ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The intensifying political battle between the pro-American president and the main opposition leader is shaping up as a potential crisis for the Obama administration as it tries to focus the government on fighting the Qaeda and Taliban insurgency here.

The domestic struggle will almost certainly deflect attention from that fight as President Asif Ali Zardari and his archrival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, duke it out and as street protests persist, politicians and analysts said.

It could also result in shifting political alliances, including new opportunities for the religious right that would be inimical to Washington’s interests, and even serve to make the Pakistani military restive for power again if the situation continued to worsen, they said.

The crisis was set off by a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that bars Mr. Sharif, and his brother, Shahbaz, from elected office. The decision was widely interpreted in Pakistan as a raw political maneuver engineered by Mr. Zardari to diminish the power of the two popular opposition figures.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani described the ruling as damaging to democracy. A daily newspaper published by a major supporter of Mr. Zardari’s said the resulting political battle could be so debilitating that nuclear-armed Pakistan could end up in the ranks of failed nations alongside Somalia and Zimbabwe.

“The two parties are going for the kill,” said The Daily Times. “As in the past they might both come a cropper,” it added, suggesting that each would lose out if the military stepped in again.

Spokesmen for Mr. Zardari denied the ruling had been politically driven, and said that Mr. Zardari deplored the Sharifs’ disqualification from public office. But they said Mr. Sharif’s intemperate statements after the ruling and the street protests made it imperative for the president to impose executive rule in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and most important province, where Shahbaz Sharif served as chief minister.

“After the demonstrations it became obvious the province could not be run in accordance with the Constitution,” said Farhatullah Babar, the presidential spokesman.

For Pakistan, where the military has ruled for more than half of the 61 years since independence and civilian governments have rarely completed a full term, combat between senior politicians is quite familiar.

In the 1990s, Mr. Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, the wife of Mr. Zardari who was assassinated in December 2007, dislodged each other as prime minister.

But in the 1990s, Pakistan was under a broad swath of American sanctions. This time, American interests are more intensely intertwined with the outcome of domestic politics.

The Obama administration, which this week hosted the Pakistani foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and the military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in Washington, has had little to say about the unfolding political drama.

“Washington was certainly surprised by the court move and very concerned, both in political and military circles,” said Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council.

The United States has backed Mr. Zardari as president, arguing that as a man whose wife was killed by terrorists he understands the importance of the fight against what the American military is now calling an industrial-strength insurgency in Pakistan.

Missile strikes by C.I.A.-operated drones against militants in the tribal areas increased significantly after Mr. Zardari came to power in September. Mr. Zardari has given the Americans his support for the strikes, although the Pakistani government publicly complains about them.

But his reputation in Washington would be likely to suffer as a consequence of his moves against the Sharif brothers, said Talat Masood, a retired army general, who frequently meets with American officials when they come to Pakistan.

“He is deflecting the attention of the whole country to something that is so irrelevant,” said Mr. Masood. “He is banking on the United States, but America will only support him up to a point.”

The moves against the Sharif brothers are likely to have upset the army, even though Nawaz Sharif was ousted from his second term as prime minister by an army coup. The army “must be boiling inside,” Mr. Masood said. “How can they tolerate this state of affairs?”

The bulk of army soldiers come from Punjab, are nationalistic in their outlook, and have a natural inclination toward Mr. Sharif’s party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N, he said.

General Kayani has vowed to keep the army out of politics, and was serious about his pledge, Pakistani officials said. But there could come a point where political instability became so great, the army would feel to compelled to step in, they said.

By ordering one of his main political allies, the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, to take over governance of the province, Mr. Zardari was hitting directly at the power center of the Sharif brothers, and, in effect, humiliating them, politicians said.

Some said Nawaz Sharif was now likely to work assiduously to bolster his popularity against Mr. Zardari. The president’s pro-American stance is anathema to large segments of the population, and Mr. Sharif could seek Islamist religious parties that have opposed American policy in Pakistan to come to his side, some politicians said.

