by Azfar Gardezi
Let us take a few moments to review and analyze present chaotic situation in Baluchistan and NWFP, in the light of past and future.
Baluchistan is an ancient and eminent civilization. People tend to ignore the fact that actual bab-ul-Islam of sub-continent is Baluchistan, which was conquered by a mission sent out by Caliph Omar, originally for Basra, but was directed on special orders of caliph Omar to further move towards east in Baloch areas. After the creation of Pakistan, various tribes and states of Baluchistan conceded to federation of Pakistan during the years of 1947 – 1948. The most noted Baloch tribes gathered under the chair of Nawab of Qallat to form a union of their states and tribes, acknowledging the federation of Pakistan. The mists of time have buried down many of our golden historical memories. In Pakistan’s first general elections in 1970, PPP acquired majority in the regions of Punjab and Sindh, whereas the major tribal and political leaders of regions of Baluchistan registered their inclination towards Awami league of East Pakistan. Baluchistan faced turmoil when PPP secured power in Pakistan, after fall of Dhaka. Logically, it appears that it may have been this time when the master minds of allied capitalistic forces would identify the region of Baluchistan as a potential separatist candidate “just in case”. The reason was simple that notables of Baluchistan had actually shown very clear aspirations for Mujeeb and awami league, and they had identified and related to the persecution faced by East Pakistan. Based on this “important” observation, the genius allied capitalists would then build up a smart plan to chop region of Baluchistan off Pakistan’s federation, and turn it into the most important geo-political location of the world in the beginning of 21st century.
Mr. Bhutto, as shrewd as he was, also identified this danger at its very beginning. His intention may be justified because it served the purpose of strengthening federation of Pakistan, but his actions turned out to be so intense that Baluchistan had to face a full-fledge army action, with most of its leaders and notables of the province either in jail or on exile. And this was an ideal time for agencies like CIA, MOSAD, RAW and KGB to select their agents out of these jailed and exiled notables. Those who didn’t join hands with any of these agencies gradually faded off the political arena of Pakistan. Isn’t this an irony!
The decades to come would see the separatist longing of Baloch leaders growing stronger day by day. It appears that during 80s and 90s, KGB and RAW fed this ignition to this dim torch of Baloch separatist and nationalist agenda, but during Musharaf era in Pakistan, when CIA became immensely deep rooted in this region in the guise of war-on-terror, all these intelligence bonds were re-arranged. KGB was successfully chopped off and RAW was made to join hands with CIA to fire up whole Baluchistan with separatist agenda. RAW provided (and does provide till to date) support to Baluchistan “liberation” elements, while CIA facilitated this agenda from within Pakistan. Federation of Pakistan was very late to respond to this building chaos in Baluchistan. Although the federation of Pakistan tried it’s best to play some cat and mouse hunt, by desperate influx of development and investments in Baluchistan, especially Gwadar and some other mineral rich areas, and by taking extreme measures of killing and prosecuting Baloch notables, but it was simply too late. The separatist fire had been well lit up by then. Just as a final note regarding Baluchistan turmoil, we may not neglect the fact, other than its extreme geo-political importance, that it is huge reserves of Oil, gas, gold, copper, titanium and many other minerals, while Gwadar being geo-graphically most feasible deepest port in the world.
Now let’s turn our attention to the anarchy in the regions of NWFP. Another twisted tale! The area of NWFP has historically been considered as a gateway to a golden land – The Hind, or in other words, the sub-continent, which used to be major economic power of world till as late as early nineteenth century. It has been attracting attention of invaders for centuries of centuries. NWFP was a door step to sub-continent for each of these invaders. This may be one of reasonable arguments for aggressive and rough attitudes of tribal masses, who faced a lot such trespassers over the course of history. When Pakistan came into being in 1947, various tribal leaders and political leaders made a pact with government of Pakistan, to become part of its federation. Although Indian national congress had enjoyed huge support in this region previously, it took just a few years by Quaid e Azam and all India Muslim League to uproot influence of congress in this region. After becoming part of Pakistan’s federation, people and tribes of NWFP became loyal and dutiful wholeheartedly to the Islamic republic of Pakistan. In early days of Pakistan, when voice for help was raised from Kashmir, the people of NWFP were first to respond, penetrating as much inside Kashmir as the suburbs of Srinagar. In 1970, NWFP major leadership also showed their political aspirations towards Awami league of East Pakistan. A separatist emotion was taking root within the representatives of the province. Unfortunately same thing happened to NWFP – they had to face an army action in Bhutto’s reign. PPP’s influence had suffered terribly after the assassination of their popular leader from NWFP – Hayat Mohammad Khan Sherpao, in 1975. The exact situation between NWFP and federation at that time could be explained by just a quick example – Asfandyar Wali khan was nominated as principle accused by PPP federal government! Logically, this may be the time when the major master minds of the world would have figured out the separatist sensitivity of this region. This was exactly the time, when capitalist and communist blocks had agreed on an agenda – to stop the emergence of an Afro-Asian block within third world. All third world leaders who had been struggling to realize an Afro-Asian block, were being assassinated politically or ‘actually’. Mr. Bhutto, who was one of main vocals and movers for Afro-Asian block, proved to be one of the best leaders at a foreign policy making level, but his hold on home-affairs was terrible, and his mistakes made it easier for the capitalists and communists to take him off the scene. The crisis that had emerged in NWFP played a pivotal role in Bhutto’s end. NWFP suddenly went peaceful when Zia took over the show. Isn’t this yet another irony? Zia regime got even luckier with Soviet invasion on Afghanistan. Zia regime decided to take an active part in this conflict, rightfully realizing the dangers to follow, if they didn’t stop Soviet infiltration in the region. (God knows why Pakistani government lost this reasonable approach when capitalist allies did the same recently!). So, Pakistan fought back with an agenda to push Soviet armies as far as the other side of Amo River. This was the time when world was taken aback by the superb professional performance of intelligence service of Pakistan – the ISI, which was mostly known for it low level political-home-affairs activities, prior to that. This was the time, when ISI conducted two major operations for the country, namely; the anti-Soviet Jihad, and the fulfillment nuclear program. It may not be a wise argument to say that Carter and Reagan regimes had no clue of Pakistan’s activities during this time. In fact they kept a very close eye on whole situation and the capitalist allies came up with a very smart plan. They used their geo-political influence, especially over the Middle East, to convert this Pak- Afghan conflict with Soviets into a holy war – the Jihad. People of NWFP, as pure-hearted as they were, stood by this foreign policy of federation and rose up for help of their Afghan brothers. After this Jihad was declaration by all Muslim sects and countries, the religious Muslim groups came pouring in from all parts of world. As the maturing scenario in the region dictates, that this was a deliberate move by allied capitalists. They were actually containing religious Muslims groups within this region, so that they would not have to fight a whole billion of Muslims, when they turned to their anti-Islamic crusade in days to come. This was done successfully. All Muslim countries were pushed to discourage the re-entry of these Jihadists back to their respective countries, after this anti-soviet war was over. Hence they were force to be contained within these regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. These regions were left in a very well-devised chaos. Ironically, Pakistan and Afghanistan would never be able to achieve political harmony needed to address this chaos in years to come, till the time when the allied capitalists staged the drama of war-on-terror!
We can go on and on this whole problem that Pakistan is being faced with. But, this will only plunge us more into the rogue perceptions that have been developed by the master minds of allied capitalists. Thus, to conclude the article, I just want to request to Pakistanis that, this is our chance to thrust out of all such wrong perceptions that we’re made to live in. This is the time when we have to realize that all perceptions that have been fed to us by very well devised conspiracies, are nothing more than just fake! It is unfortunate that these conspirators control both cause and effect of such artificial chaos. But, only if we open our eyes and ears collectively, and see behind the scenes of such conspired anarchy, we can still save our beloved Country from extreme dangers. We can still continue our journey of prosperity and progress, only if we keep our faith in the might of God, stay united against all conspiracies and become a very well disciplined nation against each and every conspiracy. Please always remember that Unity, faith and discipline is not just a slogan or a fundamentalist religious philosophy, it is the key to success and prosperity. May Pakistan live forever, InshAllah.
Pakistan Zindabad!
by Asif Salahuddin
They have no tolerance. They speak, abusively if necessary, and desire little debate in return. They order and demand to be obeyed. They care not of another’s grievance or state of affairs, nor make any effort towards an understanding of such. They choose to remain ignorant of the world around and its realities that impact them. They wish their every whim to be met and every diktat to be followed by all. They are prepared to use violence – brutal, unrelenting and destructive violence – until they get their way.
Bearded, uneducated, warrior tribes from the North West reaches of Pakistan? No. The real extremists of Pakistan are the pseudo-intellectual, liberal elite dining away and making merry in the posh settings of Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.
For it is at their insistence that the might of the Pakistan army has been hurled indiscriminately at an entire civil populace, resulting in its wake the displacement of over 3 million people and the death of thousands. This now stands as the largest unsettlement of humankind caused by man since the Rwandan massacres in Africa fifteen years ago and further bigger than the migration during the Indian partition itself. All because of the US backed lie that a few thousand rag tag group of fighters could capture the capital and hence overrun the country.
These extremists sitting at the helm of the country have swallowed every instruction and propaganda issued by the Americans and in doing so have taken Pakistan down a path of self obliteration. The entire army now stands pitted against a major ethnic race in Pakistan and this in turn bodes only one outcome for the country – civil war leading to state level disintegration akin to the loss of East Pakistan.
Such individuals have chosen to completely overlook the fact that a major foreign power has shifted its entire focus on the region after having just meted out the same policy on Iraq where it has succeeded in destabilising the entire state and engulfing the country with ethnic and sectarian flames. They have ignored the fact that the USA has a brutal and dark track record of using its intelligence agencies to ferment such turmoil in countries and that these very agencies have now settled in Pakistan and have been given a free reign to run amok. The CIA and FBI are openly known to have offices in every main city, airport and a thorough presence in the capital Islamabad.
