Wheels within wheels

Let me castigate those who conflate tribal traditions with what Taliban do, it's designed to confuse lay Pakistanis.

“We are ready to cease fire with Pakistan as long as they meet our demands, that an Islamic system should be put into place, they should fix their foreign policy and stop agreeing to American’s demands,” Ihsan said. He went on to say that a war of ‘revenge’ against India be launched, too. I ask you!

Taken verbatim from this newspaper of December 27, 2012; ‘Ihsan’ is Ihsanullah Ihsan, the spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the terrorist group that targets at will Pakistani assets such as military installations and soldiers; the police; paramilitaries; health workers and teachers, in a show of great gallantry specially women teachers; and this poor country’s hapless people, little children not excluded.

Why, just yesterday it was reported that another seven soldiers were kidnapped off a bus at Jand in District Attock, as they were proceeding to their duty stations in and around Kohat. What fate awaits these unfortunates only the Almighty knows but judging from the terrorists’ chivalrous record, they will probably (may God prevent it) be shot in the back execution style and then have their heads lopped off.

A day earlier, seven women health workers and teachers, one of them travelling with her five-year-old child who miraculously survived but will now grow up an orphan, were mercilessly cut down at the Peshawar motorway’s Swabi exit, the pain of their family members best demonstrated by a newspaper photograph of a weeping old man mourning the death of his daughter. I don’t know about you, reader, but that picture made me cry out in anguish.

A day earlier, 21 Levies/Khasadars were taken from their post, 19 of whom were executed and two let go, one of them so seriously wounded that he too has met his Maker; and 20 Shia zaireen were killed when their bus was bombed in Mastung. We must note with alarm, of course, that in not one case of kidnapping/killing was any rescue mission launched to attempt to free the captives; not one raid conducted on the lairs of the murderers to apprehend them.

They have nothing to do with the mores of a kind and caring society, these murdering beasts; nothing to do with the culture of Pakistan and its tribal areas, for they are directed by foreign takfiris, many of them foot soldiers leading the fight against this country. Indeed, look at the reference to ‘Pakistan’ by Mr Ihsan, as if he represents a State inimical to this country: “We are ready to cease fire with Pakistan”, says he.

Let me here and now castigate those who conflate tribal traditions with what these savages do; as if to say that their utter cruelty and beastliness is rooted in tribal society. One sees through this attempt: it is designed to confuse the lay Pakistani into accepting these murderers as just so many other ‘tribals’ who have to be dealt with through talks. Nothing could be further from the truth, for I have gone to school and college with ‘tribals’; and have served in the army with them for many, many years.

They were/are as good and kind a people as any I have known; as well read and well travelled and worldly. This lie is perpetuated by the security establishment which even today looks on some of the terrorists as assets, as well as by political parties which think they can translate mollycoddling the terrorists into votes. They should smell the cordite before it is too late.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch we are being told that the Pakistan Army is changing its perception of who the enemy really is: home-grown terrorists in the growing of which it itself had a huge hand, Allah be praised, or a foreign country, let us not be afraid to name it: India. The penny has dropped, has it?

Whilst I cannot resist screaming out to our Rommels and Guderians to recall how many times I have beseeched them to see the light and recognise our own monsters as the biggest enemies ever, let me say that I am hugely relieved that the engines of the supertanker (aka the Deep State) ploughing towards sure disaster in uncharted seas are finally in reverse thrust.

It is to be seen, however, if the tanker can be stopped in time before it runs aground, for if you leave it too late ... For, if the security establishment even now does not move against the terrorists, it certainly WILL be too late. Even though he wrote it before the news of the army’s so-called ‘change of heart’, I am afraid I have to agree with my friend Dr Mohammad Taqi when he says in his piece in the Daily Times that the brass will even now drag its feet on action in North Waziristan. For, friends, there are wheels within wheels.

So then, even though the Deep State driven ‘Ghairat Brigades’ jumped down their throats at the time, President Asif Ali Zardari was right when he said India was not the principal enemy; and Mr Nawaz Sharif was right when he said the border was just a line separating a people who were quite like  each other and that both countries should stop competing in arming themselves and start opening up to each other through trade to start with.

Now that the Pakistan Army is changing tack, could one ask the Deep State to stop blocking the granting of MFN status to India immediately if not sooner and to rein in its Difa-e-Pakistan Council proxies who dance to its tune?

On another note, I cannot help but end with an entreaty to Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari to please see the extent of the conspiracy against Constitutional democracy that is being mounted as I write this. I have to remind them that I have always advocated a civilised discourse among politicians so that the country may be guided towards fair elections.

‘Arm in arm’ is what I called it then; arm in arm is what I call it now, so that together they can stop this Canadian from helping subvert the Constitution. Who should know better than them that there are wheels within wheels?

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2013.