Bajwa's lament

How unfortunate and ironic it is that no sooner had peace returned to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) than a 'movement was started'. This is the profound lament of no one else but country's army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa who has strongly warned against forgetting the sacrifices of "real heroes", pointing out the "limited ability" of our nation to "remember history". Although the army chief did not name the Pakhtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) - a social movement which was initially launched in protest against the extra-judicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud in Karachi - in his talk with the notables of Peshawar and his speech at the investiture ceremony at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, he strongly sent his message across, stating that "engineered protests" would not be allowed at any cost.
The army chief seems to have been compelled by a variety of factors to publicly react to the directions of PTM and the agenda that it has been pursuing to militate, knowingly or unknowingly, against the gains that the Pakistan Army has made in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and equally violence-infested KPK through a series of operations, including Operations Zarb-e-Azb and Raddul Fassad, thus far. The answer to the question why General Bajwa was forced into making army's position clear on the issue stems from the statements of the leaders of mainstream political parties - Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Imran Khan - who had put their full weight behind the PTM without fully appreciating the merits of its demands. But the principal reason behind army's deep concerns about the growing Pashtun protest appears to be the support that Kabul and some other world capitals have extended to it. In other words, the involvement of Kabul in particular does indicate the existence of a ploy to resurrect the "greater Pashtunistan" bogey. This is indeed the factor that causes fear and worry in the country's security establishment. Not only can it revive the old or generate a new controversy about the sanctity of the Durand Line, it can also cause immense harm to under-progress Pak-Afghan border mega fencing work. Demanding "international guarantees" for the implementation of their demands, PTM's Peshawar protest last Sunday, which was described by some as "the Pashtun rising" or "the Pashtun outcry", had let the cat out of the bag. The PML-N government ought to have responded to the PTM demand of "international guarantees" but it didn't do it for whatever reasons. But the army chief was quite blunt, coherent and categorical in this regard: "Engineered protests" will not be allowed to reverse the gains of counterterrorism operations. He, however, addressed PTM's demands about mines and check-posts in a loud but sympathetic manner, urging the protesters that they must not show any unwarranted or undue haste: "Measures to facilitate general public at check-posts without compromising security and clearance of unexploded ordnance are already in process on completion of kinetic operations. No one is more interested than security forces to have such peace and stability environment which allow their complete de-induction. However, threat is still residing across the border and some disorganized residual potential including the ones morphed into Afghan refugees. Therefore we still need to move with caution. Notwithstanding genuine problems of peaceful citizens, military's concern is that no anti-state agenda in the garb of engineered protests, etc., aimed at reversing the gains achieved at heavy cost in blood and national exchequer succeeds."
The army chief, however, did not prefer to dilate on the enforced disappearances, an issue that has led to stepped up criticism of the alleged role of ISI and MI in enforced disappearances despite the existence of relative transparency in relation to the performance of military courts. The legend of Achilles has it that he was dipped into the river Styx by his mother Thetis in order to make him invulnerable. His heel wasn't covered by water and was killed by an arrow that pierced his heel. General Bajwa may therefore be reminded that enforced disappearances constitute the 'Achilles' heel' for his institution and he must come clean about this issue without any further loss of time. This newspaper wishes to add to the army chief's resolve that "the people in the country and outside, who are against Pakistan's integrity must know that the Army with the public backing would not allow anything to happen to the country" by stating that Pakistan has not turned into another Syria or Yemen mainly because of the fact that its people and army have successfully thwarted all machinations and designs of powers that are inimical to its existence.