Or the religious forces could gravitate to Mr. Sharif without his open encouragement, said Ishaq Khan Khakwani, a member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, and a former minister in the Musharraf government.

“The religious forces will come with Nawaz Sharif,” Mr. Khawani said.

Since Wednesday’s court ruling, Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party that advocates Islamic law in Pakistan, has declared that its supporters will join the lawyers’ movement in a long march planned for March 12 to mark the dismissal two years ago of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Nawaz Sharif said he and his brother would spearhead the lawyers’ march, and join in a sit-in planned at the conclusion of the march in Islamabad.

The size of the crowd during the lawyers’ protest from Lahore to Islamabad, and the composition of the march could be a defining moment in the contest between Mr. Zardari and the Sharif forces, politicians said.
New York Times

Pakistan’s ex Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification came as a shock to everyone. It is especially sad that he was disqualified during democratic transitional time in Pakistan. However, what followed was even more disgusting then the news of Sharif’s disqualification. As soon as the information of Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif’s disqualification became public, gangs of thugs throughout the country came out on the streets, who were pretending to be protesting, but in reality, these thugs were determined to destroy both public and private property. It seemed pretty obvious that this “spontaneous reaction” was actually planned in advance; otherwise, it is not possible for so many people to gather so quickly. Worse, Nawaz Sharif did not even consider this looting, burning and violence a crime because when asked about it during a press conference the very same day this was going on, he replied this protest was the natural reaction of “people.”  Wow!

To add fuel to the fire, Nawaz Sharif, (who by the way was disqualified by the court) launched nasty and unnecessarily vicious verbal attacks on President Zardari, which has further complicated the political situation in Pakistan.

As awful as it sound, it has become obvious that Nawaz Sharif has not learned anything from his plush exile. Ironically and incorrectly, Sharif still believes that he can win if he opts for confrontation, but this time, he is on the losing side, unless he gives up nastiness. For those of us who don’t remember recent history, let me give you a refresher about Nawaz Sharif and his political history.

– Nawaz Sharif openly disagreed with the then Army Chief Gen Mriza Aslam Beg (1988-1991) and the country suffered.

– Nawaz Sharif fought with the then Army Chief Gen Asif Nawaz (1991 - 1993) and the country suffered.

– Nawaz Sharif engaged the then with Army Chief Gen Waheed Kakar (1993 - 1996) in a personal power struggle and the country suffered.

– Nawaz Sharif demanded the resignation of the then Army Chief Gen Jehangir Karamat (1996 - 1998) after Gen Karamat mentioned the need to bridge the gap between the armed forces and the civilian leadership.

– Nawaz Sharif tried to illegally fire the then Army Chief Gen Pervez Musharraf (1998 - 2007) and the country is still suffering.

– Nawaz Sharif could not get along with the then President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and they were both sent home by the military and the country suffered.

– Nawaz Sharif fought with President Farooq Leaghari and the world laughed at us.

– Nawaz Sharif fought with Chief Justice Sajad Ali Shah and rest of the world stopped taking Nawaz Sharif seriously.

Just by looking at the examples listed above, it seems clear that Nawaz Sharif has never gotten along with anyone, and if we can draw anything from Nawaz Sharif’s history, it is this: he won’t get along with anyone in the future as well.

Still, Mr. Zardari invited PML (N) to join hands because the country needed a lot of help getting out of the mess that was left behind Musharraf. But, as soon as Mr. Sharif joined the coalition, he started hinting that his party would leave the government if Ch. Iftikhar was not reinstated.  Leaving aside the pros and cons of bringing back Ch. Iftikhar, Mr. Sharif could have acted like a statesman and after recording his protests and complaints; he should have continued helping the government deal with the colossal challenges about to swallow our country. Sadly, it didn’t happen and Mr. Sharif, once again, decided to use Punjab’s government machinery to topple the federal government. And once again, he has misread the situation and it is pretty safe to assume that if the current system collapsed, Mr. Sharif would be almost entirely responsible for this failure.

