By IRNA,
New Delhi : Pakistan’s acute vulnerabilities came to the fore once again on Tuesday in the deadly terrorist attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore that left at least seven policemen dead.
Apparently, the country is picking up the tab for supping with the devil, and the bill is too high. This first major strike against foreigners, and that too in a bustling metropolis, can shake the confidence of the outside world about the viability of Pakistan as a safe destination, besides giving foreign investors second thoughts about bringing in much needed funds.
There is no dearth of ostensible motives for this violent act, as, for example, certain quarters are on record of having vowed vengeance for the Lal Masjid operation, while some others are sore at the Pakistan establishment’s helplessness before the US drone attacks in the border belts. But with the trend set by the agreement in Swat, which the US is very uncomfortable with, one would have thought that the threat of attacks such as Lahore had receded.
In any case, the incident has too many imponderables for anyone to point definitive fingers at the usual suspects. But the bottom line, of course, is that Pakistan has been left wide open for all sorts of forces to operate with impunity to the detriment of the nation’s vital interests.
In many ways, many of Pakistan’s present troubles can be traced back to the US-inspired injection of the jehad virus during the General Zia regime that called for portraying Islam in a particular way, and the aberrant brand of the religion the general was encouraged to promote to lend legitimacy to his rule which the US badly needed for its policy in Afghanistan.
What has taken hold in the country down the years are not the Islamic notions of socio-economic justice and equality, which General Zia did nothing to focus on during his long tenure, but a belligerent, exclusivist interpretation of faith that has no scope for enlightened evolution but is a replica of the dark ages before Islam. True, the silent majority do not subscribe to this variant of the religion, but they are silent and toothless before the vocal, motivated, and even armed, votaries of distortion who have, till recently, been nourished by the state itself.
The supreme irony in the whole affair is that despite having played the US game without demur, be it in propping the jehad in Afghanistan or later ditching the very forces it nurtured, Pakistan has been left in the lurch to face the vicious backlash of its once favoured protégés. Islamabad had little choice but to ally with the US in its so-called war on terror, while the Americans have insulated themselves well, Pakistan has been left alone to bear the brunt of the war’s inevitable fallout.
For all its pains in siding with the US, Pakistan does not enjoy even a modicum of sympathy in Washington which goes about bombing and killing in its territory without as much as a by-your-leave. If the US can pick out, as it says, forces inimical to its interests within Pakistan territory, surely it can have intelligence on those inclined to strike within that country.
The least Washington could do in return for Pakistan’s compliance is to help it neutralize the threats to its security and integrity.
The dominant role of the military throughout Pakistan’s chequered history has left little room for the growth of civilian, democratic institutions and the evolution of a mature, civilian leadership that could confront challenges with the backing of the will of the masses. For all their rhetoric, totalitarian regimes have allowed external forces and powers too much latitude to mess with the country’s internal affairs, leaving a highly skewed playfield for the transitory democracies Pakistan has experimented with. The upshot is that the political leadership today is totally lost between gaining the goodwill of the White House and addressing the muted aspirations of its own people. This has implications for the country’s very sovereignty, if that has not been compromised already.
In this severe, unending hour of crisis, a neighbourly helping hand could go a long way in assuring Pakistan that it can surmount the threats to its security and stability.
New Delhi has time and again asserted that a secure, stable Pakistan was in India’s interests. It is time that it put this commitment to work in a discernable manner. A sympathetic word on the tragedy – and undermining the writ of the state is nothing short of tragedy – that has just befallen the beleaguered nation should be forthcoming shortly, if only to convey that Pakistan is not alone in the troubles it faces.