Changing Economic Landscape

By Amir Zia
The News
Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The dream of South Asia's economic integration appeared dazzling. The potential of boosting Pakistan-India trade and economic relations seemed immense. However, given the present level of distrust between the two South Asian nuclear-armed nations, the target of their transformation from rivals to collaborators for peace and prosperity sounded too ambitious and difficult. But it made perfect sense. Yes, the common hopes, dreams and aspirations of the peoples of these two estranged countries remained the moving spirit behind the two-day Indo-Pakistani Business Meet in New Delhi on May 18-19.

This first of its kind, the Meet, organised by the Jang Group of Pakistan and The Times of India Group, attracted some of the stalwarts of the business and corporate world from India and Pakistan.

N R Narayana Murthy, chairman and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies Ltd, Brijmohan Lall Munja, chairman of Hero Honda Motors Ltd, and Som Mittal, president of NASSCOM, were among some of the stars from the Indian side. The Pakistani delegates included heavyweights like Dr Shahid Javed Burki, former vice president of the World Bank, Dr Ishrat Hussain, former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Asad Umar, president and CEO of Engro Corp, and Humayun Bashir, country general manager of IBM Pakistan.

The Business Meet, titled "Partners for Peace and Progress," was organised under the banner of the Aman Ki Asha initiative launched by the two media groups earlier this year.

The gist of the messages by almost all speakers was the importance of building bridges, which eventually would contribute to the resolution of the core and contentious political issues between the two neighbours. And, certainly, the warmth and goodwill expressed by the speakers was touching–right from the inaugural session in which Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee addressed the Pakistani participants as "brothers and sisters," underlining the need and importance of boosting economic ties between the two nations. Not long ago, in the aftermath of November 2008 terror attack on Mumbai, Mukherjee was spearheading the hard-line anti-Pakistan drive as foreign minister.

"Mr Mukherjee's speech was music to my ears," said a Pakistani businessman. "It is a good omen for Pakistan-India relations." The Times of India said that India and Pakistan's top businesspeople saw a gentler, softer avatar of Mukherjee.

The tone and tenor set in the inaugural session carried through in the rest of the five sessions. Some of the grand plans discussed were:

-Development of a South Asian energy grid.

-Building of a South Asian multi-modal transport corridor linking Central Asia to Southeast Asia, connecting all South Asian economies to one another.

-Leveraging of India's capital markets and private-sector-led global footprint for the rest of South Asia.

-Liberalisation of key service sectors, including education, health and information technology.

The regional energy grid has been conceived as an integrated electricity network that allows cross-border trade in electricity, as well as oil and gas pipelines running through South Asia. Pakistan's cooperation is critical to such a massive project as it would serve as the transit country linking Central Asian oil and gas resources and Tajik and Afghan hydropower to the rest of South Asia.

The joint declaration of the Business Meet expressed a resolve to aggressively pursue cooperation in six key sectors, including textile, agriculture and energy. It also called for removal of restrictions on up-linking from India to Pakistan, opening up of news channels in the two countries and easing of visa restrictions. The Meet noted with concern that South Asia remains the world's least economically-integrated region and urged the two governments to take necessary steps to realise the tremendous potential of trade and commerce of these countries.

Enhanced regional trade means low freight costs and cheaper raw materials and value-added goods. Already, the legal trade between India and Pakistan peaked to $2.23 billion in fiscal 2007-08 as a result of the slightly improved ties at that time, from a meagre $251 million in 2000-01. However, it fell by around 19 per cent following the Mumbai attack. Unofficial trade, which includes both smuggling and business via third countries, is estimated to be much more.

According to Dr Burki's futuristic scenario, improved trade between South Asian neighbours would help increase India's GDP to $5,551 billion by 2025, from the $1,177 billion in 2007, while Pakistan's GDP rise to $571 billion, from $143 billion.

However, while painting this rosy picture, one should not forget the existing harsh realities of Indo-Pakistani relations, which are marred by lack of trust and deep-rooted hostility--a hostility which is also shared by a vast number of people. The shared history and values of the two countries are undoubtedly longer than their divided past, but the well-nurtured animosity of more than six decades remains an overhang. It makes realisation of the dream of South Asia's economic integration a challenging and arduous task. A single terror strike has the potential to derail years of gains. Haven't we seen this happening so many times? The two governments and the peace lobbies in them should not allow Indo-Pakistan relations to be held hostage by fanatics and extremists, who could again try to disrupt peace. Pakistan and India should also be partners in fighting the scourge of extremism.

