Javed Alam Khan While thinking about the title for this article, I decided to call it "A Blueprint for Victory". Later I realised that it appears quite immodest and that my friends would pull my leg about it by separating blue from print or by hyphenating the word. Having read a large number of articles and seen various discussions on television, I realised that most of them try to trace the "why it happened" but very seldom attempt to develop a wholesome way forward. In this article I will attempt to suggest the way forward to address the problems facing Pakistan today relating to Talibanisation, militancy and extremism. There is a strategic term called "The End State" which is the state that you wish to achieve at the culmination of application of strategy. Too often in the past governments and institutions have been accused of adopting strategies without realising what the end state would finally be, therefore in this article I want to first define what Pakistanis require as an 'End State' for any strategy that addresses the problems presently facing Pakistan. Although this amounts to putting the cart before the horse, I would like to give the readers a preview of what the strategy to be devised is meant to achieve. - The writ of the government must be established over all of Pakistan resulting in prevalence of law and order in all parts of the country. All segments of society must co- exist in peace and harmony. - Justice at affordable cost must be available to all segments of society. - The root causes of terrorism, militancy and extremism such as poverty, lack of education and obscurantism should be addressed and eliminated. - The foreign policy of Pakistan must reflect the aspirations of the people of Pakistan and we must co-exist with our neighbours and the world peacefully. - Administrative, law enforcing and reporting agencies must be strengthened and equipped to avert any recurrence of the present situation. Let us take stock of where we stand today. After years of fighting in which we have lost over 1500 soldiers, hundreds of police personnel and a large number of civilian casualties we still face a situation in which the vast majority of Pakistanis feel that we are fighting a war for the United States and not for ourselves. The degree of condemnation that the public at large should feel and express for the Taliban is not visible in the media. I feel that this is due to several reasons but the most important is the incorrect public perception that the Taliban are closer to Islam than those who oppose them and this includes the government, the police and the armed forces. The vast majority of Pakistanis profess Islam to be their religion but we remain hostage to the Mullah. As religious parties have never won significant victories in elections so they have a strong vested interest in ensuring the strength of the Mullah. The Taliban are presently in the NWFP but could soon affect areas of the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. The root causes of extremism which are poverty, lack of education and obscurantism require to be addressed at a pace faster than the Taliban can advance. The people of Pakistan were abandoned by the United States and other Western countries after the US "invented" the mujahideen who transformed into the Taliban. Today we have a democratically elected government in Pakistan. To face the huge problems confronting us political stability is a must. Pakistan's Political leadership must display maturity and agree that the present government should complete its term without any attempt at destabilisation. While the government will do what it can to solve the problems of the people, the complexity of these problems is so large that a single political party or a coalition will not be able to produce solutions acceptable to all of Pakistan. So it is essential to have a consensus between all the political parties, including those not represented in parliament. Their suggestions and recommendations should be debated and approved by Parliament for action by various institutions. The initiation of this process will provide hope for all Pakistanis that action has been initiated and how it is managed will strengthen resolve and hope for the future. This process is likely to take a few months and in the interim period the elected government should continue to deal with our problems as best as they can using both carrot and stick. The extremist and militants have killed soldiers, police personnel, civilian men, women and children in various parts of Pakistan over the last several years. In spite of this mayhem a vast majority of Pakistanis still appears to have a soft corner for them. This perception is given strength by the lack of condemnation of the various crimes that these extremists have committed while some of this lack of condemnation can be attributed to fear instilled by terrorists; I feel that it is strongly related to the incorrect perception that the Taliban are closer to Islam than those opposing them. The lack of response on the ideological front is simply because an idea can only be fought with a superior ideology. As the Taliban claim to be the proponents of Islam the only stronger ideology available is Islam itself. We have to base our ideological battle on Islam and ensure there is unity of thought and action in opposition to the Taliban. In this ideological battle the ideological response should be based only on the Holy Quran. Then taking a leaf out of the Taliban handbook FM Radio stations, outnumbering the militants by 20 to 1, should be installed all over the Pashtun areas of the country as well as those areas likely to be affected in the future based on local language and dialects (this would actually cover the