ANALYSIS: What is wrong with the ANP? —Farhat Taj
The ANP fell on its knees during the signing of the Swat peace deal with
the terrorists. ANP circles have anonymously claimed that suicide
bombers were sent to the top leaders to force them to sign the peace
deal. If they refused, they would have been killed on the spot
It
has been quite a few days now since the top leaders of the Pakhtun
nationalist party, the Awami National Party (ANP), have been issuing
strange statements. The party chief, Asfandyar Khan, described NATO’s
pursuit of terrorists into FATA as a “clear violation of international
law and a blow to Pakistan’s sovereignty”. The party’s provincial
president, Afrasiab Khattak, condemned the US drone attacks on
terrorists in FATA and claimed that innocent tribespersons were being
killed in the drone strikes. ANP’s senior provincial minister, Bashir
Bilour, also condemned the US drone strikes and NATO incursions into
FATA in pursuit of the terrorists who retreated into their safe havens
in FATA following attacks in Afghanistan. Above all, the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa Assembly condemned NATO incursions and the US drone attacks.
This is certainly not the ANP expressing itself with free will
and consent. This is an ANP speaking under duress. The Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) is forcing the ANP leaders to issue such statements.
The Americans have put intense pressure on the Pakistani generals
through relentless drone attacks that have considerably damaged their
strategic assets, the jihadis that the ISI has been keeping in FATA for
terrorism in Afghanistan. It seems the Pakistan generals cannot face the
US and NATO forces in Afghanistan on their own. They simply force
unarmed Pakhtun civilians through extreme torture and violence to
associate themselves with the Taliban so as to feign the front of an
indigenous Pakhtun resistance to the designs of NATO and US forces in
Afghanistan. This pattern of utmost coercion was implemented all over
FATA whereby everyone — tribal leaders, the ulema, government servants,
community elders, teachers, healthcare workers — who might have the
courage to challenge the ISI’s managed chaos in FATA were target killed.
In the garb of fake military operations, vast areas of FATA were
extracted from the writ of the state and put under the writ of the
terrorists. The same pattern was gradually extended to the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province. The strange statements coming from the ANP
leadership must be seen in this context.
This is strange because
the ANP is clearly speaking with two tongues. The ANP is a signatory of
the Peshawar Declaration, signed in February 2010, which categorically
supports the drone strikes in FATA and holds the Pakistani military
establishment responsible for terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan,
especially in FATA. Moreover, due to its ethnic, tribal and political
affiliations with people in FATA, the ANP knows very well that the drone
strikes are precisely killing the terrorists, and the people in the
drone-hit areas welcome them. Privately, the ANP leaders support the
drone attacks. They hold the Pakistani generals responsible for
terrorism and violence in FATA and Afghanistan. They want the terror
centres in FATA, under the auspices of the ISI, to be destroyed and they
do not mind if the US or NATO forces do so since the Pakistani generals
do not seem to be interested in giving up their jihadi adventures from
the soil of FATA.
Should the ANP be forgiven for speaking with
two tongues under duress? It is not the first time the ANP has succumbed
to such pressures. The ANP fell on its knees during the signing of the
Swat peace deal with the terrorists. ANP circles have anonymously
claimed that suicide bombers were sent to the top leaders to force them
to sign the peace deal. If they refused, they would have been killed on
the spot and so they had to sign the deal even if they were not prepared
for it.
Moreover, under pressure from the military
establishment, the ANP government has stopped supporting the
anti-Taliban lashkars all over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, lashkars that the
provincial government initially supported with enthusiasm. The lashkar
leaders accuse the ANP of abandoning them. “They (the ANP government)
have ditched us in the middle of an ocean,” said one leader of the
Adezai anti-Taliban lashkar in an interview with me.
The saddest
part is that the ANP compliance under duress is obliterating the
precious difference between the nationalist ANP and pro-Taliban
religious parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). For example, the ANP
stands for provincial autonomy. So does the JI. The ANP demands more
share in the electricity royalty for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. So does the JI.
The only difference is that the JI supports the ISI-sponsored jihad in
Afghanistan and denounces all international efforts to cleanse
Afghanistan of jihadi gangs, whereas the ANP stands for the opposite.
Through these recent statements against the drone attacks, the ANP
appears just like the JI. This is certainly a success of the ISI’s
agenda to present all Pakhtuns to the wider world as pro-Taliban,
pro-jihad and religious extremists, who are against the international
community’s efforts against jihad in FATA and Afghanistan. Can the
anti-Taliban Pakhtun afford an ‘Islamic’ ANP even if it is under duress?
The
anti-Taliban Pakhtun need an ANP that is a firm embodiment of
anti-Taliban, anti-religious extremism and one that is pro-civilisation.
By and large, the ANP has been so and, no doubt, the party has greatly
sacrificed through the blood of its elected leaders, workers and their
close relatives. The challenge at hand, however, is colossal and demands
more blood from the ANP. The ANP must now stand up to the occasion,
come what may.
It is expected of the ANP leaders to resist this
intimidation and blackmail. Of course, this means more assassinations
among the leading ANP families and even the killing of top party
leaders. The top party leaders must be ready for such an eventuality. If
they are not, they should step aside and leave the party leadership to
those among the ANP who might be willing to firmly resist all
intimidation and blackmail even at the cost of personal sacrifices.
These recent statements and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly resolution
show that the current ANP leadership is either too soft or compromised
to lead the anti-Taliban Pakhtun.
The writer is a PhD Research
Fellow with the University of Oslo and currently writing a book,
Taliban and Anti-Taliban
In : Farhat Taj
Notes