Nonetheless, some political parties complained that they had not been taken into confidence on the military operation. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, claimed that the All Parties Conference should have been convened earlier, an accusation that the PPP, without consulting political parties, launched the military operation under the pressure from the US.
The PML-N's support for the government on the issue of military operation was paid back. The Supreme Court on May 26 declared in a verdict that Nawaz Sharif and his brother eligible for elections for public offices. However, Nawaz Sharif is still guilty in the airplane hijacking case, which, according to analysts, seems like Achilles heel for Nawaz Sharif's political career.
The PML-N on June 9 accused the PPP for publicizing a fabricated letter in which Nawaz Sharif begged then-leader of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf for mercy. They said it was an attempt to tarnish the image of the most supported politician in Pakistan.
However, the goal of the military operation remains ambiguous. Although the military operation is gaining ground, people are blind on when it will end. The morale of the troops would plummet if the situation continues.
At the same time, it was beyond the authorities' expectation that the number of displaced persons surpassed 2 million within one month. Some US officials termed the situation in Pakistan as the biggest wave of refugees since World War II.
It added to Pakistan's headache that no Muslim countries offered their assistance to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Pakistan. Analysts say that those countries do not want to get involved in an internal fight in Pakistan.
Some UN organizations complained on June 9 that international community did not respond to the UN's call for assistance for Pakistan. Only the US and the United Kingdom which were pushing for a military operation in Pakistan offered to help, a sharp contrast to the situation in 2005 when Pakistan was hit by an earthquake and got sufficient assistance from the international community.
The Pakistani government and army started to point their fingers at Afghanistan and India. Some government and military officials claimed that a large portion of the arms Taliban were using came from Afghanistan. Afghanistan used to blame Pakistan for a safe haven used to undermine the stability of their country, then it should take steps to prevent arms from entering Pakistan, said the officials.
The army said that Pakistan pinned equal importance to its borders with Afghanistan in the west and with India in the east. They said they would not shift the troops from the eastern border to the west for the military operation.
Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani have issued statements with regard to the hotel blast in Peshawar. They strongly condemned the attack and reiterated the resolve of the government to fight terrorism.
The Taliban with limited power can hardly take on the security forces face to face. Thus terrorist strikes were just a backlash of the military operation and also the last means adopted by Taliban to force the government to cease fire. Therefore, the future of the law and order situation in Pakistan is by no means optimistic.
The army initially claimed that the operation would come to an end within one week and it is still going on after one month. The army recently said that it would take around one year to clear the conflict zones of Taliban and restore normalcy.
Undoubtedly, the Pakistani government can hardly break away from the current situation unless it plays a leading role in the war against terrorism.
(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2009)
