Of Errant Politicians And The Kashmir Cause

Well done Shahnawaz!So happy to see that you are applying the power of the PEN to use an oft repeated CLICHE ``the pen is mightier than the sword`` keep going and do write something for the local newspapers in Pakistan. I do agree with most of the things you have said but please remember Pervez musharaf is in a very very tight corner!so far he has played his cards very well and he seems to be doing a good job of keeping the country from disintegrating. He appears to be very sincere and loyal and i think his patriotism is above board. From what I know about him he is not bent! he is honest and stright. I wish him the very best of luck. I cannot forget the horrors of the Nawazharif regime. I just hope you read this note do let me have your email adress so that we can communicate.

Tariq Aqil

email:taqil17@hotmail.com

Pakistan`s President Could Confront Axis of Extremists

Asia: Under a worst-case scenario, three militant groups could link up to try to topple Musharraf.



By TYLER MARSHALL, TIMES STAFF WRITER

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- President Pervez Musharraf faces an ominous new challenge to his rule from three Islamic militant groupings that now stand against him, each clearly capable of using violence to bring him down, diplomats and others following developments in Pakistan believe.

The presence of an undetermined number of fighters from Osama bin Laden`s Al Qaeda terrorist network who fled to Pakistan last winter after the Taliban regime`s collapse in neighboring Afghanistan merely adds to the volatile brew.

Those who track Pakistan`s turbulent domestic political environment worry openly about a nightmare scenario--one in which elements from the three diverse strains of militancy set aside their individual causes, link up with Al Qaeda members and unite around a set of shared objectives: removing Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror; destabilizing the country; and driving the United States from the region. Two of these groups--one consisting of Pakistanis who fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan, the other made up of Muslim holy warriors dedicated to capturing all of the disputed Kashmir region for Pakistan and the Islamic cause--were once de facto allies of Musharraf`s government.

The third--extremists from Pakistan`s majority Sunni sect who have waged a bloody, mafia-style war against the minority Shiites--was already at odds with him.

The dangers posed by these extremist groups have increased sharply in recent weeks because of steps taken to ease the crisis with India over Kashmir, diplomats and others following developments in Pakistan believe.

To reduce those tensions, Musharraf intensified a crackdown on militants whom the Pakistani government had for years trained for attacks on Indian-controlled areas of Kashmir.

With this crackdown coming just nine months after Musharraf withdrew his government`s support for the Taliban, angry and disillusioned sympathizers of both the Afghan and Kashmiri causes view the president, a general who took power in a coup, as a traitor to militant Islam.

There are about 1,000 uniformed Americans and a large FBI contingent based here as part of the war on terrorism, so the United States has a large stake in Pakistan`s internal stability.

At a different level, Americans also have a stake in a political struggle being watched across the Muslim world--that of a leader who cast his fate with the West in the wake of Sept. 11 and is now locked in a battle to survive the backlash.

Some observers believe that informal linkups between militant groups may already have begun.

Communications Minister Javed Ahraf Qazi, the former head of Pakistan`s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, said that this month`s bombing at the U.S. Consulate in Karachi had the earmarks of cooperation between local religious extremists and Al Qaeda refugees believed to be in the rough port city.

``My suspicion is that sectarian elements did this at the behest of Al Qaeda,`` he said. ``They are [both] ruthless murderers.``

Presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi acknowledged, ``Some [Pakistani] groups may have developed Al Qaeda links.``

So far, there is no hard evidence that followers of the three militant causes have entered into any formal agreement or established anything as structured as a common underground network to pursue their shared goals.

With Al Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban fighters in disarray, the heads of several large Sunni groups in jail and many Kashmiri militants only now beginning to contemplate an alternative future, organizational leadership is in short supply, according to those who monitor militant activities.

They believe that, instead, little more than a camaraderie among individuals attracts the militants together as small groups explore possible cooperation.

``Al Qaeda elements and others are now in the process of coming together to find a specific-oriented agenda,`` said Aamer Ahmed Khan, editor of the Herald, a Karachi-based monthly that closely follows the activities of Islamic militant groups. ``Some leaders haven`t even met yet, but groups are starting to work together.``

A previously unknown group calling itself Al Qanoon--``The Law``--claimed responsibility for the consulate attack. In a note faxed to local newspapers, it described the bombing as the beginning of a campaign against ``America, its allies and its lackey Pakistani rulers.``

Although no one has claimed responsibility for a bombing last month outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi that killed 11 French defense contract workers, authorities talk privately of a possible similar nexus in that attack.

