The knives are out -- Kamran Shafi

By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 15 Sep, 2009 (Dawn)

One has noticed with alarm the tenor of most TV anchors, and some analysts too, when they heap praise only upon the army for doing a good job in Swat with no mention of the civilian leadership across the political spectrum. —APP/File Photo

IF every wrong is to be placed at the politician’s door, in the instant case at Asif Zardari’s, then the good that has come with his government and with democracy must also go to his account and to those of other politicians.

Here I refer to the Swat operation which is gradually showing signs of success with the army doing yeoman service for the country.

Each day brings news of more successes, the latest being the arrest of the cruel and heartless yahoo, Muslim Khan, along with another yahoo; and the imminent capture of the Mother of All Yahoos, Fazlullah. The point to remember is that this is the same army that prevaricated during all the years of the Commando’s absolute rule while the savages went about digging their tunnels and bunkers and furnishing them with carpets and tiled bathrooms and all; and cutting off people’s heads with blunt knives, and all.

The very same army, under the very same commanders, has now shown the grit and the determination which one always knew it had, under a civil administration headed, whether anyone likes it or not, by Asif Ali Zardari.

It has shown that it is trained to do what is asked of it and that the old and fallacious refrain that it was not trained to fight insurgencies was poppycock of the worst kind, trotted out by the apologists of the brass hats who could not make up their minds whether the marauding yahoos were friends of our venal state or its people’s worst enemies.

The ranks of the army, the young officers and the unit commanders were never suspect; its generalship was. And rightly so. We must also remember that the Commando was then the lord and master of all he surveyed under his very own dictum of ‘unity of command’.

If things are going well, why the frightening title of this piece? Here goes: one has noticed with alarm the tenor of most TV anchors, and some analysts too, when they heap praise only upon the army for doing a good job in Swat with no mention of the civilian leadership across the political spectrum (with the sole exception of the double-dealing and very slippery JUI-F) that has stood behind the army solidly by shouldering the political responsibility for the fallout of the military action.

One has also noticed with utmost concern, the savage attacks on politicians let loose by former senior army and intelligence officers well known for their criminal and anti-democratic acts. It is again to be noted that discredited and reviled former spooks like Brigadier Billa would never have crawled back into their respective gutters without a definitive go-ahead by their former outfits.

Whilst these attacks have clearly redounded on the security establishment (reinforcing the widespread belief that our brass hats are not much endowed with good sense!), they point clearly to the objective: to remove the elected democratic dispensation by hook or by crook, mostly the latter, and to replace it with a government of ‘technocrats’, whatever that means, under a caretaker civilian Quisling.

That the establishment is not alone in this enterprise is also clear; certain names of known unsavoury characters scurrying back into their respective gutters to do their assigned dirty work have already surfaced in the press.

As I have said before, the proof is the recent (ongoing indeed) spate of ugly stories first about one political leader, and then the other, doing the rounds of the plush drawing rooms of Islamabad the Beautiful, the TV channels and the front pages of newspapers. This is only the beginning: the country should be ready for far worse in the immediate future.

It is as part of this enterprise that the old story of Osama Bin Laden meeting Nawaz Sharif X or Y times and egging him on to destabilise Benazir’s government of the time has resurfaced, as has the Midnight Jackal story.

The patrons of the enterprise do not seem to remember that by signing the Charter of Democracy, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif buried the past, allegations and all, and resolved to take Pakistan to a better future through civilised politics by eschewing the rancour and blind hate of the past.

Which is why I must repeat myself. President Asif Zardari would be well advised to order his party to stop its delaying tactics with regard to the repeal of the 17th Amendment, and the tabling of the 18th without the draconian articles of the former. He must also remove any doubts there might be as to his cool relationship with Nawaz Sharif, to present a unified stand to those that would plot against them.

Both must also rein in the hawks in their parties, for many times even the swiftest hawk can lose its prey to other, lesser, raptors such as the carrion-eating kite.

A short word on the most recent Top Secret (surely!?) letter of the bestest diplomat in the whole wide world Master Hussain Haqqani, and the FO and ISI, in which he has bemoaned the fact that many American media people and the head of the Asia Foundation have been barred from getting Pakistan visas.

Who, may I ask, has leaked this most confidential letter so that it is now the subject of headline news and editorials? The government must carry out an indepth investigation into the leak and severely punish the guilty for it may very well be part of the ongoing conspiracy against democracy.

Also, might I one more time demand an inquiry into the granting of not one, not two, but three Pakistani visas to the disreputable Richard Reid aka Abdul Raheem aka Tariq Raja aka the ‘Shoe Bomber’, who had spent most of his life in prisons in the UK and who is now undergoing life imprisonment in the US? Who on earth was his sponsor in the Land of the Pure?

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk

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PML-N ‘enemy’ of Pushtuns: Says ANP Leader

No justification for holding referendum on NWFP renaming: ANP

* Party president says PML-N ‘enemy’ of Pushtuns

By Zakir Hassnain

PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) said on Wednesday there was no justification for holding a referendum on the NWFP renaming issue as demanded by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and thus the ANP rejected it, saying only the constitutional committee of the parliament could decide the issue.

The ANP said the Nawaz League’s criticism of the ANP and its attitude towards Pakhtuns was condemnable. “Nawaz League is the enemy of Pakhtuns and still following the policies of Ranjeet Singh,” said ANP Provincial President Afrasiab Khattak while addressing a press conference along with party leaders Arbab Tahir Khalil, Arbab Najeebullah, Arbab Tajuddin and others.

Khattak said the renaming of the province was an important issue and the provincial assembly had already unanimously passed a resolution demanding the province be renamed Pakhtunkhwa.

The ANP leader said the issue was under consideration in the parliament’s constitutional committee working for constitutional reforms. However, he added, the PML-N leaders made the issue public instead of solving it within the constitutional committee and started giving public statements on issue.

Khattak said NWFP, FATA and PATA were no names. “It’s only Pakhtunkhwa but attempts are being made to make it controversial,” he said. Khattak said the PML-N made a demand for a referendum on the issue. “I propose referendums be also held on the name issue in Punjab and Sindh as only one language is not spoken in a province,” he said. He said there are a large number of Seraiki speaking people in Punjab and therefore referendum should also be held there.

Khattak said no referendum was held when Lyallpur was renamed to Faisalabad and Montgomery to Sahiwal.

The ANP leader said the largest political parties had also acknowledged the name Pakhtunkhwa and the name is no longer controversial. Khattak said the people of the province supporting the Nawaz League should review their party affiliation as “PML-N is the enemy of Pakhtuns.” He said the name Pakhtunkhwa was the demand of the people of the province.

Khattak said the name Afghania was also acceptable as it was given to this region by the founders of Pakistan. The ANP leader said Abasin was the name of a river and Khyber the name of an area and therefore could not be accepted as name of the province.

“We can only accept Pakhtunkhwa or Afghania,” he said. Khattak said the ANP is cooperating with the parliament’s constitutional committee and wants to solve the problem within this constitutional body. “And if it could not solve the issue, we’ll stick to our stand and demand,” said the ANP provincial president.

Comments by M. Waqar

I was shocked to read some news reports and statements of PML(N) leaders over the name Pakhtunkhwa and it seems like they are generating new issue of hate and divide in this province. Let's not make it a political issue. One should not politicize an issue for own interest.I see no reason for denying Pukhtoons the legitimate name of their province on the grounds that this will increase ethnic tension.

On the contrary, if anything, it will defuse the existing tension. Let's not forget what happened to East Pakistan when West Pakistan denied them their right of Bengali language. The problem is Pakistani politicians never learn from history, these politicians need to understand that Pakistan's imposition of Urdu on East Pakistan was a mistake. It seems like some opportunist politicians of PML(N) in the province are trying to create political tension over Pakhtunkhwa. People in Pakhtunkhwa wants to be recognized as a nationality in their own right and for this they want their living place to be given their name Pakhtunkhwa.

Why can Punjabis have Punjab, Sindhis Sindh, Baluchis Balochistan, but Pakhtuns can't have Pakhtoonkhwa? why Pakhtoon are being treated like occupied Palestine who will breakaway at the first chance.? and if do decide to break off, trust me with all its might, Pakistan can't prevent that.

