KARACHI, 10 May — Wednesday’s massive bomb blast in Karachi has effectively ripped through President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s determination to improve the law and order situation in the country and suppress terrorist and extremist outfits.
And this blow to Pakistan’s image has come at a time when a sense of political disquiet was building up in the aftermath of the presidential referendum of April 30, an exercise that may have undermined the confidence of the present government. Suddenly, there is this surge of apprehension and uncertainty about the unfolding events.
Karachi has been a scene of bomb blasts and terrorist killings in recent days, mainly of the sectarian kind. But the explosion that has killed French technicians and engineers belongs in a different category. Not only were foreigners targeted, they were the ones involved in a defense project and were traveling in a Pakistan Navy bus. In that sense, shades of international terrorism are unmistakable. Some observers have read, in this explosion, the Al-Qaeda’s signature. One is reminded of the brutal killing of the kidnapped Wall Street Journal newsman Daniel Pearl in Karachi and the bomb attack on the Islamabad church frequented by diplomats.
For a number of reasons, the car bomb explosion can be very unnerving for the authorities. It has come at a time when a technical team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is in Pakistan to review progress on the macroeconomic front before releasing the third tranche out of $1.3 billion Poverty Reduction Growth Facility. Even otherwise, economic issues are getting a lot of attention in this pre-budget season. And the law and order has a direct bearing on the scope for foreign investment and for the economic renewal of the country.
Already, Wednesday’s newspapers had brought the news of the killing in Lahore of a well-known religious scholar and a television personality, Dr. Ghulam Murtaza Malik. His driver and a policeman also died in a familiar terrorist attack that has been the hallmark of sectarian killings. Karachi has seen numerous such killings in recent months. The stage, one could say, was set to draw the maximum impact from such a mishap. Also very worrying is the involvement of a suicide bomber.
As for the possible motive of the perpetrators of this explosion, the finger is bound to be pointed in different directions. Immediately after the explosion, security officials did not rule out the involvement of a “foreign hand”.
At the same time, the jehadi elements not willing to accept Pakistan’s alliance with the United States in a campaign against terrorism should have a reason to try to destabilize the present government. In any case, those who conducted the operation are evidently very well trained and determined.
One measure of how the incident would have an impact on foreigners visiting Karachi and also on the civic life of the city is that the New Zealand cricket team readily abandoned its tour and the Test match to begin in Karachi on the day of the explosion was canceled. In fact, the cricketers, including of the Pakistan side, had a close shave because they were staying in one of the two hotels and the rooms of some of them were damaged by the shattered glass. They were about to leave for the sports stadium when the blast occurred.
The repercussions of this tragedy, in the context of the government’s strategy to deal with the terrorist and extremist organizations, will have to be carefully analyzed. Some commentators had recently expressed concern that the official resolve to deal with the extremists had not really been put into action and that many members of the radical outfits who were earlier arrested were quietly released. Because of reports that American special forces were allowed to operate within Pakistan’s territory along the Afghan frontier, in their search for Al-Qaeda activists, tribal areas are reported to be seething with anger. Militants, against this backdrop, may be gaining more popular sympathy in some areas.
Will President Musharraf now demonstrate his grit and resolve by launching a resolute campaign against the extremists, even if it threatens some more desperate acts of terror? Some observers see this imperative as a welcome opportunity for a leader who needs to restore his credibility that has been eroded by the referendum. It may also not be wholly unwelcome that the explosion has, at least temporarily, shifted people’s attention from the aftermath of the controversial electoral exercise and the almost dreary striving of the pro-government political parties to gain strength.
There were valid expectations that the political scene in the country would meaningfully change after the referendum. Some of those changes were gradually becoming visible and the formation of the National Alliance by six pro-Musharraf parties on Monday did make headlines. But Karachi’s car bomb has altered the scene with a vengeance. There is a lot of rubble on the ground and the government will have to tread very carefully.
