Wazoo, particularly after Malala Yousufzai was shot in the head only 12 days ago, which was admitted by the Taliban. With
President Asif Ali Ten PercentZardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
choosing to join the camp of those seeking innocuous consensus for a military operation in NWA, there now exists a virtual consensus on the point that there was no need of a consensus at all.
Prior to him, the camp of those seeking a consensus was stuffed with heavyweights, including Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
, PML-N President Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, PTI Chairman Imran Khan
... aka
Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer...
, Difa-e-Pakistain Council. The ruling PPP, which hitherto had been a non-committal political party and found quite often countering the argument of those opposing the use of military might against terrorists, wouldn't mind being now seen with those who actually played the role of a spoiler in building a consensus.
It would be easy to blame the PTI, JI, JUI-F and DPC for implying to a consensus soon after the hue and cry for a military action in North Waziristan was raised by the media with the help of pro-active civil society and the government-ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
going all out to purge the society of the menace of terrorism with it.
But only a few dare to question the role played by the top military leadership in this regards, which, except for the first initial statement of the COAS Gen Kayani soon after attack on Malala, urged the need for a consensus in a formation commanders meeting following the Taliban attack on October 9.
However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
prior to the corps commanders moot, the likes of PTI, JUI-F, JI and a number of jihadi leaders invited to TV talk shows in order to strike a balance in content generation had done much of the spade work to dilute the outrage growing fast in favour of a military operation in the NWA. With the ruling PPP joining the chorus of consensus alongside the religio-political and jihadi outfits, the thin line between the cohort forces of Evil forces and their direct target diminished further much to the dismay of those found hoping to rid society of extremism.
PPP Co-chairman and President Asif Ali Zaradri's joining the camp of those seeking consensus has disappointed those who were hoping against the hope that the time has come for a decisive action against those who had admittedly attacked 14-year-old Malala, assassinated Benazir Bhutto
... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
in 2007 and above all killed 40,000 innocent citizens, including thousands of army soldiers.
It is hard to believe how the civil society, media and liberal and secular political forces would choose to react if the Taliban repeated their acts like those of October 9, 2012 or October 17, and December 27, 2007.
The ostrich-like behaviour of the ruling PPP in choosing to go with the tide of developing consensus prior to a military offensive in North Waziristan had already been castigated for abdicating its constitutional responsibility in the insurgency-hit Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
. Is what the army doing in Balochistan for over a decade under consensus of all political forces of the country? Isn't the army operation in Balochistan against political consensus since all political forces -- the PML-N, PTI, JI and JUI-F and the ruling PPP and its allies the PML-Q, MQM and ANP -- are asking for a constitutional solution to a political problem? Isn't the military high command acting on its own in Balochistan since the days of Gen (r) Musharraf and killed Nawab Akbar Bugti without taking into confidence his prime minister Shaukat Aziz, interior minister Aftab Sherpao and the provincial government? Isn't it the military that helped the PPP government develop a political consensus and enabled it to pass a resolution from parliament prior to the Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...operation in 2009, and before that was pushing the same political government to accept the unconstitutional demands of imposing their own version of Shariah in the troubled region cut-throats had been occupying under the nose of the military might?
The PPP leadership seems to be chasing the shadow of an otherwise important democratic transition in the country under its supervision, hence joining the camp of those seeking a consensus in a society more than half of which is already Talibanised. A senior PPP leader said on the condition of anonymity that suicide kabooms on a large scale are being feared in the country when elections are round the corner if an offensive was launched in the NWA at this point.
The PPP leader said the top party leadership had been advised against such an operation at this point in time when the government was already in its last leg.