Between a rock and a hard place

THE devastating attack on the Marriott hotel in Islamabad is a poignant reminder of the serious challenge the Pakistan government faces in the war on terror. The challenge is certainly staggering, and more complicated than merely viewing it as the consequence of the government's failure to go all-out against the terrorists. Neither can it be simplified by looking at the problem through the prism of "you are either with us or against us."
Islamabad Marriott, which suffered two other major bomb attacks in the course of the last four years, is located at the heart of the Pakistan capital, and is surrounded by important government blocks, such as the presidency, the prime minister's residence and office, federal secretariat complex, parliament building, supreme court, foreign ministry, and other establishments.
The diplomatic enclave is just about a kilometer away. The fact that a truck with a cargo of one ton of live explosives could reach the hotel driving through the route that goes past so many important government buildings, many of which have security-check road blocks, is by itself mind blowing.
The security arrangement in that part of the town, or for that matter in the entire federal capital, would have been particularly stringent yesterday for the fact that President Zardari had, earlier in the day, addressed the joint session of the parliament that was attended by the entire federal cabinet, parliamentarians, services chiefs, diplomats, provincial governors and diplomats.
Later in the evening, as the ton-load truck blew itself up at the entrance of the Marriott, President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and the top leadership had assembled at the Prime Minster's house for iftar.
The answer to the baffling question of how the killer truck made its way through has not yet been found, but a serious security lapse would certainly be a major suspect here.
The signs of carnage and devastation that the presently skeletal Islamabad Marriott wears is, in fact, one of the faces on the mosaic of scarred patches all over Pakistan, which has been paying an enormous toll in its war on terror over the past few years.
It is also the latest in a pattern of violence that has claimed the life of Benazir Bhutto after an earlier attempt on her upon return to Pakistan from exile last year, twice saw former president Musharraf almost into the jaws of death, a close call for former prime minster Shaukat Aziz, kidnapping and gruesome murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl, ghastly murder of worshippers at a church in Islamabad, and so many other incidences that are not listed here.
The hydra-headed monster in Pakistan is the result of a combination of factors, the enumeration of which must begin with the handling of the Afghan war by President Ziaul Huq during the Soviet occupation.
Patronage of the Afghan Mujahideen outfits -- at the behest of those who, ironically, now criticise Islamabad most vociferously for the alleged lack of cooperation in the war on terror -- through a process of intervention by the intelligence agencies over which the government had clearly lost control, and playing them one against the other, created more foes than friends for Pakistan in Afghanistan.
Midwifing the birth of Taliban after several failed attempts by Islamabad at brokering peace in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of the Russian troops was an act that Pakistan will never stop ruing.
Taliban's hosting of international terrorists inside Afghanistan, and allegedly also inside Pakistan, over the years before and after the New York attack on 9/11 has made the situation further complicated for Islamabad as the country has now to suffer the unenviable position of being both a partner and a suspect in the US-led international war on terror.
The fact that the situation in Pakistan has come to such a pass, where terrorists are wreaking havocs on the country, is due both to mishandling and inept handling of the problem of terror.
Mishandling because of the political imperatives of the previous unpopular governments, which had to ingratiate themselves with political elements with soft spots for the terrorists.
The inept handling possibly has a lot to do with the capacity of Pakistan to effectively deal with the monster of terrorism. To put the blame for that on elements in the armed forces, particularly on the intelligence agencies, is rather an easy way of looking at it.
The main problem is capacity and wherewithal. Drafting outside help without direct intervention in the absence of appropriate capacity and wherewithal would be like expecting to have an omelette without breaking the egg.
Any proactive outside intervention inside its own territory will spell further doom in terms of popular support, stepped up terrorist activities and possible political turmoil. Indeed a catch-22 situation.
The attack on the Islamabad Marriott has been described by many in Pakistan as the deadliest in terms of the magnitude of the explosion, and should stoke the sense of urgency on the part of the government to take the matter head-on.
It is also likely to further intensify the debate of the two views on how to tackle the problem: one view pleading for further stepping-up of the all-out military action against the terrorists and their hide-outs, and the other preferring negotiated settlement.
For either course, Asif Zardari and his party appear better suited, as the PPP and its allies are popularly elected and have the support of the army.
Zardari's extra-territorial friends, who also are stakeholders in the war on terror, will better serve him by not making his task difficult. He will have the opportunity to personally plead it with his American friends when he meets them in New York and Washington later in the month.

F.A. Shamim Ahmed, former Ambassador and presently Director, Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies, was Bangladesh High Commissioner to Pakistan from 2003 to 2007. He can be reached at [email protected].