If the past is any guide, it’s only a matter of time as to when the current agreement will collapse. But more important, the signing of the ceasefire deal from a position of weakness on the part of the government has sent out a very wrong signal. It is an unequivocal failure, due largely to the lack of will in Islamabad to contain militarism inside Pakistan and its spill-over elsewhere. Now that the Taliban have pressured the Frontier’s provincial government and Islamabad into acquiescence in one part of the country, what is to stop them from replicating their designs elsewhere?

The ANP-led Frontier government has been totally inept in dealing with the emerging threat, one whose very target is the ANP itself. It has been very sheepish and rather embarrassed about the ongoing military operations in parts of the adjacent Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), which are the hotbed of Islamist terrorism that eyes the whole wide world, far beyond Pakistan’s own borders.

The ceasefire, even if it holds for a while, will give way to more acts of lawlessness as defined by the constitution of Pakistan. As the Taliban go about enforcing Sharia, there is bound to be untold misery caused to the hapless people at its receiving end. All kinds of rights abuses will be instituted as part of keeping order; women will be among the most disadvantaged. And what’s to stop the Taliban from regrouping as the ceasefire lasts, and expanding their writ to the neighbouring districts?

... contd.