Why Pashtun Nationalism Is Considered A Major Fault Line in Pakistan? Glimpses Of History (Part V) – OpEd

Military’s views about the PTM:

Certainly, the Pakistani military is not pleased with young Pashtuns calling out the military for its disputed policy about militancy and to management of FATA. The military’s annoyance with the movement is evident through the absolute black out of the movement from the media. Almost all TV channels and newspapers in Pakistan have been barred from reporting on the issue. Moreover, universities in the country have also been pressurized to cancel all events that would in any way offer legitimacy to the movement’s narrative. 

The military considers that the PTM platform is now hijacked and weaponized in greater geopolitical battles against the state of Pakistan and its security institutions was on full display in the recent past. For instance, “former Afghan government sponsored a powerful public show in South Waziristan through PTM”. They contend that “there is no question about members of Afghan security establishment supporting and financing the PTM”.

Furthermore, the PTM-inspired use of extreme language is pitching impressionable Pashtun youth against the state — way beyond the ambit of freedom of speech. A parallel example was the TLP which invited the wrath of security institutions when it called for mutiny within their rank.

PTM’s view about the military:

The movement alleges grave human rights violations by Pakistan’s military against Pashtuns in the country particularly in the northwest. It says that Pashtuns have been the target of violence at the hands of both the Taliban and the Pakistani military for two decades.

The movement also claims that the military supported Pakistani Taliban (also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP) militants, and its leaders. The running away of TTP former spokesman and main accused Ehsanullah Ehsan in Killings of more than 120 students in Army Public School Peshawar from the custody of military is always quoted as proof in this regard.

Moreover they blame that their supporters Professor Araman Loni and Arif Wazir and others were killed by security forces and that after the military claims to have decimated the Pakistani Taliban in two military operations Rad-ul-Fasad and Zarb-e-Azb,and after fencing the border, “now how the Taliban reemerged in former FATA and Swath valley. They claim that TTP have again been allowed to return” to the tribal areas in a “secret deal with the military.” The military categorically rejects these claims, arguing that the movement is dangerous and that its rhetoric threatens Pakistan’s constitution.

PTM warned time and again that the TTP’s revival of its militant campaign in the tribal areas is inspired by the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Most recently, it has been accused of the explosion in a mosque in Peshawar at the end of January 2023, which killed over 100 people.

Pashtun nationalist leaders particularly PTM is against the ongoing efforts of establishment to negotiate with TTP without taking parliament in confidence. They accuse Islamabad of deliberately fomenting instability in their homeland to attract again the Western funding for counterterrorism operations.

The PTM’s entire agenda is focused on demanding that the military give up its heavy-handed approach toward managing the country’s tribal areas. The movement has accused the military of supporting militant groups and abducting and silencing anyone who attempts to make public the former’s approach to managing FATA through a militaristic policy. The movement’s leaders rightly argue that securing peace, life, and dignity of the residents of FATA like other Pakistanis in living in Punjab or other regions of the country, is the responsibility of the Pakistani state. Moreover, the ongoing Pashtun movement attributes the unending miseries of FATA to the state’s failure and criminal indifference to fulfill its entrusted responsibilities.

Why Manzoor Ahmad Pashteen and PTM are becoming so popular?

PTM and its leader has become popular among the suppressed, oppressed, de-humanized, demoralized and demonized subaltern classes of Pakistan in general and Pakhtuns in particular is because he made public those ‘offstage’ or ‘hidden transcripts’ and gave voice to those voiceless who know a lot but cannot dare speaking up in the face of the dominant establishment. His style of narration is soft and artful. Most importantly, he has the first-hand information and observation of the downtrodden Pashtun community of the area once known in the recent past as laqa-e-Ghair – the alien territory – which is no longer ghair (alien). Through the 31st Amendment to the constitution, parliament ended FATA’s special’ status but the question is Why did it take us three generations to make such a common-sense decision? How did this area turn into an ungoverned space that went into the hands of insurgents and had to be re-conquered through military means?.

The situation in the backward wilderness of the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) has been simmering for the days of the British imperialists called these badlands, and therefore carved the region to contain the Pashtun tribes straddling across their imposed Durand Line of 1893. The Colonial Raj indirectly ruled FATA brutally through the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), first promulgated in 1872. These laws prevailed for 70 years even after independence in the 1947.

