View from Pakistan: Talks with Taliban – A false narrative

Opinion 

By Ali Malik 

The author

Pakistan may be 'a troubled state' to anyone away from the country. But for people in the country, the ramifications of that 'trouble' matter more than anything else. And how are the events unfolding in today's Pakistan? 

In this brief but pointed column, Ali Malik tries to decipher some of the mysteries shrouding the relationship between the state of Pakistan and the entity called Taliban with help of some relevant recent developments. The victory of the Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N in this year's elections was popularly expected to bring respite to the Pakistanis by 'managing those relationships' with the Taliban. This assumption was based on the assessment that the brute force of the erstwhile PPP-led government in coordination with the US was futile in taming the Taliban. But will the things in ground change with the new government's policies vis-a-vis Taliban? This question becomes all the more relevant now in context of the proposed talks between the Pakistan government and the Taliban. Here is the column, reproduced from author's blog with permission.

Poverty and misery: beyond politics in Afghanistan

Even as turmoil continues in Afghanistan and political matters look worsening by the day, poverty, illiteracy and unemployment keep taking their tolls as ever, conclude three brilliant documentaries. Fixing things may be terribly hard but Afghan struggle for a better future continues and they need sensitive and considerate friends.


Afghanistan is ,after decades of war and more war, is in very bad shape today. A highly likely scenario for years to come is a continued stalemate between the Kabul government and the resurgent Taliban rebels. While better and more pleasant options exist, they are far less likely than the outright unwholesome possibility of Taliban upsetting the Kabul government after complete departure of the 'invader's.
 
But as everywhere else in the world, politics is only one aspect of life for the Afghan people. Even though ominous political developments in Kabul keep haunting the people all over Afghanistan as ever, that is not all the Afghans are worried about.

Now there remain some questions answers of which can tell us much more about the daily lives of the Afghan people. What about the dimensions of Afghan society other than Kabul-centered politics? What are the social and cultural trends? How much has been accomplished after ouster of Taliban and how much stands to be lost in case of their victory now? Where is the historical warlordism headed now after a decade of apparent democratic practice? And how do the ordinary Afghans perceive the outside world?
And most important of all, have the Afghan women achieved something tangible and enduring during t he past decade following the horrible Taliban era?

It is hard to comment on all these issues unless one actually visits the rugged terrain in Afghanistan and meets the people over there.

Fortunately, there are some ways of knowing about some people and societies other than really meeting them. Documentaries are one of them and in recent event Film Southasia 2011 in Kathmandu; there were three documentaries from Afghanistan each covering different parts of the country in the recent past but with surprisingly overlapping observations.