Issue 54 Vol III, December 31, 2007

E D I T O R I A L

Pakistan: Gloom and the Cauldron of Violence

THE assassination of major opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has pitched Pakistan into a political freefall. It has raised fears worldwide that increasingly bitter divisions in the society are turning the country into another Iraq. The suicide attack that killed Benazir Bhutto on December 27 has unleashed a maelstrom of anger among the people. The unabated violence before the assassination and its tragic aftermath has left scores of innocent people dead or maimed. Protesting angry mobs have burnt scores of trains, railway stations, buses, banks and police stations and other property all over the country. Benazir was the leader of the biggest secular political party and was lionized by the poor, both in urban and rural areas. Now that hope has gone leading to anger and bloodshed.

All across Sindh clashes and looting has left at least 40 people dead, where Pakistan’s largest business port city Karachi is located. Hundreds of bank branches were destroyed and 950 vehicles burned. Elsewhere in several cities of Punjab and other provinces, a near anarchy prevails despite army and the police out in full gear. The death toll has risen to several hundred.

Benazir, who had some kind of premonition about her getting killed, had been urging the government to provide her some security. She had written to the president Pervez Musharraf and others too. She had openly accused those elements in the administration who were once close to Gen. Zia and Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI and jehadis for conspiring to eliminate her. The administration now into an overdrive to cover up the killing that has been established by photographs and video tapes, is blaming her casual approach to security. Musharraf is too scared of a dead Benazir and wants to deny her the status of martyr which she is in the cause of democracy. Benazir’s Pakistan Peoples Party far from being in shambles as Musharraf must have expected, has risen to the occasion and decided to fully participate in the January 8 election along with Nawaz sheriff’s Muslim League much to the chagrin of Musharraf backed Muslim League Q that is asking for postponing the elections.

It is true that elections with Musharraf around would mean little democracy and rule of law under a constitution. Several Supreme Court and high court judges have been a sacked and pliable court constituted to ward off any judicial review of the amendments to the constitution which these days are ordered during the press conferences. Yet these do offer some sanity and return to the civilian rule.

Shocked citizens blame the deepening turmoil on Musharraf and his America -backed crackdown on Islamic extremists. Overwhelmingly poor and concerned with sheer survival than anti-Western terrorism, people seek stability above all, and many believe things will only get better if Musharraf goes. Most newspapers share their concern and aspirations and editorial comments indicate that Musharraf has to go now. His time seems up.

The general refrain is that the Musharraf government has created an Afghanistan and Iraq-like situation. Common people with little faith left in the government do believe the government apathy killed Benazir. They feel that it was the result of Musharraf's erroneous bad policies. While many Pakistanis want him gone, there is no consensus on who could replace Musharraf and who can unite the country and check the squabbling political factions.

Also a vast majority of Pakistanis reject Musharraf's contention that his alliance with the Bush administration is good for Pakistan. Most believe the government has only made things worse by launching offensives against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants along the Afghan border, inviting a blizzard of retaliatory suicide attacks on security forces, their families and political leaders. Yet the chickens have come to home to roost, some analyses point out.

No one accepts the Musharraf’s pledge to restore democracy. There are no takers. His declaration of state of emergency and purging of the Supreme Court when it challenged his dominance has robbed him of any credibility if he had any. The way he introduced several constitutional amendments and deprived the coming parliament of any real power has exposed his petty games. Now Benazir killing and later botching the enquiry and creating a senseless controversy have left him rudderless. Only his cronies support him. His popularity graph has touched rock bottom. A poll conducted by the International Republican Institute last month found 72 percent of respondents opposed Musharraf's recent stage managed re-election to the presidency for a new five-year term.

As America is caught into its vortex in Pakistan and finds little way out. The military alone can fight its battles against jehadis. It needs a democratic civilian government to do the job. Where is that now? For India, a stable democratic Pakistan is of paramount importance. It can then have bilateral agreements and hope to solve the Kashmir imbroglio.

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