PAKISTAN WILL HAVE TO CEDE LANDS WEST OF THE INDUS TO THE TALIBAN - MEMRI - AYAZ AMIR - THERE IS MASSIVE SUPPORT FOR THE TALIBAN AND ITS OBJECTIVES AMONGST THE PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN Columnist Ayaz Amir: There Will Have To Be A Redrawing Of Geographical Lines; The Durand Line [i.e. Afghan-Pakistan Border] Is Dead, And Even If Not, After A Taliban Settlement It Will Have Become Irrelevant The following are excerpts from Ayaz Amirs article:[5] As iron is not to be made from straw, or protein extracted from cabbages. We might as well turn to realism and consider the outlines of a settlement [between the TTP and the government] which could save our leadership from taking difficult decisions and stop the Taliban from breathing down our necks. The first thing is form and symbolism, for which it becomes absolutely necessary that the state of Pakistan should tender an unconditional apology to the Taliban for any action taken against them. Since it is not in the Pakhtun or Afghan culture to be content with … verbal feasts, the apology, to be acceptable [to the TTP], would have to be accompanied by a sizeable compensation package. If five billion dollars in record time could be found, from depleted coffers, for a business tycoon and company - the independent power producers who in the effect they are having on the economy are perhaps deadlier than the Taliban - the Taliban are likely to hold out for nothing less than 10 billion dollars. Even then they will say they are doing us a favor. If a settlement is what we want there is no getting round this problem. The Race Course Ground Rawalpindi should be named Hakimullah Mehsud Shaheed Memorial Park; Ayub National Park should be Baitullah Mehsud Shaheed National Park; and Benazir Bhutto International Airport would be appropriately named Commander Nek Muhammad Shaheed International Airport [i.e. all predecessors of current TTP emir Maulana Fazlullah]. Other countries have their memorials for fallen soldiers in parks and other open spaces. Pakistan would be one of the few countries in the world where a memorial for fallen soldiers in our Taliban wars is within the secure confines of General Headquarters [GHQ of Pakistan Army]. The Taliban will have no fear that any memorial erected by them will come under terrorist attack… There will have to be a redrawing of geographical lines. The Durand Line [i.e. border between Afghanistan and Pakistan] is dead, and even if not, after a Taliban settlement it will have become irrelevant. As a successor to the Durand Line the new line will have to be along the Indus [which divides Pakistan and] which in any case is a permanent Afghan demand, no Afghan government accepting the British annexation of the Frontier or the Durand Line as the international boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The advantages of this will be three-fold: the Taliban will have something to think about, Afghanistan will be happy, and Pakistans Punjab-centric leadership will the readier be able to devote all energies to the uplift and progress of Punjab [in what would remain the non-Taliban Pakistan]… The Taliban not being overly given to paperwork, Pakistani citizens wishing to cross the Indus - say, to buy chappals [slippers] from Charsadda, gur [jaggery] from Mardan or naswar (snuff) from elsewhere - may not require any form of paper visas. But some kind of a toll, we can be reasonably certain, they will have to pay; the Taliban, as noted above, not believing in the concept of free lunches. Troops will have to vacate forward areas. This is a given, and without it there can be no agreement. From the seven tribal agencies all troops gone, FATA clearly coming under a new jurisdiction, that of the Islamic Emirate of North and South Pakhtunistan [comprising of both parts of Waziristan]. Like What Happened In Nepal Where Elements Of The Communist Insurgency Were Incorporated Into The Regular Nepalese Army, There Will Have To Be A Similar Arrangement Here, The Taliban Not Becoming Part Of The Pakistan Army But Receiving Their Salaries From The Defense Budget Like what happened in Nepal where elements of the communist insurgency were incorporated into the regular Nepalese army, there will have to be a similar arrangement here, the Taliban not becoming part of the Pakistan Army but receiving their salaries from the defense budget - the sticking point being the numbers involved, [with] the Taliban inflating the number of fighters so to be paid and us asking them to be reasonable. Peshawar as a fighter airbase will become redundant. Against which potential threat will we be defending our western skies - the Taliban, Afghanistan, Russia? If, however, for old times sake, for reasons