Now that the National Security Council (NSC) bill has been passed by both Houses of Parliament, we should be able to get on with our on-off “democratic” life, the raison d'etre for electing our legislators in the first place. Given that the opposition did not allow themselves to be rolled over, they should accept, albeit grudgingly, what is now a law of the land. If they still feel so strongly about it, and they have the necessary numbers in Parliament sometime in the future, they can always repeal it! Using the streets agitation modus operandi inside of Parliament only strengthens the case of those who want an NSC-like buffer, after all if Parliament is to behave like a fish market, why bother about Parliament?

A school of thought maintains that the presence of the NSC destroys the supremacy of Parliament by giving the Armed Forces absolute authority over the elected bodies. On the other hand, the authors of the NSC bill argue that given Pakistan's sorry political history of governments being dismissed arbitrarily without completing their tenures, a mechanism to discuss the issues at an elevated decision-maker's forum instead of jumping directly to the ultimate recourse was required. One cannot argue with the democracy purists who hold that the NSC is a body super to Parliament, that is a fact. And given Pakistan's history of succumbing easily to authoritarian role, the NSC may very likely be the proverbial Sword of Damocles over Parliament. Given the penchant of our elected representatives to discuss anything but legislation, maybe this is not such a bad thing after all.....more
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The Afghan Government finds Pakistan a convenient scapegoat for its failure to extend its fiat over rebellious warlords like Ismail Khan in Herat and Dostum in Mazar-i-Sharif, it uses Taliban and Al-Qaeda hostiles using the Federal Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as sanctuaries as an excuse for its own shortcomings. Explicit threats of “hot pursuit” across the Durand Line are frequent, most recently by the US Ambassador (and Viceroy in all but name) to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad (who has no love lost for Pakistan due to being largely ignored during the Afghan War). Ambassador Khalilzad has since denied this but such remarks are cause for considerable annoyance in Pakistan, which despite limited resources and political compulsions has been heavily engaged in trying to deny hostiles using our tribal areas as a sanctuary. The present military operations in South Waziristan is the fourth after 9/11.

Unfortunately what is patently a security matter is being portrayed as a war between infidels and Muslims by our domestic opposition, the political parties, deliberately exploiting this explosive emotional issue to achieve their vested interests i.e. destabilizing the government and derailing the present democratic process in the country. The component parties of MMA, with their religious influence and sympathies for the Taliban, have been opposing military operations. They hold that Osama bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri and other....more