The crisis of state
Posted by ADP on Thursday, January 28, 2010 Under: Naseeb Ullah Shakhail
The crisis of state
Naseeb Ullah Shakhail
Courtesy to “The Frontier Post”
Pakistani state and society is
faced with unprecedented challenges and problems that have
exacerbated the confusion the people of the country are in. To add to
the agony of the common man the issues like independence of
Judiciary, NRO, 17th amendment and the mutual mudslinging and point
scoring among the politicians often raise its head and put some of
the grave issues that the country is faced with to the back burners.
If we are to single out the most crucial challenge the country today
is faced with, it off course is above all the issue of terrorism.
Terrorism as a phenomenon and a threat to the lives and liberties of
the people appeared with much intensity in the wake of 9/11. The
departing Taliban and al-Qaeda members from Afghanistan allegedly
took refuge in Tribal parts of Pakistan and are now reacting by
attacking all public and private properties and citizens all around
the Pakistan-Afghan border. Pakistani media, both print and
electronic, at times seems to betraying its time-honoured
responsibility of objectively imparting information to its audiences.
It is rather responsible for blurring the whole picture about
terrorism by involving in sensationalism. Conspiracy theories of
involvement of a third party in fueling violence are recklessly
floated often without any veracity or evidence. The political parties
and leadership have so far done nothing to provide a common cause for
tackling the issue of terrorism. They are much concerned with
aggrandizing their own power base by repeatedly attacking the
political opponents. The mutual competition of outbeating the
political opponent has resulted in strengthening the terrorists who
are skillfully using the whole scene to forward their own agenda. The
rightist parties like Religious right and PML-N have uttered not a
single sentence to criticise the al-Qaeda or Taliban per se. The
latter seems much concerned with the 17th amendment and removal of
bar over more than two times premiership. Even when it seeks the
trial of Prevaiz Musharraf it seems more for personal grudge than any
service to democracy. The spate of violence on the other hand is
coming heavy on our, economy, political stability and state
integrity. On the other hand the world community is unanimous in its
condemnation of terrorism. Professor Igor Primoratz of the University
of Melbourn defines terrorism as “the deliberate use of violence,
or threat of its use, against innocent people...”, and this is
exactly what our state and society is confronted with today. In our
state terrorism is caused by al-Qaeda and Taliban with volunteers
from nearby Islamic countries such as Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chechens,
Arabs, and others. Taliban the ex- Mujahedeen received training,
supplies of arms from different countries of the Western bloc under
US leadership during Afghan war to confront the communist USSR there.
After the disintegration of USSR the Taliban took control of much of
the Afghanistan in early parts of 1990’s. In December 1998, Ahmed
Rasheed an authority over the region wrote that, “the
Tehrik-i-Tulba or Movement of Taliban in the Orakzai Agency publicly
executed a murderer in front of 2,000 spectators re-inforcing their
resolve to impose Talibanisation in Pakistan also. The Taliban burnt
cinemas, videos shops, schools, barber shops and banned playing of
music. They also destroyed some of the riches archaeological sites in
both Afghanistan and Swat (Pakistan). According to journalist Ahmed
Rashid “at least in the first years of their rule in Afghanistan,
they followed Deobandi and Islamist anti-nationalist belief and
opposed tribal and feudal structures,” eliminating traditional
tribal or feudal leaders from leadership roles. According to Ali A.
Jalali and Lester Grau, the Taliban “received extensive support
from Pakhtuns across the country who thought that the movement might
restore their national dominance. Even the Pashtun intellectuals in
the West, who seriously differed with the Taliban on many issues,
expressed their support to the movement on purely ethnic grounds.
When TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) shifted to different areas like
Waziristan and Swat they slaughtered and killed many innocent people.
Swat, the Switzerland of Asia, was reduced to rubbles with millions
of people forced to migrate from their homes. TTP also carried out a
number of attacks against Military convoys, civilians and political
and military officers beside targeting headquarter of secret
agencies, Govt institutions, Taliban declared that, Pakistani forces
are a “near enemy” while NATO forces at Afghanistan are “far
enemy”, clearly showing their anti-Pakistan intent. In a nutshell
the post-cold war Taliban are proving themselves as Franken’s
monster in a changed global socio-political context. Post 9/11 world
is not ready to tolerate the al-Qaeda and Taliban in any shape what
so ever. Pakistan is faced with no choice but to disentangle itself
from al-Qaeda and Taliban. Mr. Sadiq in his article published in
Frontier Post writes that, “The post-9/11 reality is that the world
is no more ready to tolerate al-Qaeda or Taliban in any form
whatsoever and to give a way to peaceful coexistence and mutual
cooperation with neighbouring countries. Continuing support to these
extremists will only further isolate Pakistan in the world besides
presenting a great threat to the integrity of the state itself. It
also serves the interest of our enemies as our nexus with the
extremists hidden or apparent will only help isolate the country in
the world community. In light of the above discussion it is clearly
evident that the national interest demands that political parties,
armed forces media and even the judiciary should come up with a
consensus over the phenomenon of terrorism. The freedom of media and
judicial activism can be of help to the nation only if it could
spearhead the nation out of the crisis of terrorism rather than
focusing over price control or NRO. It will also be wise for both
government and opposition to unite because we are in any emergency
situation and it needs actions on war footings. We may, in normal
circumstances talk of checking the government through opposition,
media or even judiciary, but in extraordinary circumstances like ours
we must first face the deluge than think of the afterwards.
Naseeb_aryan06@yahoo.com
Naseeb_aryan06@yahoo.com
Notes