Nizam-e-Adl

On 04.22.09, In Tech News, by Rehman

sufi

We have the issue of Swat in front of us. On the one hand are those who fully support the so-called “Nizam-e-Adl” while on the other side are people who claim that this is the wrong strategy. The aim of this article is not to go into lengthy details about the origin and reasons behind the extremists because other people know it better and have described it far more eloquently than I can. My aim is to move on from there. We have a problem at hand. This is a given.

There are theories on its origin. It could be indigenous, it could have been triggered by Indian and Afghan involvement or it could even be conspired by US shenanigans amid equally plausible similar other conspiracy theories and ideas. Suffice it to say that no matter what the cause, the failing is our own. Why did we let others fight proxy wars on and from our territory in the first place? In addition, why did we let a vacuum develop because of the instability, the lack of administrative system and absence of justice that the Taliban have purportedly filled for Swat? We have been tactless, thoughtless and blind during the days of Soviet invasion and the chickens we so artfully hatched have now come home to roost. We saw it in Waziristan, Mohmand, Khyber, Dir, Bajaur and now in Swat and increasingly in Buner. We have been brainless during the Musharraf regime by being the tissue paper for US. The problem that was then very much at our doorstep is now well and truly inside our own backyard and it is destroying us, piece by piece.

Since we created this monster, the solution also lies with us. The solution is not bombing the areas left right and centre. It can only strengthen the monster. If the US cannot achieve it, with all its allies and sophisticated equipment, its satellite navigation and smart bombs, there is a fat chance that we can. The solution is also not in “noora kushti” with US, condemning their drone attacks, for example, but letting them use our bases and routes for supplies at the same time. It works against us because the populace may be stupid, but not that stupid. But then the solution also cannot be allowing Maulvi Fazlullah and his band of religious yahoos to have a free hand and make a state within the state while we sit comfortably in our citadels living in the fool’s paradise that the Frankenstein’s monster that we created will not come looking for us. We are swinging between extremes like a pendulum, either following US bidding and not paying heed to our own common sense or now suddenly being all for “nizam-e-adl” and thinking it to be the end of the problem. Most of us concentrate on either one of these solutions “or” the other while a real workable solution lies in an “and”. We have to negotiate with them “and” also show an iron fist.

It is not for me or any thinking Pakistani to begrudge the Swati people a few moments of respite in the maddening chaos that was going on there. However, we must know that this solution is not permanent. It is like a lull before the storm. This momentary peace will not last if it is not followed by “and” action which is re- establishing the writ of government (and not what the US wants) through soft and hard means. The first is then to distance ourselves from US. Of course we cannot afford to go on an open confrontational path but there is something known as firm stance. We can do a couple of things that can show US we are serious in pursuing our own plans and not theirs. Refusing, for example, their supply line to pass through is one such step. If the parliament stands strong and firm and shows to US that it is against people’s will, only then can it happen (what the parliament is doing, however, is another sad story).

The second thing to do (and to do quickly) is to elevate the status of that part of the country, to give it a working administrative system and provide the people with ample opportunities of livelihood. Let them then make their own choice. The point over here is not opposition of an Islamic system. But can we infer this “nizam-e-adl” to be the answer to people demands? Most of the Swati people are just hoping for peace. The quick welcome that they gave to this regulation was more for personal reasons than because of ideological concurrence. Had there been peace in that area and people by popular demand had opted for a particular system then by all means there was merit in their demand. Now with a group of people calling the shots, who knows what the whole population wants?

The third most important thing is to look deep at and into our army. How did it reach such a sorry state that a bunch of ragamuffins (of our own creation) are now blackmailing us into accepting their demands, to which we have acquiesced to, for the peace of Swati people? We also need to answer some burning questions. How on earth could an FM radio not be detected and destroyed for 4 years? Any under graduate telecom engineer can triangulate and detect the point from where an FM signal is being generated. That is technology from WWII! What is the meaning of side-by-side army and Taliban posts in Swat? How can an army that is considered one of the top armies in the world not be able to control Swat? Agreed, that the problem with US is that they are ignorant of the dynamics of the area (and they do not have local population’s sympathies) but how can our own army with its intelligence network in the area (which it was so aptly using during Soviet-Afghan war) not use it to their advantage by selectively targeting the trouble makers? How has our intelligence system been working then (or not working is more like it)? Why is not the army going in Buner, for example, to help where the locals are fighting the Taliban? Several questions that are of grave concern. What is going on within the ranks of the army and in those citadels of power? What games are being played? Mere signing of Nizam-e-Adl does not automatically address these concerns.

The bottom line is then that for the moment we have been forced into a corner to accept Taliban’s demand. However, this should not lull us into a false sense of security. We need to plan for the future. Negotiate “and” fight back (but selectively and after distancing ourselves from US). On the part of common people like us is very important to realize that opposing Taliban in Swat is not opposing Islam. Taliban are not champions of Islam any more than the people who oppose them are infidels. Taliban’s fight is not a fight for Islam, it is more of a hostile take over by a group of insurgents with fire power because there was no working system in that area provided by the government and any organized group could take over. If one really wants to implement Islamic system, one has to start with making sure that first everyone gets basic rights and then move on to the enforcement of hudood. A real Islamic system would be a system we would want for the whole of Pakistan and not cringe from it. On the other hand, opposing Taliban and their brand of Islam should not make us pass a judgment on Islamic system itself, something which most of the Pakistanis agree with. We have to very carefully maintain a delicate balance. Needless to say, the media has a very important role to play. They must not sway between extremes. Recalling the Lal Masjid crisis, everyone in the media was for establishing the writ of the government and after the fiasco and massacre that was carried out over there in the name of law and order, the same people were condemning the government. We are walking the wire and balance is the key to the solution. Our collective incompetence left us with no other option but to lay down our arms in this battle but we must not forget that the war has not ended and there are more battles ahead. Our own survival is at stake and we have to strategically and intelligently fight this war of our survival. Failure, sadly, is not an option.