The slanted truth

The slanted truth

By Dr. Mohammad Taqi

Daily Times

June 17, 2010

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant – Emily Dickinson

Three men had their right hands severed, for petty theft last month, by the Taliban in the Ghaljo village of the Orakzai Agency. After initial treatment at a hospital in Kohat, they were in contact with a prominent civil and human rights activist to get prosthetic surgery done, to be followed by a rehabilitation program. Funds were raised subsequently, as charitable donations from individuals, to assist them.

However, the unfortunate victims have now declined to get the surgery and rehab done. They and their families reportedly did this, under duress from the Taliban. The sad decision is a stark reminder of the fascist hordes lurking in the shadows – the Taliban are neither down nor out. But the security establishment in Pakistan would have one believe otherwise.

On June 5, 2010, two articles appeared in the Pakistani press. The one in this paper titled “North Waziristan, the Punjabi Taliban and the Durand Line”, was authored by Mr. Naeem Tahir and the second one “N.Waziristan: the final frontier”, published in The News, was written by Ms. Sherry Rehman, MNA.

The resemblance between these two articles is striking. Had it been Urdu or Persian poetry, one would have been tempted to call this tawarud i.e. two poets expressing – coincidentally - the same ideas in very similar words without prior knowledge of each other’s thought or work.

Upon a cursory read, both pieces might come across as opinions by liberal writers who are concerned about the curse of Talibanization afflicting Pakistan and are trying to float an indigenous plan to fight it.

A slightly deeper look, however, would reveal that clad in a liberal cloak, the authors are just peddling the Pakistani security establishment speak: despite the clear and present danger that the Taliban and Al-Quaida portend, we are not able to do much about it, especially in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA).

Ms. Rehman, whose written or spoken word on military strategy and the Pak-Afghan geopolitical situation has hithertofore remained hidden from the public eye, makes a foray into both spheres. She starts by dropping some geographical terms like “Loya Paktia” and using quasi-military jargon. She writes:

“The challenge in North Waziristan is that Islamabad does not have the military or civilian capacity to open all fronts at the same time. Despite impressive successes in other tribal agencies, the Pakistani army faces a 50,000-strong critical mass of armed guerrilla combatants in North Waziristan. They have learnt to avoid set-piece battles. After army operations in surrounding areas, a hardened assortment has sought sanctuary there.”

Similar formula is deployed by Mr. Tahir, who mentions the Peochar stronghold of Mullah Fazlullah along with a narrative of the valley’s capture and the “successful operations” in South Waziristan etc. but concludes that:

“Action in North Waziristan must be undertaken, but the timing must be decided by the government of Pakistan and the armed forces, and it should follow the settlement of these issues.”

Mr. Tahir, who has loyally served two military dictators – the second one literally as a cheerleader within and outside Pakistan- then ventures into lecturing on the history of Durand Line and how Mullah Fazlullah and other terrorists can sneak through it, back into back into Pakistan. He calls “revisionist” those who think that people on both sides of the Durand are one people.

While Mr. Tahir was spending his energies furthering Zia ul Haq’s obscurantism at the state-owned television or pitching Musharraf’s “enlightened moderation” to the west, he might have overlooked to research the historical visit by the Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, to the Torkham border-post on the Durand Line.

Till taken down by the Zia regime, the board at Torkham had the Quaid’s words inscribed on it that the people living on either side of this border are one nation (qaum) and no power will be able to keep them apart.

Most politicians in Pakistan are not afraid of acknowledging that the Pashtuns/Afghans living across the Durand Line are one people who share common languages, culture and customs, just like the Germans in Austria, Deutschland and Switzerland. Perhaps this is what the Quaid meant in his speech and not the use of the FATA for unleashing thirty years of death and destruction in Afghanistan by the Pakistani, Saudi and US agencies.

Ironically, these believers in the thesis that Afghanistan provides Pakistan with the strategic depth are so scared of this shared bond that they had vetoed Afghania –represented by the letter ‘A’ in the word Pakistan - as the new name for the erstwhile NWFP. What Mr. Tahir is trying to sell is nothing but the Pakistani security establishment’s desire to treat Afghanistan as its backyard where only they have the right to play and only under their own rules.

The apologetics put forth by these two authors blend seamlessly with the collaboration between the Pakistani intelligence apparatus and the jihadist outfits highlighted yet again by the recent London School of Economics(LSE) report . This partnership was never hidden and neither are the attempts by the security establishment to force even the democratically elected leaders to tow their line.

Not too long ago a senior Pashtun politician had mentioned on national media, a press conference by the Taliban that was held at a security agency fortress. He and his party reportedly came under tremendous pressure to rescind his statement – he stood his ground but the party’s president eventually buckled.  

Given the lengths to which the establishment goes to delay and defer the action against its Taliban assets, the LSE report is not surprising to the people of Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa and FATA. They also know that not one Taliban leader – including the notorious Muslim Khan – has been brought to justice by the same authorities who are not willing to act against the 50,000 jihadists in NWA. This is precisely why they decline treatment when they need it most.

The question remains that how long will the world continue to buy the slanted truth?

(The writer teaches and practices Medicine at the University of Florida and contributes to the think-tanks www.politact.com and Aryana Institute. He can be reached at mazdaki@me.com )