An 'Islamic' Escape Route

THE message was loud and clear but the silence in Islamabad was deafening. The US had made its presence felt inside Pakistan with a bang that left the Muslim League government whimpering. Finally, last Friday, prime minister Nawaz Sharif announced a dramatic measure to restore his flagging credibility. Bowing to mounting pressure from various lobbies, particularly the fundamentalist parties, Sharif proposed a constitutional amendment to make Islam the country's supreme law. Keeping in mind domestic exigencies, he also cancelled his trip to Durban for the non-aligned summit.

"Simple changes in law are not enough. I want to implement complete Islamic laws where the Quran and the Sunnah (sayings of the Prophet) are supreme," he told Parliament in a speech that was televised live.

This step towards conservatism comes days after Pakistan moved the UN on airspace violation when it discovered an unexploded missile inside Pakistani territory. The Tomahawk missiles were fired on August 20, from the US Naval Forces, 5th Fleet, which are in the international waters about 120 miles from the Karachi coastline. If there are conflicting reports on whether one of these missiles hit inside Pakistani territory near the Afghan border in North Waziristan, there is no denying the fact that an unexploded Tomahawk is lying near Kharan in Balochistan, not very far from the area where Pakistan carried out its nuclear tests. Now, voices are being raised that it should not be returned to the Americans, as is being demanded, but instead sent to scientific laboratories and possibly produce a Pakistani version.

The ability of the Americans to reach Pakistan wherever and whenever they want to is frightening and exposes the fragile defences of a state which only a few months ago was boasting of becoming the first nuclear power in the Muslim world. As the government scrambled for cover, the best Sharif could do was to sack the chief of the Intelligence Bureau and chief secretary of the NWFP. But many questions remained unanswered. For instance, why weren't the ISI chief and the MI chief being pulled up? Also, did the military leadership not know that the US deputy chief of joint staff Gen. Ralston was in Pakistan when the US struck?

To make matters worse, both the IB chief and the chief secretary stuck to their reports saying that a missile had landed inside Pakistan and six people had been killed. They were supported by the US ambassador who when summoned to the Foreign Office said it was a "technical mistake" that the missile had landed inside Pakistan. Sharif even called President Clinton who admitted that it must have been a technical problem.

Despite this, the government retracted its earlier position, saying that Pakistan had not been hit and the reason for the inaccuracy of the initial report is that the borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan in certain remote regions are not properly demarcated. There was barely a decent pause before the government was on the front foot once again, moving the UN after discovering the Balochistan missile.

It was none other than the Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who let the cat out of the bag by announcing that the Pakistan Navy had warned Sharif of the presence of American ships but that the government had ignored this advice. "The people of Pakistan will not pardon the rulers for their connivance with the Americans to kill the innocent people and violate the sovereignty of independent Afghanistan," he thundered. Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Jehangir Karamat, in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders, told the Pakistani embassy staff that the US general had not come to "inform us or help us" but had come "to make sure nothing went wrong if the attack was detected or if we misunderstood the origin of the attack".

The truth was there for all to see. It appears everyone knew about an imminent strike but the Pakistani people. This is how it was meant to be. If the word was out, then the very purpose of the US strike inside Afghanistan would be defeated. The least the government could have done was to prepare its own people for a probable strike near its own borders. Their priority should have been greater than that of the Americans or that of Osama Bin Laden's. The Americans had made no secret of the fact that the Tomahawks had landed where they had meant to be. Even nuclear scientist Qadeer Khan told this correspondent that it was strange that these missiles had missed their targets. But he had no good news for the nation this time. Pakistan has no capability to stop these missiles and the American threat that these attacks were not as yet over, meant that even Pakistan's nuclear installations were within the easy reach of these missiles. Never has a country felt more defenceless.

Worse, the attack on Bin Laden has brought right-wing groups all over Pakistan under one umbrella. Says commentator Anwar Ahmad: "The US strikes are a godsend to the rumbling forces of extremism. If the US is reaping what it sowed in Afghanistan, so will Pakistan. And, going by its track record, the government can only try to stay ahead by unfurling its own 'Islamic agenda'. Hardly a recipe for stability that the country so sorely needs. The law of unintended consequences could take a very heavy toll."