The New Bedfellows

Is there any truth to the rumor that mian Hamidm2 is out there hobnobbing between Mushy and BB - putting on massive frequent-flyer mileage between vilayat and Pakistan, looking to be annointed the next Wazeer-e-alam, hence not been able to address these here important interacts?!

congrats Pakis ....you're number 1...most unstable country...woo hoo..

Pakistan, Venezuela among most unstable: Eurasia Group
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:20 PM ET Aug 7, 2007

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Pakistan, Venezuela and Nigeria are among the most unstable emerging markets and rank the lowest on Eurasia Group's Global Political Risk Index, a political stability ranking for 24 emerging markets.
The top three most stable countries are Hungary, South Korea and Poland, according to the group's scores on the Global Political Risk Index for August. Tailored toward emerging markets investors, the index is produced by Eurasia Group and distributed in partnership with Citi Private Bank. See Emerging Markets Report.
The index is based on 20 indicators in four equally weighted categories: government, society, security and economy, which are combined into a single country score on a scale from zero to 100. The higher the score, the more stable the country.
Once again leading the ranking, Hungary has a score of 79, followed by South Korea with 76, Poland with 72, Bulgaria with 70 and Brazil with 69. Read more about Brazil.

Most unstable
Pakistan is the most unstable country with a composite score of 46. It is ruled by General Pervez Musharraf who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999.
"President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown against extremists is unlikely to ease political pressures on his government," said analysts at the Eurasia Group. "The heavy hand displayed in the government's dealing with radicals occupying the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) and its renewed commitment to fight extremism, while improving Musharraf's standing with moderate secularists, triggered a backlash from religious conservatives."

Dawa-ill-dil:

Lekar humm
Dawwaa ka fill
Firtey haiN
Mehfil, mehfil
Koi bataye, kidhar ko jayen?!
Zee ke sang – karnee hai tuttee!

#76 Dawa, it is worth repeating...

YOU LOSE!

YOU LOSE!

YOU LOSE!

#76 Dawa-ill-dil

Dawa, pehley apni dawa kar! Uske baad India ko updesh dena!

Guys like you are such ignoramuses that one can only pity you.

You lost Bangladesh!

If you do not mend your ways, you may lose more! (Who would have believed that ten years ago?!) There is a REAL danger of that at this time. The NWFP/easern side divide is already too stark.

Learn to live together - like the people of India have tried more or less successfully!

Your jihadi crappshoot's time is up!

It came out a cropper!

YOU LOSE!

masadi: you write Tahmed is an unconditional worshipper and peon of the West

I am demolished. You have ruined my reputation. :-(

Why you are sent to fetch samosa and chai for the staff room of government college, pind dadan khan, why dont you get one for me too to cheer me up? :-)

#65 anil: I think much depends on how BB reacts to Musharraf's announcement today that he will run for "re-elections" (i.e. by playing making a mockery of the election process as before) and stay in uniform. If she re-joins other political parties from whom she broke ranks by having separate talks with Musharraf, then perhaps she will have a chance. If she does not, I think the PPP could easily end up splintering.

That is my uneducated guess. All one can say for sure at this time is: August is going to be a hot month that may well determine the shape of Pakistan's political structure for the next few years.

#66 Salim: Two year term limits would seem to make sense, although even four years is better than what Musharraf is trying to do - 8 years of unelected rule plus 5 more, complete with uniform to match!!

An important thing missing in Pakistani politics is inner party democracy. All parties seem obliged to stick to their party leaders, when in fact these individuals have made serious errors as prime ministers and should themselves step aside. This of course is institutionalized in the US through the primary process - and political leaders have often voluntarily stepped aside.

In Pakistan, time is ripe for such a change. Aitezaz Ahsan is clearly a better candidate than BB, and there is every reason to give Javed Hashmi a chance and for NS to step aside. The fact that both BB and NS are fishing to remain party leaders rather acting responsibly and calling for party primaries to elect new party leaders is disappointing, although keeping in character with these two. If they should chose to do so, their personal prestige would be greatly enhanced, and more importantly, the democratic movement would receive a big stimulus.

BJ Kumar...

truth is bitter...accept it or not...

while pointing fingers in MAJ..look into your own shirts..OK

what your shameless leaders have done in past....

MJ is our hero..thanks god..he saved us ..from ultra beautiful mumbai..and cacutta...as given in pics by zeemax...

we send 1000 times lanat to such place...

thanks ..we have seperate land..where we live like a free 1st class citizens...not as 3rd class as poor slave indians muslims live under dhoti walai shameless hindus..makkar qaum...

and i am asking for one more seperate mulim country inside india..as 200 millions muslims have a right of freedom..how cn you put a lock on it ?????????? tell me ?????

#43 Posted by bulleya,

somewhere in there is the pakistani awam.......which is now moving in a totally different direction.....they are fed up with musharraf, bb, nawaz and the usa.......

