ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — Against the backdrop of a lethal strike by Taliban militants, Pakistan's fractious ruling coalition appeared to splinter anew Tuesday after acting in concert a day before to oust President Pervez Musharraf.
Although Musharraf's resignation in the face of an impeachment threat was widely seen as marking the start of a new era, Tuesday's events clearly demonstrated that some unpleasant realities remain unchanged.
In volatile northwestern Pakistan, where government forces have been locked in an escalating confrontation with Islamic militants, a suicide bomber entered a hospital emergency ward and blew himself up, killing at least 32 people, authorities said.
The attack in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, near Pakistan's tribal borderlands, coincided with the most intense fighting in years in some areas abutting Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing and demanded that the government call off military offensives in the tribal area of Bajaur and in the Swat Valley, about 100 miles north of Islamabad, the capital.
Many of those killed and injured at the hospital were visiting relatives hurt in a separate, sectarian clash between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in the tribal areas. Some of those visiting the hospital compound were protesting the death of a Shiite leader.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the fighting in Bajaur and Swat, creating a refugee crisis described by some officials as one of Pakistan's biggest internal displacements ever. Government troops have been using helicopter gunships to raid suspected militant hide-outs in the tribal areas.
Word of the hospital bombing came as coalition leaders met in the capital for their first major policy talks since Musharraf's ouster. No signs of consensus immediately emerged on the question of a successor to the former president, who until late last year was also the nation's military chief.
Under the constitution, a new president is to be selected within 30 days.
Within the coalition, disagreement openly flared over the question of reinstating the judges Musharraf fired last year. The junior party in the coalition, led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has demanded the immediate restoration of the previous judiciary. But the Pakistan People's Party, led by Asif Ali Zardari, has taken a much more cautious approach, saying many technical issues need to be resolved before the judges can be returned to the bench.