Pakistan couldn't beat Bengalis into submission and it can never force Pakhtuns into submission. Its stupid that some people who consider themselves super patriotic imply that Pakhtuns are any less patriotic than themselves. Let me remind those self-declared super Pakistanis that Punjab did not have any option except joining Pakistan. Punjab had to join Pakistan. But we Pakhtuns had a choice to join our brothers in Afghanistan, with whom we share not only our ancestry but our culture, our history, our tradition, and our language, but Pakhtuns decided to stay with Pakistan. How can someone from Punjab or Sindh or any other part of Pakistan give us a lecture on patriotism? I think these people are the one who needs a lesson in patriotism, because by suppressing minorities right and denying them their identity they are weakening Pakistan NOT Pakhtuns.

Its tragic that Pakistani politicians did NOT learn any lesson from history. Bengalis were at the forefront in the struggle for Pakistan but when Pakistan suppressed them and denied them their rights and their identity what happened? We all know the end result. By calling Bengalis traitors because they demanded their rights they were converted into traitors. Alas we could learn from history because if we don't, history is doomed to repeat itself. Acceptance of history is a good sign, no wonder, but learning no lesson from it is unforgivable.

Please someone help me to understand how renaming NWFP is gonna break Pakistan or divide people in this province? And please don't give me the crap about patriotism and Islamic unity. Whats wrong with Pakhtuns having their identity in Pakistan like Punjabis, Sindhis, and Balochis? It's the politicians who are making mess over the name not the people living in this province. Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan are border provinces too why they are not called, east-south, north-east or south-west provinces why these provinces are called with identity of race residing inside that territory? We are unanimous on one thing that people from this province are all pathan if all are not Pashtun. So please take back the British name and give us our own name.

The usage of Pakhtunkhwa in Pakhto poetry dates back to the middle ages. The word is a combination of two words - that is Pakhtun and Khwa. Pakhtun or Pashtun is a noun while Khwa means side. Culturally there is no doubt that the land was called Pakhtunkhwa in Pushtu literature since 15th century .The word Pakhtunkhwa was also used in the modern poetry by contemporary poets like Qalandar Momand (1930-2003) long before it was suggested as the nomenclature for the NWFP.

The name NWFP is certainly a misnomer today since it does not satisfy the aspirations of the people of the province. Three of the four provinces the Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, got their own identity either through their environment or inhabitants. But the NWFP has been named neither after the historical and cultural background of the inhabitants nor derived its name from environment. Since the name (NWFP) does not reflect the true ethnic identity of its inhabitants, therefore a demand for its change is a logical consequence but unfortunately the matter has turned into a controversial issue again by so-called politicians. Those opposing the word Pakhtunkhwa argue that the name will not represent non Pashto speaking population of the province.

The argument is unjustified and impractical. There is hardly any country in the world which does not have ethnic minorities. Even in Pakistan; Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan have large number of people who do not speak the language their names ostensibly suggest.

The 74 percent population of NWFP speaks Pashto as mother language in present day NWFP and the proportion will greatly increase when FATA will ultimately be merged in the province, choosing a proper name for the province is the fundamental right of its residents. It would help strengthen the federation besides removing the sense of deprivation among people of the smallest province of the country. It is time that politicians belonging to different factions of Muslim League too come out of their mindset and start objectively treating the demands the smaller provinces. It will help us build a stronger and more vibrant federation. Instead of debating again and again over this issue, politicians are wasting their time, they should either spend their time on development of this province or quit politics. There is no need to challenge the Pakhtunkhwa issue as it has been passed with overwhelming majority in the provincial assembly, members of this assembly should discuss how to solve the problems in this province. Renaming the NWFP to Pakhtunkhwa has a long political history in Pakistan.

Pakhtuns and nationalist groups, which are passionate about naming their inhabited land after their identity as Pakhtuns, have been demanding change in the province's name for decades. But a number of political groups and opportunist politicians are not in favour of calling NW FP as Pakhtunkhwa and they are trying to divide people. These members of assembly should be discussing creating jobs, hiring police officers, opening new schools, colleges and universities, hospitals and providing clean water and electricity to their voters and keeping province safe, rid Province of violence and terror, generate productive employment for youth, provide education, healthcare, and bring progress to the doorstep of workers, farmers and small businesses, elimination of child labour etc . These are the issues for which people have elected these assembly members to solve.

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Two slaps: Operation against the Taliban

Here is the first slap on the PPP and ANP's face by Talat Hussain:

This one is the second slap on Imran Khan and Munawar Hasan's face by Muhammad Amir Hashim Khakwani:

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How possibly could a party such as the secular ANP get into such a low deal with those of the Taliban’s ilk?

Barbarians at the gate

By Kamran Shafi

SORRY for the trite title, but its blood-chillingly true, isn’t it? As my readers well know, I am quite quickly moved to tears: films like Il Postino and East is East and books like Chronicle of a Death Foretold can set me off like a little baby.

Even the logo on the tail of a PIA airliner taking flight makes me weep happy and bitter and heartbreaking tears as I pray to God our country could also one day lift its head and reach for the stars.

But the horrific pictures that beamed out of my television set this past week showing a young Swati woman — how does it matter whether she was 17 or 34 years old, dammit — being held down hand and foot and mercilessly lashed on her buttocks and thighs by a bearded Yahoo in public, 37 times, only made me furious; absolutely incandescent with rage.

Far more than being livid at the Taliban Yahoos, I raged at those representing the ANP so-called ‘government’ of the Frontier. Even there whilst I could understand the likes of Senator Zahid Khan and Law Minister Arshad Abdullah and someone called Pervez Khan try so futilely and so foolishly to defend their government and the Taliban, whilst I could understand Muslim Khan try to defend the Taliban, I just could not get myself to give any let to Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

Iftikhar Hussain whom I have met and appreciated (kindly note the past tense) as a secular and well-read man, actually had the gall to accuse Samar Minallah who has done so much good (and courageous) work for the cause of the dispossessed, specially faceless women and innocent children, of being part of a conspiracy to derail the ‘peace deal’ with the Taliban in Swat. What in God’s name has the person of Ms Minallah got to do with the Taliban publicly lashing a woman in public? Why did he name her? Does Mian Sahib not know that Samar is not an unknown; that she is the much-respected Nasruminallah Khan’s daughter? That she does not hide behind pseudonyms and innuendo, and says what she says in your face?
He then has the impudence to say that the lashing ‘took place on Jan 3 while the peace agreement with the TNSM was signed on Feb 16’. Well, doesn’t that in itself make your deal with such barbarians doubly disgraceful, Mian Sahib? How possibly could a party such as the secular ANP get into such a low deal with those of the Taliban’s ilk? Is this ANP, the successor to the National Awami Party of Bacha Khan?

Let me go back in time for the younger of my readers who may not know the tortured political history of our poor country. No matter which political party one came from, no matter which political thought one was enamoured of, no matter what the establishment said about the NAP one always admired it for the fact that it was solidly secular, and always stood by its principles. Is this present ANP even a shadow of the NAP of Mir Ghous Bakhsh Bizenjo?

What ‘peace deal’ do you talk about, Mian Sahib? Is cravenly throwing down your weapons before a cruel and monstrous enemy who has wrought so much pain and misery in your home a ‘peace deal’? An enemy that your own and federal forces outnumbered 30 to 1? An enemy, moreover, who was far poorly equipped than your own forces? What ‘peace deal’ do you speak about, sir?

Which reminds me. Against my own better judgment, I went to see President Zardari along with about 40 or 50 other TV anchors/journalists a week or so ago. I had been to the presidency in days gone by but had forgotten the opulence and the sheer massiveness of the place. Which, be as it may, the man was completely out of his depth, his grip on reality tenuous — being completely satisfied with the way the army conducted itself in Swat(!), and talked as if he knew everything about everything under the sun.
Unforgivably, he was snide about the judiciary — when asked to ensure the safety of working journalists he said, ‘Why don’t you go to the restored Supreme Court which you said will fix everything?’ Tragically, he did not even know that Nawabzada Balaach Marri, son of Nawab Khair Bukhsh Marri, was dead, murdered allegedly by the Pakistan Army in Afghanistan in November 2007. And this despite Benazir herself visiting the old nawab to condole his son’s death, to the utter chagrin of the Commando.

