Swat Peace Deal - The Aftermath

[S-2]

Long article.

This got my attention first-

"Sufi Muhammad came to prominence just prior to the US invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 when he sent thousands of volunteers in support of the Taliban. Many were butchered when US B-52 bombers dropped 1,000-pound bombs."

Rather sets the tone of Mr. Shehzad's article right there. Let's see...the minions of Muhammad interfered in the internal affairs of a foreign nation and against the interests of the United States following 9/11 and they were "butchered". Hmmm...do you think Mr. Shahzad has a bias here?

Next was this lovely thought-

"Further, that the attack on Swat, as elsewhere in the tribal region, was instigated at the behest of the US. Several months earlier, the US ambassador in Islamabad, Anne Paterson had called the World Food Organization (WFO) representative and USAID officials in Pakistan for a meeting. During the meeting the US envoy told the WFO official to prepare plans to cater for 800,000 refugees from Swat to be housed at the Jalozai camp. The US would pay the costs. Why would the US be interested in looking after Pakistani refugees and how did the US envoy know that there would be 800,000 of them from Swat? This clearly points to prior knowledge of what the US expected the Pakistan army to do and what its consequences would be."

Well we sure didn't do a good job of instigating the fighting judging by your successes, if true, but I'll NOT condemn Amb. Paterson for having the good sense to foresee a massive problem of human suffering on your horizon. That Mr. Shahzab does only further serves to display his poisonous dissemblance. Judging by the speed by which Bajaur has been rebuilt, the SWAT residents will likely be in these camps for some time to come.

He might try a simple "thank you", the worthless phuck.

Pakistan had better damned well WAKE UP. Your problem isn't from Afghanistan. It isn't India and it sure as hell isn't America. Y-O-U A-R-E T-H-E P-R-O-B-L-E-M.

Capice?

You could take all the uzbeks, tajiks, Chechens, uighars, and arabs and drop them into ONE of Mehsud's lashkars and still not fill it out. These men are Pakistanis more than ever. Omar's men are fighting in Afghanistan and want nothing to do with this.

Homegrown, baby. It's the very best.

You read Mr. Shahzab. I stopped there with his pathetic conspiracy theories. There are too many here congenitally afflicted by this propensity to believe any and every falsehood if it'll somehow, anyhow lift the burden of truth from your shoulders.

I pray it ends before it's too late.

 

[RabzonKhan]

Artists flee Swat to escape threats

March 07, 2009

* Dancers, singers have found refuge in more liberal cities after threats from Taliban

KARACHI: Muhammad Shahid scrapes together a living in a city slum by painting birds, flowers, animals and celebrity portraits onto minibuses — and vows never to return to the horrors of Swat valley..

After pro-Taliban vigilantes beat and threatened him at gunpoint, he swapped the green pastures and sweeping mountains of his birthplace for the concrete jungle of smoggy metropolis of Karachi.

“I had to come here because there was no other chance for me or my family to survive,” 45-year-old Shahid said.

The memories of the terrifying campaign waged by the Taliban to enforce sharia law are still fresh for Shahid, and no fledgling truce between the government and those who chased him out will persuade him to return.

“I’m a painter, an artist. I can’t do anything else to earn a living. The Taliban won’t allow people like us to do our work, which saw my family suffer.”

“What would I do if I return in these conditions? They will remain in control of the region and no one will have freedom to work at will.”

Shahid said he used to make a good living painting landscapes, birds, Pakistani and Indian film stars, pavement caricatures and portraits, which were popular with tourists who flocked to the once-friendly and tolerant valley.

But then the Taliban came, the tourists left and life changed for those who made a living from the arts.

Suspected Taliban kidnapped and murdered a dancer, Shabana, who ignored warnings to quit her profession. Her bullet-riddled body was dumped on the main roundabout of Green Chowk in the main town of Mingora last December.

Liberal cities: One after another, artists, dancers and singers renounced their profession or fled to more liberal cities such as Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad.

Shahid said one day, gun-toting vigilantes walked into his studio. “They beat and insulted me for doing something that they said was forbidden by religion.”

“‘From now on, don’t paint creatures’,” Shahid quoted one of them as saying, “‘otherwise you’ll suffer an unprecedented punishment’.”

