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TTP spokesman EhsnaullahEhsan,hadsaid on Feb 3rdthat if Nawaz Sharif (PML-N), MaulanaFazal-ur-Rehman(JUI-F) and Ameer Syed MunawarHasan(JI) will act as guarantors for the peace talks, they would be willing to negotiate.Ehsanullah asserted that in the past they have offered talks to the PPP government but instead of negotiating they captured and imprisoned their negotiating-team. He further alleged that the Army, who is at the back of the power, has made the political governments break truces with the TTP in the past; therefore TTP does not trust the Army and wants the Army to put these 3 gentlemen between them for negotiations.
But as 2 weeks passed by and there was no substantial response from these 3 gentlemen, the ANP has called in a grand ‘moot’ of 24 political and religio-political parties, and representatives of the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Pakistan Bar Council, including the PML-N and JUI-F.
Let’s analysis the whole story as it was building, in the onset, this strange phenomenonof ‘talking to the enemy’ had again put the common man of this country in a confounding situation. Why does there have to be an arbitrator between a criminal gang and the state; what makes Nawaz, Fazal and M. Hasan the privileged arbitrators; and how does a gang responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, get to present a ‘package’ for negotiation! What is going on in this country?
In any normal social arbitration, we are accustomed to seek arbitration of either someone who will play neutral to both parties, or someone who will be on our side. But for a proven criminal gang to choose an arbitrator from its priority clearly puts the Nawaz-Fazal-MHasan trio in an awkward situation; is this trio neutral to both the state and the criminal gang; or is the trio covertly on the side of the criminal TTP gang.
Perhaps it would be right to investigate as to what terms/package the TTP wanted to achieve through this negotiation. Is it not that the TTP, in the wake of the 2014 NATO withdrawal scenario, wanted a free-ticket to any possible safe-haven that would ensure their lives and livelihoods. Once the war was over and both Pakistan and Afghanistan had their borders secured, it would not be possible for a vagabond entitylike the TTP to exist, which relies on its escapability for most its proceedings and a porous border for most of its supplies.So where would the TTP mercenaries go, once the US/NATO fiasco is over, many speculations are in the air. Some say they will disperse into several fractions dissolving themselves in the local communities; some rumor that they may re-organize for the Kashmir Jehad, seeping between the porous LoC; and others say that most of these mercenaries, who are foreigners, will return to where they came from.
But the TTP negotiator Ehsanullah was talking in a different tone; he was not talking like a criminal-on-the-run would be talking, he was talking like a man of honor is talking to a criminal state-government and Army. So what did he demand, it is possible that he wanted to demands respect and re-induction of his men into the very society they have been killing and terrorizing for over a decade, on the pretext that they were the ones on the heavenly path of Jehad all this time.
Again let’s try to figure out how the Nawaz-Fazal-MHasan trio fitted in this situation. Did the TTP trust them to provide their desired safe-haven within or outside the country to them?Did the TTP consider this trio to be their guarantee for safety against the Army or the unwilling government? Did the TTP expect the trio to make a kind of an NRO for them; absolution from all guilt prior to date? Where does that make the trio stand?
This would have been the last thing the weary nation of an 18crore distressed, frustrated and exhausted nation would want to come to: do our political parties have covert relations with the most heinous non-state murderous entities!!
God-Forbid No! But this is exactly the kind of question which is raised in the minds, both in case of their silence or in case they would have agreed to arbitrate. But they made a better move, a political move, which they expertise in; they moved in with a greater alliance called in by the ANP.
In the meantime the government had said that they will think of negotiating only if the TTP proclaims a 1 month cease-fire from its side. In this pretext, the conference called by the ANP’s ended up with rhetorical declarations like: ‘militancy and violence is not a problem of any one party… it is the entire country’s problem’,‘…Continued democratic and political process and its sustainability will help in dealing with the problem in the long run’, ‘…(they thank) the efforts of the grand Qabailijirga for the restoration of peace in Fata’, ‘The APC prays for martyrs who have lost their lives because of terrorism, and express their condolence with their families’, ‘(they want to) adopt a collective strategy to overcome the problem of terrorism’, ‘…no formal agenda has been set for the conference and it would take into consideration the proposals and suggestions…’.
The TTP rightly said that ‘this seems like and election stunt’, as there was nothing conclusive in this declaration, no question that might have been in the minds of the Taliban was answered.
Therefore it can be safely concluded that the government has shunned away its responsibility of resolving the Taliban issues using their delay-tactic and the grand alliance of all our mandated representatives have played their diplomatic card, so the TTP can safely roam around as the king of the jungle, as all politicians act foxy, trailing behind each other.
Perhaps a grand moot should be called by all, just to decide who is who in this game, who are the bad guys and who the good ones, who is the thief and who is the police; or are we secular to all evil.