ISLAMABAD – While the ISAF forces led by the US are still fightingterrorism in Afghanistan, due to its bold and sustained operationalstrategy, duly reinforced by the National Action Plan (NAP); the Pakistanmilitary has almost eliminated terrorism in its Federally AdministeredTribal Areas (FATA) and other parts of the country. In this context,terrorist hideouts in FATA have been totally demolished. Of course,Pakistan has achieved this tremendous success against terrorism bysacrificing over 70000 lives and undergoing an economic loss of over $107billion.

Now, despite this state of affairs, some hostile intelligence agencies aresponsoring terrorism in Pakistan using Afghan soil. However, because of thePakistan military’s ongoing Radd UL Fassad operation, these hostile forcesare left to orchestrate only sporadic terrorist attacks.

Along with fighting terrorism, the Pakistan military has made many otherpositive contributions towards strengthening the country and helping bringpeace to the region. It has supported democracy in the country, andcontributed towards the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) by providing security to the Chinese manpower working on thisproject. It has held talks with the Afghan leadership to seek theircooperation in fighting terrorism and fencing Pakistan-Afghanistan border.It has also reinforced government efforts of establishing peace in theregion by encouraging dialogue with the Afghan government and it has alsoasked India to start bilateral talks with Pakistan to resolve their manydisputes.

Since it is difficult to implement a strategy of blaming Pakistan for everyterrorist act that takes place in the region, hostile forces have insteadturned to attacking the military in the country by financing negativeinternational propaganda

Nevertheless, Pakistan’s efforts for peace in the region have not beenpositively reciprocated, either by Afghanistan, or by India, as both areprobably thrilled with their strategic partnership with the US. It appearsthat instead of the prevalence of geo-economics, geopolitics are playingout in the region mainly because of two main factors:

First, instead of seeking a negotiated peace with a nuclear armed Pakistan,India is instead exploiting western sensitivities on terrorism and USA’sconcerns about China’s economic rise, to support their plans for a hegemonyin South Asia. They also blame Pakistan for all the terrorism in theregion, even though Pakistan has already done more than enough to provethat this is not the case. In fact, by blaming Pakistan, India wants tomask the fact that it is sponsoring terrorism themselves in order toundermine CPEC.

Second, the US feels encouraged to support India’s regional game plan ofweakening Pakistan, since it hopes that ultimately India will act as itspartner to support its Indo-Pacific strategy to contain China. WhereasIndia’s visible loyalty to the USA’s strategy is just meant to get USsupport for their membership bids for the UNSC and NSG, as well as to getaccess to advanced military technology.

Since it is difficult to implement this strategy of blaming Pakistan forevery terrorist act that takes place in the region, hostile forces haveinstead turned to attacking the military in the country. They have resortedto financing negative international propaganda, by highlighting the socalled civil-military divide in Pakistan. And, sadly enough, some misledPakistani politicians, media channels, think tanks and civil societymembers are also criticising the Pakistan military on this account, notrealising that they may be supporting the enemy’s agenda.

In the above context, just one example would suffice to prove that theinternational media is egged on to criticise the Pakistan military. Byquoting Pakistani media channels, following international newspapers/magazines have published articles and stories, claiming that the Pakistanmilitary establishment was behind the recent blockade of a prominent TVchannel. This news was reported in ZeeNews, Times of India, News Bharati,VOA News, the New York Times, Al Jazeera, and the Qatar Tribune to namejust a few publications and news outlets. Nonetheless, the fact remainsthat the Pakistani military has no direct concern with the workings of newsand entertainment channels and there is no real evidence to suggestotherwise.

As a result, it would be appropriate to suggest that Pakistani policymakers, mainstream media houses, think tanks and civil society membersshould effectively counter the evil designs of the hostile forces that aretrying to weaken the Pakistan military, in turn weakening Pakistan itself.And, those Pakistanis, who quite often criticise the military on account ofimagined civil-military divide should also refrain from doing so, realisingthat they may be inadvertently serving the enemy’s interest.

*Colonel R Mohammad Hanif: The writer is an ex-Army Colonel and a formerResearch Fellow, Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Islamabad*