Pakistan Is Still In Dilemma Over War On Terror
Muhammad Khurshid
April 07, 2009
Pakistan has been still facing problem in finalising the plan for elimination of terrorism. Rulers of Pakistan have still been playing the double game. This is the reason that they are unseccessful in the war on terror. Pakistani establishment is divided into two groups, the one is supporting terrorism and the other one is fighting war against terrorism. This double standard of the rulers have put the very integrity of Pakistan into danger. The Pakistan Army is trying to eliminate terrorism, but there are still some politicians who are playing game on the war on terrorism.
According to media reports, Federal Minister Najmuddin Khan, hailing from Upper Dir area, says Malakand division needs return of peace at all costs. He proposed to the political and human rights activists, protesting against flogging of a girl in a Swat village, to come forward and start a peace march towards Malakand and share sufferings of people.
In other words, he conveyed that NGOs should refrain from exploiting the flogging issue.
According to him, exploiters were causing more damage to Pakistan than the perpetrators of indefensible event. He kept things blurred and didn´t come up with a clear-cut stand on the issue. ´Pervasive lawlessness is a challenge for the government. We want to end it peacefully,´ he said.
Khan, provincial general secretary of Pakistan People´s Party, said this while talking to journalists at his party´s provincial secretariat in Hayatabad on Monday. Khan too questioned the accuracy of the video clippings telecast by different TV channels.
For us, peace is priority. We want our people to be repatriated to their homes,´ he said cautiously.
He didn´t use any bitter words against the Taliban, the virtual rulers of Swat and responsible for the destruction of girls and boys schools in the violence-hit valley.
Similarly, Awami National Party, leading NWFP coalition government, has smelt a rat in the entire flogging issue and termed it handiwork of a ´third party´ trying to derail the peace process.
Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Swat chapter of Taliban, has surprisingly endorsed the ANP´s stand on the horrifying issue. He held his maiden press conference and denied occurrence of the incident. He dubbed it a fake exercise, aiming at to malign Taliban, struggling for enforcement of Islamic laws in Swat.
For ANP, it is a matter of life and death to bring peace back to the area and isolate hawks amongst Taliban. The ANP has paid a huge price for it in the form of target-killing of its office-bearers and workers across the valley. It wants to keep its present alliance intact with Maulana Sufi Mohammad of the TNSM, who brokered a peace accord between the government and Taliban.
The fate of peace accord hinges on the endorsement of Nizam-i-Adl Regulation by the President, who has yet not approved it,´ says Mukhtar Bacha of National Party.
He says the ANP has left with no other way, but to keep Taliban busy in peace talks and avoid any confrontation in future, while Islamabad does not want to give in to Taliban in the name of partial enforcement of religious laws.
Both – ANP and PPP – are victims of their constraints as one does not wish to back out of its accord with the TNSM, while the other is not ready to invite the wrath of western capitals by endorsing a truncated judicial system. On the one hand, Islamabad has been a partner of the US in war against global terrorism, while on the other hand, it is still caught in a dilemma that how to deal with the militants posing a threat to the very integrity of the country.
If Islamabad sticks to its delaying tactics and refuses to approve the draft, the ANP will bear its consequences. It will also be an end of their political coalition in the province.
The ANP, however, is hopeful about the early endorsement of the draft by the President.
All the religious organisations are silent over the Swat affairs. Neither they support the partial enactment of Islamic laws in Malakand not they oppose it.
According to media reports, Federal Minister Najmuddin Khan, hailing from Upper Dir area, says Malakand division needs return of peace at all costs. He proposed to the political and human rights activists, protesting against flogging of a girl in a Swat village, to come forward and start a peace march towards Malakand and share sufferings of people.
In other words, he conveyed that NGOs should refrain from exploiting the flogging issue.
According to him, exploiters were causing more damage to Pakistan than the perpetrators of indefensible event. He kept things blurred and didn´t come up with a clear-cut stand on the issue. ´Pervasive lawlessness is a challenge for the government. We want to end it peacefully,´ he said.
Khan, provincial general secretary of Pakistan People´s Party, said this while talking to journalists at his party´s provincial secretariat in Hayatabad on Monday. Khan too questioned the accuracy of the video clippings telecast by different TV channels.
For us, peace is priority. We want our people to be repatriated to their homes,´ he said cautiously.
He didn´t use any bitter words against the Taliban, the virtual rulers of Swat and responsible for the destruction of girls and boys schools in the violence-hit valley.
Similarly, Awami National Party, leading NWFP coalition government, has smelt a rat in the entire flogging issue and termed it handiwork of a ´third party´ trying to derail the peace process.
Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Swat chapter of Taliban, has surprisingly endorsed the ANP´s stand on the horrifying issue. He held his maiden press conference and denied occurrence of the incident. He dubbed it a fake exercise, aiming at to malign Taliban, struggling for enforcement of Islamic laws in Swat.
For ANP, it is a matter of life and death to bring peace back to the area and isolate hawks amongst Taliban. The ANP has paid a huge price for it in the form of target-killing of its office-bearers and workers across the valley. It wants to keep its present alliance intact with Maulana Sufi Mohammad of the TNSM, who brokered a peace accord between the government and Taliban.
The fate of peace accord hinges on the endorsement of Nizam-i-Adl Regulation by the President, who has yet not approved it,´ says Mukhtar Bacha of National Party.
He says the ANP has left with no other way, but to keep Taliban busy in peace talks and avoid any confrontation in future, while Islamabad does not want to give in to Taliban in the name of partial enforcement of religious laws.
Both – ANP and PPP – are victims of their constraints as one does not wish to back out of its accord with the TNSM, while the other is not ready to invite the wrath of western capitals by endorsing a truncated judicial system. On the one hand, Islamabad has been a partner of the US in war against global terrorism, while on the other hand, it is still caught in a dilemma that how to deal with the militants posing a threat to the very integrity of the country.
If Islamabad sticks to its delaying tactics and refuses to approve the draft, the ANP will bear its consequences. It will also be an end of their political coalition in the province.
The ANP, however, is hopeful about the early endorsement of the draft by the President.
All the religious organisations are silent over the Swat affairs. Neither they support the partial enactment of Islamic laws in Malakand not they oppose it.
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