Pakistan reacted strongly to the report of a western think-tank, International Crisis Group (ICG), released recently, saying the peace deals between the government and the pro-Taliban elements in the North Waziristan agency last September and in South Waziristan in April 2004 had created a virtual Taliban mini-state where militants dispensed justice and launched cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Mehmood Ali Durrani rejected the report at a press conference as mere propaganda, and said that normalcy had been returning to North Waziristan since the agreement was signed three months ago.
NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai averred in a PTV interview that the peace agreement was made with the local tribesmen and "Pakistani Tulaba", and that their leader was not Mullah Omar, also denying that the militants had set up courts in the tribal areas.
The fact of the matter is that Pakistan did not make peace deals with insurgents in a surreptitious manner. Various US officials and President George W. Bush himself have acknowledged that Islamabad had consulted them before going ahead with the decision, which shows that these were good faith agreements, and so far as the US government is concerned they may still work.
State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack, while briefing journalists on Tuesday in the wake of the ICG report and the prickly questions it has raised, said that it was "too early to tell" whether the peace programmes were succeeding. As for those who question Islamabad's intentions, he correctly pointed out that "everybody is aware of the problem of ceding territory to extremists, to terrorists, and you don't want to do that." Surely, it is not in Pakistan's interest to encourage such elements.
The ICG analysts, like the ones who told the Bush administration that the people of Iraq are ready to welcome US troops as liberators from Saddam Hussain's tyrannical rule, have relied on superficialities to arrive at wrong conclusions.
The administration of the so-called Shariah justice and the presence of foreigners in the FATA areas cited as evidence that the government is not doing enough to cleanse the areas of the Taliban, need to be seen in their proper perspective.
So far as the presence of foreigners is concerned Governor Aurakzai conceded, that some 150-200 foreigners are still present there but that their number has come down significantly since 2004. That should not surprise anyone, as the peace deals allowed these people to stay on as long as the local tribal elders guaranteed that they would not indulge in any pro-Taliban activity.
Nevertheless, Governor Aurakzai, may not be exactly right when he says that militants have not set up any religious courts - like the erstwhile Taliban. Reports do indicate that such attempts are being made. Some of it may have been under the Taliban influence but the tendency has been there since long.
Indeed, until the current conflict started, FATA had remained outside the mainstream politics, culture and legal system. It was not uncommon for the tribesmen to administer their own brand of mediaeval justice through the 'jirga' system, to deny women the right to vote, or in some instances, even to refuse to let them join schools.
They insisted on continuing with anti-women practices in the name of local traditions as well as religion. It so happens that the Taliban chief Mullah Omer, who rose from being a village cleric in a tribal society to lead the Taliban government, imposed some similar restrictions on his people. But the two situations, the one in the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, and the other in Pakistan's tribal areas, existed independent of one another.
The situation suited the tribal elders, who got representation in the country's parliament on the basis of their privileged position and controlled the lives of people around them through the perpetuation of tribal customs and traditions and, when convenient, in the name of religion. It is sad that the situation has persisted for as long as it has.
The foreign researchers and analysts, of course, do not understand the complexities that are inherent in the tribal culture. Their frame of reference is the Taliban rule, and hence any similarities that they find between that and what they see in our tribal belt becomes proof positive of Taliban presence as far as they are concerned. One can only hope they would try to have a better understanding of the ground realities in any new attempt to analyse the situation as it relates to the Taliban problem.
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