Asia: A hostile ally; Terrorism in Pakistan

Source: The Economist

Clinton flies into a war zone

A VISIT to Pakistan this week by Hillary Clinton, America's secretary of state, was greeted in the grimmest possible fashion. A suicide-bomber exploded a car packed with explosives and killed over 100 people in a crowded bazaar in Peshawar, in North-West Frontier Province. The presumed culprits, the Taliban, have also reached the capital, Islamabad. On October 22nd an army brigadier was ambushed outside his house and killed by two gunmen on a motorcycle. In two bloody weeks more than 250 people have died in suicide-attacks in Peshawar, Islamabad and Lahore. Security agencies are warning of more murder to come.

Mrs Clinton visited Pakistan for several important reasons. She wanted to assure Pakistanis that America is no longer just a fair-weather friend. Rather, it is here to stay and support Pakistan in its fight against terrorism and poverty. A bill signed by President Barack Obama on October 12th grants Pakistan $7.5 billion in assistance for development and to alleviate poverty in the next five years.

However, that act of apparent generosity was spurned by most Pakistanis as "insulting and intrusive" because of conditions attached to it, which implied that Pakistan's army and security agencies were complicit in harbouring terrorists and undermining the civilian government of President Asif Zardari. Egged on by the army, the Pakistani press, its mindset forged by years of state-sponsored jihad against the infidels--the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s and India in the 1990s--has assailed the legislation as "dishonouring" Pakistan and serving only American interests. Indeed, until very recently, the predominant view was that the war against the Taliban was America's fight, not Pakistan's. Against this backdrop, Mrs Clinton came to Pakistan not just to pledge support in counter-terrorism but to prop up its fledgling democracy.

But first she has to resolve continuing strains in her country's relationship with Pakistan's powerful army. America has welcomed its campaign against militants in South Waziristan. But it wants the army to go further and to take the offensive in other parts of the tribal areas, where the Taliban and al-Qaeda have safe havens from which they are attacking NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

American pressure has been stepped up in the days leading to the presidential-election run-off in Kabul on November 7th. The Americans hope that Pakistan's efforts can help bolster turnout. But the Pakistani army is loth to divert too many forces from the Indian border, until the peace process with India makes some progress.

Pakistan's security agencies have long accused India of using its consulates in Afghanistan to foment a separatist insurgency in the province of Baluchistan. Now it alleges that India is indirectly financing the Taliban as "payback" for the insurgency sponsored by Pakistan in Indian-administered Kashmir for nearly 15 years.

Mrs Clinton also wants to knock opposition and government heads together, to reach a modicum of unity over the war against the Taliban and relations with America. In a cruelly opportunist move, the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, now a popular opposition leader, took up cudgels against the American aid bill. Meanwhile, Mr Sharif was giving the Americans secret assurances that he was fully on board.

So Mrs Clinton had her work cut out. Despite the American pressure, and despite the worsening toll in human lives exacted by the suicide-bombers, there is little sign of a change of heart in either the army or the Pakistani political opposition. The army still seems ambivalent about fighting the Taliban, and nervous about America's intentions. And the opposition still seems bent on destabilising the pro-American Zardari government.