But nothing lasts forever, particularly in this case, for his buddies Salmaan Taseer and Rehman Malik have grievously wounded and weakened him by the needless and mad adventure mounted in Punjab. It defies description, though, how the three can so brazenly carry on as if nothing happened at all. The sad part is that the shenanigans of these three have greatly hurt the Pakistan People’s Party, a national asset that the country can’t afford to lose, just as it cannot afford to lose other political forces that represent the people.

But back to the matter of the increasingly successful assault on Pakistan by the Taliban. What gives? We will know all if a few very basic questions are answered. One, how come the Pakistan Army, the ISI, the Intelligence Bureau, Military Intelligence and the Frequency Allocation Board could not find Mullah Radio’s FM station in six years?
Two, ditto. Three, ditto. Four, ditto. Ninety-nine, ditto. Just who is preventing all these when-they-want-to-be most oppressively efficient organisations from finding the clandestine broadcaster that is the foundation upon which Mullah Fazlullah has built his dreadful empire of death and destruction?

To the government I say this: If it is true that the cake and pastry and tikka-selling, property-dealing industrial and banking conglomerate, the Pakistan Army, has failed to tactically defeat (I did not say bomb and shell and strafe, sirs) a ragtag militia, then demob large parts of it and distribute its weapons and equipment among the populace. We well know how to defend our hearths and homes, and wives and daughters and sisters and mothers; and neighbours, against the advancing barbarians.

To our visiting paymasters who are presently in the Citadel of Islam, I say this: if the choice is between having a strategic and a transactional relationship with this regime when it comes to doling out money please do yourselves, and us, a favour. Please opt for the transactional, COD (cash on delivery) as they say in business. Only then does this country have a chance of survival. Otherwise it is dead in the water.

Witness Chakwal. It broke my heart to hear friend Ayaz Amir, MNA, say, ‘I never thought Chakwal would become a target, sir’ when I called him on Sunday afternoon to condole the wanton death and destruction spread in his city by the self-same barbarians.

He was at the hospital at the time and the screams of pain in the background made me invoke the Almighty’s curse on those that kill and maim innocents.

Daily Dawn --- 8th April, 09

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Shaheen Sardar Ali: Clutching at straws: ANP in the copmany of Sufi Muhammad in Swat

Clutching at straws

By Shaheen Sardar Ali
Monday, 09 Mar, 2009, Dawn

THEY say the guns have fallen silent, there is a lull in the frenzied strafing. We hear no more schools will be torched, bombed and looted; the dreaded screeching ambulance sirens carrying the dead and dying will not haunt us anymore.

Caravans of shocked, miserable people, hopelessness writ large on their helpless faces will not ply their way through the meandering roads and mountains paths carrying little else but their threadbare clothes and heavy hearts. As news spread that a peace accord was in place, the electronic media beamed out images of tormented people heaving a sigh of relief. It was as if a ray of hope had appeared in an unexpected minute crevice in the darkness of their lives ... yes, yes, they shouted into the television cameras, we want peace, we want the Sharia, now there will be peace, our children will go to school, our markets will open and flourish and we will go back to our homes and lives.

Parallel to the footage of an apparently elated people began the endless coverage of the so-called peace caravan of Sufi Mohammad winding up his ‘protest camp’ in Timergara and setting off towards Swat to plead with his son-in-law to declare peace in the valley in return for a third attempt in 15 years at promulgating the Sharia in the region. Riding in state-of-the-art vehicles accompanied by heavy contingents of armed guards and supporters, Sufi Mohammad arrived in Mingora to a hero’s welcome.

Forgotten were the 10,000 young men who, under his command, had marched to their deaths in Afghanistan in 2001; lost too was the wrath of the families of these young men and from which this ‘hero’ had to seek ‘protective custody’ from the government. Forgotten was the reality that at this very moment, a nizam-i-adl regulation is on the statute books and has been for many years. Forgotten is the fact that the constitution of Pakistan declares that no law that is against the Quran and Sunnah shall be made or implemented in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Forgotten, too, is that constitutional body called the Council of Islamic Ideology tasked with vetting every law for its ‘Islamic-ness’ and that except for the riba-related laws that were declared un-Islamic some years ago, it did not find much in the existing legal texts of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan that conflicted with the Sharia.

But what does this third-time nizam-i-adl mean for the people of this besieged valley, the province and indeed Pakistan and beyond. To begin with, it has raised a number of critical questions. As a student of law I would ask: who are ‘the parties’ to this ceasefire; is it the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan through the provincial government and Sufi Mohammad? If so, why are federal government functionaries adamant in describing this as a peace accord between the provincial government and Sufi Mohammad?

Words alone will not distance the federal government from a deal with non-state actors on Pakistani territory. At the end of the day, the buck stops with the federal government. Hoping that these Pakhtuns in the back of beyond can take all the ‘blame’ will simply not work. We cannot have our cake and eat it; we either have an honest peace accord and give it our best or we don’t. Delaying tactics in signing the Nizam-i-Adl

Regulation 2009 will not absolve the federal government. It will only make matters worse. And finally, invoking Article 247 of the constitution to promulgate an ordinance means that the federal government has taken over lawmaking in the Malakand region and henceforth stands responsible for legislation enacted via this particular article.

Conversely, the provincial government, too, is trying to play it safe by pretending to be as absent from the scene as possible. To begin with, I wonder if its legal advisers thought of going down the route of provincial lawmaking rather than invoking Article 247 of the constitution. Is the provincial assembly unable to legislate for Malakand since the striking down of the Pata Regulation by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional and the extension of regular administrative structures? If so, then the nizam-i-adl of 2009 could be adopted by the legislature in no time and receive the assent of the NWFP governor. Representatives of the assembly would debate it and its proponents speak of it thus bringing these non-state shadowy actors into mainstream public life for all to see.

One does sympathise with the discomfort of the ANP-led government at being seen in the company of Sufi Mohammad who has emerged as a powerful non-state actor in ascendancy over the state and its institutions. Yet, could there not have been ground gained, albeit minimal, by depicting some sort of symbolic governmental and political presence when Swat was overtaken by Sufi Mohammad and his supporters?

Acts of symbolism do matter and it seems that our university-educated, liberal, democratic, elected representatives have not been able to apply the lessons of their political science books into practice whereas the other side clearly has. Why else would they kidnap a senior representative of the state, the DCO Swat along with his symbols of authority i.e. his various bodyguards and vehicles, to make a point as to who holds the reins of power in the valley?

One wonders too why precious days were lost in the days that followed the fragile peace accord. Non-state actors have a lot to lose if the writ of the state of Pakistan is re-established. They have killed, maimed, abused and destroyed homes and fields especially of people who were landowners and higher up in the societal hierarchy. Why would they disarm and lay themselves open to revenge. They have tasted power, wealth and authority. The state and elected representatives have and are pandering to their whims in a bid to gain time and space to think. Time is running out because each day that the government spends in strategising the safest way out of this imbroglio, is a day gained by the other side to consolidate their position.

While the various sides muddle their way through this tragic scenario of lost hope and humanity, the people of Swat live on the fringes of hope and despair. We clutch at straws, victims of deceit of higher powers for whom a little power is better than nothing leaving us to think: a little peace is better than nothing.

The writer is professor of law, University of Warwick, UK and professor of law, University of Oslo, Norway.s.s.ali@warwick.ac.uk

Source: http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/clutching-at-straws
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Seema Mustafa: What the people of Pakistan think about the Taliban

This site has moved to http://criticalppp.com/archives/1063, click this link if you are not redirected
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Swat Peace Deal with Taliban: Questions which ANP must answers

Swat Peace Deal with Taliban: Questions which ANP must answers

By: Ahfaz-ur-Rehman, Daily Express, 1 March 2009

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Why do Taliban (and their supporters in the ISI) attack secualr Pashtuns?

