Suicide Bomber Kills 58 outside Munitions Plant;
Zardari Candidate for President
The Tehrik-i Taliban responded to Pakistani military operations against it at Bajaur by sending a suicide bomber to attack workers leaving a munitions factory. Some 57 are dead and 70 wounded.
The Pakistan People's Party, the largest party in parliament, has reportedly decided to seek to get its de facto leader, Asaf Ali Zardari, elected as the new president. Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto, might be able to count on a sympathy vote in parliament.
Although the wrangling over who will be president is being reported in the US press as a crisis, I don't see it that way. It is, rather, an ordinary political process in which eventually there will be a winner who will garner enough votes to be elected. No one is brandishing a gun over all this to my knowledge. You might as well call the current presidential campaign in the US to determine who will succeed George W. Bush a crisis. There is an interim president,and if the process takes a while, it will just give the prime minister a chance to garner more executive power, which would be all to the good. In the aftermath, I hope that the special prerogatives of the presidency, rooted in martial law amendments of the 1980s, can finally be gotten rid of.
Aljazeera English has video on the process:
posted by Juan Cole @ 8/21/2008 08:45:00 AM
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Mr Hamid (in Islamabad) mentions in the video here possible fractures between the agendas of the ISI, the Army, and the political ranks--not to comment on the fracture of the people's interest from the political will (as exemplified in the comments of a woman on the street: 'Pakistan is ruled by a few families...').
Granted that the politics of the US are also dominated by a few, well-moneyed interests, and allowing that the foreign policy agenda of the US is dominated by interests divergent from the political will of the people (see: Iraq attack, see: War on Terror). The fact remains that the nationalists in Pakistan foment radicalism inside and outside of their border.
Hamid goes on to mention a 'hit-list' now in circulation wherein a new generation of 'soft' targets are named by radicals of the ilk who killed Bhutto. My question from all this: How is this not a potential crisis?
Certainly I want to be clear that I am trying to get at the situation of how the leadership Pakistan effectively meets its people's needs. I am not trying to tell if the new government will be more or less responsive to the needs of the Washington oligarchs. Clearly they can speak for themselves (see: Fox News/CNN, see: Fawning Corporate Media).
To what extent does the turmoil in the leadership of Pakistan clear the way for 'adventurists' in the ISI and elsewhere to foment violence in Afghanistan and in Kashmir (leave aside all talk of internal political violence)?
Dr. Cole I am glad that you pointed this out. I too have noticed that the US media is hyping the political situation in Pakistan as a huge crisis. Anyone familiar with the history would see it as normal.
Compare this to the Media's non-chalant attitude towards (say) Zimbabwe where the two opposing political parties have been deadlocked for months and supporters of one have been killing and terrorizing the other. May be because US has no stake there ?!
But yes the security condition in Pakistan is a big issue and something to worry about. Its sad to see that people can be so misguided that they are willing to end their own lives and those of innocent civilians. It takes only 1 or 2 to terrorize a whole population. The suicide bombing culture is so foreign to Pakistan until recently yet now we see daily occurance somewhere. My prayers go out to the people who are already dealing with enormous inflation, tanking economy, rise in commodity prices and daily power cuts (sometimes as long as 8 hours a day).
The PPP doesn't want to reinstate Chaudry ... so it seems to me that the PPP is happy to benefit from the political will which resulted in Musharraf's stepping down, but wants to stiff arm that same political will.
Am I wrong? If not, it appears to me that the crisis continues, whether or not Zardari becomes President. The primary crisis being whether Pakistan will be ruled by the rule of man or the rule of law.
The American didn't add much to the conversation. Just typical American TV bloviating without any analysis.
Although made prior to Musharraf's resignation, here is an illuminating interview with Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban, Jihad, and Descent into Chaos, regarding recent developments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Taliban, and Al-Qaeda.
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