The assassination of a powerful Pakistani governor who was a close friend of President Asif Ali Zardari deepens a growing crisis in that country and could thwart America’s ambition to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan, military officials said. The death of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer “is a major setback for those promoting progress and stability in Pakistan and will discourage other Pakistani leaders from speaking out against extremism,” said Lisa Curtis, a former CIA analyst who is now at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank. Taseer’s death on Tuesday at the hands of his personal security guard in a wealthy neighborhood in Islamabad is a reflection of Pakistan’s virulent Islamic insurgency and the government’s inability to contain it, analysts said. His death has shaken Pakistan and reawakened the memories of the assassination in 2007 of Zardari’s wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Military officials and analysts say the Pakistani government — a key U.S. ally in the war on terror in both Pakistan and Afghanistan — has itself to blame for the growing insurgency within its borders. Pakistan’s military and members of its Inter-Services Intelligence agency have played both sides in Afghanistan, aiding the Taliban and making it difficult for the U.S. mission to succeed, analysts said.
“Pakistan keeps playing with fire,” said a U.S. military official in Afghanistan, who spoke to The Washington Examiner
on condition of anonymity. “The Pakistan military, along with members of the ISI, are aiding the insurgency groups who they believe in turn are aiding them against India. What they have done is created a monster that can’t be controlled. The assassination of Bhutto and this governor are just examples of that.”
Taseer’s security guard Malik Mumtaz Qadri, who shot his boss multiple times, surrendered to police after the incident. He told investigators that he was angry at Taseer’s opposition to current blasphemy laws, according to news reports from the region. The assassinated governor had helped lead public opposition to a November court decision to sentence Asia Bibi, a Christian farm laborer, to death for blasphemy against Muhammad.
The instability in Pakistan, combined with allegations that its military and intelligence agencies have been supporting the Taliban and other extremists groups in the region, is harming the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan, officials said.
“We pretend that Pakistan is our partner,” the military official said. “But that charade is becoming more and more evident — somebody needs to hold them accountable before we all pay a major price.”
Those efforts can be salvaged, said Curtis, who met Taseer on his visit to Washington six months ago. She said U.S. frustration with Pakistan’s duplicitous policy toward the Taliban is increasing but “there are no signs that this frustration has translated into consideration of alternative policy options with Pakistan.” America needs to swiftly develop policies that force Pakistan, which has received more than $15 billion in aid since Sept. 11, 2001, to be a more effective partner in stabilizing Afghanistan, Curtis said.
Sara A. Carter is The Washington Examiner’s national security correspondent. She can be reached at [email protected].