US responsible for the situation in Pakistan

Irfan Khan Momand UK irfan188@hotmail.com

Source: "FRONTIER POST" FEB.12, 2008




The recent suicide attack on Awami national Party rally in Charsadda was certainly a very shameful act. We condemned this suicide attack and everywhere we are against every kind of violence and hatred. We have seen and observed in several such suicide attacks that the coward groups are using innocent children for the suicide attacks. Such coward people have no religion, have no culture and have no respect for the humanity because Islam doesn’t say for the suicide attack. The attackers and their coward planners are certainly the enemy of our Pushtoon nation, they are the enemy of our Pushtoon culture, and they are the enemy of our pushtoon norms and Pushtoon non-violent politics which we learnt from our great leaders Khan Abdul Ghafar Khan Baba and Khan Abdul Wali Khan. The enemy of Pushtoon cannot bear our peaceful politics and they are targeting our leaders, our elders and children in their own homes. We have already known our enemy and they are the coward establishment which is not only the enemy of Pushtoon but also the enemy of every democratic nation living in Pakistan because they cannot accept the democracy in this region.



The present cartoon government (interim government led by Musharraf and Soomro in February 2008) is certainly fully responsible for the recent bomb attack in charsadda because the government agencies know the so-called jihadis organisation in Punjab and in Kashmir and the agencies have already their full biodata of every person belong to those organisations but the so-called administrators sitting in Islamabad have no interest of peace, stability and democracy in Pakistan. They are just enjoying their posh life in their villas and they earn money by blackmailing the whole Pakistani nation. This corrupt mafia know that if there start the process of peace and democracy in Pakistan then there will be no chance for their corruption, and for this purpose they had harboured several kinds of criminal groups and stationed them in Pakistan especially in our Pushtoon region which are Arabs, Chechens and Kashmiri in the name of so-called Jihadi groups. They had been trained for these nefarious activities to blackmail the whole Pakistani people in every time. The sectarian violence in Peshawar, in Quetta and in Kurram agency and the destability in Karachi are the preplanned nefarious activities in which these organisations are used. They have been certainly given the task to postpone the election which is to be held in the coming days. Here I would like to mention also that the American agencies are also fully responsible for the destabilizing and the unrest of our region and our people. Pakistani people have no food to eat and the Americans are coming to help our corrupt cartoon government by providing them their sophisticated weapons. They are just introducing and purchasing their modern weapons in our Pushtoon region and nothing else. We will be compelled to say clearly that the American establishment also don’t want the real democracy in Pakistan because the American establishment have already a bad experience with the Democratic governments in India because there is always a real and pure democratic system in India and the American establishment have very difficulty from the Indian governments to fulfil their motives and therefore I can say that the American establishment don’t want to work with a real democratic government in Pakistan. And for this purpose the American policy makers had introduced the Washington’s sponsored Jihad in our region. They have always worked with the dictators and they have been supporting the dictatorship in Pakistan.

I request to my Pakistani people especially our youth men and women that they should start working for the real democracy in Pakistan because the establishment don’t want to educate the people about the politics and about the establishment policies. Everybody should take part in politics that what is going on around us. We should have complete knowledge about our regional situation. There is no war for Islam. The harboured criminals groups are just using the name of Islam. If we take part in politics then we can win our democracy and our rights. No one can snatch Islam from us. Our uneducated people have been used for these religious sentiments for long time starting from general Zia.

We have to fight against our poverty, we have to fight against our missiries, we have to fight for our rights as a respectable nation in the world. We have to throw those corrupt elements and foreign religious extremists in the Arabian see. We have no place for the American guests which is al-Qaeda. Here I will also request to the American people that they should have some know-how about their agencies and their establishment before they go to vote and to elect a new government in USA that what are they doing in Afghanistan and why even the Opium cultivation in Afghanistan is more then ever? If the American start servicing like other respectable nations members of NATO in Afghanistan then there will be certainly peace and stability otherwise the situation will be worst for our Pushtoon nation.

---

JIHADIS TARGET FRONTIER GANDHI'S PARTY -INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR--PAPER No. 366

Source: http://southasiaanalysis.org/papers26/paper2582.html

By B. Raman


The Awami National Party (ANP) of Pakistan was founded by the late Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known as the Frontier Gandhi. He was very close to Mahatma Gandhi and tried to popularise Gandhiji's concept of non-violence among the Pashtuns of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). He strongly opposed the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan.

2. After Pakistan became independent in 1947, its authorities arrested him because of his advocacy of the creation of an autonomous, if not independent, Pashtoonistan and because of their suspicions regarding his contacts with India. He made no secret of these contacts and of his love for India. When he was released after many years of his detention in the 1960s, he had the courage to openly visit India to renew his friendship with Indian leaders.

3.Ghaffar Khan was a leftist by ideology. The party founded by him is the only political formation in Pakistan, which is to the left of the political spectrum. It is secular and is strongly opposed to fundamentalism and wahabisation of the Muslim community in Pakistan.

4. The Frontier Gandhi was succeeded by Khan Abdul Wali Khan, his son, who was as great a lover of India as his father was. He was even more leftist than his father by conviction. He was very close to the erstwhile USSR and the then President Najibullah of Afghanistan. He openly used to visit India for a few weeks every year to meet Indian leaders, as well as Kabul as the personal guest of Najibullah. He was a strong critic of the jihad being waged by the US' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Afghanistan. He ignored with contempt a disinformation campaign mounted by the ISI against him projecting him as an Indian and Soviet agent.

5. There were only two Pashtun organisations----both equally moderate, equally enlightened, equally secular, equally friendly to India--- which strongly opposed the Afghan Mujahideen, the late Zia-ul-Haq's attempt to Wahabise the Pakistani society, the Taliban when it came into existence in 1964 and the trend towards the Talibanisation of the tribal belt of Pakistan under President Pervez Musharraf. The ANP is one of them. The Pakhtoonkwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) headed by Mahmood Khan Achakzai is another. The ANP's following is confined to the Pashtuns of the NWFP. The following of the PMAP is confined to the Pashtuns of Balochistan.

6. When Wali Khan was incapacitated due to old age and illness, he was succeeded by Afsandyar Wali Khan, his son, another moderate and secular-minded person, who has been strongly opposed to the Taliban. After the death of Wali Khan in 2006 , differences cropped up between Afsandyar Wali Khan and Naseem Wali Khan, one of the two wives of Wali Khan, who was the step-mother of Afsandyar. The Army and the ISI took advantage of these differences. As a result, the party has been weakened, but it continues to be as secular, as moderate, as leftist and as opposed to the Taliban as it has always been.

8. Unidentified jihadi terrorists targeted an election rally of the ANP held at village Nahaqi, near Peshawar, in the NWFP on February 8,2008, killing 27 members of the party through an improvised explosive device (IED), which is suspected to have been detonated by a suicide bomber. In accordance with the security advice of the police, the meeting was held in a closed place and not in a public place. The enclosure had been subjected to security checks by the police. Despite this, the bomber managed to gain entry with his concealed IED undetected by the Police. The enclosure was closed immediately after the meeting started. It is stated that a large crowd of ANP supporters found themselves locked out. They pressed those responsible to let them in so that they could attend the meeting. The door was opened and the waiting crowd entered without being subjected to security checks. It is suspected that the bomber must have entered along with them.

9. Afsandyar Wali Khan was not present at the meeting, but Afrasiab Khattak, one of the senior leaders of the party, was. He escaped reportedly unhurt. Afrasiab Khattak was very close to Najibullah and used to live in Afghanistan in the 1980s, when Najibullah was the President along with Ajmal Khattak, another senior leader of the party. Both of them returned to Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto became the Prime Minister in 1988.

