Will Pakistan became worst before it gets better.

By Sybhan Samat

(March 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore Pakistan on 3rd March is a stark reminder of the growing civil war in Pakistan which is getting worse by the day. The battle lines for this intractable war are clear. On one side is the government led by the unpopular President Zardavi who is notorious for his greed dissolution and venality on the other side the extremist Taliban, influenced by the teachings of Mohammad ibnu Abdul Wahab led by Baitullah Mehshud who is known to have close dealings with CIA operatives in Pakistan. Another Taliban stalwart in Pakistan is Moulana Fazlur Rahman the god father of the Taliban. In addition to these players in this war there are the tribesmen in South and North Waziristan.

Behind all these players, the unseen hand of the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency are pulling the strings to work out its own diabolical agenda in Pakistan. The US has pursued a deliberate policy of destabilizing Pakistan in order to have a pretext to seize control of its nuclear sites as Pakistan is the only Muslim country that possesses nuclear bombs.

Few analysts in Pakistan have any doubts of the US’s intentions. The US is getting bolder by even directly attacking Pakistan in the border regions without any reference to the Pakistani authorities. These attacks have caused civilian causalities although they were blatant breaches of international law and have a serious destabilizing impact on Pakistan supposedly a key ally of the US.

It is obvious that the present scenario will certainly thrust this unfortunate country into the sort of civil war that has already occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pakistan in fact has been under virtual US occupation thanks to the subservience of successive governments, but the fact that it has operated through local proxies rather than taking open control itself, and that its operations have been largely restricted to areas bordering Afghanistan, have prevented the country as a whole from being subjugated and consumed.

Open US warfare in the country and the co-operation of the Zardari government with it will open the whole country up to military resistance from local Islamic armed groups and foreign groups both of the Al Qaeeda and Afghan Taliban. If that happens the US will not hesitate to destroy the country’s infrastructure including the nuclear sites and allow it to fall into chaos and disorder, regardless of the consequences for the people of Pakistan.

Faced with this nightmarish threat, the response of Pakistan is one of despair and resignation. Although the vast majority of Pakistanis still look and long to Islam for solutions to their problems, the manifest and repeated failures of the country’s Islamic movements through its history have taught Pakistanis to expect little from them.

The Jma’at-e-Islami remains the country’s largest Islamic movement, with an organized infra structure which means that many Islamically-committed and active Pakistanis tend to work through bodies affiliated or associated with it; but its political record inspires little hope. The Taliban and similar groups are popular in particular areas; else where in the country, their resistance activities are supported but there is little sympathy for their limited socio-political and cultural outlook. Some, brand them as reactionary. In addition, there are other so called jihadi groups like Lakshkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Jhangavi and Sepah-e-Sahaba fighting for the cause of freedom for Kashmir from India, the last named, Sepah-e-Sahabah is also involved in sectarian war against the Shia in Pakistan. These groups are a potent toxic mixture which cause spectacular destabilization havoc both in India and Pakistan. They are both fanatical and extremist to the core.

In all of Pakistan which was created as an Islamic Republic after independence there are Muslims who yearn and long for Islamic leadership in the country with the vision, commitment and quality shown by the leaders of Islamic Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas as examples. Tragically for a country with so long a record of commitment to Islam; there seems to be no sign of such a leadership emerging in the foreseeable future, because the present Islamic movements in Pakistan have sectarian , narrow , reactionary and obscurantist ideas of the noble ideology of divine Islam.

As Pakistan faces up to what may be the gravest crisis of its troubled history, perhaps its only hope is that the depth of the problems it faces might prove the impetus for the emergence of a new, dynamic Islamic leadership like that of Imam Khomeini in Iran. In history most times a nation has to undergo severe crisis, suffering and misery to emerge and pass over to prosperity, well-being and peace. It is like gold which has to be burnt and beaten in a crucible to ultimately shine and come out in all its splendour and brilliance and adorn in the form of jewelry the neck and hands of queens.

One wonders, if this is the process that Pakistan is undergoing. As for Sri Lankans we must hope and pray that Pakistan comes out of its quagmire as she has always come to the aid of our country politically, economically and militarily. For too long since its birth 62 years ago. Pakistan has suffered. Yet the fore bearance and the endurance of the people have been admirable. Neither the 50 years of military rule nor the incompetent politicians have discouraged and disheartened the people. It has faced ordeal after ordeal of trauma and chaos with very little respite. Still the people’s eyes are hopefully focused on a future path towards an Islamic ideology for Pakistan. -Sri Lanka Guardian