The Taliban faction Pakistan won't target concerns Canada most

[Ruag]

The Taliban faction Pakistan won't target concerns Canada most

Pakistan is taking the fight to the Taliban, but not the Taliban that matters most to Canada.

Canada's official policy on Pakistan is to promote governance, encourage co-operation with Afghanistan and try to bolster security along the porous border between Kandahar province, where Canadian troops operate, and Pakistan's Balochistan province, where the Afghan Taliban train.

But its most pressing interest, expressed for years behind closed doors, but forcefully, is in having Pakistan battle the Taliban bases and operations in Balochistan, far south of the offensive Pakistan has so far mounted in the country's northwest.

Many inside and outside the government believe it's a significant advance to see Pakistan engaging in major offensives, and Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon responded to this week's Taliban attacks by expressing Canada's commitment to helping Pakistan overcome violent extremism.

But there is still concern that as Pakistan moves to battle those Taliban elements that threaten targets inside the country – it regained control of Swat in the spring and now is reportedly planning an offensive in Waziristan – its efforts might distract from pressure to deal with the “big brother” Taliban around Quetta in Balochistan.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay, visiting Pakistan in May after the battles in Swat, concluded that Pakistan had finally steeled itself for the fight against the Taliban. But inside the Canadian government, some harbour suspicions that Pakistan's army is willing to fight elements of the Taliban in the northwest, but will leave the Taliban of Mullah Omar in Balochistan unmolested, and free to campaign in Afghanistan.

Western countries, influenced by a shift in U.S. policy under President Barack Obama, now openly link Pakistan's stability with the war in Afghanistan as a regional issue.

But while several allies have mounted major aid efforts – such as the $1.5-billion a year the United States has just approved – Canada's less exuberant response has been a point of tension. Pakistan's High Commissioner in Ottawa, Akbar Zeb, has called for increased aid and trade, and the lifting of a decade-old arms-sales embargo, but Canada has taken more modest steps, offering $25-million to the victims of Swat violence and promising some increases in the future.

In May, Mr. Mackay enthusiastically welcomed a change in Pakistan's approach to the Taliban, even musing that a Canadian ban on arms sales to Pakistan might be lifted, stating: “Clearly, disengagement hasn't worked.” At the political level, the government still views Pakistan's recent military offensives as a major advance, while they continue to push for Islamabad to also take action in Balochistan.

But many of those inside the Canadian government who deal with Pakistan and Afghanistan issues still harbour suspicions that Pakistan's army, the country's dominant institution, is allowing the Taliban safe haven in Balochistan, even while it fights them elsewhere.

They believe that Pakistan's army and intelligence service, far more concerned with countering India, long aided the Taliban, trying to channel them into Afghanistan to counter Indian influence there. And some suspect that the Pakistani army, seeing Hamid Karzai's Afghan government as closely tied to India, still hopes to use the Taliban as a proxy in a struggle to limit India's power: The army will fight Taliban in the northwest, but leave those in Balochistan free to mount operations in Afghanistan.

Complicating matters is the fact that Pakistan's new, democratically elected government, which many Canadian officials believe is more committed to taking on the extremists, is viewed as having little real control over the army, the dominant power inside Pakistan.

Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae said concerns that Pakistan's army has aided the Taliban, and might still be aiding those Taliban whose target is Afghanistan – in the belief it serves their strategic contest with India – must be taken seriously.

But it should serve as a compelling reason to increase Canadian and NATO engagement with Pakistan, and to increase diplomatic efforts to mitigate the “intense distrust” between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Pakistan and India, he said. As well as joining in aid efforts to develop the hold of democratic government in Pakistan, such aid could address weak social services in some areas and regional grievances, he said.

The Taliban faction Pakistan won't target concerns Canada most - The Globe and Mail