Terror threat forces uneasy truce in Pakistan

Islamabad [Pakistan], April 17 : At least 854 people were killed or wounded in militant attacks and counterterrorism operations in the first quarter of this year, according to Dawn.

Alarmed by this rising graph of terrorist attacks, the squabbling institutions have shown signs of a truce and pulling back from the precipice the country has reached. But it is an uneasy, even brittle pause.

The politicians have shown signs of willingness to talk. The executive and the legislature's fight with the judiciary still rages, the army has stepped in by showcasing the results of its anti-terror operations, warning everyone to fall in line.

All eyes are on the army under Gen Asim Munir. At the in-camera meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), he addressed last week, he has shown the results - as per the ISPR, the army's PR setup - of taking on the militants on and from across the western border.

He has projected as leading the action, asking the others to join in with a "whole-of-the-system" approach.

The terror threat appears to have provided the much-needed face-saver to the politicians who, without conceding as much, are willing to talk to each other.

Of them, ousted premier Imran Khan, who would not talk to the 'chors' (thieves) in the Shehbaz Sharif Government, has announced a team for holding talks.

So has the PPP, an impatient ruling coalition partner. The ball is now in the court of the PML-N that has little option but to talk - and keep dragging it.

The significance of the process lies in the fact that the initiative for political reconciliation has come from the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, the party that wields more influence than the popular vote and always acts at the behest of the army.

Simultaneously, another of the army's allies, the party of Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman, is back in action to nudge the ruling coalition, particularly the Sharifs, to come to the talks table.

The Maulana, who was barely visible in the media, has suddenly begun to mark his presence as the convenor of the ruling PDM.

Imran Khan, who could not force a snap poll despite getting the dissolution of the two most powerful provinces, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has however, still retained his mass popularity and hopefully for him, the political support base.

He is now focusing on the foreign media, still acting as a martyr and insisting that he may be assassinated.

In this, he has received tremendous support from sections of the media and the judiciary at different levels that allowed him bail in several cases instituted by the government to keep him tied down.

He has largely succeeded in projecting himself as a valiant fighter and a martyr among the middle classes, his principal support base.

Of significance is his lobbying with the United States that he has for the past year accused of 'conspiring' to oust him.

He is reaching out to individuals and groups among the American lawmakers, hoping to be heard on Capitol Hill by the Biden administration.

The coming weeks will show how the Sharifs who control a truncated legislature resolve their open and unseemly disputes with the top judiciary. Not new to Pakistan's experience, this confrontation has humiliated the top judges as never before.

With elections a few weeks away, the focus is shifting towards the public that has been held to ransom by sky-rocketing prices and food shortages leading to riots and deaths among those waiting to buy their rations.

But election campaigns tend to divide the people and Pakistan is likely to witness volatility in the coming months. The elections may not solve any of the problems the country faces, but they will allow letting off the much-accumulated steam in Pakistan's polity.

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