US stalls as Pakistan drifts

[FarCenter]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KL01Df03.html
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

ISLAMABAD - Three developments over the past few days have dealt a severe setback to the designs of the United States in the South Asian theater of war.

Firstly, Taliban leader Mullah Omar last week rejected any possibility of talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai or the United States, indicating that the only way towards peace was for foreign troops to leave Afghanistan.

Then, as war rages against Muslim militants in Pakistan's tribal areas, the chief of army staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani,
shocked secular elements in the country by saying that "no one can separate Islam and Pakistan" and that the goal was to turn the country into a true Islamic state.

And thirdly, as Asia Times Online predicted, President Asif Ali Zardari issued an amended ordinance at the weekend in which he abdicated as chairman of the Nuclear Command Authority and transferred command of the country's nuclear arsenal to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. (See Pakistan's military stays a march ahead November 25, 2009)

Mullah Omar's statement is likely to derail any attempts at negotiations in Afghanistan, even at the level of junior Taliban commanders. Kiani's statement, meanwhile, can be expected to demoralize secular forces such as the Pashtun sub-nationalist Awami National Party in North-West Frontier Province.

The message is that their role is limited and no matter the hostilities between the Pakistani military and Muslim militants, secular forces will never be allowed to influence broader strategic matters; that is, only Islamic ideology and its flag bearers can have control.

Zardari's handing over of power over the nuclear arsenal is the beginning of the collapse of the Western-hatched secular and liberal coalition in Islamabad.

With the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) having expired on November 28, analysts believe that early next month many politicians could find themselves in court. The NRO, issued on October 5, 2007, granted amnesty to politicians, political workers and bureaucrats who were accused of corruption, embezzlement, money-laundering, murder and terrorism between January 1, 1986, and October 12, 1999. Some of the main beneficiaries were Zardari and several present cabinet members.

Those most affected will be politicians from the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) (corruption cases) and its ally, the Muttehida Quami Movement (criminal cases). In this situation, opposition parties like the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will mount additional pressure on the ruling coalition to resign and call mid-term elections.

The PML-N, the second-largest political party in parliament and led by former premier Nawaz Sharif, and all other opposition parties have unanimously demanded the resignation of Zardari and cabinet members who are alleged to have taken advantage of the NRO.

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