10. No organisation has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack has come shortly after Baitullah Mehsud, the Amir of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, had announced an unilateral ceasefire in its operations against the Pakistani security forces---not only in the tribal areas, but also in the non-tribal areas. According to well-informed Police sources, this cease-fire announcement came after secret talks between the Pakistan Army and Serajuddin Haqqani, son of Jalalludin Haqqani, the Afghan Mujahideen leader, who belongs to the Neo Taliban led by Mulla Mohammad Omar. Serajuddin, for whom the US agencies have been hunting, is widely perceived as the mentor of Baitullah. According to these Police sources, the Pakistan Army is keen that the elections should be held as scheduled on February 18,2008, and hence had reached an informal cease-fire with Baitullah to prevent any disruption of the elections by the Mehsuds.

11. The fact that despite this cease-fire, the ANP election rally was attacked shows that either Baitullah has not been able to enforce the cease-fire or that other organisations such as the ant-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) do not feel themselves bound by this cease-fire and are determined to disrupt the elections at least in the NWFP, if not elsewhere.

12. There have also been indications that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is not as united behind Baitullah as it is perceived to be. Even as Baitullah's followers were fighting fiercely against the Pakistani security forces in South Waziristan and the Darra Adam Khel-Kohat area of the NWFP, the leaders and cadres of the Tehrik in North Waziristan and the Bajaur Agency were observing an informal cease-fire.

13. The ceasefire with the Mehsud component of the Tehrik does not necessarily guarantee that the elections will not be subject to serious disruptions. That is the message from the attack on the ANP rally.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)

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Another Jihadi Attack on Frontier Gandhi's Party - International Terrorism Monitor---Paper No. 368

http://southasiaanalysis.org/papers26/paper2584.html

By B. Raman

Ten persons, including some leaders of the Awami National Party (ANP) founded by the late Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, known as Frontier Gandhi, were killed in North Waziristan on February 11, 2008, when a suicide bomber, estimated to be 17 years old, blew himself up near an election rally held at Eedak village near Mirali held in support of a local candidate for the forthcoming elections to the Pakistan National Assembly on February 18, 2008. According to the US authorities, Al Qaeda and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) are operating from sanctuaries in the Mirali area.

2. While Al Qaeda, the IMU and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan cadres in North Waziristan have been observing an informal ceasefire against the Pakistani security forces in the area, they have been targeting the leaders and cadres of the ANP and their supporters in the local Dawar sub-tribe, who have been strongly critical of the presence and activities of foreign terrorists in the Pashtun homeland. In fact, the ANP has persuaded some of the Dawars to form a Lashkar (self-defence force) to protect the ANP leaders and to counter the foreign terrorists. While the ANP has been strongly critical of the foreign terrorists as well as the Americans and the Pakistan Army for misusing the Pashtun homeland for their attacks on each other, Al Qaeda and the IMU suspect that the ANP, which is secular and anti-Wahabi, has been passing on information to the Americans about the sanctuaries of Al Qaeda and the IMU in the Pashtun belt.

3. Among those killed in the suicide attack were Haji Anwar Shah, President of the North Waziristan branch of the ANP, and Bakhtiar Khan Zeraki, President of the Mirali branch of the ANP. Nisar Ali Khan, the candidate for the election, reportedly escaped with minor injuries. Political parties are not allowed to contest elections in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Only independents can. But most independents are indirectly supported by some Party or the other. Nisar Ali Khan belongs to the ANP, but he is projecting himself as an independent. Local ANP leaders as well as ANP leaders from the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) have been canvassing for him.

4. For information on the Dawars, please visit http://ramanspashtunbeltdatabase.blogspot.com/

Source: http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2008/02/why-secular-pashtuns-are-targeted.html
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Allama Iqbal, Bacha Khan and terrorists - Suroosh Irfani

Iqbal, Bacha Khan and terrorists —Suroosh Irfani

It might well be that the heartless war our homegrown jihadis and Afghan Taliban are waging against Pakistan exemplifies Islam’s dangerous inversion that Iqbal had warned against some three generations ago. Such inversion has virtually displaced Bacha Khan and Iqbal’s spiritual humanism by a jihadi extremism at war with humanity

“Muslims are at war with one another, in their hearts they only harbor schism. They cry out if someone else pulls a brick out of a mosque which they themselves shun” — Allama Iqbal, Armaghan e Hijaz (verse translated by Mustansir Mir)



When Muhammad Iqbal, the ‘spiritual founder of Pakistan’, wrote the above verses shortly before his death in 1938, the blowing up of mosques and beheadings of fellow Muslims had not yet become part of everyday Muslim life. Nor was the destruction of schools, or the ban on girls’ education and music part of a freedom struggle that led to the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947.

Indeed, by the 1930s when Iqbal’s Islamic rethink had earned him the appellations of ‘Poet of Islam’ and ‘Wiseman of the Ummah’, non-violence was shaping the freedom struggle against British rule in much of India. While Gandhi was emblematic of such a struggle, shades of non-violence also permeated Muslim political discourse. Such a discourse was as much in evidence in the ‘martial’ North West Frontier Province — the cradle of jihadi terror in Pakistan today — as the rest of India.

However, as Britain started discussing India’s future in a series of Round Table Conferences during the 1930s, Iqbal was apprehensive that Britain might “transfer political authority to the Hindus” for its “material benefits”, leaving Muslims marginalised in India. Such a development, he warned, could be “disastrous...You will drive the Indian Muslims to use the same weapon against the [Hindu] Government...as Gandhi did against the British Government.” (Iqbal’s Letter to Sir Francis Younghusband, The Civil and Military Gazette, July 31, 1931).

Clearly, his poetics of Muslim ascendancy notwithstanding, non-violence for Iqbal was integral to India’s democratic experiment as it “educated people...without destroying the structures of government itself”.

However, as the Round Table Conferences continued in London, the NWFP was swept by a populist upsurge for social reform and political rights never before seen in Muslim history: a non-violent movement led by Pashtun leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, just after his return from Haj in 1929. Called the Servants of God Movement (Khudai Khidmatgar Tehreek), it reflected the onset of a radical transformation in popular imagination in a tribal culture, where violence constituted mutual deterrence under the rubric of ‘badla’, or revenge.

Convinced that Pashtun would be denied their rightful place in the modern world so long as they remained mired in colonialism, poverty and violence, Ghaffar Khan struggled to undo the triple curse by invoking non-violence as “the weapon of the Prophet Muhammad [PBUH]” and the driving spirit of his movement. The Prophet’s [PBUH] non-violence, Khan argued, exemplified “patience and righteousness”, and so long as the Servants of God remained true to the Prophet’s [PBUH] example, no power on earth could subdue them.

Consequently, as social and educational reforms of the Servants of God began transforming lives, people hailed the saintly Khan as a ‘saviour king’ — Bacha Khan.

Indeed, one could say that the spiritual politics of servanthood that Bacha Khan invoked in the name of God and the Prophet [PBUH] was, at one level, the social corollary of an ideal that Iqbal espoused in his poetry. In Javid Nama, Iqbal’s magnum opus reflecting the creative imagination of a new Muslim consciousness, he expounds the mystical meanings of the concept of servanthood as a deepening of consciousness with diverse expressions, its high point being the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as His servant, abday’hu.

In a sense, while Bacha Khan and Iqbal stood at opposite ends of Indian politics — the former struggled for a united India, the latter for Muslim separation — they exemplified different facets of the same discourse of non-violence. This is borne out by an inner vision of Iqbal that inspired him to write Armaghan e Hijaz — his last poetic work composed in both Persian and Urdu.

In the vision late one night, a tall saintly figure appeared in Iqbal’s room, emphatically urged him to raise a grouping of 500 men, and then disappeared in the night, leaving the ‘Poet of the East’ deeply shaken. It is worth noting that Iqbal’s vision occurred in a political context, when several radical Indian Muslims were secretly crossing over to Afghanistan to organise armed struggle against the British Indian government. Given such context, did the vision imply that Iqbal, too, should raise an army of 500 holy warriors for jihad against the British?

Iqbal discussed the vision with his father, a Sufi of the Qadiriya order, who interpreted it as a call for writing a poetic work of 500 verses to educate Muslims and deepen their humanity. As Faqir Wahiddudin notes in his biography of Iqbal (Rozgar e Faqir, p.117), the truth of the father’s interpretation was borne out when Iqbal composed Armaghan e Hijaz. Comprising just over 500 verses, the work unfolds with an allusion to Iqbal’s vision: here Iqbal declares that he is “raising a new army of Love”, to counter a dangerous revolt that’s brewing against the heart of Islam from within.