Musharraf`s government pressed its search for Al Qaeda remnants in the wake of the U.S. Consulate attack.

Last week, precinct-level police officers in all four provinces were called to urgent meetings where superiors ordered them to search for possible links between known Sunni militants in their areas and Al Qaeda members who might have found refuge there.

A senior Interior Ministry source said that as part of the search, landlords have been told to report to police any tenants willing to pay conspicuously more than the market rate for accommodations.

The government also has invoked longer-term measures to choke off support for Islamic extremists.

A tough new law announced last week tightens controls on the thousands of religious schools, known as madrasas, and cuts off foreign sources of funding to them. With financial help from foreign-based Islamic fundamentalist organizations, many of Pakistan`s madrasas instilled their students with extremist ideas heavily laced with anti-Americanism.

Authorities have also launched investigations into the activities of several Pakistan-based nongovernmental organizations funded by Arab world money suspected in recent months of providing aid and shelter to fleeing Arab Al Qaeda fighters and their families.

So far, no one has linked Kashmiri militant groups to the string of recent attacks against foreigners in Pakistan, primarily because their break with Musharraf has only just occurred. But many fear that the potential is now there.

``There`s a very serious danger of the government losing control over the Kashmiris,`` said Aamer. ``It`s a major failure that the government didn`t prevent the Kashmiri freedom movement from being infiltrated by these [other] militants.``

Veteran Pakistan-based diplomats claim that Musharraf had already decided before Sept. 11 to end the government`s support of Muslim extremist elements in the country because the price in terms of domestic violence and a growing international isolation had become too high. His strategy, however, had been to take on the militants quietly.

``He wanted to finish them off one by one,`` noted a respected Islamabad-based Arab envoy. ``Now he has been forced to fight on three fronts simultaneously. Politically, this could be dangerous.``

So far, the extremist groups have made no public statements or issued any credible claims regarding their intentions. But previous shared ties could help bring them together despite their different political agendas, diplomats and analysts fear.

Evidence of these ties abounds.

For example, Kashmiri militants and Sunni sectarian extremists from Pakistan were routinely trained at Al Qaeda-run camps in eastern Afghanistan. In fact, there is now evidence that at least one of the terrorist camps in eastern Afghanistan hit by U.S. cruise missiles in 1998 was training recruits for Kashmiri militant groups, not Al Qaeda. The U.S. attack came as a reprisal for the American Embassy bombings in East Africa.

In addition, Pakistani journalists who trekked across the mountains into eastern Afghanistan for a May 1997 news conference with Bin Laden recall that their guides and hosts for the trip were members of the Kashmiri militant organization Harkat Moujahedeen.

``The collective experience of having trained and fought together has led to a camaraderie,`` said a senior member of Musharraf`s government who declined to be identified. ``This camaraderie is now playing itself out.``

U.S. and Pakistani authorities have had some notable successes in the search for Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan in recent months. A raid in the Punjab city of Faisalabad in March netted a senior Bin Laden aide, Abu Zubeida. U.S. officials say that information provided by Zubeida led to last month`s arrest of Jose Padilla, the so-called ``dirty bomber.``

Despite this, senior Pakistanis worry whether their security forces are up to a major confrontation with militants on the home front. The police, they say, are ill-equipped, overextended and so corrupt that the government has come to rely increasingly on paramilitary units such as the Pakistani Rangers to carry out sensitive tasks.

Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider admitted that his forces aren`t in good shape.

``I have my problems about police capabilities,`` he said. ``I used to get help from the [paramilitary forces], but they are now on the border. So I`m left with a police force which has been tired ever since September, when hundreds of thousands of [protesters] came onto the streets.``

Haider said he had requested additional resources to beef up both the manpower of the police and their investigative capabilities.

``We don`t want the land of Pakistan to be used by any militants, extremists or terrorists,`` he said. ``This is the policy of our president, and we`ll do our best to implement it.``

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-000044433jun25.story

So glad to see your article on CHOWK.well written articulate and meaningful keep writing you can do a lot better and remember your old teacher in Islamabad!

Tariq Aqil

arun:

...thank you...for the letter link...

