T.V Rajeswar
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is too weak to assert himself or exercise his authority. One possible line of hope and encouragement to Sharif may be India’s willingness to resume talks with him in the forseeable future
T.V Rajeswar

ON November 2, at the Wagah border, the curious crowds on either side gathered to witness the interesting manoeuvres of border guards on either side were also witness to a gory incident. An explosion on the Pakistani side resulted in the death of at least 61 persons, including women and children and injuries to over 100 people.

It was revealed later that a teenaged suicide bomber, suspected to have been carrying 20-25 kg of explosives, detonated the bomb on the Pakistani side. For this brutal attack, three different Taliban factions claimed credit. One of the Taliban groups claimed that the attack was a reaction to the military operation the Pakistan army was conducting in North Waziristan.

Another group claimed that the attack was to tell the government that it had failed to enforce the Taliban version of Islamic law. Yet another Taliban faction, supposedly loyal to Hakhimullah Mehsud stated that it was in response to the killing of Mehsud in a US drone strike last year. These counter-claims of different Taliban factions only expose the ugly fact that Pakistan's security is at the mercy of the Taliban.

The tragedy in Pakistan is that apart from the Pakistan army which has assumed powers of directing Pakistan's foreign policy and also inspires and partly controls the agitations of the Canadian-born cleric Qadri, as well as Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan, the Pakistani judiciary also interferes in the administration. A Pakistani court ordered, on October 26, that all the arrested workers of Tehreek-e-Insaf and followers of Qadri should be released forthwith.

The Islamabad Police Chief Tehir Alam said that he would request the court to review its orders since the arrested persons were involved in the attack on Parliament.

The well-known Pakistani commentator Khaled Ahmed has stated that Malala Yousafzai had openly objected to Taliban's policy of destroying girls' schools and had been shot in the head by Taliban terrorist and went on to get the Nobel Peace prize. She was denounced by the mullahs as an American agent. But for her posthaste despatch to London by the then Army Chief General Kayani, she would have been liquidated by radical Islamic elements in Pakistan. Khaled also pointed out that Pakistan's Abdus Salam, who got the Nobel prize for physics in 1979, was denounced since he was a member of the Ahmadiya sect and considered to be a non-Muslim in Pakistan. He returned to Pakistan only to be buried in Pakistan, but not honoured.

The fact is that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is too weak to assert himself or exercise his authority as Prime Minister. One possible line of hope and encouragement to Nawaz Sharif may be India's willingness to resume talks with him in the forseeable future. The next possible opportunity is during the SAARC Conference in Nepal, followed later by the G-20 Conference in Australia. However, Pakistan has to demonstrate its bona fide by moving decisively against jihadi terrorist elements based in Pakistan.

Amidst all this chaos, the disgraced General Pervez Musharraf made an appearance and made a speech that Pakistan Government should continue to give all support to the pro-Pakistani agitators in Kashmir and keep the agitation up till the situation turned favourable to Pakistan. Musharraf said that he was not running away from Pakistan and that he would visit Karachi of and on from his temporary residence in Dubai. It is obvious that Musharraf was fishing in the troubled waters of Pakistan and would only be too happy to grab power in Pakistan again, if possible.

Husain Haqqani, who was Pakistan's Ambassador to the USA for some time and is presently working at the Hudson Institute, Washington DC, describes the chaos in Pakistan which was living in denial, having lost its sense of direction. He describes jihadi terrorism as the principal threat to the country's survival. The suicide attack at Wagah border on November 2 was only a face of jihadi terrorism.

Haqqani says that even in Pakistan's closest ally China, only 30 per cent of people held a positive view of Pakistan. Haqqani also goes on to say that jihadi extremists could embark on new dangerous missions against India, while Prime Minister Sharif remains pre-occupied. Haqqani fears that sooner or later, the Taliban and their backers would make a bid to grab power in Pakistan which would lead to a big setback for Pakistan. One of the important ways of preventing jihadi terrorism from becoming a threat to the State itself is to initiate action against the terrorist organisations which are active in Pakistan. These terrorist organisations are only concentrating on planning attacks against India. These are Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jammat-ud-Dawa, which are in fact used as terror assets by the Pakistani Army and its creation, the ISI. To begin with, Pakistan should stop offering specious alibis against prosecuting Hafiz Saeed, who was the brain behind the 26/11 Mumbai attack. Ajmal Qasab, who was captured and successfully prosecuted in India acknowledged his links with Hafiz Saeed. Pakistan would realise possibly very soon that unless it moves against terrorists stationed in Pakistan, indirectly supported by Army and the ISI, these will continue to be as much a threat to Pakistan itself rather than India. The suicide attack at Wagah border on November 2 was only a reminder to Pakistan in this direction.

The writer is a former IB Chief & former Governor, UP

Courtesy: Tribune: November 6, 2014, Chandigarh, India