The government has capitulated its authority to the TTP
The critics of the government’s policy regarding the farce of negotiations were at long last proved wrong; the devil’s advocates, right. Chaudhry Nisar declared in Karachi on February 13 after the gruesome attack on a police bus, which killed 13 and injured 50 commandos, that peace talks cannot run parallel to such acts of war. It shows the government’s resolve, determination and clarity of mind it has about securing the state’s sovereignty and protecting its people.
You see, everything will now change; the government will move with vengeance, the syndicate of evil will finally be dealt with accordingly and peace restored in the land of the ‘neopure’– within 90 days, may be.
Pakistan was born with what Baber Ayaz has recently termed a ‘genetic defect’. And the physician who oversaw the labour died himself before cutting the umbilical cord and curing the defect. The case went into the hands of witch-doctors (without proper qualifications to lead) who prescribed Objectives Resolution, the likes of which was earlier tried in Europe with devastating effects in Dark Ages. The nascent state was treated with this outdated medicine for more than 66 years and the obtaining situation is for everyone to see – but not necessarily comprehend.
There is an enemy who has declared war on everyone that doesn’t look, live or think like him. According to him everyone is punishable to death by cutting throat who violates his prescribed length of beard, hair in the groin area and shalwar. But the identical twin on this side still insists that he is our own; he is just misled and misunderstood. Let’s give him a chance to come back to us. Don’t mind his shenanigans. And if he still doesn’t, then let’s go to him but peacefully and without even a verbal protest because that could irritate him. That, in turn, can provoke the army. And this can result in more bloodshed on their side, since we haven’t stopped dying during the past 12 years anyways.
Look at the circus of peace talks that is going on amid heightened extremists’ propaganda, veiled and open threats of death and destruction, 500 female suicide bombers and actual mayhem on the streets, cinemas, mosques and graveyard and police and armed forces’ barracks and buses. But no one is allowed to talk against Taliban or call them even terrorists or murderers. Yes, that can derail the peace process.
Whether the peace process brings some tangible results for the state and the nation is yet to be seen. But what it has already done is something like this:
1) It has provided a golden opportunity to Taliban and their cohorts to have maximum time on the media to propagate their inane ideology against the state in the garb of implementation of Sharia.
2) People have started accepting things that remained controversial for decades, like inclusion of Objectives Resolution in the constitution as an Operative Part or mixing of religion and the affairs of the state, etc.
3) Media has swung to the terrorists’ side because of fear, the rating game and because of most of the anchorpersons that don’t have either the brains or courage to ask the right questions from the Maulvis which they invite to their talk shows.
4) The debate about politics, foreign policy, constitution and the future of the state has shrunk to a dialogue of the deaf among different shades of the Right and among religious clerics.
5) By nominating their representatives from amongst the political parties, Taliban have succeeded in carving out a soft corner among the leadership and supporters of those parties, further sharpening the divide and confusion in the public opinion.
6) Excluding the well-known anti-Taliban political parties, the members and parliamentarians of all the remaining parties and government ministers are busy advocating terrorists’ ideology and their causes in their attempt to prove that the talks option is the only correct available option.
7) The nation is being demoralised by the more simpletons amongst the political leaders and the Taliban-supporting clergy by telling that the state has almost no capacity to confront the terrorists head on.
8) Taliban have got the opportunity to launch attacks in the meanwhile and accept responsibility of some of these which they consider beneficial, to show to the people and the state that they are the ones who enjoy a position of strength and that it is the state which is on the run.
The situation has become so nonsensical and the level of debate has gone so absurd that news have started leaking out about some of the government committee’s members contemplating opting out of the so-called peace process. But the supporters and advocates of Taliban, instead of feeling embarrassed, are becoming more emboldened. Take Maulana Samiul Haq, for example, who said on Friday that Taliban have accepted that some of the ‘acts’ were carried out by them in self-defence (like attack in Karachi). But he again accused the ‘anti-Pakistan elements’ of being bent upon derailing the peace process. And your guess is better than mine to identify who this anti-Pakistan element can be because PML-N Senator Mushahidullah and PTI’s Imran Khan have already declared Taliban as pro-Pakistan and pro-constitution.
But the war is not confined just to this war of words and attacks on civil and military installations and personnel. The series of physical and psychological conquests of Taliban is continuing unabatedly. Cinemas in KP have shut down and people related to entertainment industry there have stopped work and have refused to invest anymore in the business. This is the actual state of their conquering and dictating the society.
What appears from the developments so far is that the Punjab-based ruling party and elite have made up their mind to avoid spilling over of the menace to Punjab by surrendering tribal areas and some parts of the KP to militants. They may have the power to do so, yet the people of KP will not accept such an eventuality. But even if they accept it for the time being under duress, Pakistan will be lost forever. It won’t be revived at any future date.
But in order to think of one’s own self and save one’s own individual skin it is advisable to join the bandwagon of the Taliban and the mullah and drink from the cup of destruction to be part of the mainstream. Welcome to theocracy, welcome to the land of the neopure, called the Emirate of al-Bakistan.
