In a seminar held at the Centre for Land and Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi, C Christine Fair, Assistant Professor of Centre for Peace and Security Studies in the United States, while speaking on India-Pakistan relations, said there is no solution to the impasse.
“The Pakistan Army Chief would never want peace, because if there is peace, their ability to intervene in country in policy, will end. Their ability to sustain a very large Army will also be diminished. I think the army is the biggest spoiler,” she said.
The expert on Pakistan made it clear that the ongoing military Operation Zarb-e-Azb cannot be called successful because there is no one to fact check the number of militants actually being killed by the Army.
The Pakistan Army claims to have killed 376 militants so far. However, proof to back the figures hasn’t been delivered yet. Fair adds, “Actually what is happening in this entire operation hasn’t come out the way it should have been. We should not be trapped with this entire fan fair, because it isn’t that big as it looks.”
According to Christine, the main goal of the operation was and is just to drive militant leaders out of Pakistan and into Afghanistan. She claims that the ones who have not moved are assets of the Pakistan Army.
What undermines the operation was the peace campaign of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
When drone attacks were carried out, many innocent people were killed, irrespective of how many terrorists were gunned down. This created uproar in Pakistan against the unwanted killings. Fair asks, “Why are people quiet now? There is a huge displacement taking place from North Waziristan why there is no hue and cry about this? This is really very frustrating.”
Despite leaders of Pakistan saying that the country is standing by the Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs), there is still a lot to be delivered by them in action.
With constant funds flowing from places like the US, UAE one wonders why many have not been able to receive them.
