Didn't we have a bunch of terrorist attacks? Shahbaz Sharif needs to call parliament and stop waiting on the PTI

The first sentence of this headline was originally written on 31 July 2020 during the hybrid regime/premiership of Imran Khan. It is being rescued and repurposed for current events.

Pakistan has faced a spate of terrorist attacks since last November when the Pakistan Army chief who held up the previous hybrid regime stepped down and the Pakistani Taliban restarted their campaign against this country. After the horrible bombing in Peshawar that killed a 101 people, 90% of them policemen on 30 January, the PML-N government wanted to call an all party conference.

The PTI, the previous government, did not respond and kept attacking the current PML-N government in the face of the horrific bombing that had happened and the calls for unity against the Pakistani Taliban. Imran Khan, the PTI’s leader’s, pro-Taliban rhetoric has been well known at this time, along with his unwavering characterisation of the PML-N which runs Pakistan now as thieves. Whatever. The Taliban are murderers. Basic morality would dictate uniting against murderers. But no. The PTI would not climb off its high horse over the mere issue of a 101 charred and crushed corpses of policemen in Peshawar. So here we are. There is no direction to Pakistan’s attempt to counter the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) campaign against it. The PTI would also not cooperate, because its actions, in welcoming the overthrow of the previous Afghan government next door, that had imprisoned the TTP members who had been captured in Afghanistan, and were now freed by the Taliban, to the crazy idea in which it resettled (!) those TTP members in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts they had previously terrorised, had also contributed to the problem of the TTP’s resurgence.

In the face of the PTI’s intransigience, I think it is time that the PML-N government of Shahbaz Sharif make a move that strengthens democracy, rather than privatising it among an alliance of parties, and calls a session of parliament to discuss the issue of terrorism, the TTP’s resurgence and how to counter it. It would definitely be more democratic, clear the air as everyone gets to have their say and would be more within the ambit of the constitution than an “All Parties Conference.” There's something about not having this debate in parliament that strikes me as anti-democratic. I know also that Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif is essentially a far-right man and strengthening democracy is never front and centre with his plans, but in the face of the pointlessness of engaging with those who ignore or make excuses for the Taliban like the PTI and its leader, and the resurgence of the TTP, we are left with no choice but to have parliament debate how to deal with these terrorists.

And hey – Ali Wazir’s free and he will get to have his say! I’m up for it.

Ali Wazir, MNA from South Waziristan and Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader, has been released from Karachi prison. PHOTO: TWITTER/@mjdawar

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