Time to talk

The issue of talks with the Taliban has been swirling around our country for months, with much controversy making up the storm. Pressure on the federal government to initiate talks with the militants has been growing steadily, with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf pushing most strongly for this. While the basic wisdom of talking to a band of persons who have killed thousands and whose vision of the state appears to differ quite markedly from our Constitution must be questioned, the news that Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, is to spearhead the process of dialogue should be welcomed as good news. There is, after all, little to be gained, and much to be lost, by continuing to dither indecisively over the issue. If the government has decided to talk, and it of course has the backing of the All Parties Conference on this, it must not delay things any further and move on with a process we all hope can bring the peace we so badly need.



An aide for the JUI-F chief has said that this was decided at a meeting between the leader and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a meeting at the Noor Khan Airbase in Rawalpindi, just before the prime minister left for a visit to the UK. It would appear that a satisfactory agreement on the talks was reached during the discussion, with Maulana Fazlur Rehman confident he could move on with the initiative, though he has sought more effort from the government to persuade the US to end drone attacks immediately. The Maulana, of course, was always a front runner to take on what promises to be the difficult task of mediation. Before him, Maulana Samiul Haq, who heads his own JUI group, had been tipped to take on this responsibility.

Fazalur Rehman will need to decide how he is to tackle an entity which consists today of multiple outfits; his efforts will be closely followed by a country stricken by terrorism. And of course, success in calming the flames would be excellent news, provided that there is clarity on what conditions can be met and the law of the land is adhered to during the conduct of the much-delayed dialogue.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2013.

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