In an address to army officers at the General Headquarters (GHQ), Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani said, “Every nation has the right to secure its national interests.”

He also emphasized on the importance of national consensus to adequately address the nation’s security threats, describing it as being of the “utmost importance.” He added that all elements of government need to be on the same page. Kayani said that the securing Pakistan requires a comprehensive appreciation of the country’s threats and a similarly multifaceted solution.

Kayani’s public statements have often been somewhat general and susceptible to multiple interpretations. But it appears as if he is responding to international pressure, particularly from Washington, against talks with militants in Pakistan’s frontier. He seems to also be biding for some time. Kayani is not diminishing the importance of the military component to Pakistan’s counterinsurgency campaign, but he is possibly indicating that any policy, whether it is new or a continuation of the old, requires bringing Pakistan’s influentials and general public on board.

It will be difficult for such a national dialogue to proceed successfully as time simply won’t stand still. The snow has melted and the region is entering a critical spring.
Militants have held off from attacking Pakistan’s large cities since the new government has come into power. They’re trying to see in which direction the government will go. But it is unclear as to whether the government itself is moving along in a singular direction. The political intrigue certainly does not help.

Furthermore, Washington remains committed to hitting al-Qaeda and Haqqani targets in North Waziristan. But it also seems to be targeting Maulvi Nazir, a Pakistani Taliban figure who has acted against al-Qaeda and other foreign militants. If true, Washington could be sending a message to Islamabad: there is no such thing as ‘good Taliban’. (Alternatively, Islamabad could have consented to the attacks, based on a belief that Nazir was renegging on his opposition to foreign militants). The Taliban are also heating things up in the Khyber Agency along major transit route for U.S. and ISAF supplies.

To a large degree, the new coalition government finds itself between the militants and pressure from Washington and other Western capitals. It’s an unenviable position. Decisive movement in either direction will have a serious cost. And vacillation is not an option.