Such extremists, falling into two overlapping camps, are both drawn from the sitting and opposition political leaders, bureaucrats, elements of the so called ‘civil society’ and serving and retired military leaders. The first group has continued to grip the reins of power in the country and all the perks that come with it; essentially the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from the USA for the trough from which only their snouts will gorge out of. The second group is a fanatically secular band that will turn vile the moment the words Islam and society are mixed in the same sentence.
Together, they have managed to execute quite immaculately the American plan to turn the US’s War on Terror into Pakistan’s War on Terror, since the people of Pakistan have simply refused to back the former.
But perhaps the biggest shame is that the real intellectual element of our society has gone along with this, or at best is standing idle at the wayside as silent observers, for it has been very easy to accept the mistruths churned out by the extremists.
The real truth – a lot harder to swallow – is that the US wishes to achieve complete domination in the region. It has to ensure that the planned oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia running through Afghanistan, down to the ports of Pakistan, remain undisturbed. Further it must guarantee that the waterways near the coast of Pakistan are never threatened by any other power and that the control of this vital Middle-Eastern oil artery remains completely under its domain. In doing so the US has concluded that the only real way to implement this is to militarily occupy the region and eventually carve up Pakistan into smaller, weaker and hence more manageable states.
However, this is something which the Muslim community in the ‘AfPak’ region have declined to play ball with as they simply refuse to be a subjugated people; they demonstrated this with the British over a century ago, they demonstrated this with the Soviets twenty years ago and they are now making this clear to the Americans. As long as these fighters attack the US troops in Afghanistan, and continue to disrupt their main supply line which comes from Pakistan, the US will not be able to achieve its materialistic objectives in the region.
After repeated drone attacks the US simply cannot stamp out this resistance. Nor has it been able to send its own troops across the border to tackle these elements, partly due to the immense anti-American public opinion in Pakistan. But what the US has now succeeded in doing is to get the Pakistan army to fight its war.
But how long will the sincere elements of Pakistan stand by and watch the country being torn apart for a foreign objective under the whims of such extremists? How long will the sincere officers in the Pakistan army continue to act submissively under the orders of their traitor commanders and continue with this utter madness that has gripped the country? They must act now and listen to the voices of reason around them that call them to a new future for our Islamic nation. They must act now otherwise very soon it will be too late and America would have won.
Watch an important analysis on PBS, where Bill Moyers sits down with award-winning investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill to examine the human and financial costs of America’s wars.
by Ibrahim M Khalil
At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, let me quote a joke that was making the round couple of years ago.
After a meeting between Manmohan Singh and Pervez Musharraf, an announcement is made that Kashmir issue has been resolved. At the press conference, Manmohan Singh says that “Pakistan has agreed to give up its claim of holding a plebiscite in Kashmir. General Musharraf will inform you of the rest of the details”.
General Musharraf comes on the microphone and says, “We have fought three wars with India over Kashmir. Our army is always alert on our eastern border. By resolving the Kashmir issue not only will we have peaceful and prosperous relations with India but also our defense expenditures will come down as our huge army will not need to be high alert all the time.” There is muted response from the Pakistani press. So the General continues “In return for giving up the right on Kashmir, India will give a strip of land to Pakistan along India-Pakistan border where we will establish DHA societies that will act as our first line of defense.”
After listening to President Zardari’s solution of establishing cantonments in Swat for continued peace in region, the above joke starts to feel like a serious contender for a peace proposal.
One could have forgiven President Zardari for coming up with such an immature solution given that he has a certified mental condition as well as he may be farther from ground realities on account of spending more time outside the country on his so called fund raising trips. However, the solution was not his brain child and came after he held a high level meeting with military high command as well as his political advisors. If this is the case, it shows a total lack of administrative insight, leadership foresight and political acumen in our leaders military and civilian.
Let’s take the example of Karachi. Despite so many Askari residential schemes as well as cantonment areas such as Faisal cantonment area, Saddar cantonment area, Clifton cantonment area plus areas reserved for air force and navy personnel Karachi is a vice den with record number of mobile snatchings, car liftings, target killings, rioting, kidnapping for ransom etc. with the latest news being that ransom amount is used for financing Taliban etc.
However, supporters of Zardari’s proposal might fight back with the statement that problems of Swat and Karachi are different. Taliban insurgency is not the problem in Karachi, at least for now. Ok. Then take Peshawar for example. The question is: if we set up a cantonment in Peshawar, would we be able to avoid the suicide blast in Pearl Continental? But suicide blasts are a new phenomenon with no sure shot way of tackling it if we go by media appearances of our security experts and advisors. Ok. Establishing a cantonment in Peshawar will discourage the Taliban, fear of whom has forced the foreign bankers to wear shalwar kameez and lady doctors to take up Chadors. But wait, Peshawar already has a cantonment!
The problem in Swat is not unique. We are facing similar insurgencies in other Tribal Areas and similar trouble can also arise in any other part of the country as well e.g. southern Punjab. The solution that should be implemented in Swat should be such that firstly, it has chances of being successful and secondly, it should be easily replicable in other areas. The proposed solution is found wanting in the first condition (as shown in Peshawar) and if it fulfills the second condition the national expenditure will be part of defense expenditure rather than the other way around.
Even if we go through with the plan, how are we going to fund the costs of setting up these cantonment areas? The budget presented in the parliament is already ludicrous with expenses far exceeding realizable receipts. Defense takes up significant proportion of our national expenditure and if we start setting up these cantonment areas (which have proven to be ineffective in metropolitan areas) every where there is a threat of talibanization or law and order situation, we will just be over burdening our budget with more defense expenditures.
I believe the solution to the Swat problem is much simpler and less costly:
1. Proper law enforcement force i.e., well trained and well armed Police
2. Functioning courts
3. Elimination of status of Swat as Tribal Area and bring it under constitution of Pakistan
If the government drags its feet in the later two areas even then the first step, establishment of a proper law enforcement force, can be much more effective than a military cantonment. The third step may appear unnecessary but it prevents vested interests to implement such hastily cooked up decisions, without debating them in the parliament, through provincial chief minister or President. If we debate the issue in the parliament, at least we will have some discussion of pros and cons of each strategy even if we decide to go with the cantonment plan.
The speed with which the proposal was devised and the subtle manner it has been ignored or given a silent nod by media, I am sure we will be hearing in a few days that land has been marked for cantonment area (which was incidentally flattened by non-stop shelling and bombing) and construction has started even before IDPs have been rehabilitated.
by Dr Qaisar Rashid
How to make the Muslims forget the follies of the regime led by the former US President, George W Bush, seems the main foreign policy agenda of the incumbent President, Barack Hussain Obama.
Once reputation is tarnished, its salvage is difficult is the dilemma the Obama regime including Hillary Clinton is confronted with for the US. On June 5, 2009, at Cairo University, Egypt, Obama took finally a daring decision to reach out to the Muslims in general in an attempt to make them forget the words like ‘crusade’ used for the war on terror and overlook the places like Guantanamo Bay. Instead, the Muslims were urged to share a common ground of trust, harmony, and respect.
Obama’s speech depicted clearly a change in the thinking of the Americans in general. Obama’s words personified that change to end hostility with the Muslims. Nevertheless, Obama was not totally defensive. He forwarded his case successfully regarding violent extremism, the Palestinian-Israel issue, nuclear capability, democracy, religious freedom, women rights and economic development affecting the Muslims in general.
The contents of the speech were recognition of the fact that the US did recognize existence of the fault lines, whether those were on the ideological plane or the cultural front, between the countries populated by the Muslims and those inhabited by the Christians. Unlike Bush, who took upon himself the task of introducing democracy to the world, Obama unequivocally said that the US would not force democracy on any country; the matter of having democracy or not would be of one’s choice. This message was basically directed to the regimes of the Middle East having the wealth of oil and fear of democracy. Secondly, this message of Obama might have pleased Hosni Mubarak who had been ruling Egypt authoritatively for the past several years.
In Obama’ speech, the phrase the ‘Muslim world’ was not used. So the addressee was the Muslim audience. Through his speech, Obama tried to elevate the ego of the Muslims to make them feel respected in the eyes of the Christians when Obama referred to the past and praised the contributions made by the Muslims to the fields of science and arts. In the speech, there was also an undertone of request to the Muslims to re-start contributions scientifically, as they used to do in the past, and not to be dragged along, as the current situation is: the Muslims should be constructive contributors to the development of the world rather than liability on the world. Nevertheless, as a Christian, Obama extended a hand of friendship towards the Muslims and, through his speech, made the 1.5 billion Muslims of the world realize that they were not irrelevant to be written off.
Obama acknowledged that in the presence of mistrust amassed over the years, “no single speech” could eradicate mistrust. Nonetheless, in the context of the US, the first problem was with the words. Wrong words were uttered by the Bush regime. Even if the wrong deeds do not follow them, only the words do the damage. This time, at least, noble words have been used by Obama. Further, at least, no harm has been inflicted on the feelings and aspirations of the Muslims in general. Whether the words of Obama are translated into concrete policies or not will be decided by time, nevertheless, the speaker, Obama will remain accountable for what he said and pledged publicly.
One of the major issues Obama focused on was the Palestine issue, the main source of mistrust between the Muslims and the US. For the Palestinians and Israel, Obama’s speech was a policy speech. Obama made the contours of his foreign policy public. Unlike Bush, Obama did not accept the changing “ground realities” on the West Bank happening under the pretence of the ‘natural growth’ for the expansion of the Jews settlements. On the one hand, Obama neutralized the existential threat to Israel posed by Iran (when Ahmedinejad, the President of Iran, questioned presence of Israel in the Middle East); on the other hand, Obama acknowledged the historical (and religious) right of the Jews to have a homeland in the Middle East – but asked them to respect the right of the Palestinians to have their own independent state with defined geographical boundaries promised to them earlier under the UNSC resolutions.
Obama was in need of partners in the Middle East that could guarantee existence of Israel and lessen the fear for and against Israel. Seeking partners in the rulers is one thing, but Obama was looking for amiable Arab populace towards Israel. Over the years of experience, the US has realized that unless the common Arabs support the US policies in the region, no favourable change for Israel can take place. The status quo is creating more complications than solutions.
