Taliban, Pashtoons and Pakistan

Kohat Tunnel was captured by Taliban on Friday, and have been taken back by armed forces after many casualties on both sides. The road link that was aptly named Indus Highway was severed for three days. Our dream that it will serve as an alternative lifeline for Pakistan in case of Indian Attack on GT road has proved to be what it is i.e. a dream. The way things are going on, it seems that militants are making further inroads into our settled areas. According to what I hear from my friends in Islamabad and also corroborated by a leading English daily, Taliban and Al Qaeda have also reached the capital as is evident from their wall chalking activities. It seems they are waiting for the right time, and if we keep in view their track record, they tend to show quite a sound judgement when it comes to choosing right time.

I wrote in end of October about the situation in Waziristan and adjacent settled areas as I understood it from my friends, but I did not write anything about my own take of the situation, as I thought it would be too pessimistic. But as events have unfolded, my worse fears are becoming true. The militants have become so bold that they have started to fight pitch battles against the Army instead of employing hit and run tactics that were the hallmark of tribal battle skills.

I am not a military man, but one thing that I do know is that one cannot think of starting any war (much less about winning it) in any particular area unless and until one is not sure about security of his logistics and for that he needs support of local population in that area. This or something to this affect was written by Sun Zu in his famous 'The Art of War'. What I read about the situation on the ground, the logistics of Pakistan Army have to be protected by tanks, while Taliban roam free in those areas except for the few rare challenges of Army Gunship Helicopters. The way Government of Pakistan is handling the situation, I write with pain that we are going to lose much more area to Talibans. It is just a matter of time, although I hope I am wrong. Further, the way the US idiots and their European counterparts are conducting themselves in Afghanistan, they are also doomed to fail. I do not know that how on earth someone has come up with the idea that anyone can rule Afghanistan and Pakistani FATA districts according to their own rules. People have short memories indeed as only recently a superpower has left this land licking its wounds and vanishing forever to the pages of history; and by the way it was the same superpower who was capable of making all the Western and US leaders tremble with fear just by issuing a press statement.

Now, what I have said above is based on the premises that a tribal culture like that of the Pashtoons cannot be assimilated in the modern state unless it remains tribal. I know that this might be radical but sadly it is true. Please bear with me as I will try to prove it in the following paragraphs.

Pashtoon tribes are spread in the FATA and its adjacent areas of Pakistan, while in Afghanistan they form the largest ethnic group as far as numbers are concerned and are spread in south and south east of the country. They are divided in various tribes, and each tribe jealously guards its territories, which is the hallmark of any tribal society. They boast that they are the only tribal, ethnic and linguistic group in the world who are hundred percent Muslims. Further, the natural environment in which they live had made them fiercely independent; so much independent that it blurs the line between independence and lawlessness. Hence, since many centuries, these areas have been termed as 'Illaqa-e-Ghair' as no writ of government was recognized in these areas. Not a single government was able to subdue them and implement the usual symbols of the state like taxation and police in these areas. Though, they did acknowledge nominal over lord ship of various governments like Mughals of India, Iranian empires or in more recent past of Pashtoon Kings of Kabul and Government of Pakistan, but that's where it ends i.e. just an acknowledgement and nothing more.

No interference was accepted in their internal affairs unless local Jirga of tribal elders is not taken aboard and vindicates it. In short the writ of Pakistan government was not applicable in FATA areas of Pakistan and writ of Kabul government was also not given any importance in the Pashtoon areas of Afghanistan. That is despite the fact that the Pashtoons did feel more intimacy and affiliation towards Kabul kings because of ethnic background, but that also ends the instance they deem that he was not acting in a way that a Pashtoon King should be acting, hence their abhorrence towards the last few governments of Kabul before the soviet invasion. So, we can say that any government that is not seen as respecting their way of tribal life is a big no no. The things get further complicated when in the mind of a Pashtoon its culture and religion gets intermingled to the extent that all the external manifestation of Pashtoon character are seen as an ideal Muslim character.

These tribal values are so dear to them that when at the time of Partition of India in 1947, question of affiliation with Pakistan was put in front the grand Tribal Jirga, they accepted this on the express assurance of founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah that their autonomy will be accepted and they will be free to live their life according to their own cultural values.

Now when in recent past Pakistani Government went in to punish them for giving shelter to foreign militants, they just don't understand it and term it as interference in their internal affairs because giving shelter to anyone who asks for it is one of the basic tenet of Pashtunwali, the code of Pashtoon life. Further, the matter gets further complicated when the militant who are asked to be surrendered are the same who fought not long time ago shoulder to shoulder with them against Godless communists and were also the blue eyed boys of the US and Pakistan. This turnaround may be warranted based on the ground realities for state actors, but for tribal mentality, this is pure hypocrisy and finds no place in their behaviour.

Extreme religious element poured itself into this equation in early nineteens with the new blood that joined in the Pashtoon Afghan ranks. These new Pashtoons came out of Madrassahs, as almost all the Pahstoon youth was educated there due to lack of educational facilities in Afghanistan and war. So, in my opinion, Taliban phenomenon was the logical outcome of the situation rather than making of any one particular state actor, though some might have given a push to it for the purpose of their own interests.

It should also be noted that these tribals never had any sustainable economic base to support them. Their chief occupation has always been to act as a mercenaries for the adjacent empires or create their own empires as was the case of Pathan kings during Dehli saltanat era. Very few of them engage in agriculture and most of them are involved in trafficking of goods. The road transport, especially the trucking industry is in their hands. But these activities are very rare or are outside the tribal areas leaving many Pashtoons below the poverty line. This poverty coupled with their inclination towards religion is what makes them ripe for Jihadism.

Add to it the expanding monster of Jihadism in Punjab and other provinces of Pakistan that was originally created during last two decades to fight first against Soviets and then unethical proxy war against Indians in Indian held Kashmir by our great geniuses at GHQ, and we find a willing partner of Pashtoons in them. This marriage of two different ethnic people but bound in religious ideology should be no surprise to anyone, and that is what we have been witnessing for last so many months.

So, as I said that Pashtoon cannot be assimilated into modern nation state with their tribal values baggage intact. The reason is that the very definition of state by Max Webber is that a state is defined as an organization that has a “monopoly on the legitimate use of violence”. Whereas in case of pashtoons, their whole existence revolves around abhorrence to any institution that have monopoly over violence. So, unless a huge effort is not made to detribalize them, it is very difficult to assimilate them in modern state. If they are happy with the FATA areas and autonomy, Pakistan should follow this policy and they did follow this policy, but then came 9/11 and our very own Jihadi skeletons came out of the closet that are haunting us now. Never than before we find more need to assimilate them into our national life, and their cultural baggage is what makes it almost impossible.

How to do this is a task of monstrous proportions, and is not the subject of this article, rather I should say beyond my own capabilities, though I will have my take on it in few days.