Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

1 0 Frontline Pakistan
long-term political problems continued to simmer on the backburner.
Islamabad’s support for Washington was balanced against two
powerful forces at home: the religious conservative forces that had
gained tremendous political support and the military that did not seem
to be happy with the war in Iraq.
Riding on the wave of popular anti-war sentiments and emboldened
by their new-found public support, Islamic groups intensified their
attack on Musharraf, calling him an ‘American stooge’. MMA leaders
tried to use anti-American sentiment to vent their anger against
the government’s pro-West policies and to gain maximum political
mileage from a potentially volatile situation. The Islamists grabbed the
opportunity to expand their support base in Punjab and Sindh.
There was a visible rise in the activities of the outlawed Islamist
extremist groups which were back in the field exploiting anti-
Americanism. The militant leaders, recently freed from house arrest,
returned to the mosques to rally the Muslims against the United States
and recruit volunteers for a new ‘holy war’. Hundreds of Pakistani
volunteers enrolled themselves to fight in Iraq after an Islamic cleric
issued a fatwa that it was obligatory for all Muslims to join ‘the jihad’
against the invasion of a Muslim country by American forces.
Rising anti-American sentiments, coupled with a surge in support for
conservative Islamist groups, had a significant fall-out in neighbouring
Afghanistan where the US-led coalition forces were locked in battle
with the remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. There was an alarming
rise in the number of attacks by insurgents in southern Afghanistan.
The increasing number of rocket attacks targeting coalition bases was a
testimony to the support for the Afghan resistance from the pro-Taliban
administration in the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan.
For the first time since their ousting, some key former Taliban leaders
resurfaced and openly operated from inside Pakistan. 15
Musharraf managed the balancing act quite well. Tightly wedged
between the mullahs and a hard place, he emerged unscathed from the
crisis. After narrowly escaping a series of assassination attempts, Musharraf
got some much-needed respite when, in December 2003, he won
a protracted constitutional battle legitimizing his rule. A vote of confidence
by Parliament allowed him to stay on as President for the next
four years. It was the second boost for the military ruler in a week. On
the last day of the year, lawmakers approved a series of amendments
in the constitution making him an all-powerful leader, vested with the
authority to dismiss an elected government as well as Parliament.