Daily Times

Literacy has always been a major problem in Pakistan. As many commentators have recently pointed out, it is not restricted to the fact that many people cannot read or write, but that the quality of what they read is often mentally regressive rather than enlightening. The internet has its own place in modern literacy problems; vast amounts of unfiltered information often confuse more than they educate and people do not acquire the filters to distinguish between fact and fiction until they have a decent education. It is a vicious cycle, and it affects our politicians as much as it affects our population. One politician in particular, however, seems more affected by a lack of access to quality educational materials than others, if his statements are anything to go by.

One can usually forgive the Nawaz Sharifs and Bilawal Bhuttos of the world for their inability to articulate coherent speech or make a logical argument simply because one does not expect it of them. However, when a man claiming to be Pakistan’s saviour, and with the passion and charisma to deliver on that promise, turns out to implicitly lack the analytical tools needed to accomplish the job, it can prove disappointing. Enter Imran Khan, on a tidal wave of historical ignorance and a gross inability to see the facts or believe the truth. If his stubbornness was an asset in cricket, it is a national liability now.

Imran’s recent stance and his statements concerning the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the peace process beggar belief. His latest fit of verbal epilepsy saw him resort to using the claim that a mysterious ‘third hand’ was at play, and that the government was deliberately undermining negotiations, while demanding another All Parties Conference (APC) to discuss the negotiations. He has probably forgotten that the ‘third hand’ is an old obfuscation the government and military used to tell people, back when we denied having anything to do with radical militants or the Taliban. However, ever since it became apparent that we are in fact suffering the fallout of a faulty policy that goes back to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The military acknowledged that the problem was one of our own making, and whether the US was in Afghanistan or not would have made little difference to the ideological militants trying to burn this country to the ground. Tacit agreement on the idea that this is an internal Pakistani problem has taken 20 years to come out in the open, mostly thanks to the hard work of tireless commentators and activists who refused to buy the ‘third hand’ argument. Now, Imran wants to shove it back in the box and pretend that militants and militancy are not a problem in Pakistan; rather that there exists a communication gap between misguided tribesmen and a repressive state.

The policy of proxy warfare often yields dividends in the short term, until the interests of the state and the proxies diverge; after 9-11 that is what happened, when Pakistan’s survival was in doubt against a very angry and belligerent US. Musharraf’s policy of feeding the Afghan Taliban with one hand while appeasing the US on the other gave the militants the space they required to breathe and survive. Who are the militants? Well, they are not local Pashtun tribesmen with an agenda for better governance. They are the hangover of a Cold War policy to fight communism using Islamic ideology as a motivator, not just any Islamic ideology but Wahabi Saudi interpretations of Islam, in themselves a regressive and brutal reading of the religion, which is a mental breeding ground for even more extreme notions. We should be clear that, despite their ostensible appeal as tribal dissidents, the militants comprising the TTP and other splinter groups have very little regard for tribal values. Sharia, as they call it, for example, is not a tribal system; it requires a centralised, authoritarian system to apply concerted force upon a population to create particular social conditions. We know what those conditions are — Afghanistan under the Taliban was an example.

While I personally like the occasional haircut (which may not be possible under a Taliban regime), Imran’s flowing locks (an achievement at his age) are a good indication that he does not go in for regular haircuts either. But how does a man who was once the darling of British society, a playboy of distinction, married to a billionaire’s daughter and the loudest critic of the military and the government, end up using their clichés to justify his political stance? The answer, I fear, lies in a lack of access to quality educational materials and too much Google. Because, if Imran did have access to quality materials, he would know that the militants he refuses to denounce, whom he calls brothers, are not the wild haired, gun-toting Pashtun tribesmen who fought the British and Sikhs in glorious defeat. They are not the mountain tribesmen who impressed Alexander the Great with their complete disregard for death (which he duly gave them in great quantity). In short, the TTP are not the romantic figures from a legendary fighting tradition whom we respect and admire as our own brothers, the Pashtun, with their strong tribal values and reputation for hospitality, intransigence and vengefulness.

The TTP belong to another tradition, a totalitarian tradition that seeks to subjugate others to a particular point of view. They are linked ideologically and financially to other militant movements around the world, such as al Nusra or ISIS in Syria. They are known for their butchery and caprice, not their justice and friendship. Furthermore, the TTP continue to make money through drug smuggling and kidnapping. Are drug smugglers and extortionists the brothers Imran wants us to accept, especially after railing against numerous government officials for their alleged participation in similar crimes?

For the TTP, talks appear to be no more than a stalling tactic while they regroup in the tribal areas. This has been their modus operandi for some time. Their unacceptable demands highlight this. If they were serious about negotiations, the suicide bombings would have stopped; simple reading of the news from the last 10 years shows this. While the government proceeds to meet the TTP committee in good faith, going so far as to give them safe passage and a helicopter to shuttle from North Waziristan to Islamabad, TTP attacks continue, including in Imran’s PTI-ruled province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Several attacks since negotiations started have left more than 75 dead, including a number of police and frontier constabulary personnel. Several schools were attacked, thankfully with no casualties. One attack just before talks began would have resulted in dozens of dead children but for the courage of a teenage boy who stopped the suicide bomber in question at the cost of his own life. None of this has affected Imran’s verbal bellicosity. Guided by romanticised ideals of the Pashtun warrior, he continues to preach the naïve notion that the TTP are somehow in the right and that the government is ‘fixing the match’ against negotiations.

It has taken a long time and a lot of blood for the truth about the TTP to come to light. Imran has already done Pakistan the disservice of mainstreaming the TTP as legitimate political actors by vocally pushing for negotiations and calling them our brothers, but Pakistan and Pakistanis can no longer afford political divisiveness on the basis of Imran’s identity crisis.

The writer is an Assistant Editor at Daily Times