Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to North Waziristan makes him the first elected Prime Minister in our history to visit the area. With Operation Zarb-e-Azb ongoing, a ceremonial visit by the Head of government to a domestic theatre of war is normally seen as an important morale boost in the rest of the world, but has never come to pass in Pakistan before. There are a number of reasons for this, but primarily has to do with the fact that parliamentarians of Pakistan, in part due to the history of civil governments and partially because of their own fallibility, are not always the best candidates to inspire confidence in the troops. Of course, this also has a lot to do with the overall belief that the institution of the military is superior when compared to civilian governments and other civil institutions. The Defence Minister, seen as the bridge between the government and armed forces, was conspicuous only by his absence.
The PM’s visit to North Waziristan comes after more than six months since the operation began, and the timing itself poses a range of questions about why Nawaz Sharif thought it pertinent to visit the war zone at this time. Was this visit carried out now to deflect from the political crisis in Islamabad? Is this a show of solidarity between the army and the civil government? Or perhaps an attempt by the government to show that it is kept well in the loop by the armed forces.
Nawaz Sharif also visited IDPs, and promised that they would soon return to their homes- but to what state? Entire towns have been reduced to rubble. Massive investment will have to be made to rebuild; more importantly, the region must be developed properly with functional civil and military installations if the area is to stave off any future power grabs from the militants. The fact that Nawaz Sharif is the first civilian ruler to visit Miranshah tells us the government completely and routinely ignores large portions of the country, and this alienation allows for the creation of power vacuums that give militants room to spread out and gain control over large territories. The army says that 90 percent of North Waziristan has been freed from militant control. Of course, we are expected to take their word for it.