The writer is a senior reporter at Daily Express in Karachi and tweets
@Adil_Jawad
Concerns of the international community and the civil society of Pakistan are not without grounds — the foundations of the PML-N were laid down during the so-called Islamisation process initiated by the military dictator General Ziaul Haq, in the 1980s. Its leader Nawaz Sharif and other notables of the party are said to have a soft corner for Islamic hardliners. They were in contact with them during the election campaign. The PML-N and Imran Khan’s PTI were the only parties that enjoyed amnesty from the violent attacks of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif and his team have recently announced an outline of a national policy to deal with rising extremism in Pakistan. Although the national security policy is yet to be announced, as expected, the top feature of the policy is to bring the militants to the table; not only the Taliban and their allies, but also Baloch separatists.
In a recent interview to British newspaper Daily Telegraph, Nawaz Sharif, clarified his position: “Of course we’re fighting each other,” he said. “I believe that there may be no harm in exploring the other option of having dialogue with them if they’re at all serious, and if we find them serious enough — and if we think that talks can yield positive results.” So, there is no doubt that negotiations will be his first priority. But more interestingly, he gave the example of conflict resolution in Ireland and said: “Britain had to talk to the IRA and resolve the problem and so, to explore this option, I think, is not a bad idea.”
The chief minister of Balochistan, Dr Abdul Malik, while addressing the provincial assembly, recently suggested that to deal with the Baloch insurgents, the Irish model should be considered. He said: “Our rulers adopted the Sri Lankan policy of killing Tamil separatists whereas they could have adopted the UK’s strategy of continued negotiations with the Irish people waging struggle for independence.”
This raises some very serious questions. Is the government really serious about solving these conflicts through negotiations or is it just political rhetoric? What are the lessons we have to learn from Ireland to go forward and avoid their mistakes?
Jonathan Powell, the chief of staff of former British prime minister Tony Blair, gave some answers to these questions in his book, Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland. He served 10 years as chief negotiator of the British PM to broker the deal between the Unionists and the IRA. A few months ago, I got a chance to meet him personally and discuss the peace process and its hidden lessons, to solve other conflicts of the world. According to Mr Powell, there are some aspects of the Northern Ireland experience that can be useful to other countries in similar situations and it is worth trying to learn from. He is a strong believer of the fact that theory negotiation is the only lasting solution of any conflict in the world. In fact, he doesn’t think that the victory of the Sri Lankan government against Tamil separatists has solved the problem.
Some other important aspects are: peace negotiation couldn’t be started before both parties admitted that they couldn’t win the war militarily; a third party or mediator is very crucial for any success story; back channel diplomacy and an uninterrupted peace process in any situation; an avoidance of setting preconditions; building trust; focusing on the future rather than the history; and the biggest lesson, to keep the process going, no matter what the situation is. Mr Powell says in his book: “Peace is not an event, peace has a process that takes very long time.”
These are the basic rules we have to keep in mind, if we really want to go into peace negotiations with the Taliban and the Baloch separatists.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2013.
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COMMENTS (17)
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@Gp65: There is full consensus among Baloch, Makrani, Pukhtoon, and other native people of Balochistan that the BLA is a terrorist organization. BLA is a extremist secular nationalist organization which does not respect any morals or religion. Indian, Israeli, and Afghan (Karzai govt) arms are the only things keeping BLA alive with only a handful of fighters. Ideologically and militarily, they are completely defeated. The era of ethnic and sectarian politics in Pakistan is coming to a close, BLA is only a figment of our past. Baloch people enjoy a wonderful life in every province and ever city in Pakistan, and there is no room for this primitive ethnic chauvinism in a modern Muslim society.
@John the Baptist "@Pakistani Ostrich: Dear PMLN troll, please get your facts straight: the Irish drink beer; the Scottish drink whiskey!" My dear john the baap, Irish drink more whiskey (measured in amount of alcohol consumed) than they drink guinness (a stout) or harp (a lager), go to an irish pub or go to their home, if you have an irish friend. Scottish drink 'scotch' which is whiskey from scotland. You PTI sore lo....oh..never never mind.
ETLOGS1987
The IRA is definitely comparable to BLA since in both case the fight was to get greater rights for a particular ethnic group. Neither IRA wanted to impose its views and lifestyle on England nor BLA wants to do that with Pakistan. Therein lies the difference between IRA and TTP, LeJ which seem to be more of social engineering projects.
Strangely the army goes after BLA without seeking any consensus from the political class but awaits political consensus in tackling TTP. As far as LeJ is concerned there are many Pakistanis who allege that army actually supports it in lieu of LeJ collaboration inI Balochistan - of course as an Indian I do not know how accurate that allegation is.
Excellent!
IRA settlement occurred only after it became clear to the IRA that it had lost the support of the people - it's unlikely the Taliban think they are in the same position.
@LalaKiMaKaa.............we are arabian....race..i have arabian blood..we are true warriors who ruled spain...
@Pakistani Ostrich:
Dear PMLN troll, please get your facts straight: the Irish drink beer; the Scottish drink whiskey!
I am still confuse weather we pakistani's are south asian,Indian,Arabian,turkish,ireland,european,west Indian.......I have read same article few days back....pakistan need to follow turkish model...then i read on same place...why should pakistan follow iran model..then i read...how Indian model flourished....first decide weather u want to be north korea(lowest on grid)....India or south africa or china(developing).....or USA(superpower)..............This much confusion is not good for the health of people of any country
At last a sane article, presenting the other side of the picture on terrorism as well. Those who are trying to say there are no parallels are only trying to once against justify military only option for the Taliban. They should note there may be some differences, but the TTP is motley of groups...and was basically a spillover of the Afghan war, so political in nature, despite some demands by few groups for Sharia etc. IRA also used to attack innocent civilians, but this did not stop the British to negotiate with them to bring a settlement to the insurgency. Neither did violent incidents that occurred in the middle of the negotiation process. Best lesson for some of our journos and "liberals" is: "keep the process going, no matter what the situation is".
peace negotiation couldn’t be started before both parties admitted that they couldn’t win the war militarily;
The Ireland model will easily work with Baloch, and India whereas, it is unlikely to work with TTP. TTP consider the offer of negotiation by the govt as a sign of their winning. The objectives of the govt and TTP are different and hence negotiation will not work here.
Before we can apply irish model to pakistan, we have to start drinking heavily, specially whiskey.
I think the weakest link in this whole mess is disgustingly frail intelligence network. We have not been able to penetrate their ranks, thus not allowing us to eliminate their top leadership, nor preempting their attacks. Another fact is that Pak Army is not capable of managing guerrilla war. Pakistan will eventually need help of international community to fight off TTP. But that will have its own trade of give and take.
Irish model is different than what Pakistán is going through.Irish war for independence was between Román Catholic and Protestants , like shia and sunni.Irish people took moré than 10 years to resolve the issue, although they are moré educated than us.while we have moré than 40 groups under TTP and númerous other religious parties and toping that there is insurgency in Baluchistan being patronised by other self interested parties / countries....we have a bigger problem than one can imagine...! we are in 66'years of mess.Education is the most stumbling block.....
the northern ireland problem is a communal issue rather than anything else. it's the classic case of native versus immigrant, the native nationalists (ira) want to undo partition and become united Ireland once again the unionists (english, scotch immigrants) want to remain part of UK. the UK gov is a neutral broker it has no objection to united ireland. the real objection to united ireland is from southern ireland they don't want a united ireland if the majority northern irish don't agree.
Ohhh ET u hav done it. Finally a rational analysis on Dialogue process... Go ahead indie trolls, its your turn now....