Daily Times

Analysing Imran Khan’s politics, one notices a clear disconnect from ground realities. His opposition to drone strikes, rather fixation on them, is beyond the understanding of thinking Pakistani citizens who have started questioning his stance on drones and militancy. Imran Khan’s quick fix solution to all the ills of Pakistan is, one, halting drone strikes in the tribal belt, and, two, holding talks with the Taliban without having a ‘plan B’ if the former two do not materialise.

In his speech in Peshawar recently, for the dharna (protest) held against NATO supplies, he said that he would put pressure on the US and that the protest would continue if drone attacks were not stopped. His rhetoric on how the sovereignty of Pakistan has been violated by the drones hardly mentions those foreign militants who are sitting in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). One hardly hears him expressing his outrage or condemning the Taliban for carrying out attacks targeting innocent people. He seems to be least bothered about the challenges the people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are suffering from.

Let us first talk about the drones. For some politicians, like Imran Khan, the drones have become an obsession. When 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai was attacked by the Taliban for simply going to school, some of our mediocre television anchors — most are mediocre — connected this incident to the drone attacks in the tribal belt and had the outlandish temerity to suggest that this little girl was a US agent. Even giving them the benefit of the doubt that such statements were merely meant in jest, they were in extremely bad taste.

It is unfortunate that successive governments in Pakistan have been playing the victim, despite the fact that Pakistan has secretly acquiesced to the use of drones in the tribal areas. Instead of owning up to the drone strikes, it propagandises against drone strikes using the media and right wing political leaders. The sooner it faces this fact, the better for Pakistan.

While sitting in a restaurant in District Tank, which shares a border with South Waziristan, an old university friend from the Mehsud tribe glanced nervously over his shoulder, inched closer to me so as not be heard by other customers sipping their tea, and said, “The drone is the best weapon ever produced by human beings. It never misses the target and the people in North and South Waziristan are very happy with it. It does not uproot whole tribes and communities like gunship helicopters and mortar shells do, it does not destroy our cattle, it does not destroy our crops; it simply hits its target. There is very minimal collateral damage in such attacks. But it happens only if you are present in the room with the terrorists. Stay away from them and you are safe. Remember what we used to say in university, ‘a person is known by the company he avoids.’” He winked and burst into laughter.

During my extensive travelling recently in the tribal belt, I was told that the only people scared of drones are the Taliban. Consequently, they neither dine together, nor sit together to crack jokes or share stories. The militants can neither attend weddings, nor go to burials. They cannot sleep in their houses, nor can they travel together in one vehicle. Locally, drones are called ‘da Talibano plaar’ (father of the Taliban) as they are the only thing that keeps them on the run for their lives, certainly not the friendly firing of the Pakistani military. Top Taliban commander, Mullah Nazir, who was killed by a drone strike in the tribal belt of Pakistan, once told a friend of mine that drone strikes had rendered the Taliban completely neurotic, as they could hit them anytime, anywhere, “The drones have traumatised my soldiers. There is no escape from them,” he said.

In another instance, I enquired of a colleague from the Wazir tribe of North Waziristan, if it was true that drones hit innocent civilians and thus, ultimately, nurture militancy. He replied that this assumption was baseless, “It is simply the media and some politicians that are misguiding people. The same media and politicians are mute when suicide attacks hit innocent people in our mosques, markets and offices. What about that collateral damage?”

And now, about talks with the Taliban even though the Taliban have shown little interest in negotiations. Let us assume that the government initiates such talks — who will represent the Taliban and what will be the agenda of the negotiations? And if the negotiations succeed, what will this success look like? Will the Taliban lay down arms and reinvent themselves? Will all the Taliban commanders become law abiding, good citizens? Will schools re-open in FATA and the bordering districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa? Will the internally displaced people go back to their houses and will the security forces start patrolling these areas? Will thousands of jihadis be given jobs so that they become responsible citizens?

I know Mr Imran Khan, US bashing is both fashionable and a part of our national psyche, despite the fact that Pakistan is among the largest recipients of US foreign aid. So here I humbly submit that the difference between a predator Taliban and a Predator drone is that the latter does not intentionally target innocent people but terrorists who kidnap children and strap them into suicide vests do purposefully target unarmed civilians.

The writer is a freelance journalist and can be reached at kaharzalmay@yahoo.com