As expected, the two committees set up by the government and the Taliban respectively to kick-start the peace-dialogue have run into heavy weather. There are critics aplenty on both sides.
The criticism of the anti-Taliban lobby against the government is centred on two dimensions of the process. In the first argument, there is no need to talk to the Taliban who are being true to form and wasting time with delaying tactics and impossible demands to improve and leverage their situation on the ground in anticipation of a military operation against them sooner or later. The TTP has proven them right by continuing with its bomb attacks on civilian targets, as for example the bomb in Qissa Khani Bazaar in Peshawar last Tuesday in the midst of announcing a committee to talk on their behalf.
In the second argument, the government’s choice of nominees – all of whom are “soft” on the Taliban – has led to a comical drama. They don’t represent anyone except themselves. According to critics, instead of choosing unelected mullah-types to pacify the TPP, the PM should have appointed a six member parliamentary committee led by Ch Nisar Ali Khan and including Khurshid Shah, Imran Khan, Farooq Sattar, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Asfandyar Wali and Mahmood Khan Achakzai, representing all major parties and provinces. Such a committee would have shown seriousness of purpose and publicly asked the TTP to send a formal delegation to Islamabad for talks. Then, if the TTP had balked, it would have been exposed, and if it hadn’t, then the All-Parties Committee would have been intimated first hand of the outrageous nature of their demands, and sanctioned the use of force to erode and degrade them before starting talks. This would have zipped up the likes of Maulana Samiulhaq and Co. As it is, the government’s committee is composed of nobodies who have only managed to trigger a grand tamasha of mullahs of all shades who are jostling for prime time on TV. A variant of this critique would have sat Imran Khan (PTI) and Munawar Hassan (JI) at negotiating with the TTP within a time frame so that when their initiatives fail to bring the TTP to its senses, then these two big pro-talk leaders would have had no option but to fall in line with the proponents of action not words.
The TTP’s critics are no less substantive. The five-member TTP committee is already in a shambles even before the ink on the TTP statement has dried. Two TTP “sympathisers”, Imran Khan and a Mufti from the JUI, have declined to accept the dubious honour; one, Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Red Mosque, has distanced himself from the talks by putting forward his own pre-condition (establishment of Shariah) while another, Maulana SamiulHaq, wants assurances that the military won’t deliberately sabotage the talks. The TTP also says it has set up its own TTP committee to monitor the progress of the first committee, without explaining the need for two committees, one upfront and one secret!
Clearly, the way both sides have conducted the proceedings suggests that neither is terribly serious of exploring the talks option and both are trying to gain time and space for political leveraging: the TTP to dig in and plan resistance to any military attack on their positions, and the government to take the Doubting Thomases along at the nth minute before giving a green light to the military to do the needful. A report in the Washington Post claims that the Pakistan government has asked the US not to launch drone strikes until the talks process has been exhausted and outlived its utility so that no one can say that the US has sabotaged the talks again and the TTP cannot insist on putting an end to drone strikes on the top of its talks-agenda. That is why there has been no drone strike since December and the current period is the longest without a drone strike since a six-week lull in 2011.
Therefore an impartial case can be made out for a dramatic last-ditch effort by the prime minister to cobble a maximum consensus for military action by exhausting the talks-option. He should have acted months earlier. But an extra month of dallying hardly makes any difference now. However, the choice of committee members has cast doubt’s about the government’s sincerity.
Equally, the TTP have erred in their choice of five “outsiders” and thereby shown their insincerity in opting for serious talks. No amount of naming fresh names will obscure this cold reality. Indeed, a demand by the TTP to release key TTP leaders held by the military suggests that the whole talk-talk process is on the verge of collapse, albeit after some carefully contrived but necessary convulsions.
If there was ever any doubt in some peoples’ minds that the time is nigh for meeting force with force, the tamasha of the two committees has buried it. RIP!
If there was ever any doubt in some peoples’ minds that the time is nigh for meeting force with force, the tamasha of the two committees has buried it. RIP!
Well said mr Sethi. I have never believed that talking to those who kill innocent people can bring any results. The only result will be to make the country like Taliban led Afghanistan a decade ago. I do not want to live in such a society. In my view it is not only Taliban which are a problem but too many who do not kill but have sympathies with them. That is not an easy task to convince them, as they will not be sittiing in any discusion.
