Opinion United they stand?
On March 3,all Pakistani papers presented a grim picture about the unity of the country.
On March 3,all Pakistani papers presented a grim picture about the unity of the country. Speaking the unspeakable,Dawn articulated the bare truth about Pakistans quagmire: For a generation,Pakistanis were led to believe armed jihad was a noble cause,first of course in Afghanistan and later in Kashmir,because our security establishment deemed it necessary for the pursuit of its own narrow definition of national interest. The result: a nation with a warped sense of right and wrong. To this day,rare is the voice that questions whether Pakistan should have ever gotten involved in the first Afghan war,which was essentially an attempt by one superpower to give the other existing superpower a bloody nose. And questions about whether support for armed jihad in Indian-administered Kashmir was ever in this countrys interest,border on heresy. The result of this glorification of jihad for decades is that once the militants turned their guns on Pakistan itself,which was inevitable for anyone willing to acknowledge the facts,people were completely unprepared. Yesterdays heroes had seemingly overnight become the new enemy,and for no convincing reason.
In an effort which simultaneously put fears to rest and evoked concern,US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said he is reasonably comfortable that Pakistans nuclear weapons are secure amid a rising tide of insurgent violence aimed at the government,reported The News. He couldnt conceal his apprehensions when he added: My biggest concern is if Pakistan implodes,youve got a country that could be an Islamist,theocratic country with nuclear weapons which could both use them and proliferate them. One of our goals is to make sure that doesnt happen.
Dawn reported on the US Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Michele Flournoy explaining the new Af-Pak strategy to the Senate. Describing the ISIs self-defeating strategy,which inflicted damage upon Pakistan and its global reputation,she said: The US wants to empower those elements in Pakistan who want to cooperate effectively in the war against terror but are prevented by the ISI from doing so. This effort,if executed as promised,could set things right once for all inside the troubled country. She added: The US was trying to reduce the cooperation between the ISI and the Pakistani military.
Pending the signing of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in NWFP,the situation seems to be spiralling out of the provincial governments control. In an alarming revelation,Daily Times reported on CM Ameer Haider Hoti saying that NWFP is at war and governance is becoming difficult…FATA-like conditions are developing in other parts of the country after starting in the settled districts of the province. There is a need for the other three provinces,in collaboration with the federal government,to help us because ignoring these conditions today could cause severe problems tomorrow.
However,a colleague of Hoti was less sceptical. Dawn carried an article which read like the NWFP information minister Iftikhar Hussains panacea for Pakistan he said: 95 per cent of Pakistans problems could be resolved if they stopped interfering in Afghan affairs and that Talibanisation is a foreign-funded agenda supported by Pakistani agencies which has facilitated blood bath across Pakistan. It is strange that we put others in trouble and think all will be well here,if we kill them its Jihad,if we destroy their schools its Jihad,if we destroy their country it is termed jihad and if all this bounces on us than we wonder why it happened.
Relief at long last
The News on March 1 hailed the Supreme Court verdict which reversed earlier orders to prohibit Punjab CM Shabaz Sharif from holding public office. It stated in its editorial: It is a healthy sign that Pakistan is returning to some semblance of normalcy in its power and political structure. Referring to a recent New York Times article,The News said in its March 3 editorial: Western allies are said to be looking at them (Sharifs) with a new eye,and perhaps conscious of this,Mian Nawaz Sharif has emphatically denied that he or his party has any links with extremists. What he does need to do though is explain how he proposes to tackle terrorism an issue that the PML-N has as yet shied away from even while vociferously opposing the current US policy…According to a report in The New York Times,there has already been a serious re-think in Washington about the standing of President Asif Ali Zardari.
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