Managing a more effective strategy in Afghanistan, as the President-elect desires, should start with a review of what happened in the last seven years in the region. While Pakistan received over ten billion dollars of US aid, Al Qaeda and Taliban leaderships were safe and sound in Pakistan and expanded their activities. Prime Minister Gordon Brown made it clear during his recent visit to Pakistan that in 75 per cent of the cases of terrorist activity in UK, links were traced to Pakistan. In 2002, for the first time religious parties won elections in Northwest Frontier province. It is widely accepted that those elections were rigged by the Inter-Services Intelligence under the Pakistan army — a sure sign of General Musharraf’s lack of sincere commitment to the war on terror and religious extremism. In the seven years when Pakistani army and the ISI wielded power publicly, the Taliban and jihadi organisations were allowed to gain in strength. Mullah Omar was living openly in Quetta and building up the Taliban and providing inspiration for the Pakistani Taliban built up in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The spirit of Talibanisation engulfed the ‘Lal Masjid’ madarassa in the national capital, stormed by the Pakistan army. That was followed by a number of suicide bombings in various parts of Pakistan, including Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and the Marriott bombing. Today Pakistan’s government and civil society rightly claim that they have become the victims of terrorism. The rise in terrorism within Pakistan took place in the last seven years when the army was in power.

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