Pakistan Is Changing

The Pakistan government has so far rounded up over 120 religious leaders in the country followed by shutting down nearly 200 schools during the last week. The operation has been launched in the country by Prime Minster Imran Khan barely after two weeks when Lethpora incident took place.
As many as 40 Paramilitary CRPF men got killed after Adil Ahmad Dar stormed into the convoy along with his RDX laden car on February 14. The terrible incident shook the whole world and India blamed Pakistan based Jaish E Mohammad led by India’s wanted Masood Azhar for the act.
Jaish had also taken responsibility for the attack though later it denied. India upped its ante against the neighbouring country and launched the air strikes across the border to dismantle existing terror infrastructure. The offensive was retaliated by Pakistan Air Force who also bombed on Indian side.
However, de-escalation was witnessed later though internally Pakistan premier Imran Khan faced considerable pressure from the international community for offering safe sanctuary to the terrorists and extremist groups on its soil. Under duress Khan swung into action and rounded up 120 religious leaders and banned some extremist organizations and the educational institutions run by them. He assured that his government will not allow its soil to be used by any terrorist groups against any country and reiterated that the governments focus is on country’s peace and stability.
He even said that, God willing, for Pakistan new era is coming. Khan has always been advocating dialogue ever since he assumed the office of Prime Minster last year in August. Even during the heightened tensions with India on 26 February when IAF penetrated into Pakistan and dropped 1000 kg bombs, Khan still believed that dialogue can only help to deescalate tensions and war can lead the entire region into catastrophe. His gesture of peace was internationally hailed.
India had no comments to his gesture and continued to maintain its position ‘tough’ towards the hostile country. Ministry of external Affairs, however, said that since 2001 when the Parliament attack took place there was nothing new, only rhetoric by Pakistan. He said that Pakistan needs to do something new to substantiate its claim of ‘Naya Pakistan’. India is quite sceptical to Pakistan’s initiative of waging war against terrorism and terrorists existing in the country.  In past after 26/11 India had received same promises and assurances from Khan’s predecessors, however with passing time fell flat.
Since then India witnessed Pathankot, Uri and now Pulwama suicide attack and squarely India blamed Pak based terrorist groups and accused Islamabad and Pakistan army of patronising such elements.  Such attacks have always pushed the two countries to the hostile situations and never let peace to prevail.  In fact the National Action Plan (NAP) launched in 2015 which had approval from all the political parties of Pakistan to weed out terrorism from its soil also did not yielded positive results so far at the global level.
The plan was drafted and approved in the Parliament of Pakistan by Nawaz Sharif government in 2015 after a dastardly act by terrorists attacking Army Public school in Peshawar killing over 157 children during same year.  The NAP was exempted from any political interference in western borders where most of the areas are literally under control of terrorists.
Despite huge causalities after the plan was launched by Pakistani army and rangers, it seems there seems little or no impact on ground.  While majority of the people are opining that India has launched the attack on Pakistan due to upcoming elections, however it is also undeniable fact that the Modi led BJP was facing huge pressure from people after Pulwama attack that sent 40 coffins to the mainland. India withdrew from the point of confrontation only after international pressure after Pakistan sent back the captured Pilot.
However the countries those who helped this time to deescalate the tensions have also left warning for Pakistan to act against the terrorists who are trying to sabotage the peace efforts between two countries. So this is high time for Pakistan to rein in to these rouge elements and usher the country towards peace and progress. The investors who have turned to Pakistan after Imran Khan launched campaign across the globe may also feel dejected and Pakistan may continue to sail through the troubled waters if such elements continue to exist in country.