Shahid rang his brother, a construction worker in Karachi.

“He asked me to leave immediately. I took my wife and four children, caught a bus from Mingora and came here.”

He rented a place in Karachi’s western Baldia Colony slum, found a job painting trucks and buses, and put his children in school.

Shahid said the humidity and pollution of Karachi frequently make his children ill, but he insists he will never again put himself at the mercy of the “unpredictable” Taliban in Swat — where the government has agreed to enforce sharia..

“One’s life will still be in danger no matter what guarantee they give,” Shahid said. “I don’t want to disturb my daughter’s studies. She’s in school here. The militants could reverse their pledge any moment.” afp

 

[S-2]

Very sad. All the color is gone and the lights are being dimmed.

Soon it'll be darkness everywhere in Pakistan.

All hail the Caliphate!!

 

[RabzonKhan]

Fear of death stalks women in Swat

March 08, 2009

* Women are too frightened to speak in public, go silent when asked about gender rights

PESHAWAR: Terrified, locked up at home and courting death if they go out alone, women oppressed by the Taliban in Swat have nothing to celebrate on International Women’s Day.

Nearly 100 years after the annual day was created to mark the struggle for equal rights for half the world’s population, most women in Swat look blank and go silent when asked about gender rights and discrimination.

They are too frightened to speak in public. They can only leave the confines of their homes accompanied by a male relative, their bodies hidden in veils.

“How can I tell you my name, are you crazy? I was told not to give my name to anyone because the Taliban could hurt me,” one girl in the ninth grade told AFP by telephone from the former ski resort.

Last month, the government signed a widely criticised agreement with a pro-Taliban cleric to enforce sharia law in exchange for a ceasefire in a region where most locals say the Taliban have become the masters.

The girl’s dreams of becoming a doctor are over. She worries the Taliban will stop her finishing school, regardless of her parents’ support.

“My mother told me I can do anything, but my inner soul is shattered.”

“Tell me if you stop women getting an education where will a sick woman go? Do you want her to go to a male doctor? I was told that education is compulsory for every man and woman in Islam but the Taliban destroyed our schools.”

The Taliban have destroyed 191 schools in the valley, 122 of them for girls, leaving 62,000 pupils with nowhere to study, local officials say.

Huma Batool — not her real name — is a 42-year-old mother of two who dices with death to teach girls at a private school in the region’s main town Mingora.a.

“We have to veil ourselves and wear shuttlecock burqas. We are not safe even at home. We fear the Taliban all the time. Life is becoming worse and worse for women in Swat,” she told AFP by telephone.

Educated and financially self-sufficient, she cannot even visit shops without a male relative, leaving her frequently couped up at home for hours, waiting for a suitable escort to become available.

“You cannot imagine how I manage to get to school, practically every day I think about leaving the job and sitting at home.”

Taliban hardliners have outlawed entertainment as un-Islamic, shut down beauty parlours and closed shops considered dens of vice rather than virtue.

“Life bores us to tears. There is no entertainment. We can’t even think about cable TV, cinema, film and music. Imagine I can’t even go shopping or to the bazaar as women are banned by Taliban.”

Salma Javed, 35, is a nurse at a local hospital, where women — however sick — can only be admitted if accompanied by a male relative.e.

“Every woman fears she will be killed if she comes out, so even sick and pregnant women have to visit hospital with their husbands.”

“Now we are waiting to see what will happen after the peace deal, but let me tell you things will not change for women,” she said. afp

 

[S-2]

The color takes flight and fades to gray.

Then the light is extinguished and all is left black.

Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Pashtunistan.

 

[Solomon2]

The Pakistanis here can't even admit to being embarrassed. No wonder their leaders surrender territory and population and call it a "truce".

 

[linkinpark]

How we lost Swat


—Nasir Abbas Mirza

The loss of Swat is not the end of it. It is just another battle lost by us. This battle, and the many more to come, can only be won with more liberties, more freedom and more rights. And a state with a will to protect these at all costs. That’s the real battlefront of this war against terror and extremism

We have worked long and hard at losing Swat. We lost it in hundreds of little battles fought over the last 35 years.

Since the mid-seventies, religious extremists have been chipping away at our liberties, our rights and our freedom. Bit by bit they have demolished, and continue to, all attempts to create a modern civil society.

