Imran Khan’s talks with the Pakistan Taliban will now not carry peace

© offered via Al Jazeera Pakistan's leading Minister Imran Khan has acknowledged that talks are being carried out with the TTP [File: Reuters/Saiyna Bashir]

In an interview with Turkish media aired on October 1, Pakistani leading Minister Imran Khan revealed that his govt is in talks with the Pakistan Taliban (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP). Following a length of relative dormancy, the TTP has been tremendously greater lively this yr. Khan admitted that Islamabad is providing the community a couple of rewards – from political amnesty to prisoner releases – in return for laying down fingers.

any such deal does not serve Pakistan's countrywide pursuits and it'll no longer work because the TTP, like earlier than, is not likely to abide via its phrases. apart from their implications for battle and peace, the major minister's comments have been deeply uncomfortable for people that have not forgotten his position in the dangerous historical days of 2007-2014, when the Taliban introduced the state to its knees.

'Taliban Khan': The historical context

In politics, recollections can also be brief. today, it's value remembering what function Khan played during the peak of the Taliban insurgency in Pakistan. If all he had done was retain a rigorous silence all the way through the battle, Pakistan would were radically better off.

Khan turned into the avatar for a deeply sympathetic place in opposition t the Taliban. now not for nothing did he earn the moniker "Taliban Khan". by means of what in hindsight can most effective be termed an accident of history, the national govt between 2008 and 2013 changed into led by way of three events all more or less ideologically hostile to the TTP – the Pakistan Peoples birthday party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), and the Awami country wide party (ANP). possibly now not coincidentally, all three these days are shadows of their former selves.

From the point of view of pursuing a battle in opposition t violent extremists, this executive make-up turned into exceedingly fortuitous. It supposed that on the political stage as a minimum, if no longer the public writ gigantic, the country correctly identified the Taliban as a deathly enemy, one which could handiest be defeated with the aid of force.

but Khan stymied any thrust towards aggressive action against the Taliban. instead of enjoying a beneficial function and getting ready the public for a tough and dear war, Khan did the opposite: he railed towards the executive and defended the insurgent group.

His rhetoric was not devoid of can charge. Given his history as a favored cricketer and a familiar philanthropist, alongside his blunt and uncompromising rhetoric in opposition t the ruling elite of Pakistan, Khan became possibly probably the most familiar determine in Pakistan at the time. He became also remarkably freed from accountability. His birthday celebration, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), had boycotted the 2008 elections, which intended that it had no presence in parliament. Khan's cosy relationship with the defense force, in the meantime, would simplest come five years later.

In a way, then, the conflict became someone else's problem. Khan had as plenty formal vigour as an internet troll – and infrequently played the part. The ratings-hungry media eagerly granted the country's most telegenic character hours of coverage, and his diatribes didn't disappoint.

greater than anybody else, he fashioned the contours of the Taliban debate in Pakistan, which revolved around three questions. First, why changed into the TTP attacking Pakistanis? second, became the state's national interest served by negotiating or combating the TTP? Third, become the USA alliance a help or problem in defeating the TTP? only the closing of those become surely intricate to reply, but because it happened, each and every assumed a controversial and polarising shade.

while the elected executive and even the defense force favoured a extra assertive method, realising the mortal possibility the TTP posed to Pakistan, Khan hemmed and hawed. He made excuses for the Taliban; they had been most effective incensed via international occupation, he claimed and had no ideological agenda. The real issue, he thundered, was now not the Taliban however the government itself. He accused it and its predecessors of fighting "america's battle" and claimed defense force operations against the neighborhood were most effective influenced with the aid of an avaricious thirst for dollars. In so doing, he ensured that espousing this sort of place turned into political poison, even if it became the correct one.

the entire whereas, a week introduced information of an extra Taliban attack. The TTP's murder of Pakistanis became cruel and unrelenting. They bombed and shot them. They struck mosques and markets. They were daring sufficient to take on complicated goals, comparable to military bases and airports, and shameless satisfactory to tackle delicate ones, corresponding to colleges and shrines. They killed critical americans as smartly because the pitifully anonymous. They decapitated Pakistani cops and troopers after which uploaded videos of them to social media for the area to see.

