When the Pakistani Sher-e-Punjab Nawaz Sharif left his favoured Lahore lair to honour Pakistani parliamentarians gathered in the capital, Islamabad, for a first visit in five months to the House, many expectations were aroused in the beleaguered country. Only natural for a country where killings of innocent citizens have become a routine, where death lurks round every street corner in the once thriving commercial capital of the country’s prosperous cultural hub, home to the Sharifs, the capital city of Punjab, Lahore.
The very mention of Lahore brings a lump in the throats of Punjabis everywhere, including our own in India. Punjab, ruled by Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother, Shabhaz and home to many fanatical Islamic ‘tehreeks’ the mention of whose names sends a chill down most law abiding Pakistani spines.
What had caused Mr. Nawaz Sharif to finally bestir himself to be seen, for a moment at least, as a hands on leader, was the menacing posturing by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as the Americans prepared to wind up their military show in neighbouring Afghanistan, leaving that country in the hands of a poorly performing dispensation with the presidential poll opening up ever new vistas for the Afghan Taliban.
As an outsider and not unaware of the havoc which the Pakistani Taliban have wrought in that country (nearly 2000 innocent Pakistanis killed in the past two months alone), one does not have to be a Cassandra to foresee the peaking of even more turbulent times in the two neighbouring countries across our borders.
Hamid Karzai, set to vacate the Presidential Palace after finishing his two terms, and his as yet unknown successor – one of them served as the country’s Foreign Minister, a Tajik, who had garnered 32 percent of the vote opposing Karzai at the last election – one is unsure of what the future holds for the country, minus the US military presence. And, mind you, a big question mark hangs over which way Karzai would finally jump. Karzai who had lately been very critical of the Americans, blowing hot and gold as it were, may probably be hoping that one of his own clan will succeed him, which, though, does not mean that the Taliban, who have lately made deep inroads, will consider clearing the way for a new dispensation in Afghanistan. Indeed, they have severed more than ample notice of their deadly presence in the regions of the rugged mountain country, the major towns not excluded. More of that time later.
Reverting to where I left, Nawaz Sharif seems to be giving it a do or die push now, or so I would like to believe. Negotiations, with a team designed by the Pakistani Taliban, are probably already underway as you read it, not to forget that the Talibs had named the Tehreek-e-Insaf boss man, cricketer Imran Khan, as one of their men, a distinction Imran has declined. the Taliban had backed Imran’s poll campaign which put his party in power in Pakhtunkhwah, unspared, though, it remains of the dastardly attacks on cities and towns like Peshawar as well as military establishments based there. Even Ministers of the provincial government have been targeted by the Taliban.
Nawaz Sharif has long set score on talks with terrorists. He would not mind making some more concession to them in return for a more “settled atmosphere”. Shabhaz Sharif the Prime Minister’s brother, who runs the Punjab, has shared a history of dealings with the extremists. The 36-acre gift of land at Muridke near Lahore to Jammat-ud-Dawa, the Lashkar’s parent body, made by Nawaz Sharif, bears testimony to Sharif brothers links with the militant outfits. In the years, he was in exile, Nawaz Sharif rarely spoke against the Taliban or the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Nor did the PML-N’s candidates or their rallies suffer threats or bombings, unlike the secular parties like the PPP did in last year’s elections.
Yet a growing view is that the Prime Minister may not be set on military action and that talks with the Taliban are about winning time. Nawaz Sharif has tried to keep the good terms with the Army, having simultaneously got a President of his own as well as the Army Chief and the Chief Justice. He has made desperate attempts to improve the economy and continues his on and off contacts with New Delhi.
The rhetoric, though, is getting tougher. Says brother Shahbaz: “we have to win this battle (Taliban) hands down. We have to the put this 15-year-old phenomenon behind us”. This does not mean that the push into North Waziristan will come soon. Winter is hardly the time to strike. Besides, the Taliaban have already threatened to retaliate in places like Punjab and the capital Islamabad, vulnerable to large-scale violence. Hence, the need for more caution.
Nawaz Sharif is wary of Imran Khan, a Pashtun like most Taliban, and does not wish him to assume a galvanizing role in opposition that he (Nawaz) himself previously enjoyed. And as if to stiffen the Prime Minister’s resolve the new young leader of the People’s Party of Pakistan, Bilawal Zardari Bhutto has urged Nawaz to push on with military action against the militants who, after all, had killed his mother Benazir Bhutto.
Most observers of the Pakistan scene, those wishing the country well, say talks with the Taliban should be welcomed even if it is actually designed to press them into talking. Making a better public case against the violent groups who set off bombs in the name of Islam is a basic but long neglected task of Pakistan leaders. Terrified of becoming targets themselves, few in public life dare to say the obvious; that extremists are destroying Pakistan from within.
The lion of Punjab may obviously not be ready to strike yet but he seems to have chosen finally to roar a little more and audibly too, for the Taliban to get a hint of what may lie in store. Evidence of a greater appetite for an assault on Taliban bases in North Waziristan is growing and never so openly as when, for the first time since 2007, Pakistani forces bombed North Waziristan, killing one score Taliban fighters. Last week many parliamentarians from Mr. Sharif’s party gave by far the most potent call for a broader military push. It was two or three days after this that the Prime Minister put in that rare appearance in the country’s parliament and argued in favour of continuing meaningful talks. Obviously, in the Pakistani context you, whoever you may be, cannot afford to be talking in such terms without first taking the Army into confidence.
For the record the first meeting of the government and Taliban negotiators on Tuesday was a non starter because the latter had failed to nominate replacements in its team for Imran Khan and Mufti Kifayatullah of Jamiat-ul-Ulema both of whom had declined to join the committee. According to Irfan Siddiqui, heading the government team, the next meeting will be held very soon.
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