It should be mentioned here that there are 10 parties in the parliament and out of these 10, 8 are actively involved in a coalition to run the government, PML (Q) is neutral and PML (N) is the only party that is not in agreement about anything with rest of the 9 political parties in the government. This level of political arrogance exhibited by PML (N) is breathtaking, but sadly, this is what people have come to expect from Mian Nawaz Sharif.

This disqualification by the court provided Mr. Sharif with a rare opportunity in Pakistani politics and instead of hitting it hard and high for a massive six, Sharif has started running for a run that is not there and he clearly runs the risk of being run out. Sharif could have established a superb precedent in Pakistan by disagreeing, but accepting the court’s decision in the larger interest of the country, and this generous gesture would have earned him tremendous support, but just like his past, Mr. Sharif has once again, squandered a great opportunity to serve his country.

Bilal Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: The chief of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will visit Pakistan next week to discuss the probe

into last year’s Mumbai terrorist attacks, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Thursday. “We understand that they have helped

India in their ongoing investigations and we hope they will assist us by way of providing any further information or

intelligence they may have,” FO spokesman Abdul Basit said during the weekly briefing. To a question he said FBI chief

Robert Mueller would arrive in Islamabad on March 4. Sources familiar with the plans told Daily Times a team of senior FBI

officials would accompany Mueller and interrogate the six suspects held by Pakistan. Basit said Pakistan was still waiting

for India’s response to its questions regarding the Mumbai attacks. “Pakistan is also looking forward to the restoration of peace process and dialogue between the two countries. We hope that this will be sooner rather than later.” The Supreme Court verdict disqualifying the Sharif brothers was

Pakistan’s internal matter, the spokesman said, adding he had not seen any international reaction on the event except from

Washington. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Nawabzada Malik Amad Khan will lead the Pakistani delegation to the 31st

session of the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting in Colombo on February 27 and 28, the spokesman said. sajjad malik
Daily Times (Pakistan)

The PMLN’s policy of not recognising the “PCO Supreme Court” anticipated its decision to reject the verdict the Supreme Court reached Wednesday to disqualify the Sharif brothers. The deposed chief justice, Mr Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was able to say in Dera Ghazi Khan that “the Court forfeits its legitimacy by issuing verdicts that are against the Constitution”, clearly referring to the stance of the lawyers’ movement that the judiciary after November 2, 2009 was unconstitutional.

Opinion in Punjab is overwhelmingly against the verdict. Apart from the loaded anti-PPP situation, there are steady signs of uncertainty within the ruling coalition. The ANP leader, Asfandyar Wali, is categorical in opposing the decision; the JUI’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman grieves over it but resorts to the ploy of bemoaning the two mainstream parties’ legacy of bickering and taking revenge against each other. The school of thought that focuses on the old pattern of rivalry is led by ex-PMLQ Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

There is quibbling over Governor’s Rule. Even professional opinion is divided. Some say that emergency was wrongly imposed. They say the Governor could not disallow the convening of the Punjab Assembly. Others disagree. The debate will go on. On the streets, the PMLN is rallying its supporters to stage demonstrations. Others like the Jama’at-e Islami are declaring how their cadres will swoop down on Islamabad from the various corners of the country. But all that is still a fortnight in the future.

Meanwhile, the stock exchange in Karachi has plummeted, a reflex that routinely deprives a lot of people of their investments. Investors from the UK are cutting their losses and pulling out. The country is on the boil. The world outside sees it embarked on “a trajectory of failure”. The US says it can’t comment on Pakistan’s internal developments, but in Washington most people are scared of where the country might go from here. Al Qaeda has got the Taliban of all stripes to announce renunciation of war against the Pakistan Army in order to focus on the US and its two allies in the region, Hamid Karzai and Asif Zardari.