Obama had aptly realized that the “new beginning” between the US and the Muslims was not possible without settlement of the core issue of Palestine. Further, Obama knew that no opening was available in the Middle East if the issue of Palestine would not be addressed. By speaking for the right of the Palestinians to live honourably in their homeland, Obama carved out a window of opportunity to forge friendly ties with the Arabs of the Middle East.
About Iran, two points are clear from Obama’s speech: Iran will not be allowed to rise as a regional player lest it might challenge Israel directly and that Iran will be denied nuclear technology lest it might make a bomb to balance Israel. So, the major challenge to the speech of Obama is supposed to come from Iran. How Iran protects its interests and how Iran ensures its honourable survival in the region are yet to be seen.
by Husham Ahmed
Voices of reason and critique are often drowned in the sounds of gunfire and heavy artillery shelling. This current operation ‘Rah-e-Rast’, or what is being termed as a ‘War for Pakistan’s survival’, has resulted in an exodus of almost 3 million people which might just be another number for those who are at the helm of affairs in Islamabad. Dawn’s magazine Herald wrote in its editorial: “Fear of Taliban being just 60 kilometers away from the country’s capital has mobilized the people to support war….But more seriously still, it has ensured that we have willingly put aside the right to ask questions and the right to hold institutions accountable. We are so desperate to get rid of the Taliban that we do not want to raise any questions about how this can be done.” It is time to ask some tough questions.
Herman Goering, the head of German Luftwaffe, remarked at Nuremberg trials: “Of course, the people don’t want war….But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along… Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.” We have seen how fear can drive a nation to support an illegal war thousands of miles away in case of Iraq invasion. That is why it is necessary that with our high running emotions against Militants and against their brutal acts of terror, we do not forget the importance of transparency, accountability and self-critique.
Oddly enough media has bought the state line that they can not be allowed on the ground. Just like the civil society has accepted the fact that there will be collateral damage. The importance of independent war reporting can not be overstated. It not only ensures transparency but also helps to dispel all the conspiracy theories, which only dwell due to lack of information, and which often hurt the cause itself. Right now the media is only reporting the official information as facts.
There is also confusion about what we are currently involved in, between the different organs of the state. While DG ISPR Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas terms this a fully blown counter-insurgency operation, the hero of Bajaur IG Frontier Corps Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan considers it a law and order problem that the forces have to deal with. Dr. David Kilcullen, a former advisor to General Petraeus and an expert in insurgencies, remarks: “killing the enemy is strictly secondary in an insurgency situation…what you have to do is to protect the population and prevent the insurgents from intimidating them, so that you can break the cycle of insurgent threat to them.” According to him, there are three steps involved: clear, hold and build. He thinks that while Pakistani forces might clear the militants from the affected areas, but the state institutions are not capable enough to hold and build. This is exactly what the French realized in Algeria when they decided to deploy small number of troops in the population, and what the U.S. did in Iraq in the policy of ‘surge’ when they abandoned large bases to come into the populated areas and used the local intelligence.
Resorting to heavy indiscriminate shelling on certain occasions from the peripheries has resulted in civilian casualties. Army is still not willing to give any number on that. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas only reiterates that the ‘collateral damage is minimum’ but he stops short of giving the exact number. Dawn recently reported that on 18 May, in an incident confirmed by police sources, military shelling killed several people trying to flee a Swat town, including women and children.
There is also a trust deficit between those who have to pay the heavy price of this conflict and those who are calling the shots. Winning the hearts and minds of the locals is of utmost significance. There are many who neither support the army nor the Talibans as they have often fallen prey to both. The earlier three uncompleted operations have left the people of Swat sceptical about the commitment of the army.
On May 17, ISPR reported that 36 illegal radio stations were operating in Sultanwas and Buner alone. Residents of Bajaur agency say that the radio transmission has again started even though the army claims that the area has been flushed out of militants. These radio stations comprise of a low power transmitters that can be carried in a bag and can be operated on a car battery. In the past their mobility has been presented as the reason of incapability of government to track and curb their transmission. There are jamming devices that can override the illegal signals with a powerful signal of the same frequency even if the location of transmitter is unknown. These kinds of devices must be sought to put an end to these malevolent sermons.
Last but not the least, what else is government planning to fight extremism? This current operation is supposed to be a prong of a comprehensive strategy, not the complete strategy. Will only a military adventure in Swat and FATA solve our problems? Ajmal Kisab comes from Okara, Punjab. Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi is from Gujranwala, a crime ridden region. Hafiz Saeed belongs from Sargodha, an area that is replete with family feuds. Dera Gazi Khan and Bahawalpur are ripe with sectarianism, underdevelopment and crippled social infrastructure. These areas are very much the part of governed territory.
Relief work for the IDPs is underway. The rehabilitation and reconstruction are the later stages in this long effort which must not be worn out by time. These people have already faced four episodes of military operations, and the desperation and frustration runs deep. There will be no next chance soon. That is why it has to be done right this time. The sacrifices of our brave soldiers must be honoured, but at the same time it must not stop us from demanding more transparency and accountability. To support the objectives of this war is one thing, and to support the way with which it is being fought is another. We must not confuse them both in our warmongering.
This poem to highlight the plight of our elders, our mothers and daughters and our children caught up in the conflict, designed in the corridors of Washington Hill DC and our own political failures through years of neglect and discrimination.
Wrapped up in million stars this old sky,
As they stare from little windows of existence
From the wooden bridge, in the mountains
As the mist rises in its colors of remembrance,
There lies the valley, where beauty is suicidal
There lies home, where protection is nature
All in there, fleeting glance or permanence
The old days of reflection, spent in between
As they whisper, ode to change and for help
In there, lies the answer to our quest for brutality
As the smoke arises from snows of purity
The blood that flows in human rivers
Amidst beautiful snow, amidst gravity
As the new born find its feet and face
There melts, the human misery now
As seeds of this disease, reaches them
No longer forbidden and remote,
In all these years of its formation
Flows there our blood in this valley
Of you and me, as we kill all in our names
The great sacrifice to our voices of conscience
Wrapped up in million stars, this sky
As they stare from little windows of existence
At you, at me, this unbearable pain
As the new born find its feet and face!
Asim Khan
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Cairo,Egypt)
————————-
All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chief Syed Ali Shah Gillani has declared all Taliban extremist activities within Pakistan as gross violations of Islam. “Islam is a religion of peace and justice and suicide bombings defame Islam and the deaths of innocents are indefensible”, Gillani said.
Speaking to the Daily Ummat correspondent, the Hurriyat Chief who is under house arrest in for the last 62 days, said: “Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other Taliban are following the enemy’s agenda. Pakistan Army needs to be supported absolutely in Operation Rahe-Rast against the Taliban. Where were these politicians who are now in favor of dialogue, ‘muzaakirat’ with the terrorists, when these murderers were blowing up schools, digging up dead bodies from graves and hanging them up on city squares? ”
Syed Ali Gillani went on to say: “Dialogue is only possible if these extremists agree to lay down arms. In any case they must not be allowed to bolster their forces. While it is true that Pakistan has a ways to go before its system can be declared fully Islamic, and it is true that the rulers have misruled, but it does not mean that innocent people in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar should be killed in suicide bombings”
Gillani continued: “Those who say that suicide bombings are a “reaction” to the Military Operation in Swat are misleading the nation. The government should have sent in the army very cautiously, and very early on. Because of government’s bad strategy and lackadaisical attitude, today 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes.”
Syed Ali Gillani had some tough words for MQM and Sindhi nationalists: “Nationalist parties in Sindh have attacked the Two Nation Theory again by impeding the entry of Swat refugees in Sindh.”
Hinting at MQM, Syed Ali Gillani said : “Those who are settled in Sindh today settled here only after becoming refugees and after escaping from their enemies with their lives, their religious faith, their daughters and their honor.”
Some discussion of the main arguments of Syed Ali Shah Gillani:
1. The “Muzakiraat” group of Imran Khan, Jamat Islami and Qazi were missing in action when the Taliban were cutting throats and hanging corpses. They have no moral right to oppose the Operation.
2. Diaogue with the Taliban should only be held if they disarm.
3. Taliban are working on Indian and Israeli agenda to dismember Pakistan. Instead of fighting Indian and American armies, they are fighting Pakistan Army and slitting throats of Muslims. This is not Jihad. This is Fitna-o-Fasaad.
4. Pakistan Army must be supported in its Operation to nip this Fasaad in the bud.
5. Taliban actions such as beheading innocents and suicide bombings are absolutely Haram and un-Islamic.
6. Suicide bombings defame Islam and kill innocents. They are haram in all cases. Those who do it in Pakistani cities are non-Muslims and Kuffaar. The military operation is only against this non-Muslim, Kafir element in Swat who is killing Muslims.
7. The “Reaction-to-X” group who insist that chopping off of heads with kitchen knives, suicide bombings and hanging corpses are reactions to the Operation are lying to Pakistanis and misleading the nation.
8. The Operation has come very late. It should have happened much earlier. The Swat peace deal allowed the Taliban to dig tunnels and build up strength to an extent that they were able to destroy heavy armored vehicles like tanks. The strength of their resistance to the Army, their sophisticated defense strategies and advanced weapons show that they never intended to keep the peace. This opportunity to rest and recover should never be granted to them again.
9. MQM, JSQM and other nationalist parties negate the Two Nation Theory with their actions which strike at the very foundation of Jinnah’s Pakistan. They have no right to stop the Swat refugees from settling in Sindh who are only escaping the brutality of throat-slitting Kafirs of Swat, i.e., the Taliban. MQM supporters ought to be especially ashamed because their forefathers also claimed refuge in this land escaping death and dishonor at the hands of non-Muslims. MQM has proven once again that it is anything but “Muttahida” Qomi Movement.
10. Jihad once meant fighting non-Muslims to liberate Muslim land, as in the struggle of Kashmiris against 700,000 Indian soldiers. The Taliban have changed this definition of Jihad to mean: Murdering fellow Muslim brothers in cold blood to capture supreme political power, to seize their homes, to confiscate their wealth and dishonor their daughters (Nikah at gunpoint).
