Violence in Pakistan’s tribal areas continues unabated. In three days of fighting between the majority Shias and the Sunnis in the north-west, atleast 91 people have died. The sectarian violence is a clear sign that the imposition of emergency has failed to arrest the instability that is taking Pakistan towards the point of no-return. This is a blow to President Musharraf who has insisted that emergency is the only way to reduce the Islamic insurgency in the country.
Pakistan’s solution to the growing insurgency does not lie in the imposition of emergency but on a democratic constitution which can address the situation in a more cohesive manner. The emergency has not improved the situation simply because the army is concentrating on preventing civil rights in the country’s major cities when it should be engaging the insurgents in war-torn north-west.
Emergency has also forced the regime to tackle international and opposition pressures rather than finding out ways to stop the sectarian violence. Democracy has the ability to bring the conflicting parties to the negotiating table but at the moment with the imposition of emergency, the Pakistani army is too stretched to stop the bloodshed.
Radical Islamism and sectarian hatred thrive under emergency conditions. With emergency hindering economic and political development in the some of the impoverished parts of the country, people tend to follow radical voices rather than the government which is being seen as the villain which forcefully snatched the people’s fundamental rights. Even moderate voices side with extremists at the time of distress. Emergency or martial law can never bring down insurgency to its kneels.
The radical tribal leaders and the Shia and Sunni extremist groups are viewing the imposition of emergency as weakness on the part of President Musharraf and are now trying to prove to the ordinary Pakistani people that they are stronger compared to the army and the government and the continuous violence in the north-western Federally Administered Tribal Areas is a proof that emergency has failed to defeat the radicals.
Its high time that President Musharraf restores democracy and fight the growing sectarian strife and Talibanisation as a democratic leader with the cooperation of the Pakistani people and other nationalistic politicians.
Image: Yahoo
Source: USAtoday