This time around, the PMLN and the PPP have chosen to square off during a most dangerous regional and global moment. The economy is demanding solutions that the population of Pakistan is not happy with. Islamabad needs flexibility of response and pragmatism as never before, but the politicians are refusing to give each other any ground. The two parties are going for the kill. As in the past, they might both come a cropper. This time, however, there is real danger that the state they are trampling upon in the process may join the failed ranks of Somalia, Sudan, Congo and Zimbabwe. *
Daily Times (Pakistan)

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s foreign minister said Wednesday that his country has asked the United States to provide unmanned planes that would allow Pakistan to strike extremists hiding in rugged terrain along the Afghan border.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in an Associated Press interview with reporters and editors that Pakistan, and not the United States, should control the missile strikes that have killed high-level extremists but also civilians.

The US missile strikes, he said, are alienating the Pakistani people and making it harder for his government to persuade locals to support the fight against militants.

‘We feel that if the technology is transferred to Pakistan, Pakistan will be in a better position to determine how to use the technology and, without alienating people, achieve the objective,’ he said.

‘Pakistan is a willing partner with the US in this fight,’ he said. ‘Let us exercise that judgment.’

The US missiles are fired from drones believed launched from neighboring Afghanistan. The strikes are one of the most sensitive issues in US-Pakistan ties.

Qureshi said the matter was raised Tuesday in a meeting with President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, retired Gen. James Jones. He would not provide specific details; ‘we are talking at this stage,’ he said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs would not comment on Qureshi’s comments Wednesday.

Qureshi also said the Obama White House is more ‘willing to listen’ to Pakistan than the Bush administration.

The Bush administration initially was a strong supporter of the current Pakistani government’s predecessor, former President Pervez Musharraf, calling the former general ‘indispensable.’ Musharraf took power in a bloodless 1999 coup but was swept from power in democratic elections by the current government.

The Bush administration, Qureshi said, ‘had a point of view, and it was like the approach was, ‘this is it; take it or leave it.’’

He called the Obama administration’s approach ‘more understanding and more endearing.’

Qureshi and Pakistan’s army chief are in Washington to participate, along with Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Rangeen Spanta, in the Obama administration’s efforts to draw up a new strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Qureshi and Spanta were scheduled to have dinner Wednesday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the United States wants ‘this review to be as inclusive as possible. The White House is reaching out to everybody with a stake in this.’

‘It won’t just be window dressing: take a look at our plan and sign off on it when it’s already virtually completed,’ he said. ‘We are all collectively in this, and we need as much advice and buy-in as possible for this to be a succeed.’

On the Obama administration’s drone strikes, Qureshi called for Pakistan and the United States to ‘reassess the advantages and disadvantages, and, if the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, there is a case to review this strategy.’
Dawn (Pakistan)

WASHINGTON: The US on Tuesday pledged close strategic consultations with Pakistan on plans for the high-stakes region along the Pak-Afghan border.

The pledge came after a meeting between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi at the State Department – marking the formal start of a three-way American policy review that also includes Afghanistan. Pakistani, Afghan and US diplomats will continue review discussions over Wednesday and Thursday as part of the US policy review for South Asian.

Appearing jointly with the top US diplomat after discussions, Qureshi assured the Obama administration of Islamabad’s determination to fight terrorism and extremism.

“I was very pleased to welcome the (foreign) minister and his delegation here to the State Department. As you know, we are consulting very closely with the government of Pakistan on our strategic review of our way forward,” said Hillary.

“And there is a very open and fully consultative process which we will be working on, and many of these issues will be discussed among us,” she said when asked if the deployment of additional 17,000 troops in Afghanistan would push the Taliban further into Pakistan. Hillary thanked Qureshi for his ‘counsel and advice’ and looked forward to further exchange of views this week.

Qureshi described his meeting with Hillary as ‘excellent’.

Convergence: “There’s a convergence between us, there’s a willingness to work together, and I see a lot of hope in the new US administration, the new leadership. And Pakistan is willing to work with the American administration to fight extremism and terrorism. We are determined to defeat terrorism,” said Qureshi.

