Page 7 - Pakistan Link - February 1, 2019

OPINION FEBRUARY 1, 2019 – PAKISTAN LINK – P7

n By Dr Akbar Ahmed Birmal and the Great Game - Part I Birmal area deep in Waziristan on the inter-
American University national border. Though time has moved on
Washington, DC since then, in essence tribal societies, their
values, and even to an extent their organiza-
resident Donald Trump recently made tion remain. It is only through the method of
headlines when he claimed that the respecting and working with the tribes that
PSoviets were justified in invading Af- government can effectively extend its author-
ghanistan. It appears that Trump does not ity in the Tribal Areas and administer effi-
want America to be in- ciently.
volved in the Great Game, I discussed my Birmal trip in my book
and the implications of Resistance and Control in Pakistan, first pub-
this have not been thought lished in 1983, in which I examined how state
out, especially with thou- administration might be best implemented
sands of American troops in Muslim tribal society and focused on Wa-
still in Afghanistan. ziristan. I returned to these themes in my 2013
The Great Game, the book The Thistle and the Drone: How Amer-
competition for influence between the great ica’s War on Terror Became a Global War on
powers that in the nineteenth century in- Tribal Islam.
cluded the Imperial British, Imperial Russia, Before discussing the trip itself, it is nec-
and Imperial China, was played in this region essary to put Waziristan and its people in con-
which included Central Asia and where it met text. The tribes of Waziristan, like tribes in
South Asia. Trump’s statement supporting the other societies, lived by an ancient code of
Soviet invasion is akin to Queen Victoria in honor here known as Pukhtunwali or the code
the nineteenth century applauding the Czar’s of the Pukhtun. Other central parts of the
fresh excursions into Afghanistan. the war on terror in which the Pakistan central be done to create or escalate confrontation or code include hospitality and revenge. The peo-
When I served in Waziristan, the region government and the tribal periphery have had tension; the other was the “forward policy” ple of Waziristan belonged to clans and tribes
was contested between the US and the Soviet a difficult relationship. which advocated a strong confident approach. and were linked through lineage descent from
Union and I was on the front lines of that ri- When I was in Waziristan looking at the Considering the imminent arrival of the Sovi- common ancestors. The tribes had what could
valry and confrontation. When the Soviets Soviets across the border-and they had already ets on my borders and the fact that my admin- be described as an egalitarian and democratic
invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 I was been strongly backing the Afghan government istration had virtually no access to them, I be- traditional form of government and were gov-
on the Pakistan side of the Durand line - the before their actual invasion - I was conscious lieved I had no choice but to opt for the latter. erned by councils of male elders known as
unmarked international border in Waziristan. that anything happening in that frontier re- At the time, Pakistan government au- maliks whose status was earned through feats
The Great Game is still being played in the gion could be inflamed and become a much thority did not extend to the international of courage, honor, and bravery. The Pukhtun
region - today the US, China, Russia, India, larger geo-political issue. I was also conscious border especially in the Birmal region, and of the area lived in thinly populated environ-
Pakistan and Iran compete for influence. of the Soviet strategy and their aims in the basically did not exist on the ground. There ments, raised livestock such as goats, and did
Where Central Asia meets South Asia, lie Great Game derived from Czarist traditions: were no schools, offices or officials in that not pay taxes.
the Tribal Areas of Pakistan, which merged they would not stop at the Khyber Pass and area. Yet it was critical for Pakistan to be on Waziristan in history has tradition-
last year with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) aim to head south for Karachi and the warm the international frontier. I realized that in or- ally been seen as a mysterious land beyond
province. They are some of the most notori- waters of the Gulf. I knew that sooner or later der to extend Pakistan government authority the pale, a hostile and forbidding zone best
ously difficult areas for central government to the Soviet invasion would land on the borders to the border, I would have to work through avoided. It is home to two of the major Pukh-
administer, due to both the inaccessible ter- of Pakistan, if not inside Pakistan, on its way to the tribes, the local people of the area. In this tun tribes, the Wazir and their cousins the
rain and the independent-minded Pukhtun this objective. Afghanistan was thus a means case, it was the Wazir tribe which extended Mahsud, considered the fiercest of fighters.
people who live there. I served in several posts to an end. If the Soviets were able to achieve on both sides of the border. I had to win over Waziristan is characterized by mountains,
in the Tribal Areas including Political Agent, this objective, a major goal of the Great Game the Wazir tribe and then take them with me in Preghal is the highest peak at 11,500 feet, a
South Waziristan, and thus acquired some un- would have been achieved by them. implementing the forward policy. varied and often inhospitable landscape rang-
derstanding of the region and how to work There were two policies that tradition- I will here discuss a case study showing ing from thick forests to deserts, and an ex-
there, chiefly by understanding the culture of ally dominated action in this part of the world how administration can function successfully treme climate, with temperatures reaching 120
the tribes and applying that knowledge. This during the Great Game. One was “masterly even in a time of tension and political turbu- degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and well
is a crucial point to consider in the context of inactivity” which argued that nothing should lence in a tribal region through my visit to the BIRMAL, P24

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