Davos: Pakistan has seen terrorist incidents fall from more than 150 incidents every month in 2013 to less than ten a month today, and “the situation in Pakistan has moved from hopeless to hopeful”, said retired General Raheel Sharif in Davos at the World Economic Forum.
It is only two months since Sharif stepped down in November 2016 from being the Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army. His three years in the post saw a dramatic transformation as his leadership gave the military a new and clear sense of purpose which took effect in the highly successful Zarb-e-Azb operations which dramatically reduced the terrorist threat that had dominated the security situation in Pakistan for years.
But it was very interesting that Sharif did not see the military success as an end in itself, and during his speech he made it clear that the military task was to support a stable society and successful economy, to which end he spoke of the importance of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and its “game changing” effect on the Pakistan economy.
WATCH: Gulf News Editor At Large Francis Matthew is at Davos World Economic Forum. He reports on Pakistan's General Raheel Sharif's talk on defeating terror in Pakistan....
Sharif has also been mentioned as the future Chief of Staff for the Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance of 39 Muslim nations ready to fight terror, but he refused to confirm his appointment when speaking to Gulf News after the meeting, saying that this was still under discussion.
Sharif was speaking at the Pakistan Breakfast hosted by Ikram Sehgal of the Pathfinder Group, and the general first outlined the huge scale of the fight against terror in Pakistan that has been going on for the past three years in Operation Zarb-e-Azb which was carried out in North Waziristan on the Pakistan-Afghan border.
“We had 25,000 intelligence operations, arrested more than 33,000 people, and more than 4,000 terrorists were killed in the operation. The expected blowback did come and there were some tragic incidents, but the people and the nation supported the process and we stood firm,” said Sharif.
“The air force had to work with get care to avoid collateral damage as there were no clear battle lines in the 8,000 square kilometres of the mountainous area. More than 38,000 families had to be moved to huge temporary camps while the operation was continuing. It is a tribute to the people manning the camps that not one woman or child died there, and now more than 90 per cent of the families have returned to their homes.”
“We intend to hold and secure our western border with Afghanistan. We know it is porous, but our determination is illustrated by way that on our side we have the army patrolling the border while the Afghans only have their police force on their side.”
Sharif’s responsibilities also included commanding the Pakistan Rangers who took the fight into Karachi, and he was pleased to note that Karachi had moved up from being the sixth most dangerous city in the world to 36th although he was quick to add that there “is obviously more to do”.
After the success in North Waziristan, Sharif moved on to create two new army divisions to protect the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, CPEC, that runs 2,600km linking the Chinese city of Kashgar with the Pakistani port of Gwadar running over the Karakoram Highway and some of Pakistan’s more rugged territory with a new network of highways, railways, optical fibre and pipelines.
The Corridor has attracted between $46 to $54 billion (Dh169 billion to Dh198 billion) in investment from China and elsewhere, and other new highways will link CPEC to Pakistan’s main cities of Lahore and Karachi, and the entire project is seen as a major shift towards economic stability and growth in Pakistan.
“It is the army’s task to ensure that the rule of the state can run everywhere in the country,” said Sharif, adding that on November 13, the first convoy had left Kashgar and had successfully reached Gwadar with no incident. “Our neighbourhood is safer; peace has improved; and CPEC will make a big difference to the country,” he said.
