Our priority must be to find a way to gain peace and stability in our country, but without in any way giving in to those elements, which have been responsible over the past years for the deaths of thousands of our countrymen. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
Of course, as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said in his first address to the National Assembly in over half a year, giving peace a chance is important. Our country urgently needs to be freed of the violence that has torn it apart, piece by piece, causing more and more blood to spill over the years. In this sense, the four-man committee the prime minister has set up to initiate peace talks with militant groups is indeed a good step, especially since an All Parties Conference in September last year had unanimously called for a dialogue effort to be initiated. At the same time, the government needs to clarify a few questions that inevitably arise from this situation.
While we all want peace, are indeed desperate for it, some parameters for acceptability need to be set. The statement by the prime minister that militants must lay down their arms before the dialogue is welcome. Questions also arise about the mandate given to the four-man committee comprising journalists Irfan Siddiqui and Rahimullah Yousafzai, Pakistan’s former ambassador to Afghanistan Rustam Shah Mohmand and Major Amir, a retired ISI official. The government needs to be more forthcoming about the committee’s mandate and the agenda that the talks will follow. Also, it must be noted that no parliamentarian has been included in the committee.
As we go into this process, we must hope that it will work. But on a broader basis, from the perspective of the state, it is also important that it retain its writ. The process ahead needs to be carefully thought out. So do the next steps. Successive peace accords have fallen apart in the past. Our priority must be to find a way to gain peace and stability in our country, but without in any way giving in to those elements, which have been responsible over the past years for the deaths of thousands of our countrymen, most of them civilians. It is of utmost importance that as a first step in any talks process, the violence stops and some sense of normalcy is restored to our troubled land. It is indeed welcome that the government finally seems to be making an attempt to tackle the menace of militancy and we hope that this initiative has a positive outcome.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 31st, 2014.
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How many times are we going to give peace a chance?
Problem with the political leaders of Pakistan is,that any group which take up arms against the state,they first provide political support to their cause and action by supporting the rogue groups.Once these groups attain sufficient political and miltary strength, the government of the day initiate an appeasememt approach.This methodology, has already resulted in the break up of Pakistan.But,alas our political leaders have not learnt any lesson.No country has ever adopted dialogue methodology without first weakening and isolating the armed groups considerably through military and political means. The present PML(N) and other political parties have also first provided political support to those rogue elements by first condoning their activities and now appeasing already much stronger banned organisations through talks.Resulting in enforcement of extremist view of Sharia.The Nawaz government lacks will to establish the writ of the state through use of force.The establishment also has no gumption to do that particularly in the aftermath of three episodes of Bugti/Baloch insurgents,Lal Masjid and that of Musharraf.
Six months a lot of time for a Government which came into power on the mandate of peace; a dialogue with the Resistance against army intrusions into the tribal land. A week after bombing waziri villages without any warning; it is too late for any peace jestures other than to prevent the reprisals. .
Rex Minor
Lasting peace will emerge when you talk from a position of strength. Talking to killers means giving in more to secure temporary piece. Pakistan has this obsession that only when killers are non Muslims, something has to be done. Three hats to Bangla Desh for sentencing a leader who helped insurgents in India. That is how true and right attitudes take shape, not talking to killers. Get ready for more havoc in coming years. Sad but true