Now Situation In Pakistan Is Really Critical

Now the situation in Pakistan is really serious as terrorists calling themselves Taliban have captured more areas and now they have been making advancement towards Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. The whole world is looking to the situation with great interest, but now Pakistani media has also started raising questions about failure of state institutions in this war on terrorism.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was on TV Monday brushing aside American and global concerns about the Nizam-e Adl Regulation (NAR) in Swat. Referring to US envoy Richard Holbrooke’s statement of concern over the Swat surrender, he said, “He does not need to worry too much about it. This is our country. We know the ground realities better than him. We know much better what kind of strategy should be evolved”. Regarding the declarations of Sufi Muhammad about Pakistan’s superior judiciary and democracy in general, he reserved comment because he felt the Sufi was merely expressing his “personal opinion”.

The Chief Minister NWFP, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, issued an equally unrealistic statement saying his government “will take strict action against those who want to establish a parallel government in the province”. He said the situation in Swat was returning to normal and he was trying to implement the NAR at the earliest. He wants to resolve the Taliban takeover in Dir and Buner through talks, but he will not allow anyone to challenge his writ. In both cases, there is evidence that belies his assertions. There is no way Pakistan can prevent the world from worrying about what happens inside Pakistan; there is also no way the NWFP government can prevent the rest of Pakistan from worrying about the fallout from Malakand division.

We are long past getting anyone to admit that our problems are our “internal affair”. The terrorists who attack and kill us are also vowing to kill other people in other countries in the West. Since they have done it before while operating from our soil, it would be stupid on the part of Europe and the US to ignore these threats. And if Pakistan succumbs to the terrorists on its own soil, it should know that it is also putting the world at peril. And the world has every right to worry when the decisions taken by the Gilani government in Swat are also being criticised within Pakistan. One must also say here that the world must worry especially if our politicians continue to issue head-buried-in-sand statements like “it is not our war”. Of course, if we disavow this war, then we can’t logically disallow the world from fighting it.

Succumbing to “talks” when one is taking a drubbing will not do. And if we cannot stand up and fight then we must let the world step in and do what has to be done, for its own sake if not for ours. From recent record, it is no longer true to say that we know what strategies to deploy. It is no longer useful to keep insisting that the only strategy viable for Pakistan is an anti-India policy “because India is funding the terrorists to kill Pakistanis”. It is unconvincing because no internationally acceptable proof is forthcoming and, besides, it is much less convincing than the argument in favour of normalising relations with India to end the tit-for-tat attacks on each other. Here again, India gets the upper hand because unlike Pakistan it doesn’t use its “non state actors”.

Both the mainstream parties, the PPP and the PMLN, followed the policy of normalisation with India but were pulled down, and this was done not because their India policy was unpopular. Speaking at a ceremony for the launching of the second edition of the Jinnah Anthology in Karachi, Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan said: “India has not been hostile towards Pakistan unless provoked or until we created such conditions, as we did in 1971 in East Pakistan, for India to interfere militarily”. A report in Dawn of April 14 and the deposition of Ajmal Kasab before a court in Mumbai actually point to a continuation of this “revisionist” policy. In short, one is inclined to say that President Asif Zardari is more realistic on the question of both Swat and India than the prime minister.

Leaving all polemic aside, what if Plan A in Swat is not going to work? Only a halfwit will bet that the Taliban will not use the new law in Swat to their advantage and the people of Swat will go into vassalage simply to be spared execution. Plan B is nothing but confronting the terrorists, not alone, but with the help of the world and the help of our own people and media.

Source: dailytimes.com.pk