A nation in 'peril'

Amazing things are happening with our benighted country. We are a nuclear power. But our recognition in the comity of nations today is only as a "breeding ground" for extremism and militancy and as a country afflicted with a culture of violence and terrorism. No wonder the world now calls us the "most violent and most unsafe" country in the world and also the "most dangerous nation" on earth. Pakistan is now also seen as "the single greatest challenge" facing the next American President. These are most unwanted distinctions for any country in the world.

Pakistan in its sixty-year history had never suffered such negative global perception. How did all this happen? The nation wonders how a country that came into being in the name of Islam, the religion that stands for peace, equality, tolerance, fraternity and the brotherhood of man, became the breeding ground for extremism and violence. The events of 9/11 were no doubt a critical threshold for our country but it was General Musharraf's personalised decisions that represented the real and ominous turning point in our history.

Thanks to Musharraf, today, we are no longer an independent state.

Last nine years have indeed been an embarrassing and excruciating period for our nation. Terrorism-related problems have placed us on the global radar screen, giving Pakistan the unenviable distinction of being one of the epochal "frontlines of the War On Terror."

It is now seen as the "ground zero" of this war and also as world's unrivalled "breeding ground" of violence and militancy. Our involvement in this war has only complicated things for us both at home and at regional and global levels circumscribing our sovereignty and freedom of action.

Pakistan is now the only Muslim country with an ongoing military operation against its own people. In the process, Pakistan's armed forces have assumed a role that they perhaps had never imagined or conceived as part of their professional training courses and military text books. They are confronted with a double jeopardy. On the one hand, they face a virtual insurgency and guerrilla warfare in tribal areas, and on the other hand, they are helpless in the face of continuing US military incursions inside Pakistan.

Our sovereignty and territorial integrity are being violated with impunity. Our freedom of action in our own interest is being questioned and undermined. We are seen both as the problem and the key to its solution. Today, Pakistan's name instantly raises fear and concern. Our image is being tarnished by unabated wave of terrorism and violence including recurring and some high-profile suicidal attacks. All those killed in these ghastly attacks, civilian or military, were Pakistanis. We are killing ourselves.