Subhashis Mittra
After years of dithering, the Nawaz Sharif Government in Pakistan has at last unveiled a policy framework to deal with the menace of terrorism in the country.
Known as the ‘national Security Policy’, it has three main parts – one of which deals with the dialogue process and the other with military action against terrorists. The third has not been divulged and will remain a secret.
As part of the policy, a Pakistani Government team held direct talks with the Taliban after travelling to a secret location in northwest Pakistan.
Diplomats see it as part of a push by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to strike a peace deal to end an insurgency that has killed thousands of people in recent years.
Although previous Pakistani governments have spoken directly with Taliban representatives, these are the first such negotiations since Sharif took office last June. Over the past month or so, intermediaries representing the two sides have met and laid the groundwork for the talks.
Maulana Samiul Haq, one of the Taliban negotiators, said the discussions lasted for seven hours and would resume in a few days. Haq, a cleric, said the talks were fruitful and helped the two sides understand each other better. Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid also cast the meeting in a positive light. “The talks with the government team were held in a cordial atmosphere.
The two sides discussed all the issues, including how to exchange each other’s prisoners and continue the ceasefire,” he said. Shahid said the Taliban treated the government team as “guests”. Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said the peace process is “progressing well”.
Earlier, Ibrahim Khan, a professor and cleric who has represented the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan – as the Pakistani Taliban is formally called – said the face-to-face discussions were aimed at ending the violence.
The negotiations come at a sensitive time for Pakistan, where daily militant attacks challenge the government’s authority.
The Taliban, who operate in the northwest, have announced a ceasefire during the talks, but attacks claimed by their splinter groups have continued. Shahid, the TTP spokesman, has denied the group’s involvement in the recent violence.
The main challenges of negotiating a peace settlement are the many groups and factions behind the violence. Many groups operate independently of the Taliban, including both local and foreign al- Qaida-linked militant outfits.
Previously, the two sides held only indirect talks, with the Taliban represented by Khan and Haq.
The Pakistani and Afghan Taliban share a similar ideology, but the Pakistani Taliban have a separate leadership structure and focus their efforts on attacking the Pakistani government and trying to impose their harsh form of Islam in the country.
The Afghan and US governments have held indirect talks through intermediaries with the Afghan Taliban.
The new policy of the Pakistan government envisages continuing talks with those terrorists who believe in dialogue and deal firmly with others.
Experts, however, say the policy raises many questions which need to be answered. Despite the bold initiative of talking tough against the terrorists, the Government is still relying on the dialogue process.
The Pakistan government has decided to give priority to talks with the terrorists in tackling the issue of terrorism. It had to put on hold the dialogue process in February, within a month of having started it as there was no let up in the attacks by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, despite the offer. Even the earlier accords with the terrorists since the Musharraf days have proved hollow. Secondly, the new policy says that in case of any attack by the terrorists, counter-attacks will be launched on their headquarters but the dialogue process will continue.
But, Interior Minister Choudhry Nissar Ali Khan feels talks and violence cannot go together. Rightly so, but he seems to be following the dual policy of keeping both routes open.
Thirdly, the government need not wait for yet another brazen attack by the terrorists before launching a counter offensive. If the terrorists are not responding to talks offer, the government needs to act firmly by taking military action.
The recent air attacks in North Waziristan area have killed around 100 militants.
The government is setting up a Rapid Response Force which will coordinate with other security agencies. The now defunct National Counter Terrorism Authority, set up in 2012, will also be activated.
Diplomats say Islamabad’s dithering and hesitant attitude is very much on display. The confusion is quite evident as Pakistan tries to distinguish between ‘good’ Taliban and ‘bad’ Taliban.
It wants to act against the bad Taliban who have been launching attacks within Pakistan, but wants to retain – for strategic reasons – other terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) who attack targets in India and Afghanistan, they say.
The Government will, therefore, have to do away with the inherent contradictions in the new policy it has adopted. Under these circumstances, it remains to be seen how far Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif can go with his new anti-terror policy.
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