Rightsizing of the Armed Forces Coming back to the subject of what the overgrown army is costing Pakistan, Ustad Daman said the last word:

Pakistan deaN maujaN e maujaN
Jedha vaikho faujaN e faujaN

Rightsizing of the Armed Forces The author is right on. So long as the military is promoted and regarded as a sacred cow there is little hope of making anything beyond a token investment in the basic needs of the the people, food, shelter, health care, education etc. Defence and debt-servicing (which is also largely the result of fueling the military machine) consume almost the entire state revenues year after year.
And the army`s claim to the status of a sacred cow rests on the twin myths of preventing Indian aggression and ``liberation`` of Kashmir. It is high time for tha saner elements of in Pakistan refuse to be hoodwinked, opt for peace with India and let the people of Kashmir define and lead their own struggle.

Another Visit to Pakistan To Tania and and others:
There is no simple solution to Pakistan`s problems. No prescription that you can administer to corrupt politicians, power hungry generals, greedy feudals, callous bureaucrats and frothing maulanas that will set things right.The solution lies in yourseves whereever you are, provided you get involved in the struggle to change things. And the first step in such struggle is to look at the reality in all its messiness objectively, and make an attempt to understand it. To shoot the messenger is no solution. Swallowing paliatives whether they come in the form of pills or supernatural beliefs is even worse.

Another Visit to Pakistan The author Responds

To Amjad, # 1: I am not sure if Pakistanis in general are ``more united in their dislike of India`` (Some middle and upper classes are), but you are quite right that religion as such has failed to unite Pakistanis. In fact religion has been a dangerously divisive force.
No, I am afraid, hostility towards India, on official level at least, has not been difused or displaced by developments in Afghanistan. If anything, the Afghan jehad has been shifted to Kashmir, keeping the hostility alive. Tariq is doing fine.

To freethinker, #4: Yes, it is de ja vu all over again, with somewhat different nuances and ballances of political forces.
Bourgeois electoral politics is no where clean, but it is particularly dirty in Pakistan.
Yes, there are some redeemable elements among Pakistan`s people and cultures that still pulsate under the rubble of broken hopes and dreams, on the margins of the big rush to go nowhere.

To Romair, #6: Yes, the paliamentary democracy should work better if the party leaders come from lower and middle classes. But the ``elitist feudal`` classes will not allow that to happen easily. Z.A. Bhutto relied on some known lower/middle class leaders but quickly got rid of them. When Benazir took over the PPP, she was asked by a journalist, why the Party`s woking class cadres were not given tickets to run in the elections. Her reply: ``un ko vote nahiN miltay,`` they will not be voted for.
The MQM did have the composition of lower/middle class leaders, but its mohajir chauvinism, has restricted its appeal to Urban Sindh.
The problem with PTI is that it cannot outdo the mullahs at their game. People are simply not fooled by the feinged pieties and pathan (male) ghairat of its leader Imran Khan.

To urstruly, #9: I would not mind celebrating the LEFTOUT with you, if the RIGHTIN phenomenon had not brought so much shame to Pakistan.