of nostalgia, the air force insists on having a presence in Peshawar it should not be past the skill of our negotiators to make the Taliban agree to some special arrangement for this. The armor and artillery schools [of Pakistan Army] at Nowshera can easily be shifted this side of the Indus, there being enough suitable locations in Punjab to house them. Even the SSG (Commando) Centre at Cherat shouldnt present much of a problem, there being enough training camps in Azad Kashmir [controlled by Pakistan] where it can be shifted. In a sense this would be also appropriate as our special services then would be spiritually (if not actually) closer to the liberation of Kashmir, the unfinished business of our birth and existence [as Pakistan]. The one clearly good thing in all this is that our nuke capability - the ultimate guarantor of national sovereignty - will not be disturbed, our research laboratories and missiles located in the safe confines of Punjab. In Chagai, Baluchistan, only [nuclear] tests are carried out. The core paraphernalia remains under safe lock and key in northern Punjab [the province that rules the rest of Pakistan], the rugged martial best from where comes most of our army recruitment. Some other sticking points: the Taliban are likely to insist on (a) a free hand against the [Shia] Hazaras of Baluchistan whom they consider to be beyond the pale of the true faith [and have been killing recently]; (b) a special dispensation for the Taliban-dominated areas of Karachi, including the collection of revenue and the setting up of jirga-style courts; and (c) a special status for Jaish-e-Muhammad seminaries located in southern Punjab. As a self-respecting nation, however, we have to draw red lines somewhere and make it clear to the Taliban that apart from the territories beyond the Indus, our sovereignty in the new Pakistan cannot be a subject of negotiation. The first new Pakistan came into being after the birth of Bangladesh [erstwhile East Pakistan, in 1971 when Pakistan divided]. After the Emirate of North and South Pakhtunistan this will be the second new Pakistan. To be sure, to keep up the spirit of conciliation we can listen to their point of view on all matters, but the ultimate decision has to be ours. And, yes, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will definitely sound out of place. The new name of the fabled territories beyond the Indus will have to be Taliban Pakhtunkhwa. Thus from the ashes of despair will arise the new Pakistan, at peace within, at peace along the Indus Line, and forging a new relationship with the traditional enemy to the east, India. The entrepreneurial spirit of Punjab finally unchained, the new Punjabi bourgeoisie coming into its own and exploring new vistas of development - taking good care, however, to ensure that wealth produced, wealth acquired, is parked safely not here - perish the thought - but overseas… The four wise men chosen to initiate talks with the Taliban thus have their work cut out for them. May the angels show them the way and speed them on. Salman Akram Raja: The Negotiations With The TTP Will, Possibly, Result In A Significant Decrease In Terror Incidents; However, By Then Pakistan Would Have Moved Several Warm Degrees Closer To The Taliban Embrace Following are excerpts from Salman Akram Rajas article:[6] The negotiations with the TTP will, possibly, result in a significant decrease in terror incidents. However, by then Pakistan would have moved several warm degrees closer to the Taliban embrace. The negotiating committee named by the TTP is a declaration of the political territory the TTP already occupies in mainstream, settled Pakistan. The brilliant Taliban have displayed the ability to project soft power with the same facility that they deploy in blowing up human limbs or delivering severed torsos. Lets face it, the broad objectives of the TTP have wide support in Pakistani society, regardless of political affiliation. Just try asking around: do you want sharia, abolition of interest, no fahashi [indecency in culture]? It does not matter for the emotive pull of a slogan what its implementation would mean in practice. As the negotiations proceed the horror TTP has evoked will mellow. They will appear increasingly reasonable, misunderstood - even wronged. Their actions will appear as acts of war morally equivalent to what was done to them. As the will to resist sags, captives [i.e. Pakistanis] learn to admire their captors. So far the TTPs methods have grated against the traces of civilization that cling on to a brutalized collective psyche. As the mind closes, these traces diminish. Civilization and culture are not geological facts that survive under layers of time-inflicted dust. Cultures are fed by beliefs. Cultures can and do get mauled. Much that was unacceptable becomes justified. