Tehreek-e-Taliban should open an office: Imran Khan

[keeninterest]

Of all the political leadership in Pakistan, IK seems to be the only one coming up with fresher ideas of how to seriously pursue the peace talks unlike in the past when on one behest or the other the peace talks were scuttled. Opening of office is another such idea.

Look at the proposal closely, and it comes across that IK is keen on cultivating a political space for the TTP. Now if they do take it up, over a period of time, the TTP might as well be forced to relook at their ways of achieving the end result, and violent means of achieving the same might be scrutinized closely by the TTP itself. Question comes to mind, will the TTP be really keen on any such political space because per se, they don’t consider the democracy, the parliament as Islamic, so what is it that IK has thought, and how will such a space be created. But there is something interesting on play here, this proposal is similar on lines to what the US and the Afghan government are doing for/with the Afghan Taliban, and the TTP might as well be adjusted likewise, so must he be thinking.

Let us understand why IK thinks on these lines, the compulsions, the motivations of being such a hardcore adherent of such views. Couple of things.

1 IK is a socio-leftist ideologue. What we refer to in India as a jholawala, though a refined version of the same. For him, the TTP represents a thought process that is prevalent, if not with the majority, but definitely with decently big enough numbers, and he sees a solution in implementing a part of what the TTP represents, so that the constituency that represents this thought process do not feel alienated.

Don’t forget the talk of taking everyone together that IK does, and in this, he has a scope for the far right as well. This also gets shown from the alliance partner they have in the KPK.

This, to a common Pakistani, comes across as repulsive because after a very long time they have a socialist at the helm and his views to them don’t concur with the otherwise jingoistic political and military leadership that they are used to listening.

2 Pre-poll plank of IK for the KPK province was peace, and now he can’t be seen as the one going back on his words without thoroughly exploring this idea and giving it a chance, otherwise the people of his province, who have suffered the most in this war, won’t again trust him and he can’t risk it at all. Don’t forget even the ANP in the last few days of their governance were forced to push for talks with the TTP.

3 IK prior to the polls talked a lot about the 90 days. The same have passed and nothing on ground seems to have changed and this has not gone too well, also there has been a sort of propaganda knit around the 90 days and the performance of the PTI . It is clear, and abundantly so that that nothing much on ground will change till the time there is peace on ground. Peace is as much as a lifeline for the political fortunes of the PTI, and IK would any day like to go for the talks, a political solution, than a military solution, because the military solution will be hugely time consuming, which will add to the compounding miseries of the people of the province bringing with it collateral damage and with it will greater resentment from the people of the KPK.

4 The alliance partner. Need one say more on this.

In all this and as it happens, the opposition and more so the PML-N, the MQM, the ANP, and the JUI –F, the 4 parties who feel the most threatened politically by the PTI are busy playing their part. The aim seems to be clear, and which is to put all the blame of the mayhem that is happening on IK and the PTI, because IK is the most vocal pro-talks, pro-peace voice, and for now, at least in the other provinces IK’s image is taking a beating. Let me also add, in case the peace talks score a success, rest assured, the PML-N will walk away with the laurels, because from the way the PML-N maneuvers itself politically, it comes across that these chaps have the political finesse of how to carry the message to the voter, something the PTI seems to lack.

This is going to be a long hard battle to fight, brace up for it. You talk to them or you fight them, whatever, there will be significant loses. But before you head for a war, give peace talks a chance which is going to be a slow, prolonged, and a painful process.

Let me finish by saying, you can’t show paradise to people in Afghanistan, and not expect people back home in Pakistan to dream the same!

 

[Emmie]

Yeah, an office and that too on constitutional avenue Islamabad. I think we dealing with terrorist not with a newly formed ministry.

 

[unitedstatesofislam]

When United States can accept Taliban demand for a political office than why not Pakistan. Plz remember that Taliban are neither US citizens nor recognized by United States as legitimate political reps of Afghanistan but still US accepted their demand for a political office in Doha, Qatar while the TTP are Pakistani citizens since last 67 years.

Taliban office in Doha, Qatar.

 

[batmannow]

PTI chief urges govt to allow opening of Pakistani Taliban office

PTI chief urges govt to allow opening of Pakistani Taliban office - DAWN.COM

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday urged the government to declare a ceasefire if it was serious about holding peace talks with militants in Pakistan.

The PTI chief also called on the government to allow militants to open an office in Pakistan similar to the Afghan Taliban office in Qatar to facilitate the dialogue process, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives after visiting injured persons of the Peshawar church bombing at the Lady Reading Hospital, Khan said that on one hand, there were talks of holding negotiations whereas on the other, war was still ongoing. How would it be possible to hold peace talks, he questioned.

