Imran still reluctant to alter his pro-Taliban stance Amir Mir Wednesday, December 17, 2014 ISLAMABAD: The ruthless slaughter of 100-plus innocent school children in Peshawar finally compelled Imran Khan to condemn the massacre, but the pro-Taliban PTI chief, who is often tagged as “Taliban Khan” by his critics, still deemed it fit not to denounce the Taliban whose spokesman has claimed responsibility for the cruel carnage. It was five hours after the unprecedented catastrophe that Imran Khan came out of his Bani Gala residence to travel to Peshawar as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had already reached there to supervise the rescue operation at the Army Public School, Peshawar. Talking to the newsmen outside his residence, the PTI chairman preferred to condemn the bloody act and not the perpetrator, saying: “I condemn this tragic incident. There is no justification for this killing (as if there could be a justification for another such act). My sympathies are with the families of the deceased children. Unfortunately, “they” have stooped too low to kill innocent school children which is deplorable”. I have decided to defer the PTI’s scheduled anti-government protest on December 18”. When a reporter asked if he would condemn Taliban for the carnage, Imran Khan said: “The situation is not yet clear. Let me reach Peshawar and ascertain the facts of the incident”. It was clear from his reply that, Imran, as usual, was not ready to condemn the Taliban. By the time Imran made this statement, the spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Muhammad Khorasani had already claimed responsibility for the school attack, saying: “The Peshawar school attack was in retaliation for the ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azab. There were six attackers. They include target killers and suicide attackers. They have been ordered to shoot the older students but not the children. The military was always wrong about our capabilities. We are still able to carry out major attacks. This was just the trailer. The military has only been able to kill 10 militants in the ongoing Operation Zarb-e-Azab [in North Waziristan] and the military’s figure of over 1,200 militants killed is false”. To tell the truth, Imran, who is often demonised by his detractors as a “Mullah without beard”, had been opposed to a military operation in North Waziristan, mainly because of his soft corner for the Taliban, with whom he apparently shares the same ideology. His detractors have criticised him for not being tough enough on the Pakistani Taliban despite the fact that his PTI is ruling the Pushtun dominated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Pakistan Army has already launched a massive operation against the Taliban mafia. While there are those in the PTI who believe that Imran has a soft corner for the Taliban because of his conservative views, there are those in his party who insist that he has a liberal worldview but wants to keep cozy ties with religious elements which could help him attract right wing voters in elections. Whatever the truth may be the fact remains that Imran’s views on critical political, social and economic issues are inconsistent with his much-trumpeted slogan for change to make a new Pakistan. His critics believe that Imran Khan’s political outlook is much more conservative and conformist, seeking to take Pakistan backward, instead of taking it forward as an enlightened, liberal and moderate nation. His rigid stance on militancy and the Taliban clearly reflects a twisted and confused worldview. His detractors argue that Imran may have the charisma but he is certainly not the material that leaders of change are made of. His consistent pro-Taliban statements [despite the reign of terror let loose by Taliban in almost every nook and corner of Pakistan] clearly bear testimony to this fact. Imran Khan has based his ongoing anti-government movement on the claim that the 2013 elections were massively rigged. However, what he has never conceded is that his PTI, the PML-N and some religio-political parties were the major beneficiaries of pre-poll rigging. This rigging took place when the TTP had announced targeting the PPP, ANP and the MQM candidates in the 2013 elections during the election campaigns because of their anti-Taliban stance. Imran went even further to appease the Taliban during his election campaign. In a pre-election rally on April 21 2013, he vowed that he would terminate all military operations in Fata against the Taliban should he become prime minister. A week later, addressing a public gathering in Rahimyar Khan on April 28, 2013, Imran Khan appealed to the TTP to stop the bloodshed till he came to power because he would accept all the Taliban demands within two weeks after assuming power. Even after the elections, while the Taliban were still killing innocent Pakistanis, Imran did not abandon his pro-Taliban stance. On September 25, 2013, he had urged the Sharif government to allow the Taliban to open an office for the peace dialogue. “If the rulers are serious about pursuing the dialogue process with the Pakistani Taliban, it should allow them to have their own office like the one opened by Afghan Taliban in Qatar,” Imran Khan told reporters outside the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. “If the Americans can allow the opening of office in Qatar to facilitate talks with the Afghan Taliban, why can’t we do in our own country,” he said. As a US drone attack killed TTP ameer Hakeemullah Mehsud on November 1, 2013 in Waziristan, Imran strongly condemned the drone campaign. His party then staged a sit-in [on November 25, 2013] in Peshawar to initiate an anti-drone campaign countrywide. Subsequently, the Nato supply to Afghanistan was suspended as trucks were stopped from reaching Torkham. Almost two months later, on February 1, 2014, the TTP named Imran as a member of a five-man team to enter into peace talks with the government. Although Imran had refused to take part in the talks [saying he was ready to help the peace process without assuming a role], the notorious “Taliban Khan” label that he has earned over the years got another endorsement. Almost a week later, in a clear manifestation of his love for the Taliban, Imran said [on February 7, 2014] the Taliban’s decision to hold talks with the government has exposed the lobby that was deliberately maligning him with labels like “Taliban Khan”. He said his consistent assertion that Tehrik-e-Taliban’s terrorism was the result of the US-led campaign against terror had been validated as the main demands of the militants were related to Pakistan extricating itself from the US-led war against terror and the stopping of the drone attacks. The dollar-dependent lobby has been deliberately maligning me with false labels such as ‘Taliban Khan’, simply to draw attention away from the clear link between the United States-led war on terror and terrorism in Pakistan,” he said in a statement. As the civilian and military leadership finally decided in the wake of the failure of the dialogue process with Taliban to launch a military operation in North Waziristan, Imran voiced his opposition and reiterated his stance that the government should keep talking to Taliban. “Conducting such a military operation when most of the groups in North Waziristan want talks, is simply suicidal,” Imran said in a statement on June 11, 2014, adding that the US Congress’ move to link military aid to offensive in North Waziristan was an effort to purchase the government’s favour to carry out a military operation in the tribal region”. Hardly two weeks before the Peshawar school carnage, Imran Khan said [on December 2, 2014] that if he had been in power, the army would not have been allowed to carry out the anti-Taliban operation. Addressing his Islamabad sit-in, he said instead of dispatching soldiers to the tribal areas, efforts should have been made to make the tribal people (Taliban) soldiers. Khan added: “The tribal people are our army and a time will come when we will be able to establish peace in the entire region without fighting”. Imran Khan recently said in a statement that if he had been in power he would not have sent the army to North Waziristan.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 13:31:45 +0000
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