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03-10-2021
By SJA Jafri + Bureau Report + Agencies
KABUL/ ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is in disarmament talks with some factions of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Prime Minister Imran Khan has said, as the government seeks stability in the country in the backdrop of a fast evolving situation in Afghanistan.
PM Imran Khan, speaking to TRT World’s Ali Mustafa in Islamabad, said: “I think some of the Pakistani Taliban groups actually want to talk to our government. You know, for some peace, for some reconciliation.”
When asked to confirm whether Pakistan is actually in talks with the TTP, the premier clarified to say that talks are ongoing “with some of them”.
He said that the Afghan Taliban are “helping”, in the sense that the talks are taking place in Afghanistan.
The premier said that these talks, for disarmament, if successful, will lead to the government “forgiving” them, “and then they [will] become normal citizens”.
Stressing that he does expect for some sort of deal to emerge with the TTP, he said: “I do not believe in military solutions. I am anti-military solutions. So I always believe that you know, as a politician, political dialogue is the way forward, which I always believed was the case in Afghanistan with the US.”
The premier noted he always believed that a non-military solution was the only way forward for Afghanistan and he has reiterated it time and again on national, international forums.
The government’s announcement was met with stiff resistance and outrage by the Opposition.
PPP calls for parliament session
In response to the prime minister’s comments, PPP has called for a parliament session on the matter, saying that the premier’s statement was “extremely sensitive”.
PPP General-Secretary Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, in a statement, said the prime minister’s statement was tantamount to “rubbing salt in the wounds” of terrorism affectees.
The PPP leader noted the government had bypassed the parliament with regard to initiating talks with the banned outfit. “A parliament session should be called, and the [members] taken into confidence.”
“Through such steps, [such as granting the TTP clemency], the government will malign Pakistan globally,” he said.
PPP’s Sherry Rehman was incredulous at the idea of granting the TTP amnesty. “Has he asked parliament what we think about that? And has he heard the TTP response” she asked.
‘Is the nation ready to forget the APS attack?’
Former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that talks only ever prove successful when both parties are in agreement.
She said that a few days ago, when the foreign minister spoke of Pakistan willing to grant clemency, the other side responded by saying that it is he who asks for forgiveness who has committed wrongdoing.
Khar said that there are very few countries where the army conducts operations within its own territory, and Pakistan was forced to arrive at this juncture because such banned outfits left it with no choice.
Khar regretted the prime minister not taking the nation into confidence.
“The prime minister said in his interview that as a politician, he believes in holding dialogue,” she noted.
She asked why talks are not being held in Pakistan and why there was no mention of this in parliament.
“Is the nation ready to forget the APS attack?” she asked further.
Khar went on to ask if “talks” were held with the parents of the APS attack victims, and whether they were asked if they are ready to “forgive”.
“How did you take ownership for the act of clemency?” she asked the government.
The PPP leader said that while reconciliation is a good step to take; such moves begin at home, in the parliament, rather than in an interview to a foreign outlet.
“Even if talks were proceeding smoothly, the interview will only serve to spoil them; no benefit will come from these statements,” she said.
Acts of terror ‘cannot simply be whitewashed’
Reacting to PM Imran Khan’s comments, PML-N’s Khwaja Asif said that he “should have taken the nation into confidence over this matter”, given the bloodshed Pakistan has witnessed at the hands of terrorists.
He said that soldiers of Pakistan Army were martyred in the war against terrorism and Army Public School students were massacred.
“These facts cannot be simply be whitewashed,” Asif said.
The PML-N leader asked if it is too much to ask for all parties to take joint ownership and run the country together.
He noted that instead, the parties are at perpetual war with one another and “cannot even stand the mention of each other’s names”.
Asif said that if Pakistan gets its internal affairs in order, and political parties learn to work with one another, then the country is “no need of anyone”.
Pakistan to respond ‘positively’, if TTP does
However, this isn’t the first time Pakistan has indicated a softening in its stance towards the banned outfit.
In September, speaking to Geo News, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the interim Afghan government had declared an end to the war, and thus, the TTP should review its policies. “Our issue with TTP is that they targeted innocent, unarmed citizens.”
The TTP should think about its future, keeping in mind its past actions, Qureshi had said, adding: “If the TTP responds in a positive manner, so will Pakistan”, “but if they respond negatively, we will deal with them as we have before.”
The foreign minister had said Pakistan had time and again informed the ousted Afghan president Ashraf Ghani about TTP’s presence in Afghanistan and its involvement in terrorist activities, but his regime did not take action against them.
However, the incumbent government has provided assurances that Afghan soil would not be used against any country, including Pakistan, the foreign minister had noted.
