Turmoil in Pakistan, Hope in Britain

Pakistan In Crisis

The last three years have been tumultuous for Pakistan. In 2006, a coalition between exiled former presidents Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto promised to bring democracy back to the country after years of military dictatorship under Pervez Musharaf. It was hoped that despite their individual shortcomings, they would form an effective coalition.

The first blow came in December 2007, when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at a rally. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, took over the leadership of the People’s Party of Pakistan (PPP), which Benazir led until her death, amidst widespread murmurs about his corruption. After the well-timed resignation of Musharaf in 2008, he  assumed the presidency of Pakistan. Wary as people were, this signaled the end of the constitutional crisis prompted by Musharaf’s impeachment and arrest of the Chief Justice of the Pakistani Supreme Court, Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Unfortunately, Zardari has never fully silenced the doubters, with his tenure so far being marked by more political infighting than progress. His finances also remain subject to scrutiny.

As the political see-saw was unfolding in Islamabad, however, a far more serious problem was brewing in the remote, Kyhber Pakhtunkhwa in the North-Western part of the country in the form of an extremist Islamic movement that has threatened to destabilize the entire country. Devoid of infrastructure, the area is beset by poverty and an ideal recruiting ground for the Taliban. While the recent military offensive in the region has been a surface-level success, it can never be fully rid of extremist elements as long as it remains so neglected.

Perhaps the biggest blow to the country, however, were the devastating floods that engulfed the most fertile, developed part of the country. The number of injured or homeless is estimated to be 21 million, a figure that exceeds the combined total of those affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. At one point, a fifth of the country was submerged. Damage estimates are as high as 43 billion dollars, a fourth of the country’s GDP.

For a crisis of this scale, aid pledges have been unusually slow, prompting criticism from the United Nations. The issue is of particular strategic relevance to the United States, because of the key role Pakistan plays in the war in Afghanistan. The United States could ill-afford an already teetering Pakistan falling into the hands of the Taliban.

Perhaps it’s the protracted nature of the disaster, or maybe it’s the low death toll, but the international community cannot afford such an apathetic response to a country that is so important to combating fundamentalism and the threat it poses. There’s also the fact that it’s the right thing to do, and the suffering of 21 million people going virtually unnoticed in the United States is as baffling as it is sad.

Perhaps this tragedy will be the wake-up call the country’s leaders need. With a broken economy, a perennially squabbling political class and international apathy to the floods, optimism levels among the Pakistani people are justifiably low.

The rise of Ed

One of the countries that has provided a strong response to the situation in Pakistan is Britain. Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron expressed his pride in what he called a compassionate response from the people of Britain to the floods. The feeling is mutual however, with Cameron enjoying a deservedly high approval rating.

On the other side of the aisle however, there is a big change taking place. Labour, for long run by the Gordon Brown- Tony Blair combination has seen a change in its leadership. Ed Miliband, the younger brother of former Foreign Secretary David, has beaten out stiff competition from his brother out to be elected the new leader of Labour. Barely forty, and a relative unknown in mainstream British politics, the victory appears a huge surprise from afar, but party insiders have long been impressed with Miliband’s efficiency and behind-the-scenes leadership.

In what is an extremely bright phase for British politics, the younger Miliband could well be the man to win Labour back the majority it so ignominiously lost, or at least keep it a force to be reckoned with.