— Fencing aims at ‘protecting people and not dividing them’, ISPR boss says
— Gen Iftikhar says dialogue with TTP ‘on hold’ but operations ‘ongoing’ against militant group
RAWALPINDI: Brushing aside speculations suggesting the military was looking to cut a deal with deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif to facilitate his return before the next general elections which are scheduled to take place in 2023, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar said there was no trouble between the civil-military relationship.
After spending a year in prison, Sharif, now 72, secured a one-month bail in November 2019 to travel to London on the pretext of medical treatment but has since refused to return.
Addressing a presser here, Gen Iftikhar termed the deal rumours as ‘baseless chatter’, asking speculators to furnish evidence “if there is any”.
“If someone talks of a deal [between the military and a political party], then you must ask them who is offering it,” he argued.
“In my understanding, and I am very clear on that, this is baseless speculation.”
Despite being summoned by the courts, which declared Sharif a proclaimed offender in separate corruption trials, his party insists Sharif will only return after the completion of his medical treatment — the nature of which remains a mystery to date.
In August, Britain’s Home Office refused to extend Sharif’s stay in the country on medical grounds in a decision he has appealed via immigration tribunal. Court documents showed Sharif was allowed to leave for medical treatment only after agreeing to a series of conditions preventing him from seeking exile in the United Kingdom.
Sharif’s passport expired in February last year after the government refused to renew it in an attempt to speed up his extradition from the United Kingdom. The expired document rendered Sharif unable to travel anywhere on the Pakistan passport.
However, in December, the media reported a “secret deal” between the establishment and Sharif to bring him back home, igniting speculation on the mainstream and social media.
Gen Iftikhar, however, urged the media to “keep the establishment out of it”.
During the press conference, he also spoke of a “campaign” against the state and its institutions aimed at creating a gulf between the public and the institutions, and to “damage people’s trust”.
“The military is aware of these efforts and their various linkages,” he said, pointing at the rumours.
“The elements who spew half-truths, fake news and false propaganda to target institutions and damage the country, have failed and will fail,” he asserted.
FENCING OF AFGHANISTAN BORDER
Gen Iftikhar also addressed issues pertaining to the nation’s eastern front facing India, western border linking Pakistan to Afghanistan, achievements of Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad.
On the issue of the fencing of the Afghanistan border which Taliban soldiers across the Durand Line disrupted on December 22, he said the process to fence the porous border will continue as planned, adding it was being done to “protect people and not divide them”.
Pakistan has fenced most of the 2,600 kilometres (1,615 miles) border despite protestations from Kabul, which has always contested the British-era boundary demarcation that splits families and tribes on either side.
Following the December 22 episode, Taliban and Pakistan forces came face-to-face over the incident, two Taliban officials told Reuters, and the situation was tense.
They added that following the incident there was cross border mortar fire from inside Pakistan further north along the frontier into Afghanistan’s Kunar province.
But on Monday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Pakistan was engaging with the Taliban through diplomatic channels to resolve “some confusions” stemming from the installation of the security fence.
According to Gen Iftikhar, border fencing was being done in an effort to protect the people on both sides as well as to regulate trade. “The fence is needed to regulate security, border crossing and trade. The purpose of this is not to divide the people, but to protect them.”
He also said the security situation along the Afghanistan border remained “challenging” during 2021. “The border management, specifically the Pakistan-Afghan border […] there were some specific local, operational and strategic dynamics and these are [being] addressed at the relevant level.”
He added the border fencing was “94 per cent complete”, adding: “We are totally focused, and under the western border management regime, the work that is underway will be completed in some time.”
TTP TALKS
Touching on the rather sensitive topic of peace talks with the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), he confirmed the dialogue was “on hold” but said operations were “ongoing” against the terrorist group.
The group, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, in December unilaterally announced an end to a month-long ceasefire with the government, accusing authorities of reneging on promises made in the initial stages of peace talks.
The ceasefire came into effect on November 9, after Islamabad announced the start of talks with the group, which has been fighting the state of Pakistan since 2007 and has carried out dozens of attacks targeting civilians and security forces across the country.
“The ceasefire [with the TTP] ended on December 9. It [the ceasefire] was a confidence-building measure taken ahead of talks with these violent non-state actors at the request of the current Afghan government,” Gen Iftikhar said.
“There was a requirement for the interim Taliban government that TTP should not be using their soil against us [Pakistan] so they said they would bring them to the table and make them accept what Pakistan wants.
Obviously, those external conditions were yet to be settled.
The TTP is not a monolith. They have internal differences. There were some problems […] some conditions that were non-negotiable from our side so there is no ceasefire [right now]. We are continuing with operations and will continue till we get rid of this menace. That’s how it goes.”
