The price of peace

Money wasted on ‘Thoughtless Khan’s rally should've been used for educational, health projects in drone ravaged areas.

Peace is that intangible state of life which, according to political attention-grabbers like ‘Thoughtless Khan’, can be ‘won’ by putting on the kind of high-cost tamasha he and his followers have slapped the government, the army and the whole world directly in the face with, in what was, on the surface, a laudable move. The truth, though, is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and ‘Thoughtless Khan’s’ gesture is — as tends to be the case with all electioneering shows (and this one was staged and managed far better than most) — nothing more than a dangerously shallow farce, which, in the long term, promises to do more harm than good.

There is no doubt that the long-suffering people of Fata want an end to drone attacks and have the human right to live in peace as does everyone else on this increasingly war torn planet. However, peace cannot be achieved overnight and certainly not by encouraging the anti-peace people — be these militants or troublemakers of various descriptions — to meld back into the people they are responsible for terrorising and at the location where, it goes without saying, they will concentrate on multiplying their ranks in readiness for their next eruption.

American drone strikes, whether or not they are sanctioned by the Government of Pakistan, are against all international conventions and must stop before more innocent civilians are killed. But the terrorists/militants/Taliban/troublemakers that drone strikes are aimed at should not be allowed to go free; they must be rounded up and dealt with in no uncertain terms if there is to be even hope of peace. This, realistically, could have and should have been done a long time ago but someone, somewhere, has their own and so far undisclosed reasons for allowing their continued existence.

The fact of the matter is that the exorbitant cost of what was blatant vote hunting — and ‘Thoughtless Khan’ would be lying through his teeth if he claims otherwise — was, from a peace point of view, a complete and utter waste of time, resources and people power which, if peace really had been the ultimate objective, could have been far more wisely used.

Establishing the writ of durable peace is a very lengthy and challenging task to which, unfortunately, there is no shortcut. The money wasted on ‘Thoughtless Khan’s attempt at the political Box Office record should — if peace really lives in his attention-seeking heart — have been used on educational and health projects in the drone and terrorist ravaged border regions where outwitting and out-manoeuvring one’s enemy has always been the name of the deadly game called ‘Tribal Life’, which ‘Thoughtless Khan’ apparently — despite his Pashtun-posturing — neither knows of or understands the rules. Enemies are dealt with being way up the list.

Sweeping terrorists of any brand, and there are many, underneath the electoral platform does not make them evaporate. The mind becomes boggled thinking about the size and shape of the plans the troublemakers will covertly hatch in the dark!

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2012.