Future of Pakistan
Photo: AFP
I am writing with reference to comment: "Does the US pursue a flawed policy toward Pakistan?" by Harun ur Rashid (January 10). After Benazir Bhutto's assassination, William B. Milam, former US ambassador to Pakistan, wrote in The Daily Times, Lahore: "My phone rang many times that afternoon until I turned it off. The calls were all from American media outlets, and all had the same first question: who would have committed this heinous crime? When I dared to mention that al-Qaeda and the Taliban had the most to gain from her death, the callers seemed clearly surprised and sceptical. It became clear that at least that part of the American media calling me shared the feeling that appears to have dominated in the Pakistan media, that the Musharraf government must have been involved in her murder." It should have been clear from the very outset that extremist Islamists were involved in the attacks on Benazir Bhutto. According to them, being a woman, Benazir Bhutto had committed the cardinal sin by trying o become the leader of a Muslim nation like Pakistan. It may be recalled that during their brief reign of terror in Afghanistan, the Taliban closed all girls schools and forbade Afghan women all education. Pakistani Taliban are no different and Benazir paid with her life for trying to walk on the forbidden path. Moreover, it is also clear that al-Qaeda / Taliban have infiltrated Pakistan's military establishment at the junior levels. This must have helped al-Qaeda / Taliban to keep track of Bhutto's movement and strike at the right moment. Moreover, al-Qaeda/ Taliban do enjoy considerable support among the masses as evidenced by the popularity of Bin Laden. This allows al-Qaeda/ Taliban to divert the attention and blame the Americans/Indians for the troubles in Pakistan. As such, it is extremely easy for al-Qaeda/ Taliban to commit mass murders and get away with it. Lahore's Daily Times recently pointed out the extent of Taliban infiltration in the Pakistani armed forces. The great danger is not that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal might fall in the hands of al-Qaeda, but the entire military establishment is taken over by the acolytes of al-Qaeda/ Taliban in the same way Iran's Shiite Mullahs took control over Iran's military establishment after the fall of Shah. The head of International Atomic Energy Authority Mohammad El Baradei has also raised such a prospect of a mullah/military convergence in Pakistan when he says; "I fear that chaos, or an extremist regime. could take root in that country which has 30 to 40 [nuclear] warheads." Musharraf and few pro-Western generals may not be able to stop the takeover of the armed forces by the al-Qaeda/ Taliban supporters if they can infiltrate completely the lower ranks. Iranian mullahs had proved that. In an editorial: "Why the world is scared of Pakistan?," The Daily Times wrote on Jan. 10: "The world thinks it is witnessing Pakistan's fast falling into the control or orbit of elements who will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against their large variety of enemies. The reference here is not to the “security systems” mounted around the nuclear programme, but to those who have charge of it. If the world was scared of Pakistan a month ago without Pakistanis believing it, today it finds resonance with many Pakistanis who are increasingly scared of living in Pakistan. The El Baradei warning can longer be waved aside." Al-Qaeda/ Taliban are slaughtering fellow Pakistanis with a view to terrorising Pakistanis and impose their version of Islam where all modern ideas of human rights, women's rights and freedom of expression will be banned. Their model is Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. But Pakistan's political class seem to be incapable or unwilling to face the threat. As long as al-Qaeda/ Taliban continue their suicide attacks, democracy will remain an unachievable dream. The progressive political leaders in Pakistan can ignore this at their own peril. The United States cannot help Pakistan if its entire political class is incapable to face the menace of religious extremism that seems to engulf the whole society.
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