Pakistan’s Last Gambit? continues....

The Ministry of Finance in one of its reports summed up the cost of the blowback: “Since 2006, the War has spread like a contagion into settled areas of Pakistan that has so far, cost the country more than 35,000 citizens, 3,500 security personnel, destruction of infrastructure, internal migration of millions of people from parts of northwestern Pakistan, erosions of investment climate, nose diving of production and growing unemployment
and above all brought economic activity to a virtual standstill in many part of the country. Pakistan had never witnessed such devastating social and economic upheaval in its industry, even after dismemberment of the country by direct war.”

The most devastating impact of Pakistan’s strategies vis-a-vis Afghanistan has been on the security of Pakistan itself.

Various estimates put the total number of persons, both civilian and military, killed in various terrorist attacks and counter-terrorist operations (2003-2014) at over 50,000. Pakistan’s own official estimates at 49,000 (October 2001-March 2013) give a different dimension—it projects the casualty figures among security personnel to be 15,681 out of an estimated overall casualty of 25,000 since 2008.

Fatalities in Terrorist Violence in Pakistan 2003-2014 ( refer to the slides)

These statistical divergences apart, there is no denying the fact that Pakistan witnesses more terrorist attacks than any other country in the world today ( table in slides). Besides the fear and chaos such attacks and killings created, the most immediate fallout had been on the military—it not only lost more men than all the wars with India but was also forced to re-deploy a significant part of its troops from the eastern border with India to deal with the terrorist challenge on the west. This compulsion to open a second military front within the country has not been without its own pitfalls, all of which have a bearing on the army’s capacity, as explained in the chapter later, to deal with the ominous internal threat which is likely to magnify in 2015 and beyond.

To be continued...