We lost Swat the day we made discriminatory laws based on sectarian and religious divisions. I am reminded of a Jewish parable. An old Jewish man was on his deathbed and his entire family stood around him. The old man kept saying, “Take care of the Armenians; take care of the Armenians.” His son asked, “But we are Jewish; why do you keep saying take care of the Armenians?” The old man replied, “Because if they get to the Armenians, you will be next.”

We let them get one sect and now they are in the process of getting the Shias (non-protesting spectators include Mr Nawaz Sharif and Qazi Hussain Ahmad); next would be other sects and religions — Ismailis, Parsis, Barelvis and so on until, as Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy calls it, the Saudi-isation of Pakistan is complete.

We lost Swat when we banned alcohol. It’s banned but readily available. Anyone can have it and everyone has it. Smugglers and bootleggers laugh their way to the bank and the imbibers take it as a cocktail of sin, guilt and crime.

We lost Swat when the state abdicated its right to educate its people, leaving it to the private sector. For every modern school, the private sector gave us a thousand madrassas.

We lost Swat when we let the movie industry die and banned theatre, singing and dancing; when we banned Basant and everything else that can be termed entertainment (including cricket). Soon we will have the same fond memories of cricket as we have of kite flying.

There is as much drinking, gambling and fornication going on in this country as in any other country. But hypocrisy triumphs every day. We have been living a lie for the last 35 years. Google would tell you the largest number of visitors to **** sites are from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

We lost Swat when we permitted the Islami Jamiat-e Tulaba to terrorise our universities; when we inserted the religion column in our passports; when shalwar-qameez became our national dress; when we created women’s police stations.

It was a sad day when traders of Hall Road, Lahore, burned CDs after receiving an anonymous letter threatening to bomb them for selling adult CDs. Nobody is there to protect them. That’s how it started in Swat. Next in line are girls’ schools. Is Lahore ready for a bomb at any of the girls’ schools? Is there a plan?

We lost our way when we set up parallel systems with all kinds of Islamic councils and courts. Our society today is dominated by mullahs, pirs and bazurgs. A man today is known by the pir he keeps. The merit of a man is not his education and ability but the façade of religiosity. A man with beard is better than a man without one; a man who fasts is good, a man who drinks is bad. Rich man, bad; poor man, good. Can anything be more tribal than this?

It was at the peak of General Zia-ul Haq’s Islamisation that writers like Ashfaq Ahmad made an industry out of it. Glorifying the pir and the faqir, he promoted ruhaniat and praised otherworldliness. At prime time, on the state-owned television channel, Mr Ahmad vilified the rich and the successful while equating poverty with piety. How simplistic and fateful can one get?

The brilliant physicist Richard Feynman used to make fun of such philosophies, joking about a posteriori conclusions — reasoning from known facts back to possible causes. “You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight,” he would say. “I saw a car with the licence plate ARW 257. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of licence plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!”

His point, of course, is that it is easy to make any banal situation seem extraordinary if you treat it as fateful. Read it again; this is taken as serious philosophy in Pakistan and such ‘miracles’ are the favourite topic of discussion among the educated.

The industry based on fatalism and extremism is the only one thriving in Pakistan today. From Zia-ul Haq to Mian Nawaz Sharif to Dr Aamir Liaqat to Inzamam-ul Haq to Farhat Hashmi, the list of the captains of this industry is too long to reproduce here. Those who spent their youth during Zia’s days have come of age and are at the helm of affairs in this country. After 35 years of mass duplicity, we have at hand a completely distorted society.

We lost Swat when someone in this country decided that our cultural and religious sentiments would be irreparably hurt if a man were to kiss a woman on screen. On the other hand, that same someone decided that repulsive violence was all right to be screened to audiences of all ages.

The rot started in the seventies because it took us nearly 30 years after independence to completely distort, dismantle and destroy whatever the British had given us. In tatters you would find the education system, the justice system, the irrigation system, the railway system, good governance, law and order, a military that cannot, or refuses to, fight subversive tribesmen, the merit system and everything else that could remotely be called civil or modern. Mind you, at the time, each one of the listed systems was the best in the world.

