In this article, Pakistan’s Looming Terror Threat – a Social and Political Bedlam – Elsa Imdad writes that political and social milieu in Pakistan has been overshadowed by the undue use of Islam by different groups and individuals. This she argues is for the gain of certain political and social agendas, and, at certain instances, the gain could also mean going to jail (succeeding in becoming Islam’s soldier) for killing someone in the name of blasphemy. The gain is also miserably justified by the radical actors when they (calling themselves Muslims) kill a bunch of other Muslims who are simply going about their usual business, causing no harm to Islam and its followers.
In the past couple of years, violent non-state actors have risen as a pervasive challenge for Pakistan. As of the recent past, with the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Pakistan has been experiencing ambivalence: the increasing threat of TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan) and other VNSAs, and the silver lining that the Taliban government in Afghanistan is pro-Pakistan. The latter sentiment was validated further when in November 2021, the Afghan Taliban mediated the month-long ceasefire between the Pakistani government and the TTP. However, it seems that the efforts have been going in vain.
The Pakistani government had agreed to release 102 TTP prisoners and hand them over through the Afghan Taliban. After a month, on breaching the ceasefire unilaterally, the armed group’s leader, Noor Wali Mehsud announced in an audio message that the promises made by the government were not fulfilled; and then the country saw an instant shift in the security situation. Since the ceasefire ended, the TTP has claimed responsibility for 16 terrorist attacks, including the attack at the ICT Police. On the other hand, Baloch insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack in the busy shopping district, Anarkali Bazaar, Lahore. Hence, mayhem seems to be occurring as the country is facing a multidimensional terror threat.
The PTI government received a lot of backlash from the opposition parties upon initiating talks with the radical group. The latter believes that there should not be any dialogue with the ones who take innocent lives using religion as a smokescreen to pursue their ulterior motives. “Pakistani government’s negotiation with and mainstreaming of extremist religious groups have both failed catastrophically in the recent past. There is, therefore, neither cause nor justification for (Prime Minister) Imran Khan-led government’s unilateral offer of amnesty to an organization that has murdered tens of thousands of Pakistani civilians as well as soldiers,”, said the Vice President Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Khurram Dastgir Khan in a webinar hosted by the opposition parties in October 2021. FarhatUllah Babar, senior member PPPP, said that before dealing with the terrorist group we must have a clear strategy and goals.
Given Pakistan’s political and democratic history, one might find that religion governs a major part of people’s lives. The Zia regime is associated with state-sponsored Islam which only led to a resurgence of political Islam. Zia helped the US in Afghanistan in defeating the Soviets with the help of Mujahedeen in the 1980s and promoted staunch Islamist values in the country. This practice transformed the social fabric of the Pakistani society from being moderate to conservative, and, on some occasions, majorly intolerant towards other religions. A dire gap of understanding and acceptance seems to exist among people of different faiths, the minorities often at the receiving end of aggression. The Muslim population in Pakistan is itself divided when it comes to religious ideals.
Looking at the things empirically, one might infer that the government’s approach towards dealing with terrorist groups through dialogue seems a little lax, and an eminent shift is required in the security paradigm. The government’s approach of dialogue and demilitarization to avoid bloodshed is commendable, but it will have to see that depending solely on the Afghan Taliban to help Pakistan make peace with the TTP would not be sufficient. Pakistan is a sovereign country and dealing with the violent non-state actors must truly be on the guiding principles of the Pakistani constitution. To understand the root cause of the emergence and increasing strength of VNSAs, the state must look at the basic explanation given by the international law on what leads to the creation of VNSAs: the absence of a strong state system. “Strong and healthy states are those that exhibit several common characteristics or measures of legitimacy … there is an implicit social contract between state and society, the latter being composed of all ethnic, religious, political, and economic groupings. In other words, there is agreement on the political ‘rules of the game’. There is loyalty to the state, the political principles upon which it is based, and its institutions.”
The priority for the Pakistani state should be social cohesion. Besides, there is an urgent need to address the issue of intolerance on a grassroots level, i.e. school curriculum. With a focused and open discussion in the parliament, taking all stakeholders on board, the government must work on promoting interreligious harmony through textbooks as school is the primary nurturing platform for children, after households. Initiating a massive, nationwide campaign to promote coexistence and acceptance of different religions and religious viewpoints can be another momentous step towards a systematic behavioral change. Promoting critical thinking from the beginning at schools would help the current and future governments in Pakistan to mitigate the challenges caused by religious fundamentalist ideologies. A young population that thinks critically, observes, and questions the pre-existing ideas is much better than a cult that blindly follows whatever comes its way even if the practice leads to self-destruction.
