodedly murdered 145 (132 of them school children). The terrorist attack which is now being considered as Pakistan’s 9/11 appears to have changed the course of action of policy makers or at least related to TTP and linked groups. The passing of 21st amendment by Pakistani parliament for paving the way for military courts seems to be an unprecedented act for dealing with the Islamist terrorists in Pakistan. The framers of the bill even used the terms “using the name of   religion or a   sect  and  raise arms  or  wage  war  against  Pakistan”, another unprecedented moment. Besides this the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif came under intense pressure from civil society (via social media) to suspend the moratorium on capital punishment[1]. The immediate suspension of moratorium has hitherto led to the execution of 9 convicted terrorists, and the number may cross 100 within few months[2]. The said Act amended the Article 175 of the constitution leading to further amend the first schedule of the constitution (i.e. clause XXXIX of The Pakistan Army Act 1952, VI of The Pakistan Air Force Act 1953, XXXV of The Pakistan Navy Ordinance 1961, and X of The Protection of Pakistan Act 2014)[3]. Salient Features The 21st amendment shall provide constitutional cover to military courts (trial of offences by the military courts) Extension of the jurisdiction of military courts to try  terrorists (under Pakistan Army Act 1952) The 21st amendment shall remain part of the constitution for two years Article 175 shall have no application on the trial of persons...