Opinion On the days after

An otherwise right-wing daily from Lahore,Pakistan Today,put it more unequivocally,with advice to the effect that terrorism and extremism were the country’s biggest enemies,and must be fought with the full force of the state instead of preparing to fight India. We cannot afford to have any more Osamas discovered hiding in Pakistan,the paper implied. The Jamaat-e-Islami too urged the civil-military leadership to tell the nation the truth and stop lying. Only the Islamist JUI-F and the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa,both of which are close to the Taliban,condemned the killing of bin Laden.

Pakistanis in general have reacted to Osama’s presence in this country with an awkward mix of muted surprise and disbelief. There’s no question that the nation’s pride has been hurt beyond repair in the aftermath of the American commando action in which they came and went,taking away who and what they had come looking for. It all happened without the knowledge of the nuclear-armed army and its intelligence network,which,it can now be argued more forcefully,is more interested in making and breaking political coalitions than guarding the country’s frontiers. The charge from certain domestic quarters as well as world capitals,that Osama could not have been living here in such a high security military zone without the knowledge of at least some within the powerful military establishment,is also hard to wish away any time soon.

Amidst all this,it is asked with equal force as to what President Zardari’s government was doing as the dangerous drama of Osama’s capture and killing was unfolding. The same Monday morning when the American action took place,Zardari,as planned,swore in new ministers from a new ruling coalition partner — the Pakistan Muslim League-Q,the former “Qaatil League”,as he had labelled it after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Not only that,PML-Q leader Pervaiz Elahi,the then-chief minister of Punjab who Bhutto said should be held among those responsible if she were assassinated,was inducted as a senior federal minister,to be later designated as deputy prime minister,a post that is yet to be created.

Coming on top of this apathetic approach to what was happening in Pakistan and what the world made of it,Prime Minister Gilani on Tuesday embarked on a state visit to France,just as planned. In his absence,the president carried on doing what he deemed best — that is,induct more ministers,as he wooed the breakaway MQM back into joining the treasury benches,mirroring the complexion of the cabinet under Musharraf,save the PPP and the ANP.

From the government’s lame defence of the American action and its subsequent conduct of routine affairs as if nothing has happened,to the army’s silence over allegations of incompetence and complacence in the entire Osama episode — from his presence in a safe house close to the military academy to his killing and taking away — this is the stuff of which banana republics are made. It is hard to believe this is happening in what is considered a national security state. The world accused Pakistan of being a dangerous country; Pakistanis are now waking up to how dangerous their country really is,for them and for the world alike.

The government’s detached attitude to public discomfort and concerns and international pressure means that it expects the army to explain what is going on. It is a confirmation that it has all but abdicated internal and external policy decisions to the military establishment.

The army chief finally blew hot and cold on Thursday,as he presided over a meeting of his trusted corps commanders three days after the event that shook the world. He told the US that no such raids would be tolerated henceforth and that the number of US army personnel based in Pakistan would be cut back — not that anyone knew before this day that there was such a US military presence here. Is this the beginning of starting to telling the truth?

So where does Pakistan go from here? Given the generals’ belated response on Thursday,not very far really. What is lacking in both the government and the army is the will to wholeheartedly own the war against terrorism. It is true that more Pakistanis have been killed in terrorist attacks in Pakistan in the aftermath of 9/11 than citizens in any other country,but the question remains: what are we doing about it? It is also being asked,in all earnestness,whether Pakistan needs external enemies to bring it down when we are quite capable of doing so as the world watches in utter shock and horror.

The writer is an editor with ‘Dawn’,Karachi