Then, there is the question of addressing the core issue–the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, which should not be seen as an ignored or forgotten issue. There is certainly an approach that an improvement in economic, cultural and people-to-people ties would facilitate the resolution of this thorny issue–in line with the aspirations and democratic right of the people of Kashmir. Undoubtedly, there are stumbling blocks at every corner in this long journey towards peace, but at least a step–a small and important step–has been taken under the initiative of Aman ki Asha. This needs to be backed and supported by more such efforts. The trade and businesspeople certainly have the power and resources to play a historic role in efforts to bring peace and change the economic landscape of South Asia.

The Battle for Karachi

By Amir Zia
Newsline -- Feb. 2010

It was not just a simple boy-meets-girl love story with a tragic ending. It had a twist. The two lovers were already married – just not to each other. The very fact that they belonged to different ethnic backgrounds and lived in a Karachi neighbourhood where ethnic and political tensions ran high, made their love saga even more complicated. Muhammad Amir, who was in his early 30s and a father of two children, belonged to an Urdu-speaking family, while Zainab was a Baloch whose husband worked in Dubai.

Despite repeated warnings from family and some of Zainab’s neighbours, the two continued their taboo relationship. On January 4, Amir was kidnapped. Two days later, his beheaded body was found in Lyari’s Kalakot area and several hours later the head located in Chakiwara, another part of Lyari.

Amir was an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). This association added another grim twist to the tale. A case of an otherwise routine, but controversial, ‘honour’ killing, exploded into a spree of tit-for-tat targeted murders between militants of rival ethnic groups. Stopping this violence proved beyond the powers of the police as these militants were supporters of the two major parties of the ruling coalition – the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the MQM. Police say that at least 24 people were killed in four days of violence. Tensions ran high not just in parts of Karachi’s District South, but also in some areas of its adjacent District West – highlighting again not just the deep political and ethnic divides in Pakistan’s business and industrial capital, but also underlining the muscle power of the armed groups and the sordid relation between crime and politics.

“Criminalisation of politics and politicisation of crime is the biggest problem in Karachi,” says a former IG police, requesting anonymity, who served in Sindh in various important positions for several years. “All the major political parties have criminals in their ranks and they are protected and patronised by politicians.”

The Amir-Zainab love saga indeed sparked the violence, but any other issue could have pit rival bands of militants against each other. The innate germs of political and ethnic rivalry and the clash of economic interests, coupled with rampant poverty and crime, provide the basis for such a showdown.

As the police try to trace the killers of Amir and locate Zainab, their story remains nothing more than a minor footnote in the brewing conflict among different political players and crime syndicates operating in Karachi.

“Crime and politics are so interwoven and the relationship among various stakeholders is so complex that breaking away from the present scheme of things appears impossible for any government,” says the former IG. “Many of those in power have a tainted past and a history of supporting and cultivating criminals and their gangs.”

For many security experts, Karachi, with all its ethnic, political and sectarian problems and crime mafias, is like a bubbling volcano all set to explode. The glimpses of the seething lava were seen as recently as December 28, 2009, when angry bands of youngsters went on a rampage, burning and looting more than 6,000 shops following the bombing of the Muharram procession. Top police officials say it was a “natural reaction” by participants of the mourning procession. (For details see CCPO Karachi’s interview in the box).

In the past, too, Karachi has suffered from widespread violence and terrorism scores of times in which politics, ethnicity, sectarianism and crime played a major role.

As the city was limping back to normalcy following the December 28 incident, a fresh bout of violence erupted among rival political activists. According to police data, more than 75 people were killed in the first 10 days of January alone – mostly political workers belonging to different parties. Many private scores were also settled in the killing spree, forcing the federal government to intervene to help calm the situation.

Top PPP and MQM leaders, nudged by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, managed to impose a truce on the streets. But the undercurrents of rivalry and bitterness among the workers and the local leaders of the two groups remain, and are certain to test the unity of the ruling coalition again, in the days to come.

