Men, Matters & Memories - Sharif VS TTP

M L Kotru  

Taliban has come to be synonymous with death, bombings, suicide attacks et al. And their reach is enormous, from the rugged mountain ranges of Waziristan and Swat valley to urban centres in Sindh, the Frontier Province, Baluchistan and even Punjab on a few occasions. A year on, Nawaz Sharif has finally realized the importance of restoring a semblance of order in his country.

 

A theory doing the rounds has it that while the Tehreek-e-Taliban of Pakistan (TTP) can afford to talk to the Government and continue to kill simultaneously, the Pakistani State appears to be at odds with itself, the wary Sharif Brothers (Prime Minister Nawaz and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz ) not quite willing to be seen as ingrates. After all the TTP had helped their Muslim League (N) win big in last year's polls. Yes, the Taliban had spared them their unwanted attention during the last poll campaign.

Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaaf was the other beneficiary of the Taliban's "generosity". Hafez Saaed and his Lashkar-e-Toiba, the other terror outfit, was another source of help to the Brothers Sharif. But harsh ground realities and their implications for the country and the Pakistani people have necessitated reining in of the Taliban and their waywardness. Taliban has come to be synonymous with death, bombings, suicide attacks et al. And their reach is enormous, from the rugged mountain ranges of Waziristan and Swat valley to urban centres in Sindh, the Frontier Province, Baluchistan and even Punjab on a few occasions. A year on, Nawaz Sharif has finally realized the importance of restoring a semblance of order in his country. The choice to retrace his steps appears to have been made although it will need deft manoeuvring by the Prime Minister to get off the tiger astride which he rode to power. An exaggeration this may be but it did give a political leg up, as it were to Nawaz.

Imran Khan, whose party, Tehreek-e-Insaaf is in power in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, is  credited with the view that chances of the Army's success against the Pak Taliban are about 40 percent, or defeat, if you will, and a nuclear Pakistan would obviously hate to wish the outside world to believe it needs a help.

That may perhaps have been the reason why Nawaz Sharif and his principal security adviser Sartaj Aziz offered peace talks to the Taliban two months ago. In the event the talks did not last more than a couple of days, the Taliban having in the meanwhile decided to behead over a dozen Pakistani security personnel, a prelude to the talks as it were. The Pakistan Army did retaliate, mounting air strikes in North and South Waziristan agency, killing 30 terrorists, destroying hideouts in Ziarat and Razmwala areas in Shawal valley. These air strikes were preceded by an earlier round in fact inflicting 30 odd deaths and damage on Taliban encampments; that obviously did no way dampen the terrorists or their spirit.

In fact the Taliban spokesmen have indicated they shall not be cowed down by the air strikes just as they had not yielded in the face of the drone attacks by Americans flying in from nearby bases, including those in Afghanistan.

The Sharif Government has for a change chosen to demand unconditional surrender by the Taliban, simultaneously endorsing the surgical air strikes taking place in North Waziristan. The Pak government's uncharacteristic show of muscle has however not yielded the expected results. It did result in the Waziristan area witnessing movement of tribal populations away from the zone of confrontation, an expected consequence but not welcome to the authorities. The government meanwhile put a Federal Minister in place to look after the migrants. The deteriorating situation in the region finally persuaded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to admit that the collapse of the Government-sponsored talks has been a major set-back to the "peace process" causing him to reassert his belief that his Government continues to be committed to the success of the talks. This latest, though, could also be an admission of the failure of his belated, even halfhearted, initiative. Doubts really persist about how serious he and his Government are in containing the challenge of the Taliban.

The Taliban belligerence, the reassertion of its commitment to convert Pakistan into a truly Islamic State ruled by Sharia, gives the lie to the official claim that by talking to the Government panel the Taliban has recognized the Constitution of Pakistan. The terrorist outfit, on the other hand claims, that by officially engaging in discussions with them, the Government has de facto accepted that the socalled ban on the TTP was no more than an eyewash.

The Taliban spokesman Shahiduddin Shahid goes on to add that the Taliban aspire to making its chief, Mullah Fazlullah, the caliph of Pakistan under a suzerain in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar, the Amirul Momineen of a universal Islamic State that would hopefully come into being after the Afghan Taliban's ascension to the "throne" in Kabul.  

One of the Taliban negotiators Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Lal Masjid (Islamabad) fame, has shaken the Government by saying that the Taliban are most interested in enforcing Sharia Law in Pakistan and that the US military presence in Afghanistan is indeed a very small factor in the bigger fight.

Interestingly, while both sides continue to swear by the process of negotiations, terrorist attacks continue unabated. The Taliban, of course, deny their hand in the killings yet they do brag about the in their own omnipotence, as they did last week when they beheaded 13 police commandos in Karachi.

According to Pakistani sources it is shocking to hear protalks politicians promoting the view that the Taliban would not kill after having agreed to negotiate; ironically even they try to sell the line that the killings are the result of the presence of the "foreign hand" which does not want peace in Pakistan.

In a tongue- in-cheek assessment an eminent Pakistani political analyst says : "……… So while peace loving Pakistanis and the Taliban engage in talks, Israel, India, and Hamid Karzai, led by the Americans, were killing innocent Pakistanis including, ironically, Christians. The well-funded  madrassas appear to reject the Taliban recourse to terror but feel empowered by their challenge to the "pagan" Pakistani State, fulminating against the obscenity of culture and nudity of women", the latter reference being to unveiled women seen in malls and bazaars.

Regardless of the stated positions of the two sides, the Government and the Taliban, that peace is attainable, the truth is that it is hardly so. And it will remain so as long as the Sharif Government in Islamabad does not meet the Taliban head-on. This obviously involves a deal between the civilian Government and the Army. Only by getting the Army fully on board will the government be able to counter the Taliban challenge. Sharif may have got a general of his choice to be the Army Chief but he can't be unaware of "chosen" Chiefs having overturned the tables on so-called civilian chieftains. The tidings from Afghanistan meanwhile do not sound particularly promising. This could compound Sharif's problems, or, who knows, given his past involvement in the Afghan turmoil, he may pull a surprise there with the Saudis using him as a cats-paw in their on going problems with the Americans.

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Courtesy: M L Kotru and The Daily Excelsior: 1st March, 2014