Above is true that people are fed up, but it must be noted that above all people are fed up with Musharraf's kowtowing to US interests resulting in grave domestic polarization, and more so now given the recent US military threats. It is obvious BB will need to follow the same path if she's in power. On the other hand, NS is the only one who has a record of successfully resisting US pressure with the nuke tests, a posture which is widely admired.

The other factor is that the 'extremists' can no more be treated dismissively by any political party as in the past given the civil war in FATA and Swat, and will need to be given political representation to avoid its spread. BB/musharraf combine will continue to use force.

People are likely to take into account that NS has worked well with religious elements of all persuasions before, and is the only one with the ability to do so again.

Besides, the article 58 (2b) will make any BB/Musharraf smooth working relationship impossible. So even if a deal occurs, it will not last more than a few months. So all these discussions are academic.

However, notwithstanding the above, the chances of 'emergency' are far more than any elections. In which case, I would place my money on Urstruly's prediction.

Hoping against hope

Poor Babar Mufti, you have absolutely no idea about pakistan. benzir comes and goes, nothing will change in pakistan. The events and institutions of pakistan represent the will of the people.

Benazir was there when hoodood, and blasphemy laws were in place, she did nothing. The spread of jihadis and the madrassas took place when she was there. The corruption and mullaism flourished during benazir time. The moderate islam was never there in pakistan and no one can create it when TNT was the foundation of its creation.

Take it from me babar nothing will change.

Now let us look at budget alocations. Most of the money is cornered by the military. from corn flakes to cement are made my the army. Most of teh transport is cornered by the military. Most of the top jobs are cornered by the military. No benzir can change any of that in th e short term.

There is no excess money to allocate to schools, so madrassas will flourish , they are supported by the mums and dada.

The export situation will not improve because no one wants to come to paklistan because of terrorism.

Pakistan is in a situation of no options, there is no where to move. It is pure power craziness that attracts Benazir, she has no vision for the country, no ideas, no nothing.

She will not be able to do anything about kashmir, no trade improvements with India.

Under the US [pressure shortly pakis will have to allow shipments to afghanisatan through pakistan. That is all.

No Osama will be caught by Benazir.

Hoping against hopes,

The poor Babar Mufti is having high hopes for pakistan, that too about enlightened moderation.

Let us look at the social institution level.

Hoodood and blaspjemy laws were there during the time of benazir and she did nothing because the paki people want it including the YLH.

So nothing will change there, even after the return of benazir.

LOL

Tahmed wrote "Pakistani people need to rule themselves through duly appointed and removable leaders, and those seeking to take away this basic right of the Pakistani people need to be judged by the Pakistani courts"

The "appointed" vs "elected" as tahmed has written was a Freudian slip. He actually does demand "appointed" rulers, i.e. appointed by the US elite, either directly like Karzai or through their occupation force like Zia and Musharraf. When those "appointed" rulers don't fulfill even the most outrageous US demands then that is described by this peon of the West as "taking away the basic rights of the people of Pakistan, further the solution to that (if not outright assassination by the US and its occupation force) is according to him judgment by the courts and the judges those that have throughout the history of this nation legitimized military rule (i.e. submitted to the US occupation force), including the current CJ manufactured crisis and its logical conclusion.

Tahmed is an unconditional worshipper and peon of the West, he will not say a single word against the undemocratic illegal interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan by the US through its history. He will not say a word against the US support of Pakistani dictators into doing things that have caused immense harm to Pakistan and its people and yet this miserable fcuk has the audacity to give us the "democracy" slogan and talk about the rule of law. We understand you a-hole, you are an enemy of humanity and an enemy of Pakistan. Go back to where you belong, up GWB's a$$

Its not like democracies can do no wrong, germans elected hitler, americans elected cheyney (second time round). I'd love to have complete faith in the supreme court but without a significant change in pakistani society its all for nothing. Pakistani's crazy politics are a very good reflection of an inherently flawed social system which again is a product of widespread ignorance. Only education can fix this.

Dear Mufti,

Your thesis is based on ideological debate whereas Pakistan problems are far more complicated than we wud like to believe.

Urstruly correctly identified Pakistans elitist problem that continues to haunt the country. Pakistan has always been a Authoritarian state that is teetering on totalitarianism. Authoritarian states are ruled by elites with varied interest groups dominating the political spectrum. Army, feudals, beuaracrats, Industrialists and Moolas are the various interest groups who plague our country politics in one form or another. These varied interst groups are unwilling to share real power with the people and wud like nothing more but status quo. May it be Musharraf (army), Bezamir (Feudals), Nasharif (Industrialists)or Maulvi Diesel (Moolas) they all share the same objectices ie continued domination of the resources.

What we see today is the clash of the same power groups amongst each other that has always led to the change of guards in shape of power sharing. But this time around there is a external force (USA) that has its own interest to protect and has added to the complexity of power restructuring.

Back in 1971 when Indira Gandhi had split Pakistan her next military objective was splitting into two halfs the remaining Pakistan. We are headed in that direction, Pakistan will be divided into two or more political entities based on ethnic and foreign power redistribution.