The prime minister’s anticlimactic announcement on the floor of the National Assembly of holding a fresh dialogue of peace with the Pakistani Taliban reflects an abdication of his government’s constitutional obligation to provide effective security of life and property to the citizens of Pakistan, who continue to be targeted by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) with impunity.
Without any limitation except in accordance with the due process of law, the constitution of Pakistan enshrines the security of life and property of the citizens as enforceable fundamental rights in Articles 9 and 24. Moreover, the legal maxim that the safety of the people is the supreme law and the fundamental rule for government, first propounded by Cicero during the last years of the Roman Republic and later endorsed by Locke and Hobbes, has long been recognized as the basis of all legitimate governmental action in a constitutional democracy.
Significantly thus, inherent in the democratic mandate granted to the government last May by the people of Pakistan is a solemn and non-negotiable guarantee to effectively secure their life and property.
Given this essential scheme of constitutional governance, the government’s decision to initiate and subsequently persist with peace talks with the TTP through a non-representative four-member committee can cut constitutional muster only if it has compelling grounds to do so to protect the life and property of the citizens without violating their explicit constitutional protections. Such grounds must be necessary or crucial as opposed to merely preferred. They must be justifiable independently of any political considerations.
The government is constitutionally compelled to resort to force against a banned private militia whose only currency is terror and whose goal remains the overrunning of the constitution and the institutions of the state to impose its regressive way of life. Moreover, the government lacks the constitutional basis to pursue another round of peace talks with the TTP as all previous such attempts have emboldened it to press for more demands and allowed it to regroup and hit back with greater vengeance.
[quote]The Taliban have made their presence felt literally at the gates of the GHQ in Rawalpindi[/quote]
In the last six months alone, notwithstanding the government’s conciliatory mode during this period, the TTP has acted in brazen defiance and claimed responsibility for assassinating political figures, for murdering several security personnel including a Major-General of the Army and a high-profile SSP of the Police, for blowing up numerous Imambargahs and a historic church, for flaring up sectarian strife across the country, and for wresting free its fellow militants from state prisons. It has intensified its campaign against eradication of polio in the country and thwarted efforts to improve female literacy. It has also made its presence felt literally at the gates of the GHQ in Rawalpindi.
To date, the TTP has never even remotely offered to renounce violence to promote its agenda. The current peace talks have clearly failed to reduce its proclivity for violence. Its campaign of terror continues unabated in Karachi and Peshawar despite the commencement of dialogue, and it has now claimed responsibility for killing 23 FC soldiers.
Unless the TTP credibly renounces its anarchic ambitions and violent means, and proclaims unconditional loyalty to the state and its constitutional and legal order, peace dialogue with it remains a non-starter and force remains the only legitimate and rational choice available to the government. It must reestablish the writ of the state and protect the constitutional rights of the citizens by reclaiming the state’s monopoly over the use of force within its territory.
The government must not shy away from the constitutional compulsion in the smokescreen of peace talks, which have absolutely no reasonable basis to lead to enhanced security of the life and property of the people of Pakistan.
The writer is a lawyer. The views presented in the article are not those of his firm. He can be reached at as2ez@virginia.edu
Without any limitation except in accordance with the due process of law, the constitution of Pakistan enshrines the security of life and property of the citizens as enforceable fundamental rights in Articles 9 and 24. Moreover, the legal maxim that the safety of the people is the supreme law and the fundamental rule for government, first propounded by Cicero during the last years of the Roman Republic and later endorsed by Locke and Hobbes, has long been recognized as the basis of all legitimate governmental action in a constitutional democracy.
Significantly thus, inherent in the democratic mandate granted to the government last May by the people of Pakistan is a solemn and non-negotiable guarantee to effectively secure their life and property.
Given this essential scheme of constitutional governance, the government’s decision to initiate and subsequently persist with peace talks with the TTP through a non-representative four-member committee can cut constitutional muster only if it has compelling grounds to do so to protect the life and property of the citizens without violating their explicit constitutional protections. Such grounds must be necessary or crucial as opposed to merely preferred. They must be justifiable independently of any political considerations.
The government is constitutionally compelled to resort to force against a banned private militia whose only currency is terror and whose goal remains the overrunning of the constitution and the institutions of the state to impose its regressive way of life. Moreover, the government lacks the constitutional basis to pursue another round of peace talks with the TTP as all previous such attempts have emboldened it to press for more demands and allowed it to regroup and hit back with greater vengeance.
[quote]The Taliban have made their presence felt literally at the gates of the GHQ in Rawalpindi[/quote]
In the last six months alone, notwithstanding the government’s conciliatory mode during this period, the TTP has acted in brazen defiance and claimed responsibility for assassinating political figures, for murdering several security personnel including a Major-General of the Army and a high-profile SSP of the Police, for blowing up numerous Imambargahs and a historic church, for flaring up sectarian strife across the country, and for wresting free its fellow militants from state prisons. It has intensified its campaign against eradication of polio in the country and thwarted efforts to improve female literacy. It has also made its presence felt literally at the gates of the GHQ in Rawalpindi.
To date, the TTP has never even remotely offered to renounce violence to promote its agenda. The current peace talks have clearly failed to reduce its proclivity for violence. Its campaign of terror continues unabated in Karachi and Peshawar despite the commencement of dialogue, and it has now claimed responsibility for killing 23 FC soldiers.
Unless the TTP credibly renounces its anarchic ambitions and violent means, and proclaims unconditional loyalty to the state and its constitutional and legal order, peace dialogue with it remains a non-starter and force remains the only legitimate and rational choice available to the government. It must reestablish the writ of the state and protect the constitutional rights of the citizens by reclaiming the state’s monopoly over the use of force within its territory.
The government must not shy away from the constitutional compulsion in the smokescreen of peace talks, which have absolutely no reasonable basis to lead to enhanced security of the life and property of the people of Pakistan.
The writer is a lawyer. The views presented in the article are not those of his firm. He can be reached at as2ez@virginia.edu