Govt’s about turn on truce with Taliban
ADVISOR on Interior Rehman Malik, who is playing shots these days on
the security front, has disappointed people of Pakistan by categorically
stating that troops would not be withdrawn from the tribal areas and
that talks cannot and would not be held with ‘militants’.
It is quite obvious that the Government has been forced to take a U-turn
on these issues because of unrelenting pressure from the United States
and other Western countries having stakes in the neighbouring
Afghanistan. The countries that have their troops in Afghanistan want
Pakistan to kill its own people and do their dirty job with a view to
creating comfortable conditions for their occupation troops. However,
this is contrary to the wishes and aspirations of the people of Pakistan
in general and people of FATA region in particular, who wanted early
normalcy in the area through a peace process. The provincial Government
of ANP which got mandate of the people in the recent elections made
categorical assurances to the electorate during electioneering to bring
to an end the military action and instead resolve the problem through
dialogue. The party made headway in initial days and its policy had the
backing of the Federal Government. The success of the policy can be
gauged by the fact that there had been no suicide bombings and other
bloody incidents in the province or other parts of the country for
weeks. No doubt, the US, which has been trying to subvert the process by
frequently indulging in drones’ attacks, had objections to the soft
approach of the new Government but one expected of Prime Minister Gilani
to have convinced the US President about rationale of the policy.
However, it appears that instead of convincing the other side, the Prime
Minister himself was made to change his policy as is reflected by the
latest statement of the Advisor on Interior. It is strange that
Pakistan, which has suffered a lot because of its dominant role in the
American-led war on terror, is being viewed with suspicion by its
Western partners. No one is asking the Government to hold talks with
foreign militants, who must be expelled through every means but one
fails to understand the logic of not holding talks with ‘militants’. If
you are not willing to talk to the other party to the conflict then what
purpose you are going to achieve by talking to ordinary people? The
democratically elected Government must keep sensitivities of the people
in view, find an acceptable way out and should not give in to foreign
pressure so easily. |