11. This deliberate change in the meaning of Jihad is evident in Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman’s views on the Kashmir cause which are in direct contrast with his mentorship of Baitullah Mehsud and the Taliban. It is important to note that his party, JUI-F, and other Islamic parties were against the creation of Pakistan. These parties believe that Jihad in Kashmir against Indian Army and its rapes, murders and atrocities is Haram, while Jihad against kalma-go Muslims of Pakistan is Halal and Farz. The fact is, these parties and their supporters have been thoroughly rejected by the Pakistani voter and they plan to use the Taliban to capture power instead. They have been rejected by the ballot, and therefore, they have chosen to use the bullet.
by Ibrahim M Khalil
The Defense Ministry is optimistic that Military will finish Swat operation in a few days. Let us hope and pray that it ends as predicted. However, contrary to what many people believe, end of military operation will not mark the end of the problem. If the reportedly successful Bajaur operation has taught us anything, it is that a new set of challenges will be waiting for us once the military declares the area fit for repatriation of IDPs. The government needs to have a plan in place to tackle these challenges otherwise any gains that army has achieved in its war with extremists will be lost in the battle for hearts of IDPs.
First and foremost, ensure the return of IDPs to their villages. As per the portrayal of IDPs as depicted by media and government, IDPs can’t wait to go back and will return at the first available opportunity. If the Bajaur operation is anything to go by, the reality will be very different. The government offered little or no assistance when these IDPs were running for their lives, in their panic some leaving their kids, old relatives etc behind, latching onto any means of transport bus, truck, or pickup paying whatever they had on them and some even making to the camps on foot. However, the journey back will require significant role to be played by the government. Sound arrangements would have to be made for transporting them back as reversal of such a huge displacement of population with some estimates putting them at 3 million will be a logistical nightmare if not planned properly.
Two, if these IDPs are to return, efforts need to be made to resettle them. Since we have not seen the pictures of what is left of their abodes and it was the shelling rather than door to door fighting that caused the mass exodus of Swatis, there is very high probability that their houses have been razed to the ground as well as their businesses and standing crops have been destroyed. Under such circumstances a lot of them don’t have anything left to return to.
Let’s take housing. As the total extent of destruction is not clear at the moment, we cannot estimate how much funds will be required to rebuild houses for them. After the earthquake, when there was outpouring of funds and charity, the government and military still botched up the resettlement. Now when the national mood is not as sympathetic to the cause, one cannot stress the need for efforts to help settle them. What is being overlooked in the fundraising frenzy is that money is just a means to an end. Unless the funds that have been raised are channeled appropriately, the problems of rehabilitating and repatriating IDPs will remain. A large proportion of IDPs from Bajaur have not returned despite peace returning to the region as they claim they don’t have a roof left over them back home.
With their standing crops destroyed and shops razed to the ground, many of IDPs will not have a source of livelihood once they return. In case of growers, the government was kind enough to waive their agriculture loans. But that is not enough. A harvest of a season serves two purposes. One, it enables a grower to pay back the agriculture loan, and two, it provides him with income for sustaining the rest of the year. The government thus far has taken care of first part but appears totally oblivious of the challenge posed by the second part.
Thirdly, though a bit clichéd yet still true, justice delayed is justice denied. Taliban made their way into the minds of Swatis through justice. Whether one agreed with their brand of justice, the fact remains that Taliban administered justice swiftly. It has been reported in media that initially Taliban’s swift justice was well received by Swatis. Unless government puts in place a justice system in Swat for resolving disputes quickly and there will be disputes now especially with some people having lost everything, the Swatis will prove fertile ground for growth of another justice administering party.
Fourthly, unless the Nizam-e-Adl regulation is repealed, it has been approved as a system of justice in Swat. Before trying to repeal it, despite what our American paymaster push us for or what op-ed pieces say about Nizam-e-Adl, we should actually consider what the people of Swat want. Contrary to popular belief, Nizam-e-Adl calls for qualified people from recognized institutions, and not ignorant militants of Fazlullah and Sufi Mohammad, to be Qazis or Judges. Two justice systems in a country is not a new or a foreign concept. Swatis were ruled under Nizam-e-Adl until 1970. Even in US who we look up to for justice standards, different states have different laws devised by the legislative of that state. Needless to mention, Swat was peacefully administered under a system similar to Nizam-e-Adl till 1970.
Fifthly, we have to decide about the constitutional status of Swat and its adjoining areas. Whether one agrees with the statement of Sufi Mohammad or not, as per constitution of 1973, jurisdiction of high courts and Supreme Court as well as parliament does not extend to Swat. This was high handedness of provincial as well as national governments as by appointing and later pulling strings of political agents or maliks, the successive governments used to have their way in these areas without going through the parliament. As most of the maliks have been killed or have ran off, this is the most opportune time to bring Swat and it’s adjoining into mainstream Pakistan and eliminate their status as Provincially Administered Tribal Areas.
Sixthly, law enforcement mechanism has to be put in place. Why is that as Taliban kept on gaining ground in Swat there was no law enforcement mechanism to deal with them or fight them? We need to have a permanent police in Swat recruited from the same region and trained to enforce the proverbial writ of state. Military should not be posted as peace keepers. We have not set a good precedent in Karachi by posting Rangers; they have gotten so used to easy urban law enforcement that it does not seem likely that they will return to their original job of guarding the border regions where life is tough. Needless to mention, the law and order situation in Karachi has not become any better because of Rangers.
When apologists object that military operation is not the solution, this is the reason: when the dust settles, the status quo has been disrupted, infrastructure has been destroyed, new challenges have arisen and to again use clichéd term, a paradigm shift has occurred. The above challenges are bare minimum that the government should be planning for immediately if it wants IDPs to return, resettle and avoid another challenge to writ of state by Taliban or their ilk a few years down the road.
by Farhan Tahir
Interesting questions raised regarding the Taliban and Military Operation in Swat. Please click to enlarge the urdu images.
by Imran Khan
It was Goebbels who came up with the brilliant theory that if the government wanted people to follow its policy, it must first instil fear in them and then slap all dissenters with the unpatriotic card. Anyone, like me, who disagrees with the current indiscriminate military operation is accused of being a Taliban apologist.
Let me state categorically that I have been against military operations since the disaster of East Pakistan. From East Pakistan to the present Swat operation, the political mantra has always been “no option but the military”. Successive military operations in Balochistan have only added to the sufferings of the Baloch people which nurtured the seeds of their disillusionment with the Pakistani state.
When Bush decided to attack Afghanistan in less than a month after 9/11, I opposed this US policy at every forum including through the print and electronic media. Later, when he ordered the invasion of Iraq, I joined the nearly two million marchers in London opposing the Iraq war. It is noteworthy that at the time over 90% of Americans supported Bush’s Iraq invasion. Today, the overwhelming opinion in the US is that Iraq was a disaster. Moreover, the so-called “good war” in Afghanistan is being lost and its support dwindling.
It is not surprising to see the findings of a Rand Corporation study of the last 40 years of terrorist or asymmetric conflicts which reveal that only 7 % of these conflicts were resolved through military means.
When Musharraf buckled under US pressure and sent the Pakistan Army into Waziristan, I opposed it in Parliament and through the media. Speaking to the editors, Musharraf called me a “terrorist without a beard” – as if terrorism is the sole domain of bearded folk. When the Pakistan Army was sent into Waziristan there were no militant Taliban in Pakistan. As a result of the army operation the tribal social and political structure was destroyed throughout Fata and Malakand, and the vacuum has been filled by nine major militant Taliban groups and another 20 minor ones.
Again, at the time Musharraf commenced military action in Balochistan I opposed it and was accused of backing “anti-state” elements. Today, what was a movement for Baloch rights and autonomy within Pakistan has morphed into a Baloch independence movement. On opposing the Lal Masjid operation, some of the self-appointed “liberals” accused me of backing Islamic fundamentalists. But soon most of the indefatigable crusaders for human rights joined the critics of the Lal Masjid operation. More sobering is the fact that there were 60 suicide attacks in the aftermath of the slaughter of the Lal Masjid inmates and a steep rise in extremism. The Swat flare up is a direct consequence of the Lal Masjid operation.
While discussing my opposition to the current military operation, I must state where I stand politically and ideologically. My political inspiration is derived solely from Quaid-i-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the constitutionalist and democrat who believed in the rule of law above all else. My ideological moorings are firmly rooted in the political and spiritual dimensions of Allama Iqbal’s exposition of Islam which not only liberates society from bondage but also the human soul from material desires – releasing the enormous God-given human potential.
Above all I am an ardent follower of our Prophet’s (PBUH) example of inspiring the heart and the intellect rather than forcing ideas through the sword – a far cry from what has been happening in Swat in the name of Islam. So on no count can I possibly either support the un-Islamic acts such as beheadings, flogging of women, or forcing a way of life on others, nor am I an apologist for such people – I am only answerable on this count to my conscience and to my God.
As for my opposition to the Malakand military operation, first and foremost I believe that the military option, if it has to be used should always be as a last resort. Yet in Swat, the military operation was started barely two weeks after the Presidential signing of the Accord without alternative political strategies being given a chance. In my opinion, a national conference of all stakeholders including religious and political particularly those representing Swat should have been called prior to the operation. A delegation from such a conference should have been mandated to visit Swat and talk reason to the militants and report back to the parliament. In other words, every effort should have been made to make the militants abide by the peace deal that was backed by over 80% of the people of Swat and Pakistan according to an IRI survey. All along the political effort, a concerted effort should have been made to gain time to revive civil administration, police, and the paramilitary presence in Swat.
The diehard militants who consistently refused to adhere to peace agreement could have been isolated over time – a key counter-insurgency tactic followed by precise military action to decapacitate the leadership.
Assuming, there was no alternative to the military option, then while it was being planned, arrangements should have been made for the people who were going to be displaced. Sadly, and shamefully, the military operation began suddenly under increased US pressure, timed with Zardari’s US visit and with the least concern for the people of the area. It is our almost total subservience to US dictates that has been our Achilles heel.
