Paper short abstract:

The Afghan intervention developed a path dependency normalizing high levels of violence and proliferation of militant organizations. This remains an escalating problem irrespective of whether Security Establishment makes radical change in strategy in relations to the numerous militant groups.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will look at General Zia-ul-Huq's takeover as a critical juncture where for strategic reasons, internal and external, led to an alliance between the military and the Islamic groups. The Islamization process and the intervention in the Afghanistan legitimated religion and the use of violence. The close collaboration between the military and militant groups in the intervention in Afghanistan and later Kashmir initiated a path dependency, which the military now finds difficult to disengage with and led to the proliferation of high levels of violence in society. Recent evidence from fieldwork indicates that high level of violence has become normalized and that there is a correlation between support for militants and negative attitudes to women. This makes the anti-terrorism strategy of the government problematic for a number of reasons. The National Action Plan targets selectively certain groups but ignores other as assets. This selective approach has limited potential success, as there is constant flow of disgruntled youth who are attracted to militancy and raise the further danger of new groups such as Daesh attempting to make inroads. Path dependency of violence means that violence whether in the shape of religious extremism or criminal behaviour will remain an escalating problem irrespective of whether the Pakistani Security Establishment makes radical change in strategy in relations to the numerous militant groups.

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