[...We are rapidly becoming a Zoo. People can come and see us but we cant get out..most countries have made it impossible to get visas...Inspite of everything, i am struggling with a long standing project ..a book on Islam, a rather crazy Jungian ``reading`` of it which, at the same time is critical of Jung.once it is done, and if published it will, I think, enforce either my departure(if that is possible) or death..sorry for sounding so dramatic Amitav..But that is for later once it is done. It is painstaking work , given other responsiblities and i guess will be done in about a year or so...]

---mark my skepticism...if the book comes out she would be hounded out...another martyr...dead or in exile...

rgds,

t

Dear Prem,

On being charitable to individuals.

Yes, each institution or system of governance has it’s own set of problems. However, the policies and tactics of Musharaf’s government have only shown that they will continue to further screw up the very institutions and systems of government which they wanted to reform.

I can tell you many good things done by the Musharaf government. Such as the local bodies governments with union-tehsil-district councilors. In theory such a devolution makes sense – particularly if these lower levels of governance have access to finances. Yet, the Faujis have made the purpose of these reforms clear. It is to firmly protect and root in the power of the Faujis on the land. Like the parasites that the Faujis are, they are and will continue to manipulate the devolved power structure, feed off of it, and thus leave those elected in fairly (unlike most of the union-tehsil-district councilors) held elections in October with little choice but to toe the government line. If the central government was weakened at the expense of local governments, it would have been a good thing. But the center is being weakened to strenghthen the faujis. That stinks.

Even when not in power, the Faujis have manipulated foreign as well as national policies. Now they are in power, and want an official role. So every maimed institution has been awarded to a Fauji to piss on. The Faujis are after all humans. They have joined in the bribery circles. Speak to some WAPDA officals (non-fauji ones of course) and one can know. In any case, the point is that in essence, I feel that independently functioning institutions are the real way forward. EACH INSTITUTION should perform its OWN ROLE. INDIVIDUALS mean NOTHING.

The Faujis have done nothing to show that they have realized that. The exact opposite hs happened. So if this PRIME lesson in governance is lost why should anyone criticizing them be charitable?

What the Faujis should instead be doing is sincerely stepping aside and sincerely offer to shake hands with the civilian politicians and together they accept that there will be no institutional tamperings and there will be independent and impartial accountability commissions and courts who can prosecute any one including faujis at any time. This will take guts on the part of the Faujis as well as on the part of politicians for each knows whose hands have been muddied before and who has screwed the state before. Only impartial institutions can STOP making heroes out of perceived cooks like BB and NS.

However, the Faujis have no guts. Musharaf and the Faujis are only good pissing around.

http://www.amitavghosh.com/articles/

Durre`sletter.htm

America must come off the fence and take India`s side in the nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan.

Time`s Up for Pakistan: America Must Side with India

By Robert W. Tracinski (June 5, 2002)

[CAPITALISMMAGAZINE.COM] The Bush administration seems to be twisting itself into a knot of confusion over the nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan, dispatching an array of diplomats to try to ``ease the tensions`` between the two countries -- without doing anything to eliminate the cause of those ``tensions.``

The actual solution is quite simple. Bush has the means to prevent this war, and he is probably the only person in the world who can do so. All he needs to do is what he should have done nine months ago.

He needs to take over Pakistan.

After September 11, as part of the so-called ``Bush Doctrine,`` the president declared to the nations of the world: ``You`re either with us or you`re with the terrorists.`` But Pakistan has been with the terrorists for more than a decade -- and it has not given up that allegiance.

Remember that Pakistan`s intelligence agency helped create the Taliban and put it in power in Afghanistan. Under American threats, Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf made a halfhearted about-face and cooperated with the United States in the war in Afghanistan. But Musharraf has been playing a double game. While he nominally cooperates against al-Qaeda, Musharraf`s government has supported the same kind of terrorists -- including some members of al-Qaeda -- as they wage a terrorist war against India.

That war started in earnest less than a month after September 11, when Pakistan-backed rebels set off a bomb outside the Kashmir-Jammu state assembly building. In December -- finding that the world did not care about terrorist attacks on India -- the rebels got more ambitious, staging a shooting attack on the Indian parliament in New Delhi. Imagine if Osama bin Laden`s operatives stormed the capitol building in Washington, D.C., and you will get some idea of the seriousness of this attack.

