[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... must be scratching his head, wondering what his next move should be. On the other hand, the bully boy leadership is probably enjoying cups of green tea in a mud-house somewhere in the tribal region. The beardos can afford to relax -- after all they have just checkmated a confused and clueless politicianship while also putting to the test the political rhetoric of those who have gone hoarse lobbying for peace talks with the Pak Taliban.
The nomination of the five-member committee to represent the Tehrik-e-Taliban in talks with a four-member government-nominated team appears to be a smart political move by the TTP.
The TTP-nominated committee is representative of the school of thought which vociferously advocated peace negotiations with the Pak bully boys.
The bully boyz have nominated PTI chief Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... ; Maulvi Kifayatullah, the burly, former JUI-F MPA from Mansehra ...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south... ; JUI-S leader Maulana Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time... , who until recently claimed to have been tasked by the government to engage the bully boys; the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... leader from Bannu, Professor Mohammad Ibrahim; and the famous Lal Masjid holy man, Maulana Abdul Aziz.
The TTP front man said that the banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization had spoken to the individuals and had obtained their consent.
Among the bearded crowd, the clean-shaven Khan seems like the odd man out but then, perhaps more than the others, he articulated and forcefully pushed for a dialogue with the bully boys. Not just that, he ordered his party men to forcibly stop supplies for foreign forces moving through Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... before entering Afghanistan. His party also staged a sit-in to protest drone strikes in our tribal regions.
So, tactically and politically speaking, the bully boyz have chosen an ideal team. The ones, who believed that peace was possible, have been given the task to make it possible.
Let bully boyz not be blamed for lack of seriousness or resolve; let their chosen few speak for them and vouch for them by engaging the official handpicked team, the majority of whose ideological bent of mind may not be different from their supposed interlocutors.
It's a win-win situation -- tail, I win, head, you lose! Like-minded people on both sides. As one commentator put it, it was a case of Liverpool playing against Liverpool.But this is not all what it is all about. The TTP has put the political parties' own rhetoric to test. Will Khan now come forward and be part of a team representing the bully boyz and risk being permanently called a Taliban Khan by his political detractors?
Even more interesting is the fact that his party's government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has endorsed and supported the official team by nominating Rustam Shah Mohmand to it. How will Mohmand -- a government interlocutor -- confront his own party leader sitting on the other side of the table?
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... Khan has made it clear he wouldn't be part of the Taliban-nominated committee. "This is beneath his stature," a party leader said.
JI's Prof Ibrahim was smart. He acknowledged having been approached. However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... he added that while he had consented to be part of the effort he would do so only as a mediator between the government and the Taliban.
Samiul Haq, who opted out, is simply miffed that Prime Minister Sharif did not return his calls. Hence, he has adopted the wait-and-see approach -- in other words he will not commit either way till the situation clears up.
Maulana Abdul Aziz too has been a bit ambivalent. He said he was willing to help as much as he can but added that till the government imposed the Sharia or appeared sincere in doing so, he would not become part of the team.
This leaves behind Maulvi Kifayatullah, who was once JUI-F's contact person with the late TTP leader, Waliur Rehman, to respond to the nomination.
But where does this leave the government's initiative? What will the prime minister do to achieve political consensus for his peace initiative? Or will he now swallow the bitter pill and do the seemingly unthinkable -- order a military operation -- now that at least four of the political parties which supported his move, have now been chosen by the bully boyz to sit on the opposite end of the table?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/03/2014 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#2
If you want to have fun with the institution, just separate out the strategic forces and return everything else back to the Army. Not going to happen. It's obvious, short of a Stalinist type purge, nothing is going to change. Never does.
#3
Shes a natural for the job, at least by Obama administration standards. She spent 20 years of her 30-year career as a House Armed Services Committee staffer and a Clinton administration Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. Her last ten years were spent at SAIC (a large Beltway consulting firm). Shes not a warrior by any standard, but she reportedly met one once. Its not your fathers Air Force anymore (or mine, for that matter).
I'll bet she's spent a couple of nights at a Holiday Inn. That ought to at least qualify her to handle the latest cheating scandal.
Barry Rubins was a rare voices of clarity today. His writings were often placed here as he was a renowned counterterrorism expert. He was one of the good guys.
A native of the United States, Barry Rubin was director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA), and a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Israel.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Nawaz Sharif
a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south...