It might well be that the heartless war our homegrown jihadis and Afghan Taliban are waging against Pakistan exemplifies Islam’s dangerous inversion that Iqbal had warned against some three generations ago. Such inversion has virtually displaced Bacha Khan and Iqbal’s spiritual humanism by a jihadi extremism at war with humanity.

Clearly, Pakistan’s survival as a modern democratic state is hinged on healing an inner Muslim split that has turned Iqbal’s dream state into a nightmare. Such healing entails, on the one hand, an urgent recovery of Iqbal and Bacha Khan’s spiritual politics; and on the other hand, rethinking of a flawed security outlook that sees India as mortal enemy and Taliban as strategic asset.

Indeed, the “strategic renaissance” the Pakistan Army needs for reclaiming the NWFP from Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, as Lt-Gen (retd) Talat Masood has pointed out, will remain elusive without Iqbal and Bacha Khan’s presence as a cultural force.

Suroosh Irfani is an educator and writer based in Lahore. He can be reached at suroosh@yahoo.com

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Militants in Swat: Can we negotiate with them from a position of weakness?

No, a thousand times no!

Tuesday, 24 Feb, 2009

Taliban militants holds several men prisoner in Swat in this file photo. - Reuters

YOU never negotiate from a position of weakness: not in business; not in banking; not while making real estate deals; and certainly not when dealing with cold-blooded killers who think nothing of slaughtering defenceless old men and women and hanging their carcasses from electric poles in the main squares of the towns and villages which that night face their wrath.

The government of the Frontier, Pakhtunkhwa, call it what you will; and the Government of Pakistan, including their agencies both covert and overt, have cravenly given in to the murderous thugs who have brought so much pain and misery to Swat; who have made its once pristine rivers run red with innocent blood. They have given the mullah the proverbial inch; as said in this same space last week, just wait until he demands a thousand miles, and more.

Those that write that the situation was so bad in Swat that there was no other way but to make a deal with Maulvi Sufi Mohammad, who would in turn make a deal with his son-in-law Mullah Fazlullah (aka Mullah Radio), and that the crowds that came onto the roads to welcome Sufi’s caravan testified to the fact that the deal was a good thing, should think again. For the deal is unravelling before our very eyes.

On the very day after the so-called deal was signed young Musa Khankhel, a journalist, was brutally shot in broad daylight; three days later the newly appointed DCO of Swat was kidnapped along with his half-a-dozen guards and some hours later exchanged for two Taliban with a third release promised impendingly. Already, the Waziristan Taliban have formed a ‘Shura Ittehadul Mujahideen’, to wage jihad “in an organised manner”.

The Taliban commanders who have united under one banner are Hafiz Gul Bahadur of North Waziristan; Maulvi Nazir of Wana, and our old friend Baitullah Mehsud of South Waziristan. According to news from Miranshah the three have declared President Barack Obama, Hamid Karzai and Asif Zardari ‘infidels’. An aside: if this is not a wake-up call, Mr President, what will be, for you to make up with the other big political party, the PML-N, and face the country’s enemies, which includes the establishment, together?

This is not all. In a clear, and alarming, sign that it is in a state of utter denial, the agency which was given the responsibility for combating the now victorious insurgents, and which failed all ends up to do its duty, is once more flexing its muscles in another worthless show of fake bravado. The ISPR has the gall to say that the “military option was still open if the Swat peace deal failed”.

Nor is this all. It has the brass to say that it needs “modern equipment” which would not only “enhance the efficiency of the armed forces [read Pakistan Army!], but also help reduce collateral damage”. What absolute poppycock is this, sirs? Just WHAT modern equipment are you asking for? More artillery pieces and helicopter gunships that were your favourite weapons while you were making feeble attempts to ‘fight’ the Taliban? No artillery gun or helicopter gunship that will reduce collateral damage has yet been invented.

The only way to limit collateral damage is when you physically ‘contact’ the enemy at close quarters. Not once has this tactic been used by the army in Swat, or anywhere else in the Frontier.

The extent of the failure of the Pakistan state and its great army is frighteningly alarming. The ineptness shown defies description and the refusal to even now accept its shortcomings and improve is extremely disquieting, nay distressing.

Swat was/is not the only ‘theatre’ in which the army has shown it is unequal to the task. Please consider the daily attacks on the main supply route we have offered to the Americans/Nato through the Khyber Pass. Think back to the photographs of the bridge most recently blown up, in place of which army engineers quickly put up a temporary structure capable of handling the supply-carrying vehicles.

Clearly seen in the background and barely a few hundred feet away is a picket post: little fort-like buildings for accommodations for up to a platoon of soldiers that dot the Khyber Pass, indeed all the passes leading into the Frontier and Balochistan. It was once said that these pickets were so located that each of them either had a water source of its own or was near enough one from where donkeys or mules could carry the water up to it — therefore the term ‘mule-tank’. It was said too that using heliograms, messages could be relayed for hundreds of miles, from picket to picket, warning of impending danger.

I digress. The question to ask is if the picket seen behind the blown-up bridge was manned; and if it was not, why not? WHY this lackadaisical approach to everything, even tried and tested standard operating procedures? It is galling in the extreme to me as an old soldier when I see that the most basic tactics of operating in an insurrectional situation are not employed.

It angers me no end when I hear people who should know nothing of our country and its people’s ways, lecture us that our troops, particularly the Frontier Corps, don’t know how to fight an insurrection. If the Tochi Scouts don’t know tribal warfare who does, for God’s sake? If the Kurram Militia doesn’t know, who does? US Navy Seals?

If only our brass-hats gave more time to training their commands than they give to running housing colonies and factories and bakeries and tikka joints and tarting up their cantonments.

This deal should never have been made. It is the thin end of the wedge. Punjab is already under attack: Mianwali has had two police posts blown up and that poor Polish geologist who was then duly beheaded, was taken from Attock. We will rue the day. And now for the harsh words spoken by an increasingly distressed Nawaz Sharif.

Asif Zardari should even now do the right thing and, in keeping with the Charter of Democracy and his own promises, immediately ask his party to move the 18th Amendment removing all the undemocratic changes to our constitution made by the Commando. Who, by the way, has some gall too, smoking his fat Cohiba on television and lecturing us angrily. The man should be held to account for his many crimes, chief among which is the near destruction of the Pakistan Army.

Asif should also know that having Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif disqualified through the courts will only make him look worse, and make them ever more popular.

P.S. The same crowds would have come out on to Swat’s roads had the Frontier government moved itself and all its minions to Saidu Sharif to govern from there. What good now to distribute 30,000 rifles among the villagers?! Poppycock again. (Dawn)

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Militants in Swat

Tuesday, 24 Feb, 2009

TTP is looking to carve out a place for itself in the future set-up from which it can ensure its relevance and safety.—AP

The kidnapping of the Swat district coordination officer by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan is an indication of just how rocky the road to peace in the area is. Muslim Khan, the TTP’s spokesman in Swat, initially denied the DCO had been taken hostage but later admitted to having swapped the official and his bodyguards for militants in state custody.

This was not the only transgression by the TTP in recent days: several locals belonging to the ANP have also been kidnapped from Mingora. Given that Maulana Fazlullah’s militants have declared a 10-day ceasefire and are engaged in peace talks with Sufi Mohammad, the kidnappings suggest the militants remain conflicted about peace in the region.

At the very least, it can be surmised that Maulana Fazlullah has been wrong-footed by the government’s pledge to implement Sharia in the region more effectively. The TTP commander has acknowledged that the new regulation is in line with what the militants have been demanding, but what he can’t say is that their agenda goes beyond simply introducing a better legal system, and includes territorial control.

Having camouflaged their fight against the state as a quest for justice, now that the state has acted to strip away the militants’ fig leaf they are resorting to accusing the state of artifice and deceit. ‘The government violated the (ceasefire) agreement by arresting our men in Peshawar and killing one in Dir. Therefore, we had to do this,’ Muslim Khan has said, justifying the kidnapping of the DCO.

