A TRICKLE of information has started to flow about the all-party sanctioned and military-backed talks with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Rana Sanaullah, the Punjab minister and one of the beacons of the governing PML-N, told the media that talks with the militants have started. But it would have been much better had he also specified which talks he was referring to.

This would have been significant because Rana Sanaullah is the man widely believed to have been the go-between in more than five years of delicate negotiations with the TTP and its affiliates that have contributed to keeping Punjab safe.

What the TTP has had to give in these negotiations is easily understandable as the country’s most populated province has been more or less immune from the militants’ murder and mayhem witnessed in the other three provinces, in Gilgit-Baltistan and of course in Fata.

But what could prove to be of immense value to today’s negotiators would be the details of what the TTP received in exchange in the give and take exercise in which it agreed to leave alone what must have appeared to be a big, beefy target to its mass murderers.

Apart from Punjab, as the TTP continues to attack soft civilian targets with apparent impunity, Maulana Fazlur Rehman informs us that though the process may be painstaking, the “negotiations with the Taliban started by the interior ministry are moving ahead satisfactorily”.

The maulana, known as much for his political pragmatism as for his knowledge of religious matters, was found wanting in being up to date with current affairs when he gave the example of how the “Sri Lankans talked to the (Tamil) rebels” to resolve the conflict.

Perhaps, he could have benefited from advice from his suave, lounge suit attired, clean-shaven spokesman and former BBC man Jan Assakzai. In his media remarks, the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl also warned that those opposed to these negotiations will leave no stone unturned to sabotage them.

His major detractor, Imran Khan, was in total agreement in saying the many powers opposed to the talks were flexing their muscles through one TTP faction or the other and not just through the drone strikes.

In fact, he went a step further: “I have been told Afghanistan has given $350 million dollars to one such militant group” to disrupt the peace process. So, he also warned that while talks take place it would be unrealistic to assume the murder and mayhem would stop.

This disclosure by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader in a TV interview to ARY was followed by one to the Guardian where he put the number of bigger groups at between 14 and 18 and smaller ones at around 20 to 25. He attributed these statistics to the interior ministry.

Imran Khan told the Guardian he preferred to take army chief Gen Kayani’s advice from three years ago where he said “there will be massive collateral damage, the militants will disperse and you will have a blowback in the cities. Can you afford it?”

Last week, one of Imran Khan’s top aides, Naeem ul Haque attributed to the army a statement saying it put at “40pc” the chance of success of any military operation against the militants in the fortified North Waziristan Agency.

However, that Imran Khan was expressing a preference for the army chief’s statement from three years ago leads one to conclude that Gen Kayani’s (and his institution’s) current position is different from the one held at the time, despite GHQ’s doubts about the success of the operation.

Since Imran Khan has stuck to his guns (wrongly, I believe) and unashamedly articulated his position, he has ended up taking the bulk of the flak from those in the country who believe that the agenda of the TTP does not provide for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

In equal measure, Imran Khan’s supporters – via social media email groups and also on electronic media – have targeted as “pro-war” those who have called for any talks with the TTP being made conditional to a ceasefire declaration.

But the biggest player in the whole affair, the heavily mandated PML-N, has more or less escaped any criticism although its election pledge or even its current position is not dissimilar to that of the PTI. In fact, the PTI’s stance may be ideological and misguided but it defends it with vigour as if it considers it principled.

But the way the PML-N has kept its head below the parapet or dilly-dallied in public gives one the distinct impression that its view is merely expedient. Even if it is motivated by a desire to protect its huge support base in one province, it has also taken on the task of representing the federation.

The PML-N, not PTI, is answerable to the people of the whole country for its acts of omission and commission. It has to demonstrate leadership or else public confusion and ambivalence will only get deeper, stripping the government of options if talks don’t work.

It is equally incumbent on opposition parties such as the PPP and the Awami National Party to abandon their hypocritical position on supporting the all-party conference resolution when their public utterances give a totally different impression. Greater clarity and leadership are needed if their failure in power is not to be repeated on the opposition benches.

And lastly instead of sniping at each other in TV talk shows, the lawmakers would be well-advised to tighten the legal loopholes that let mass murderers slip away; and debate issues such as the right balance between civil liberties and the demands of tackling rampant terrorism.

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.

abbas.nasir@hotmail.com