SPEAKING
FREELY Pakistan's Pashtun
'problem' By Haroun Mir
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
At least since
September 11, 2001, most of the perpetrators of
terrorist actions in the West have been Arabs or
Pakistanis, yet the victims of the West's military
reactions have been Afghans and the Pashtun tribes
living in Pakistan.
The majority of
Pashtuns have fallen prey to Arab and Pakistani
propaganda against the West.
The continued insurgency in Afghanistan and the
sudden deterioration of the situation in
Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province make the
Pashtun tribes the prime target in the "war
against terror".
They have lived in
poverty and become the proxy soldiers in the
confrontation between the West and the Islamic
extremists. The radicalization of young Pashtuns
in madrassas (seminaries), generously
financed by Saudi Arabia, menaces the cohesion of
Pashtun tribal structure.
About 30 million
to 35 million Pashtuns live in both Afghanistan
and Pakistan, but they are divided and engaged in
internal feuds. Only once - and for a short period
- have they stood united. This was under the rule
of Ahmad Shah Durani (1747-73), who created modern
Afghanistan and conquered significant territories
in India and Iran. Ever since British rule in
India, Pashtun tribes have been in conflict either
against foreign intruders or among themselves.
They have deliberately been kept away from
modern education and economic development. During
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s,
they were tools in the hands of Pakistan and Saudi
Arabia. And today they are the direct victims of
the "war on terror".
In the years of
conflict in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and other
major Persian Gulf countries have financed
thousands of madrassas for Afghan refugees
in Pakistan, which resulted in a massive
radicalization of young Pashtuns. In addition, the
influx of Wahhabi Arab fighters and
madrassa teachers transformed the dominant
moderate Hanafi school of jurisprudence into a new
breed of religious extremism, which resulted in
the creation of the Taliban-type movement.
For instance, during the Soviet occupation
of Afghanistan, not a single act of suicide
bombing was committed against the Soviet military
or their family members in Kabul. The first
suicide bombing in Afghanistan was committed by
two Arabs against the late Ahmad Shah Massoud,
Afghanistan's former defense minister, on
September 9, 2001. At least since 2003, young
Pashtuns have become involved in suicide bombings,
which go against their tribal and religious
values.
A new breed of extremist Islamic
sect is taking shape in the Pashtun heartland.
Only a limited number of the 15 million to 20
million Pashtuns who live in Pakistan enjoy modern
education. Sadly, secular and modern schools are
being burned down by the Taliban in Afghanistan's
Pashtun-dominated provinces. Each year, thousands
of young Pashtuns are trained in the
madrassas, and only a limited number of
them have access to secular education.
Pakistan's military rulers have an
interest in keeping the masses of Pashtun people
ignorant. They need the support of Pashtuns to
dominate other minority groups. Until now the
Pakistani authorities have used the old British
system of divide-and-rule to play off local
Pashtun leaders and in exchange require their
loyalty.
This colonial system has kept the
masses of Pashtuns illiterate and uneducated, and
only selected families have received quality
education to fill senior positions in the
military. The presence of Pashtuns in the
Pakistani military is used to dominate Balochs,
who have been struggling to gain their autonomy
since the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Without
the support of the Pashtun tribes, the Pakistan
Army would be unable to control a widespread
Baloch insurgency.
President General
Pervez Musharraf is keen to keep the truce with
Pashtun tribes and save his tacit alliance with
extremist religious parties. He knows well that
the expansion of conflict with Pashtun tribes in
Pakistan not only forces them to unite against
Pakistani authorities, but also could incite
Balochs to side with the Pashtuns.
Pakistani military authorities want to
keep the status quo in the tribal regions. They
are more interested in the integrity of their
territory than in the global fight on terror.
Musharraf has always sought the cooperation of
radical religious leaders instead of the main
secular leaders because only the religious leaders
are capable of reaching out to the radicalized
Pashtuns tribes.
Pakistan's military
interests are in the interests neither of the West
nor of Pashtuns. Keeping Pashtun tribes divided
and backward might serve the short-term
militaristic interests of Pakistan. But it is
already backfiring against the long-term interests
of the West.
The Pashtun-dominated
territories have become a de facto sanctuary for
international terrorism. North Atlantic Treaty
Organization and US forces are fighting and
bombing those who have nothing to do with
terrorist acts in the West. Al-Qaeda and other
international terrorists are taking advantage of
the religiously devoted and fiercely independent
Pashtun tribes.
Indeed, extremist
religious groups and local Taliban have become an
alibi for Musharraf to continue his military rule
in Pakistan, despite the contempt shown by the
overwhelming majority of Pakistanis. Pakistan's
military authorities have been able to persuade
the West to accept their ill-conceived tribal
policies of promoting radical extremist leaders to
the detriment of more traditional moderate Pashtun
leaders.
The West, instead of alienating
and pushing Pashtun tribes further into the camp
of extremists, could reach out and assist moderate
Pashtun leaders. But young Pashtuns have undergone
almost three decades of radicalization, and it
will require much time to reverse the trend.
Haroun Mir was an aide to the
late Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghanistan's former
defense minister. He works as a consultant and
policy analyst in Kabul.
(Copyright
2007 Haroun Mir.)
Speaking Freely is
an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest
writers to have their say. Please click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
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