Islamabad—“I’ll sort out the country’s security issue in a year or resign from my job,” so said Chaudhary Nisar when he took up the portfolio of Interior Ministry.

“Well, Chaudhary Sahb, it’s already nine months,” Sheikh Rasheed was quick to remind him his statement. “Either you eat your words or fulfill your promise; Islamabad has become totally unsafe; we need to hand it over to Rangers.”

The twin bombing in Islamabad’s District Courts had definitely put Nisar in a corner. The Interior Ministry had declared Islamabad to be very dangerous. Nisar contradicted his Ministry by calling the Capital as one of the safest cities. We did not know whom to believe: the Minister or his Ministry. Well, his Ministry turned out to be right in the end.

The dare-devil suicidal bombings were minutes away from Police Station and the offices of the IG. And yet the police took 30 minutes to get there. Where were the rapid response teams that were supposed to be in place after the Sikandar fiasco. It was a mess all around. Where were the Deputy Commissioner and Commissioner who were supposed to provide a model for the Commissionerate System that our DMG cadres want to restore.

Parliamentarians were incensed and justifiably so. Senator Babar Awan believed that the government was reduced to only Red Zone as the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, had got restricted to Delhi’s Red Fort.

Opposition parties seemed to be having second thoughts on giving the PML (N) government a carte blanche over Taliban strategy. Khursheed Shah was genuinely worried that the Taliban might just take over Parliament some day. He believed the PML (N) gets into self-congratulatory mood a little too early, accusing the ruling party of being overly “arrogant.” PTI’s Shafqat Mahmood concurred that Islamabad had become extremely unsafe. He believed that the courts were targeted because they symbolized the State. “The administration got completely exposed,” the former bureaucrat in him seemed disappointed. “For god’s sake, Islamabad had 43 robberies in January alone and cars worth one billion rupees got stolen from here; how can we trust you with the whole country when you can’t even control Islamabad.”

One agreed that if the PML (N) had been in opposition it would have created such a fuss and displayed, in the words of Lal Haveli Sheikh, “judo karate and BANGCOCK kay sholay” before the Speaker’s desk.

MQM’s Dr Farooq Sattar questioned the whole strategy of having dialogue with the Taliban. He believed this was not getting anywhere and “actions should speak louder than words.”

He was not wrong. The latest bombings had put the government in a quandary. One on side are Taliban apologists who don’t want action against them at any cost. They grieve for the killers of 50000 people much more than they mourn for the victims. Every time the Taliban betray their commitments by resorting to violence the “foreign conspiracy” card comes into play.

The skeptics do not see any possibility of peace other than action. All the 17 trouble spots in Fata and the KP were cleared through force. And that is the only language they understand and this is why they have announced ceasefire.

There is a definite pattern in Taliban strategy. Every time a national consensus builds against them they manage to diffuse it by vague statements of dialogue. Their brothers in arm—both in government and the media—join in by confusing everybody through conflicting statements. The Taliban only use the time to regroup. This is exactly what is happening now.

The skeptics would not have dialogue without definite timelines and red lines. But the latest bombings may have made the peace prospects even more difficult. The demand by certain quarters that Taliban should simply condemn the bombings may not be enough. They need to do a lot of convincing and show gestures, and fast—without breaking the national momentum. Khursheed Shah was dot on in saying that the Taliban should ensure complete holding of fire. And if they can’t do that there was no point in talking to them.

The government continues to give mixed signals. Sheikh Rasheed had a point that even the government negotiating team is divided and did not have “the same line and length.”

The PML (N) may be looking for easy solutions where it does not have to risk much. The real test will be action in Punjab. Why does not the Punjab government starts crackdown against the 170 targets that Rana Sanaullah claims to have already selected. We have to take actions against the madrassah which have become nurseries for Taliban. Why focus only the military operation and that too in Fata and the KP. After all, the internal security documents mentions the problem of religious radicalism.

The PML (N) should learn a lesson from Pervaiz Elahi who was seen in the Assembly after months. The biggest political party of 2002 is reduced to a size that it can easily fit on the very bicycle that it used as its election symbol.

Whatever the case, time is of great essence. Taliban would like to extend the present time to summers when the boys will move to the theatre in Afghanistan. The recruitment may already have started, which is why the Taliban want a patch up here.

Tail piece: The Sheikh of Lal Haveli, who always takes pride in being a GHQ man, insists that the PML (N) government restricts the military only to operational matters while keeping it out of the policy loop. Somebody is not happy with this. We keep our fingers crossed.

Published on: thespokesman.pk

Date: Monday, 03 March 2014