Earlier, the foreign minister also met Senator John Kerry – chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Drones: In an interview with the AP news agency, Qureshi said the US should provide drones to Pakistan to target the Taliban in the rugged terrain along the Afghan border. agencies
Daily Times (Pakistan)

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is on a rapid trajectory to failure as a stable, democratic state and needs a boost of $4 billion in US aid and loans each year to begin turning around, a private foreign affairs group has concluded.

“Time is running out,” said the Atlantic Council, which urged more training and deployment of 15,000 Pakistani police within six months to bring order to the country.

Chance: “Given the tools and the financing, Pakistan can turn back from the brink,” the report said. “But for that to happen, it needs help now.”

The Pakistan government has six to 12 months to implement economic and security policies, or “face the very real prospect of considerable domestic and political turbulence”, said the report.

The US has given Pakistan about $12.3 billion in military and economic aid. The US Government Accountability Office says the US lacks a coordinated strategy in disbursing the aid and warns that Al Qaeda ‘continues to operate freely in Pakistan’s un-policed Tribal Areas’.

Vice President Joe Biden, former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Senator Richard Lugar, the panel’s senior Republican, proposed last summer authorising $7.5 billion over five years in non-military aid for Pakistan. Similar legislation sponsored by Lugar and the new committee chairman, Democratic Senator John Kerry, is expected this year.

Kerry and Republican former Sen Chuck Hagel are the Atlantic Council’s honorary chairmen. Hagel, having left the Senate, is now council chairman.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, began a policy review this week with senior officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Here for the talks, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Wednesday he was pleased with moves to increase US assistance to his country. “We need economic stability,” said Qureshi in an interview with The Associated Press. “Until we have economic stability we will not be able to get political stability.” He would not put a price tag on Pakistan’s needs.

The report itself said it was sounding an alarm “that we are running out of time to help Pakistan change its present course toward increasing economic and political instability, and even ultimate failure”. The situation has grown even more urgent, it said, with the November terror attacks in Mumbai. The report urged Pakistan to show it is serious in pursuing the perpetrators and other terrorists and terror organisations.

“The Mumbai crisis has yet to run its course,” said the report. “The use of military force or other coercive action must be avoided.”

Another concern in the report is that Pakistan might feel forced to enter negotiations with the Taliban and other insurgent groups and ‘grant further freedom of movement to insurgents’.

The report warned that Al Qaeda and other radical groups could be emboldened “with frightening consequences for vulnerable targets in Britain, Europe and even the United States”. Compared with the hundreds of billions of dollars poured into Iraq and the many billions into Afghanistan, aid to Pakistan has been ‘relatively miserly’, said the report. And the stakes in Pakistan are far larger and more important to long-term US interests, the report said.
Daily Times (Pakistan)

Recently, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gillani lauded the role Sufi Islam could play in keeping the society away from religious extremism. Lest we consider this a personal bias, since he represents the Sufi tradition himself, similar sentiments were expressed by others as well. One such example is the 2007 RAND Corporation paper, Building Moderate Muslim Networks, which identifies Sufi Islam as one of the potential forces within an Islamic society that must be strengthened to fight the rising intolerance, extremism, and violence in Muslim societies. Although the RAND report pertained to the Middle East, it could be equally applied to Pakistan, which suffers from a high risk of religious conservatism often bordering on extremism.

Pakistan, in fact, makes an interesting case study for the battle between Sufi Islam and the much more rabid Salafi Islam for two obvious reasons. First, it is a country with equally dominant traditions and institutions of Sufi Islam that were critical in spreading the religion in the Indian Subcontinent. For that reason, many argue that Punjab, especially southern Punjab, which has drawn international attention particularly after the Mumbai attacks, cannot fall to Salafi Islam because it is a hub of Sufi – or what is popularly known as Barelvi – Islam. The wife of Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Farahnaz Isphani, expressed such views a few months ago in a CNN interview. Second, unlike Turkey, where Sufi institutions were throttled by Kamal Attaturk, or Saudi Arabia, where the state shut down similar institutions to accommodate Salafi Islam, Sufi traditions have continued to thrive in Pakistan.

