Whilst the real-life drama is being enacted over a vast swathe of the country, embracing FATA, Swat and of late the Vale of Peshawar, the people largely scoff at the coalition government, its unelected leadership, its paralysis and the importance accorded to so many discredited men (prominent amongst them Rehman Malik). Larger than life characters such as Haji Mangal Bagh, Haji Baitullah Mehsud, Haji Namdar and their ilk stalk the stage with impunity and the people marvel at how the government not in power believes it is taking them for a ride. The paralytic governments, federal and provincial of Pakhtunkhwa, have abdicated all responsibility for the rise of the Taliban, simply handing it back to the army chief to tackle and to cope as best he can, and the people kick themselves wondering why they voted as they did in February. Meanwhile, oblivious to the Taliban and their rapping on the gateways to Peshawar, Socialist International invited arch-capitalist and Mr Asif Zardari to address their latest international congress. He did so on the subject of Pakistan and international terrorism, Pakistan largely being regarded as the cradle from which militancy, obscurantism, intolerance and terrorism arise and spring out into an unsettled world. According to Zardari's reading of the issue to which he undoubtedly devotes little time as he has far more pressing matters involving reconciliation at the expense of Pakistan to absorb him, the sole superpower is responsible for the birth and rise of the Taliban and for all Pakistan's present ills. The country was exploited and manipulated, he claims, as if it had no will or backbone of its own. Well, as history relates, Pakistan and its leadership of the 1980s was more than willing to go along with the USA and whatever designs it had for the region. The generals of the 80s were lavishly rewarded for their cooperation in the making of the mujahideen and the rise of militant Islam. Generals and politicians pocketed vast amounts of lucre and happily cooperated in the American scheming. Zardari also conveniently forgets that when the Taliban emerged as a force to be reckoned with in 1994, his government's interior minister referred to them as his "children" and dealt with them in parental mode. Who exploited whom and for what reasons? Cooperation, encouragement, nurturing and funding does not fit into the exploitation mould. Our present predicament cannot be laid solely at the feet of a foreign power " it is as much Pakistan's problem and of its own making. Pakistan and the Muslim world at large have adopted a strange attitude to the killing of Muslims by Muslims, from Pakistan to Afghanistan to Darfur to Palestine to Iraq. It is acceptable and kosher for Muslim to murder Muslim but quite a different matter when a non-Muslim encroaches onto the battlefield. This was illustrated in exemplary manner by physicist Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy in his column titled Anti-Americanism & Taliban' which appeared in our national press on July 1. He writes of the amazing storm unleashed by the recent killing of eleven Pakistani soldiers at Gora Prai by American and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan, with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani declaring, "We will take a stand for sovereignty, integrity and self-respect," with COAS General Parvez Ashfaq Kayani labelling the attack "cowardly," and of how the dead became shaheeds with large numbers of people turning up to pray at their funerals. "But," he says, "had the killers been the Taliban, this would have been a non-event. The storm we saw was more about cause than consequence. Protecting the sovereignty of the state, self-respect, citizens and soldiers against aggression, and the lives of Pakistani soldiers, suddenly all acquired value because the killers were American and NATO troops. "Compare the response to Gora Prai with the near silence about the recent kidnapping and slaughter by Baitullah Mehsud's fighters of 28 men near Tank, some of whom were shot and others had their throats cut. Even this pales before the hundred or more attacks by suicide bombers over the last year that made bloody carnage of soldiers and officers, devastated peace jirgas and public rallies, and killed hundreds praying in mosques and at funerals. These murders were largely ignored or, when noted, simply shrugged off. The very different reactions to the casualties of American and NATO violence, compared to those inflicted by the Taliban, reflect a desperate confusion about what is happening in Pakistan and how to respond." The southern areas are not pure and free from the dark danger that lurks in the north. During the last week of June in Karachi, a banned sectarian outfit exhibited its strength with a substantial gathering and rally of thousands held to propagate its "demands" which do not have to be spelt out. The administration went along with it all in true democratic and tolerant manner. Double standards abound and are never acknowledged, not even as being vital to expediency. Often they are pathetic, as in the case of Qazi Hussain Ahmed who has threatened to "expose Asif Zardari's corruption" if he does not restore the judiciary. Why only then? If it is a matter of public interest we should know now. Why wait? The writer is a freelance columnist E-mail: arfc@cyber.net.pk