The Survival Rhetoric

The Survival Rhetoric
By

Muhammad Arif

A person in forum (seems very educated) advised the nationalist
parties to support Taliban. He wanted to support Taliban on the
pretext that the Taliban would fight Pakistani military and thus we would get
freedom. When I asked why the support of Taliban should take on
the top of our priorities he replied that it had become a survival
issue for Pakhtuns.

My reply to him

This survival rhetoric is just a loser mentality coined by Asfandiyar
Wali Khan at a time when he used to act like oracle and prophesying
militancy first in Bajwarh and secondly in Swat while doing nothing
about it save preparing himself for elections and appeasing Punjabis
by presenting his mild nationalism—the slogans changed from Khpala
Khawara khpal Ikhtiar to peace, democracy and blah, blah…(1)

Again the survival issue is totally misleading even if we take
Asfandiyar’s prophecies as truth because after the BUNER EPISODE it
has become a matter of survival for Pakistan than the Pashtuns.
Pressure from America compelled the military to start an early
operation in Swat and a visible change in the discourse of Pakistan
media can be seen. Whether the military is conducting a genuine
operation is yet to be seen but one thing is crystal clear that the
very discourse of militancy has received some crucial set backs not
even in Pashtunkhwa but in the whole country and the state of Pakistan
and establishment have no other option but to compromise with this
anti-Taliban discourse (to say the least).

Another aspect of this survival issue is the fact that not all Pashtun
areas are under the total or partial control of Taliban. Taliban
cannot take social control of Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi,
Nowshera, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Islamael Khan and other major cities of
Pashtunkhwa mainly because of its traditional social setup which
abhors any outside interference, submission and a challenge to their
somewhat free life style. The presences of strong political parties
and social institutionalization including extended families and
villages have already made it impossible for Taliban to penetrate into
the very social fabrics. These are plain areas where even a needle
cannot hide itself.

Fourth dimension of this survival issue is that only Pashtuns of
Northern and Central Pakhtunkhwa are facing the threat of
Talibanization for some very oblivious reasons (a history of militancy
and Talibanization since Afghan FASAD) and this threat cannot be felt
with intensity in Southern Pakhtunkhwa.

Fifthly, while talking about the survival issue we ignore the hundreds
of thousands Pashtuns in Karachi and elsewhere in Pakistan.

Finally the very threat of Talibanization in Northern Pakhtunkhwa is
compensating Afghanistan in the form of peace and political stability.
Thus the survival issue is basically a NON-ISSUE.
(1) I am not against Asfandiyar Wali Khan. This is just to float an idea and should not be taken as something against ANP or Asfandiyar Wali Khan. Manana
http://www.airra.org/analysis/TheSurvivalRhetoric.html