Pakistani military, hypothetically speaking, is aligned with Afghan Taliban or with the TTP; it can’t be with both.
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to Ejaz Haider’s “Some more on the Pakistani Taliban” (March 14). He writes something that needs to be understood. I have read all the articles on this subject as well as the comments offered; many readers are ignoring or misunderstanding the writer’s analysis and the questions he raises because of a typical knee-jerk reaction. We cannot blame them for their cynicism because the antics of Pakistan’s military establishment in the past — and perhaps continuing still — in search of that elusive ‘strategic depth’ often justifies their suspicions.
However, the behaviour of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its relationship towards the military establishment and the Afghan Taliban has been strange, or at least ‘intriguing’, from the beginning. The question that the writer raises can also be rephrased in another way: If the military and the Afghan Taliban are strategically aligned against US/Nato forces, as it is commonly argued, between the lines or overtly, by many western, especially US, commentators, then how do we explain all that the TTP has done so far? Either the Pakistani military, hypothetically speaking, is aligned with the Afghan Taliban or with the TTP; it can’t be with both. And if the TTP is not in alliance with the Afghan Taliban then whose strategic needs is it fulfilling? Most people miss this point, but the writer’s analysis, following the death of Khalid Khawaja and Colonel Imam, makes this point abundantly clear.
Moeed Pirzada
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2011.
