Firstly, can you provide examples of mountain warfare where the PA has been involved (besides Kashmir/Siachen territories). The units being moved to Malakand are from the eastern front rather than those already stationed in NWFP. Last I heard, they were involved in desert warfare primarily. Correct me if I am wrong here.
The entire FCNA theater of operations is essentially a mountain warfare exercise. Siachen would fall under high altitude operations so I am not bringing that into the discussion. Without going into the disposition of the exact units (the details of which are not available to me), I can tell you that rotation involves units from all over to be brought in. The current operations are essentially Corps + level effort and would require units from other formations to be inducted. Pakistani infantry units are although trained in environs where they would typically be deployed, but are rotated as and when needed. There simply aren't enough troops in a single Corps to sustain such long term operations at this large scale.
My reply was vis-a-vis Malakand division, not the tribal areas. There is no tribal system in Malaknd division, so the political approach has to be significantly different. We by now know what COIN involves but unfortunately the brunt of our strategy has been military rather than economic-political. What is being done to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people, change their political leanings etc etc. Sadly, zilch.
I am not sure if I saw the Malakand div. reference earlier. I think there is nothing "unfortunate" about the current operations. Things go on in phases. We have discussed Kinetic and non-Kinetic operations. Initially the military has to push in, build its presence and along with it public affairs and economic uplift happens. Currently what we see is that PA is right in the middle of this transition in most of Swat and adjoining areas and we will see the developmental activity pick up pace as well.
As for the tribal araes, reviving it is next to impossible now. Most maliks were murdered while the rest dare not support the government anymore. The political agent lost his sway a long time back.
I do not think so. The tribal framework exists as it was before. Surely tribal leaders have been martyred, however there are others willing to take over the leadership. The tribal culture has existed there for centuries. It cannot just disappear because some leaders have been murdered over the past few years. Secondly, currently no one may want to challenge the militants in the absence of the military. However once the pressure builds on the militants, you can and will find allies in the tribes willing to get this militancy problem sorted out as their tribes are losing out.
The PA system has to be done away with. With what has to be seen.
And why do we need to revive the tribal system I ask. Only to let people suffer under the draconian FCR? We should rather take the tribal areas under the wings of the federation and apply the same laws we apply elsewhere in the country.
You have to revive it because you do not have anything better currently (eventually the FATA has to be integrated into the federation, but that cannot be done overnight). Also while this term "Draconian" is always used with FCR, you should realize that its the tribes that agree to the punishment. They do the same to each other within the tribes to keep things straight. FCR is not something that has been "imposed" on them without their input. Its a regulation that is enforced by the tribes on their own first and if not then Khassadars/FC etc. take action.
Power does not need to go back to the tribals — power needs to go back to the state. That is the cornerstone of any nation's existence.
Agreed. However lets be practical instead of idealistic. It takes time to do such things. This will require the tribes to agree, the parliament to pass a bill, constitution amended etc. etc., garrisoning of law enforcement agencies etc. (issues which may not be palatable to the locals).
Right now public affairs has solely comprised of press briefings by the ISPR (no harm in that).
Not really. There is quite a bit of other work being done which is under the category of Public affairs works. There is road work going on, the Army is facilitating the return of refugees, the Army is providing security to the homes of the people, helping with crops, bringing medical relief and food supplies to the locals etc. etc.
Just want to correct that development was not "consistently" promised to the poor of FATA for the last 60 years. It hasn't been because it was never part of the rest of the country in real terms. The power was vested in the tribal system and the basis of that was to conserve the tribal traditions and way of life . And lest we forget, the Durand Line was used by Pakistan to help US fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. It has been at the centre of conflict but always overlooked.
Although I have no idea about your age, but given the statement you make, I think you need to simply look at some of the older archives of Pakistani newspapers. From the time of Ayub Khan, promises have been made by the government to uplift the areas that comprise FATA. The Political Agent's sole ace card used to be the federal funding which he would use at his discretion to reward certain tribes and build wells or kacchi road, or a dispensary near by. The fact that we want to preserves the tribal traditions does not mean the GoP has no responsibility. The FATA are
Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The question is what sort of administration has been provided to the FATA in the past by the various administrations in Islamabad?
Also most of the infrastructure that is there (for instance, the main North-South Wazirstan Road) is courtesy the British. This is the first time I am hearing of any road being put there by the army for the people (googled it in fact, nothing came up). And I am also sure tribals know how to lay a well as well.
You are hearing this for the first time because you may be getting all of your information from the western media or may have never been to the area. I was there in 94 (last time I visited) and the FWO and Army were working overtime to put in roads and basic infrastructure in. The only problem is the scale. That area requires a much bigger effort.
The main problems that the army encountered when they moved into Wazirstan or other tribal areas were not limited to the vastness or the remoteness of the area. One of that was the inability of the soldier to adapt itself to the kind of warfare required there. Paraphrasing columns by Brigadier Javed Hussain's here: "The soldiers were not used to the environment they were thrown. There were no flanks, no rear areas, they were trained to fight where the battlefield is well-defined and the enemy’s positions are known. Then they assemble their forces, they are taught to operate to operate as part of large forces, in accordance with the army’s strategic plan (which is implemented by the corps). So it is the corps battle that matters. The infantry man is fighting to promote the corps plan. So the structure of the army is inherently centralized command. All regular armies are structured like this. When the army went in, they moved from one point to another, they would be ambushed, they would set up a camp, they would be attacked. They weren’t trained to deal with ambushes, raid, sniping, surprise operations etc — these are associated with insurgents/guerillas and the SSG, who specialize in commando operations. The regular army does not think like that. The army moves in a battalion not as an individual."
Yes but the Brig is talking about when we first went into Waziristan back in 2002. Quite a lot has changed in terms of tactics and even the training being provided to the regular infantry now. Secondly, SF like the SSG cannot maintain presence in these areas. You have to put regular infantry and local constabulary to do this job. Even now the SSG is operating at the spears edge being pushed out to Peochar valley etc. so the militants can be paid back in coin. Eventually the regular infantry will be deployed to maintain presence in the area which eventually will become FC responsibility in the tribal areas.
In short, the terrain and the kind of warfare involved were not what the PA, or for that matter any other army, are involved in.
I would agree with the point about the "kind" of warfare. However the hard terrain is nothing unusual for the Army and especially for the SSG.