Leadership. or lack of it?

It’s about dialogue and engagement, but above all leadership

Print journalists are somewhat lost during prolonged Eid holidays owing to resultant shut down of newspapers. Despite the festivities they feel frustrated at not being able to perform their duties. Nonetheless 24/7 news cycle stops for nothing. Life goes on.

As anticipated, this was a bloody Eid. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa law minister Israrullah Gandapur was killed in a deadly suicide attack on his house. The PTI government in the province naturally mourned the death of its senior member.

A special cabinet meeting finally approved the establishment of an anti-terrorism task force, but at the same time urged the federal government to speed up the peace process as KP was bearing the brunt of terrorism. Read: talk to the perpetrators of the attack as soon as possible.

In another development on Eid important for Pakistan was the US president averting a global economic crisis when the world’s largest economy was just two hours away from exhausting its capacity to pay its bills. In the process Obama mauled his ultra conservative opponents in the Republican Party.

In Geneva the US and Iran had first round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear program. The ostensible thaw in relations between the two countries at loggerheads since the 1989 hostage crisis is a result of president Obama making a last minute telephone call to his newly elected Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani. when he was about to leave New York after addressing the UN General Assembly.

The above developments are apparently unconnected. However there is a common strand. It is about dialogue and engagement, but above all leadership.

The KP chief minister is imploring the federal government to initiate a dialogue with the Pakistani Taliban. But he is loath to categorically condemn those who have exterminated a number of PTI leaders since it assumed power in KP four months ago.

The federal government is keen to initiate talks with the Taliban as well, but is clueless as yet about whom to talk to and on what agenda.

The TTP on the other hand is quite clear about its strategy. A number of times it has reiterated its negotiating position that it wants a system based on its own narrow interpretation of sharia. Adherence to the Pakistani constitution has no place under the proposed dispensation.

The political elite sticking to its wishy-washy stance on the issue is somewhat weak-kneed and mushy in stating its terms. Meanwhile the Taliban sensing a somewhat confused stance of the state bordering on capitulation have stepped up their campaign of mayhem and violence.

Next week Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is meeting the US president in Washington. Apart from discussing important bilateral issues he should seek Obama’s advice on the art of dialogue practiced so adeptly by him.

Refusing to budge on his healthcare (popularly known as Obamacare) programme Obama trounced his opponents belonging to the ultraconservative the so-called Tea Party movement. The 16-day government shutdown cost the US economy $24 billion and shaved off 0.6% of its GDP.

Thanks to the brinkmanship the Republican Party is facing a historical low in its ratings. This has virtually sealed its fate in the next congressional elections. Obama by his adroitness has proved the mettle of his leadership.

His opponents had mistakenly assumed that like in the past he would wilt under the threat of a government shutdown. However the Democrat president stood his ground till the end. Hats off to his leadership qualities.

Even Iran has decided to talk to the ‘Great Satan.’ Compared to his predecessor, President Rouhani is seen as a moderate in the west. However his decision to engage cannot be entirely his own. Veto power still lies with the Supreme Leader Ali Kahmenei.

It is obvious that Tehran reeling under the crippling US sanctions has changed its strategy. It wants easing of the economic pain, which has become almost unbearable for its people.

But this does not mean that the Iranians, quite adroit at the art of diplomacy, are simply going to capitulate. The Islamic Republic in return for a deal on its nuclear programme would insist that the west rescind its sanctions against Tehran.

Despite being a theocracy the Iranian leadership can be remarkably pragmatic. After all it was leader of the Iranian revolution Ayatollah Khomeini who after a prolonged eight year war with Iraq announced a unilateral ceasefire in July 1988, declaring that his decision was more deadly than drinking from a poisoned chalice. But it was in the national interest.

Admittedly dealing with the Taliban is somewhat thornier. Is it, or we have made it so? We cannot decide whether to talk to them or confront them with the full might of the state and then talk from a position of strength.

Pragmatism demands that we should have a dialogue with the TTP. But unless they feel the heat on the battlefield, why should they talk to the Pakistani state on its terms?

Gen Kayani has declared more unequivocally than the political leadership that dialogue (with the Taliban) has to be strictly within the confines of the constitution. However in practical terms obvious reluctance to confront the enemy on all fronts by the military has made the task of dialogue virtually impossible.

The PML-N perhaps want to give the Taliban enough rope before it finally decides on a clampdown on them Sharif can forcefully argue with president Obama that drone attacks should stop forthwith. But Washington is unlikely to budge unless Pakistan is willing to act against the militants holed up in the tribal areas and all over Pakistan.

The KP government despite bearing the brunt of the terrorists is unwilling to even name them. In coalition with the Jamaat e Islami in the province, perhaps its hands are tied.

Someone very succinctly tweeted after the Eid incident that Imran Khan should lead a long march against terrorism to North Waziristan, like he did against the US drone attacks. The tweeter correctly pointed out that 3,000 persons have died as a result of drone attacks whereas 40,000 have perished at the hands of the terrorists. But obviously it is not going to happen.

Arif Nizami is Editor, Pakistan Today.