Dispatches of Resilience: The Fight for Life in Pakistan
By Mohsin Dawar
Folio Books
ISBN: 9-789697-834600
111pp.

Mohsin Dawar is only 39 years old. Yet he is better known as a non-violent and respected independent politician than most other politicians with half a century of a political career behind them.

In the foreword of the book, the veteran Pakistani politician Afrasiab Khattak states, “Mohsin Dawar, the young Pashtun political leader from North Waziristan has acquired broad recognition as a budding political intellectual, eloquent speaker, and brilliant parliamentarian over the last few years. However, those who have been following his political career over the last two decades know that these were extraordinarily challenging times — even by the standards of Pakistani politics.”

Khattak adds: “Mohsin started his political career as a member of the Pakhtun Students Federation (PSF)... as a student activist at Gomal University in Dera Ismail Khan. Mohsin’s birthplace, Waziristan, along with other districts of Pakhtunkhwa province that are adjacent to the Durand Line, were used in the Afghan war against Soviet forces as a launching pad in the 1980s.”

Following the second Afghan war after 9/11, the retreating Taliban and their fighter allies from various countries used the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in Pakistan as their sanctuary. Not only these terrorists killed a large number of innocent people in the areas under their control, the “sham military operations” that were basically aimed at “terror management” rather than the elimination of terrorism, did the same.

Several military operations were launched in the area. Tanks, artillery and aerial bombardment were frequently used. Millions of locals were displaced by the armed conflicts and had to face racial profiling and humiliation as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in other parts of the country.

A slim collection of parliamentarian Mohsin Dawar’s articles and speeches seeks to shine a spotlight on the travails being faced by his people in the militancy-beset region of Waziristan

“Mohsin Dawar, along with other young Pashtuns, had to grapple with these challenges of war and displacement,” writes Khattak. “They had to face these problems in the former Fata, which was part of the ‘excluded areas’ of the British colonial system, where parliament and judiciary did not have jurisdiction…

“Even after becoming part of Pakistan, they remained under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and could not become full-fledged citizens. After the large-scale death and destruction in the biggest military operation in 2014, the people of Waziristan were facing an extremely difficult situation.”

According to Khattak, “I remember Mohsin Dawar, accompanied by other representatives of the people of his area, addressing a press conference in 2017, highlighting their dire situation. But there would be very little or no coverage of their press conference in the media.”

Dispatches of Resilience — The Fight for Life in Pakistan includes articles by Dawar published from April 2015 to February 2023, in various publications including The Nation, The News, Geo TV, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, The Friday Times and The Diplomat.

The headings of these articles indicate the evolving trends of the time: ‘I, Citizen of Waziristan, Hereby Reject the Social Agreement’; ‘Nothing to Hope For’; ‘Why Pakhtuns in Pakistan Are Rising Up’; ‘PTM is on Peaceful Quest to Free All Pakistanis From Oppression’; ‘Pakistan’s Shameful Glee at the Taliban Rise’; and ‘Pakistan’s Appeasement of the Taliban Will Never Result in Peace’. It also includes a few speeches Dawar delivered in the National Assembly.

In the Introduction to the book, Dawar articulates his mission: “The non-violent resistance against oppression is the very foundation of my political journey. As the sole representative of the resilient people of North Waziristan in Pakistan’s National Assembly, I stand for a constituency that has endured decades of victimisation and oppression at the hands of the State, armed groups and foreign powers.

“The people of Waziristan have faced [an] apathetic political machinery and a broadly complacent media that dare not challenge the might of the Pakistan military establishment. In our unwavering determination to break free from the cycle of abuse, persecution and discrimination, we regularly invoke the wrath of the state’s security apparatus. Our peaceful resistance has been met with violence, intimidation, baseless accusations and imprisonment.”

In 2019, despite being a sitting member of Parliament, Dawar found himself locked away in prison for nearly four months, on “trumped-up charges of terrorism.”

With a myriad of problems, Dawar turns to the one thing he knows for sure: creating a political movement to bring the plight of the Waziristan people to the international stage. This eventually transformed into what is now the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement. His political career has led him to face dangers, near-death experiences, and even jail time for his efforts.

In a manner of speaking, his life is a reflection of the strife of his people, constantly guessing, constantly reeling, and struggling with atrocities at every front from an enemy that has many faces, many costumes, and multi-layered agendas, none of which have the people of Waziristan very high on their list.

Everything comes full circle as 2021 sees the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan. Along with the political sensibilities of a new Afghan population, Dawar’s mission is given a second wind, rejuvenated by proxy. Within the plight of the Afghans now fighting against an old enemy, his political endeavour continues, as both Pakistan and the global security fraternity sit watching with bated breath.

This slim compilation is indeed a very informative primer about one of the country’s many remote regions that seem to be unnoticed by most Pakistanis. Ironically, we tend to be so overwhelmed by the ongoings in Punjab and Sindh, which are relatively better-off provinces, that we completely ignore the plight and dire conditions faced by our compatriots living in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and some areas of the interior of Sindh.

With yet another military operation being contemplated in the region in 2024 under the banner of the new Azm-i-Istehkam policy, Dawar’s challenges do not look likely to end before his 40th birthday in November.

The reviewer is a freelance writer and translator.

He can be reached at mehwer@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, July 7th, 2024