Pakistan on knife-edge
Bhutto's assassination on December 27, 2008, an act of cowardice perpetrated by Jihadists in the name of Islam, has again catapulted into focus the disfigurement of Islam and the misinterpretation of Jihad. Jihad is legitimate defense of religious and sovereign right of any country (not of course in the Hegelian sense) but Jihad does not approve of killing non-Muslims, Christians, news or Hindus, let alone Muslims. Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) set the examples many times in his lifetime. Islam considers suicide as sinful and suicide bombers as sinners. Jean-Paul Sartre said, "The Jew is a man" in his portrait of the anti-Semite; it is the anti-Semite who makes the Jew." Muslims never succumbed to such simplistic thought process, and Bengali Muslims never did. Terror groups like LET, HUJI, Bangla Bhai, or JMB and Hijbut Tawhid or Hijbut Tahrir, Al-Qaeda and Taliban heavily rely on exploiting Islamic identity and translating that into harmful activities in the name of Islam thus bringing disrepute to the very name of Islam. And Pakistan is now paying the price of state-sponsored disfigurement of Islam, (the true religion of peace) primarily used to prop up military and quasi-military regimes since its creation in 1947. Muhammad Ali Jinnah never believed in such extremist thoughts. His famous speech of 1948 is a testimony to that. By bringing back Benazir Bhutto, the US wanted the regime to get the much needed blood-transfusion to civilianize the regime, which will facilitate its own 'Jihad' against the militant Talibans and Al-Qaedas, who are gradually entrenching themselves in the heartland of Pakistan from the periphery. Benazir, whom the Americans considered the last hope of saving Pakistan from falling into the hands of the Jihadis, they needed to overhaul the Pakistan military establishment, which itself is reeking with pro-Taliban, pro-Jihadi operatives according to the FBI reports. Several failed attempts on Musharraf himself are a proof of that. Prior to Benzir's return, the US should have cleansed the security apparatus. The US pushed Benazir into the valley of death. Destroying the Lal-Masjid was a mistake, signing the so-called peace treaty with the tribal chiefs was a blunder. The Washington beltway Pakistan experts, including Prof. Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution, security expert Gare, Robert Trellis and Ambassador Shaffer and others including Hussain Haqqani, now at Harvard and a Senior Research Fellow at the Hudson Institute felt that the US was rushing things too fast. The day Musharraf dismissed Chief Justice Chowdhury and gave shelter to AQK, the General sealed his own fate. And he is about to fall on his own petard. But what about Benazir? An intelligent women, not always demonstrating her own transparency as Prime Minister twice and a former Oxford Union Society President, the only Asian to hold this coveted post, showed political immaturity to return to Pakistan at this time of the year. And to boot, when she declared Jihad against the Jihadists, she certainly did not forget what T.S. Eliot said, 'I think we are in a rat's alley, where the dead men lost their bones.' One wonders how Benazir decided to return to Pakistan, with the support of her White House friends. Her return was a blunder. Pakistan needs some more time, if at all, to create an atmosphere when a modicum of politics can start functioning. Benazir is the last example of an unnecessary sacrifice at the alter of Pakistani Politics, to expiate the sins of the Pakistani establishment or is it a reality check on Pakistani politics moving inexorably to an uncertain future. In spite of President Musharraf's protestations at Davos and at the Court of Saint James's during his public relations charm offensive in Europe, no one really believes that the February 18 election in Pakistan is anything which will be free, fair and credible. But Pakistan's geo-strategic position leaves us with little or no alternative to the February election, whatever the result is. It is really like a Hobson's choice. We can only wait and hold our breath.
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