President suggests pardon
Before the foreign minister, President Arif Alvi said the government could think of pardoning the TTP members who were not involved in “criminal activities”, who would disarm themselves, and follow the law.
The president, during an interview on Dawn News program “Khabar Se Khabar” aired on September 11, said Afghan Taliban’s “second- or third-tier leadership” had informed Pakistan that the TTP members could live in Afghanistan, but “they must not do any activity against Pakistan.”
‘Amnesty to terrorist groups insult to victims’
In response to the government’s decision of engaging with the TTP, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari took exception to the “unilateral decision” to offer “amnesty” to terrorist groups, terming it an “insult to the victims of terrorism”.
The PPP chairman, in a Twitter post on September 17, said that the decision would encourage terrorist groups present in Pakistan.
“The unilateral decision to offer amnesty to terrorist groups within Pakistan is an insult to the thousands of victims of terrorism,” wrote Bilawal.
According to Bilawal, “Imran’s policy of appeasement to religious fascism within Pakistan as well as on our eastern and western borders will haunt us in [times] to come”.
Meanwhile, January 15, 2009 was one of the saddest days in Malala’s life. That morning she got up but couldn’t get ready to go to school. Two weeks before, the Pakistani Taliban had announced on their FM radio that no girl, old or young, would be allowed to go to school after January 15. Thousands of girls felt devastated after the complete ban on girls’ education.
Many cried to mourn the death of their future. Malala was one of them. I was shocked but determined to stand and continue to raise my voice for girls’ right to education. For me, 
submitting to the Taliban would have meant a dreadful compromise on Malala’s dreams and ambitions. For me, submitting to the Taliban would have meant a betrayal of the thousands of girls in Swat. The brave people of Swat spoke up for girls’ right to education, the rest of the country supported them and, subsequently, the security forces restored the writ of the government. After three months, the schools were reopened.
The fact is that the Taliban in Pakistan believed in the same ideology as the Afghan Taliban did repression of women and girls. The Afghan Taliban forced women to remain invisible and stopped girls from going to school. What the Afghan Taliban did to women and girls in Afghanistan from 1996-2001 was replicated by the Taliban in Swat from 2007 to 2009. Initially, they asked for mandatory veils even for small girls, then segregation of male and female students, and finally a complete ban on girls’ education.
This is similar to the Afghan Taliban’s excuses today regarding girls going to secondary school. The Afghan Taliban’s recent takeover of Kabul was an unimaginable disaster for the whole country and shocking for Afghan women and girls. The fall of Kabul to the Afghan Taliban revived my trauma of when Swat fell to the Pakistani Taliban. The first victims whose thought gripped my heart and soul were the 20 million women and girls half of Afghanistan’s population.
During the Doha peace process, the Afghan Taliban frequently assured the negotiating parties and their mediators / facilitators that they would respect women’s rights and girls’ right to education. But once they took over Kabul on August 15, they changed their narrative on issues such as inclusive government, women’s rights and girls’ education. With every passing day, their policies and practices prove that they are the same old Taliban of the 1990s.
Within days they abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, stopped almost all women from working and suspended most girls’ education. They are disappointing both their friends and their critics. They are trying hard to seek legitimacy and recognition in the eyes of the world but at home they don’t accept the basic rights of half of their citizens. They believe girl students should be taught only by female teachers but they don’t try to understand the simple fact that the country cannot produce female teachers if they don’t allow girls to go to high school or college.
In the last 20 years, despite corruption and constant terrorism, Afghan youth had achieved a lot. Nine million Afghan children were enrolled in schools; this included nearly four million girls. Around 200,000 men and more than 100,000 women were studying in universities. 
Afghanistan produced a world class cricket team, and women’s cricket, football teams and girls’ robotics teams as well. Afghanistan had transformed.
We could see Afghan women in parliament, in the courts, in the media and almost in every other walk of life. A Taliban regime like it was in the past will be like a nightmare for Afghan women, girls and artists. Journalists, human rights activists, politicians, NGO workers, athletes, artists and musicians have all fled or are trying to flee the country. The world is seeing a tragic mass exodus of the most talented, learned and skilful Afghans.
Will the Afghan Taliban ever reflect on this situation of fear? Will they ask themselves why their own don’t want to live under their rule? How will they run the country if the brain drain continues and no educated and skilled human resource is produced because of their draconian laws and restrictions on women’s jobs and girls’ education? In my view, depriving a girl of her right to go to school is tantamount to burying her alive. The Afghan Taliban should understand that there are 1.8 billion Muslims and 45 Muslim countries in the world. Most Muslim countries respect women’s rights and girls’ education. They should learn from them.
