By IANS,
Islamabad : With the Taliban positioned in cities across Pakistan, they can achieve their “proclaimed goal” of bringing the entire country under their control, an editorial in a leading English daily said Friday.
“The Taliban are now positioned in cities across the land, in every province. They have the weaponry, the training and the motivation to carry through their proclaimed goal of bringing the entire country under their control,” The News said in an editorial headlined “Game, set and match”.
For the fourth day running, Pakistani newspapers Friday carried editorials deprecating the Nizam-i-Adl Regulation parliament passed Monday imposing Sharia laws in Swat and six other districts of the North West Frontier Province in return for a controversial peace deal with the Taliban for laying down their arms.
The News noted that the Taliban’s control of the parliamentary system “was achieved by a masterstroke – if you vote against the Nizam-i-Adl Regulation you will have voted against Islam and you are thus an apostate. We kill apostates. The message had a pellucid simplicity about it and was instantly understood,” the editorial maintained.
Thus, what few attempts there were to at least debate the Regulation were “quickly stifled, parliament voted unanimously, the president signed the Regulation into law minutes later and the curtain came down on Pakistan as envisioned by the Founding Fathers”.
“Enter the Taliban, the winners in straight sets in a match with a one-legged blind deaf-mute,” the editorial said.
“The day that our parliamentarians voted for the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation was the day that the Taliban won and all they have to do now is go and pick up their prizes,” it added.
The editorial also heaped scorn on Interior Minister Rehman Malik for suggesting that there was “little chance” of a major part of the country coming under Taliban control.
“‘Little chance’? Sir, we must tell you that most of the country is feeling their influence, either directly or indirectly.
“A reasoned and objective analysis can now be made to the effect that Pakistan is moving towards being a Taliban-controlled state; and the movement towards that position is gathering momentum,” the editorial contended.
Daily Times was equally harsh, saying the state would be “punished” for having allowed terrorist elements to rule Swat.
“We can be sure of one thing. The state will be punished for having allowed terrorist elements to rule Swat,” it said.
In the coming days, the editorial said, the Taliban “will institutionalise their presence and convert the region adjoining Swat into a satrapy completely insulated from the rest of Pakistan.
“The consequences of that will be predictably destructive for the state of Pakistan,” the editorial, headlined “Price of Swat peace”, maintained.