Moment of trial for everyone!

People, fed up with terrorism, have coalesced their efforts, and leadership must now live up to their expectations

At last, there is realisation not just among the common people but even those who once hailed the Afghan war that it was, in fact, a mistake. In the wake of the Peshawar tragedy, we have seen a U-turn not only amongst the state organs but also in the policies of several religious and political forces.

On the day of the ghastly incident, the governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, was delivering a speech before leading tribal elders at Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan. Since his entry into politics in the early 1980s Sardar Mehtab has been associated with the Pakistan Muslim League -- a strong political backer of the Afghan war.

Condemning the Peshawar school attack, the governor recalled before tribal elders that “the problem started some 35 years ago when Pakistan become part of the Afghan war. Such a mistake on the part of successive rulers resulted in ongoing trends of terrorism and extremism.” And on such grounds, now Sardar Mehtab said, “We need to take a U-turn, which can be made possible by denouncing violence and extremism on the one hand and entering into trustworthy relations against terror with the Afghan government on the other.”

A fresh shift in stance is also being witnessed in the policies of the factions of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Jamaat-e-Islami whose leaders are publicly denouncing terrorism. Whereas in the recent past, especially since the 9/11, not only leaders of these parties but even other religious parties, have termed almost all terrorist acts, including deadly attacks against security forces, civilians, schools, politicians and other professions as “reactions against US-led allies’ presence in Afghanistan”.

But the Peshawar tragedy has forced a rethink among their ranks. Now, all political forces are on the same page when it comes to fighting militancy. There is also, surprisingly, a lot of unity between Pakistan and Afghanistan on this issue all of a sudden.

Now that the nation stands united with the international community on this issue, it seems to be a moment of trial not only for the government but also for the armed forces and judiciary. People from each and every nook of the country, fed up with trends of terrorism and extremism, have coalesced their efforts, and the leadership must now live up to their expectations. The ball is now squarely in the court of those in power.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2014.