Ahsan Waheed
Notwithstanding US reservations, the recently initiated truce deal with the Taliban is beginning to pay dividends. A reports filed in Pakistan’s dailies suggest that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan have seen the error of their ways and are effectively suing for peace in Swat.
Here, at least, the local Taliban leader, Maulana Fazlullah, has asked his followers to honour the terms of the peace accord signed with the government of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) at a ‘Shura’ (public gathering) where more than 1500 militants had descended to attend from their hideouts in the hills.
Fazlullah, reportedly advised his followers to remain calm, notwithstanding the failure of the NWFP government to honour the peace deal which encompassed the release all of the Taliban imprisoned within 15 days. The maulana urged the restive tribesmen to be patient, even his they threatened to break the treaty.
The maulana nevertheless took up issue with the government for not compelling the Pakistan military to withdraw from the field to their barracks, but at the same time brought to the Shura’s notice that the reason for this could be that there were others about who had been attacking girls’ schools in violation of the agreement.
An important part the truce with the Taliban has to do with NWFP government’s agreeing to establish an Islamic University in Imamdehri, the cleric’s headquarters where the mediums of instruction are to be both Arabic and English, and where an attitude change is presaged, with Vice-Chancellor designate, Dr Mohammad Farooq, having announced that the university would induct both male and female students.
Meanwhile, a Dubai based study group, the Gulf Research Centre, is focusing its energies on the Gulf States involvement to bring about other peace agreements in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The organization has recommended these affluent Muslim states take it upon them to provide job opportunities for the tribal youth in Gulf States as well as look to making investments in FATA.
Noted correspondent Khalid Hassan quotes spokesperson Faryal Leghari contending that the “much criticized peace agreements with the tribes were made in keeping with tribal traditions…to re-establish the writ of the state”, and that instead of “aggravating an already volatile situation by staging ground operations…the US should place the onus on the Pakistan military and beef up the regional security forces with technical training and intelligence support” (Daily Times-Page A4 -June 23).
This may indeed be the best way out of the quagmire the West finds itself in, for there is little indication that the war against terror in Afghanistan and its environs can be won without “winning the hearts and minds” of the entire region.
