In 1999, Nawaz Sharif’s government passed a Nizam-e-Adl bill that got harsh criticism from the Awami National Party. Asfandyar Wali gave a fiery speech on the floor of the National Assembly that I am still looking for, but I stumbled across this comment that he made and thought I would share it as food for thought on the ANP’s change in position.

ISLAMABAD: Monday’s sitting of the National Assembly provided a rare opportunity to the treasury benches to loudly applaud a speech by an opposition member. The government so far says that it would not rebut the points raised by Asfandyar Wali.

Asfandyar was heard in silence by a quorumless House as he continued his speech on the presidential address. The front seats of ministers remained almost empty once again with only a couple of the cabinet members present.

In a forceful delivery he warned the government of the “Talibanisation movement” in the country “which had completely eroded state authority”. He said time would come when no force would be able to take on the armed fundamentalists.

“There is complete Talibanisation of FATA, Hangu, Quetta, Bannu and Laki Marwat. Where is the state authority when private homes are broken into and their television sets taken away? If the state continues to keep its eyes closed, then there would be complete anarchy,” he warned. He said that he had apprehensions that if this state of affairs continued, the very existence of the state would be challenged.

“If the state authority collapses, the only armed force would be the fundamentalists and no force in the country could take them on. We beseech you to have pity on the wretched people of this country,” he said.

Asfandyar asked the government to explain how two parallel laws were functioning in the country? “The NWFP governor announces Shariah in Malakand. What kind of a message are you sending? Please tell the Prime Minister that we can fight Taliban on the political front but what can we do when political leaders declare that they are against parliamentary system and want Jehadi politics. The government has to satisfy us as these different fundamental groups are distributing dangerous literature.”

However, his harshest remarks were for the President himself when the ANP leader asked: “Why Tarar did not have the guts to tell them how many of his ordinances had been thrown out by the Supreme Court?”

I wonder why it was not Talibanization this time? Why was this same criticism poured on the provincial ANP government when they were making this peace deal?

Make your own decisions about the sincerity of the ANP government in this peace deal, but make the decision knowing that this same ANP government was AGAINST the Nizam-e-Adl in the Nawaz Sharif government.

What made them change their mind?