David Miliband

Crisis in Pakistan

Finally Pakistan is getting the attention it deserves.  Richard Holbrooke is Ambassador for "AfPak" as the US call it.  But Pakistan is 165 million people with needs of their own.  And I think a lot of the discussion about Pakistan falls into the trap of seeing the fate of Pakistan solely in instrumental terms for us.  It does matter to us.  But it also matters a huge amount to Pakistanis.  And more to the point if we sell or conceive our strategy for Pakistan from our point of view, millions of Pakistanis will rumble us - this is precisely what they don't like about the western approach.   The truth is that terrorism is Pakistan's problem  first and foremost  - not least having claimed the life of Benazir Bhutto - rather than an American or western 'war' -  we must make sure we look from the right end of the telescope. 

For example, Simon Tisdall in the Guardian , who knows a lot about Pakistan, still headlines his piece "How the west could 'lose' Pakistan"; but it is Pakistan's to win or lose. We can help them.  But lets remember that if their leaders don't convince their people that this is their struggle then our own efforts are ten times more difficult.

This is the context for seeing the struggles around the country over the lawyer's march and the extremely welcome commitments from President Zadari to put country before party or even politics and appeal the recent supreme court decision against the Sharif brothers,  revisit judicial reform on the basis of the Charter for Democracy signed in May 2006  and reinstate the judges .  These are commitments of substance and symbolism.  They have been reciprocated so far by former Prime Minister Sharif calling off the lawyers' Long March.  The two sides need to take further mutual steps to rebuild political confidence.  And they need a forum for the two parties and eventually their leaders to hammer out a political  approach  that  focuses the country on its real problems.  Here are my longer thoughts

Posted at 11:34 17 March 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[3]