Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced the setting up of a university and a medical college in Waziristan, as well as the extension of the Danish schools programme to the area, during his visit to North Waziristan on Thursday. Mr Sharif was accompanied by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Defence Minister Khwaja Asif and COAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, while there was a briefing by the Corps Commander Peshawar, Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, on the security situation in the area. Until recently a tribal area, Waziristan had developed into a node of terrorism all over the country, as well as the headquarters of the Tehrik i Taliban Pakistan (TTP). It was only after two major operations; the latter commanded by a lieutenant general, that some semblance of peace was restored to the area. However, at the present juncture, that good work seems to be going for nothing, with the Taliban victory in neighbouring Afghanistan coinciding with an upsurge in terrorist activity centered around this area. Also worrisome is that the area seems likely to play its former role, and acts as a relative safe haven.
With the Taliban refusing to help Pakistan with the TTP, Waziristan provides the easiest route into the rest of the country. It is almost as if the military, which hitherto had been jealously keeping civilians out of the area, both literally and figuratively, is now seeking the help of the civilian government in tackling this issue. While the support of two independent MNAs from the area was crucial for the new government, which alone would not cause the high priority indicated by a prime ministerial visit, especially when compared to the neglect that had gone before.
It took a constitutional amendment to bring the tribal areas, including Waziristan, into the national mainstream. However, that was only political, and it is only going to by concrete steps such as more education, that these areas will come out of the benighted support for terrorism that they have shown in the past.