Pashtun the main sufferers in the so-called war on terror

FATA’s people in particular and rest of the Pashtun population in both Kyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan are the main sufferers of the Afghan Dollar Jihad during the late 1970s and 1980s. After the collapse of the USSR and subsequent departure of the Americans, FATA became  a training ground for Islamist sects breeding terrorism. Western and regional imperialists have kept their proxies. FATA has also been subjected to a blitzkrieg of indiscriminate US drone attacks, mainly killing civilians.

The recent anti-terrorist operations have inflicted dreadful collateral damage. Hundreds of thousands were displaced from their homes; villages and bazaars were bombed into ruins, thousands of civilians were killed and maimed in this crossfire. Many thousands remain ‘missing’ in suspicion of supporting the Taliban. 

There is no industry in FATA, and social infrastructure is negligible. In 2003, Islamabad launched a series of massive military operations. Over the next 11 years, more than 6 million Pashtuns were displaced and made IDPs. Pashtuns accounted for the lion’s share of the more than 80,000 civilians and security forces Pakistani officials claim to have lost as a result of terrorist attacks and military offensives. 

According to study conducted by a team from Princeton, Georgetown and Stanford Universities show that Pashtun areas in Pakistan are the least supportive of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. This is because the Pashtuns have paid the most, both socially. since 2003, Pakistan has lost over 50,000 civilians in the war against terrorism. It is the second most affected country, according to the Global Terrorism Index. A recent research conducted by the Pakistan Political Science Association (PPSA), claimed that out of the 50,000, an estimated 37,211 were Pashtuns

Despite the above mentioned sufferings inflicted upon them by militants and military operations, the voices raised by nationalist forces against those atrocities are unfortunately considered by the establishment as major fault line and a threat to the integrity of the country.

What is way forward?

To sum up, if the state wants to learn from its history, it must use its brain instead of the muscle and think rationally and logically.It must reconsider all its policies and should act democratically, ensuring the supremacy of the constitution everywhere and for everyone. It must act in such an inclusive manner that will empower its democratic institutions. It must act as a truly democratic federation. After all, this is the only way to win the hearts and minds of people across the country.

Pashtuns being victims and main sufferers need consolation, comfort, peace and dignity Therefore, decision makers in Islamabad and Rawalpindi cannot term the Pashtun movement as anti-state. It is all about constitutionalism and enforcement of fundamental rights. Our state has to come to terms with a changed Pakistan with a youth bulge, new media and information revolution. Unlike the past, information and ideas cannot be controlled with the rise of digital media. The same holds true for the corporate mainstream media that are only undermining their credibility by ignoring the young and angry Pashtuns.  A paradigm shift is required in approaching governance and socio-economic issues in Fata. It will not be easy but the path to peace and lasting solution lies in ending the isolation of Fata and integrating the region into the mainstream through a new social contract

Pakistan can only benefit from the diversity and plurality of public discourse — even dissenting — but it cannot from further bouts of violence. Instead of attempting to discredit and suppress the PTM, it must be brought into the mainstream through an honest and sincere engagement on issues that require systemic reform.

Both the PTM and the military need to tread a ‘middle’ path whereas the former abstains from its belligerent use of speech against the latter; and, the latter needs to establish a cordial communication mechanism with the PTM leadership in order to gradually win over its confidence so as to seek consensual solution to its demands. Any miscalculation on the part of the PTM or the state institutions, would result into immediate mayhem and gradually to a unprecedented losses.

This protest movement shows no signs of receding: PTM activists say they have “nothing more to lose” and will continue to protest. The PTM’s allegations are all gravely serious, and if true, would be a damning indictment of the state’s malintent toward its own citizens. If the movement’s charges are false, as the army claims, then the army can engage with the PTM, pull back the curtain on the tribal areas, allow for a truth and reconciliation commission, give an accounting of its actions against the Pakistani Taliban, and absolve itself. 

Last but not the least, the release of Ali Wazir from jail after a long period of two years is good omen on the part of establishment and sigh of relief in a badly polarized polity. Though late but at last good sense prevailed. Further breakthrough in meeting their demands with in constitutional boundaries will definitely help creating conducive conditions for peace and security in the country.

Sher Khan Bazai, The writer is retired civil servant as former secretary education. He can be reached at [email protected]