Give Peace Talks a Chance
Current
government of Pakistan is working out a national consensus based strategy for dealing
with the problem of terrorism. In this regard recently held All Parties
Conference (APC) was a defining moment; it was different from similar earlier
conferences. Firstly, it was attended by all the invitees. Secondly, it was
supported by the public mandate regarding the strategy to deal with the Taliban
and the US drone attacks. Moreover, people had voted
for the political
parties which articulated an anti-drone policy. Thirdly, the APC
decided to give free hand to the sitting government on three issues—economy,
energy and terrorism. The APC has reposed full confidence in the efforts of the
Prime Minister and authorized the federal government to initiate dialogue with
Taliban and take all the necessary steps as it may deem fit including
development of an appropriate mechanism and identification of interlocutors.
APC was informed by security apparatus that there are
groups within the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who are in favour of talks
but then there are others that enjoy the backing of certain hostile foreign
agencies who may never agree. Time has come for the TTP to come clean on those
dubious entities which are operating under its brand name and carrying out
disruptive actions which are prejudicial to the conduct of meaningful parleys.
With the Afghanistan conflict apparently moving towards a
close, it is logical that Pakistan should engage in dialogue
with select groups of Pakistani Taliban under a well structured framework.
Pakistan is already facilitating such processes amongst America,
Afghan Taliban and the Afghanistan government. Release of the senior Taliban
leader Abdul GhaniBeradar indicates that a lot of mileage has been covered
towards an intra-Afghan political reconciliation. As of now Pakistan has
released 37 Taliban leaders since November 2012 to expedite a negotiated
settlement before the departure of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
In a paradigm shift in the country’s security strategy,
the top civil-military leadership has unanimously decided to hold peace talks
with all militant groups, keeping the TTP on top priority. Pakistani Taliban,
welcomed the move. They said Taliban would be willing to enter into ‘meaningful
dialogue’ after the government announces its policy on how to proceed.
Past efforts to control terrorist and extremist / elements
through force have not yielded the desired results. It’s not the first time
that government has tried to open such talks. However,
this time the approach is qualitatively different. This time Taliban are being
referred to as “stakeholders.” The government plans to start the talks just as
soon as intermediaries complete the necessary “groundwork”. It is encouraging
that the Taliban Shura (the decision making body) has promptly convened
its session to nominate its team. The TTP would announce its team once the
government has finalised its interlocutors. The central leadership of the TTP
has claimed that the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had sent a letter to the TTP
about a possible peace dialogue and the TTP has replied to it.
Pakistan’s military institutions have thrown their weight behind the government’s bid to initiate the dialogue with the TTP. In a detailed briefing at the APC, General Kayani stated that the military and the government were ‘on the same page’ on the issue of reaching out to the militants and the Army will follow whatever decision the government takes. However, he cautioned that the authorities need to tread carefully as there are elements within the umbrella organisation that may never reconcile.
Pakistan’s national
leadership also boldly addressed the sticky issue of American drone strikes. It
described them as detrimental to the country’s efforts to eliminate terrorism
and recommended that the government should consider taking up the
issue to the United
Nations. Terming the drone attacks an ‘illegal and immoral’ act,
the APC communiqué said: “We declare that we shall ourselves determine the
means and mode of fighting this war in our national interest and shall not be
guided by the United States of America or any other
country in this regard.” General Kayani said that there was no secret
understanding with the US on the CIA-led drone campaign. He said it was up to
the government to take appropriate action to persuade the US to halt such
strikes.
Pakistan’s
Foreign Office has started it work to firm-up the methodology for raising the
issue at the UN. Prime Minister himself choose to kick-start the process by
mentioning it in his address to the 68th UNGA session. Hopefully, an
unambiguous official stance on drone attacks would help create a conducive
environment for the envisaged negotiations. The APC called for a
result-oriented and peaceful dialogue process to eliminate extremism from the
country. Political leaders admitted that the situation has continued to
deteriorate over the last several years and past efforts to control terrorist
and extremist elements have not yielded the desired results.
It is for this reason that peace talks
with Taliban should be given a fair chance to succeed. There are forces which
say that Taliban don’t want to be treated like that. However, these elements
while speaking in such a tone do not give priority to the interest of Pakistan.
These are mainly western voices which want Pakistan to go all out against
Haqqqani net work. They must realize
the fact that Haqqani network is Afghan entity. While
responding to Hillary Clinton’s statement with skepticism, a senior Haqqani
commander told Reuters on October 25, 2011 that the “Afghan Haqqani group will
not take part in any peace talks with the United States which will not be able
to find a possible solution to the Afghan conflict unless they hold talks with
the Taliban—led by the Taliban leadership seriously. He revealed, “Americans
had made several attempts for talks which we rejected as we are an integral
part of the Taliban led by Mullah Omar…we are united to liberate our
homeland-Afghanistan.” It is of particular attention that on September 17,
2012, in a rare interview by telephone from an undisclosed location, leader of
the Haqqani militant network, Sirajud Din Haqqani disclosed that the group has
become so confident after battlefield gains in Afghanistan that “it no longer
has sanctuaries in Pakistan, and instead, felt secure inside Afghanistan.”
What
the world must realise is that Pakistan is a sovereign democratic country. The
huge voter turnout during recent elections in Pakistan indicates that the people
of Pakistan have voted for democracy. Now it is the voice of democratically
elected government and other political parties that suggest that talks with
Taliban should be given a fair chance.
World
must also realize that collateral damages in form of drone strikes in Pakistan
have resulted in germinating greater ill will against US / ISAF and ultimate
sufferers are the people of Pakistan.
The
crux of the matter is that today Pakistan is epic centre of war against
terrorism. Sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in eliminating the menace of
terrorism from the world are unparalleled. If we take a pragmatic view of
developments in the region following USSR’s interruption in Afghanistan, it is
only Pakistan that has played a key and most positive role. Today the whole
Eastern Europe is enjoying freedom which is result of Pakistan standing tall in
thwarting USSR.
Situation
in Afghanistan deteriorated as US and West changed its priorities and started
focusing towards East Europe. At this time Taliban emerged as stake holders and
also were able to establish their government in Afghanistan. 9/11 gave another
dimension to the region and the world. Afghanistan has seen use of force and
its after effects have been suffered by Pakistan. For the last 13 years this
region is suffering with minimum achievements for a durable peace.
The
proponents of use of force do not want to see this region peaceful. To ensure
their safety they are trying to create destruction in other parts of the world.
It is
in the context that the world should visualize Pakistan and its problems. It
needs to be reiterated that today’s Pakistan has the capability and the
political will to firm up a response against terrorists. No one but only the
people of Pakistan can suggest a panacea for the problems that it is facing.
The world must acknowledge and respect the decision which the political leadership
of Pakistan has taken in holding talks with militants and terrorists.
म श्री एडम्स केविन, Aiico बीमा ऋण ऋण कम्पनी को एक प्रतिनिधि हुँ तपाईं व्यापार लागि व्यक्तिगत ऋण आवश्यक छ? तुरुन्तै आफ्नो ऋण स्थानान्तरण दस्तावेज संग अगाडी बढन adams.credi@gmail.com: हामी तपाईं इच्छुक हुनुहुन्छ भने यो इमेल मा हामीलाई सम्पर्क, 3% ब्याज दर मा ऋण दिन
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