Pakistani Turmoil

August 25, 2008 – 4:19 pm

Pakistan’s political scene took a turn for the worst today as “former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif [withdrew] his PML-N party - the country’s second biggest - out of the multi-party governing coalition.”  (Source BBC)  (CNN and Wall Street Journal on the same topic)

Pakistan has been a “home field” for both the promotion of and the fight against global terrorism over the past few years.  Pakistan is and has been home to numerous international terrorists; many purport that Osama bin Laden and his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahri currently reside in Pakistan.  On the other spectrum, the Pakistani military, the seventh largest in the world, has made a significant contribution to the war on terror by patrolling the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, keeping Taliban fighters at bay.

The unfortunate victims of this struggle are the Pakistani people.  Nahal Toosi, an AP correspondent, travelled into a Bajur region relief camp, reporting on the conditions and the refugee’s reactions to the turmoil.  Their blank answers to Toosi’s questions seem reveal either a grieving numbness to all the conflict. The hope of these Bajur-region Pakistani’s and so many refugees like them is in the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ. No degree of political restoration or financial prosperity can fill that void.  In a country that is 98.8% Muslim, we must pray that the Lord of the harvest will send laborers into this dark region.