The PTI chairman moreover said that after the fourth All Parties Conference (APC), it was decided to hold peace talks; however no solutions had come about.

Khan stressed that the government should take negotiations seriously, adding that it should declare a ceasefire.

Furthermore, he also said that the government should allow militants to establish a political office in Pakistan to hold peace talks in the absence of which negotiations would not be possible and the decade-long war against terrorism would continue.

While discussing the Peshawar church bombing which killed 81 people, Khan alleged that the tragedy had been politicised. He said 170 blasts had taken place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the past nine years under previous governments, but PTI had not politicised those tragedies.[/I]

IK,s maddness will going to destroy his political party!

 

[batmannow]

[B]Egypt shuts headquarters of Muslim Brotherhood newspaper
Egypt shuts headquarters of Muslim Brotherhood newspaper - DAWN.COM

[/B]
CAIRO: Egyptian authorities have shut down the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice newspaper in Cairo, the latest move aimed at crushing the Islamist movement, the Brotherhood said on Wednesday.

“We the journalists of the Freedom and Justice newspaper condemn the security forces for closing down the headquarters of the newspaper,” the Brotherhood said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.

Police stormed the building overnight and removed the contents. A source at the Cairo Security Department said the raid followed Monday's court ruling which banned the Brotherhood and ordered its funds seized.

“A court ruling was issued to do it on charges of inciting violence and terrorism in the recent past,” a security source said, referring to the operation.

The army overthrew Mursi in July, and the Brotherhood has seen hundreds of its members killed and thousands arrested since then.

The campaign had forced many of the 50 journalists who produced the daily Freedom and Justice to work in secret to avoid arrest.

The newspaper, named after the Brotherhood's political wing, had focused on efforts to reverse what it called a military coup against an elected government.

The Brotherhood emerged from the shadows to win parliamentary and presidential elections after autocrat Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011.

Many Egyptians became disillusioned with Mursi after he gave himself sweeping powers and mismanaged the economy, taking to the streets in protest and prompting the army move.




A great EXAMPLE TO BE FOLLOWED?
not like our unexperinced politicians, who dont know any thing about , counter terrorism, war or even the dam negociations?

 

[[Bregs]]

lol ceasefire without they shunning violence even for a week

 

[pkuser2k12]

it is the right decision

government can directly talk and message can be put across faster

but imran says only those who want ceasefire

and also it will be a break from ngo pakistani media who sites every link of terror on phone call of alleged ttp spokesman later it turns to be laskar e jhangvi,sipah sahaba,jundullad,bla,bra etc etc

 

[batmannow]

Militancy’s steady progress[/B]
Militancy’s steady progress - DAWN.COM


IN a country plagued by terrorist attacks that have claimed the lives of leaders, ordinary people and the more vulnerable citizens, each tragedy is painful and emotionally draining.

But every new attack proves that the emotional exhaustion is finite while the anger and outrage is not.

Sunday was no different.

The reaction to the attack on innocent worshippers and especially those from the Christian community was intense and quick and continued all throughout Monday. Protests, statements of condemnation and anger — it was all there.

But in the midst of this anger, it was still possible to note how unusual the target of the violence was.

The Christian community has a number of crosses to bear as it tries to live and breathe in Pakistan — the attack on Joseph Colony and the minor girl in Islamabad who was accused of blasphemy are recent reminders of the harshness of their lives.

But since 2002, they have generally been spared the wrath of the Taliban who have focused their righteousness on ordinary Pakistanis (regardless of sect and religion), state installations and the Shia community in particular in recent years.

But that first year that Pakistan witnessed suicide attacks it was this very community that was under attack.

The first was a church in Islamabad’s Diplomatic Enclave, which was then followed by the shooting at a school in Murree and a chapel in Taxila. A detailed report in Herald later said that the attacks were the work of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) veterans under the banner of Jamaat-ul-Furqan. The Jamaat was said to be a splinter group of the Jaish led by former Haraktul Ansar and JeM commander, Abdul Jabbar.

It was argued back then that the attacks were a reaction to the invasion of Afghanistan — the aim was to punish the West.

The Christian community perhaps was just ‘collateral damage’ — the word ‘perhaps’ is used because in those days, the militants’ groups were not savvy enough to designate media spokesmen and the attacks were not succeeded by statements providing explanations and neither did enthusiastic members of the Taliban write public letters to their targets pointing out the error of their (the survivor’s) ways.

And now 11 years later, a church has been targeted again and with horrendous results. It seems inexplicable.