Under U.S. pressure, Musharraf announced a ``crackdown`` on the terrorist groups he sponsored, and he rounded up 200 Islamic militants. This proved every bit as effective as the occasional crackdown Yasser Arafat announces against his terrorist friends. Musharraf kept the militants in jail until the world`s attention wandered -- which doesn`t take long -- then let them out again. Since then, they have bombed a bus full of women and children and attacked an Indian army outpost.

If you wonder what makes Musharraf think he can get away with this, consider President Bush`s most recent statement on the issue: ``He must stop the incursions across the Line of Control. He must do so. He said he would do so. We and others are making it clear to him that he must live up to his word.`` This is exactly how the administration has talked about Yasser Arafat -- who, despite his continued support of terrorism, still gets U.S. funding and political support.

Like the war in Israel, the coming war between India and Pakistan is deeply connected to America`s interests. For example, how did the sponsor of Kashmir`s terrorism, Pakistan`s Inter-Services Intelligence, react when an Afghan warlord declared holy war against the United States on Thursday? Hamid Gul, former head of the ISI, told reporters: ``There is certainly a lot of sympathy for him in ISI, but that doesn`t necessarily translate into material assistance.`` How reassuring.

A dictatorship whose powerful intelligence service is sympathetic to a holy war against the United States is not an ally in the War on Terrorism. To think that they are an illusion, and like all foreign policy illusions, this one has deadly consequences. Millions of people may die in a nuclear war that America can prevent.

America must come off the fence and take India`s side in this conflict. Pakistan`s leaders may delude themselves that they can survive India`s superior conventional and nuclear capabilities. But they will not dare to oppose the United States, especially now that American troops are stationed in Pakistan and American planes fly freely through its airspace. As former ISI chief Gul puts it, ``The Americans are everywhere here right now.``

Pakistan`s time is up. It can no longer be trusted to fight against terrorism. The country should be thoroughly garrisoned with American troops; our military and intelligence apparatus should direct all efforts toward gaining control of Pakistan`s nuclear weapons; we must subject the country to a de facto occupation. We must stop being ``allies`` and start giving orders.

The Bush administration launched its War on Terrorism by abandoning Israel to a massive wave of suicide bombings. America should not continue this policy by abandoning another victim of terrorism, India, to a brutal nuclear war.

Watch What You Say

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

NEW YORK TIMES

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Before recounting how President Clinton burned alive dozens of Christians (this feint is known in the column trade as baiting the right), let me offer a quick historical quiz: What religion were Muhammad`s parents?

You might think that they, like most people in Arabia in the sixth century, probably worshiped tribal gods and idols. It might seem difficult for anyone to have been a Muslim before Muhammad.

If that`s what you think, bite your tongue — if you visit Pakistan.

Dr. Younus Shaikh, a teacher at a medical college, sits in a brick prison here, after being sentenced to death for blasphemy last year. I couldn`t interview him because the warden caught me trying to slip into the prison as a visitor (I didn`t look like a family member). But the issues are clear.

.....more at

http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=213153

Claude Arpi

Homelands in Pakistan

One form of relaxation for me is watching sports programmes on television. On the same sports channel, Pakistan TV beams its daily news and very often I watch it for a short time. The music programmes and the serials, I must say, are not very different from Hindi serials aired on the Sahara channel. If a test were conducted and any foreigner asked which of the two countries a particular programme belonged to, very few would guess right.



The same holds true for the ads. This is no doubt normal for two nations which share 5,000 years (minus 50) of history.

But one thing is radically different and nobody can miss it: the news.

Whatever relaxation I may have enjoyed on the sports channel quickly fades away when I hear (and see) the systematic and constant anti-India propaganda. It seems that this nation (or at least its government) has had for the past 50 years only one obsession: India.

Within this obsession, there is another: Kashmir. You cannot watch a single news bulletin or debate without hearing about the `excesses of the Indian security forces` on the people of Kashmir `struggling for their self-determination`, though it is usually the same footage of security forces facing a mob during one of the Srinagar bandhs shown again and again.

Now, a new topic has recently appeared on PTV: the regrettable riots in Gujarat, which followed the Godhra incident. Since Gujarat saw an outburst of violence, PTV News seems full of delectation. The tone is, `did we not tell you that they would do this?` It is so excessive that it makes one feel Pakistan may not be fully innocent of the incident.

