Daily Times editorial Jan 2, 2013

Talking to the TTP Ever since the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) came out with its ‘talks’ offer, there has been a lot of perambulating around whether the right approach to tackling the terrorists is to talk or fight. The problem with the debate is that it is not focused on what the TTP have actually offered. Stripped to its essentials, they are asking the Pakistani state and society to surrender to their outlandish demands for reformulating the constitution and laws according to their definition of an Islamic Emirate and all it stands for. This is a ‘vision’ in which anyone dissenting from their narrow, rigid, literalist and oppressive interpretation of Islam would be subject to being killed without further ado. This threat is extended to all Muslims, particularly Shias, arguably Barelvis, and the followers of the Sufi tradition of the subcontinent. It would also pulverise the religious minorities such as Christians, Hindus, Ahmedis, amongst others, not to mention women and their rights. That is why the initial response from government quarters was to reject the ‘ultimatum’ out of hand. But the issue refuses to go away, a reflection of the confused and divided state of mind in the polity and society. These ‘creatures’ are not open to reason or logic. They wish to dictate their antediluvian agenda at gunpoint. It is interesting therefore to consider what ANP leader Asfandyar Wali Khan said the other day while addressing a reference in Peshawar for slain leader of the party Bashir Bilour. His argument was that the first option for ANP was talks with the TTP and not military action against them. To make the olive branch more palatable to the TTP, he says his party does not insist on the prior laying down of arms by the TTP but simply for them to renounce violence and adopt the path of dialogue. If, says Asfandyar, this does not yield the desired results, then the option of force could and should be considered. Interior Minister Rehman Malik too has voiced similar sentiments, but with a little bit more steel in his threat to use force if the TTP does not renounce violence. The ANP may be relying on the ‘successful’ strategy they adopted in the case of the Swat militants, offering talks and a peace agreement before being overtaken by the military offensive that cleared the valley of the malign and terrifying influence of the Taliban. But this is the surface view of the experience in Swat. The fact is that the ANP negotiators, at gunpoint, ceded almost all the writ of the state to the militants, including Islamic courts and the implementation of the militants’ version of Sharia. It is only when the militants, not content with their ‘victory’, continued with their oppressive practices and made the life of the people of Swat even more miserable that the authorities, with the help of the military, took them on and wiped out their ‘rule’ in Swat. Lingering influences and sporadic infiltration back into the valley by the militants on the run from Swat do not refute, in fact reinforce the logic of the terrorists’ mindset: accept all we want or nothing. How can anyone ‘negotiate' with such an ultimatum? The TTP wants nothing but the complete surrender of the state and society to their oppressive rule, and they are prepared to go to great lengths to impose this on the people at the point of a bayonet. The minuet being played out between the TTP and the government and its allied party the ANP in terms of conditionalities and counter-conditionalities regarding talks is more rhetorical than real. The TTP are not amenable to rationality. Their demands, representing a minority opinion at best, are unacceptable to the state, society and people of Pakistan. Logically then, the only option that makes any sense is for the TTP to be taken down and this existential threat to the country wiped out forever. Of course their narrative in the political discourse needs to be combated too in order to clear the confusion they have sowed amongst misguided sections of the public and the media. Bu the bottom line is that without military means, supported and boosted by good intelligence work, there is no way out of the cul de sac the TTP wants to push Pakistan into.