A dangerous place

The contrast could not be starker. When Nawaz Sharif returned home, there was no one but the police to receive him at the airport. When his rival Benazir Bhutto returned home, there was a massive welcome from workers of her party. Mr Sharif's party workers were held-off 5 kilometres away and he was unceremoniously sent back to Saudi Arabia; Ms Bhutto, after initial celebrations, was greeted with not one but two powerful bombs that killed over 125 people. Mr Sharif is safe in Jeddah, and may return to fight another day; Ms Bhutto is under threat in Karachi because she is seen by the jehadis as an American stooge. She has said she will hand over AQ Khan to the International Atomic Energy Agency for interrogation, co-operate with the US in its 'war on terrorism' and, worst of all for someone who is based in Karachi, hand over Dawood Ibrahim to India.

It is common knowledge that she has more political enemies than anyone else in Pakistan. Her support base is narrow, indeed her own party is divided between those who prefer her brothers to her and, of course, the Mohajirs and Sindhi nationalists, who detest her. If ever there was a wrong candidate, she seems to be the one.

Nevertheless, it is she who the US has anointed because Pervez Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif cannot agree to cooperate. Lest it appear that Mr Sharif is a great political figure, the recent facts suggest that his party has mostly deserted him. When he tried to call his old friends from the plane after landing at Islamabad, many replied that they would have come but for some very urgent family pre-occupations. In short, Pakistan's slow move back to proper civilian rule is bedevilled with problems, not the least of which is the quality of its politicians.

The US link is Ms Bhutto's greatest problem, as indeed it is for the President of Pakistan, Gen. Musharraf. He too has America's blessings to continue in office, and now the Supreme Court's blessings too. But he is looking on powerlessly at the events unfolding in his country. He cannot stop the jehadis who dislike him intensely and would not hesitate to bomb him as well (they have already tried twice). Nor can he resist US pressure to "go democratic" even though the process is unraveling the civil peace in Pakistan. He even seems unable to control his own Inter-Services Intelligence agency (the dreaded ISI), which may have figured out "" as it usually does during times of change "" that it is best to distance itself from the boss just in case he is forced to leave in the manner that has become the norm in Pakistan.

All this may not have mattered much to the world "" though it would certainly to India "" if Pakistan had not been a nuclear-armed country. But it is and the US worries itself sick that Pakistan's nuclear weapons might fall in the hands of the jehadis. So it props up anyone who is likely to, or is seen to, oppose them. The problem with this approach is that even if a leader who is not supported by the US opposes the jehadis, they will see him as a US stooge. In a sense, theirs is like the Communist mindset: if you are not with us, you must be for our country's enemies. The trouble is that if a few thousand committed persons hold this view, it is enough to disrupt the peace in ways that compound themselves.

Pakistan's problem is that its elite has for so long served foreign interests in order to retain its hold on the country that the people have started to question legitimate actions and initiatives. This is a recipe for some sort of revolution. India can only hope and pray that it is not a jehadi one.