Let us hope that the talks fail. sure it will. What will be the next move from the PM. Will he withdraw and cry. Will he resign and take rest. Or , will he take a machine gun in his hand and go mad . No, he will not do any such things. He is a seasoned politician. He was a guest for a decade at Saudi Arabia ( shamelessly ). what will he do ? what else ?
He will simply form another committee . No ruler of Pakistan including honorable Jinnah had ever solved any problem . Ayub shook the foundation by his stupid Basic Democracy. His able lieutenant drunkard Yahaya killed the Bengalis, created a new Nation proving Moulana Azad was one hundred percent right and Jinnah was wrong two hundred percent. The greatest General Zia though a teetotaler, was drunk in religion and sunk the Nation for ever. God in his kindness crushed him The country instead of negotiating with arch enemy is pleading, and begging for mercy with bearded monsters who will kill every one other than their wives, mother and children. That is their religion. Bhutto for his part, confused Ayub, refused to accept the winner, and conspired with Tikka, yahya to become President of a Nation at the cost of unified dream land of Jinnah. God in his mercy executed him. The greatest commando who came after dispatching foolish PM to SA for rest and recuperation, plunged the country further into deep divide. His military training was not adequate to protect the life of a promising sane daughter of the Nation. Now he is inventing heart problems . Zardari had five years of rest without even finding the cause of his beloved wife’s death. He was so happy and lost with the presidential luxuries, he did not have any time to solve even one single problem other than eliminating Mosquitoes from his lavish bedroom. can some one tell me whether he paid that donation promised at AZMIR darga.
In between Be Nazir came and went. she did not have sufficient scope to damage any further.
what will Taliban do when talk fails. They will be very happy. There will be more bombings, schools will be demolished. other than few cities, rest of the places will come under their control.
what india, israel, USA will do. They will just laugh, sharpen their abilities, resources, economy and wait for sanity to surface one day or the other.
More Natella Satyas will become the CEO of Micro soft. More Malals will exit to countries where education and lipsticks will be permitted.
I find comments by Indians as nothing more than expressing hate and one sided negative narratives. This is the case with most of them. They have something in common with Americans on this rerspect. Americans only express negative views about any country which is anti USA.
But, although some points are off the mark and not quite true, what most of what W. Commanmder says is also true and that hurts.
Intention is not to hurt. Comments are based on consistent reading of Pakistani writers and Newspapers over a period of ten years. If they are wrong, i am also wrong . Facts no doubt will be bitter. Better that way. Generation have been fed with false news. Views of the modern Generation is cluttered with poisonous religious extremism which is dangerous for the world. Spilling of blood on daily basis by fanatics hurt your neighbors too. It is not just what happens in a distant neighbor. But to those who speak same language, share same culture, same music and same heritage. It hurts all.
We did not tinker the sacred constitution. we kept the military where it should be. Judges were not sacked frequently and the court was not invaded. But it is not always honky dory . politicians have misbehaved in inciting communities. But ninety five percent of people do not support and refused to encourage political and religious goonadaism. Thanks to secular education. Thanks to the spirit of competition in coming up. Thirteen international commercial organizations have trusted indians as their CEOs. NASA is staffed with indian scientists . But we are not that fast because of mass corruption in the last ten years of congress rule. slow but steady. we are weeding them out.
comparison is not to hurt. but to remind what an opportunity knocked at our doors, drifted away for one and was a gift for the other. what made it possible. The ruled and the rulers. people .
let us stop dwelling on past glory. let the PM rule with an iron hand. economic development is as important as Malals returning back
Excellent editorial Mr. Sethi. I fully endorse your views. I have been writing extensively on these issues., It is infact more than Tamasha. It is a farce, and no point in discussing these committees. These are not representative and constitutional committees. They have no authority or mandate of the 180 million people of Pakistan. They can not establish peace by talking with these rogues, miscreants, terrorists , and killer of humanity.
There demands can not be fulfilled by the govenment. Ot os a lost cause from the begining. We have nothing cpmmon with them.
This talks are sheer waste of time. They will never agree on any thing. These talks are doomed to fail.Lets Hurry up with the real task at hand. Let the military operation begin.
Great! Indeed an insightful in such a complex situation
But wo punctures wala kiya ma’amla hai sir ji??