How the West Can Help Pakistan

Political readings of Pakistan’s situation these days border on gloom and despondency. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Friday warned the international community Pakistan is facing ‘mortal threat.’

Miliband’s comments come on the heels of a similar warning by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talking about the gravity of the serious internal threats facing the country.

Clinton’s remarks, made at the Nato Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels, and those of Miliband came in response to the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore last week that killed seven Pakistanis besides grounding almost the entire visiting squad.

Apart from the security situation in Pakistan, events in Punjab, the country’s biggest province, took a turn for worse after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother and Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, who lead the second largest political party the Pakistan Muslim League (N), were barred from holding elected office under a Supreme Court ruling.

With the opposition having declared an open war on President Zardari, the country seems to be heading for another dangerous confrontation. The imposition of governor rule in Punjab, the attack on the Sri Lankan team and the coming long march by the lawyers could redefine the country’s political landscape.

Sharif has refused to budge from his demand for the restoration of the deposed judges, that has become an albatross around Zardari’s neck just as it had proved for his predecessor Pervez Musharraf. Sharif cannot afford to concede on the judges issue even if governor’s rule is lifted and his party is allowed to form the next government in Punjab. He is too astute a politician to backtrack on a principled stand that is the mainspring of his leaping popularity. So unless the government concedes to the reinstatement of the judges, which is unlikely, the political 
stalemate, and accompanying instability, is likely to continue. No wonder Pakistan’s friends and allies are increasingly concerned about the country’s future.

While it would be prudent for Pakistan’s well wishers to advise the government to heed the popular demand and restore the independence of judiciary, the political unrest in the country is not entirely owing to the judges agitation or the PML protest. The situation in neighbouring Afghanistan and continuing attacks on Pakistan’s tribal areas are also contributing to unrest and instability in the country. So if the US-Nato coalition wants to help Pakistan, it should clear the mess in Afghanistan and leave soon. It’s time to realise that the US-Nato occupation of Afghanistan is part of the problem, not the solution. Which is why it’s good that for the first time the new US administration is seeking to reassess its strategy in the region. It has sought inputs and suggestions from both Pakistan and Afghanistan in the process. President Obama has won himself many an admirer in the Muslim world by announcing the US exit from Iraq by 2010. The Southwest Asia needs similar bold approach by the US and Nato.