President Musharraf has been visited by leaders of all rank, colour and state, ostensibly to boost his and his country’s image – read morale – but with little success.As the US air strikes in Afghanistan intensify, Musharraf’s problems multiply.  The wave of refugees mounts by the day – and the border police are finding it increasingly impossible to keep at bay the hundreds of distraught men, women and children knocking at Pakistan’s door, putting additional strain on the country’s meagre resources.  Ironically, the UN agencies which failed to pressure a sparsely populated, affluent country like Australia to resettle a few hundred people, including some Afghan refugees, floundering in the seas a few weeks back, expect Pakistan to take in several million.  The world seems to have forgotten that Pakistan has been hosting 2.5 million refugees from the last US adventure in Afghanistan, for the past 20 years.

            Incidentally, refugees are not the only ones knocking at Pakistan’s doors.  The Indians, who have been hysterically attempting to capture world attention by drawing parallels between the terrorist attacks on the US and the freedom struggle in Kashmir, are threatening to cross the border into Azad Kashmir in hot pursuit of what they label terrorists from across the border.  India’s manoeuvrings at this critical juncture, when Pakistan’s presence in the coalition against terrorism is imperative for the US, borders on the ridiculous.  If it is any consolation to the Indians, the religious extremists are not exactly giving Musharraf an easy ride.

            They are growing more strident and more violent by the day.  They have brought cities to a halt, burnt public and private property, allegedly gunned down Christians in a church in Bahawalpur, blocked the Karakarom highway cutting food supply lines to the Northern Areas, and now threaten to storm the Presidency and overthrow Musharraf.  What happens if they do succeed and the nuclear command passes into their hands, remains a major area of concern.  As does a report in a reputed US magazine that the Americans are conspiring to take out Pakistan’s nuclear warheads, in the event of Musharraf’s ouster.

            Extremist reactions aside, the silent majority is equally distraught.  As the US resorts to carpet bombing and civilian casualties mount, they question the rationale behind the continued bombing of a country that is already in ruins and a people that are existing on the fringes of civilisation.

            Unfortunately Pakistan’s fate is, for now, inextricably linked with the fate of the Afghans and Afghanistan.

            The Americans appear unforgiving and unrelenting – and there seems to be no viable alternative to the Taliban in Afghanistan.  So will the US continue to rearrange the rubble till they find Osama or will they settle for the plundering warlords of the Northern Alliance, who are willing to take on the Taliban under US cover?

 Both scenarios are chilling…