Author: Editorial
Publication: Free Press Journal
Date: July 25, 2006
URL: http://www.samachar.com/features/250706-editorial.html
Is President Musharraf being encircled? As
he is expressing word sympathy with the next of kin of the 200 killed and
about the 1000 injured in Mumbai bomb blasts, he is somewhat aware that he
is not taken seriously in this country when he talks about the peace process.
He is repeatedly asking for proof that terrorists operating from Pakistan
are behind train blasts in Mumbai.
The Pak President knows only too well that
the entire world does not trust him when he disowns any responsibility for
terrorist operations from Pakistan. Even the US, which has been mollycoddling
Musharraf as the frontline fighter against terror, has serious doubts about
Musharraf's bona fides. Many in the Republican Party have raised questions
about the dependability of the Pak ally, when the chips are down.
The international community has proved its
mistrust of Musharraf when the G8 Summit passed a unanimous resolution supporting
India on its stand that Musharraf has not done all that he had promised to
do to curb the terrorists. All this makes it difficult for Musharraf to demand
any concrete move on the part of India to push the peace process.
Inside Pakistan, he creates the impression
that too many problems are riling him. Two former Prime Ministers waiting
in the wings and making inroads into public opinion in Pakistan have become
a thorn in his flesh.
To the extent that people are rallying around
them, the demand for his resignation of one of the two top positions he holds
(the President and the army chief) is gaining ground. How he plans to get
on top of this problem is a moot question. But his plight vis-a-vis the terrorist
organisations like Lashkar-e-Toiba and the lengthening tentacles of Taliban
and the rebellion in the Northwest Frontier-Province does not suggest any
easy way out.
He cannot make any conciliatory noises about
terrorist outfits. And his role in Afghanistan is already suspect and as the
death toll among the US and UK troops increases, his relations with US generals
in Afghanistan get aggravated, whatever may be the dubious accommodation that
President Bush is willing to extend to him.
What is more, most politicians in the occupied
Kashmir have refused to vow the accession of that part of Kashmir to Pakistan.
Inthis scenario, Musharraf cannot refer to taking the peace process to the
next stage. But the jehadis would have none of it. And that is why the foreign
minister of Pakistan made the most callous and insensitive comment about the
Mumbai blasts that as long as Kashmir problem is not solved, incidents like
those of 11/9 cannot be avoided.
India may demand the repatriation of Dawood
Ibrahim or Tiger Memon. The answer will be the same. They do not stay in Pakistan.
How would Musharraf surrender those individuals who help him inflict a thousand
cuts on India? India cannot let the jehadis kill the peace process, though
India has to keep its powder dry.
