A tragedy of tacit understanding

Notwithstanding the uproar Pakistan's both houses of parliament and civil society created at the ground assault on its territory by the US special forces last Wednesday, the suggestive remarks of senior Bush administration officials on the incident leave little room for doubt that the operation was conducted with the tacit understanding of Islamabad.

The apparent anger of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the use of words "regrettable, shameful and astonishing" by him, "completely unprovoked" by ISPR Director-General Maj-General Athar Abbas and "callous and wanton" by Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Tariq Majid seemed to have been intended to placate the roused public sentiments. There should be no question of taking 'any practical steps to thwart such attacks with full force', the Parliament's plea to the government, and exercising the right to "appropriately retaliate", General Majid's threat. It is exactly a week today since the American action cost the lives of 20 persons, including women and children, but no word of remorse has yet come out of Washington, nor has the Pakistan government pressed the point of "gross violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity" some legislators had stressed during the debate.