Making sense of suo motu (II)

ISLAMABAD: We reject talks with the Taliban on the premise that we tried this in Malakand and it failed. However, for the past 10 years we have tried military operations and they have not delivered any good result. Doesn’t this tell us that we need to revisit our war on terror policies?

I think a national dialogue on this should be our foremost national priority. If the Americans can have a dialogue with the Taliban, and if our government can have a dialogue with India, why should we reject a dialogue with the Taliban? If we do, our enemies will continue to manipulate certain groups among militants for their own purposes and Pakistan will continue to suffer. We have to understand that the roots of militancy are ideological, and ideologies are not fought with bombs and cannons. An ideology can only be defeated by one that is superior.

For that we need a peaceful environment in order to be able to reach out to the hearts and minds of the misguided militant youth. I think Imran Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami and Hamid Gul could have a role in this.

Asif Lucman Qazi

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2011.