Pakistan also appears to have continued to support violent extremists even after it launched the purported shift in approach. According to Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official now with Brookings, when the Haqqani network attacked Camp Bastion in Afghanistan last September, "one of the Afghan Taliban attackers was captured alive, and in his interrogation, he indicated the attack was planned in conjunction with the ISI [Pakistan's intelligence agency], and they facilitated their route to the target and helped them plan the attack on the facility."
Even U.S. officials who believe a significant shift is underway say it will be implemented only gradually.
The U.S. official who deals with Pakistan said that Washington has not "seen any measureable change" in Pakistani support for the Haqqani network. Nor did this official expect to see any decrease in support for the Haqqani network anytime soon. "I think that is part of Pakistan's hedging strategy," the official said. "They will want to see how things are playing out a little bit more across the border before they take action."
Another official said that the Pakistani government would not go after these militants because they do not threaten the Pakistani nation. But Pakistani officials realize that a lot of these groups can morph or are already playing multiple games, some of which are anti-state," according to this source.
Pakistani military officials deny they distinguish between Afghan Taliban and Pakistani Taliban.
"We do not discriminate, as a matter of state policy, between terrorist groups. So the concept of the good Taliban and the bad Taliban -- there is no such thing," one Pakistani defense official insisted in an interview. "How do you differentiate," the Pakistani official asked, between a Haqqani network fighter and somebody else who belongs to another Pakistani Taliban group?
The militants lack uniforms and "don't have distinctive patches where you could identify them," the official said. "And at 100 meters, 200 meters, a person who has an AK-47 and is shooting at you -- you don't really ask him to identify himself so that you may respond. You tend to shoot first and identify later."
The next test for the strategic pivot will be the May 11 parliamentary elections. The American official who handles Pakistan issues said, "I think the idea has been socialized enough and enjoys enough support across the spectrum that I don't think we'll see a big shift in that particular approach."
It appears that the party that is currently leading in the polls in Pakistan is likely to continue this "regional pivot."
"We want the peace process in Afghanistan to be Afghan-led, Afghan-owned," Tariq Fatemi, a foreign policy advisor to Nawaz Sharif, said in an interview. "We do not want to see any interference from any country in Afghan affairs. Afghanistan is a sovereign and independent country. We respect its sovereignty and we want Afghanistan to be treated as such by all the foreign powers." He added: "Mr. Nawaz Sharif knows very well what happened with the departure of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan, the civil war that ensued, the chaos that ensued. And we are frightened [by] that nightmarish situation."
As for the peace talks that have been launched by the U.S. and Afghan governments with the help of the Pakistani government, Fatemi said, "We think it's a step in the right direction."
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