The unfolding tragedy that is taking place in Swat is mind-boggling. To flush out a few thousand militant Taliban, more than 2 million people have been forced to live in misery in camps not fit for animals in civilized societies. With an equal number trapped in the war zone where they are running out of food and essential items. There are reports that dead bodies are being eaten by stray dogs in the streets of Mingora. Even more disturbing is the use of heavy artillery shelling and bombing from the air alongside helicopter gunships in areas with significant civilian population. Despite a heavy blackout, the news coming from the war zone tell tales of dozens if not hundreds of innocent civilian casualties.
Given the collapse of governance in the country, can we adequately look after so many displaced people – especially as summer temperatures soar? And for how long? The wheat crop has already been lost. If the IDPs cannot return within 2 months, the fruit cash crops will be at risk. Hence how will they sustain themselves for the coming year? Perhaps most dangerous is the possibility of IDPs anger and frustration that besides resulting in riots may also swell the ranks of the militants. For example, twins born in a refugee camp last Friday were named Fazlullah and Sufi Muhammad.
In such a situation, according to the army briefing given to the parliamentarians, there is every possibility of the Taliban resurfacing not just in Malakand Division but elsewhere in the country – possibly the urban centres. Can we afford further spread of terrorism in our cities given the precarious security and fragile economic situation? Military action breeds more militancy.
An army action which has already led to almost 2.5 million displaced countrymen cannot simply be accepted without questions. And, as if we do not already have a crisis, Zardari has declared that the war in Swat is merely the beginning of a wider war which is likely to engulf other parts of the country. It is time to take stock and stop ourselves from committing collective suicide. What needs to be done is the following:
* The military action unfortunately is already underway but there is no political, particularly governance, strategy which is guiding this operation. That should be a first priority so that the military action does not continue in a political vacuum.
* A clear governance and political strategy that allows the IDPs to return following a swift end to military operations is needed. This strategy should be focused on a system of speedy justice through the Nizam-e-Adl and effective civil administration. The writ of the state and the rule of law go together and this has to be ensured if violent challenges to state and government are to be avoided in the future.
* The military action, if at all, should have been extremely limited in scale and targeted with precision to minimise civilian casualties. Tragically this did not happen and my fear is that widespread use of area weapons would only result in greater civilian casualties swelling the ranks of the militants. So the military action needs to be revised to focus more on specific targeting and commando action.
Will any of this happen? Unfortunately in the present mode of the ruling elite, this does not seem likely. Instead, we will see increasing military action in the tribal areas as long as the US is in occupation of Afghanistan. Graham Fuller, the former CIA station chief in Kabul, writing in the International Herald Tribune, states that “only the withdrawal of US and Nato boots on the ground will begin to allow the process of near-frantic emotions to subside within Pakistan and for the region to start to cool down. Pakistan is well able to deal with its own Islamists and tribalists under normal circumstances.”
In other words, as long as US troops in Afghanistan are perceived to be an occupying force that is anti-Pushtun and anti-Islam, there will be no peace in this region. We are heading in a fatal direction unless we change our strategy and pull of this insane war that is sinking us into chaos. The longer this persists, the deeper we will find ourselves in this quagmire and we will confront a deeply divided society.
Finally, my heart bleeds for the poor soldier confronting his own people turned into misguided and brutalised militants and giving his life for a war wrought on him by a corrupt and decadent ruling elite that cannot see beyond the lure of American dollars that have become as much of a curse for this hapless nation as the criminal extremists in our very midst.
by Irfan Waheed
Shafqat Mahmood has a stellar career in public service and he is a noted writer and opinion-maker. His column is a regular feature in The News. I read his columns from time to time and ponder over the sugar-coated pessimism he depicts as reality. However, after reading one of his recent columns, I could not resist the temptation to respond to his article. The article is so damning in its implications that if even a fraction of the readers believe what Shafqat says, Imran’s political career is over.
Mr Mahmood (SM) starts his article by something all Pakistanis can agree on: government incompetence. There are those amongst us who talk about this incompetence to ease the burden on their conscience and then there are those who act. Even beyond those are the visionaries who immortalize themselves by achieving something great for the public good inspite of this endemic incompetence. Amongst those few Pakistanis is Imran Khan. In SM’s article, he is in the line of fire.
Eight years of Bush has left its scars on the world. For America, it was the prelude to history which was witnessed when Barack Obama was ushered in to the presidency. For the rest of the world, muslims in particular, the misery continues. For many observers, Bush’s lasting legacy is his ‘with us or against’ division of the world. In a fleeting moment of power-drunk rhetoric, he polarized the world. That world view seems to have rubbed off on SM as well. If speaking against the operation is siding with terrorists, discordant voices should be looking out for drones. While SM has been influenced by Bush and his rhetoric; he has not learnt to tolerate plurality of views, the hallmark of American discourse.
SM acknowledges Imran’s contrbutions to cricket and showers praise on him for his social endeavors. I am sure Imran would be flattered by this, except that this praise smells of patronage intended to soften the blows that follow.
In the political arena, SM declares Imran an abject failure. SM goes on, ‘He never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity’. If Imran read this, he could not help but smile. What SM describes as a weakness, to Imran Khan and his supporters, is his biggest strength. If we deconstruct what SM is saying, it boils down to this: ‘Imran Khan is not an opportunist’. High praise, one might say, except that it was not intended that way. SM mentions the 97 elections as an example of Imran’s lack of political acumen. He says Imran could have expediently won a seat in parliament. So perverse is our state as a nation, that shunning expediency and sticking to principles invites ridicule.
SM has selective memory when recalling Imran’s stand during Musharaf’s rule. He did support Musharraf during the referendum, and has admitted that mistake repeatedly. What SM conveniently fails to mention is that Musharraf himself offered the premiership to Imran. SM may call this another example where Imran missed a golden opportunity to enter the power corridors. For Imran, it was an opportunity to make a grand statement, and he did that to great effect.
Admittedly, morality and principles have taken a back seat in Pakistani politics. When Machiavelli was formulating his political theory in 16th century Italy, he would not even in his wildest dreams imagined how far his adherents would reach. Yet Pakistan, the Land of the Pure, founded by a leader who was the anti-thesis to Machiavelian politics, is home to at least 342 unrepentant Machiavellians. For them, the end always justifies the means and the end always is accumulating more power. In his time, Machiavelli was described as an apostle of the Devil, yet today we find the cut-throat quest for power being described as ‘realism’ and ‘pragmatism’. If Machiavelli’s work is your political bible, then Imran Khan is an apostate. If political success is measured by immorality, unethical behavior and unfulfilled promises, then Imran is a proud failure.
SM goes on to ridicule Imran’s distaste for the inferiority complex that shapes the personalities of many Pakistanis. SM misrepresents this as a ‘rejection of modernization’ and labels it a ‘strange choosing of sides’ in a self-described conflict between mullahs and the rest. In this sweeping rhetorical flourish, Imran is asked whether he is ‘with us or against us’ and then based on Imran’s distaste for ‘brown sahibs’, he is condemned to being against us. One has to read through only a few of Imran’s writings to figure out that he was not advocating rejection of modernity, he was simply instilling pride in one’s own roots. He is trying to re-ignite the torch that burnt brightly when Iqbal held it.
SM saves his most scathing criticism for last. He chastises Imran for his purported ignorance of the threat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda pose to Pakistan. The criticism takes on malicious overtones when SM challenges Imran to condemn barbaric acts like slitting throats, blowing up schools and the like.
Imran’s approach to resolving the crises emanating from the war on terror has been a mature one. He advocates exhausting all peaceful options before force is even considered. The Swat peace deal had been in place for a mere 12 days when the heavy-handed operation was launched. Hussain Haqqani recently revealed in an appearance on US television that the Swat accord was a government ploy. When agreements are conceived with malafide intentions, their fate has already been sealed. It is reminiscent of the Lal-masjid operation when the Ulema had seemingly reached a peaceful resolution to avoid bloodshed only to find bombs raining soon thereafter. There agreement had been sabotaged and overruled by the presidency which would not be satisifed with anything less then blood flowing in the Lal-Masjid.
The Swat and Lal-masjid operations are in fact classical examples of Machiavellian politics. Self-serving, short-sighted decisions are made pre-emptively and then steps are taken to soften the ground to implement the decisions. The success or failure of those measures never effects the decision and its implementation.
With regards to the Swat operation, even PM Gilani has admitted that military action alone would not resolve the issue and a concerted effort is needed to win the hearts and minds of disaffected people across the country. Imran’s stand is along those lines as well with the exception that he believes that the operation would hinder the government’s ability to win over the hearts and minds of people.
SM has been clearly unfair to Imran when he suggests that Imran is deaf to the tribulations of the Internally Displaced People (IDP). His contribution for their relief is there for all to see.
To conclude, SM condemns Imran to the wrong side of history. Interestingly, Dick Cheney used words to the same effect when he could not convince his detractors that the Iraq war was justified. Perhaps being on the wrong side of history is better then being on the wrong side of one’s conscience.
Gul Bukhari:
On the one hand there are Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) official daily handouts reporting 40 to 50 militant casualties versus 2 to 12 of security personnel, with regard to the ongoing military operation in the Malakand Division. Sometimes a small number of civilian casualties are also reported. For those who do want the Taliban pushed back, this news is comforting in that it appears our armed forces are carrying out a successful operation with the minimum possible collateral damage.
On the other hand, one sees ordinary people from the affected areas calling in to television programmes reporting 500 to 600 bodies lying rotting on village roads, with no militant casualties. Individuals purportedly from the area further report blind shelling by the armed forces that is only successful in killing civilians.
So what is one to believe, given that direct news reports and images from independent media, which might enable the public to get a better sense of on the ground reality, are completely missing? There are currently no arrangements for media organisations to either enter or report from the battlegrounds. Affected areas have been declared no go zones for journalists by the government/military and journalists are barred entry.
Notwithstanding the different bents individual media organisations may give to their editorials, comment or even reporting, the very presence of several different media organisations, national and international, will make the process and results of the conflict more transparent and enable the public to get a better understanding of what the reality is.
The public’s understanding of reality is of utmost importance. As most would agree, the ongoing war in Malakand is not something that can be won only militarily. It is a very complicated war, whereby the militants alone are not the enemy. Their ideology (or ideologies) is the more insidious enemy.