It is not only television but also other media who are enjoying this new occasion for India-bashing. For example, a Pakistani news Web site, Paknews.com, wrote an article titled Thank God we have Pakistan last month.

Not only did they declare that ``genocide against minorities is nothing new in India or in Indian-occupied areas``, but went one step further and announced a partition of India. For the purpose they quote some US media: ``This has led to vocal calls from Information Times, an American Media in Washington DC for the breakup of India into smaller countries where minorities are in the government and are able to protect their rights. This idea of partition has again come up after 55 years because the underlying argument of `Two-Nation Theory`, which was basis of creation of Pakistan, a home and safe haven for Muslims is once again valid and applicable on India. However, this time around, rather than creation of disparity in countries, India is eight times bigger than Pakistan, creation of smaller countries of equal area and resources should be carved out of India.

``In Pakistan as well as overseas, every Pakistani is praying for safety of fellow Muslims in India, and is thinking, `Thank God we have Pakistan`, `Thank God for the farsightedness of Iqbal and Jinnah for creating our homeland`.``

While it is not certain that all Pakistanis are praying for the breakup of India, this article raises a very interesting point: is it not Pakistan which is on the brink of breaking up?

Recently, Fortune magazine published a long article entitled `Kidnapped Nation` by Richard Behar, which is an in-depth look into the catastrophic economic situation in Pakistan. There is no doubt that Pakistan is close to an economic collapse.

Behar was told in Quetta by one of the leaders of the jihadi outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba: ``Sept 11 was all the fault of Jews, God will destroy Bush.`` He also blamed Musharraf for the Taliban`s defeat and happily provided Fortune details about the cash, supplies and soldiers Sipah had slipped across the porous border to aid the Taliban.

Behar analysed: ``Pearl`s death and the mid-March bombing of a Protestant church in Islamabad are only the most visible signs of a dysfunctional nation -- call it Problemistan -- a country that professes to be an ally of the US in its war on terrorism, but probably harbors more terrorists than any place on earth.``

This is only one of the many journalists who have begun to see that the best ally of the US in the region is in fact the largest nest of world terrorism and that Musharraf, despite all his declarations to the contrary, cannot do anything even if he wanted to (and it is not certain at all that he wants to).

Another example of the country`s bankruptcy is Musharraf`s dramatic speech on January 12 when he announced that jihadi groups would no longer be able to operate from Pakistani soil. To give his American mentors proof of his good faith, he arrested 2,000 militants (out of a few millions). Most of them are now free.

It appears that when the Lahore high court directed the Punjab government to furnish details of the records of cases against those who were picked up, the government was unable to substantiate the cases. For example, the leader of the banned Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Prof Hafeez Mohammad Saeed, who had been detained under the Maintenance of Public Order on charges of making inflammatory speeches, has been released as the MPO empowers the government to detain a person for only 90 days.

But more serious problems are in stock for Musharraf; he may pray for India`s breakup, but there are today strong possibilities that it may happen to Pakistan.

First, he has no control over very large regions of his territory, one of the worse being the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. A few of weeks ago, a news item reported the arrest of Osama bin Laden`s senior aide Abu Zubaydah in Faislabad. It appears that the US intelligence agencies had arrested some Pakistanis in Kabul, who tipped off the Americans about bin Laden`s aide.

Another story surfaced a couple of days later: bin Laden himself had been staying in the same house a day or so earlier and had just left (probably informed by one of his contacts in the ISI) when the combined raid by the Pakistani security forces and the Federal Bureau of Investigation flew down to Faislabad. One can imagine the situation in the border areas renowned for their porousness if bin Laden could hide in the heart of the Punjab! (By the way, Musharraf had been announcing for months that bin Laden was dead, but this time he did not comment.)

The district known as the Federally Administrated Tribal Agencies has had a long history of lawlessness. It dates even before the 19th century when the British were the masters of the subcontinent ... except for a piece of land: the land of the Pushtoons (or Pathans). But the empire was always resourceful: a senior British diplomat, Sir Mortimer Durand, was requested to divide this land into two. He did so with a pen and the Pushtoons found themselves in two different countries: Afghanistan and British India. But to this day, the Pushtoon tribes on both sides of Durand`s border do not accept the existence of this stroke of his pen. It is even said that the bonds of tribe and ethnicity amongst the Pushtoons are more important than their Islamic faith.

