12-28-2007, 12:31 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Apocalypse now </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Pakistan is exploding. Can it be saved? <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Coming at the close of the darkest year in Pakistan's history, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi on Thursday evening is more than merely the death of a former Prime Minister. It signals an intensification of Pakistan's internal strife and is qualitatively different from the previous bomb blasts, terrorist attacks and political crises that have beset that country in 2007. Evidence would bear this out. General Pervez Musharraf's fitful war against the jihadis or his attempt to pre-determine the outcome of national elections indicated the limits of an absolute military ruler and pointed to the range of opposition forces who wanted him out. The bomb attacks in Pakistan, particularly those on October 18 -- at Benazir Bhutto's homecoming parade -- which killed 150 people, suggested popular civilian politicians, despite their murky past and encouragement of the Taliban in the early 1990s, would perhaps have to be entrusted with the job of bringing some stability to their country. After December 27, all those calculations have been rendered meaningless. Far from being a catharsis and a new beginning for Pakistan, the national election now seems a non-starter. Certainly, after one of the favourites for the Prime Minister's job -- and one tacitly backed by sections of the establishment in both Islamabad and Washington, DC -- has been murdered, there will be many influential voices wondering what purpose the election will serve. The priorities will be quite different now.
Benazir Bhutto's assassination is the morbid climax to a 12-month period in which Pakistan has gone from being a frontline state in the 'War Against Terror' to the hottest conflict zone. A jihadi continuum from southern and eastern Afghanistan extending right across Pakistan is no longer an idea; it is a reality. After Benazir Bhutto's death, the world can no longer live in denial. It will not do to discuss Pakistan as an aborted democracy or even a failed state -- it represents the world's number one security threat. It is quite clear that the Pakistani state is incapable of controlling the crisis. It has ceded vast acres of its territory to Al Qaeda or its affiliates, especially the Taliban which is using Pakistani territory to launch attacks in Afghanistan. Given this pace -- and Benazir Bhutto's killing should only encourage the jihadis to press on the accelerator -- it is a matter of time before fanatical Islamist militias completely overrun the country and announce the birth of the Emirate of Pakistan.
Extraordinary and innovative mechanisms will have to be devised to arrest -- let alone reverse -- this trend. It has to be recognised that Pakistan's internal war is only about as local as the Spanish Civil War. This is an international conflict and if foreign ground and air troops are needed to do the job, the nominal Government in Islamabad has to be 'persuaded' to acquiesce. If the United Nations' aegis or perhaps an ad hoc label is needed for this purpose, so be it. As the new frontline state -- even if ruled by a strange Government that sees jihad as a problem for the rest of the world but not itself -- India cannot escape the spillover effect. That is why it should urge a global coalition effort to salvage the collapsing nation-state across the Radcliffe Line. It has long been said that Pakistan is a time bomb. After Benazir Bhutto's death, time has simply run out.
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
Pakistan is exploding. Can it be saved? <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> Coming at the close of the darkest year in Pakistan's history, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi on Thursday evening is more than merely the death of a former Prime Minister. It signals an intensification of Pakistan's internal strife and is qualitatively different from the previous bomb blasts, terrorist attacks and political crises that have beset that country in 2007. Evidence would bear this out. General Pervez Musharraf's fitful war against the jihadis or his attempt to pre-determine the outcome of national elections indicated the limits of an absolute military ruler and pointed to the range of opposition forces who wanted him out. The bomb attacks in Pakistan, particularly those on October 18 -- at Benazir Bhutto's homecoming parade -- which killed 150 people, suggested popular civilian politicians, despite their murky past and encouragement of the Taliban in the early 1990s, would perhaps have to be entrusted with the job of bringing some stability to their country. After December 27, all those calculations have been rendered meaningless. Far from being a catharsis and a new beginning for Pakistan, the national election now seems a non-starter. Certainly, after one of the favourites for the Prime Minister's job -- and one tacitly backed by sections of the establishment in both Islamabad and Washington, DC -- has been murdered, there will be many influential voices wondering what purpose the election will serve. The priorities will be quite different now.
Benazir Bhutto's assassination is the morbid climax to a 12-month period in which Pakistan has gone from being a frontline state in the 'War Against Terror' to the hottest conflict zone. A jihadi continuum from southern and eastern Afghanistan extending right across Pakistan is no longer an idea; it is a reality. After Benazir Bhutto's death, the world can no longer live in denial. It will not do to discuss Pakistan as an aborted democracy or even a failed state -- it represents the world's number one security threat. It is quite clear that the Pakistani state is incapable of controlling the crisis. It has ceded vast acres of its territory to Al Qaeda or its affiliates, especially the Taliban which is using Pakistani territory to launch attacks in Afghanistan. Given this pace -- and Benazir Bhutto's killing should only encourage the jihadis to press on the accelerator -- it is a matter of time before fanatical Islamist militias completely overrun the country and announce the birth of the Emirate of Pakistan.
Extraordinary and innovative mechanisms will have to be devised to arrest -- let alone reverse -- this trend. It has to be recognised that Pakistan's internal war is only about as local as the Spanish Civil War. This is an international conflict and if foreign ground and air troops are needed to do the job, the nominal Government in Islamabad has to be 'persuaded' to acquiesce. If the United Nations' aegis or perhaps an ad hoc label is needed for this purpose, so be it. As the new frontline state -- even if ruled by a strange Government that sees jihad as a problem for the rest of the world but not itself -- India cannot escape the spillover effect. That is why it should urge a global coalition effort to salvage the collapsing nation-state across the Radcliffe Line. It has long been said that Pakistan is a time bomb. After Benazir Bhutto's death, time has simply run out.
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