EDITORIAL: It’s important to consider the backdrop for a proper understanding of the most important signals to have come out of the 258th corps commanders’ conference at the start of the week.
Firstly, there’s no longer any ambiguity about what’s to be done about the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) threat. Letting Kabul know, though not in as many words, that it can no longer look the other way while TTP strikes inside Pakistan was meant to solicit not just a diplomatic response, but a meaningful action.
Now you know why Defence Minister Khwaja Asif also went active at the same time and said that Afghanistan was “not fulfilling its obligations as a neighbour”. Clearly, we’ve come a long way from the time when the government itself was seriously considering housing TTP guerillas in KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) because, for some reason, it saw no other way than to “repatriate them” in this manner.
Secondly, there was the tacit understanding and acceptance of the simple fact that there’s nothing like an insurgency, especially the TTP kind, to make investors rush for the exit lounge. It meant that the military would crush terrorists and terrorism while the state went about rebuilding the economy.
And thirdly, there’s also the optics of it, of course. The country has just been through one of its worst years of internal political turmoil, and that too has taken a very heavy toll on the economy. So there’s no doubt that standing behind the economy at a corps commanders’ meeting was also meant to deter the kind of politics that can cause further harm to it.
It’s also very interesting that the nature of Pakistan’s predicament – avoiding default itself – has pushed the kind of academic-political debate that would question whether the military should comment on economic matters, even if and especially when it is lending a hand, right out of public discourse. There’s no doubt that the army should be credited for showing concern, and working, for the economy in these trying times.
For, let there be no doubt, sovereign default would truly devastate Pakistan’s middle- and lower-income classes; one of the largest, poorest and most illiterate population groups anywhere in the world, which means a social time-bomb is ticking right alongside an economic one.
And the establishment’s direct involvement only increases our chances of avoiding the axe. But it is still honourbound to retreat behind the iron wall separating the military from all other matters of the state after it has helped ride out the storm; at least until it is needed again.
This is a good time to remember that the oath of office of all top government institutions includes a promise to protect the state from all threats, foreign and domestic.
Right now, the extent and depth of Pakistan’s breakdown mandates all institutions to work together to protect and rebuild the country. The army will naturally be the government’s biggest and strongest partner in all such efforts, given its size and ability to deliver results. But right now it’s far more important to focus on what the government is doing about the most urgent threats and how exactly state institutions are contributing.
Other things can wait for another day. It’s confusing enough that the country is going into a general election – one that is sure to be a bitter contest – just when the last thing the economy needs is uncertainty.
Therefore, it would be a good idea for leading political parties to take a leaf out of the army’s book and throw their weight behind the economic revival plan as well. After all, nobody loses if foreign money funds decide that Pakistan’s elite is finally displaying enough maturity from them to park some of their money here for a while.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023