Time is running out
By Ikramullah July 19, 2008 Not only the Indian FO in New Delhi but also the Afghan president has accused Pakistan in the recent bomb blast outside the Indian embassy in Kabul. Using the often-repeated malicious accusations against Islamabad to cover the failure of his Afghan administration Karzai has announced to boycott any more dialogue with Pakistan and conveyed the same to Washington.
The US has shown instant sympathy and announced readiness to probe Kabul allegations. Speaking at the White House, Bush said that the movement of the extremists from Pakistan to Afghanistan troubled him and pledged to suppress such elements. Back home, Mehsud has given NWFP government an ultimatum to resign or face the consequences. Plainly speaking the ongoing insurgency would get more grim and bloody.
A new dimension to the defiance of the writ of government is militants establishing mohtasib shura and sharie courts first in Swat and now in Waziristan. On the other hand, Malik has vowed publicly not to allow this parallel legal system under any circumstances.
Pakistan’s Ambassador in Washington has summed up the shrinking options open to the fragile democratic system. The government has a four party coalition to run the country but a major member of the federal coalition PML-N has pulled out all its ministers in protest, for the reasons of blossoming genuine democracy which is not possible without the settlement of the ongoing judicial crisis and the impeachment of Musharraf. The other major partner of the coalition namely PPP has a different agenda and wishes to meet the demands of PML-N in its own time through the parliament in a constitutional package. With regard to the insurgency in the tribal areas Gilani believes that Pakistan is not indulging “in a proxy war” but it is fighting against terrorism in the best interest of the state and the people of Pakistan.
