Following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto late December 2007, the situation in Pakistan has become more seriously fraught with dangers for the peoples of South Asia.

Contenders for the US presidency have, during the course of debates, wondered aloud if Pakistan’s nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of “terrorists”, and called for supervision by Anglo–American forces to ensure that this does not happen. Speculation in the western media that forces in Pakistan would not permit an “impartial” probe into the assassination of Ms. Bhutto has prompted the government to include members of British imperialist espionage agencies in the investigation. US military forces in Afghanistan have once again reiterated that it is their “right” to engage in “hot pursuit” of alleged Taliban supporters deep into Pakistan territory.

The Anglo–American imperialists are thus making plans to interfere even more in the affairs of that troubled country. The very forces responsible for most of the wanton death and destruction in the past decade throughout the world want to take fuller control of Pakistan’s strategic weapons! It is well known that imperialist espionage agencies have time and again organised assassinations in many countries of the world – so what kind of “impartial” investigation can be expected when they conduct it? Anger and disgust against the US is so wide spread that even members of the Pakistani establishment notorious for their support to the US imperialists have had to take a public stance against the blatant violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan implicit in the “right to hot pursuit” inside Pakistani territory.

As in the case of India, many of the problems now being faced by the people of Pakistan have their origins in the colonial system. The landowners and propertied classes which took over the reigns from the British colonialists in Pakistan were concerned more with maintaining and increasing their own wealth and power than with the well being of the toiling masses. They and the powerful military establishment which held power had their own dog fights – but all of them owed allegiance to the Anglo-American imperialists.

Right from the 1950s, it was US imperialism which used the strong influence it wielded both with the generals and civilian establishment, to make Pakistan a tool of western imperialist interests. Pakistan was allied first with the West in the cold war, then in the campaign in the 1980s against the Soviets in Afghanistan and, since 2001, in the conquest of Afghanistan and in the so–called “war against terror”. US imperialism decided which military or civilian ruler suited its strategic interests best at any given time and propped him or her up in power.

Can the blame for the sorry situation now prevalent in Pakistan be therefore laid at any other doorstep? Yet, the masses of people who vehemently oppose this dastardly US interference in their country are labelled as “Islamic fundamentalists”, “Islamic terrorists”, “Jihadists” and worse, to discredit all those patriotic forces which make opposition to Anglo-American imperialism a cornerstone of their policy.

It is extremely important that the patriotic and anti-imperialist people of both Pakistan and India continue to unitedly oppose US imperialism and its growing penetration in this region. The people of Pakistan who are yearning to take control of their destiny, to become sovereign masters of their country, need to unite and organise to confront the difficult situation.