COUNTERING TERRORISM HEREAFTER: National Security Perspective of Pakistan in Post 9/11 World for Articulating a Pragmatic Policy Framework

Introduction:

Technological advancement and development have led to many positive things around the globe such as increased communication and trade among different nations. However, one of the negative aspects of technological advancement is the increase in violence and use of weapons. The use of firearms can result in disharmony in the society and increase the rate of violent activity. When the violent operations are carried out at the more significant level or mass level impacting countries and a large number of people then this violence is termed as terrorism. Terrorism is defined as

“abhorrent act of violence perceived as directed against society-whether it involves the activities of antigovernment dissident or government themselves, organized crime syndicates, common criminals, rioting mobs, people engaged in militant protest, individual psychotic, or lone extortionist.” ^[1]

There are several incidents of terrorism in the history such as Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Nazi’s event, and the 9/11 conflict, etc. All of these attacks had impacted the human life in several different ways and had been affecting until today. This terrorist act have impact people of different regions, religious or social communities and races. The September 11, 2001, attack which is commonly known as 9/11 attack is one of the cruelest attacks in the human history. The enormity and its destructions of 9/11 attack were beyond anything in the history of terrorism.^[2] The attack was huge in dimension, planning scope and coordination between the hijackers and their plan of destruction. The 19 aircrafts of the hijackers who were not only willing to take the lives of passengers, crew and four aircraft pilots as well as 3000 people working in the world trade center along with their own lives.^[3] Officially the responsibility of the attack was on a terrorist organization Al-Qaida group. The members of Al-Qaida, Afghan militants, had planned out the manual of their mission known as Jihad Manual was discovered by British police during the investigations of the criminals.

More Read: Studies in the United States

After the attack, the terrorism became a global concern and the United States being the powerful country changed the handling process of terrorism as a concern and started a new mission known as War on Terror. Islam entered the media and in the terrorism issue because of the involvement of Al-Qaida in the 9/11 attacks. The connection of terrorism and oil with other Muslim countries such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan was displayed in media. Therefore, for the layman people, Islam was linked with terror, fear, negativity, and control.^[4] The impact was so huge that families of the victims are still in the recovery phase. However, the other main implications of the issue are in the Muslim world.

Pakistan was one of the Muslim countries which was impacted by 9/11 attacks and till now facing it’s after effects in the form of political instability and several terrorist attacks within the state. After the attacks of 9/11, the United States declared that Al-Qaida is a terrorist group and according to America’s perception Al-Qaida was a creation of the US and Pakistani agencies.^[5] The war on terror started out especially against militant group Al-Qaida, but Pakistan was reluctant to be part of it because of its religious and national ties with Afghanistan. But under the enormous pressure by the United States, Pakistan not only became a participant in the war on terrorism but also led from the front in the war. For this war, Pakistan help financially and also provided military assistance to the United States and its NATO army to attack Afghanistan.^[6] However, because of the participation in War on Terror, the peace of the country was significantly hampered as the impact of the terrorist activities happening in rotten areas started spreading in the whole country.

This not impacted the peace of the country but also brought financial, political, social and security instability across the entire country. Considering the situation and terrorism activities across the country, the government of Pakistan started an operation against terrorists in Fata and Waziristan which is known as Zarb-e-Azam. In other words, the 9/11 attacks impacted not only the country’s policies but also strategic concerns and national security as well as its impact on the development and economic condition of the nation. Pakistan changed its foreign policy as soon as the war on terror was announced and after that policy change, the policy paradigm of Pakistan was incoherent leading to several abrupt decisions. Pakistan security concerns are also because of the political corruption, lack of accountability, social situations and sanctions of the United States in the name of the war on terrorism. Therefore, it is essential to understand the national perspective of Pakistan and what has led to security issues in Pakistan.

Problem Statement:

With the focus on terrorism in Pakistan post 9/11 attack, the security concerns have increased instead of decreasing. New policies have been devised to prevent terrorist activities in the country, but the impact was somewhat negative about Pakistan. The policy framework was not well thought through, but the leaders were confident that policy are for the best interest of Pakistan. So, what went wrong and wherein the policy framework of Pakistan after 9/11 to tackle the nuisance of terrorism. Was it a matter of inconsistencies, incoherencies or inadequacies in Polices or a perceptual discrepancy between theoretical documentation and practice of countering terrorism that led to an inadequate pace of progress thereby creating today’s imbroglio of uncertain security environment with no practical insight?

