Pakistani Writer Says Taliban Should Face “Full Might of the State”

The world is reminded tonight, by a column written by I.A. Rehman for Dawn, that Pakistan is a large moslem country with a divergence of opinion on what Shari’a law means and what the Taliban really have to offer.  So often in the U.S. media we see images of three things in Pakistan:

• Islamic extremists (Taliban, Terrorists, Etc)
• Poor people depicted as simple and helpless or violent and lawless
• The corrupt Pakistani military and polity.

Just like in our own coverage of ourselves, we see the extremes.

Rehman’s column is heartening in that by its very publication it says “we can speak our minds in Pakistan,” reminding the world that there are forces of moderation worth supporting in the country.

Rehman says the Taliban being fought by Pakistani troops in their own country are different from the Talib of the 1990s who conquered most of Afghanistan.  He calls them neo-Taliban.  In the minds of many Pakistanis, he says, the Taliban were tolerated in Afghanistan because they brought stability in some respects – even while denigrading women and culture.

Pakistan’s neo-Taliban, however, hold no redeeming value:

While the neo-Taliban operating against Pakistan can outdo the Afghan Taliban in their animus towards women and democratic institutions, they display none of the characteristics attributed to the latter by their Pakistani supporters. Unlike the Afghan Taliban they are dividing Pakistan and not consolidating its unity; they are increasing violent disorder and not suppressing it; and they are raising non-state militias, not disarming the existing ones.

To end his piece, Rehman says the Pakistani government needs to do two things: restore trust between the people and the central government and bring the full force of the government down on the neo-Taliban who would split or destroy their nation.

First, the government should reduce its trust deficit with the people. Its claims of fulfilling its obligations to the nation must be backed by something more than the hollow perorations and meaningless gyrations of ministers.

Secondly, the people must receive evidence that those maintained for and charged with defending the lives, properties and entitlements of the people, which is what national integrity really means, are able and willing to earn their keep. The neo-Taliban have lost all claim to leniency; they must be made to face the full might of the state, except for those who can be trusted with mending their ways.

The United States has some skin in this game as well – about $10 billion since 9/11 and billions more planned.  To date there hasn’t been much return on investment.  What the Pakistani military and government have done to the U.S. is taken passive-aggressive behavior to high art.

Things are very dangerously different these days.  The terrorists don’t have their sites set on just Pakistan’s enemies any longer, they’re threatening Pakistan’s very existence.  For the past week in fact, Pakistani military and police units have been trying to wrest back control of territory just 60 miles from Islamabad.

In the coming weeks Congress will be deciding on the next big aid package to Pakistan.  No one could tell you where a lot of the previous funds went.  What is evident is that we’re not safer, and that’s including the average American and the average Pakistani.  Rehman reminds us that there are people over there worth fighting for – let’s hope the next round of aid truly strengthens the good in Pakistan and helps eradicate the neo-Taliban.