Over a decade, the Taliban noticed healthy to end the lives of greater than 50,000 Pakistanis. ultimately, the weight and sheer brutality of this sustained assault grew to be too an awful lot to endure. by the core of the 2010s, the state all started to habits a collection of safety operations against the group – no because of Khan, of route. Between a extra aggressive militia posture, more suitable efficacy of US drones, and the "lucky" happenstance of an internationalised civil warfare in Syria, which pulled the centre of gravity for jihadists to west Asia, away from primary and south Asia, Pakistan managed to show the tide on Taliban terrorism.

The Taliban resurgence

but the group became in no way absolutely vanquished. Now, with the wind of the Afghan Taliban's victory in its sails, successful that Islamabad satirically played a vital function in, the TTP is back in spades. To take care of its violence, Khan as soon as again favours a smooth hand; in this regard, little looks to have modified. The difference, of course, is that this time he is in energy.

At one level, the Taliban's resurgence is an intensive repudiation of Khan's conception of terrorism in Pakistan. Khan claimed that the Taliban have been encouraged by way of the presence of US forces in Afghanistan and by using the USA-Pakistan alliance, no longer with the aid of ideology. but the US departed Afghanistan earlier this year. As for the erstwhile partnership with Washington, Khan – nevertheless expecting a telephone name from President Joe Biden – may be extra conscious than most that it lies in tatters.

And yet Taliban violence continues unabated, the group accountable for just about a 100 terrorist assaults in 2021 alone, a determine the best minister shockingly disregarded as a mere "spate". Even taken by itself phrases – and let us no longer mince words, he turned into and remains nonsensical relating to terrorism – Khan's theory has been falsified.

The false promise of peace deals

more critical than I-informed-you-so's, although, is the undeniable fact that the plan of action Khan is discussing will no longer work. certainly, it under no circumstances has: Pakistan has prior to now negotiated at the least a half dozen "peace offers" with the TTP. each one failed.

The Taliban are a maximalist service provider that, in contrast to many different insurgent corporations, aren't satisfied with a slice – they have to have the complete loaf. Some secessionist actions, for example, fortunately take offers for autonomy, as antagonistic to their brought up intention of independence. Negotiated accords can efficiently pacify some insurgencies, just not this one.

The TTP's desire is to overthrow, violently or otherwise, the Pakistani state and impose their interpretation of Sharia all through the nation. There is no offering in need of this, no concession or act of generosity, that Islamabad should be capable of buy TTP forbearance with.

in reality, all a peace deal will do – all it has ever achieved, when it involves the TTP – is enable it to regroup, reorganise, rearm, and bolster its means for demise and destruction. And this is earlier than one even considers that the most crucial agencies that make up the TTP don't favour, and are not worried in, the continuing talks. If the government manages to coax an assurance from the TTP for the cessation of violence, it might be a laughably nugatory promise.

Pakistani PTSD

In actuality, the visceral response from the Pakistani public to the news of the talks is just partly rooted in prognostications about their failure. there's an emotional attitude too; a therapist would describe it as unresolved trauma.

it is virtually galling, nigh-on offensive, for Khan to announce these talks and assurances of forgiveness for the Taliban without any participation from parliament or dialogue with the general public. Given his own background on the query, it justifiably rubs many the incorrect manner.

in any case, Khan became not simply the bystander that failed to support put out the fire. fairly, he dissuaded firefighters from coming into the constructing and, while the fire continued to rage, preached for knowing for the arsonist. Now, years later, he informs the constructing's surviving residents that, devoid of their enter, the arsonist is being allowed to signal a new lease – in any case, the hearth was no massive deal in the first area.

Khan being so blasé about the Taliban's record exacerbates the collective put up-worrying stress disorder Pakistanis suffer from. His being so credulous in regards to the Taliban's intentions worsens the security threats these same Pakistanis face. In coming to vigour in 2018, Khan become lucky to sidestep the worst of the war, fought and won all over the tenure of his two hated opponents, the PPP and PML-N. For his personal sake if nobody else's, he should tread carefully.

The views expressed in this article are the author's personal and do not always reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.