A doomed presidency
By Peter Preston (THE GUARDIAN, 08/09/08):
Forget labels. In reality, two giant parties struggle perennially for power in Pakistan. One is the politicians’ party, whose candidate, Asif Ali Zardari, has just been elected president. The other is the army party, which prefers bazookas to ballot boxes. Democracy in this pivotal country is a frail blossom. And Zardari is as frail as they come.
The crude apology for a party system in Pakistan is 60 years old and shows scant sign of changing. First, the politicians have an election and govern for a while. When they falter, the generals take over. Ayub Khan, Yahya…
Zero hour for Zardari
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 04/09/08):
By common consent Pakistan stands at a critical juncture. The Islamist insurgency in Afghanistan has spread into its western tribal areas, where al-Qaida and Taliban militants are now firmly established. The “war on terror” alliance with the US is under severe strain as Washington noisily criticises the army’s failure to curb extremism.
Meanwhile 71% of Pakistanis, according to a recent poll, believe all counter-terrorism cooperation with the US should be halted.
Chronic poverty among an expanding population of about 160 million is being exacerbated by sharply rising food and energy prices that if unchecked, may provoke civil disturbances and further…
Democracy Within Our Reach
By Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (THE WASHINGTON POST, 04/09/08):
Pakistan is at a crossroads. The gravity of the situation has led me, at the insistence of my Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), to run for president in Saturday’s elections. My children and I are still mourning our beloved leader, wife and mother, Benazir Bhutto. We did not make the decision for me to run lightly. But we know what is at stake. Chief among the challenges that all Pakistanis face is the threat of global terrorism, demonstrated again in this week’s assassination attempt against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza…
Reported US attack pushes Afghanistan war into Pakistan
By Simon Tisdall and Saeed Shah (THE GUARDIAN, 03/09/08):
The war in Afghanistan spilled over into Pakistani territory for the first time today when heavily armed commandoes, believed to be US special forces, landed by helicopter and attacked three houses in a village close to a known Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold.
The early morning attack on Jala Khel killed between seven and 20 people, according to a range of reports from the remote Angoor Adda region of South Waziristan. The village is situated less than a mile from the Afghanistan border.
Local residents were quoted as saying most of the dead were civilians and included…
A Jihad Grows in Kashmir
By Pankaj Mishra, the author, most recently, of Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 2/08/08):
For more than a week now, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have filled the streets of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-ruled Kashmir, shouting “azadi” (freedom) and raising the green flag of Islam. These demonstrations, the largest in nearly two decades, remind many of us why in 2000 President Bill Clinton described Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed by both India and Pakistan, as “the most dangerous place on earth.”
Mr. Clinton sounded a bit hyperbolic back then.…
Take this war into Pakistan
By Jawed Ludin, the Afghanistan’s Ambassador in Oslo (THE GUARDIAN, 27/08/08):
If the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf represented a step forward for Pakistan’s nascent democratic transition, the collapse of the ruling coalition this week underlined its delicacy. This is a crucial time for the international community, and the United States in particular, to review its relationship with Pakistan - especially when it comes to a strategy for defeating the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, and the terrorist threat across the wider region.
To begin with, the US must invest more confidence and resources in Pakistan’s civil society and its civilian, democratic leadership.…
Pakistan is at last finding its voice. The US would be wise not to gag it
By Mohsin Hamid, the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (THE GUARDIAN, 22/08/08):
Given the bleak economic and security situation in Pakistan, it is easy to forget that 2008 has also been a year of positive events for the country. February’s elections proved that it is possible to hold free and fair polls in Pakistan, that in such circumstances undemocratic leaders such as Musharraf and his allies will be trounced, and (yet again) that the notion of broad public support for the parties of the religious right is a myth.
In the subsequent six months, the electorate has demonstrated another quality: patience. Despite sky-high…
Beyond Musharraf
By Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and the author of Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia (THE WASHINGTON POST, 19/08/08):
The resignation of President Pervez Musharraf yesterday after nine years in office is a major victory for Pakistan’s long-battered and still fragile democratic forces. But particularly given the meltdown the country has endured in recent weeks, there are still many obstacles to effective civilian governance. Although the United States will expect things to change in a hurry, they are unlikely to do so right away.
Three of Pakistan’s past four military rulers…
Musharraf was the last to read the writing on the wall
By Kamila Shamise, the author of Broken Verses (THE GUARDIAN, 19/08/08):
Over half an hour into President Musharraf’s address to the nation I texted a friend to say: “This is a resignation speech, right?” She wrote back: “I don’t see what else it could be.” Neither could I, but to the last Musharraf had the air of a man so strongly convinced that he was indispensable to Pakistan that it was hard to believe the former commando would resist one final assault on his political rivals. When it came to it, though, the assault was merely rhetorical - the man of action…
Charlatans of democracy
By Fatima Bhutto, a poet and a columnist for the News in Pakistan (THE GUARDIAN, 15/08/08):
The murky abyss of Pakistani politics has been especially murky over recent months, and true to form it just keeps getting murkier. The one thing that is absolute when dealing with the dregs that run my country is this: nothing is ever as it seems. Nowhere is that more true than in the current scenario involving President Musharraf’s likely impeachment by the ruling coalition.
“It has become imperative to move for impeachment,” barked Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Asif Zardari, at a press conference in Islamabad last week. Sitting…
US eyes up Pakistan’s lawless lands
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 04/08/08):
The turbulent prospect of direct US intervention against al-Qaida and Taliban jihadi bases in Pakistani territory adjoining Afghanistan appears to have moved closer following last week’s visit to Washington by Pakistan’s new prime minister, Yousef Raza Gilani.