The division did not help the British much and they had no option but to grant autonomy to these areas. It did not deter the population from dreaming of a reunification of the Pushtoon land. In the first years after the independence of Pakistan, the Government of Afghanistan took up the matter with Pakistan through Washington, which first was in two minds about the validity of the Durand Line. But the US administration knew that if Kabul`s claims were accepted, it would be the end of Pakistan as a state; it was not in their strategic interests to do so.

Apart from the fact that Musharraf has very little control over the area, the return of King Zahir Shah in Kabul leaves very little doubt that the issue of Pushtoonistan will resurface. The struggle between the Northern Alliance mainly composed of Uzbeks and Tajiks (like Ahmed Shah Masoud) against the Pathan regimes in Kabul is also to be seen in this perspective. It was certainly one of the reasons why Islamabad had to `control` Kabul`s regime and why the ISI with the help of the CIA installed the Taliban.

After `Problemistan` and `Pushtoonistan`, the other headache for the Pakistani general is `Sindhistan`. Though a few days ago the Mohajir leader Altaf Hussain said he was `neutral` about the referendum proposed by Musharraf, he has not always been neutral and the separatist tendencies of Sindh are very much present today.

In September last year, Hussain delivered a fiery speech by telephone from London. He said he ``will launch a struggle for self-determination`` in Pakistan`s Sindh province. He was ready to approach ``the United Nations, United States, India and other democratic countries``.

For Hussain, 54 years ``under the colonial yoke of the Punjabi establishment were enough``. He declared that it was the mission of his life to free Sindh.

Hussain, who leads the Mohajirs -- about 20 million Muslims who migrated to Pakistan from India during and after Partition -- feels that his community has received no rights in Pakistan. ``We were deceived in the name of Islam.``

He accused the Punjabi establishment of regarding the Mohajirs, the Sindhis and the Baluchis as security risks when they get government positions and concluded: ``No one will grant you your rights, you will have to take it from the usurpers.``

On top of this, Pakistan has a very serious problem in the northern areas of occupied Kashmir. An announcement from the Chinese Xinhua News Agency reported last week that the Khunjerab pass between Sinkiang and Pakistan will finally be reopened in May for the first time after September 11.

This pass is one of the most strategic regions in the world because of the old US-Pakistan-China axis. (One should not forget that it was Ayub Khan who battered the first Mao-Nixon meeting in the early 70s.) Soon after the destruction of the twin towers, it was reported that jihadi tribes had taken over the pass and no one was allowed to go through. The safest bet for China (and perhaps for Musharraf) was to close the pass.

Just before the Agra summit, the general had a series of consultations with political and religious leaders of Pakistan, including Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, but he did not invite any representative of the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) for these discussions. The reason came to be known later: in June 2001, Gilgit and its surroundings were in a serious state of unrest due to protests from Sunni organisations over the decision of the local administration to introduce separate religious textbooks in the schools for the Shias (who are in a majority in Gilgit). Embarrassed by the incident, Musharraf stopped all movement between Gilgit and Pakistan and imposed very strict censorship.

In the ensuing riots thousands of activists from different political Sunni groups blocked the roads to the city of Gilgit to prevent Pakistani reinforcements from reaching the spot. They had finally to be rushed by helicopters and the demonstrators were ruthlessly removed. This is only one of many incidents that have occurred recently.

An attitude similar to the one adopted by Islamabad in Sindh and Baluchistan was noted by an Indian journalist who visited Gilgit in March. He was told by Ali Mardan, the editor of the local weekly Naqqara: ``If the government continues to ignore the grievances of the Northern Areas, it could even end up facing an armed struggle.`` He added: ``Pakistan does not trust the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. To date, we have never had a local chief secretary or police chief. They are either Punjabis or Pathans.`` One of the interviewed persons told the journalist: ``At least in your part of Kashmir, though he is a puppet, a Kashmiri Muslim is at the helm.``

For 50 years these areas have never been administrated by a Kashmiri and even the National Kashmir Committee, recently created by Islamabad under the chairmanship of Abdul Qayyum Khan, has very few Kashmiri members.

Certain quarters in Pakistan may continue to `thank God for the farsightedness of Iqbal and Jinnah for creating our homeland`, but the fact remains that there are today several `homelands` in Pakistan. One does not see how the general, even if he gets a five-year new lease as the master of Pakistan, will be able to contain the centrifugal forces with his cosmetic reforms and grandiloquent anti-India speeches.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/apr/26guest.htm

re: rozaiba # 12

Let us be a bit charitable to individuals, even if they are power-grabbing generals.

