No alternatives

Attaching provincial prefixes to the word 'Taliban' has become a distraction from the wider picture. The Taliban have a presence in every province, their influence and activities are wide and diverse, and there is no national strategy to combat them. The recent remarks by Federal Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira made in an interview to a private TV channel are going to do nothing to clarify matters either. He states that there are 'safe havens' for militant groups in Punjab and that it is for the provincial government to tackle them but, and here is the caveat, "in consultation with the federal government." The federal government, he is quick to say, will only intervene at the request of the provincial government. Given that key political figures in the Punjab government enjoy a cosy relationship with the public faces of extremism, it is hardly likely that they are going to jeopardise their vote bank by ordering an operation.

Herein lies the dilemma. Whilst no politician is going to openly or robustly defend or support extremists, some of them are ideologically sympathetic to them, if not directly aligned. This reads across to all provinces. The construction of an alternative narrative then becomes impossible, because such a construct would threaten or weaken politicians. They would, and do, resist initiatives to reform the education curriculum and give at best lukewarm support to civil society organisations that advocate moderation. No political party is entirely free from those who are fellow-travellers of the extremists. The polity shares no common view as to how extremism is to be counteracted, with the balance in general terms on the side of not changing the status quo. Extremism survives because it is in an environment that encourages its growth, nurtures it and protects it from the weed-killer that could eradicate it. The Taliban of southern Punjab can sleep easy in their beds that we are as far from creating a national counter-terror policy as we ever were; safe in the knowledge that political factionalism and disunity is going to be the umbrella that shelters them. An operation in southern Punjab? Not if our politicians have anything to do with it.