Pak politicians acting as bystanders as country sits on powder keg

Washington, July 9 : Politicians in Pakistan seem to be oblivious of the explosive situation Pakistan was currently going through, and taking advantage of this behavior of the political leaders, extremists have dared to enter into the main cities like Peshawar, said a report on the creeping Talibanisation of the NWFP, published in online magazine Salon.

It said the three senior most leaders in the present political set up in the country - PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and President Pervez Musharraf seem to be more interested in settling their old scores, by watching their self-interests.

"As usual, Pakistan's political leaders are standing next to this powder keg with a fuse in one hand and a fire extinguisher in the other," the Daily Times quoted the online report as saying.

It said: "Political Islamabad did not give the impression that Pakistan was facing one of the deepest crises in its history. For a country under attack from the Taliban, it seems a dangerous lack of focus. The power vacuum has been an invitation to the fundamentalists, and they are responding by advancing ever further into the border regions. They have moved down from the mountains and towards Peshawar, bringing pious messages and undisguised threats."

It's ironic to find that Islam is being "reinvented" in Peshawar of all places, a city which 2000 years ago was the centre of the Buddhist civilisation of Gandhara.

It quoted a politician from the PPP as saying: "I'm afraid that when the time comes, the inhabitants will simply go out and welcome the Taliban."

ANI