“Enough with the apologism”

Among the Taliban apologists, there are two major schools of thought – one who considers Taliban’s war against Pakistan state as just and a result of the American presence in neighboring Afghanistan; the other group wants us to believe that though the Taliban are on a wrong path, but any action against them will result in further trouble in the country.
We have seen an increased media presence of those ascribing to the second view. These apologists want us to believe that confronting the Taliban is not in Pakistan’s long terms interest; in other words Pakistani state should surrender without a fight. May I ask these apologists in Pakistan military, media, religio-political parties: Pakistan closed Nato supplies route for last several months, did we see any letup in Taliban’ activities? No, they continued to wreak havoc, killing military and civilian personnel, destroying schools, hospitals, communication infrastructure, mosques and shrines.
Army Chief General Kayani made one thing very clear to these apologists this Aug 14: Pakistan can’t permit another state to function within its boundaries, it’s our war and we need to fight though it means fighting with one’s “own people”. To fight a war, you need to know what is your enemy’ goal – the Taliban’ goal is to destroy the democratic foundation of Pakistan and establish a narrow minded emirate based on tribal values which they have mired with distorted religious beliefs. There are two ways to fight this goal – enter into argument and logically defeat their philosophy, or use force to establish the state’s writ. Time for dialogue, discussions and peace negotiations has surpassed long ago.
It’s time for all the Taliban apologists to stop the direct or indirect support of these bloodthirsty monsters by using obfuscating terms like reconciliation, strategic assets etc. We need to take the Taliban and their sectarian outfits to task before they succeed in destroying and dismantling the state itself. For this I propose some direct actions such as cut off the communication services (mobile/ satellite phones) in tribal areas, control delivery of fuel (gasoline and diesel), and immediately enact legislation to enable fast prosecution of Taliban and their cronies. Regrettably, Pakistan government has some other priorities to address to.
MASOOD KHAN
Saudi Arabia
(II)
Mr Arif Nizami in his recent article “Enough with the apologism” has realistically analyzed the current situation of the country and the dangers looming around it. It is not correct when Taliban apologist says that these deadly attacks are an act of revenge for killing their leadership by US and Pakistani security forces, because Taliban are otherwise attacking the military and its installations at regular intervals. It has rightly been observed by the writer that the perception of some Pakistani leaders that “we are fighting America’s war” is costing us heavily as it is tantamount to ignoring ground realities.
The writer has rightly said that our politicians need to make up their mind about what type of Pakistan they want. Having sacrificed over 50000 people to these murderers, we still remain divided. Gen Kayani in his latest address on 14 August has very clearly stated that those who want to impose their will through barrel of gun and want to change our way of life as envisaged by the founder have to be stopped. It is also true that PPP, ANP and its allies are on the same page with the army for obvious reasons. The rightist people should know that it is PPP and ANP that have been targeted the most by terrorists. PML(N) continues to remain in the wilderness in attempts to garner the rightist votes but it should also take a long, hard look at this defeatists stance.
Let this be stated that we are fighting our war. We must build consensus without losing time because the army cannot fight this war when the nation remains divided and there can be no disagreement with the writer when he says that the time is now to set the narrative in black and white for the future of the country
MUKHTAR AHMED
Karachi