Terrorism, economic trouble shake Pakistan’s faith in new leader

In an extraordinary attempt at calming the jitters, Rehman Malik, the senior adviser at the Interior Ministry, met Friday with more than 50 ambassadors to try to reassure them that their embassies and their staffs would be safe.  Mr. Malik’s audience went into the meeting with “very deep concern,” a senior diplomat said. They came out barely reassured, he said. He and another Western ambassador, neither of whom wanted to be identified when commenting on domestic matters, said they were disturbed that Mr. Malik did not report any progress on the investigation into the Marriott bombing, or how it was carried out. “If they start arresting groups, that would reassure us,” the senior diplomat said. Mr. Malik used a PowerPoint presentation to outline new security measures that included more police officers around the enclave where many embassies are situated, and more concrete barriers and closed-circuit television cameras. But a second ambassador said that although Mr. Malik showed “good will,” there were grave doubts about the government’s ability to finance and follow through on the steps. The American Embassy closed its visa section on Thursday and Friday after what it called continuing threats. Embassy staff members were encouraged to work from home. All American government employees were forbidden, according to embassy orders, to stay at hotels in Pakistan’s main cities.

A major disappointment for the government has been the failure of Saudi Arabia, a traditional benefactor, to announce concessions on oil. In past economic crunches, Saudi Arabia has agreed to defer payment for the 100,000 barrels of oil Pakistan imports daily from the kingdom, the economists said. That has not happened this time, and even with the recent drop in oil prices, Pakistan is eating through its reserves at the rate of about $1.25 billion a month, Pakistani economists say. “The international community cannot allow Pakistan to become a failed state,” said a senior economist from one of the international financial institutions trying to salvage the economy. Diplomats and others are weighing what steps to take for themselves. At a meeting on Friday, senior officials of the United Nations agencies in Pakistan postponed a decision on whether to send family members of their foreign employees home, participants said. Such a move would have sent an unmistakable signal that the security situation was grave. It would also likely have prompted some of the 250 United Nations employees to leave with their families, threatening projects ranging from Unicef’s efforts to immunize children against polio to the World Food Program’s distribution of food. Of most concern, the ambassadors said, is lax security in the capital. On the night of the bombing, the policemen along the roads in the center of the city, which is designated a high-security “red alert zone,” were sitting on the curb eating in the ritual breaking of the Ramadan fast, the senior diplomat said. Babar Sattar, a prominent lawyer, talking over a cup of coffee at McDonald’s, said he would stay. But everyone was depressed, he said. “The government’s first reaction was: ‘We’ve done all we could.’ That’s what really terrifies people. There seems no way to stopping the attacks.”