Two senior leaders from the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) have been temporarily arrested before being released. That Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir are both MNAs (from North Waziristan) sends a worrying signal about the role and status of parliamentarians in today’s Pakistan.

Both men had been scheduled to visit Dubai to participate in an event celebrating Pashtun culture. In other words, permitting them to proceed would have meant showcasing the ‘soft’ face of a people that western policymakers and certain sections of the twitterati insist on casting in the role of untamed warrior; noblesse sauvage.

That both Dawar and Wazir were off-loaded from the plane ought to be a source of great embarrassment for the ruling PTI and for the Prime Minister personally. After all, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) — the arresting body in this case — reports to the Interior minister. And under the current set-up this means Imran Khan himself. The temporary detention relates to the Swabi case whereby senior PTM leaders were booked for going ahead with a rally to protest enforced disappearances as well as extra-judicial arrests and killings.

All of which points to the increasingly visible chinks in Pakistan’s democracy armour. For this is a country where MNAs can be stopped from travelling abroad but known militants are released from house arrest and left free to preach hate; where clerics are at liberty to incite religious hatred and murder and only ‘suffer’ protective custody; and where a Christian woman on the right side of the law remains behind bars.

PM Khan has courted more controversy as he insists on dismissing the GWOT as not being Pakistan’s war. But the fact remains that the rise of the PTM bears testament to those who have been caught in the militant-military crossfire. Meaning that the time has therefore come for the state to acknowldege that the Pashtuns have suffered enormously due to an accident of geo-strategic birth. And this should not involve picking up those who advocate for their rights while seeking a change in security policies. That being said, it is up to the joint opposition to also raise their collective voice against such travesties while standing up for the fundamental rights of all. *

Published in Daily Times, December 1st 2018.