EDITORIAL: Asking friends to do more

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\08\30\story_30-8-2009_pg3_1

President Asif Ali Zardari called on the British Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown, in London on Friday, asking him to “do more” to rescue Pakistan from its economic crisis and to strengthen Pakistan’s capacity to combat militants. Mr Brown has reaffirmed that his government will indeed pay Pakistan $1 billion over four years.

Mr Brown means to spend half his money on the borderlands, mostly in the rehabilitation of the educational infrastructure destroyed by the terrorists. He politely did not refer to the latest education policy announced by Islamabad whose drift is going to promote religious extremism by insulating mainstream pupils from modern, rational education. There was bilateral exchange of views on the problem of extremism in Pakistan, too.

No one knows how Islamabad is going to end extremism, but if extremism comes from the human insulation of the madrassas, not even a beginning has been made in that direction. In fact, the real battle is the military challenge that Pakistan is now offering to the Taliban terrorists. And the good news there is that Pakistan seems to be winning after the Americans killed Baitullah Mehsud.

During the conversation, Mr Zardari also referred to the slight softening of the Indo-Pak equation after Sharm al-Sheikh as that is a major policy pillar of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan in general and the UK and the US in particular. The British message through its foreign minister Mr David Miliband has been steady: you are not threatened by India, your threat is from the inside, and it is from extremism, not so much from the Taliban as from Pakistani society itself.

Indeed, Pakistan continues to be politically unstable and economically unviable. It is politically unstable because its politicians have assumed extremist postures about issues confronting them. Have they the right priority in listing what these issues are? The “friends” would think it is war against terrorism. No, it is the issue of punishing General Pervez Musharraf (retd) for treason and they know the punishment for that is death. In fact the latest scandal about Jinnahpur is considered a distraction from the real aim of going for General Musharraf.

Fighting terrorism and regaining territorial sovereignty is not a priority for politicians and journalists. This trend encourages the clerics and the country’s madrassa infrastructure to challenge the war against terrorism — despite the “national consensus” praised by Mr Brown — and lead marches against America as the “killer of Muslims”. For them, it is not the “emirate” of the Taliban in the tribal areas that violates Pakistan’s territorial integrity but the slavery of America.

That is why the “friends” are worried that the Pakistan Army may simply wind up the operation in South Waziristan and go back to doing what it normally does: defend Pakistan against a possible Indian invasion from the east. That would be an awkward moment because Pakistan is getting all the money — for instance, the IMF facility that has raised its credit rating — on the pledge that it will fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

As it stands now, Pakistan needs all kinds of help to run its economy. It has no money for the army, no money for the IDPs, and no money to pay for essential imports, including 1.55 million tons of edible oil that will be gorged during Ramazan. It has even asked for American help to get rid of its problematic “circular debt”.

As the “friends” are slow in disbursing the amounts they have pledged, it is America which is propping Pakistan up in all sorts of ways. Not fully aware of this, the provinces are making ready to fight over revenues that may actually not exist without foreign assistance.

Internally, Pakistanis agree on hardly anything. And it is not only war against terrorism. They disagree on water issues too, internally between provinces and, externally, with India; but international experts say the country is already running on empty. It is thinking of making electricity from Iranian gas but the province through which it will pass, Balochistan, is facing trouble, which helps the Taliban and Al Qaeda and not the national economy.

So when the interior minister, Rehman Malik, asked the UK to “do more” in helping Pakistan fight extremism and terrorism, he should have been aware that no one can help unless Pakistan is ready and united to help itself. *