Despite our delusions
Delusions are a dime-a-dozen in Pakistan but one particularly widely held one in Pakistan (by our establishment and many segments of the society) is that things are looking up on the terrorism front. The facts, those deluded say, speak for themselves as there are fewer instances of terrorism (in major metropolises, at least). But is that fact enough to judge whether we are any close to dealing with the menace that has dug its claws deep into the fabric of our society? Making statistical comparisons between the deadly year 2009 and the current one is no yardstick for success. But the 31 casualties in the Parachinar suicide bombing one can reasonably say is an adequate yardstick for failure. While many are safely ensconced in the delusion that the agencies’ engagement with the Taliban is keeping them at bay, these reprehensible attacks continue and fly in the face of this logic.
A faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for this condemnable attack. That the state’s writ is conspicuous by its absence in these war-ravaged areas is clear and troubling. But what is more clear and troubling is that the state might not be any close to re-establishing it either. Our establishment still holds on to notions of engaging with these terrorist without stamping on them its might and making it clear that it is the state that has a monopoly on violence. But what to talk of the state’s writ in war-ravaged ‘backwaters’ of the country when in this state, banned organisations can easily show street muscle in the very capital.
The issues of militancy and terrorism are not going to go away because they have become entrenched in many ways and we will be no more equipped to eradicate this affliction if we do not have a realistic appraisal of what the problem actually is. If we keep thinking that the problem will also up and leave when the US up and leaves, we are wrong. If we think just talking to miscreant elements is enough while they refuse to lay down arms, we are again wrong. Many of our own faulty policies in using these elements as proxies are to blame and we still continue to do that despite the obvious evidence. Moreover, the civil-military divide that plagues our state has not done us any favours in the fight against terrorism and militancy. Neither has our botched, unequal and transactional equation with the US. But right now it seems, these attacks will continue as will our delusions.