Background interviews with leaders of the two parties expose the fragility of peace –especially in District South – the oldest part of Karachi where rival ethnic groups share neighbourhoods and streets.

The MQM sources hold the Peoples Amn Committee of Lyari responsible for triggering the violence. “This Amn Committee comprises gangsters and criminals – members of the notorious Rehman Dakait’s gang,” says an MQM provincial law-maker, who asked not to be named. “And the problem is that the local chapter of the PPP is held hostage to this gang.”

But in the highly polarised world of Karachi politics, one man’s villain is another other man’s hero. And that is the case with Rehman, who was killed by the police in a controversial encounter in August 2009, triggering massive protests by the people of Lyari – the PPP stronghold in Karachi since the early 1970s. For many Lyari residents, Rehman remains a revered figure – a sort of local Robin Hood.

“No one calls him Dakait here,” says Uzair Ali Baloch, who now heads the peace committee. “They will mind if you call him by this name. He is Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch. He never committed any robbery. The media, the police and the government – all have misguided people about him,” he adds. (Read the story on the Peoples Amn Committee).

The Peoples Amn Committee is not a formal arm of the PPP, but comprises party zealots from Lyari who also remain bitter and angry with many of their elected representatives. This had put the PPP in a dilemma and after the initial reluctance in accepting the group as its own, the Karachi PPP lawmakers have warmed to the committee, which enjoys support on the street as well as muscle power.

“The MQM is responsible for the law and order problem,” says a senior PPP leader, who also requested anonymity. Echoing the sentiment of the Peoples’ Amn Committee, he alleges that the MQM has been trying to change the demography of the area to put a dent in the “PPP fort” of Lyari.

“This tussle is all about MQM’s desire to spread its tentacles to the area where they want to establish a housing society – the amenity land of Gutter Baghicha – and they have already taken over many parks in the adjoining District West where they have settled their own people,” says the PPP leader.

The police say that their hands remain tied because of the political expediency of top government officials.

A crackdown on the criminals of Lyari was halted in the second week of January after PPP’s representative from Karachi in the National Assembly made a hue and cry in parliament. President Zardari himself had to intervene to stop the operation, leaving Interior Minister Rehman Malik red-faced as he was the main target of criticism from his own party members.

According to senior police officials, criminals and militants are not a problem restricted to Lyari alone. “Do you think we can search any of the sector offices of the MQM? We were never given a free hand,” complains one senior police official.

Security officials say that the nexus between politics and crime is an old one in Karachi. Extortionist, kidnappers, drug-peddlers, gun-runners and even petty criminals have managed to find their niche in one political party or the other. All of them are heavily armed and most of them have the connections needed to escape arrest and prosecution.

Other political and religious parties which have heavily-armed bands of militants include the Pakhtun nationalist Awami National Party, the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi), the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, the Sunni Tehreek, and Baloch and Sindhi nationalist groups. All are a source of major headaches for the police.

The influx of both licensed and illegally acquired weapons make the task of the law- enforcement agencies even more difficult in what they describe as one of the most heavily-armed cities of Pakistan.

“When we say weapons it does not just mean pistols or assault rifles…some of these groups have rocket-propelled grenades, rocket launchers and even shoulder-fired missiles,” reports an intelligence official.

However, officially, both the PPP and the MQM deny any links with gangsters or criminals. (See the interviews of MQM leader Farooq Sattar in the magazine and the PPP’s Abdul Qadir Patel online).

Police officials say that the vast squatter settlements and low-income neighbourhoods, especially those which are home to the local and foreign immigrant workers, are the teeming grounds of crime, terrorism and ethnic and sectarian tensions. The neighbourhoods dominated by Urdu-speaking people also have their political, religious and criminal mafias, they add.

But Iqbal Haider, former law minister and a human rights activist, says that criminal gangs also operate with “impunity” in affluent neighbourhoods. “There were dozens of cases of organised gang rapes in Karachi’s Defence and Clifton areas that were brought to our notice. One of the culprits arrested confessed to raping more than 40 women with his aides.”

In one incident, a police mobile van blocked the car of a victim during peak hours on DHA’s 26th street when she was being chased by the kidnappers. “She was kidnapped and raped,” says Haider.