Objective

The primary purpose of this is to carry out an in-depth analysis of Pakistan’s National Security Policies regarding terrorism to identify inadequacies to proffering an effective multi-prong policy and corresponding strategy to eradicate this menace from affecting the future of Pakistan.

Hypothesis

The hypothesis of this study is:

Pakistan’s post 9/11 eccentric National Security Policy paradigm is an outcome of perceptual discrepancies between theory and practice of terrorism/counter-terrorism and fissiparous political discourse that was woven more around personal than national interests.

Research Questions

Following research questions will be considered for this research study:

• How and why terrorism perpetually impacts the security calculus of Pakistan since last three decades?
• What are the identifiable voids in Policy – Strategy Paradigm that puts a drag on the equal rate of success against terrorism?
• What are viable, pragmatic and wholesome solutions; amalgamating all elements of national power for efficiently countering; terrorism in future?

Literature Review:

Pakistan has been changing its policies since the attacks of 9/11, and it has impacted the country’s development and economic processes. There are several factors which influence the policy development, implementation and security issues related to that policy and these factors are categorized into three categories: domestic, regional and global. Before 9/11, Pakistan was considered as a failing state which was going through military dictatorship, corruption, poverty, social instability, and poverty. The image of Pakistan as a failing state was because of its external and internal policies and its relationship with other countries as well as its development progress.^[7] Also, Pakistan was the central hub for Jihad and other religious fights for the Muslim world. The negative image got strengthen after the attacks of 9/11 and the policy shift further deteriorate the security perspective of Pakistan. Pakistan was one of the first Muslim nuclear-empowered states, and the image was coming across was fundamentalist state run by military dictators. The image of Pakistan was destroyed because of its policies and supporting Taliban as well as domestic political issues.

On 15^th September 2001, upon extension of full support to the United States mission to fight against terrorism Pakistan’s foreign policy was suddenly changed after 9/11 attacks under the administration of ruling president General Pervez Musharraf.^[8] As a result of the policy, the underlying assumption of the Afghan policy that Afghanistan was in the best interest of Pakistan. However, the United States government also ensured the ruling president Musharraf to solve the issue of Kashmir and also support Pakistan economically. During the support of Pakistan, Pakistan was at the very crucial position economically security wise and politically. According to the Musharraf, he said:

“The choice is between saving Pakistan or the Taliban and I am opting for Pakistan. Pakistan comes first everything else come later. Pakistan situation is extremely hazardous and holds potential dangers to Pakistan strategic assets. Never had the country seen such perilous time since 1971. One wrong move at this stage can jeopardize the very survival of Pakistan and allowing the fortress of Islam come to harm would be a disservice to Islam. I call upon the nation to show complete unity and solidarity for any decision which his government may take regarding hunt Osama operation” ^[9]

The speech was delivered in 2001 right after the 9/11 attack and when the United States announced war on terror and Pakistan had to be part of it. After the speech, the state was on high alert, and it has changed the relationship between Pakistan and other countries. The decision of General Musharraf was made in a severe chaotic situation to maintain the progress in Pakistan. He was the one who decided to break ties with Taliban, Jaish-e-Muhammad, and Lashkar-e-Taiba as well as other several groups banning their work, their offices and arresting their leaders.^[10] Because of this policy change, the relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan were lost. The impact of 9/11 was also on relations between Pakistan and India where India took the benefit and portrayed Pakistan as a terrorist and the state which is supporting Jihad.^[11] After the 9/11 attacks, policymakers were also reconsidering the economic policy of Pakistan. Financial market and trade were adversely impacted by the 9/11.

Corruption is another component which hinders the Pakistan’s effort to prevent and reduce the terrorist’s acts. Corruption of any magnitude impact the good governance in any country but for the past two decades Pakistan have been facing with several domestic gaps to prevent the corruption in the government sector and in politics.^[12] The dishonesty of the political leader will lead to flawed policies of national security and defense impacting the nation overall. National security is an important decision which has several stakeholders and is a reflection of people, trends of society, economic conditions and political situations. Policy makers are the primary stakeholders and play a significant role in developing the security structure. Pakistan’s security structure is a reflection of its political status from last 80 years.^[13] The national action plan was devised to potentially stabilize the security situations of Pakistan and change the culture of safety in Pakistan.