If it weren’t for British rule, how different would we have been from Afghanistan? We would still be facing marauding hordes of barbarians from the north who used to come down regularly to loot, rape and plunder. That’s our history, at its most concise. Six decades after 1947 we are once again facing those hordes. Swat they have pillaged and conquered. How far away are we from Swat?

The sad part is that while doing all of the above, we felt good about it. Now we know that we took a wrong turn in the mid-seventies. Every day we hear about “going back to the 1973 constitution”. What we don’t hear is “we need to go back to 1973”.

The loss of Swat is not the end of it. It is just another battle lost by us. This battle, and the many more to come, can only be won with more liberties, more freedom and more rights. And a state with a will to protect these at all costs. That’s the real battlefront of this war against terror and extremism.

The writer is a freelance columnist

 

[All-Green]

The writer makes a mess of his analysis and once again proves that many people associate their own ideals with others and expect them to have same priorities.

Basant is banned due to the horrible incidents in which pedestrians or people on bikes were killed, does the writer speak for hundreds of families who lost their loved ones like this? what a moron to suggest that it is part of something great and we should not surrender it.

Just because people consume alcohol illegally it should not mean that we make it available readily in our country. Just because people gamble does it mean we make it legal?
it is not part of our religion and way of life and on top of it majority of Pakistanis will never want it.

Regarding spirituality, setting Muslims aside many countless people believe in spirituality and Ashfaq Ahmed was a gentle soul who for all his life preached love and the miracles which man can perform with love and affection!
Criticizing a gentle soul like him is truly pathetic and pointless.

Such shallow simplification of a situation by enlightened individuals quite frankly damages the good things they offer in their arguments.

Just like one cannot reason with the Mullahs who want to hear nothing similarly we cannot reason with such enlightened individuals.
We do not need sanctioned alcohol, vulgarity, public display of skin, basant etc. to make this country better just as we do not need forced beards, debates on whether women can get education (basic right of a Muslim!!!) etc.

The problem which has given rise to such strife and rebel causes is widespread injustice, inequality and corruption by the ruling elite which makes any movement opposing them popular with the masses (at some level).
People do not like many things about Taliban, the only thing that makes many of them sympathetic to Taliban is the corruption they face and justice which is denied in everyday life by corrupt people they encounter and their puppet masters who pull the strings from their lofty seats in the elected houses.

Who ruined the education system for decades?
Who was to implement the constitution?
Who was to provide justice to us all?
Who was to ensure that merit is upheld everywhere?

Was it Taliban?
The plain answer is no and that is what the issue is.
I do not support Taliban and will never do.
However i shall be a very very stupid man to ignore the reasons which made Taliban successful and garner support (overt and covert).

To isolate all such rebellious elements we need to have some assurance of justice.
When our Supreme court (despite having the powers through article 6) does nothing when a corrupt and highly notorious person becomes president of Pakistan then it becomes quite difficult to convince the populace that their rights shall be given to them in a just and timely manner.
Add to this the fact that many new judges being inducted are people who have even ran for PPP in previous elections and it becomes absolutely pathetic!

I wish for once that our Judges put their lives on the line and tackle the true monster of corruption and unaccountability head on, they will gain much more support than the Taliban and for a just cause as well. They will most definitely end up restoring order and peace and will gain eternal gratitude of countless souls.

May we see this day soon.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

The Pakistanis here can't even admit to being embarrassed. No wonder their leaders surrender territory and population and call it a "truce".

What should we be embarrassed about? The government is trying a particular approach, the process is not complete yet.

It may fail or it may succeed, by there is nothing to be embarrassed about in our elected officials trying different policies. If this policy fails, then its 'back to the drawing board'.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Just like one cannot reason with the Mullahs who want to hear nothing similarly we cannot reason with such enlightened individuals.

I completely agree.

Pakistan is not a secular country and Pakistani society is not 'secular' (as much as I would like to see it as such). Pakistan remains a largely moderate Islamic society and nation, but Islamic nonetheless. Forcing through secularism is not the answer here, and it will only compound problems and tensions.

Education, health care, jobs and development are not derived through 'secularism' alone. The author is correct that the lack of attention given to these sectors over the years has contributed to these criminals obtaining power, but it would be foolish to ignore the catalytic impact that the War in Afghanistan (starting from the Soviet invasion, and especially after the US invasion) and the flow of men, materials and money form that particular conflict has had upon the capabilities of people like Mullah FM and the dynamics in Pakistan.

