Lines of control

Today as Pakistan celebrates sixty years of its independence, it is dangerously easy to be drawn into alarmist projections of the task before its leaders and civil society. As our Islamabad-based columnist elaborates, the country8217;s civil-military interface is remarkably insubstantial, and from this cleavage could come a cascade of dire circumstances. But, as he cautions, that interface is not yet beyond repair, and therefore instability is not inevitable. Pakistan8217;s economy is growing at more than 6 per cent. This recall comes upon a base of even higher growth rates, with the assistance that came after 9/11. This is the comforting context in which Pakistan needs to undertake institutional reform.

Circumstances, in what may prove to be fortuitous coincidence, have certainly forced Pakistan into action along every possible axis this year. One, the sacking and subsequent reinstatement of the chief justice of the Supreme Court have been dovetailed by a still speculative dialogue between the president/army chief and politicians. Whether or not emergency does in fact come to Pakistan, some sort of negotiation between these four players 8212; military, presidency, judiciary and legislature 8212; is inevitable. Two, with the recent Lal Masjid confrontation, President Pervez Musharraf has finally shed the ambiguities of 8220;enlightened moderation8221; and placed himself 8212; and extremely significantly, the armed forces within which none of the feared dissent materialised 8212; against extremism. Three, with more soldiers committed to the tribal areas in the west, Pakistan has been forced to shed the notion of cultivating buffers within its borders to meet strategic goals. The 60th anniversary comes amidst a process begun almostinadvertently to extend the writ of the state to all of Pakistan.

These are, in the double-edged Chinese blessing, interesting times. Played right 8212; especially by the military and the political parties 8212; they could yield a future in which Pakistan would be more at peace with itself within its borders, with the worry inherited at birth of disintegrating now academic. Itself separated from Pakistan in independence by the midnight hour, India should take note of this change. A stable Pakistan is in New Delhi8217;s national interest.