Pakistan’s Operation Aem-E-Istehkam: Expectations And Concerns – OpEd
Pakistan has renewed its vow to combat and eradicate terrorism from the country by announcing Operation Azm-e-Istehkam on June 22, 2024 which has been declared a whole of nation approach which will contain both kinetic and non-kinetic measures. Country’s political and military leadership decided to deal with all factions of Taliban without any demarcation of “Good Taliban” and “Bad Taliban”. It has been reported that a new unified and comprehensive approach will be adopted to remove all legal, administrative, or social obstacles which may hinder the nation’s resolve to punish terrorists through judicial process. A critical imperative for securing much needed moral victory in this complex war.
Pakistan has been in grip of growing incidents of terrorism lately. In March 2024, five Chinese engineers working on Dasu Hydropower project were killed in a deadly suicide attack and Chinese government has been seeking answers since then. It’s evident that this attack also played an important role in announcement of Azm e Istehkam as it happened days after the visit of country’s political and military leadership to China. It was highest level of engagement between the both countries since the attack on Chinese engineer.
Azm e Istehkam envisages a policy of employing all the elements of national power instead of relying on kinetic operations. This is what was promised in National Action Plan (NAP) after the APS Peshawar attack in 2014 where number of reforms in country’s judicial, governance, administrative, education systems were announced. Unfortunately, not all were implemented and consequently terrorists were able to avoid punishments through court of law. Eventually, Pakistan Army had to eliminate them in battlefield only after paying a very steep human cost. This is what Azm e Istehkam is going to change by introducing long term reforms in country’s judicial system. Previously, Pakistan achieved success against the terrorism in 2017-18 when required judicial reforms were done like establishment of military courts. Many terrorists, including known commanders of TTP, were punished through these special courts.
This aspect of weak judicial framework incapable of punishing terrorists has been highlighted so many times and same was emphasized by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during the Apex Committee meeting. He called for addressing longstanding ineptitudes within country’s legal framework by introducing comprehensive constitutional amendments. Apart from judicial problems, Pakistan’s anti-terror campaign has suffered from lack of communication and coordination between center and province as well as inter-provincial level. Under operation Azm e Istehkam, special focus will be put to enhance this center-province and inter-province coordination.
The Prime Minster also promised to reach out to all the political parties to create much needed political consensus about this operation. Although this is something which government should have done before launching the operation still it is better than nothing. Political ownership of such an initiative is critical for its success. Operation Zarb e Azb’s success came after achieving the political consensus.
Another unique aspect of this new resolve is inclusion of diplomatic efforts in country’s war against terrorism. According to announcement of Azm e Istehkam, government will ensure that Pakistan’s case about terrorism is presented at global level in a proactive manner.
Expectations from Azm e Istehkam are naturally high as the nation wants this terrorism once and for all. But there are certain challenges which may impede the progress of this resolve. Fragmented political landscape, centuries old judicial system, and prevailing socio-economic challenges must be overcome.
Biggest challenge for Azm e Istehkam is political divide in the country. For example, CM KPK fully endorsed operation during the Apex Committee meeting but afterwards PTI leaders took a harsh stance on this operation in the National Assembly where they delivered fiery speeches raising various objections and concerns on the announcement of the operation. ANP and JUI also demanded more transparency and approval from parliament for a new military operation in KPK. Most of these objections are driven out of political differences with government. But there are some genuine public concerns which must be addressed by government in transparent manner. Public suspicions in KPK is the outcome of previous experiences of becoming Internally Displaced People (IDPs) during Operations Rah e Nijat, Operation Rah e Rast and Operation Zarb e Azb. Locals in certain districts of KPK also had to deal with damages caused by land mines laid by terrorists once Pakistan Army launched above mentioned military operations.
Current strategy of Intelligence Based Operations (IBOs) is the best tactical approach for kinetic operations against terrorism right now as there are no concentrated strong militant bastions exist as they used to before Operation Zarb e Azb. What is Pakistani security forces requires is to infuse emerging technologies in their operational tactics. Use of quadcopter drones for example during the recent operations is a welcome change. This new approach ensures greater success rate of operation at reduced human cost in this war.
Operation Azm-e-Istehkam symbolizes Pakistan's renewed commitment to eradicating terrorism and fostering peace and prosperity. It is not just a military operation but it is a whole of nation approach where other state organs will create a synergy to achieve optimal results in country’s prolonged war against terror. As the nation is expecting a success like Pakistan’s security forces achieved during Operation Zarb e Azb, there are some concerns which must be addressed by the government to take the nation into confidence. This is also important to deny any misleading campaign against Azm e Istehkam on social media. No army can fight such complex war alone, it is high time that the entire nation stands united against this menace and this is exactly what Azm e Istehkam is all about.