Pak's silent majority may neutralise country's 'tyrants', says Kiwi paper

Wellington (New Zealand), Mar.6 (ANI): The attack on foreign guests and the game Pakistanis love will probably spur the silent majority in that country to do what the government has been unable to do-stand up to the misogynists, thieves and tyrants who are taking their country back to the Dark Ages.

An analysis by the Dominion Post here, the attack by 12 gunmen, which killed six policemen and a bus driver, and wounded six of the Sri Lankan players, has sent shockwaves rippling through the sports world.

"No sports team will entrust its safety to the Pakistani security forces, which, according to English match official Chris Broad, promised before the tour to provide "presidential-style security," says the paper.

But an end to sports tours is the least of Pakistan's worries. While President Asif Ali Zardari's People's Party and rival Nawaz Sharif's Muslim League squabble and jockey for political advantage, the country is sliding into lawlessness, claims the paper.

"The government is unable to protect its own citizens, unable to protect visitors and gradually ceding control of large parts of its territory to fundamentalist organisations with links to al Qaeda and the Taleban," it says.

"For the rest of the world, the disintegration of Pakistan represents a nightmare scenario," it adds.

For any Pakistani administration the challenges are immense. No government has ever controlled the remote tribal areas. The best that has been achieved is an uneasy truce.

The best hope for Pakistan, and it is a slim one, is that the terrorists have this time gone too far. (ANI)