Uneasy lies the head that wears a Mazari-hat

• Recognising Pashtuns as our own

The capital has been roaring for some time now. Droves of people have laid besiege and plagued the state’s institution for one political gain or the other. However, what’s been motivating the Mazari-hat crowd in Islamabad and now in Peshawar is another story altogether.

To call this civilised indigenous movement as a Mazari-hat crowd would be belittling it. This has by far been the most organised, pro-state movement in Pakistan’s history. Primarily because nothing violent has happened up until now. The group of Pashtuns, when protesting in the capital, didn’t lay siege to it. They were protesting for their rights, and in a short span of time have managed to foster much social media support, given how the conventional media has decided to remain oblivious to it.

The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement is a movement for the protection of rights of the Pashtun people. Ever since the government of Pakistan decided to become a ‘frontline state’ against the Global War on Terrorism, these are the people who cleared the way for authorities to take charge, for drones to breach the sanctity of their homes and for us to lead better lives. The persistent commitment of our soldiers can’t be ignored in this either. So when Manzoor Pashteen, the leader behind the PTM, says that the military has done much but needs to do even more, I don’t criticise it as a statement against the military. Au contraire, they believe in the institution and want more to be done. Their organised movement has led to the arrest and trial of Malir Senior Superintendent (SSP) Rao Anwar, responsible for the extrajudicial killing of a 27 year old Pashtun, Naqeebullah Mehsud.

Manzoor Pashteen has given the movement an indigenous flavour; his Mazari-hat is a symbol of Pashtun identity, and the Pashtun youth are now identifying with the hat in a new way – it’s been labelled as the Pashteen hat.

Constitutional rights

The use of symbols and the local language highlights the local nature of this movement. But then there are agendas, and these run deep. The PTM has categorised their concerns in four broad categories; i) Justice to be served in Naqeebullah’s case, ii) Ending discrimination against tribal people, iii) Recovery of missing persons, and iv) Removal of land mines from tribal areas. Now, anyone who would read into these demands would label these as the provision of basic human rights, but not in Pakistan.

The state’s justice system has failed the likes of Mashal, the security apparatus has been rendered useless in the face of massacres at APS Peshawar and Bacha Khan University

The first demand, case of Rao Anwar, is being carried out as under the due process of law, for which the PTM is to be applauded.

While attending a conference in Muzzafarabad in 2017, I distinctly remember the bus carrying the KP’s Provincial Assembly (PYA) being extremely late, on account of ‘discriminatory security checking’ at different intervals along the route from the capital, Islamabad to the capital of Azad Kashmir, Muzzafarabad. Up until then we’d only heard of discriminatory behaviour against the Pashtuns, but it was the first time we’d experienced an entire youth assembly, carrying proper identification, go through this. It comes as no surprise that those who want to work and contribute to the state want the state to respect them too.

For recovery of missing persons, Pashteen, in one of his eloquent speeches that have surfaced on social media, hasn’t out rightly asked for returning the missing persons but for their right to trial in court. Pakhtun women have come forward for the first time, reclaiming their sons, their men from the state — from a state that can’t answer these questions. The removal of land mines from tribal areas is a demand that has long been coming. Under the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights UNHDR, it is pertinent for the government to ensure the removal of land mines, as soon as the conflict is over. While it can be said that the conflict is far from over, the rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the merger of FATA into KP requires the area to be at least safe for settlement.

How is it that the right to justice, removal of ethnic profiling, and the right to safety are being described as foreign concepts? Perhaps they are foreign to us as a nation. Perhaps we’re so accustomed to seeing political lobbying for everything that the thought of extending citizen rights baffles our minds. The Pashtuns have firmly withstood along the armed forces and the state apparatus for every actionable and unaccounted for activities as a part of the Global War on Terrorism, what they want now is merely a reassurance from the state that their rights be given. It is about time!

Linking their Mazari-hats to having origins in Afghanistan, beyond cultural linkages, is misleading and an instigator for not rendering any citizenship to our own people. These are our Pashtuns, and their demands for the provision of their basic rights are as relevant as any other violent-provoking mafia in this country. Why is it that we always entertain those groups where we fear a backlash in the form of religious-based militancy, but ignore those where our chances of creating a favourable nation-building consensus is higher?

This group of men, women and children aren’t rebels, no matter how strongly and successively we’ve tried to build a narrative around it. Their reliance on non-violent means in asking the state for their rights is an indicator that they believe in the state and its policies. While slogans like “Ye jo dahshatgardi hai, isske peeche wardi hai” paints a different picture, it should be noted that the popular theme of the movement isn’t built around this. We’ve heard far worse anti-state slogans and seen the disintegration of more ‘civilised protests’, but we’ve always lent an ear. Brushing off Pashteen as a ‘young spirited man’ from one wing to another, isn’t the solution.

The juggernaut of civil-military overstepping has proceeded to do nothing for the KP-FATA merger till date. The state’s justice system has failed the likes of Mashal, the security apparatus has been rendered useless in the face of massacres at APS Peshawar and Bacha Khan University. The ball now lies with Pakistan, as one nation, to address the grievances of these Pashtuns. Linking this to political lobbying for a possible Senate coalition between PPP and PTI won’t do anyone any good. Perhaps the time for this movement, a few months before elections is ideal. The state institutions should know whether or not the country is ready for landing in deeper waters of democratic transition.

We’re at a time when we can proceed to become a single nation. It’s about time we recognise these Pashtuns as our own.