EDITORIAL: The political situation being as chaotic as it is amid unprecedented challenges, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken an important step to create some harmony. Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb announced on Thursday that ‘a multi-party conference (MPC) is to be held on February 7’ (postponed twice) in Islamabad for which, among others, invitation has been extended to PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) Chairman Imran Khan via his to party leaders Pervez Khattak and Asad Qaiser.
As expected, in the wake of the devastating terrorist attack on a Peshawar mosque, the key item on the agenda is terrorism.
PTI has also been asked to nominate two representatives for participation in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Apex Committee which, comprising civilian and military stakeholders, was formed back in 2015 soon after the Army Public School massacre to supervise counter-terrorism measures.
A considerable body of opinion holds that there is no need to call an MPC to tackle the so-called Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists. And that it is for the government to do whatever is necessary to defeat these merciless killers who have on their hands the blood of more than 80,000 Pakistanis. But it is not as simple as may seem to be case, considering differences of approach among mainstream political parties.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s decision, for example, to allow thousands of PTI militants to come back from Afghanistan may stand discredited consequent to resurgence of terrorism, but he blames it on the present government for not resettling TTP militants in KP. His government, he says, had two options: either to kill all of them or reach an agreement with them and allow them to settle and integrate in society. The option he took at the time may have been well-intentioned but the result has been disastrous.
Yet he insists that he made the right decision which, according to his lights, it is still valid. This means he is opposed to any military action against the militants. On this account he is not alone. In the recent National Assembly debate on terrorism, religious parties, including JUI-F, an ally of the ruling PDM government, also opposed fresh military operation in the tribal district of KP — where the TTP militants have regrouped and use as a staging ground to launch attacks on the security forces as well as civilians — arguing that the previous military operations had caused huge suffering to the local population.
Given the divergent views on the way forward, it is only appropriate that all parties get together and arrive at a consensus solution to the problem of terrorism.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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