“The hub of the rapists’ activities was a stone throw’s distance from Bilawal House. The perpetuators had criminal and political connections,” Haider maintains. “The building was occupied illegally by politically-connected mafia and some police officials. Police took action against them after the wife of some influential person was raped and we contacted every possible government official concerned with security and law and order. Now, incidents of firing and kidnapping have stopped in that area, which proves that if the authorities want, they can check it.” Haider adds, “No organised crime can exist without administrative support – be it in Lyari or any other part of Pakistan.”

Says a senior police official: one stark example of the involvement of political activists in terrorism and crime can be seen from the fact that more than 100 police officers who took part in the 1990s operations against the MQM were assassinated.

“Such killings stopped after April 2009, after we gave a strict warning to the leaders of that group through powerful government quarters that it won’t be tolerated anymore,” he says. “I told senior government officials that we can no longer take attending the funeral of one officer after another.”

PPP lawmakers also blame militants belonging to their coalition partners for the assassinations of Baloch activists who were campaigning against the utilisation of Gutter Baghicha amenity land for residential purposes. “Even in Lyari, they supported one gang of criminals against the other,” says a PPP leader from Karachi. “Their involvement in crimes can be seen from the fact that MQM workers top the list of the NRO beneficiaries in criminal cases.”

But the MQM strongly denies the charge of its involvement in terrorism or crime and says it has expelled more than 3,500 of its workers to cleanse the party of such elements. (For details see Farooq Sattar’s interview). In 2009, the party says it lost 94 of its workers in targeted killings mostly by criminals in Lyari and militants belonging to the rival Haqiqi faction.

In Lyari and its adjacent areas, MQM workers and supporters were targeted in an organised manner, says an MQM member of the provincial assembly. “We know, and the police knows, that the Peoples Amn Committee, which is in fact the new name of Rehman Dakait’s gang, is behind the killings, violence and crime [in the city]. But the PPP leadership is unable to do anything. In fact, the PPP is now subservient to this gang.”

The MQM claims there is an informal alliance between the peace committee, the ANP and the Haqiqi in an attempt to cut the MQM down to size. “There was even an incident when the beheaded body of one of our workers – Mohammed Mobin Sheikh – was paraded on a donkey cart,” says an MQM MPA.

But MQM’s anger is not just directed against Lyari. “The criminals and terrorists have safe havens in other parts of the city as well. Some Haqiqi terrorists operate from the Sherpao area – a Pakhtun-dominated neighbourhood – adjacent to Landhi. If they are ever chased in their hideouts, it could lead to ethnic violence,” says the MQM MPA. “When we ask the police to take action, they refuse, fearing collateral damage.” Citing another example, he says the two slain attackers of the Sindhi nationalist leader Basheer Qureshi belonged to the Haqiqi faction and carried the passes of an intelligence agency.

But apart from the allegations and counter allegations by the main political players, the fact remains that each side has skeletons in their closets. Lyari, where hundreds of people were killed in the infamous war between the rival gangs of Rehman Dakait and Arshad Pappu, is a symbol of that tussle, but the overlapping of crime and politics is a rampant phenomenon in the entire city.

From cases of kidnapping for ransom – in which not just Taliban militants are involved but also some key leaders of the Sindhi nationalist parties – to the subtly-run extortion racket, criminals have links with activists of one party or the other.

Security officials say it is easy for both criminals and terrorists to remain anonymous in a megalopolis like Karachi. The indifference of city life provides a perfect shelter of anonymity to everyone. The corruption and connivance of the police and the politics of patronage helps the criminal-political mafias to sustain, grow and expand.

“Karachi is like a gold-laying goose,” says a retired police officer. “Every political party likes to get its share of the booty according to its power and strength.”

The problem is magnified with key political players vying to control the city, which provides billions of rupees in donations and through the patronage of legal and illegal businesses. The simple rule of gaining power and influence in the city is that there are no rules of the game. Top PPP and MQM leaders may want to keep their alliance intact to remain in power as well as to provide a semblance of peace and rule of law in the city, but breaking the nexus of crime and politics does not seem to be on their agenda. The citizens of Karachi seem destined to live dangerously from one cycle of killings and violence to another. Powerful mafias of criminals, interests groups and bands of terrorists all have the potential and power to ignite city-wide violence at will. And in these testing times, the law-enforcement agencies continue to be found wanting.