In the days ahead, the TTP may well keep upping its demands and imposing new conditions for peace that the state will find difficult to accept. Top of that list would be the withdrawal of all troops from Swat and the release of all militants in state custody.

From the TTP’s point of view there is an additional problem: ensuring their personal safety once normality returns to Swat. After beheading and killing and maiming with frightening savagery for the past two years, the militants have made many enemies among the locals; remaining there in peace time will almost certainly invite revenge attacks.

So if this is really the endgame of militancy in Swat, the TTP is looking to carve out a place for itself in the future set-up from which it can ensure its relevance and safety. Hence the mixed signals of talking peace while reminding everyone of their capacity for violence.

However, the state must remain firm: legitimate demands for a better justice system should be met but control of the area should be taken back and the terror infrastructure dismantled. Sufi Mohammad’s call yesterday for the militants to end their violence, not interfere in the administration of Swat and accept a phased introduction of legal changes is the way ahead. It remains to be seen if the TTP will acquiesce. (Dawn)

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A resident of Swat writes: What the people of Swat really wanted

What the people of Swat really wanted

Tuesday, February 24, 2009 Lakhkar Khan The writer is a resident of Swat who had to flee his home and is currently living in Lahore. The Feb 16 agreement hasresulted in the planned promulgation of the Nizam-e-Adl regulation in Malakand division, in which Swat district is situated. The government's plea is that this is the demand of the people of Malakand division. However, those who made this announcement – in particular the ANP chief minister Amir Haider Hoti – should know that the people of Malakand division voted in favour not of Sharia but for secular, nationalist and democratic parties in the general elections of 2008. The fact of the matter is that the ANP and the PPP contested the election on the stand that they would fight to eliminate terrorism and extremism, so it is a bit ironic that both parties have now done just the opposite. They failed to face the situation in Swat and have gone down on bended knees before the extremists. The people of Buner, Shangla, Malakand, Lower and Upper Dir and Chitral never voted for the implementation of Sharia and did not rise up against the state for its implementation. In Buner people actually went after and killed some of the militants, and rose together as one against the extremists. And as a result of this, the militants killed over 40 people in one village of Buner alone as revenge. Despite this the people of the area never surrendered to the extremists, so they are going to be right in wondering that if they did not surrender, why has the government done just that? They ask why the state, despite having all the resources to nip this evil in the bud, chose to yield to the extremists. Sufi Mohammad, someone who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of young men of Malakand, was inexplicably released from prison and his crimes of the past were conveniently forgiven. He is the very person who in 1994 challenged the writ of the state to the extent that his followers killed security personnel and even an MPA. This happened in Swat and Dir but the then Sherpao government ruling the NWFP for some reason withdrew all charges against Sufi Mohammad and his colleagues. In 2001, he declared jihad against the US in Afghanistan and took several thousand of his followers there to fight. Sufi Mohammed led these young men to their deaths in Afghanistan, and was the first to leave the battlefield together with his close followers when the American B-52 bombers came. Hundred of the others who went with him lost their lives and hundreds are still missing. On his return, the political agent of Kurram Agency imprisoned him under the Frontier Crimes Regulations and that was when his son-in-law, Fazlullah, filled the gap and established a foothold in Swat. Strange are the way of politics in this country because one day someone is a killer and the next day he is labelled as a hero – and this is done by parties that claim to be the most secular and democratic in the country. As for Fazlullalh, we all know what he did and continues to do. He challenged the state's authority and his followed killed police constables, and army and paramilitary personnel in a most brutal manner. His group bombed schools and bridges, as well as the houses and hujras of many who tried to stand up to them. They deliberately targeted social, political and moderate religious figures and journalists in the district and many were killed and the rest compelled to leave Swat. Hundreds of thousands of people, like myself, were dislodged from their homes, and had to flee Swat. Most are now living a miserable life in other areas of Pakistan, and despite the so-called peace deal they are not sure if they can return to their homes. Not only were people's lives and property were destroyed, the region's whole economy was devastated by the terrorists. Fruit orchards went to waste because people were too afraid to work in the fields, and local businesses suffered immensely because tourism vanished. Over 2,000 innocent people, including many women and children, were killed and thousands were disabled and wounded in indiscriminate shelling and firing by security forces and the militants. As a result of the barbaric actions of Fazlullah and his followers, the centuries-old soft image of Swat and its inhabitants, based on its rich heritage dating back to its Buddhist and Swat-state eras, was lost forever. Did the government consider all this when it chose to capitulate to the extremists? What the people of Swat wanted was for the government to ensure that those behind all these murders and mayhem are held accountable for their crimes. This brutality and carnage will not be forgotten easily by the people of Swat. It has taken its toll not just in physical terms but also on the mental wellbeing of the people of the area whose minds have been scarred. The mental health of women and children in particularly has been damaged by the actions of the militants and the incessant violence that they indulged in. It is abominable that the government is actually now going to declare a general amnesty for Fazullah and his men, people who are directly responsible for all these deaths and atrocities that were inflicted on the people of Swat in the last two years. In this instance I would like to quote from one of this newspaper's recent editorials following the so-called peace deal. "Fazlullah's numerous acts of violence, his attempts to stifle learning and the way in which he targeted the most vulnerable citizens, show that he indeed cares nothing for Islam – a religion that advocates kindness for the oppressed, emphasises the significance of learning and lays down rules of respect for women, for minorities and even for enemies…. It seems obvious the ignorant forces of Fazlullah seek only power and are willing to use any means to obtain this." This is precisely what the people of Swat think of Fazlullah and his men, but for obvious reasons were not able to articulate or demonstrate in public. And what is the end result now? What is one to make of this deal? That Fazlullah has emerged victorious. And that both the federal and provincial governments are taking credit for the promulgation of Sharia in Swat. As for the people, they see this as nothing but an abject surrender to the forces of obscurantism and darkness, a surrender which presents a bleak future for the people of the area. Sufi Mohammed is now the officially-sanctioned saviour of the people, but what about the people themselves? They have lost everything and gained nothing. And I say this because the deal gives them nothing in terms of holding accountable all those who killed, butchered and slaughtered hundreds of Swatis. Who will heal their bleeding hearts and souls? Certainly not this agreement. The fear is that the militants will not remain confined to Malakand but will demand the same deal in the settled areas of the NWFP and in FATA as well. And they will use the same tactics and brutal force against the security forces and the people as they did in Swat. What will our politicians do then? Will they bow before them again? Or will they exercise the state's authority? It shouldn't take too long to wonder what the likely option will be, keeping in mind the Swat experience. The people of Swat ask why the state is silent, rather than ensuring their rights, and why it treats those who are murderers and criminals and those who took up arms against the state as born-again heroes. They ask why this is done. What message is sent to those who abide by the law and want to have nothing to do with these militants and born-again heroes? The people of Swat also say that financial compensation as is being announced by the government will not help heal the wounds. But what will is an independent high-level judicial probe into what happened in Swat, followed by accountability of those involved in the killings and violence. This is what the agreement should really be providing them – not the space and the legitimacy to the militants which is what they think has happened. (The News) Email: lakhkarkhan51@yahoo.com

Also read:

Dialogue with Taliban not an option - Farhat Taj

An analysis of drone / missile attacks on Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in Pakistan's tribal areas. March-Nov 2008... Dawn, BBC, Daily Times Reports

Farhat Taj: A survey of Drone Attacks in Pakistan. What do the people of FATA think?

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Two divergent perspectives on the Swat deal with Taliban....

Two perspectives on the Swat agreement with Taliban. The first one is by a pro-Taliban right-wing journalist Ansar Abbasi. The second op-ed by Kamal Siddiqi offers a critical, dialectical analysis of the situation on ground.

Does the Swat deal promise peace or more conflict?

