ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s top court began hearing challenges on Monday to an amnesty order that could deepen political tension in a nuclear-armed country already facing pressure to fight Taliban militants on several fronts.
An attack by a suicide bomber killed nine people outside a court in Peshawar and another blast in a Lahore market killed 12, highlighting relentless security troubles in Pakistan, an ally that Washington needs to help fight the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Doubts are growing that President Asif Ali Zardari can survive politically in the long term, let alone lead the charge against Islamist fighters who have shown they can penetrate security near the headquarters of the all-powerful military.
Some of Zardari’s closest aides may face revived corruption charges depending on the ruling of the Supreme Court, which took up legal challenges to an amnesty order granted to about 8,000 people, including the interior and defence ministers.
The politically charged issue could distract the government from a crackdown on the Pakistani Taliban.
Northwestern Peshawar has suffered the most from retaliatory bombings that have killed hundreds of people since October, when the army launched a major offensive in South Waziristan, part of a region seen as a global militant hub.
Another suicide bomber struck the city on Monday.
“The bomber got down off an auto-rickshaw and rushed towards the gates of the court. He detonated the explosives strapped to his body when our men pointed their rifles to stop him from getting into the court,” said Peshawar police chief Liaquat Ali.
Rescuers collected body parts after the blast, while six cars were engulfed in flames outside the courthouse.
Later, a suspected suicide bomber killed 12 people and wounded 26 in an attack in a market in the eastern city of Lahore, near the border with India, a city official said.
Many of the victims were women shopping at the market.
BRAZEN INSURGENTS
Pakistan’s military, once a staunch supporter of Afghan militants in their fight against Soviet occupation in the 1980s, now faces brazen Taliban insurgents on its own soil.
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