OF late, political parties seem to be perpetually preoccupied with the issue of members crossing the floor and forming forward blocs. Such activities form part of our democratic landscape, and provide fodder for the gossip mills.
Politicians confirm and deny rumours, with reporters and the forgotten public hanging on every word uttered by them. In all this, what is troubling is that one tends to lose sight of other pressing issues such as the lack of transparency regarding deals struck between the state and the militants.
The agreement with the militants in Swat can have serious repercussions for years to come. In this situation, any democracy with an ounce of credibility would have taken its citizens into confidence, and before handing over the legal system to non-state elements, would have checked with the judiciary on the legality of the deals being struck.
As regards the Swat deal, the details made public are sketchy at best. The state insists that it has acted wisely and has not capitulated to the Taliban; on their part, the Taliban kidnap officials, while calling them guests, and promise to release them after a few questions have been answered under 'friendly' conditions. All this is aimed at determining who the victor is and distracts from the real questions which should be asked and answered. How did we allow militant structures to organise, recruit and gain strength to overpower the writ of the government in a particular area? Uncertainty over who yielded first scarcely matters to the half a million or so internally displaced refugees.
Meanwhile, the silence of the parliamentarians is deafening. Whether in government or the opposition, where is the demand to establish a commission for the purpose of holding a formal inquiry into the failure of the army to wrest control from the militants in the troubled areas. The Pakistan Army was called in to use its might and restore the writ of the government in the Swat valley. The army, which has so skilfully, time and again, captured political institutions, was unable to retake Swat. Surely, nobody could have predicted that the Pakistan Army would be unable to conquer Pakistan. The politicians are afraid to invoke the ire of the army, for the moment remaining thankful to the military for not staging a coup d'état, given the recent political events.
We must not be content with accepting undisclosed deals made by the powers that be, effectively sweeping the mess under the rug. The statements made by officials sound deliberately vague. It is difficult for people to take official statements at face value. They seem to be aimed at pacifying the public opinion on one hand, and placating the Taliban on the other by promising them implementation of the Sharia.
The Taliban, in a gesture aimed at showing their 'open-mindedness', have permitted some girl students in Swat to attend school after having destroyed so many educational institutes in the first place. With the provincial government in the NWFP saying one thing, and the federal government, the army and Taliban saying something else, confusion reigns supreme.
The recent events reinstating the pre-Nov 3, 2007 judiciary should not allow some important questions to fade into the background. The public has a right to know the truth. It is difficult to believe that brigades consisting of some 16,000 troops were dispatched to a region well within our borders and were met with a kind of resistance which caused them to rock back on their heels. In the end, we have been asked to accept, as a nation, a deal struck with a militant group, which recognises their stronghold and their brand of draconian justice disguised as Sharia law. These are not backchannel negotiations being held with another country, these are deals being struck with a segment of our own society, which holds citizens living in the area subservient to the whims of a militant group.
Sadly, the fiasco does not end here. Apart from the press conferences designed not to reveal any concrete details on the negotiations being held with the militants, there is no mention of a long-term solution to the problem. Do we just accept this as status quo, and wait for the residents of Swat to come to their senses? Is there a vision to free them from the grip of the Taliban?
For any reasonable person, there is plenty to suggest that many serious questions remain to be answered. These issues threaten the very fabric of our society. In order to come to terms with them, we must obtain the answers. In order to answer the questions, we must ask difficult questions. The establishment of a commission to hold an inquiry into the matter is long overdue. The real danger lies in hoping that problems will sort themselves out.
