Pakistan, through the force of external subversions and lack of broad-based consultations, faces multiple fronts internally and abroad. Since 1947, avoiding a two-hostile-fronts situation has been one of our primary foreign policy objectives, but that is no longer the case. In Balochistan, the small BLA insurgency has become more active. In FATA, the TTP has adopted the Taliban strategy against the American-backed regimes, attacking military and police personnel with the objective of demoralising. In AJK, the situation could have been better handled. The imposition of Governor’s Rule in KPK is another front, which may remain dormant, as policymakers hope, or may smoulder and ignite. Both Afghanistan and India are watching closely.

Pakistan does not need to open another front – being caught up in the Yemen Labyrinth – from which, over the years, foreign forces were forced to retreat, regretting their losses and involvement.

Yemenis are proud and tenacious fighters, with mountainous terrain. In the West, a maxim of military history is ‘never march on Moscow’. In the Middle East, the advice is: ‘never get involved in Yemen’. Like all sayings, it is not totally true. Yes, the Turks, the British, the Ottoman Turks, and the Egyptians all marched into Yemen and were forced to leave. However, the Saudis won a border war and were ceded Yemeni-claimed territory by the Treaty of Taif in 1934, which rankles still. Rivalry between major regional powers over Yemen has also been a factor. In the 6th century AD, the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum controlled Yemen. However, the Persian Sasanians displaced the Aksumites in Yemen, and they, in turn, left when the Sasanian Empire collapsed in the 7th century.

The differences between North and South, and the role of influential tribes, enhance the difficulty of achieving cohesion and of maintaining........

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