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Pakistan’s Mubarak Moment

Pakistan's governing elite now recognizes that the country shares many of the ingredients that were present in Middle Eastern countries where street politics have reached the boiling point. The question now is whether the political class has the wherewithal to act accordingly.

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s domestic situation is becoming increasingly precarious. Indeed, serious questions are now being raised as to whether the country can survive in its present form.

Such questions stem from a growing fear that Islamist groups might once again make a serious bid to capture the levers of power in the country. If that is not possible because of the presence of a large and disciplined military, the Islamists might attempt to carve out some space for themselves in which to establish a separate system of governance more fully aligned with what they view as the principles of Islam.

Islamist groups’ previous attempt to create such a space was successfully countered by the military in 2009, when it drove insurgent forces from the sensitive district of Swat and the tribal agency of South Waziristan.

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