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments assault on the launch of Malalas book [by cancelling the book launch event at the University of Peshawar], the inability to condemn let alone punish [liberal Punjab Governor] Salman Taseers murderer, the inevitability with which yet another report of an atrocity against a minority is received off the screens in our living rooms. Mindlessly we mumble about foreign hands and conspiracies. These are the building blocks of the rising edifice of terror in our midst. The Base Prejudices That The Pakistani State Fosters Are Now Being Built Upon By Different Shades Of Non-State Actors [i.e. Jihadists]; Increased Literacy … Delivers Increasing Numbers [Of People] To The Clutches Of Hate-Filled, Anti-Democracy Literature… Decades ago the Pakistani mind was abandoned. The Cold War years saw international support for the stifling of intellectual diversity among the people [of Pakistan as the government worked for enforcement of sharia in the country]. This suited the Pakistani establishments nation-building project. State curriculum and public discourse fed by Urdu op-eds and state TV sought to drown all dissent or discovery under a cloak of religiosity. This project continues even though the world has moved on. A few months ago the Punjab government banned the teaching of comparative religion in the province by any school, public or private. Are other provinces doing better? Is what is taught in schools in Sindh a celebration of the richness of the human project, of which Sindh was an early exemplar? The base prejudices that the Pakistani state fosters are now being built upon by different shades of non-state actors [i.e. jihadist forces]. Increased literacy, of the rudimentary sort, delivers increasing numbers [of people] to the clutches of hate-filled, anti-democracy literature that is freely distributed on footpaths, outside mosques, and through the internet. Most of this is in Urdu and other indigenous languages. An aural attachment to religion through poems and music is being replaced by bright-lined literate fundamentalism. The divide between us and them becomes starker. The elite continue to write and read English op-eds that have minimal impact on Pakistani society. The elite do so because that is all they can bring themselves to do. Hate, frothing as well as subtle, meanwhile has a walkover… So what is to be done? What does one tell someone like my fourteen-year-old daughter who wishes to work for the ethical treatment of animals? Humans who do not care about non-human animals are a waste of space, she tells me. Peter Singer, professor of bio-ethics at Princeton, author of Animal Liberation, is so awesome. What world does she live in? A cocoon of our making. Centuries ago one Shah Hussain broke through the cocoon of his pretenses. He quit the madrassa and the students that gave him status and fed his ego. Shedding the maulanas [i.e. clerics] robe he put on ghungroos [ankle bells], took Madho Laal the Hindu boy as his companion and hit the countryside, singing and dancing. His peers condemned his subversion. Thus was born the Sufi order of the malamatiya - those to be condemned. His lament mai ni mai kinnoon akhaan ... (oh mother who should I tell of my pain) is now sung out to us as one of Sufisms greatest hits. We nod along with no pain in our hearts. The time has come to feel the pain that awaits our children…. The ninth-century Abbasids set up the greatest translation program the world was to know for centuries. Their Darul Hikmah made available the resources of Greek philosophy and much else that nurtured the then nascent Muslim civilization. What our state will not do, we must. The mind must awaken if we are to save our children from what will overtake all of their dreams. Our state and large parts of our society will condemn us but we will have to break out of our cocoons. There is no way around engagement with the Pakistani mind - our betrayed self. Endnotes: [1] For details of the committees, see MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1065, Concern In Pakistan Over Governments Negotiations With The Taliban, February 3, 2014. The original English of all the articles used in this dispatch has been mildly edited for clarity and standardization. [2] Daily Times (Pakistan), February 6, 2014. [3] Dawn (Pakistan), February 6, 2014. [4] Dawn (Pakistan), February 5, 2014. [5] The News (Pakistan), January 31, 2014. [6] The News (Pakistan), February 5, 2014.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Feb 2014 06:29:27 +0000
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