 

[Solomon2]

What should we be embarrassed about? The government is trying a particular approach, the process is not complete yet.

That's just blather. You've lost, Aggy!

The government insists the Taliban won't be allowed to enforce its harsh version of Islam here, but merchants like Gul know otherwise — he switched to selling poultry.

"The Taliban now call the shots. We cannot do anything that offends them," he said, standing outside his shop in this once-popular tourist destination less than two hours drive from the Pakistani capital.

 

[Bhishma]

Indeed, diplo-speak aside, the locals know that they have lost, and the Pakistani state cannot help them any longer.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

That's just blather. You've lost, Aggy!

Not at all - you are imposing your definition of victory based on your timescale on me.

I do not see the process that has been started under this policy as being over yet, and it may not be over for another year or so, if the 'peace deal does not fall apart by then.

If it falls apart, we go back to the drawing board, as I said. This is just another battle, and it is as of yet inconclusive. The war is definitely not over.

Just to give you a hint, I am not aiming for a Utopia as a measure of 'victory'.

 

[S-2]

"What should we be embarrassed about?"

There's no time for trivial notions of appearance. I wouldn't worry about "embarassment" and believe Solomon2's comment is undeserved.

OTOH,

"The government is trying a particular approach, the process is not complete yet."

"Trying"? Repeating would be more accurate. You've negotiated before. The results are obvious. With that you entered negotiations again. Why? Probably because you had no choice.

My suspicion is that Kiyani has championed this negotiation from behind the scenes. In his view he had no choice. His calculus has determined that the army's tactics were correct but that four brigades were inadequate to securing SWAT and he had no more to give. Alternatively, he could have decided that the tactics and skills were inadequate and no amount of additional forces would produce the desired results.

Left with these as alternatives to negotiations, he's "encouraged" negotiations as the path of least resistance, if also offering the least gain. He's buying time for himself and others. As Musharraf pointed out in his Indian press conference, FATA/NWFP are a small portion of the populace. It is possible that your government is already evolving a picture of the primary battle to be fought in the PUNJAB, not Waziristan.

The borders may already be ceded permanently in Kiyani's equation.

"...it would be foolish to ignore the catalytic impact that the War in Afghanistan (starting from the Soviet invasion, and especially after the US invasion) and the flow of men, materials and money form that particular conflict has had upon the capabilities of people like Mullah FM and the dynamics in Pakistan."

Correct. This has caused immense regional trauma. I'm unsure of the magnitude still. Much of the effect is yet to be felt. Much is subtle but profound. On a scale of human suffering, we've not yet equalled either the partition nor the Soviet invasion and it's civil war aftermath by a long shot. Perhaps not the 1971 war either.

The potential, though, for equal or worse in the greater scheme of things is clearly evident.

One note- "Education, health care, jobs and development..." would have greatly mitigated the impact of both the Soviet invasion/civil war and the subsequent U.S. led occupation of Afghanistan. Like a strong immunal system, these qualities would have confronted the subsequent rise of blind, semi-feudal fealty offered by FATA tribespeople to the militant leaders and mullahs.

FATA's poverty has laid the foundation of this insurgency. Coupled with similar despair on the Afghan side and there was easy acceptance to the appeal of A.Q. and the "mullahs" of the taliban.

Somebody here said Islam first, nation second. Grossly, I fear the suspension of thought under that edict. I fear that this exact underpinning has fashioned the insurgency you have now. The appeal of the state is modest compared to the role that Islam plays in these areas. That said, seizing the religious high ground is critical. Fortunately, as speed in so doing is imperative, the message needed to do so among these simple folk doesn't need to be particularly sophisticated in it's theological attraction.

Sorta "Us good. Them bad. Make you read bibles and foreswear Allah. Kill them." It's really not much more complex nor does it need to be.

A couple of thoughts.

Nice to see you back.

I see your love for my government has grown during your absence.

 

[Solomon2]

You're a smooth talker, Aggy, but what sort of respect do you think you have from people like Gul? Why should they listen to you? Why shouldn't they suspect that they are being sacrificed by the State so its corrupt officials can keep their pride and pocket the monies that were meant to save them from such a fate?