Shoaib Malik at the cross-roads One notes a general decline in Pakistan's sporting performance, even in hockey Pakistan routinely gets beaten by India. Nobody hears of Pakistani squash players winning anywhere either. Wonder what could be the reasons for this downfall

The Good Monster: Musharraf\'s Cultural Legacy Surprising there is no comparison of Musharraf with Kemal Attaturk. Mushy is a dwarf compared to him any way, so it is not surprising that there is no comparison of Musharraf with Kemal Attaturk

Comments on Ongoing Debate about ISI in the Afghan War Pakistani strategists are actually quite adroit at making grand plans , the only thing is they always come to nought. In the aftermath of USSR intervention in Afghanistan in 1978, they saw an opportunity to profit from the situation and grabbed it. The immediate tactic was to pose as a frontline state fighting a Commumist superpower, thereby gaining sympathy, aid and weapons from the generous, gullible and fearful West. Zia played on the West's fears by constantly bombarding it with the theory that the Russians' adventure in Afghanistan was actually a launching pad for further Southward movement towards the warm waters of Arabian Sea, thereby convincing the West that the next target was Pakistan itself. This argument was swallowed by the West hook, line and sinker and the arms and money came gushing in. Of course the Army generals swallowed a considerable part of the loot.
The next trick was to actually welcome the refugees into Pakistan and then gain world sympathy. This has partly succeeded but at what cost, an entire generation of Pakistanis became addicted on drugs peddled by the refugees, a free for all gun running racket has turned vast areas into lawless regions and native Pakistanis have been elbowed out of entire vocations.
Pakistan gained the status of a frontline state and became a large madrassa for the Islamis terrorists of the world, who were given the treatment of exalted guests, some of the guests were diverted to Kashmir with the fond hope that Kashmir will fall into the lap of Pakistan just like that.

The fact is the the Russians were always maintaining a close relationship with Afghanistan, the Khalq party of Dawood, Babrak Karmal, Taraqui all being pro-communists. As a practice most Afghan students went to Eastern bloc countries for higher education and most Afghanistan army officers were trained in USSR and almost everybody spoke Russian. Afghans were always closer to Russia than they were ever to Pakistan notwithstanding the proximity. So if the Northern aliance does not want anything to do with Pakistan they are just being traditional.
It is Pakistan's wont to claim close cultural and historical ties with its western neighbours often citing and eulogising the invaders who came to India from these parts and claiming a fraternal bond, but neither Iran nor Afghanistan or for that matter the newly independent states of Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan or Tajikstan are reciprocating.

What have Pakistanis gained in return? All the grand plans have come to a naught. Afghanistan is not any closer to Pakistan that it was during the jehad, nor is it providing the proverbial depth against likely war with India. The west has dumped it as soon as its purpose was served. Kashmir remains a distant dream.The terrorists who were trained by ISI have not gone away but have become a frankenstein. The society has been devastated with three million rfugees refusing to go away and instead usurping a lot of opportunities for livelyhood which otherwise could have gone to native Pakistanis.
So the big question is why cannot Pakistan be ruled by real democrats and let it flower as a true federal democracy? It is time to send the army back to its barracks, so that the country can be governed internally democratically and externally steered with an objective foreign policy with no pretentious claims to leadership of the Muslim world

6th December 1992 Fifteen years have passed since the incident, and India has moved on. Babri Masjid might have at that point of time become a sort of symbol because of the hype it got from the press, but Muslim Indians have over the years let it slide into the background although there might be a little rancour. That is why the press in India has taken little notice of the anniversary. Likewise the assault on the Golden Temple has become history, there are hardly any Sikhs who want to rake up the issue, what's done is done. An average Muslim in India enjoys total freedom of religion, a good Muslim can go to the local mosque and offers prayers, study in the madrassa, become a maulana and a bad Muslim can enjoy all the harram things including wine and women.
No point in flogging a dead horse, see, had Chowk been in existence when the event occurred, ther would have been a flood of articles and incessant posts from angry Muslims from the Subcontinent. The response to this article is almost apolegetic.
The writer of the article need not worry, secularism in India has taken deep roots, and barring such blemishes, it is flowering as a federal, multicultural secular democracy, a beacon for many developing countries

An Insight Into Pakistan Army and Musharraf Re #45
Excellent! One of the most balanced and readable posts on Chowk. Puts across the Pakistani viewpoint succinctly and lucidly.

