Pakistan's Nawaz Regime.......'Standing still'

Amidst the heated debate over whether we should pursue negotiations or military action to tackle the TTP, the government has chosen a third, even worse, option: stasis. In the last couple of weeks alone there has been a suicide blast at a school in Hangu, two attacks each in Peshawar and Shangla, the assassination of Chaudhry Aslam and then the attack on security forces in Bannu that killed over 20 soldiers. Then, on Monday, a suicide attack at a check post near RA Bazaar in Rawalpindi killed 14 people, including six army personnel. This audacious attack, near the army headquarters, should be the last straw for a government that has shown no urgency even as the TTP has stepped up its campaign of terrorism under the leadership of Mullah Fazlullah. At least Nawaz Sharif cancelled his trip to Davos, something he did not do when he was in Sri Lanka as violence swept the country during Muharram. The prime minister has not taken any action yet but has started talking a lot about taking action. In a telephone conversation with COAS Raheel Sharif, Nawaz said that difficult decisions would have to be made although he did not explain what those difficult decisions would be. He also said at a federal cabinet meeting that out-of-the-box solutions are needed to tackle militancy, although once again there was no elaboration on what those solutions may be.

The cabinet meeting, which took on extra significance after the Rawalpindi blast, discussed the prospects of talks with the Taliban. That more than seven months after the government took power and held an APC to forge a consensus on the matter it is still pondering over it shows just how lethargic it has been. The appointment of Maulana Samiul Haq, and the prime minister’s offhand mention that people like Imran Khan and Fazlur Rehman could also talk to the TTP, now seems a mere smokescreen to buy time. Samiul Haq has welcomed a TTP offer for talks but neglected to mention that the militant group is only open to negotiations if the government shows ‘sincerity’. What the TTP means by that is unclear. If ‘sincerity’ requires the government to halt all military action in the tribal areas even as the TTP itself continues its campaign of violence then this is an untenable position. The TTP, as we are reminded anew after every murderous attack, is not to be trusted. The government should feel free to pursue negotiations but not if it requires defanging the military and ruling out future operations. Whatever it decides to do, though, the government has to take action of some kind immediately. We have had enough of the fiddling while the country is burned to the ground.