This is a letter from Dawn. I must say, this guy has raised valid questions.
Benazir Doing No Good To Pakistan
According to a news report (Dawn Oct 29), PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto has stated before a group of intellectuals and journalists in the US state of Maryland that the Taliban and Al Qaeda elements have started to regroup in Pakistan.
She has also said that this is a threat to American interests in the South Asian region. However, the most unfortunate part of her statement is where she says that there have been attacks on US and Western targets in South Asia, Yemen and Bali and it is only a matter of time before there is another attack.
Clearly, Ms Bhutto is implicating Pakistan, though indirectly, in the bombing incidents in Yemen and Bali. Moreover, she has described the victory of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal as the beginning of “Talibanization” of Pakistan.
May I ask Ms Bhutto how she, while in exile, can know so accurately that Al Qaeda members are regrouping in Pakistan although the FBI and the CIA have faced no hindrances, whatsoever, in Pakistan in their ongoing hunt for the Taliban and Al Qaeda men?
**The recent arrest of Dr Amir Aziz, an orthopaedic surgeon of Lahore, on a charge that he had provided medical treatment to Osama bin Laden makes it abundantly clear that no one can even sympathize with the Taliban or the Al Qaeda in Pakistan, what to speak of regrouping by their men.
And how does Ms Bhutto know for sure that the attacks off the coast of Yemen and in Indonesia’s Bali island are linked to the alleged regrouping by the Al Qaeda activists in Pakistan? By claiming that Pakistan is becoming Talibanized, is she inviting the United States to deal with Pakistan the way America dealt with Afghanistan? Or is she suggesting that her return to Pakistan will stop this so-called process of Talibanization? **
In my view, the victory of the MMA in a good number of National Assembly constituencies, as well as in the two provinces, is the most likely response of the people of Pakistan to certain steps taken by the military government, specially the government’s allout support to the US for the so-called war on terror.
Is Ms Bhutto pleading to the world to reject the will of the people of Pakistan? What exactly is she trying to achieve?
I believe that Ms Bhutto’s latest statements and actions show her contempt for Pakistanis who elected her their country’s prime minister twice, but she let them down. I want her to know that she is doing no good to her country by making such irresponsible public statements.
SALMAN MAHMOOD
Islamabad