There is rumour also about further details of the caretaker set-up. The PPP is supposed to be demanding ‘consultation’ on one-third of the caretaker government at the centre and another ‘safe’ proportion in the provinces.”

Northern complications

There has been heavy fighting in North Waziristan, and by midweek The Daily Times reckoned that the death toll from three days of operations, with heavy artillery and air strikes, had crossed 250. In an editorial on Monday, it gave a backgrounder: “North Waziristan too has broken away from the ‘deal’ made with it last year and gone on the warpath.” The military operation was launched after militants “employed by Al-Qaeda” ambushed an army convoy in Mir Ali, 24 km east of agency headquarters Miranshah. Al-Qaeda, it said, uses North Waziristan to fight its war in Afghanistan. Moreover: “It is a tough war to fight because of the way it is being interpreted in Pakistan. All kinds of politicians tend to begin with the familiar ‘given’ that the people of Waziristan are ‘loyal’ Pakistanis and have rendered great service to the country in the past. This is said without distinguishing between the people in the tribal areas and the militants, who are paid to kill, and the suicide-bombers, who are indoctrinated through religion to kill innocent people, including women and children. The war is tough also because of the way disgruntled retired military officers often describe it as a conflict in which the national army is required ‘to fight its own people’.”

... contd.