In the national interest Monday, February 23, 2009 by Kamal Siddiqi The writer is editor reporting, The News The deal between the government and the Tehreek-e-Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi has drawn a variety of responses from within the country and abroad. Stakeholders have welcomed the move in some quarters while in others there has been outright condemnation. Our well meaning but clueless politicians have hailed it as a major political initiative of the president. One wonders whether this is indeed the case. Generally, many people in the valley have welcomed the deal. Most have done so not on the merit of the agreement but more in the hope that it will bring peace. The people of Swat are shaken. The daily toll of beheaded bodies in Green Chowk in Mingora, which has been renamed “Zibah-Khana Chowk,” continues. There are unsubstantiated stories of assault of women in parts of Swat, which only add to the sense of anger and frustration. People do not talk against the Taliban or the extremists in public for fear of being targeted. The area has become a state within a state. Some allege that the army targets civilians more than it does the Taliban. These are things on which one cannot comment much, only wonder. There is fear and there is anger. In reaction to the peace deal, many people not living in the valley have rejected it, saying that the government has capitulated to extremist elements. They say that this may have a snowballing effect on the area as more and more parts of the NWFP are given to the Taliban or other forces. The deal, they argue, will bring more violence in the long run. While there can be much debate on the merits of entering into any such agreement, one thing that is clear is that the peace deal is not an open-and-shut affair. The government wants us to believe that it is the beginning of the state of normalcy to the area. One can only hope that this is so. There are many questions that remain unanswered. The NWFP chief minister has said in a press conference in Peshawar that it was a historic deal and one that is the first step to normalcy. He was clearly upset with the questioning of the reporters. It seemed he too was not altogether convinced of the merits of this move. For his part, President Zardari has said that it should not be seen as a sign of weakness for the government. But some weeks back we had been told that there would be no compromise. And yet, now we seem to be seeing the same. As things stand it seems that the answers are not forthcoming. For starters, why has the government entered into a deal with a group that has been advocating and allegedly practicing violence as a means to an end for so long? Were these persons part of the senseless killings that took place there over the past couple of years? Should we be negotiating with those who promoted violent means while all along we have said we will talk only to those who talk peace? What message are we giving to the peace-mongers? In this deal that has come to be, the families of victims, and there are quite a few, are within their right to ask the government how those who killed someone’s near and dear ones will be brought to justice. They would like to know what the status of these murders will be and will they ever be investigated to bring the perpetrators to justice. Take, for example, the killers of Shabana, a wedding dancer. Her throat was slit and her body left as an example to others. Will her murderers be allowed to go scot free? Hundreds of policemen, government servants and private citizens were shot, injured, terrorised or killed. What happens to those who did this? This whole peace agreement sets a bad example for others if there is no provision to bring to justice those who bombed, killed, attacked and maimed. In this manner, it encourages others who are following the same violent path and who, inevitably, will also end up signing deals with the government. The deal gives them a clean slate. The issue of killings and accountability for actions past and present should have featured in the final agreement. Another point is why the government negotiated from a position of weakness when all along it has been claiming that it was in a position of strength. The wording of the agreement clearly shows that the government has gone out of the way not to offend the other side and committed to things that should not have been conceded. Another pertinent matter is whether the TNSM has the ability to deliver in the areas it has promised. Will Maulvi Sufi Mohommad be able to convince Maulvi Fazlullah to lay down his arms? Does the TNSM have the strength to silence the Taliban outfits in the valley, and, if not, how will it help the government do so? From the tragic killing of our colleague, Musa Khankhel, and the other attacks and bombings following the signing of the agreement, what seems apparent is that not everyone is on board. The killing of Musa Khankhel is a clear signal to the government that there are still many within Swat who want to escalate the violence. Will we let them do so? For the government, the biggest issue is not only whether the deal can be honoured but what happens if it breaks down. Who guarantees such deals and what are the penalties for violations? Even more pertinent is the question as to who would punish the parties that break the agreement and what would be the parameters of the punishment. Then there is the issue of the implementation of the Islamic laws and the appointment of judicial officers. Merely changing the titles from Judge to Qazi will not satisfy the hardliners. Who will arrest, sentence and accord the punishment. This is all up in the air. For Pakistanis, the more pressing issue is how the government has allowed a different system of justice within the country. One can only wonder at what this will do to further complicate the search for justice for the common man. It is clear that while the stipulation of a time frame will help ensure speedy justice, how will this judicial system work within the larger framework? These are questions that the people of Swat would want to ask. Another logical worry for the people of Swat Valley is whether the peace will last. For most Western countries as well as regional powers, there is a fear that this deal is yet another attempt by the extremists to buy time and cut their losses. As a bonus, they have managed to secure a sweetheart deal from the government. One can ask, and rightly so, what the long-term objectives of the militants and the religious extremists are. If we look at the history of these deals, it is clear that they are a stopgap arrangement, in many instances, a tactic to buy time or to focus on another operation. There are fears that this deal will allow the militants to focus once again on cross-border activities. What we do know is that the army operation, despite the collateral damage, was hitting hard at the militants. But at the same time, there were many in Swat who were saying that things were not as clear as they are made out to be. Who do we believe and whose side are we on? Finally, what is the game plan of the government? It says one thing but does another. We will continue to suffer from such ad hocism or will we follow a more long-drawn-out option which will give us results in many years, but these would be such that are long-lasting and durable. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, an important player on the NWFP political scene, says that the proposed implementation of Shariah laws in Swat conveys to the world that legislation is not acceptable through democratic process but through use of force. That seems to be the crux of the matter. (The News) Email: kamal.siddiqi@thenews.com.pk

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Abdul: Peace deal in Swat - An Analysis

تعميرپاکستان

Taliban in uniform

Taliban in civil dress

Here are my two cents in regards to the current situation in Swat:

1. The success or failure of the current agreement between the NWFP Government and the TNSM/Taliban should be defined by its 'intended' outcomes. The situation will be much clearer in the next few weeks. It may be noted that previously a similar peace deal by Mushararraf with the Taliban in Waziristan failed because Musharraf double-crossed both the USA and the Pakistani nation in order to safeguard the interests of the ISI. In my view, the strategic depth syndrome (re General Zia, Hamid Gul, Mushy, Kayani) is very much alive and kicking.
2. TTP, TSNM, other jihadi and sectarian organizations are fully entitled to claim victory in the shape of this so-called shariat peace deal. However, the victory was planned and engineered in the ISI headquarters, not in Swat or FATA.
3. The success of the military operation was dependent on the willingness and sincerity of the most powerful stakeholder, i.e. Pakistan Army /ISI. That will was simply lacking. The loss of low ranking soldiers, civilians, Talibs was accepted as collateral damage/ cannon fodder/ minor sacrifice in hope of much bigger jihadi gains.
4. Indeed, the TTP will use this time to further reinforce their terrorist (wrongly known as jihadi) capabilities.

Here are some quick references / worth reading articles:

Implications of the Swat deal —Najmuddin A Shaikh

Amir Mir: Peace deal in Swat a high-risk affair

ANP deal with TNSM in Swat: What do ordinary Pakistanis think?

Will the Taliban be answerable to Shariat Courts? An analysis by Abdul Haye Kakar, BBC Urdu dot com:

Who controls Swat? Report on BBC Urdu dot com:

Finally, the bigger picture, this warning by Mr. Holbrooke:

Mr. Holbrooke, you got it right. Pakistan's No. 1 challenge is to control its rogue army, particularly the ISI-Taliban alliance...

Which explains why new alliances are being forged:

The ISI forges the Taliban alliance in Waziristan against the war on terror...

For a change of taste, this piece by a right-wing journalist, Ansar Abbasi:

Ansar Abbasi: Indian agents to be wiped out from Swat

In the end, a few questions for critical readers:

1. In your view, why could not our army jam/eliminate the FM radio stations used by terrorists?
2. Why could not they locate and eliminate terrorists and their leaders, e.g. Baitullah Mehsud and Molvi Omar in Waziristan, and Mullah Fazlullah and Muslim Khan in Swat, who conduct regular media briefings, conduct shariat courts and administer 'swift justice' on regular basis.
3. Why were so many schools destroyed during the military curfew in Swat?
4. If this army could not save Swat from a ragtag force of 2000 to 5000, how could it save us from India or the USA? (By that standard, it seems that Indian Army has shown much better performance in Kashmir.)

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