Insight: May 24

This week Insight looks at Pakistan with experts here and abroad, including Pakistani-Australians.

With the recent capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden just two hours away from Islamabad, attention has again turned to Pakistan and its complex relationship with the West.

How genuine and effective are Pakistan’s efforts in combating terrorism? How do Pakistan’s leaders juggle cooperation with the West on the one hand and anti-US sentiment among the population on the other? And who has the real power there – the government or the military?

Guests include:

Professor Samina Yasmeen is the director of the Centre for Muslim States and Societies at UWA. Her work specialises on the proliferation of militant ideology across Pakistan. She says there is a disconnect between the Government’s desire to crack down on militants and the people’s sympathies of those groups. She believes Pakistan is not a failed state, but a failing one.

Tasawar Khan is the acting High Commissioner for Pakistan in Canberra. He says the accusations that Pakistan is not committed to the war on terror are absurd and that thousands of people – military, police and civilian – have died from the militants. He says Pakistan was against U.S. military operation that violated their sovereignty.

Brigadier (retired) Naeem Salik has been in the Pakistan for more than 30 years. Before his retirement in 2005, he served as the Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs at the Strategic Plans Division, the Secretariat of Pakistan’s National Command Authority, which controls the country’s nuclear weapons. Naeem says Pakistan’s military must play a double game because it is in their strategic interests to do so. He says that America conducting operations without telling the military is embarrassing.

Insight airs on SBS ONE every Tuesday at 7.30pm.