Beyond the Grave

By Amir Zia
Newsline -- Feb. 2010

From gangsters to peace activists, the transformation of Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch alias Dakait and his band of “merry men” is a story fit for a folk tale. And like most protagonists of an action-packed tragedy, Rehman died young. A controversial police encounter in August 2009 ended Rehman’s ambitions of taking a plunge into electoral politics. But in Lyari – a PPP stronghold in Karachi – his name and legacy seem to have survived, at least for the time being.

The Peoples Amn Committee, which Rehman founded in June 2008 following a truce with his rival, Arshad Pappu, helped end the protracted Lyari gang war, which claimed more than 300 lives during the last couple of years of the former PML-Q-led government in Sindh. But after the February 2008 general elections, the formation of the PPP-led governments both at the centre and Sindh province enabled Rehman and his men to try to change their image. And they really worked hard for this transformation.

The peace committee took off with a bang. Not just Rehman’s gang members, but many disgruntled PPP activists and jobless youngsters flocked under its banner. The committee took upon itself the task of serving the people and doing social work.

Encroachments in the Gabol Park were demolished and its status as a football ground was restored. A small medical centre was established; several places, including some key educational institutions were cleaned and given a face-lift. People were encouraged to donate to local seminaries and educational institutions. In these donations, Rehman himself took the lead.

The peace committee members claim that Rehman even donated some of his family property for the use of the people of the area. From the dreaded Rehman Dakait, who eluded the police for years, he earned himself the honour of being called Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch in no time. Some key PPP leaders and elected representatives acknowledged Rehman’s street and muscle power and started to give him due respect.

“Yes, he was controversial. People dreaded him, but he seemed to be a rising star of Lyari,” says a local PPP leader, requesting anonymity. “He was both a helping hand for the party [PPP] as well as a challenge. Owning him was a problem as was disowning him. Even during the last elections, his support proved a blessing for the PPP candidates in Lyari.”

However, the biggest achievement of Rehman and his men, according to his admirers, was their success in beating crime in Lyari.

“Unlike other parts of Karachi, you won’t find any mobile phone snatching incident in Lyari or any other street crime,” says Zafar Baloch, a member of the peace committee. “We even managed to ban the sale of heroin and other lethal drugs.”

An old resident of Lyari, who is a member of the PPP, says that street crime – including phone snatching – almost stopped. “As far as drugs are concerned, they are still available, but no longer openly. It is being done in a very discreet manner, which is a big change,” he says.

The committee even proved successful in implementing a ban on aerial firing at weddings, which claims several lives each year. Violators of this ban are slapped with a fine of Rs 200,000 and committee members ensure that it is paid.

The job of fighting crime has become one more bone of contention between the committee and the police, who once enjoyed monetary gains for protecting and abating crime, claim the committee members.

However, for human rights activists like Iqbal Haider, a former PPP leader, some criminals do humanitarian work to win acceptance and support. “It is basically a cover-up. It should not change the reality that they break the law and resort to heinous crimes.”

Waseem Ahmed, CCPO Karachi, says that the killing of Rehman, who carried head money of five million rupees, along with his three accomplices, was a major achievement and underlines the resolve of the police to fight crime. “He was wanted in around 80 criminal cases including murder and kidnappings for ransom.”

However, notwithstanding the police version, thousands of people attended Rehman’s funeral, giving him a hero’s farewell. In the ensuing violence, at least two people were killed and several wounded. Rehman left behind three wives, 15 children and scores of relatives, personal friends and followers.

Thirty-year-old Uzair Ali Baloch, who now heads the Peoples Amn Committee and is also a first cousin of Rehman, alleges that the cases against Rehman were all cooked up. “He did not commit a single robbery or kidnapping. More than a decade ago one of his cousins was murdered. He took his revenge in line with the tribal tradition and that was all. But the police framed him in dozens of cases,” he tells Newsline.

“They [the police] have even framed 19 cases against me,” says Uzair, while holding court in a lawn owned by Rehman’s family in Lyari.

The beautifully landscaped lush-green lawn – also used for weddings – gives an impression that one is in some affluent area of the city. The labyrinth of dusty, narrow, polluted streets does not give a clue that they can also lead to such a well-maintained place.

