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Journalism of Courage
In asserting that he never considered India a threat,Pakistans President Asif Ali Zardari may be entirely truthful. The problem,however,is not with Zardari. His convictions,right or wrong,have no impact on Pakistans national security policy,hijacked long ago by the army. Whether it is formally in charge of Pakistans government or not,the army has always had the last word on Islamabads relations with New Delhi and Kabul,owned the nations nuclear arsenal,and controlled its intelligence agencies. In demanding that Zardari recognise that the existential threat to Pakistan does not come from India but the Taliban,the US Congress and the media were preaching to the converted. Zardari,whose wife and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed by extremists last year,did not need Americans to remind him of where the mortal threat to Pakistan comes from.
All consequential civilian leaders of Pakistan,including Zardari and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,have repeatedly declared in public and communicated to New Delhi in private that they would like to bury the hatchet and build a good neighbourly relations. After his Peoples Party won the general elections last year,Zardari got into trouble by saying Pakistan should put the Kashmir dispute on the back-burner and focus instead on economic cooperation with India. Sharif,in turn,has often pressed for a radical visa-free regime to promote people to people contact be-tween the two nations. Pakistans entrenched reluctance to reconciliation with India and enduring support to the militant groups come from the same source the army.