This raises the question about the viability of Sufi Islam to push back the forces of religious fundamentalism and extremism. Will Sufi Islam ultimately win the battle against Salafi Islam? More importantly, how has Salafi Islam managed to build inroads in areas once considered to be strongholds of Sufi Islam? The prime minister’s own home town Multan and all of southern Punjab have fallen pray to militancy and extremism. So, what is it that has pushed people away from the traditional patterns of faith?

For some scholars of Islam, especially those from the West such as Carl W. Ernst, Sufi Islam is a powerful force. In Pakistan’s society and politics, Sufi Islam represented by the shrines and pirs has always played a critical role. In fact, successive governments including that of Ayub Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Ziaul Haq representing different political traditions wooed the pirs or sajjada nasheens. There are many who believe that the rise in extremism is not a reflection on the waning strength of Sufi Islam because a majority of the people continue to owe allegiance to pirs. Quantitatively, Sufi Islam remains part of the popular religious tradition or a religion of the masses. Go to any shrine and you will observe hundreds and thousands of people, mainly the poor and destitute, congregating around the shrine and seeking forgiveness and a passport to heaven stamped by the living saint or pir.

It is precisely in these areas that Wahabism and Deobandi Islam seems to spread slowly but gradually. In fact, southern Punjab, once considered a hub of Sufi Islam, is a region lately making waves in terms of growing militancy. This is not to argue that the influence of pirs has reduced, but that there is a certain vacuum which is now being filled by a more rabid brand of Islam.

The reason for such developments pertains to the various complex socio-political and socioeconomic developments which have changed the face of the society. First, successive governments systematically tried to tailor institutions of Sufi Islam according to their own political needs. According to the scholar of Sufi Islam, Katherine Ewing, General Ayub Khan viewed the pirs and shrines as an impediment to his agenda of modernizing Pakistan and thus tried to control their growth and behavior by establishing alternative institutions such as the Auqaf. The ministry was meant not only to regulate the shrines and bring them under state control, but also use the opportunity to reduce the influence of the pirs and sajjada nasheens.

This objective, however, could not be achieved, as the control of the shrine did not minimize the influence of the pir who was considered by the people as the key interlocutor between them and God.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who followed Ayub Khan, did not directly challenge Sufi Islam as it was the popular religion followed by the masses. However, he continued with the Auqaf with the intent of regulating the influence of the pirs, some of whom were considered as political rivals. The pirs and shrines were so important as part of the indigenous religious tradition that despite the fact that Ziaul Haq subscribed to Salafi Islam, he could not demolish the influence of the pirs. However, the politics of successive governments further co-opted pirs in power politics.

Second, the decade of the 1980s was a major catalyst in providing new direction to traditional and conservative cultures. For instance, the call to jihad to free Afghanistan from Soviet invasion attracted a lot of people from southern Punjab. This influence was predated by the impact of southern Punjabis who had migrated to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries to work. These people brought Deobandi and Wahabi influences back with them.

Third, part of the process of the co-option of pirs by the state was the increase in their political power. Traditionally, the rulers cultivated the pirs through award of land and similar rewards. So, the pirs were effectively also major landowners of their area. Gradually, the pirs of their families began to take part in state politics as well, hence, becoming part of the hegemonic order in their areas. A pir was not just a spiritual leader, but also a major economic and political stakeholder.

Greater power not only enhanced the greed for more power but also resulted in corruption of the Sufi order. The spiritual control of people was used to manipulate the public in order to maintain political and economic power. Thus characters such as Pir Pagara used their following to build their political strength, which, in turn, was used to manipulate the state and gain greater personal dividends. The manipulation worked both ways. For instance, Ziaul Haq installed his hand picked man as the sajjada nasheen of the shrine of Bari Imam to influence the followers. The original family of pirs was thrown out and a new pir installed who was under greater control of the military dictator. Moreover, since, even powerful political people visited the shrines, these turned into places where important negotiations were carried out with the pirs acting as interlocutors. Senior bureaucrats and government officials would visit pirs who were frequented by top political leaders. The pir of Golra Sharif is one such example.