Uzair says the police first arrested Rehman in 1996, but he managed to escape from the court. And since then, the hide-and-seek with the police continued – till the fateful day when, at least according to many of his followers, he was assassinated by police in cold blood after the arrest. Police, however, deny the charge.

Rehman’s bloody enmity with the Arshad Pappu gang started when the latter kidnapped and killed one of Rehman’s uncles – Uzair’s father. Politicians – especially under the previous government – played off one gang against the other to make a breach in the PPP stronghold, residents of the area allege.

“We have been PPP supporters all along, the Pappu group was backed by the MQM,” says Uzair. Pappu is now in jail. “When the PPP government came…we all were happy. But its representatives here have disappointed us. They did nothing for the people. They were always found wanting. That’s why the committee started its work.”

“These representatives were found missing even when Rangers clamped down in the area, entered houses and misbehaved with women. This crackdown stopped only when we protested and came out on the streets,” Uzair adds.

“There was a time when PPP could pit a donkey from Lyari and he would win the elections. But now we don’t need donkeys…we need lions to represent the people of Lyari,” he says.

In an attempt to regain its popularity, the PPP has announced a development package for Lyari that includes setting up a medical college and a university in the area.But local residents dispute the plan.

Habib Hasan, a former union council nazim, says in a neighbourhood where the drop-out rate from primary schools is around 70%, it is wrong to open a university and medical college especially when the existing Lyari Degree College and the local hospital are just being given a face-lift.

“They should have concentrated on the basics, including school, employment opportunities, water and sanitation…but they don’t know what the people of Lyari want,” says Hasan.

Aslam Baloch, a resident of the area, says Lyari’s population is booming. “While the city is expanding horizontally, in Lyari we expand vertically – by constructing more floors on our small houses, which multiply our problems – from air pollution to a dearth of clean water to the worsening of sewerage and sanitation facilities – you can keep on counting,” he says.

But the most pressing issue for the Amn committee members perhaps remains its rivalry with the MQM, which is sitting on the outer fringes of the PPP stronghold. The popular talk in Lyari remains that the MQM wants to expand its tentacles – a charge MQM leaders deny.

Dozens of supporters belonging both to the MQM and the peace committee have been killed in recent months in tit-for-tat killings, which were halted in the second week of January after President Asif Ali Zardari himself intervened.

But the basis of the truce remains fragile and violence can explode again as there has been little change in the ground realities – from the dispute over the amenity land of Gutter Baghicha to that of re-demarcation of constituencies. Yes, it all boils down to the fact that there is a tussle for power – a turf war. And in this war, like any other, there are no rules of the game – especially when the rule of law has given way to the rule of armed bands, peace committees and militants of rival political parties. The writ of the state has receded and the vacuum is filled by the local tough guys. Welcome to the brave old world of Lyari.

Washington’s tough talk

By Amir Zia
The News -- Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The US frustration over Pakistan’s inability to curb militant activities on its soil and counter the scourge of extremist mindset has spilled again in public. This time, the tough-talk came from none other than US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who, in an interview with CBS, said that Washington warned Islamabad of "severe consequences" if a successful extremist attack in the United States was traced back to Pakistan. In the interview, Clinton’s praise for Pakistan’s recent role in the war on terrorism comes as an after-thought and a balancing act with an uneasy ally, which appears dragging feet on many issues seen crucial by Washington and its western partners in the fight against Al Qaeda and other militant groups inspired by it.

Although Clinton refrained from explaining what the United States meant by those "severe consequences", the tough overtones of her message to Pakistan’s civil and military leadership came through loud and clear, underlining both the complexity and fragility of relationship between the two countries.

The Obama administration, which so far proved more considerate than its predecessor regarding Islamabad’s difficulties in tackling the problem of terrorism and extremism, slightly deviated from its approach by giving a tough public message. While many Pakistani politicians, analysts and commentators are likely to see Clinton’s statement as yet another opportunity to fan anti-US hysteria in the country and discuss myriad conspiracy theories, there has been hardly any serious soul-searching regarding the fact that why most global and regional acts of terror have their tentacles in Pakistan. Why does Pakistan attract fanatics and extremists of all shades and colours from across the globe? Why does it remain a fertile breeding ground for the local militant and extremist groups?

