By Shibu Itty Kuttickal
IS PAKISTAN the main breeding ground for international terrorism? Did Pakistani terrorists orchestrate recent bombing campaigns?
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's "no" to the above questions is quite emphatic. The country's High Commissioner to Singapore, Mr Sajjad Ashraf, told Today: "You can't keep putting the blame on Pakistan for terrorists' campaigns all over the world. No other country has cracked down on terrorism more than Pakistan."
Indeed, analysts agree that Islamabad has been clamping down on jihadi elements in the country. However, the world is going to watch more closely whether General Musharraf will be more consistent in this regard than he has been so far, they add.
In the aftermath of the London bombings of July 7, the authorities arrested 300 people and put pressure on Pakistan-based terrorist organisations.
There were suspicions that the hidden hand behind the blasts is that of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda. Osama is said to be popular among militant Pakistani groups and extremist schools, and is known to enjoy support in tribal areas close to the Afghan border.
However, Gen Musharraf yesterday ruled out that theory, saying that the extremist group did not have a "command and control structure" in the country that could organise such terror campaigns around the world.
Yesterday, Egypt told Pakistan that no Pakistani was involved in the weekend's Red Sea resort bombings, Cairo's embassy in Islamabad said.
Lahore-based political and defence analyst Hasan-Askari Rizvi and Dr Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, research fellow for South Asia at the International Institute for Strategic studies in London, agreed that Al Qaeda could not have masterminded any campaigns from Pakistan.
According to Mr Rizvi, it is only "a few hundred jihadis (that) could be influenced by deviant religious teachings, because of the poor economic conditions they live in." The vast majority of Pakistanis have not been influenced by the radical religious right, he said.
Nevertheless, the reports that Pakistan continues to spawn international terrorists showed a lack of "consistency" in the country's anti-terrorism policy, the experts said.
There have been spurts of activity against extremists after the Sept 11 attacks and, more recently, after the London blasts, but the question is whether Islamabad can sustain such pressure against terror-mongers, they said.
Mr Rizvi told Today: "Past experience of Islamabad's crackdown on terrorism suggests a lack of consistency. One can only wait and see whether it can pursue a consistent anti-terrorism policy."
But why is Gen Musharraf unable to act consistently on this crucial problem?
Blame it on his "tightrope walk", said Dr Roy-Chaudhury. "The President, since 911, has been doing a balancing act between the demands of the radicalised religious right and international pressure to rein in the extremist elements."
Gen Musharraf, though, has certain advantages that might bolster his position to pursue any proposed changes.
According to Dr Roy-Chaudhury, he is broadly agreeable to the populace. He assumed power at a time when Pakistanis were fed up with political instability. It helps that he is a former military general as military culture is "deeply embedded" in Pakistani society. Moreover, he is generally regarded as someone not "tainted" by the corruption rampant in Pakistani politics, Dr Roy-Chaudhury said.
The president is considered the best bet to contain Pakistan's jihadi elements.
Dr Rohan Gunaratna, a terror expert and the author of Inside Al Qaeda — Global Network of Terror, said that Pakistan was a steadfast ally of the United States in the latter's war against terror.
"Without Pakistan's support, the US would have failed to contain Al Qaeda," he said, adding that 25 per cent of all detainees in Guantanamo Bay had been detained in Pakistan.
Religious teaching, however, remains a thorny issue. In the past, Islam was taught by an "obscurantist and illiterate segment", Gen Musharraf said in his address to the nation last week.
"It is our duty to free Islam from the shackles of the ignorant and take it to its real essence," he added.
But, according to International Crisis Group's Islamabad analyst, Ms Samina Ahmed, the extensive madrasah system has been left unchanged and many of these are breeding grounds for terrorists.
Estimates suggest that there are between 12,000 and 15,000 madrasahs in Pakistan, in which about one million students are enrolled.
Unless the madrasahs are effectively reformed, Pakistan would continue to generate jihadi elements, Ms Ahmed said.
