ISLAMABAD, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — Hundreds have been killed across Pakistan by the day-to-day bomb blasts in the last couple of weeks. Besides the worsening security, the Supreme Court of Pakistan started hearing petitions challenging the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) on Monday, which analysts believe will trigger more uncertainties to Pakistani politics as many Pakistani high- ups are beneficiaries of the amnesty. Pakistan is in the middle of fighting a battle against a dual danger.
ANTI-TERROR DEADLOCK
Pakistan is the target of terrorist attacks almost every day now. The spread and range of attacks seems to be widening with each passing day with the navy base in Islamabad, the army headquarters in Rawalpindi and the high court in the worst-hit Peshawar in the northwest all targeted last week. On Monday suicide bombers struck three provincial capitals and blasts even rocked the quiet town of Multan in the southeast the next day.
It is only the beginning. The Pakistani Taliban are awaiting the weather out and will take on the military when winter arrives in Pakistan’s tribal region, said Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsud in a phone call with CNN.
Pakistan’s security forces waged a large-scale military offensive to root out the Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan and abutting tribal areas near the Afghan border. Although the army claimed steady advances in the ground assault in the country’ s northwest, the majority of the militants and TTP leaders are still at large. The Taliban said the leadership is safe and they will start a guerrilla war.
As ascending attacks responding to the military operation, Pakistani media can’t help questioning the government’s capability in the fight against terrorism. Security analyst Jamilur Rahman said the Taliban have shown that they can mount a suicide attack whenever and wherever they want to.
It is imperative that the government formulate a comprehensive plan to battle them, and the barricades that have been put up all over the place do nothing except blocking traffic, said Rahman.
The government and the security agencies need to take stock of the situation and come up with new strategies to counter this rise in terrorist activity, an editorial in the Daily Times said Wednesday. One of the inherent difficulties in countering terrorism is devising a mechanism to prevent these attacks, it said.
Experts say the renewed U.S. strategy on Afghanistan will also complicate the security situation in Pakistan. The 30,000 troop surge will drive more Taliban fighters cross over the uncontrollable porous border from Afghanistan to the tribal areas of Pakistan where they have enjoyed safe heavens since long, defense analyst Humayun Qazi told Xinhua.
Observers in Pakistan doubt what will become of the poorly protected civilian areas under the watch of an often ill-trained, ill-equipped and demoralized police forces when high-alert zones are becoming so vulnerable to militants out to destroy the custodians of the defense.
The Monday attacks to Lahore and the Tuesday attacks to Multan also tell the terrible truth that the Taliban bombers are infiltrating from the orderless northwest to the heartland southeast, which the media term as a countrywide threat not only intimidating the public but paralyzing state institutions.
AMNESTY UNDER TRIAL
The worrisome security is not alone. As the controversial NRO has been put under trial in the Supreme Court since Monday, Pakistan is going to stage another political tug-of-war because the court ruling could undermine President Zardari and over 8,000 more beneficiaries of the amnesty.
Zardari, his slain wife and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, his interior minister Rehman Malik, and the country’s defense minister all had criminal charges dropped under the NRO, a law passed in October 2007 by then President Pervez Musharraf, as he faced increasing international pressure to hold democratic elections.
Thousands of cases were abandoned under the NRO, but they could now be revived after the petition heard in the apex court headed by the chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, claiming the law was discriminatory and in breach of Pakistan’s constitution.
On Monday, the government failed to present any defense of the law, meaning the challenge will almost certainly succeed. It could eventually force several ministers to resign and intensify pressure on Zardari to at least give up some of his presidential powers.
Ready for the power transferring process in Pakistan, the Obama administration has developed ties with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif. “We don’t depend on Zardari as the government,” said a U.S. official
Meanwhile, Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, also has held regular discussions with Sharif and Islamabad’s generals to ensure any power shifts are done in an orderly way.
The opposition party PML-N has recently upped pressure on Zardari to give up wide-reaching powers inherited from Musharraf enabling him to dissolve the parliament and sack the prime minister. The president has given up control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and handed the powers to the prime minister on Nov. 27 in a bid to fend off mounting pressures.
Media reports also indicate the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is to persuade the Sharif party to rejoin the federal cabinet as a coalition partner. Analysts note that the ruling party is running the government with a fear of destabilization from the opposition.
As the uncertainty awaits, it is certain the NRO trial will shatter the Pakistani government as the nation struggles to contain the violent Taliban insurgency.
by Yangtze Yan