An Insight Into Pakistan Army and Musharraf Ditto with the Indian army, youngsters mostly young lieutnants and captains have beaten up the policemen right in the thanas when a brother officer has been manhandled by the police or the modesty of a brother officer's wife has been attacked by the policemen. Mind you, the army only has fisticuffs with the local police who are otherwise bullys and corrupt ones at that. The civilians have hugely relished this treatment meted out by the army probably because they themselves could never dream of doing it to the policemen. Of course, the local garrison commander has a lot of explaining to do to higher-ups for this esprit-de-corps displayed by the young officers, but such episodes keep the civilian police in military garrison towns on their toes and best behaviour (at least as far the army personnel are concerned). "Bloody civilian" is very much a takia kalam in the army, but no army attacks on civilians have been heard of.

The Plan To Topple Pakistan Military What a crappy article! If it had come to me in the snailmail box, I would have used it as toilet paper

First it was Bangladesh now it Baluchistan There is no central thread in the article which the reader can follow, quited a disjointed piece. Typically there is no mention of India's role without which Bangladesh would even today have been a West Pakistani colony

Taking a Gandhian Approach to Avenging the Horrors of Singur and Nandigram These bastard antinational Communists must be thrown into the Bay of Bengal, they are the biggest frauds with extra territorial loyalties, earlier they were licking the boots may be asses of their bosses in Russia, now they are trying to fight for China's interests. They loot, murder and rape and the party bosses make heaps of money, see how filthy rich the sons of the leading lights of CPM are.

The Transformation of the Punjabi Man: Pashtunization or Militarization? One poster says that Punjabis did not know whether ZAB was Bhutto or Bhutta.
A Malaysian friend told me once that the word bhutto in Malay language meant a male reproductive organ, and it was always a problem for everyone in the media and the govt to pronounce ZAB's name. They decided to call him Alibatto to spare everybody embarrassment.
If bibi becomes the PM, one does not know how the Maysians will tackle it, for there is no Ali in her name.

The Muslim Brotherhood – A Force Not to be Underestimated Makes interesting reading. The Muslim countries are so disparate otherwise, rich Arabs vis-vis poor Muslims of Indian subcontinent, civilised Iranians vis-a-vis barbaric Somalis, forward looking Turks vis-a-vis retrograde Talibs, educated and sophisticated Bosnians vis-a-vis madrassa-loving Pakistanis, that it is really difficult to visualise the whole Muslim population of the world rising together or rising to help other Muslims. The grand alliance of the Arabs against Israel has petered out leaving the Palestinians to fend for themselves. Closer home, no Muslim country came ahead to help Pakistan even as it was being split vertically in 1971.
Their conflicts with nonmuslims are also
dictated geopolitically. Muslims of Pakistan hate Hindus because their fight with India whereas no Arab, African or South East Asian muslims have a problem with India or Hindus for that matter.
With such diverse levels of prosperity, education, human development one wonders any brotherhood, Muslim or otherwise can do anything noteworthy.
Yes, the MB definitely will succeed in galvanising the members of extremist inclinations to fight in the jehad which, alas, is doomed to fail because it is so retrograde and will not generate interest in the population at large.

Cutting Down the Law Kamal Sa'ab, kudos to you! I wish CJ teaches another much needed lesson to the khaki clad scoundrel

Media and Civil Society India had the misfortune of having the media gagged during the infamous emrgency imposed by Indira Gandhi. We remember, to protest censorship, once Indian Express was printed with entire columns white (the paper chose not to publish the item rather than print the govt doctored version.

PM Shoukat Aziz Ponders a Term for Chief Justice Sehba ma'am as a back up candidate! Not much different from Bihar in India, one supposes, where Laloo Yadav enthroned his illiterate wife as the CM when he found himself ineligible for the post.

Ramadan Special: Tales of Sufi Wisdom Re: # 49
Thanks, but I thought Muqarram Saheb of the Shahi Masjid was the one who people looked at for the signal

Chunari vs. Topi As per estimates published a couple of decades ago, every fourth male in India is a homosexual or has such tendencies. So it is time the society woke up and stopped attaching a stigma to such behaviour.