Pakistan on the boil

Sir,

Two assassination bids on President General Parvez Musharraf followed by explosion in Sailkote and Multan are indicative of the fact of a seething restiveness in Pakistan. Quite inevitably Pakistan appears caught between the crossfire of Islamic terrorism and forces of anti-terrorism. There is no gainsaying the truth that Pakistan has remained a military-religious entity. It has till date failed to evolve into a full-fledged political state. A few intermittent spells of civil governments did not give it a decisive thrust towards non-military, non-religious politicization of the state. Those civilian governance structures survived on tactical compromises and adjustment with the two Ms—the Military and the Mullahs. Pakistani armed forces constitute the chosen lot. They need an enemy in India, a Kashmir, to wallow in corruption and political power. International situation of 80s and 90s helped them a lot. They saw US ammunition, arms and dollars flooding them to contain the perceived advance of Communism. The Pakistan Army, the ISI in close consort with the CIA and US Armed Forces, trained and armed the Islamic radicals in Afghanistan and this was bound to strike roots in Pakistan and spill over into Kashmir with the active connivance of the Pakistani governing structure. The game was dangerous but being to the advantage of Pakistan in the short-run was continued whole hog. And now it has come home to roost both Pakistan and the United States of America.

Fully seized of the fact that Pakistan was a nursery of religious terrorism and exporter of Jihad USA looked the other way since it did not affect its own security and designs. 9/11 made USA look this way landing Gen Musharraf into a no-choice situation forcing him join the anti-terror coalition and curtailing the spread and activities of the Pakistani terror factories. The political analysts at the spur of that moment felt that the Islamic fanatics will oppose the venture and change colours and nomenclatures to carry on with their job to achieve their objectives. To my mind at that point of time Musharraf might have assessed that he could very safely play the double role of an anti-terror operative and Manager of the Terror outfits in so far as the depredations in Kashmir were concerned. Here Musharraf failed to understand that the idea of Jihad was so completely irrational that it will not admit of any form of calibrated management. Only way to manage terror is to root it out from the soil. Understandably, it is difficult for Musharraf to attempt to root out the terror outfits because in the long years of co-existence with the political and military power, the terror exponents had spread their roots among some segments of the Pakistanis and into the Pakistani Army itself. General Zia-ul-Haq was instrumental in introducing Islamization into the Pakistani Army as it was supposed to fight a Hindu India.

I feel that Parvez Musharraf is now caught up in the cobweb of his own making. He is squeezed between the Islamists at home and the US from outside. This was quite visible from his address to the Senators of Italian Legislature the other day when he openly confessed to his having a fringe of fundamentalist forces within his country who were out to damage the interests of Pakistan.

Yours etc...
Predhuman K. Joseph Dhar
Via-e-mail

Pak scribes in J&K

Sir,

Although, pessimism leads one to horrible situations but when pessimism is mixed with reality, it gives birth to realistic school of thought. The current visit of Pakistani scribes in J&K was just a part of diplomacy and sheer wastage of time and energy. Why? Become political stability in Pakistan is directly linked with Kashmir issue. Pakistan want to keep Kashmir issue boiling all the time for her domestic compulsions.

Lahore bus diplomacy gave us Kargil! Vajpayee's eye ball to eyeball meeting with Gen Musharraf at Agra gave us nothing. Foreign Minister level meetings failed. Cricket diplomacy proved futile? Pakistan completely backtraced from her promises. Militancy suddenly erupted. This justifies the Pakistan's Kashmir policy of keeping it boiling.

Now, we expect from few Pakistani scribes to change the mindset of Pakistan top brass and the masses.

Would they be able to accomplish this seemingly impossible task? This is a million dollars question!

Yours etc...
Ramesh Sharma
Vijaypur