Talking to the TTP

On a number of occasions, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has called for the initiation of dialogue with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) so that, at the very least, the group’s demands could be made known.

But the TTP is not a group that shies away from making its demands and goals public. The organisation has a chief spokesman accessible to journalists who work for the domestic and foreign press. The TTP also has a media production outlet, Umar Studio, which releases videos that contain statements and sermons by regional commanders and the group’s chief, Hakimullah Mehsud.

The TTP has been quite consistent with respect to its demands. It wants Islamabad to cease cooperation with Washington in the war on terror. And it would like to see the full implementation of what it calls Sharia.

With that said, there might be a tactical utility to engaging the various TTP constituent elements in talks. The TTP is an umbrella organisation — and it’s certainly possible that there are meaningful factional divisions within, especially as the region is at a crossroads with the withdrawal of US combat forces. Outreach to the different constituent elements could ‘perhaps’ be useful to gain a sense of not just which commanders are more amenable to compromise, but also to what degree.

At the same time, Mr Khan and others who support talks with the TTP should develop a sense of what they are willing to relinquish to the militants for the sake of cessation of conflict. Rather than repeating the simplistic refrain ‘give peace a chance’ — the pro-talks camp should begin a public dialogue about what price it is willing to pay for peace. What changes will it be willing to make to the Constitution? Would it permit militants to collect taxes and arrest, convict, and punish criminals? Would it support the full withdrawal of the army from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata)? And — I write this only partly in jest — would the PTI demand that the TTP hold local government elections within 90 days of a peace deal?

Now, were peace with the TTP to be given a chance — as if it hasn’t been given one before — its prospects for success would be quite grim for a number of reasons. One, the TTP thrives on violent and illicit activity, and generously interprets Sharia to give it wide latitude when it comes to killing and stealing. It is unlikely to play by the rules set by or agreed upon with others. The TTP utilised the Nizam-e-Adl deal in Swat to spread across the Malakand Division. It performed many public executions after conducting sham trials. Currently, the TTP is led by a sociopathic murderer, Hakimullah Mehsud, whom even al Qaeda reprimanded for ordering attacks on civilian populaces.

Two, the TTP would be unlikely to roll back its operations if the war in Afghanistan continues and al Qaeda affiliates flourish across the Muslim world. There would be little incentive for militant commanders to give up as long as other groups are engaged in a jihad in Afghanistan using Fata as a launching pad and while other takfiri jihadist groups are experiencing success in Syria and elsewhere.

Even if a peace deal sticks, there would still be a price that has to be paid. Case in point: the ‘emirate’ of Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s in North Waziristan, where polio vaccinations have been banned and the operations of non-governmental organisations have been restricted. As a result, there’s been an uptick in polio infections in his area and Pakistan, quite shamefully, remains polio endemic.

Even the so-called ‘good Taliban’ is willing to let children become crippled as a result of the polio virus. That this is what a peace deal that has gone right — at least in relative terms — looks like should be ample warning to the governments in Islamabad and Peshawar that they must eschew their current pusillanimity, push back against the militant narrative, and hold them morally accountable for their acts of evil — whether it is bombing houses of worship or making Fata a safe haven for the polio virus.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2013.

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