We just have to hope that the suspicions the following article raises are correct:
America has mounted a covert operation to safeguard Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and prevent warheads from falling under the control of rogue commanders or Islamist terrorists. Teams of American specialists, deployed in Pakistan’s most sensitive military sites, have formulated launch codes to prevent the unauthorised use of nuclear missiles….America’s involvement in compiling missile codes raises the possibility that it might be able to prevent Pakistan from launching its nuclear weapons.
We’d better hope so, because the Taliban is taking power inside Pakistan:
Fame was no protection for one of Pakistan’s most celebrated pop stars when he indulged in the “un-Islamic” practice of singing in public. Gulzar Alam was beaten with rifle butts and fists when 20 policemen armed with AK47s raided a wedding party where he was performing….
Mr Alam had fallen foul of the Islamist coalition running Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. For the first time, extreme religious parties have won outright control of the government of this crucial area near the border with Afghanistan. They have a simple manifesto: to reinvent the Taliban in a corner of Pakistan.
Since winning power less than 18 months ago the coalition has banned anyone from playing music or singing in public and confiscated thousands of music tapes from the bazaars. These were heaped on a huge bonfire in Peshawar and set alight by the local police chief….
When the provincial assembly meets next month the authorities will press ahead with the next stage of their campaign. They will introduce a law creating a new body modelled on the Taliban’s “ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice.”
This will have sweeping powers to intervene in any area of life and uphold “Islamic standards.” The law will also create a parallel police and judicial system to implement a Sharia Law Act passed by the provincial assembly last year. [UK Telegraph]
The same reporter reports that nothing has changed in the Pakistani religious schools, who support the Taliban.