According to a recent Yahoo news update:
The government (of Pakistan) agreed to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive across much of northwest Pakistan on Monday in concessions aimed at pacifying the Taliban insurgency spreading from the border region to the country’s interior.
In my opinion, the devil is really in the details and the implementation of this agreement. I have mixed feeling on this: It is hard to see how the situation in Swat can be controlled only through the military means; there has to be a political dimension. This is what the U.S. is also learning the hard way in Afghanistan where there is already a talk of having some sort of adjustment with “moderate Afghan Taliban”.
In an ideal world, you would have hoped that Pakistan army would have gained the upper hand in Swat and then they could have negotiated from the position of strength. Unfortunately this is not the case. Despite several attempts, the army could not make any significant gains in Swat. Part of this is due to bad strategy and partly due the nature of guerrilla-warfare. Pakistan army was never trained to fight a counter-insurgency; fighting against India is what the focus has been so it does’t come as a surprise that it didn’t perform very well.
As far as their strategy goes, it was based primarily on using gunships and (artillery) shelling against suspected militant hide-outs. This approach is not very conducive to counter-insurgency because it leads to a lot of collateral damage. As the U.S. experience in Iraq shows, your mission in such a situation must really be to “secure the population”. This was the fundamental change in strategy that U.S. Gen. David Petraeus made but such a change requires putting a lot of boots on the ground, taking a lot more causalities and better intelligence. Unfortunately the Pak army was unwilling and incapable to take this approach which resulted in the bloody Swat stalemate.
Against this backdrop, the agreement can offer a way out if government can play its cards correctly. It should also be noted that this is not the first time that Swat will be under the so-called Shari’s law. This was the case for decades when Swat/Dir region was part of the princely state and life was governed by “Customary law”. The elected representatives of the Swat region have also been in favor of incorporating some populist militant demands such as Qazi courts and quick and simply justice with a 6 months deadline to process all cases.
One can hope that by incorporating the populist demands and a willingness to understand and work with local sensitivities, the authorities can gain credibility with the local population and take some of the wind out of the insurgency’s sails. I am under no illusion that the likes of Molana Fazlullah will be willing to give up their weapons and stop fighting but hopefully such a agreement will isolate the hard core extremist elements from the deeply conservative local population and deprive them from one of their main arguments. It is a lot easier to deal with insurgents when they don’t enjoy widespread local support.
Justice for whom? For those who think that this world is for men only?
Except few places in Lahore and Karachi, everywhere else I went, I saw men men men or some tired mother rushing to clean homes because she had to feed ten kids at home. I wanted to throw up (vomit, puke).
They like to call humans, Ashraful makhlookat but they act like animals.
Although cats are very particular about grooming themselves but they want to be called as lions, the one you dont want to stand next to, without covering your nose.
No offense to veiled ladies.
Lal Masjid was full of criminals who refused to change their ways and rejected all peaceful means. They were punished for it as a result.
The Swati Taliban are also criminals who refuse to change their ways and reject all peaceful means. The difference is that the govt has surrendered to the Swati Taliban.
My question is that will this esteemed “Sharia” stary by punishing the Swati Taliban for the enormous crimes they have committed? Or will the Swati Taliban go scott free and be able to boast about bringing Sharia to Swat ?
“The elected representatives of the Swat region have also been in favor of incorporating some populist militant demands such as Qazi courts and quick and simply justice with a 6 months deadline to process all cases.”
^^
That is some thing the whole Pakistani nation wants. Not just the people of Swat.
Such demands should be incorporated into every part of the country.
Well, actually this is not something new Shariah/Islamic law being imposed. This system had been in District Swat till 1999 (from the days when Swat used to be princely state). This is just another standard structure that was running smoothly (and is different from the self-created version of Shariah that these barbarians are presenting). I have spent a considerable time in Swat (Last time it was late 2008) and still have numerous acquaintances there. The common people of Swat consider the Nizam-e-Adal, that was in practice there since the days of “Swat State” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swat_(princely_state)) , to be more effective & efficient in their issues as compared to general court system. To re-iterate, this Nizam-e-Adal doesn’t contain any thing like “killing innocent people” etc. etc. stuff.
I just talked with a couple of friends there and the general perception obviously there is that they have taken a sigh of relief after being in a continuous state of fear and terror. The most affected were the innocent people living there. So, for us it’s easy to say “Don’t surrender”. For them, a compromise is better.
We are already in deep trouble due to our latest dictator’s “May naa maanouN policy” who out of his brutish-ness mishandled Lal masjid issue whose consequences are what we’re seeing with open eyes today. Not everything should be handled with power especially when it’s the matter of saving your own people!
While I concur with the idea that collateral damage should be minimized and the population “secured” a la Petraeus, I fail to see how the approach couldn’t have been changed without the ceasefire and this shameful deal…
As for the population being “deeply conservative”, didn’t someone point out recently that the Swatis were proud to send their girls to school, (of which hundreds were blown up by the Taliban, but the presence of hundreds of schools says something), and didn’t they return the ANP to the assemblies last year instead of the MMA? Hardly the hallmarks of a “deeply conservative” region… the amount of beheadings and murders the Taliban have committed hardly point to a population in sync with their views…
And instead of the government and the army regrouping, this will simply allow the mullahs to do so… this is a humiliating concession both for the government and the army, with the former resorting to this deal and the latter being forced into a stalemate… shame on both… this is not why one was elected and the other nurtured…
If this is how they plan to behave, I might as well bring out my grandpa’s ancient rifle and sit and wait for when the mullahs come get me… I plan to put up a better fight than this!