Faisal Shahzad, belonging to an educated and affluent family, is the latest, but definitely not the last, addition to the long and expanding list of Pakistani extremists -- going international. And even before the US secretary of state appeared on CBS, many Pakistani political pundits started calling this arrest as yet another "American conspiracy" against the Islamic Republic. The fact that this educated gentleman tried to explode a bomb in the heart of New York was conveniently forgotten and so was the information that he was trained to do so in the lawless tribal region of Pakistan.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi seemed to brush aside the attempted terror assault by saying that it was a reaction to drone attacks on Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the tribal region – a fait accompli. His statement seems to provide justification more on behalf of the Taliban’s actions rather than express Pakistan’s determination to tackle the problem. A couple of days later Qureshi seems to calm his agitated nerves by saying that Faisal is not a Pakistani national, but a naturalised American citizen. As if this fact would help end Pakistan’s responsibility. Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, despite being on the forefront in the war on terrorism, in its initial reaction appeared in self-denial regarding Faisal’s suspected links with the Pakistani terror network. Inter-Services Public Relations’ Director General Major-General Athar Abbas said that it was premature to say that Faisal, son of a retired high-ranking air force official, had any connection with extremists operating in Pakistan.

This casual approach and off-the-cuff statements of civil and military officials are not going to help Pakistan ward off the tremendous pressure by the world and regional powers, which are singling it out for being the hub of terrorist and extremist forces. The world justifiably wants Pakistan to establish the writ of state on its territory. That means putting an end to the private militias, self-styled religious militant groups, their ideological mentors, financiers and abettors. Certainly, the task is easier said than done if one keeps in mind the past role of the state and its western allies, who helped create these very monsters they are being forced to fight now.

The Pakistani state failed to establish its writ on vast stretches of its territory, allowing them to stay lawless, ungoverned and backward. The task of establishing the writ became more complex and difficult due to the fact that religious extremism and fanaticism have countless facets and shades both in the mainstream urban centres as well as rural areas. Small and seemingly innocent ideological, political and financial contributions even by lawful and legal institutions and organisations often contribute in promoting radicalism and militancy in society. And the irony remains that the state institutions themselves played a major role in promoting these groups, which hound them now and refuse to unravel.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that the civil and military leadership failed to see and tackle the issue in its totality. Pakistan’s approach since the Musharraf era has been fire-fighting and managing those broken arrows that failed to follow dictates of the state under the changed post-9/11 circumstances. The thrust of this approach has been more on fighting the symptoms rather than changing the direction of state policy and taking long-term measures for the eradication of religious extremism in all its forms and manifestations.

Even now, Pakistan seems to act under pressure against extremist individuals and groups, but leaving enough space where they can regroup, breathe, rest, revitalise and attack. Pakistan’s lack of will or inability to act in a decisive manner against the terror network and its support structure is bringing more pressure on Islamabad. The message as stated by US Attorney General Eric Holder following the failed New York terror attack remains loud and clear -- either Islamabad acts against these forces or let the other do this task.

But Washington’s tough public talk makes the Pakistan government’s job more difficult. It gives firepower to the opposition and rightwing groups to confuse and scuttle the real issues of extremism and terrorism in the anti-US rhetoric. Yes, public warnings only strengthen the reactionary and extremist forces. The US should be seen as helping Pakistan in coming out of the vortex of terrorism rather than giving an impression that it is being bullied by the superpower. Just as in the case with India, militants will go to any extent to put strains in the Pakistan-US relations if they could with a terror strike, which remains a possibility.

Knee-jerk reactions and public warnings would certainly be counterproductive. On its part, Pakistan in its own enlightened self-interest should take the ownership of the war against extremism and terrorism, which is hurting the country more than any other nation. Along with surgical military operations, there is a need to counter militants and their allies on ideological and political grounds – a front which so far has been ignored.

Pakistani leaders should also ponder as to what the United States means by "severe consequences". As the tidings are, pressure on Islamabad is all set to increase. Will civil and military leaders be able to use this pressure to the country’s advantage? Pakistan needs a proactive approach rather than a reactionary one when it comes to combating terrorism. And most important, Islamabad has to come out straight regarding its efforts and sacrifices and match its words with action.