I arrived in Islamabad at 4 a.m. on Saturday, a disconcerting time to arrive in a problematic country.

Since last year's bombing of the Hotel Marriott, fewer and fewer airlines fly to Islamabad. British Airway cancelled all flights. So one has to fly via the Arab Gulf - Dubai or Doha - where flights tend to come and go in the cool hours of early, early morning.

In Islamabad I find early signs of the ominpresent terrorist threat. One used to be able to buy a Pakistani sim card for a mobile phone at any corner kiosk. Now foreigners have to go to a main cell phone store and be fingerprinted, four times, with purple ink. Somehow I don't think this will stop suicide bombers.

There are concrete barriers and police checks on many streets. Pakistani colleagues tell me that English-language schools in Islamabad that teach western-style curriculum with co-ed classes are being threatened and several have shut down temporarily in recent days.

And radical preacher Maulana Aziz, newly released from jail, called at jam-packed Friday prayers in central Islamabad, the day before I arrived, for Islamic law to be installed throughout the country. This comes just after the government accepted Islamic sharia law for the former tourist valley of Swat, a concession which liberal Pakistanis believe means the imposition of the Taliban's version of Islamic law in this once relaxed and beautiful area.