But on what terms?
The TTP had declared the previous government non-serious about peace talks. During the elections, it had launched deadly attacks on the candidates and the meetings and rallies of the PPP, the ANP and the MQM – targeting the trio for being secular. This reign of selective, targeted terror didn’t allow the three to campaign freely and hold public meetings and rallies. Prior to this the PML-N, the JI and the JUI-F were nominated by the TTP as guarantors of a negotiated peace with the government. Subsequently, their candidates were allowed to conduct their polling campaigns undisturbed. A similar treatment was reserved for the PTI as well.
It was not unnatural to expect that if the three ‘guarantors’ and the PTI, which opposes the use of force against the militants, came to power there would be a lull in the terrorist activities. What one sees happening only days before the takeover by the new administration however belies the expectations. On Friday when the PTI, the JI and the QWP agreed to jointly rule KP, there were two deadly terrorist attacks in the province killing seventeen civilians and two soldiers. Those nominated guarantors are presumably being warned that unless they yield to the unacceptable demands of the terrorists prior to the talks, attacks are likely to continue. This should make the PML-N, the JI, the JUI-F and the PTI to have a rethink over their stand. The TTP makes no secret of its demands. As late as last month, the TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud rejected in unequivocal terms the democratic system as an ideology of the ‘infidels’. He maintained that his outfit would accept nothing less than an implementation of the Shariah “which can only be enforced through waging Jihad”. And, that the TTP’s long term agenda was to “establish Caliphate on the surface of earth.”
A dedicated group of terrorists can play havoc if the rest of the society is divided but it cannot carry out its deadly agenda if a determined government supported by the army decides to eradicate the menace. The Pakistani Taliban operating from remote tribal areas are trying to turn the wheel of history backward. They can destroy schools and dispensaries and live in a world of their own. But the enthusiasm displayed by the men and women in tribal areas in elections and the way they are demanding facilities like schools, hospitals and asphalt roads indicates an awakening that would soon make the Taliban look out of sync even in the FATA. Nawaz Sharif is welcome to hold talks with the militants after being sworn in. He has however to realize that the Quaid’s vision of Pakistan as a modern, pluralistic Islamic democracy cannot be bartered for peace. The militants have to put down arms, accept the constitution and respect the law of the land. Anything short of that should not be acceptable. They have also to be told that Pakistan being a responsible state cannot allow anyone to launch attacks from its soil on any other country. If they accept it, fine. If not, let them face the might of the state.