They should also know that this is not the Afghanistan they left in 2001 when they ruled by terror and fear. At the time, one armed Talib could bully and coerce a whole village but now even with more military powers they can see this unprecedented and fearless resistance of 
Afghan women and men. Marching in the streets of Kabul, Kandahar and Herat these brave women and men have chanted powerful slogans for their rights that surprised the world: “Women’s rights are human rights”; “equality is our right”.
The Taliban have to listen to them. Silencing them with beating and flogging is not the solution. They have to include women in positions of power and allow all girls to achieve the best of education. This is not just because the UN or the international community demands them to do so. It is because this is the only route to bring lasting peace, prosperity and happiness to the people of Afghanistan. Malala once said, “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” In the context of Afghanistan, that simply means Afghanistan can’t move forward when half of its population is held back.
Afghanistan under the Taliban is at the most crucial period of its history. The Afghan Taliban can either choose to stick to their obsolete ideology and keep Afghanistan isolated and once again as an outcast in the international community or they can form an inclusive government with women and all ethnicities participating. Their inclusivity at home will pave the way for Afghanistan to become an honorable member of the global community. They can either lose the social, political and economic gains of the last 20 years or benefit from these gains to build a better, stronger and happier Afghanistan.
The Afghan Taliban have repeatedly claimed that they have achieved freedom from foreign occupation. If that is true, then why does freedom mean subjugation for women and girls? They should listen to Fatima, an Afghan student who recently spoke to Tolo News and said: “As a girl, I feel like I am not a citizen of this country. I am imprisoned at home, literally, I am like a prisoner.” Will they listen to 11-year-old Setaresh who wants to become a doctor and told BBC international correspondent Lyse Doucet, “My message to the Taliban is they should allow us to study, to serve our country…?”
And finally to world leaders and the international community: you are the last hope. Your faulty decisions failed the democracy of Afghanistan. Don’t fail the people of Afghanistan. Can you imagine living in a country where women are not allowed to work and girls are not allowed an education? Can you think of a country where music is completely prohibited?
If you can’t imagine it for yourselves, then do not recognize the regime of the Afghan Taliban until they accept all girls’ right to education, all women’s right to go to work and all musicians’ right to beat their drums and strum their guitars.
Furthermore, the Afghan Taliban’s effective ban on women working sank in on Monday, sparking rage over the dramatic loss of rights after millions of female teachers and girls were barred from secondary school education.
After pledging a softer version of their brutal and repressive regime of the 1990s, the group is tightening its control of women’s freedoms one month after seizing power.
“I may as well be dead,” said one woman, who was sacked from her senior role at the ministry of foreign affairs.
“I was in charge of a whole department and there were many women working with me … now we have all lost our jobs,” she told media, insisting that she not be identified for fear of reprisals.
The acting mayor of the capital, Kabul, has said any municipal jobs currently held by women would be filled by men.
That came after the education ministry ordered male teachers and students back to secondary school during the weekend, but made no mention of the country’s millions of women educators and girl pupils.
The Taliban on Friday also appeared to shut down the former government’s ministry of women’s affairs and replaced it with one that earned notoriety during their first stint in power for enforcing religious doctrine.
While the country’s new rulers have not issued a formal policy outright banning women from working, directives by individual officials have amounted to their exclusion from the workplace.
Many Afghan women fear they will never find meaningful employment.
‘When will that be?’
A new Taliban government announced two weeks ago had no women members.
Although still marginalized, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots and police officers, though mostly limited to large cities.
Hundreds of thousands have entered the workforce, a necessity in some cases as many women were widowed or now support invalid husbands as a result of two decades of conflict but since returning to power on August 15, the Taliban have shown no inclination to honour those rights.
When pressed, Taliban officials say women have been told to stay at home for their own security but will be allowed to work once proper segregation can be implemented.
“When will that be?” a woman teacher said on Monday. “This happened last time. They kept saying they would allow us to return to work, but it never happened.”
During the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, women were largely excluded from public life including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.
In Kabul on Friday, a sign for the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice was erected at the building housing the old government’s ministry for women’s affairs building in the capital.
Vice ministry enforcers were notorious for punishing anyone deemed not to be following the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islam.
On Sunday, around a dozen women protested briefly outside the building, but dispersed when approached by Taliban officials.
No official from the new regime responded on Monday to requests for comment.
In Herat, an education official insisted the issue of girls and women teachers returning to school was a question of time, not policy.
“It is not exactly clear when that will happen: tomorrow, next week, next month, we don’t know,” Shahabudin Saqib told media. “It’s not my decision because we have had a big revolution in Afghanistan.”
The UN said it was “deeply worried” for the future of girls’ schooling in Afghanistan.
“It is critical that all girls, including older girls, are able to resume their education without any further delays,” the UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, said.
