The Taliban Fear Is Genuine
By Salahuddin Haider
Karachi, Pakistan
It was heartening to see Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi do some plain talking to President Obama’s emissary Richard Holbrooke when he and American military commander Mike Mullen visited Pakistan recently. ”We don’t expect blank check, neither we will give one (to US)”, Qureshi was heard saying at the joint press conference held in Islamabad after their meeting on the Afghanistan issue.
Discussion here would focus on American stand on the subject, their viewpoint or objective about Taliban, supposedly operating inside Pakistan, and being a source of discomfort for the American and NATO troops in the war-torn State on our western borders, fears about their activities and objectives, about which apprehensions have also been shown by Muttehada Qaumi Movement.
Washington’s suspicion about Taliban, trying to superimpose ultra radical brand of Islam of their own choice does have a basis, an elements of seriousness in fact. Their viewpoint deserves to be listened to attentively. America, after all, is a super power, has special interests in the region, which is corroborated by shifting of its emphasis from Iraq to Afghanistan where it wants to reinforce its troops movement after the intended pullback from Baghdad two years from now.
The Pakistan foreign office has been listening to them carefully, sometime submissively (or at least this was the impression outside the former Hotel Shaharzad building). The public posture of the foreign ministry often has been annoying for analysts, academics etc.. But the way Shah Mahmood Qureshi handled the joint press conference in company with Holbrooke, raised the heads of ordinary Pakistanis, expecting their government to articulate their aspirations judiciously and in a manner that should convey to foreigners that Pakistan is a country of 160 million souls, wanting to breathe in fresh air, unpolluted from outside pressures.
Previous stance of foreign office gave the impression as if we were taking dictation, and feeling happy about it. Independence is something that can never be compromised or bargained. That is a fundamental lesson of statecraft. The foreign minister, his ministry officials, and even the top brass in the government may have believed in and perhaps been relying more on silent diplomacy. But in doing so, they conveniently or may be unwittingly overlooked the key factor that their countrymen too, were stakeholders—the biggest stakeholders more precisely---and needed to know what their government was doing or intended to do in future. The stakes grew with the size or nature of the problem.
War on Afghanistan was too serious a problem to be left to few foreign ministry officials or to few military strategists in the GHQ. A sense of national participation was of paramount importance.
Iran can be cited as a classic of unity and coordinated thinking between the government and the people of that country. Hence the American failure to materialize its attack plan on Teheran. The problem with the Pakistan government is that it has created a wide gulf between itself and the people at large. Lack of confidence in administration’s policies or ability to deal with a particular situation is easily discernible. Seen in that grim backdrop, the latest smart talk by Qureshi and believably by Premier and President Zardari to Mullen or Holbrooke, and also the statements issued by the President, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and Pakistan envoy in the US, Hussain Haqqani about US aid being tied to many “conditionalities”, was like a fresh puff of air in an otherwise suffocated environment. If President Obama can have the tongue to speak about not giving “blank check” to Pakistan, then as representatives of a sovereign State, Pakistanis too have the right to reply in a tit-for-tat manner.
The Taliban fear is genuine. I had said so earlier also in one my columns and now I can take a legitimate pride in confirming it to my readers. The Americans have spoken about Taliban threat to Islamabad security, and MQM’s Altaf Hussain, and deputy convener Dr Farooq Sattar did make lengthy statements about Taliban fear spreading to outside settled areas from Swat where a deal has been struck with the ANP government in the NWFP and the Maulana Sufi and Taliban Pakistan leader Maulvi Fazlullah.
In Karachi too, a widely circulated newspaper reported that threatening messages have been sent to schools against co-education. This is a very serious matter. People of Karachi would not like interference in their lifestyle. They are a progressive, modern people. They want to march with the time and not be called irrational or medieval in approach or outlook. Co-education has been putting them ahead of others in the march towards progress and prosperity. They would not allow anyone to hinder their exemplary progress or create unwarranted obstacles. - salluhaider@gmail.com
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