Yesterday’s terrorist attacks do not mean that Pakistan is a failed state. But it has a failed President. Asif Zardari, a disastrous replacement for his assassinated wife, Benazir Bhutto, is compounding his country’s problems by his pursuit of personal survival at the expense of its Constitution, the rule of law and agreement between the main political parties that they will work to shore up democracy. He is utterly inadequate to meet the threat that Pakistan is facing.
What is it facing? What kind of terrorist group would find it useful to hit at cricket, a national passion? Fingers were pointed yesterday at Lashkar-e-Taiba, widely held responsible for the Mumbai attacks.
The actions of militants make sense only if their aims are the destruction of the normal civil life of Pakistan, as well as the shattering of international links — particularly those with India and others on the sub-continent. Yesterday’s shootings show that terrorism can reach into the heart of Pakistan’s main cities — even Lahore, heart of the Punjab, the part of Pakistan that most solidly functions as a normal country.
The feature that gives cause for hope is that most Pakistanis are moderate and loathe religious extremism. Until recently, another claim for stability was that the big cities remained remarkably free of terrorist action. Normal commercial and sporting life must now be overshadowed by nervousness.
Will it help Mr Zardari? Not really. It would help a competent president, who might gain strength to rally the country against the threat of home-grown terrorism.
However, Mr Zardari is not that figure. He has proved as willing to talk to America and Britain about the war in Afghanistan as they could reasonably expect, but he will do any deal, it seems, to secure his survival. The most damaging for the stability of the country may prove to be last week’s support for the ruling by the highly politicised courts to bar Nawaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League, from contesting elections. When Mrs Bhutto and Mr Sharif, heading the two main political parties, re-entered Pakistan in 2007, after years of exile, they swore to work together to restore democracy. That is a concept in which Mr Zardari is less interested, it seems.
Pakistan’s salvation is likely to depend on reforging commercial and social links with its neighbours to the east — India above all, but also Sri Lanka. The gunmen knew the value of their target.
Bronwen Maddox (Timesonline)
