If a picture is worth a thousand words, yesterday’s photograph of a meeting at the presidency between senior government and army officials tells an unhappy story. Little is known about what transpired at the meeting, the first known to the public in which President Zardari and Gen Kayani have faced each other since the army publicly signalled its disquiet over the Kerry-Lugar bill, but it is safe to say that the differences have at best been papered over for the time being. Compromise between the two sides over the bill at this stage is difficult to fathom given that the bill has already been passed by Congress and now only awaits the signature of President Obama.

The Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 was hammered out after tough negotiations between the US Senate and House of Representatives and re-opening the issue, if that is indeed possible, is unlikely to yield a ‘softer’ bill. The only plausible ‘change’ that may occur is if President Obama uses a ‘signing statement’ to indicate that the US has no intentions of using the bill to undermine Pakistan’s sovereignty and national interests. Having said that, the government must urgently determine if there is anything more that can be done to placate the domestic opponents of the bill for the last thing the country needs at the moment is continuing political instability.

Sadly, even as the president and army chief squared off over the Kerry-Lugar bill, the attack against the army general headquarters in Rawalpindi came as a jarring reminder of the more immediate threat to Pakistan’s internal stability and sovereignty. Army commandos and soldiers fought bravely to end the stand-off and save many of the hostages, but the message had already been delivered by then: the militants are still capable of the most audacious attacks inside the highest of high-security zones. Fighting the war against militancy should be the highest priority of the state and its institutions and, notwithstanding genuine differences over other issues, those institutions need to work toge-ther if the militants are ever to be defeated. If Pakistan remains a house divided with its various state institutions suspicious of each other, the only winners will be the militants. Kerry-Lugar or no Kerry-Lugar, our officials must not forget that they have a deadly common enemy that must be defeated.