As much as military action has a role, the larger battle is for hearts and minds. The government and the military are doing themselves no favours by barring independent media from the conflict zone. When the ISPR is contradicted by members of public claiming to be calling from the affected areas, what will determine whom the already conspiracy theory prone public will believe? This is not to say that truth necessarily lies only at either end of the spectrum. It could be anywhere in between.
Further, it is very important for the public to know the reality and truth as public opinion can only be based on what it believes. In the absence of credible information, people will form opinion based on what they choose to believe. It is this choice that must be struck down with truth – whatever the truth may be.
If the heavy handed approach of barring the media is continued, the public will not be to blame for believing hearsay, and withdrawing their support for their armed forces fighting for the sake of the country, thereby demoralizing not only the soldiers at the frontier, but also themselves. How tragic would that be?
It will only be a matter of time before people/political parties/ analysts again start asking whether this is our war, whether killing innocent civilians will finish off Al-Qaida or the Taliban. And the country will slip back into the perpetual loop of alternating peace agreements and frontal half-hearted attacks on militants, while conceding territory and control with every successive attempt.
The current situation makes the public suspicious of the motives of its own armed forces. If the slowly building public perception of the armed forces’ callousness and dishonest war is wrong, then why not dispel it by creating a safe corridor for journalists and put the lie to rest.
Before the current operation started in Buner, Sufi Mohammed and Muslim Khan obliged with their statements against country, constitution, and the courts of justice etc. declaring everyone and every institution non-Shar’ai and helped turn public opinion against themselves by providing a better understanding of where these gentlemen were coming from and what their greater aims were. It would be the greatest pity if the government kicked this gift in the teeth by continuing the embargo on journalists’ access to the front.
Emergence of the actual picture is also important because no matter what it reveals, it will help to take the country in the right direction. Should it emerge that truth lies nearer the picture being conveyed by the ISPR, it will help in keeping the public on side, by putting the lie to claims to the contrary.
Should it reveal the opposite, it will create pressure to reign in the military action, which left unchecked, will only hasten the demise of Pakistan by not only pushing the heretofore innocents toward militancy, but also by dint of the fact that the militants are actually incurring no or little losses. So, should the citizens’ reports turn out to be true, public opinion will force an alternative approach whereby infantry and special forces engage in more of a hand to hand battle that is better targeted at the militants, instead of gunship air raids and artillery shelling that consumes little other than civilians trapped in the area.
At the moment we don’t know which is the case. But what we do know is that this is as much a battle of hearts and minds, if not more, as of military operations. What we can see is opposition yet again building up against this operation, and the opposition may in fact be misguided or misinformed. It is imperative to not let this continue for I don’t think either Sufi Mohammed or Muslim Khan will oblige again by doing what the government itself ought to have done in the first place – win the hearts and minds support for action against extremist militancy.
by Anonymous Reporter
I did not wish to share this info on the blog but I do wish to get it out so that people are aware of some of the happenings.
As usual I request that my identity be kept of the record. Here it goes-
I spoke with my contacts tonite and here is what I was able to find out . This info is from the ARMY and that is all I am permitted to say.
1. The Army had warned the politicians about the IDPs 3 weeks before the start of the SWAT operation and had recommended that tent cities be established prior to the start of the military operation . The politicians in center and in the NWFP said they could not do that since they had NO MONEY!
2. The Army (Frontier Constabulary) has been very effective in their operation and a large number of the Talibs have been killed though this has been kept out of the news media on purpose. This has been done specifically to prevent a Post Lal-Masjid type of reaction from the Public and especially amongst the Pushtoons.
3. The degree of hostility amongst the people of SWAT against the Talibs is quite severe as a lot of the men are riding in the helicopters with the army to point out and show them as which house they are in and so the army can target effectively. It appears that on the political front at least the Talibs have failed.
4. There are grave concerns in the Army High command about the dilly dally atitude of the Politicians Esp the Zardari Gang who are unwilling to provide political back up for the operation. However- this time the army is going to persue this matter till the very end at least in Swat, Buner etc.
5. The army does not see the return of civil authority in Malakand Division for some time to come – instead it will remain as a Military distt. from a Law and order administrative stand point.
6. The days of the Zardari administration are numbered- and there are two scenarios being contemplated-
a. CJ Iftikhar will agree and allow the supreme court to hear the NRO petition and as a result the NRO will be declared null and void. Result Zardari OUT.
b. A less palatable solution is the creation of a National Govt where Zardari will be de fanged, left as a figurehead and a powerful parliament with a very powerful prime Minister – Possible candidates Ch. Nisar Ali Khan or Shahbaz Shareef
pkpolitics does not agree/disagree, nor guarantees the accuracy and authenticity of this anonymous report
by Shoaib Bakhtyar
Once in a village there was a thief who used to steal shroud from every newly buried dead person. The people of that village could not succeed in capturing that thief neither do they knew who he was? But whenever the thief committed an act of stealing the shroud, the people used to curse him the very next day. One day that thief saw his death near and so he called upon his son and advised him that “my son, I have lived a disgraceful life and now I think I am going to die but before death takes me away I would like you to do me a favour. My son, please try to improve my image after my death and earn me some respect…” after saying these words that thief passed away. Immediately after his father death, the thief’s son started the very same business that his father used to do but with a little change. The change was that after taking the shroud away he would humiliate the dead body too. When the people of that village came to knew that their beloved’s bodies are being humiliated they cursed the thief in such words “The earlier thief was good he only used to take away the shrouds but this thief is very inhuman as he not only takes away the shrouds but also humiliates the dead bodies.”
If the same story is applied to Pakistan, we saw the day when Nawaz sharif’s government was overthrown and our people celebrated that act. Later however the people did not agreed with the policies of Mr. Musharraf. On the other occasion when PPPP won the elections and came into power rather than PML-Q the very same citizens of Pakistan celebrated this act too. And now the same people of Pakistan are cursing Mr. Zardari. Mr. Zardari on one hand is decreasing the popularity of his party PPPP while on the other hand he is improving the image of the former dictator by committing acts which are more severe than those committed by Mr. Musharraf. In my opinion the Pakistan army is supporting Mr. Zardari because he is unaware of the fact that he is washing dirt from their image and that day is not far when the innocent people of Pakistan will forget the acts committed by an Ex-
army chief.
I am a Pashtun here in Sweden and live within a community that is a Pashtun majority and we belong to the very same NWFP province where the so called militancy by the Zardari team is an immense threat to the local residents. In our opinion Mr. Musharraf bargained on South Waziristan and Bajaur while the Zardari team is busy in selling other parts of our beloved NWFP to Americans. But that does not come to an end here, if the government of
Pakistan is dissolved and another major political party comes into power, we expect the same from them too. May Allah does not show us that day when either the fire of NWFP has effects on Punjab or Sindh or the province of NWFP is an independent state itself. Worst politicians are of two types, one who are absolutely corrupt and, secondly one who are short sighted. The worst of them is the one who are both corrupt and short sighted because
of the fact that they take bribes but do not have any idea what they are going to pay in the future for the incentives they are getting? We don’t know exactly in which category the current government should be placed but one thing is for sure and that is of short sightlessness. It is their short sightlessness by not realizing the fact that a Pashtun fears dishonour more than his death. In a Pashtun society it is considered really disgraceful if any
of the female family members is seen without a veil yet the present government is forcing these proud people to flee their decades old houses and live in camps where the life for them is not only disgraceful as well as miserable due to shortage of resources. The life in these camps may be possible to live for a month or two but if the duration gets longer then most probably the young blood from these camps will fight against the government not for
Taliban but for their family honour.
I was delighted to hear that our respected Prime minister has announced Rs. 1 billion for the displaced persons of NWFP. The same day I saw in the news that according to U.N there are some 1 million displaced persons. When I calculated the amount of money each displaced person will get I got the result equals to Rs. 1000 only and suddenly my delighted mood changed into a sad one. Is this a joke?? You are requesting a proud Pashtun to leave his ancestral house and live in a disgraceful manner in a camp where the resources are too short to meet his needs and in return you are offering him Rs. 1000.
Our atomic bomb was made so that we can live in peace, but unfortunately due to the inefficiency of our politicians, the atom bomb is at peace while we are not. It is a moment of shame for the civilian government as well as the Pakistan army that they are killing and dishonouring their own people just to get economic incentives and protect or nukes from the Americans. I am not saying that we should surrender to Taliban or we should surrender
our nukes to any other country but for a country to exist in honour it must be sovereign enough which in the case of Pakistan is not.
Best regards,
Shoaib Bakhtyar
M.S in Computer Science
Blekinge Institute of Technology
Ronneby, Sweden.
by Asif Salahuddin
Pakistan today finds itself very much at the centre of the world’s headlines, unfortunately though for almost entirely the wrong reasons. Just in the last few weeks alone we have witnessed an unprecedented level of turmoil in the country – the outrageous attacks on the police academy outside Lahore and on the Sri Lankan cricket team inside the city, the political theatrics of rule in Punjab, the Long March episode followed by the subsequent reappointment of the Chief Justice and the continued violation of sovereignty and killings via US drone attacks – indeed Pakistan as a nation is in grave turmoil.
Militarily the country is at war in the tribal areas. This is firstly due to the direct assaults by the US/NATO forces based in Afghanistan, which have manifested themselves in the form of missile strikes / drone attacks, cross border raids etc. Secondly, the US is utilising the Pakistan armed forces themselves to further this assault. Here the full brunt of the Pakistan military has been hurled at the tribal people in order to quell them but without decisive results. Over a thousand Pakistani soldiers have died fighting this American war against their own brethren. Further, after sustained assaults by Pakistani troops and heavy shelling by Pakistani tanks and artillery, many thousands of tribal civilians have perished and over 700,000 have been displaced. Probably topping the roll of shame is the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) actions against its own people. Whilst the Gazan Muslims were being haplessly bombed by the Israeli air force in front of a horrified world stage earlier this year, the PAF have been busy doing the same against their own people, killing hundreds. The only difference being the complete media blackout in Pakistan, designed to hide from the public the rampant bloodshed being inflicted on the tribal people.
