The Pakistani state’s intransigence about the legitimate demands of ethno-nationalist movements is not new. The war with Bengalis in 1971 and the seven-decade-long conflict with the Baloch demonstrate it well. The newly launched historic Pakhtun Tahfuz Movement (PTM) should not be taken aback by it. The PTM should not make mistakes that could get it sucked into the state’s ugly business of delegitimising and destroying rightful movements.
The PTM originated from Pakistan’s tribal regions under the leadership of 24-year-old university student, Manzoor Pashteen. The movement is a response to the death and destruction of thousands of Pashtuns in the tribal areas and beyond after the post-9/11 War on Terror in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. Its immediate trigger was, however, the cold-blooded murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud on false terrorism charges in January 2018 by a police officer, SSP Rao Anwar, in Karachi. The movement has spread on an unprecedented scale, as it has protested in significant Pakhtun-populated cities and towns across Pakistan, including in the capital Islamabad.
To assemble a rights movement of PTM’s scale by an ethnic Pakhtun activist in Pakistan is to cross a bridge on a slender hair. Pashteen, a simple, charismatic and fearless young man, daringly did it, although many cannot believe he is safe and alive. In an interview with Al Jazeera, the young activist said, “My father, wife and mother expect every day to hear the news of my death or disappearance.” But perhaps, it is too risky for the state to do so, as Pashteen seems to have arrived on the safe side of the bridge.
Pashteen — the face of PTM — has become an icon and a household name among Pashtuns in Pakistan and beyond. He has engineered positive response through the narration of compelling stories of suffering and trauma in his hometown, South Waziristan, to which Pashtuns across Pakistan profoundly relate. His stories made even the non-Pakhtun Pakistani premier shed tears of grief. A small percentage of non-Pakhtun progressive Pakistani intelligentsia has also expressed their solidarity with Pashteen’s cause.
The PTM leadership and Pashtun youth, in general, should exercise caution, lest the state ‘legitimise’ yet another bloody war in the name of ‘national integrity’
As the name of the movement ‘Pakhtun Protection Movement’ shows, the world must know that in the 21st century, the young defender of this oppressed lot is asking for the fundamental right to life. The movement has four basic demands: arrest Rao Anwar, clear landmines in tribal areas, return the Pakhtun missing persons and present them to the Court and eliminate curfews and check posts in tribal areas.
The state has tried to contain the success of PTM through almost complete media blackout — although some TV channels have interviewed Pashteen lately — internal divisions among Pashtuns and threats to the PTM leadership. But thanks to social media the educated Pakhtun youth has remained aware and steadfast in the face of the state’s manipulation.
As PTM continues its struggle, Pashteen should further employ storytelling as a strategic tool, peacefully and constitutionally, to protest the Pakistani state’s despicable treatment. A native American proverb aptly puts, ‘Those who tell the stories rule the world.’ There is, however, a fear circulating that if the state does not change its intransigent attitude, which it does not usually so quickly, the movement may take a radical form.
The PTM leadership and Pakhtun youth, in general, should exercise caution not to let the state to ‘legitimise’ yet another bloody war in the name of ‘national integrity.’ Manzoor Pashteen should avoid, which he has successfully done so far, at all possible costs the radicalisation in the face of apathy from the state. The PTM should observe restraint yet endurance, and refrain from incriminating by naming the state institutions such as ISI, MI, etc.
Indulging in accusations that are hard to prove will damage the movement’s success. To say, for instance, that the killing of Pashtuns is planned and carried out at the whims of Punjabi leadership in military and intelligence is hard to justify. Thus the movement is better off if it stays away from such direct, incriminatory language.
Instead, the PTM should question the state’s failure in the prevention of blatant violence in the Pakhtun region. It should examine the Pakistani state’s policies of war and subsequent devastation and displacement of millions of people in the past decade or so. It should ask why Balochistan, FATA and KP together, in proportion to the rest of the country, account for 82 percent of total fatalities that occurred in Pakistan between 2005 and 2016.
Most importantly, the movement should be wary of any physical conflict. The unfathomable dread and misery of the war in Syria are before our eyes. Therefore, restrain, but boldness and persistence should be the movement’s tools to fight the cold behaviour of the state. Although it will take time for the major impact to take form, the fruits of PTM regarding political consciousness among Pashtuns have already begun to ripe.
The writer is Lecturer, Department of English, Rutgers University; Email: [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, March 27th 2018.