Individuals, even incompetent and misguided ones, play only limited roles. For, each institution/system of governance has its set of peculiar/inherent weaknesses that are hard to set right. The infirmities of a military-dominated polity are all too visible in Pakistan. We in India are stuck with ``democratic`` problems - goonda raaj, rampant corruption, crooked religionism, casteism, nepotism, violence, slow growth, and sheer incompetence all around.

I sympathize with Musharraf now. His own militant game has overwhelmed him. Let us hope he is not completely washed off by the forces he nourished. There is a lot to be concerned about in both India and Pakistan. In Pakistan, I am more concerned now by the possibility a semblance of power passing into the hands of incompetent political lackey of the military, like Imran Khan. Democracy, a system bad enough even in the best of times, will get a further bad name then. Well, we will see that too.

``Handpicked politicians of a politically impotent denomination are flying away

towards foreign skies to promote the Kashmir cause in the world--------Leghari,

Ferrari..``

Are Leghari & Ferrari italians hired as counterweight to Sonia Gandhi?

http://www.theglobalist.com/nor/richter/2002/06-13-02.shtml

Globalist

http://www.theglobalist.com/nor/readlips/2002/04-30-02.shtml

ummm...forget my problems with this article, I`m more curious to know why Ali feels he needs to refer to women spreading their legs rather than giving some constructive criticism as to what is wrong with Khar`s article. If this is the only level you`re able to respond at Ali baba, then what pray tell makes you better than Khar?

MS Khar, you have many good points. however, it is too late to plead to musharaf or to pray to god for seeing musharaf`s `reforms` through.

dime-a-dozen Generals of Pakistan have proved yet again that they are only capable of hoarding the wealth of the country and hallucinating people with kashmir and thus spurring on a sort of `military-industrial` complex......sorry- i meant `military-feudal` complex with which the feudals along with the dime-a-dozen generals can call all the shots.

all these faujis pissing around in every state institution from WAPDA to sports boards, look very disgusting. even maulvis like fazlur rahman are not as filthy.

chap???????

``but Musharaff’s entire sex appeal lies in his booting the politicians and mullahs. The public presently feels cuckolded by his courting the politicians; letting the Mullahs walk after a few days behind bars..``----not quite my simple minded man. his appeal lay in the people`s exasperation with the system and their faith in his ability to deliver. The common man on the street doesnt really care about Kashmir, mullas, politicians, as long as they can make an honest living, feed their kids and themselves three times a day...it all goes to the basics. btw what does daddy have to say about your writing? just curious.

``A Sadat/Gorbachev type figure is needed and it doesn’t matter whether he/she comes from India or Pakistan...``--- Sadat/Gorbachev? you`re kidding right? either you have access to some very strange brand of history or you`re regurgitating something you overheard on the idiot box, but the two had nothing in common. Gorby may have attempted reform but he fell very flat in terms of delivering to the people - he may be the darling in the West and the US university lecture circuit...but...please go back to the books and read some Russian analysis on Gorby. He was no Sadat by a long shot.

``In politics being good is not necessarily good enough; especially when the entire citadel of goodness...``----experience speaketh young scion of punjabi politics?

``Presently the world community is ready to look the other way if a few fanatical rodents are fumigated...`` ---few? o wow. this gets better than an ISI analysis!!!! they are far from few and if anyone has any pretensions that sub kuch theek ho jaye ga...they better think again. they are neither few nor are they rodents. I`m no fundo-lover but one has to give them their due...they are better organized, highly motivated, and very smart individuals to be counted among these ``rodents``; and they know how to execute (no pun intended). While we chill and surf the net and read (and reply to ppl like Mr. Khar), these guys are out there getting their fresh harvest of recruits from the madrassas, training them and sending them to battle. Mark my words ladies and gentlemen things will get a lot worse before they get better. Welcome to Algreia-style Pakistan for a decade to come!

Re: Hobbyty

``...May Allah keep Mr. Musharraf safe, may He deliver him from the enemies of Pakistan, May He allow Mr. Musharraf to complete the restructuring of the Pakistani State and Economy...``

And nary a word for the well-being of ordinary people in Pakistan? Musharraf will be OK -- he will retire with a pension. What about the ordinary person?