Years of mutual mistrust cannot be overcome overnight. The ever-wavering relationship between Islamabad and Washington has been so riddled with inconsistency that official proclamations of being on the same page don’t always fly. But there are now signs that the trust deficit may be narrowing. It was becoming apparent even in the build-up to the recently concluded ‘strategic dialogue’ in the US capital that the ‘do more’ refrain had been shelved in favour of an effort to hear Pakistan’s side of the story. The dialogue itself, about as high-powered a meeting as it could get, also hinted at a growing consensus and steered clear of fresh charges about who may or may not be meeting their commitments. Much of this new conviction on the US side stems from the Pakistan Army’s efforts in the last 10 months or so to put boots on the ground and engage the local Taliban head-on. High-ranking Afghan Taliban have also been rounded up from various Pakistani cities. It seems that the message has been received: unlike the double-game played during the Musharraf era, the Pakistan government and its security forces are serious about fighting militancy, irrespective of the backlash. The public too is committed. No other nation has suffered more at the hands of Taliban-inspired terrorists but there has been no weakening of resolve. If anything, hatred for the Taliban has only increased with every new attack. They may still be feared but they are also generally despised.

Equally importantly, both sides seem to have realised that the war against militancy cannot be won on the battlefield alone. To retain faith in democracy, the Pakistani public must be pulled out of the mess in which it is currently mired. Power outages are enraging domestic consumers and hurting industrial production, which is in turn causing job losses at a time of skyrocketing food inflation. Our agricultural sector, meanwhile, is being choked by India’s illegal construction of dams. Of late Pakistan has given its all to counter the forces of extremism. Its people, even more than the army, now need something substantial in return.