But studied against the general expansion of terrorist attacks in Pakistan and the general progression of militant groups, there is some method to the madness.

The targets of the militants in Pakistan have widened with the passage of time.

After the ‘Western’ targets, it was retired Gen Pervez Musharraf who was attacked — he was seen as the villain who had caused Pakistan’s U-turn on Afghanistan and forcibly aligned Pakistan with the West.

But within months, other military officials began to be targeted. In 2004, the Karachi corps commander escaped an attack that was also carried out by Jundullah. Its activists, as pointed out in news reports and investigations, were once associated with Harkatul Mujahideen (a decade ago most of the notorious militant groups were either sectarian ones or those who were involved in Kashmir).

The militants were realising that their enemy was not limited to an individual or an institution. They had expanded the list of those they saw as enemies and hence were taking their ‘war’ to all of them.

By the next year, even civilian cronies of the regime were no longer safe — while campaigning for his election to parliament, prime minister apparent Shaukat Aziz also had a close brush with a suicide attacker.

The reasons for this expansion are two-fold.

One is the diffusion of power in the polity the militants see as their ‘enemy’. This is of course based on the assumption that the attacks are carried out by people who aim to influence the government’s policies and/or attitudes. And this stands true even of religious militants who see the war as one between good and evil where their job is to destroy the ‘evil’.

And if government policy is not being decided by an individual, then the attacks too will be carried out against more than one man. In a democracy, the targets become multiple while ordinary people are attacked and killed to pressure the government and spread the perception of the state’s inefficacy.

But the second, perhaps more important, reason from the Pakistani perspective is splinter groups. Historically splinter groups have always led to further violence as the younger and more extreme members tend to break away from their more cautious leadership.

In Pakistan this splintering has been part and parcel of militancy since the beginning — regardless of the militant groups’ relationship with the state. JeM, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and many others were formed by men who disagreed with their leadership.

The conflict with the state has only hastened and intensified this process.

Many of those who have written on the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have pointed out that Hakeemullah Mehsud who took over once Baitullah Mehsud was killed was far more ruthless. A similar phenomenon was witnessed in other countries where a state crackdown eliminated the senior leadership of militant groups who were then replaced by their younger, less experienced and more reckless colleagues. The Algerian civil war is a classic example.

In the short term this leads to more violence. This is partly what Pakistan is experiencing.

Like the initial suicide attacks in 2002 and some in 2004, this attack on a church too has been claimed by a relatively unknown organisation. On the other hand, some journalists in Peshawar are saying that the TTP spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid has said that the TTP was not aware of who had carried out the attack while others are saying that these reports are not credible. But the fact that a relatively unknown spokesman has claimed the attack reflects the loose structure of the organisation.

Nonetheless, this attack is a loud and clear foreboding of more, indiscriminate violence. War or talks, whatever we decide on, the end will not come quickly or quietly.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Islamabad.

 

[Panther 57]

it is the right decision

government can directly talk and message can be put across faster

but imran says only those who want ceasefire

and also it will be a break from ngo pakistani media who sites every link of terror on phone call of alleged ttp spokesman later it turns to be laskar e jhangvi,sipah sahaba,jundullad,bla,bra etc etc

Other banned organisations have also given ad in newspaper for office space required in diplomatic enclave Islambad.

 

[Leader]

We are so afraid of the devil, that we dont even want to talk to him, and still wish to trap and hunt him down...

 

[pkuser2k12]

it is the right decision

government can directly talk and message can be put across faster

but imran says only those who want ceasefire

and also it will be a break from ngo pakistani media who sites every link of terror on phone call of alleged ttp spokesman later it turns to be laskar e jhangvi,sipah sahaba,jundullad,bla,bra etc etc

 

[SarthakGanguly]

​

Source

That's not the IK i voted for :|

What the @#!!
What did I just read?
IK and this? - Disappointing.

 

[Leader]

p.s. and I think he said Taliban, not TTP. I am sure Tribune deliberately made it TTP. Imran always say talibans.

 

[pkuser2k12]

Other banned organisations have also given ad in newspaper for office space required in diplomatic enclave Islambad.

really the good terrorists like bla,bra,jundullah


oh by the way they are in national assembly and holds ransom sindh government a.k.a the tripple alliance of target killer,bhata khor and kidnap for ransom trio anp,mqm and ppp

as the 11000 killed in karachi by them left no families behind to grieve hece the trio/two is/are allowed to form government in sindh also have mnas in national assembly

and the uzair baloch and barahamdagh cabinet of Baluchistan bla sardars

 

[ranjeet]

How about a RAW franchise, just a small outlet ?