No one apart from Prime Minister Imran Khan and perhaps a handful of his cabinet ministers and close confidants are aware of the exact details of a controversial agreement between the government and the banned Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). What is more, no minister or leader from the ruling party and its allies is willing to comment on the matter as if there is a strict gag order ensuring silence.Similarly, according to reports, Pakistan has reached a tentative understanding with the banned Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) after the Afghan Taliban brokered “face-to-face” talks have succeeded, but apart from an agreement to release up to “two dozen” of the terrorist outfit’s “foot soldiers” not much else has been shared. In both cases there is an eerie silence over what has been agreed, which begs the legitimate question that must be answered: what are the terms of these agreements and why is the state keeping them a secret?
Over 800 TLP members have already been released by the Punjab Police, several leaders have secured bail from anti-terrorism court and Saad Rizvi, the banned group’s firebrand leader,is likely to be released in a matter of a few days as the Punjab government has revoked its appeal against his bail in the LHC. With a truce deal now in place, members of the TTP detained by authorities here who are either directly or indirectly responsible for thousands of Pakistanis’ deaths will be set free. That the government has taken unilateral decisions on highly sensitive matters without taking into confidence all relevant stakeholders, most important among whom are the families who lost their loved ones at the hands of terrorists belonging to the TTP and the TLP, is an irresponsible and cruel approach to dealing with enemies of the state. The longer the government keeps these matters secret and plays it close to the chest; the more questions will continue to be asked. Banned violent outfits that have a disdain for the rule of law and liberal progressive thought cannot be negotiated with effectively nor reasoned with. There are no guarantees that both groups won’t renege on their promises and continue with their nefarious activities, with more soldiers and innocent civilians dying at the hands of the TTP while the TLP decides to march towards the capital yet again, torturing and killing police officers along the way.
