Open Letter to Najam Sethi—by Jan Assakzai

Open Letter to Najam Sethi—by Jan Assakzai

Open Letter to Najam Sethi—by Jan Assakzai

  Dear Najam Sethi                                                      (Sources: Pashtunchronicles.com)

 As some other pro-establishment Journalists and anchors in Pakistan, you also believe that the proxy Taliban represent Pashtuns in Afghanistan and by extension are their (Pashtuns’) political and ideological representatives.

The problem with this formulation is lack of understanding of non-Pashtuns/Afghans  of Pashtun society in Afghanistan and Pakistan as mostly Pashtun/Afghan "Shinasi/Aggahi" (understanding) in Pakistan has come through the coloured lenses of the Deep State, (ironically, a term coined by my respected colleague and a liberal Punjabi intellectual Kamran Shafi). Look at the seminars, think tank papers on Afghanistan, Pashtun input comes from Deep State's ex-affiliated mandarins who will love to sing the "song" of the DS on Pashtuns across the Durand Line. 

Secondly, (let us forget the Taliban for a moment) why the US despite being so frustrated with Karzai could not replace him  was because he  was and  is well rooted among Pashtuns, as compared to the US-based and backed Pashtuns like Dr Ashraf Ghani or Ex interior  Minister Ali Ahmed Jalal. (Karzai's father was local (in geographical sense) to people. Karzai spent many years in Quetta where he used to meet delegations from Afghanistan on daily basis hence hooked with the people. Every Pashtun leader has to do the same thing.  

The process is like this:  in Pashtun society, we say if you are a leader you must have a hujjra and be able to feed guest through which a leader at local or regional or national level is connected with people. By trying to resolve their problems or listening to their complaints, he gets votes, support, and money and commands their respect. But if you are planted/imposed, you cannot attract their allegiance, support and respect. Why Pashtuns particularly those supporting the nationalists in Pakistan continue to trust/support the second, third and even fourth generation of nationalist leaders like Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Asfand Yar Wali Khan's family is because they have been around for decades and are amidst them. (If I go to them tomorrow and tell them I am their leader they will never accept me as I do not qualify this process. Some Pashtun intellectuals also idealise that traditional dynastic politics in Pashtuns in particular should be done with. It is not that simple as they do not understand the psyche of Pashtuns/Afghans).

Coming back to the proxy Taliban, I believe they are the culmination of Pakistan's policy of planting Islamists among Pashtuns both in Afghanistan and Pakistan to replace, weaken Pashtun/Afghan nationalist/secularists aspirations. The main reason is: the Deep State knows that Pashtun solidarity across the Durand Line is stronger than the lure of second class status of Pashtuns in Pakistan, as only flourished democracy would have bounded Pashtuns with far off Bengalis or Punjabis which did not happen over the last about sixty years. "Thus let us radicalise the nationalist soul of Pashtuns killing their aspirations of reaching out to each other’s". (Remember the mantra of the DS: they are the "ideological" defenders as well).

In other words, just because Afghanistan’s moderate nationalist leadership was defeated during the cold war by the grand alliance of the US-Pakistan-Saudi Arabia via proxy Islamists, does not mean the vast majority of Pashtuns support the Taliban in Afghanistan. Their support is either due to fear or lack of any other viable political option that could withstand the intimidation of the Taliban. (Even Karzai does not have a political party which is a serious deficiency in Afghanistan's Pashtun/Afghan realpolitik which could deny space to the Taliban, unlike their Pashtun cousins in Pakistan with two old political parties like ANP and PKMAP countering the religious right and Islamists despite the promotion of the DS of these elements over decades).

(Swat under the Taliban was the microcosm. In Swat the Taliban forced the ANP workers/cadres to hold pressers condemning the ANP and eulogising the armed Taliban, and terrorising the masses. The ANP was almost wiped out. Did that mean the people of Swat were supporting the Taliban, obviously the answer was and is big NO)?

 Taking this opportunity, I would very much appeal to liberal/democratic Punjabi intellectuals, media men and think tanks not to look at Pashtun/Afghan issues through the lens of the Deep State anymore and preserve their intellectual integrity.

Best regards

 Jan Assakzai

London, 

United Kingdom