Far from reassuring his hosts that Islamabad is on top of the situation in the so-called tribal areas, Gilani’s uncertain performance seems to have convinced US officials of the need to move quickly. A sub-text to this dangerously fast-moving drama is George Bush’s desire to catch or kill his 9/11 nemesis, Osama bin Laden, before he leaves office in January.
Bin Laden…
Where writs don’t run
By Peter Preston (THE GUARDIAN, 04/08/08):
America has seen enough John Ford movies to get the point. Britain, too, had its fill of John Wayne. So why are we all so infernally slow to realise that borderland Pakistan is the old west reincarnated - except that we’re not talking Apaches or Sioux now, just Bugti, Swati, Jadoon and Tareen in the realms of the Pashtuns and Baluchis?
Such parallels bound out only a few miles from Peshawar. If this were Nevada, you’d find casinos down some desert road, run as a matter of restitution by the tribes. That big, lushly watered house on…
National insecurity
By Martin Woollacott (THE GUARDIAN, 30/07/08):
From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, the armed forces of the states located in the world’s most intense conflict zone are stacked together like a dangerous house of cards. They plan, plot and puzzle, as embattled military establishments always do. Yet the most important decisions are arguably those that face the army least often mentioned in discussion - that of Pakistan.
For the Pakistani army has to decide how to save itself and the country it has dominated for so long. In the struggle across the region, it could even be said that decisions made in…
Pakistan’s Window of Opportunity
By Rick Barton and Karin von Hippel From the Center for Strategic and International Studies. They are co-directors of the PCR Project at CSIS (THE WASHINGTON POST, 26/07/08):
After eight years of military rule, Pakistanis desperately want their newly elected civilian government to fulfill their country’s promise. Public support will inevitably ebb and flow because of the sudden shift to democratic governance, but the underlying dynamic is positive. The United States should fully encourage the democratic opening during this critical period.
On a recent visit to Pakistan, we discussed these changes with more than 200 political party leaders, police chiefs, judges, clerics, journalists and…
Turning Away From Musharraf
By Robert D. Novak (THE WASHINGTON POST, 03/07/08):
Yousaf Raza Gillani, prime minister of Pakistan, will lunch with George W. Bush in the White House on July 28. That will not be merely another of the president’s routine meetings with foreign leaders. As Pakistan’s democratically elected government and U.S. diplomats understand, the lunch symbolizes a turn away from Washington’s attachment to military rule under the discredited Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Bush could be the last to appreciate the symbolism. On May 30, he stunned Pakistani political circles with a personal telephone call to Musharraf advocating “a continuing role” for him as president of Pakistan. Musharraf, whose…
Pakistan’s Plea For Patience
By Jackson Diehl (THE WASHINGTON POST, 16/06/08):
It’s easy to imagine the gloating smirk on the face of Pervez Musharraf. The autocratic ruler of Pakistan from October 1999 until February 2008 still sits in the sprawling home reserved for the country’s army commander, though he gave up the post last year. He is still president, though he has lost much of his power to an elected civilian government. For years, Musharraf resisted pressure from Washington to allow this return to democracy, arguing that only he could serve as a reliable partner in the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Now he might point to…
El nuevo triángulo de tensión: Pakistán, Afganistán y EEUU
Por Ahmed Rashid, periodista y escritor paquistaní, autor del libro Los talibán, Editorial Península (EL MUNDO, 13/06/08):
En las últimas semanas han ido in crescendo las críticas de la comunidad internacional a Pakistán por haber llegado a acuerdos de paz con los talibán paquistaníes en su territorio, lo que les permitirá cruzar la frontera y atacar a las fuerzas de la OTAN en Afganistán. Altos cargos políticos y legisladores de EEUU, comandantes de la OTAN, representantes de Naciones Unidas y del Gobierno afgano han expresado su rabia y frustración, al tiempo que han instado a Pakistán a que continúe apoyando la…
Pakistan’s Worrisome Pullback
By Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and the author, most recently, of Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia (THE WASHINGTON POST, 06/06/08):
Relations between the U.S. military and the Pakistani army, critical allies in the “war on terror,” are at their worst point since Sept. 11, 2001, senior Western military officers and diplomats here say, as Pakistani troops withdraw from several tribal areas bordering Afghanistan that are home to Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders and thousands of their fighters.
Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, chief of the Pakistani army, has told U.S. military and…
Pakistan’s Moment
By Yousaf Raza Gillani, prime minister of Pakistan and vice chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (THE WASHINGTON POST, 30/04/08):
It is important for Pakistan — which has transited from an authoritarian regime to democratic governance — that the message of this first critical post-election period be bold and clear. Like newly elected governments in other democratic societies, we intend to set the tone and agenda. We want to show the world that our nation is back in business, with an overwhelming mandate from our people.
This is not an easy transition. The scars of the past decade are deep. The problems facing…
Pakistan’s doves, America’s hawks
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 22/04/08):
Pakistan’s new leaders are doing the easy stuff first. Judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf, including chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, will likely get their jobs back soon. Media curbs are being lifted. A regulation preventing prime ministers serving more than two terms may be scrapped, which could benefit Nawaz Sharif, a leader of the ruling coalition.
Earlier this week the supreme court cleared the way for the late Benazir Bhutto’s husband, Asif Ali Zardari, to run for parliament in a June byelection. That in turn could put the Pakistan People’s party co-chairman in line for the premiership,…
