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Bhutto’s return may hold ‘key’ to war against terror

* Analysts say deal between Bhutto and Musharraf ‘vital’ to deal with Islamist threat

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Bhutto’s return to power in Pakistan may hold the key to America’s fight against Islamist terrorism, said the Miami Herald in a recent report.

According to the report, while the former prime minister is currently living in London and Dubai in exile, she is reportedly negotiating with President Pervez Musharraf over whether she can return home and share power. This development could result in the Pakistan People’s Party allying with Musharraf — a step many believe as necessary to curb Islamist terrorists in the country. However, the report points out that Bhutto is no saint. “Her two terms as prime minister were marred by corruption and disappointed many who admired her,” it states. However, it points out that her and Musharraf making a deal may determine whether Pakistan can confront a growing Islamist threat that can affect America too.

Pakistan is the probable base of Osama Bin Laden, according to the recently released National Intelligence Estimate and the “lawless tribal lands” on the Afghan border allow the Taliban to stage cross-border raids on Afghanistan, it adds.

The Herald states that the opposition in Pakistan received a boost recently when Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled against Musharraf’s efforts to suspend Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. It said this creates a potential obstacle to the re-election of Musharraf as president while he continues his role as commander of the army, because the dual role is likely to be challenged in court.

The report states that Musharraf might make a deal to maintain power in return for taking off his uniform and restoring civilian rule. As Najam Sethi, the editor of Daily Times, wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “A transitional alliance of the military establishment with more progressive and secular elements in the country is the need of the hour.” According to the report, such an alliance is vital to cope with Pakistan’s domestic Islamist problem, as well as with Al Qaeda. It said that no Pakistan expert thought there was any immediate danger of an Islamist takeover of the country, as Musharraf has already purged the army and Islamists have never gotten more than a small percentage of the national vote.

However, it added that Islamisation presented a threat over the next decade. Sethi writes that there are “over 20,000 madrassas controlling over one million angry students across the country”. The report criticised this development, citing a US pledge to help Pakistan reform the madrassas and fix the country’s “broken secular educational system”.

Meanwhile, the report claims that Musharraf and the army have “never taken the domestic Islamist threat seriously enough”. It states that the army regularly uses radical Islamists as a resource to fight against India over control of Kashmir. It asks whether President Musharraf, following the Lal Masjid operation, is finally aware of the threat the Islamists pose to him. The report quoted journalist Ahmed Rashid, who said the only reasonable solution was for the entire Pakistan nation to rally against the Islamists. He said the US should not go into the border territories to carry out operations, stressing that the people of Pakistan would not support their government if it did not appear to have any “legitimacy”. It said the return of Bhutto could help Pakistan confront its Islamists and Al Qaeda. “The White House should be encouraging her — and Musharraf — to reach such a result,” it adds.

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