While the pirs became part of a hegemonic order that concentrated power in the hands of a few, a new class began to emerge which can be termed as the new capital. The trader-merchants in the rural areas, in particular, who represent the middle class, have the money but not the political capital. Their anxiety to gain political power emanates from the fact that the political system has no space to renegotiate power. This class then is critical in supporting and aiding the Wahabi and Deobandi forces through funding madrassahs and militancy. Contrary to the view that religious seminaries were always part of the local tradition, the new generation of madrassahs that are critical in encouraging militancy are a new phenomenon. Most of these began to grow under Ziaul Haq’s reign and were initially known for fanning sectarian hatred that then evolved into encouraging extremist values.

The madrassahs and militant outfits attracted pockets of lower class and politically and economically dispossessed people who did not have a future due to the hegemonic system. Since the pirs were also the hegemons, the Wahabi and Deobandi clerics could not only build a case against them, but also against Sufi Islam. 

Hence, purely in qualitative terms, Wahabi and Deobandi Islam appear an alternative to the dispossessed, especially the youth. While the educated ones amongst the younger lot of the population see Salafi Islam as a way of challenging the hegemonic order, though unconsciously, others are attracted to this brand of Islam due to the sense of empowerment it provides and its comparative modernity. In a hegemonic system where access to God is based on the whims of an individual, Salafi Islam appears attractive to many, as it does not pose such conditions. The path to God and spiritualism also means that people can only get access through the pir, which in turn means negotiating through the cronies or khalifas (religious assistants) of the pir. This is certainly an arduous task as compared to what Salafi Islam offers – the route to God and forgiveness can be obtained through martyrdom. Further, martyrs contribute to transforming the future of other Muslims, which ensures that they would be rewarded in the next life.
In addition, the martyr would earn greater rewards such as 70 hooris, a crown of gold and jewels, and the ability to seek forgiveness for seventy other people. Interestingly, the visualization of jihad is about freeing helpless Muslim women from brutal un-Islamic governments.

Furthermore, Salafi Islam appears much more modern in outlook. For instance, the militant outfits use published literature, CDs, and DVDs to disseminate their message. The pirs on the other hand depend on word of mouth and traditions to attract people. In any case, the pirs and sajjada nasheens are limited in their capacity to reach out to people. While they seek offerings from the disciples, they hardly use modern techniques to reach out to the people.

Sufi Islam certainly has a lot of potential in stemming the tide of extremism in the country. It is also a much more tolerant and secular form of religion that reaches out to all sorts of people irrespective of their caste, creed, ethnicity, colour, or race. However, the fulfillment of this potential is another matter. In the coming decade, more and more people will continue to drift towards Salafi Islam due to a lack of options.
Dawn (Pakistan)

The US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Mr Richard Holbrooke, has told a meeting in Washington that the “militants involved in 9/11, the Mumbai attacks and unrest in Swat have common roots” and that “the US was troubled and confused about the development in the Swat valley”. Some other reports appearing in the press on Friday implied that Mr Holbrooke was “not sure if the Pakistan military and the ISI backed President Zardari’s commitment to eradicate terrorist sanctuaries from the NWFP”.

In Pakistan, most TV channels have expressed anger at the American reaction of scepticism over the latest accord reached between the TNSM’s Sufi Muhammad and the NWFP government, accusing the western media of interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs. Reaction to Mr Holbrooke’s observations may be expected to be on the same lines, but what one may ignore while blasting Mr Holbrooke is fair comment on Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terrorism, which binds it to other nations trying to defend themselves collectively against it. And in this context, the truth of the matter is that the Swat accord has not satisfied many even inside Pakistan although the ANP has been generally supported in its effort to find a solution to the Swat situation in the face of the failure of the purely military operations there.