Moreover, the Pakistan government has gone out of its way in receiving and executing orders from the American leadership. Almost every week brings new high ranking American dignitaries to Pakistani soil with the latest set of instructions for their puppets in Islamabad to follow blindly and obediently; recently the US special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, visited Pakistan in early April.
The age old predicament of biting the hand that feeds has been astonishingly reversed by the treacherous Pakistani leadership, who are indeed busy feeding the hand that very much bites. Reported by The Times newspaper of the UK, almost four hundred trucks per day are transported by road from Karachi to the US forces in Afghanistan, carrying the very bullets and missiles that will be rained down back at Pakistan. This constitutes about seventy percent of the total supplies consumed by the US and NATO forces across the border. Then there is the access and use of military bases, intelligence, logistics etc. For example the recent front page revelation also by The Times that the US drones firing on the tribal areas have in fact been operating from Pakistani soil for quite some time.
Economically the country is in just as much mayhem. According to a survey of Pakistan by the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), inflation in 2008 was about 13%, whereas inflation of food prices stood at almost 20%. Government subsidies of electricity and gas costs have now been removed under pressure from the IMF. After witnessing such rampant inflation and in addition the recent food, electricity, gas and petrol shortages, the country has been financially brought to its knees. Like a drug addict, the country is living from one shot of IMF loans to the next, whilst staring continuously at the same time in the face of imminent bankruptcy.
Coupled together, the above two predicaments have resulted in an extremely unstable political climate in Pakistan, to the extent that the country is now being labelled, from both internal and external sources, as a failed state which is incapable of enforcing its own writ and meeting the basic needs for its own people. Even more dangerous is the constant linkage of Pakistan to international terrorist attacks, resulting in the ‘elevation’ from this despicable status to an even lowlier one to that of a rogue state – i.e. one that poses a physical threat to countries neighbouring it and around the world.
Iraq, prior to its invasion and subsequent occupation, was politically painted in the exact same colours. It was linked to the 9/11 attacks in New York and further the West went about creating a political storm over the fact that Iraq was capable of launching WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) at the West within forty five minutes of so choosing. The fact that no such evidence was ever found in Iraq is largely irrelevant to the point here – Pakistan today is now clearly marked out to be the next black sheep in the flock and therefore needs to be culled. The British Foreign Secretary recently alleged that 9/11 was executed from the Pakistan tribal areas – the West’s narrative has again been conveniently changed. This stance towards Pakistan now presents without doubt the gravest danger to the country since its birth over sixty years ago.
The real motives for placing Pakistan in the crosshairs of the Western, indeed American military nexus are however deeper and more complex than that which is being projected across the media in and outside Pakistan alike. Pakistan, and the surrounding areas, are of immense political, economic and military significance, and this is the real impetus behind why the United States today is busy ensnaring Pakistan in its tentacles.
First of all Pakistan, including Baluchistan and the NWFP, are rich in resources, which include huge gold, copper, coal, oil and gas reserves. This extends to countries immediately in the vicinity of Pakistan, such as Afghanistan and the Central Asian states that border it, which themselves have amongst other things massive oil and gas resources. America not only seeks the control of such resources, but also the supply route that will enable the extraction and delivery of these to the strategic deep sea port of Gwadar. Already most of the foreign military bases in southern Afghanistan line the route that the proposed pipeline from Turkmenistan will take on its way to Pakistan. Hence it will greatly benefit America to merge NWFP with Afghanistan and to ‘liberate’ Baluchistan into a free state upheld by a puppet government subservient to the US just as it has done so with Afghanistan.
Next we have the vital region of the Middle East and the enormous oil deposits present there. The US has successfully become the dominant player in the region displacing the British and French in the last 50 years, now having established a firm control directly (via military occupation) or indirectly (via client regimes) over the major oil fields in the area. Such control over the oil is vital to America’s oil companies and similarly crucial to America’s banking system since the oil is traded in America’s currency of choosing – the US Dollar, which the US can print at will. If this oil were to fall out of their domain of control, then this commodity will cease to be traded in US Dollars, causing the collapse of the Dollar and hence the American financial system. According to a late 2000 Time magazine article, Saddam Hussein intended exactly such a step by reverting the trade of Iraq’s oil from US Dollars to the rival currency of Euros instead and hence the reason why the US was so keen to invade and take over the country, thereby securing Iraq’s oil and the medium of its transaction.
Similar to an earlier point, to ensure this status quo, America must not only control the source of the oil, i.e. the oil fields, but also the oil supply route which extracts the oil out of the region. This is fundamentally via oil tankers that snake through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf of Oman after emerging from the Persian Gulf. And it is this vital shipping lane that must be protected by the US at all costs and hence why such large deployments of America’s Navy exist in the region (e.g. the US fifth fleet is based at Bahrain) and further explains why America is eager to ensure that no other major power can manoeuvre itself in the position to project its military might over this region.
The Afghan war against the Soviets in the eighties was backed and controlled by the US for this very purpose – to keep the Soviet Union out of this vital region. Today the US is equally concerned not to see China extend its political and military influence in the region via, amongst other things, Pakistan’s port of Gwadar, which overlooks the Gulf of Oman, and in which China has invested heavily and has intentions of placing a military presence there. Hence we see America’s eagerness to split Baluchistan from Pakistan, bringing the entire region under its direct influence.
Thirdly, and perhaps the most significant reason behind America’s intense activity and interest in Pakistan, is the threat that Pakistan itself poses. This particular danger to America’s interest emanates from within Pakistan and is certainly not of the terrorist nature which the Western media is busy hyping up. It rather stems from a genuine desire of the people in the country to revert to an Islamic ruling system which will rescue them from the failed concept of secularism, in which man made legislation, whether in the form of democracy or dictatorship, has only ensured the furthering of the vested interests of a few powerful families and select groups.
A very recent study conducted early this year on public opinion across key parts of the Muslim world by the University of Maryland in America further corroborates this. Surveys were conducted across countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia and results were found to be fairly consistent. In answer to the question whether Shariah law via an Islamic system should be applied strictly across one’s country, more than three quarters of the people examined in Pakistan, Egypt and Morocco were in favour of such an initiative, whereas about half agreed in Indonesia.
This system, the Khilafah or Caliphate as it is also commonly known as, is indeed greatly feared in the West since it will spell the end of their domination of not just the region in and around Pakistan, but eventually the entire Muslim world, which has been divided into over sixty nationalist based states since the fall of the Uthmani Khilafah over eighty years ago. The US understands this clearly, and statements by its senior most leaders over the past few years, flavoured with appropriate propaganda for the consumption of Western populations, have confirmed this. For example some of the now famous quotations are: “They hope to establish a violent political utopia across the Middle East, which they call caliphate, where all would be ruled according to their hateful ideology” – George Bush, “Their ultimate aim, and one they boldly proclaim, is to establish a caliphate covering a region from Spain, across North Africa, through the Middle East and South Asia, all the way around to Indonesia. And it wouldn’t stop there” – Dick Cheney and “They want to destabilise moderate mainstream Muslim regimes and establish a Caliphate, and have a handful of clerics determine what everyone in that country can do, and then spread that across the globe from Indonesia to the Middle East through North Africa and Southern Europe” – Donald Rumsfeld.
The US further recognises, possibly unfortunately more so than the Pakistani establishment itself, that Pakistan contains all the raw elements of becoming such a new technologically advanced and powerful Islamic entity; namely massive agricultural and mineral resources, a large, young and driven population with expertise in many fields, a powerful, nuclear armed military backed up with a innovative military industrial complex gaining further every day the capability to produce its own aircraft, tanks, submarines, missiles and warships together with an economically and politically strategic geographical location.
Therefore to maintain its control over the region, the US has produced the now infamous map of the Wider Middle East – drawn up in 2006 by the retired US army colonel Ralph Peters. In this map Pakistan, like several other countries including Iraq, has been fragmented and what remains of it are only the Punjab and Sindh provinces, if these have not already been surrendered over to India.
To facilitate this agenda, the US and the West have undertaken a whole series of nefarious activities related to Pakistan. The first stage has been the initiation of a psychological phase in which public opinion in Western countries is being turned against Pakistan and the case to ‘deal’ with it is stacking up on a daily basis. To help facilitate this and subsequent stages, the US has on the ground in Pakistan its special forces, intelligence units and the infamous and ruthless private mercenary force Blackwater.
Make no mistake – it is the task of these entities to create disorder inside Pakistan and to stoke up unrest in the country. And they have much experience in this – their most recent project being Iraq where they have been put to use both prior to the invasion and during the subsequent military occupation of the country. They have been very much active in pitting various ethnic groups against one another, ensuring the continual of bombings and killings amongst the civilian population etc. For example it is well known now that westerners dressed up as Arabs have been caught in Iraq with substantial explosives in their vehicles, which were being placed in busy locations like bazaars at the time. Another tactic, as reported by reliable sources, is stopping innocent drivers at checkpoints. Whilst the driver is interrogated at length separately, his vehicle is carefully laden with explosives, which are hidden beneath the seats and doors. The driver is then released with his vehicle and told to proceed with urgency to a certain police station to help retrieve his confiscated paperwork. Upon reaching his destination, the explosives are then detonated remotely.
In Pakistan, this activity has taken a similar tone in the sense that the tribal people are being agitated against the security forces of the country and vice versa. Similarly it is no secret that separatist groups, like the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), are being armed and funded by such foreign hands, as with Kurdish groups in Iraq for example the Kurdish Liberation Army (KLA). In both cases the aim is to create the political conditions to help bring about a breakaway state, i.e. Baluchistan and Kurdistan respectively.
In addition, the US has utilised some of its most senior and experienced officials to oversee this scheme against Pakistan. Under President Bush it was John Negroponte as the US Deputy Secretary of State and under President Obama it is now Richard Holbrooke as the United States Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both have had extensive experience in directing US designs to break up a country or to cause serious civil disorder within it. For example, Negroponte overصلى الله عليه وسلم CIA death squads in Latin American countries in the eighties whose task it was to overthrow elected governments or to brutally quash genuine resistance against handpicked pro-US despots.
