Ahsan Waheed
In the shadow of the war against fundamentalism and terrorism waged by NATO in Afghanistan, democracy in Pakistan is undergoing a period of trial.
Not a simple task in the face of hidden hands pursuing ruthless agendas to exploit the sensitive transition period, the country nevertheless is working systematically to find its footing.
With the differences between the federating provinces of the North West Frontier Province, Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh being gradually resolved through reverting to constitutional governance, there is optimism that Pakistan is moving in the direction of claiming its rightful place as a 160 million strong market in the comity of nations.
Led by Sindh, today’s Pakistan is focused on facilitating the free movement of blood-tied Pushtun tribes that straddle the Afghan-Pakistan border, but weaning them away from fundamentalism at the same time. It is equally sincere in its efforts to bring Balochistan tribesmen into the orbit of democracy, with (Muslim) Punjab acting as the sheet anchor of liberal thought in the case of both.
To promote greater inter-provincial harmony, governments of more recent time have ensured that there is total parity to population in the Pakistan’s armed forces. In addition, on the anvil are differences relating to royalties, power generation, and water distribution from the Indus River.
This notwithstanding, each and every one of Pakistan’s provinces has a basic Islamic bias. None subscribes to secularism in any absolute sense of the word. And none ever will - much though that might be on the wish-list of some in the West.
In a nutshell, each time a Predator targets an area in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, the reverberations are felt throughout the country – and Al Qaeda gains a number of converts to its cause, even from as far away as the Punjab heartland.
The equation in Balochistan is marginally more complicated. There the divergence is over the issue of autonomy with the tribal leaders demanding Islamabad limit itself to managing defense, foreign affairs, currency, communications and international trade.
Sindh, arguably is of similar mind, but with a larger share of the water from the Indus River foremost on its agenda. It is unlikely it will venture beyond that singular demand since it today commands the Centre.
As for Punjab, it is primarily concerned with the terrorist attacks in its major cities and would readily concede the demands of the other provinces were this problem to be resolved.
Together with Sindh, Punjab is also the most pro -west of the provinces that comprise Pakistan, and thereby amenable to reason. But it finds itself very awkwardly placed with the bombs raining down on Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
In the final analysis, all four of Pakistan’s provinces are united on the need to address terrorism for stability and progress, though they may differ with the West on the modalities to accomplish this assignment.
The solution in the Pakistani mind’s eye is to win over the Taliban by talking with them, and should they succeed in that mission, Al-Qaeda will find themselves with few subscribers.
Would the West were prepared to accept this.