Most readers would probably know the fable of a shepherd boy who unendingly fooled the village people into believing a wolf was attacking his town’s flock, but when the actual wolf appeared and he called for help, all thought it was another of his false alarms. As a result, all the sheep got eaten by the wolf. The same is the story of today’s Pakistan. In the 1990s, the Islamists used a weapon against India, which continued even after that.
For decades, Pakistan has played double games not only with its enemies but friends as well. Of course much more like other areas, in the official version, the image of Pakistan is presented as an innocent victim— lost 70,000 people, lost $140 billion, got its image ruined and whatnot. Astonishingly, we forget to tell ourselves that it was our decision to become part of the Western alliance against the godless, partly to become a nuclear country, and partly to get dollars— against all the official narrative, our decision to become part of the western bloc was purely strategic and security-laden.
Pakistan should have an unambiguous and vivid stance on dealing with terrorist outfits. Time and again, talking to terrorists has been seen as a waste of time. Of course, it doesn’t mean to wage war on them, but if they want to disarm, accept the Constitution of Pakistan and live as a normal person, they should be given an opportunity to do so. However, they cannot be allowed to make the likes of Taliban Afghanistan here
Today, Pakistanis should not be stunned to see Afghans finding fault with the policies which have made their country uninhabitable. The late one-time ISI chief, Lt Gen (retd) Hamid Gul used to say that the history of Afghanistan would be written that the ISI with the support of theUSA defeated the Soviet Union— and the ISI with the support of the USA defeated the USA. Those who still defend Pakistan’s hypocrisy in dealing with other countries must pay heed to the words of the man in charge rather than displaying unfounded baloney.
If General Hamid Gul were alive today, he would have added one more idea to his prophetic revelation: the Taliban with the support of the ISI defeated the USA— and the Taliban with the support of ISI would destroy Pakistan. Vulgar propagandists like General Hamid Gul, who have been lying to Pakistanis, are out there in droves.
The Taliban do not want to listen to us, don’t want to hear that the ISI favoured them, and are poised to flex their muscles. The victory to implant a terrorist organization has repercussions and what we are seeing is the déjà vu of the past where blood was shed in each street of Pakistan.
It is easy to use terrorists such as the Taliban and the TTP or IS-K for short-term strategic goals or obscenely put “strategic depth” but they can’t be controlled or lectured, let alone tamed. In the past, sober individuals warned the stakeholders against playing with fire to achieve myopic goals.
Against all such advice, Pakistan’s confounding policy regarding terrorists gave birth to an ocean of such groups: Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP or Pakistani Taliban), ISIS-K, Sipah-e- Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Tehreek-e- Nafaz-e- Shariat-e- Mohammadi (TNSM), Lashkar-e- Jhangvi (LeJ), Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP), Tehreek-e- Jaferia Pakistan (TJP), Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad Mujahideen E-Tanzeem, Rabita Trust. They do not belong to the modern, civilized and sophisticated world, and neither does the country that gave them space.
It hadn’t been too long since we used to differentiate between “good” and “bad” Taliban. The good was bad for Afghanistan and carried out the same atrocities as the bad Taliban did to us. The only difference was the use of soil. Otherwise, their ideological moorings are not much at odds.
Our foreign policy hasn’t been based on realpolitik, leave alone on moral grounds. Behind closed doors, boots and mosques made the decision to stand with one powerful country against dollars. Those who called a spade a spade were silenced and the country went from one crisis to another.
Even today, we blame others for our own crimes. No state forced us to participate in another’s war; we jumped on the bandwagon of anti-Communism, supported the US bloc and earned what we deserved.
Today, much of the devastation done to Afghanis is due to our hypocritical, undemocratic, mean and lopsided policy towards our Western neighbour. If they knock at our doors, it is because we handed out their houses to the US-declared terrorists. If they are being tortured, raped, bombed and killed, we have to take a lion’s share of responsibility. If women are denied education, they are restricted to the four walls, human rights are crushed and barbarism is ubiquitous in Afghanistan, we played our role to have it happen.
After ceding space to militant groups, we have seen much of the drama and shame hovering around us, unfortunately rightly so. The world doesn’t know Pakistan because of the great Abdus Salam, or Eqbal Ahmed, but we are known as the host of UN-sanctioned global terrorists— Osama Bin Laden, Mullah Omar, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed and the list goes on. Before raising terrorists, we should pay heed to the so-called educated Pakistanis who are Taliban sympathizers.
I wish these individuals would spend an hour in Afghanistan under the brutality of the terrorist group or wage holy war there whose only achievement hinges upon their suppression of women and minorities. Unsurprisingly, they wouldn’t waste a second applying for an Australian or Canadian visa despite their love for the Taliban.
While we have razed our neighbour, the Damocles’ sword is hanging over our head as well. The uptick in terrorist activities in recent days speaks volumes. The takeover by the TTP of the Bannu CTD centre is just the tip of the iceberg. There is an increase of 50 percent in terrorist cases owing to the increased space given to the TTP by the Taliban. Cross-border conflicts have seen another height because the Taliban want to live in the Stone Age, therefore fencing or security doesn’t get into their head.
Pakistan should have an unambiguous and vivid stance on dealing with terrorist outfits. Time and again, talking to terrorists has been seen as a waste of time. Of course, it doesn’t mean to wage war on them, but if they want to disarm, accept the Constitution of Pakistan and live as a normal person, they should be given an opportunity to do so. However, they cannot be allowed to make the likes of Taliban Afghanistan here.
