President Bush's telephonic conversation with the embattled President, Pervez Musharraf, may or may not shore up the morale of the presidential camp in Islamabad, but it certainly tends to make things difficult for Asif Ali Zardari.
As a gut reaction, one may say the White House is not fully briefed about the emerging political situation in Pakistan; otherwise what is the explanation for Defence Secretary Robert Gates' call 'to give the new government time to find its feet on the ground' in contrast to his boss's back-stroking of President Musharraf. Confusion as to what is happening abounds and at times is so thick one could cut it with a knife.
There is this telephone contact between President Bush's National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, and Musharraf's close aide, Tariq Aziz; then Dr A. Q. Khan's challenge to his erstwhile tormentors; the rising tempo of government's peace talks with militants; media reports on modalities for a 'safe passage' for the President - all this under the ever-darkening clouds over our economic horizon.
This serving as the backdrop, would it be realistic to expect Zardari to deliver, handicapped as he is by the reality of numbers in the parliament? True, he is committed to support President Musharraf in return for the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), but can he do it when the people have spoken with such vehemence against the President for his unpopular policies? Probably, but for the NRO, Pakistan's politics would not have been on the track it is now on.
Thanks to the NRO, former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and because of her, Nawaz Sharif could return - thanks, because not very far east of us, in Burma, and sometime back in Indonesia, military rules extended over many many decades. Our own military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq's decade-long reign ended only thanks to divine intervention, otherwise who knows how long it would have lasted.
Indeed democratic order has been restored in Pakistan. Following general elections the parliament and assemblies have been put in place and coalition governments are functioning in Islamabad and provinces. And above all, the new military leadership, of its own accord, has decided to return to barracks leaving the running of the government to the elected representatives.
This is a sea change from the past when even as the military was in barracks it kept pulling strings in the ambience of a puppet play. But the kind of realisation that has dawned upon the military leadership is still not detectable so clearly in the civilian section of society. Various segments of civil society appear to be exhibiting lack of comprehension of the enormity of challenges confronting the country.
It bears repetition, as it has been said in these pages a number of times before, but we would like to say again that today the country is beset with problems of humongous proportions. There is this ongoing insurgency in Balochistan where the writ of the government is at the mercy of feudal lords and rebellious tribal chiefs. In the north-west of the country, a huge swath of territory is up in revolt against the government, causing perennial instability and breakdown of law and order as the spectre of suicide bombing looms large. Even in big metropolises the criminal gangs operate with unprecedented freedom turning large parts of these industrial hubs into no-go areas.
All this is happening when the ordinary people are facing rigours of a failing economy with high inflation, rampant food shortages, prolonged electricity and water outages and recurrent communication breakdowns. It is time to stop and look around as to what each one of us should do to build on this small yet crucial base that the people provided to the political leadership on February 18.
None of the political parties emerged as the majority, hence coalition governments. Asif Ali Zaradari's PPP is not the sole repository of people's power in the parliament; he is a coalition partner. But it would be undemocratic on the part of his partners to make him hostage to this numbers game. The civil society too has a role in promoting the supremacy of the parliament and that is that it should not let the street power overwhelm the parliament.
There is nothing unusual in the President of the United States talking to the President of Pakistan on telephone. But it is the content of the message he is trying to convey and the timing of the telephonic contact that has caused widespread frustration in Pakistan. For one, President Bush's assertion that Pervez Musharraf should 'continue' to be in power when a furious storm is raging around him tends to convey that Washington prefers a dictatorial outfit over a democratic dispensation.
Americans' impatience with various peace deals between government and militants is grossly misplaced too. Isn't it a fact that peace has returned to Swat consequent to a deal between liberal, nationalist ANP-led government and the ultra-religious Swati militants? And, do we not know that with the initiation of peace process in FATA suicide bombing has almost stopped.
We don't dispute Defence Secretary Gates observation that the new government has yet to find its feet on the ground, but we would ask the US leaders that in the case of Pakistan they should make the US policies people-friendly because ultimately only the people prevail and who should know it better than Americans. However, more importantly, we hope the newly elected government of Pakistan gets some respite from the 'friendly fire' coming from its allies in parliament and supporters in civil society - to be at peace to think and plan, realistically and objectively. We simply cannot afford this parliament to fail.