External scepticism about “peace accords” reached inside Pakistan’s tribal areas has evolved over a period of time as the accords were violated by the terrorists, confirming the internationally held view that you can’t negotiate with terrorists from a position of weakness. Any temporary improvement of the situation may persuade the terrorists to come to the negotiating table but only for gaining time to regroup and strike again. Some of the negative reaction to the Swat accord inside Pakistan is also based on this experience. As for Mr Holbrooke’s reported opinion that the military in Pakistan may be unwilling to back President Zardari’s approach to terrorism, it seems that, while the president and the army may be marching more or less in lockstep, the ANP government has often expressed doubt about the will of the army to fight terrorism.

It is, in fact, in the realm of “threat perception” that there are persistent differences between the Pakistani military and the international community. Mr Holbrooke has expressed the general western view that “militants involved in 9/11, the Mumbai attacks and unrest in Swat have common roots”. The world is focused on the likely presence of Al Qaeda leadership inside Pakistan. Of course, we cannot deny that Al Qaeda cadres are based in our tribal areas and are frequently killed by drone attacks. But it doesn’t matter if Pakistan repeatedly says that the drone attacks kill only local people. The fact is that Pakistan doesn’t feel, or has chosen to rationalise, the threat it should actually feel from Al Qaeda.

For the world outside, Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban and the Afghan Taliban are coextensive and work in tandem. There is a fourth element too, that of the non-Pashtun Punjabi militants who once worked under Al Qaeda when the latter was fighting the Soviet Union and was loved all over the world. The Pakistan army, and most politicians, do not see these elements as having sprung from the same root. Policy articulations, whenever they have come from the various state functionaries, separate Al Qaeda from the Taliban. The former are elements ousted from Afghanistan “who will return to their homeland after the Americans are gone from there”. Al Qaeda is a global entity which has to be fought by “resolving issues that constitute an injustice to the global Muslim community”. Pakistan divides the Taliban and identifies the Pakistani Taliban as elements that have arisen in sympathy for their Afghan brethren or have been alienated by collateral damage. Finally, the Pakistani national security establishment links its
threat perception to a serious Indian presence in Afghanistan and thus subordinates all its policies against terrorism to the Indian factor. The mainstream political parties had tried to change this threat perception in their Charter of Democracy but have beaten a retreat from it after the Mumbai attacks and the reactive upsurge of Pakistan’s India-driven nationalism. *

Daily Times (Lahore)

PESHAWAR: A curfew was imposed in Dera Ismail Khan on Friday and the army called in to quell riots immediately after a suicide bomber killed at least 30 Shias and injured another 157 who were attending a funeral in southern Dera Ismail Khan district, police and locals told Daily Times.

Witnesses said police ‘ran off’ when gunfire broke out after the blast at the funeral of Shia leader Sher Zaman – who was gunned down a day earlier.

The district administration imposed a curfew following the attack, and the city was given under the control of the military – which, according to locals, managed to bring the situation under control.

A police official from DI Khan said the bomber blew himself up near Shobra Hotel, close to Bannu Road, at around 10:05am, killing 30 people immediately. Of the 157 injured, five were in critical condition, Dr Ashiq Saleem, the Dera Civil Hospital medical superintendent, told Daily Times over the telephone.

Riots broke out in the city following the attack, and police confirmed that two people were killed in the firing that followed the blast.

AP quoted the local police station chief as saying, “The head and a foot of the suicide bomber have been found … the bomber appeared to be 20 years old.”

The official in charge of the bomb disposal squad told reporters that at least 14 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the attack, and the “suicide bomber was sporting a crew cut and light beard”.

NWFP police chief Malik Naveed Khan has formed a task force to investigate the attack, and file a report in 10 days.

According to the APP news agency, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Punjab Governor Slamaan Taseer have condemned the attack.

NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain also condemned the attack. The chief minister has announced compensation for the families of victims.

Meanwhile, police said they had arrested three of the four people suspected of killing Sher Zaman.
Daily Times (Lahore)