The Prime Minister’s (PM’s) visit to North Waziristan constitutes a small but significant victory. On Thursday PM Nawaz Sharif visited Miramshah and Mir Ali in North Waziristan (NW), becoming only the second elected head of government to visit the tribal areas. The PM’s visit was visible and high profile. Flanked by the army chief, he was given a tour of militant training facilities, bunkers, communication centres and weapons caches. Reports say Nawaz Sharif’s eyes opened wide at seeing what we are told is a highly developed terrorist infrastructure in NW. He chatted pleasantly with soldiers and officers and commended them for their bravery, spoke highly of the army and its chief, and lauded the military’s courage, sacrifice and progress in the operation. His visit symbolises an important message. Prior to the attack on Karachi airport, and maybe even after, the government’s hesitancy to attack militants in the tribal areas and desire to keep pursuing negotiations was reportedly a point of friction with the armed forces. The army stood by patiently as the government convened an all parties conference last year and then kept silent during negotiations despite continuing terrorist attacks, partly because it was certain that the negotiations were bound to fail. It also wanted political backing and public support for a wider operation, but the attack on Karachi airport effectively ended the argument and shifted public opinion decisively away from talks. In retrospect, the talks, despite carrying a terrible cost in human lives, did hammer home the point to the public and the global community that every option other than war had been exhausted. That lent legitimacy to an operation that might otherwise have become one of several unsung attempts to clear the tribal areas since 2009. On the other hand, the talks provided the terrorists with a platform to voice their twisted views. This arguably was their goal, to shift public opinion in their favour by persuasion if possible, by force if necessary. As many people have repeatedly argued, the terrorists have a narrative they want to publicise, which is attractive to certain disenfranchised or misled elements. It is now the government’s doubled responsibility to use the political and communication tools at its disposal to craft and disseminate a counter-narrative to that of the terrorists. So far the government has been too busy looking fearfully over its shoulder at the military to lend political support and ownership to the operation, preferring to leave the army holding the baby. With the PM’s visit, this appears to be changing, and not a moment too soon. While the military claims that 80 percent of NW has been cleared of terrorists, many variables remain. The bulk of militants reportedly fled before the operation began and have yet to be dealt with. The expected blowback has already begun, with increasing numbers of terrorist attacks across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and elsewhere in the country. The root causes of terrorism, such as absent government authority, limited options for the region’s youth and a lack of legislation to fully incorporate the tribal areas into the country’s legal and administrative framework, have yet to be addressed. Showing people in the tribal areas that Pakistan holds a better future for them than the terrorist vision is not something the army has the resources to tackle nor is it its job. The need for greater civilian involvement has been noted in Swat and other areas the military has cleared of terrorists previously. But perhaps the first person who needed to be convinced of this was the PM. If his visit helps mend fences after a rough few months in civil-military relations, the country as a whole will benefit. The struggle against terrorists must be a national effort, not a purely military one, and it will require across the board cooperation from all the country’s stakeholders to win. *