The instability in the political position, current terrorism activities in the northern region and weak policies have posed severe security challenges for Pakistan.^[14] The social sector remains indifferent in these types of situation and leaves it up to the government to tackle the security issues and threats to the nation. Then it is up to the government to tackle the issues and change the policies according to the situation. The national action plan was operationalized in the year 2015^[15] but the terrorism is still disturbing the security of the country. Pakistan’s current strategic culture which includes extension to resources for defense, pluralist power advocacy, diplomatic relations with other nations and focus on external security shape the policies and security options.^[16] The influence of policies and strategies can be global, regional and domestics and if there is a contradiction with the implication of the strategies than the implementation and pragmatic can be significantly complex.

The significance of the Study:

It is evident that terrorism and war on terrorism have led to the much-distorted decision on policymakers and policies. It has also affected the peace and security of Pakistan. Successful policies are essential for the national security of Pakistan, and since 9/11 Pakistan has lacked the sufficient comprehensive policies. In the policies, Pakistan has always put the US upfront ignoring their relations with other countries. The events of 9/11 put Pakistan in a difficult situation to adopt a policy which will minimize the repercussions of 9/11. There have been several studies carried out understanding the changes made in foreign policy and how those policies have impacted the economic development of the country. But very few studies have been carried out to understand the impact of terrorism activities on Pakistan and how it has affected the policy development as well as what gaps are there in policy and strategy for the fight against terrorism.

Theoretical Framework:

Security and safety remain one of the primary concern in this rapidly progressing world, and terrorism has deployed the peace among nations leading it to more violence. The emergence of terrorism has changed the geopolitical and socio-economic situation of the countries. The history of terrorism and the impact of 9/11 attach have been quite long for Pakistan political and economic situation. Pakistan’s relation to war on terror has been one of the major concern as it plays a role facilitating the war on terrorism. However, the policies and political decisions are the ones which are impacting the development of the country. Corruption at several level in Pakistan has reduced the power of Pakistani government and its efforts to prevent terrorism. Also there are several gaps in the pragmatic policy framework which are important to understand the national security perspective of Pakistan. It is essential to understand the impact of two decades of terrorism and gaps in policy-strategy paradigm to combat the policy issues and national security perspective. The national security policy are important to understand the gaps between implementations and plans which are posing the problems faced by Pakistan.

Methodology:

The research will be evidence-based research carried out on different evidence and policy frameworks which will be available in official’s documentation of the government. The evidence can be comprised of documentaries, official documents, official’s addresses by politicians and policymakers as well as some opinion by the general public. The government documents will be obtained from the website of government and other official places access to the public. New papers will be used to draw up to the discussions and opinion of experts and policymakers.

Bibliography

1. Hoffman, Inside Terrorism. ↑
2. Hoffman, “Rethinking Terrorism and Counterterrorism since 9/11.” ↑
3. Ibid. ↑
4. Powell, “Framing Islam: An Analysis of US Media Coverage of Terrorism since 9/11.” ↑
5. Hoffman, “Rethinking Terrorism and Counterterrorism since 9/11.” ↑
6. Shahzad et al., “Relationship between FDI, Terrorism and Economic Growth in Pakistan: Pre and Post 9/11 Analysis.” ↑
7. Jalalzai, The Holy Terror: Islam, Violence and Terrorism in Pakistan. ↑
8. Fani, “Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: Challenges and Opportunities after 9/11.” ↑
9. Shah and Riaz, “September 11, 2001 and Change in Pakistan’s Foreign Policy.” ↑
10. Khan and Amin, “Understanding the Dynamics of National Security Culture of Pakistan.” ↑
11. Chellaney, “Fighting Terrorism in Southern Asia: The Lessons of History.” ↑
12. Javaid, “Corruption and Its Deep Impact on Good Governance in Pakistan.” ↑
13. Khan and Amin, “Understanding the Dynamics of National Security Culture of Pakistan.” ↑
14. Kerr, Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation and Security Issues. ↑
15. Khan and Amin, “Understanding the Dynamics of National Security Culture of Pakistan.” ↑
16. Chambers, “SOUTH ASIA IN 2020: FUTURE STRATEGIC BALANCES AND ALLIANCES.” ↑