entire country). These programmes both on radio and television must be based on detailed research and aimed at producing optimum psychological effects stressing Haquq-al-abad. The role women in society and their rights and privileges as taught by the Holy Quran also need to be stressed. These measures will definitely produce greater Islamisation of Pakistani society but this Islam would be far different from that taught by the Taliban. Throughout this process we will have to jealously guard the aim of this programme to ensure that it is not hijacked for ulterior reasons by any party, political or otherwise. This approach may not be appreciated by our so-called Friends, however we have to chart the path that suits us best. We also have to ensure that the present anti- Taliban awakening is not a push in the direction of an anti Islam movement. We should treat the militants as guerrillas and apply the basics of guerrilla warfare against them, to ensure that without the oxygen of public support they wither and die. Many years ago while being briefed by a senior police officer in Faisalabad on the law and order situation, I was horrified to learn that of a total population of 7.5 million of that Division nearly 1 million people were nominated in court cases which would never be heard. At that time approximately 24000 cases were registered in courts every year in Faisalabad Division while only 12000 were resolved and 12000 cases were added to 80,000 pending in courts (each case names 8-10 people). With so many pending cases it is not surprising that both those who want to register a case and also those who want resolution of a case are willing to pay bribes to achieve their ends. This sorry state of affairs ensures that there is a continuous lack of justice available to the common man. The judiciary has been restored and the lawyer's movement has prevailed, it is now time for them to address this important problem. Lack of justice is a prime factor which drives people to engage in or support terrorism and militancy. The Police Force in Pakistan has always been criticised for its inefficiency and corruption. It happens to be our first line of defence on the internal front and has to be built up and handled accordingly. Currently the police lacks manpower, mobility, communications, firepower, accommodation and most of all the will to impose the writ of the government. While this has a lot to do with political control of the Force it is time to set things right. Successive governments have either failed to overhaul this Force or did not have the resources to do so. This aspect needs to be addressed at a priority. Centres of excellence have been developed like the Motorway Police and the Elite Force which gives us hope that given the will a Police Force that is effective can be developed to combat terrorism and extremism. Since the Nizam-e-Adl declaration in Swat the Pakistan Army has come in for a lot of undue criticism in the media. The public tends to forget how events occur. Having served in the army for 37 years I can say with some authority that the thing that the army requires most is support of the people without which it can face insurmountable problems in fighting an insurgency. Fighting the Taliban on our own soil is difficult especially without the luxury of precise intelligence and precision guided munitions. Troops are constantly faced by the spectre of collateral damage while facing a foe that merges with the local populace. Spending days, weeks and months under the constant threat of an enemy is physically and psychologically debilitating. I am proud of those officers and men of the Pakistan Army that have borne this fatigue and faced the odds with a courage that has few parallels in history. The sacrifices made deserve accolades and not misguided criticism. Besides public support the armed forces require to be equipped with the latest Intelligence acquisition means, precision guided munitions, ground and air mobility and secure communications. In the Malayan insurgency which lasted about 18 years from 1948 to 1966 the Communist guerrillas numbered 8000 at their peak. The forces deployed against them were 45000 soldiers, 45000 police and 1,250,000 Home Guards to root out the insurgents. Besides this over 600,000 villagers were "resettled" from remote areas to places where they were safe and also could not help the guerrillas. General Sir Gerald Tempter who was the High Commissioner in Malaya coined a phrase- "winning hearts and minds," that became the slogan of the counter insurgent force. Learning from history we should realise that the problem we face was neither created in a day and nor can it be solved in a hurry, we have to buckle up for the long haul and apply ourselves to solve our problems. Last and definitely not the least we need to address the print and electronic media. Today while we can be proud of a completely free media. Freedom should be jealously guarded, however we must also realise the negative effects that can and have been produced on various occasions. The media must be harnessed like all aspects of society to fight against the threats that we face. To conclude Pakistan has faced many challenges through its 65-year history and we have always survived. Many predictions have been made and continue to be voiced about our collapse and failure as a state. I believe that Pakistanis are a very talented and hard working people who can surmount all problems. Our country is located where the strategic interests of many 'powers' clash and coincide, which is a bane and a boon and we have to leverage our potential to the maximum to ensure that Pakistan flourishes and our children and coming generations of Pakistanis live honourable and peaceful lives.