Why peace negotiations are not going in the right direction: my article

[darkinsky]

Why peace negotiations are not going in the right direction | Thinker's club

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On 25th February, Altaf Hussain gave an interview to Nadeem malik on Samaa tv. He mentioned few points

1) Army and government must be on the same page on dealing with the Taliban terrorism

2) If they are not on the same page, then army must take over and deal with this situation Afterwards,

there was a media controversy waged for months discussing not what Altaf Hussain actually meant, but on the legality of those words, meaning, whether Altaf Hussain should have invited army take over. And the violation of the constitution article 6. Nowhere in the media it was discussed whether the dialogues with the talibans were happening in the right direction and whether the army and the Nawaz govt was on the same page as indicated by Altaf Hussain. I followed the media and in one current affairs program where shahid latif, a prominent media face and defense analyst who represents the Pakistani military point of view rejected any arguments that there was any division between the army and govt, and indicated that actually Altaf Hussain maybe making a conspiracy theory and that both parties were not on the same page. After nearly 2 months when the process of Taliban government peace negotiations are becoming complicated day after day, the Pakistani nation senses that what Altaf Hussain said 2 months earlier actually seems to be the very case. Let me discuss in brief the events from 24th march till date

The game of bluff played by the talibans:

On 24th march government held talks with TTP to discuss recovery of Shahbaz Taseer, Haider Gilani for peace deal to progress further in return for TTP prisoner swap. On 31st march the TTP committee head prof Ibrahim of jamaat islami even hinted that Taliban will release high profile prisoners in the prisoner swap. the talibans wanted to play a bluff game so that the Pakistani government in return releases Taliban prisoners and TTP gets everything. The government doesn’t buy the taliban’s bluff until the deadline ends and on 2nd april Ceasefire is not extended and Khalid Umer Khursani threatens to begin the war again: now, the government who is clueless on how to keep this peace deal going on, releases Taliban prisoners, thus giving up to the TTP threat and pressure on 4th april.In return, TTP doesn’t release the high profile prisoner it was talking about and there is no prisoner swap and TTP still holds the hostage to maintain its bargain chips. As a result of government cowardice, TTP gives it a breathing space for ten more days. This clearly shows that the TTP has a very big upper hand, and the government has no choice but keep bogging down to the TTP demands unconditionally, otherwise TTP will threaten government to end ceasefire. TTP is clearly running the show here On one side where Altaf Hussain told the govt to be on the same page of the army, the govt is clearly showing that it wants the army to do what the govt says as indicated by Military annoyed over release of Taliban prisoners, and on the other hand the talibans want to run the show and it will not accept that the Pakistani govt even have an equal status on the deal. The clear indication that the peace deal is not going as planned by the govt, and that it is being used as a tool by the TTP to get an uppen hand and weakens the Pakistani govt stance on the national security and terror issue.

Govt is compromising on our national security by subjugating role of military on one hand and getting subjugated by talibans on the other:

In my opinion, govt is following a self-destructive policy. It is letting itself getting squeezed on both sides, the talibans and the army. As indicated by altaf Hussain, is it very important for the govt to take army along while negotiating with the talibans and to take army as an important party in peace deals, now it has become clear that government is trying to let talibans dominate the state, which has compromised the national security of Pakistan by the govt trying to dominate the army, which is the first line of defense of our country and the department which is supposed to defend our nation against the talibans is being subjugated and bogged down and demoralised to leave the ground playing field for taliabans to easily implement their agenda whether physically by occupying more lands o =r mentally by disarming Pakistani state by doing propaganda against our armed forces, our first line of defence against any internal or external threat I was naked, lying on the ground and Pak Army’s officers were quietly standing/watching on the side.

Kh Asif demoralising statement against Pak army

Talibans covertly attacking Pakistan through different names:

While our intelligence agencies are sleeping talibans have been able to attack the capital of Pakistan twice, at one time they attacked our judiciary through Islamabad court attack, while TTP declined to accept any responsibility and claimed that jundullah a non TTP party was responsible, the investigation reports showed that it was covert attack by TTP itself had ordered attack on Islamabad court, say findings The second attack in the Islamabad fruit market which was claimed by a non-existing party called UBA (united Baloch army) was also infact done by the TTP mohmand agency faction as the investigation reports claimed It clearly indicates that the TTP has adopted to play the game of hide and seek while the govt keep negotiating with them and TTP is hell bend on achieving all its aims, whether to weaken Pakistan first line of defence, or by continually making terrorist attacks and yet the government is fool enough to keep negotiating with the terrorists who are continuously undermining the security of our country.

Taliban agenda for peace deal:

It is very clear that the Taliban agenda is hit two birds with one stone, Pakistan army action is a threat for the talibans, recently when Pakistan gained a massive upper hand by using drone as intel gathering to do precision strikes on the terror heads of talibans, talibans planned the strategy to get their upper hand by starting peace deals with the govt and exploited the differences between the pak military and the govt. govt wants to dictate the army and wants it to obey every foolish order given by the govt, the govt is not using its senses, rather it wants to tame the army as it pet dog who wags its tail whenever its master demands not realising the consequences that army may rebel and over throw the govt. The govt must act sensibly and give an equally important status to the military rather trying to confront it, army is not an organisation that can be tamed, but avoiding confrontation would be the best approach tby govt to keep all things stable. The military is an asset for the Pakistani nation, the talibans are our menace, rather than treating military as a menace and trying to subjugate it, the govt must try to tame the TTP and subjugate it because TTP is our enemy and a menace not our army.

Taliban true agenda succeeding:

Recently talibans have started to propagate their terror agenda by launching their media wing umer media which launched its website Tehreek-i-Taliban launches website. TTP is trying to earn sympathy of common people by stating that,Targeting innocents ‘Haram’: TTP spokesman on the other handtaliban is openly threatening Pakistani officials with murder

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TTP has again threatened to stop cease fire which means the TTP will again challenge the state and do what they do best by killing innocent people and undermine Pakistani security. If the govt is negotiating according to the constitution why is that, that the taliban is getting everything illegally, whether by the illegal release of its terror comrades, or the illegal silence of the govt on terror threats made by talibans and not taking any action against them? On the other hand, govt has decided to take TTP off the list of banned organisation in Pakistan

This clearly shows that TTP which few months ago was being hunted down by the Pak army and its threat was minimizing has got a lot of advantage after the peace negotiations, it has not only successfully created differences between our prime institutions, the army and the democracy, but also is on dictating terms to our state.