A look at Holbrooke’s past career reveals a man who has been involved in some of America’s bloodiest foreign policy interventions abroad. Aside from the credit of having served eight years as managing director of the now failed Lehman Brothers investment bank, Holbrooke has some more bloodier accomplishments to his name. Holbrooke having learned Vietnamese was the youngest advisor sent by then President John F. Kennedy to Vietnam, serving in Mekong Delta supporting American efforts to prop up the South Vietnamese regime as the Vietnam War raged. In 1966 he was directly assigned to the White House, working on the Vietnam staff of President Lyndon Johnson, who assisted by Holbrooke greatly escalated the Vietnam war killing millions in the process.
Holbrooke, then as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs between 1977-81, directly helped support the brutal regime of Suharto in Indonesia. Holbrooke travelled to meet Suharto in August 1977 at the height of the massacres in East Timor under the pretext of concern for human rights. Holbrooke actually afterwards praised Suharto for his “improvement in human rights” and was instrumental in ensuring covert American military aid continued to Suharto’s regime. Holbrooke then declared in 1980 that Indonesia under Suharto was “perhaps one of the greatest nations in the world.”
Holbrooke is fondly spoken of by the media as the man who helped end the Bosnia war with the Dayton agreement in 1995. Given the responsibility to bring a conclusion to the Yugoslavian crisis in the early nineties, the Dayton Agreement resulted in the accomplishment of the ultimate aim of the US to break up and balkanise the country into smaller states and establish it’s footprint in the region whilst simultaneously diminishing Russian influence. Moreover, the Yugoslavia turmoil was set into motion with the onset of severe economic measures imposed by the IMF onto the country. This led to the federal government becoming bankrupt and unable to support its provinces, which in turn led to them breaking away. A similar dilemma now faces Pakistan.
Looking back in history it was a British official, Mortimer Durand, who in the late nineteenth century drew what was to become over fifty years later the newly created Pakistan’s Western border. Today, an American military officer has proposed to do the same. Has not the time come that the establishment in Pakistan realises that it is they who must now take pen in hand and go about defining the frontiers of our state?
And the window for such an opportunity is right now. For currently the military-political chessboard that is Pakistan is still arranged in the favour of those who are sincere to the people of the country. However, with every passing visit of an American leader, with every passing action that the current insincere rulers of Pakistan execute and with every passing day, more and more squares on this board fall under the dominance of the US and more and more pieces are being lost to this enemy.
Without delay, the supply lines emanating from Pakistan to the US and NATO troops in Afghanistan need to be cut – devoid of this critical lifeline these forces will grind to a halt in a very short time. All US and associated Western personnel, be they of military, intelligence or diplomatic nature, or even journalists, photographers or academics from these countries that only serve as spies, need to be expelled forthwith. The US embassy in Islamabad, which is set to expand by eighteen acres – yet another sign of the increased US interference in Pakistan – needs to be shut down and sealed immediately.
All actions against indigenous tribal groups and similar religious organisations in Pakistan that are fighting out of genuine grievance need to be halted and every effort instead needs to be undertaken to re-establish relations with them and bring them back into the fold. These are our people and part of the Ummah and further should be treated as a military asset of the state since they can effectively be considered as an extension of the army.
Afghanistan itself has always traditionally functioned as a fifth province of Pakistan and therefore this country, which currently is only serving as a launch pad for hostile activity against Pakistan, needs to be amalgamated into a greater Pakistan. Thus such an expansion of the western frontiers will greatly strengthen Pakistan by the elimination of this weak flank, which is currently being exploited by India as well.
Further it must be realised that the US is in a much weakened position, and certainly not in the state to take on the Pakistan military offensively. The US is going through a debilitating recession, with all the signs that this financial storm will be even more dire than the infamous 1930′s Great Depression which crippled the United States for almost a decade. After its Iraq adventure, the US army remains demoralised and disillusioned with many of its ranks questioning the whole basis of the campaign itself as the new Obama administration busies itself in shifting focus onto Afghanistan and Pakistan. Moreover, distrust and scepticism amongst the public in the West against their own governments has grown, with many now not willing to readily accept their leaderships’ policies.
In order to undertake such steps, the power brokers in Pakistan need to understand that only by raising the banner of Islam, with firm and sincere hands, can they hope to execute these actions and safeguard the homeland that exists for the Muslims of Pakistan. For it is only Islam that will rally the people together, move them forward in one direction and bring out all the best that lies dormant in the population. They must take heart at the fact that the people are ready, willing and eager to be led sincerely in such a manner and have proven that their emotions lie firmly for this cause, as is evident over the last few years in Pakistan where the Ummah have poured out into the streets in their lakhs for Islamic related issues; namely to speak out against the insulting cartoons of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), the Israeli attack on Lebanon and the recent Israeli slaughter in Gaza.
By establishing an Islamic system in Pakistan and with the incorporation of Afghanistan, the door is further left open for other Muslim countries to be incorporated into this expanding Islamic state. The likes of the Central Asian states, with their colossal resources and bubbling Islamic sentiment and desire in their people, will make for ideal new additions in this twenty first century Khilafah that will bind these Islamic lands together into one political, economic and military block.
This re-established Khilafah will have very high goals and will seek to match if not out do the Islamic civilisations of old. From the time Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) himself set up the first Islamic state in Medina in 622, through to the final stages of the Uthmani Khilafah over thirteen centuries later, the Islamic state always looked after the affairs of the Muslims. Moreover, for much of this period this state was the leading nation in the world, at the forefront of technological development in the sciences and medicine and was unparalleled in the justice and welfare that it imparted to its citizens – Muslim and non-Muslim alike.
During its peak, the Islamic state flourished across much of the civilised world, with prestigious centres of learning in many of its major cities like Baghdad, Damascus, Cordoba, Cairo etc. A plethora of famous inventions and discoveries were made during this period in the fields of astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, maths etc. Indeed the industrial revolution that gathered pace in Europe in the mid nineteenth century was built upon this lengthy period of enlightenment in the Islamic world. The elite of Europe were sent to study in such academic centres of the Islamic state and to be able to converse in Arabic was seen as a major accomplishment and a sign of fine pedigree.
Even towards the final and politically lowest period of this Islamic state, the conditions within it were still much to be envied for outside observers. David Urquhart, a prominent and influential British diplomat of his time, commented in an 1833 publication of his on the economic and judicial conditions of the Uthmani Khilafah. He stated that he was greatly impressed by the policies being implemented throughout the country, particularly at grassroots levels which greatly encouraged free enterprise and economic activity and further that the justice meted out to people was outstanding and in return the people sympathies were very much behind the state’s interests. He further recommended that the British people themselves would benefit greatly by the incorporation of such policies in Britain.
Albeit a perfect system designed by the creator Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) himself, Islam nonetheless requires implementation by humans which are inherently imperfect. Thus despite lasting for many centuries, the Islamic state began to fragment from the early part of the nineteenth century onwards. However what needs to be understood well is the reason behind this gradual downfall of the state, i.e. what caused the decline in the thinking and institutions of the Muslims of that time that eventually led to the Islamic state breaking apart.
For a long time the Muslims were in a position of ascendency relative to those around them in terms of technological progress and military might. They achieved this coveted position due to their adherence to the Islamic creed, their ability to extract or derive solutions from the Islamic texts in evolving situations and finally the acceptance of these principles by the majority of the people in the Islamic society during these times. In other words the Muslims during this period of the Islamic state as a whole had a clear viewpoint on life and always looked to resolve or deal with new predicaments using the set of laws that were derived from this viewpoint, i.e. the Islamic Shariah.
What occurred during a relatively lengthy period up to the nineteenth century, however, was a detachment from these core principles by the Muslim community. So even though they were still implementing Islamic laws, they had now as a society lost a great deal of the understanding of the processes used to derive these laws. Hence they were no longer in the suitable position to find solutions to the new realities which every society faces with the passage of time. Thus with the acceleration of the industrial revolution in the mid nineteenth century in the Western world, combined with the preceding political upheavals in European societies, the Muslim world suddenly faced a new ideological challenge and was found wanting.
Therefore when confronted by the advent of new inventions, theories and discoveries by the West, the Muslims struggled to understand why they were suddenly being left behind and further how to consolidate these new developments into their own civilisation. Rather than appreciating that their own creed – and the set of laws which had resulted – equally gave arise to such progression as a foretime, the Islamic society instead went about contorting Islam to adapt to the newly established secular thinking in the West. This was a grave error, and effectively meant that the Islamic state was now compromising the very foundations behind its existence. Intellectually the state had now failed, and it was only a matter of time before the state physically fell apart as well, which it did so officially in March 1924.
Today the world has now witnessed the failure of capitalism and the reality of secularism that bred this ideology. During its brief time in the world, the world has only witnessed in the last two centuries or so unprecedented levels of wealth inequity, worldwide wars, poverty and famine gripping almost entire continents.
In such a backdrop nonetheless the Islamic revival has been taking place across the Muslim world, with sincere and dedicated Muslims intellectually presenting the alternative an Islamic System has to offer. Pakistan, along with one or two other Muslim countries, serves as an excellent possibility for such a comeback considering its economic and military potential.
Under a Khilafah, Pakistan’s economy will be completely transformed. From the outset, the state will seek to invest heavily in the country’s transport, utility, medical, educational and military infrastructure. In doing so jobs on masse will be provided to the nation’s burgeoning young population and business activity will soar in such an environment. The uncountable number of crippling taxes in the country will be removed and replaced with just a core handful that would be applicable only to the rich. Inflation will be effectively nullified with the removal of the current fiat currency system and with an introduction instead of a currency based on the gold/silver bimetallic standard.
To fund such a drive, Pakistan’s enormous resources will be utilised for the benefit of the people. The ownership of the current coal, gas, oil and mineral deposits will be acquired by the state as stipulated in Islam. For example in Reko Diq alone – a small town in Baluchistan – $65 billion dollars worth of gold lies just beneath the surface alone. This amount by itself is enough to pay off all of Pakistan’s external debts. In addition, there are vast quantities of resources which currently lie untouched beneath the soils of Pakistan. As an example, Baluchistan is reported to have hundreds of billions of barrels of untapped oil reserves as reported in a 2006 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report on Baluchistan.
By taking ownership and fully developing these resources, the cost to the people for the basic commodities of petrol and gas will be the equivalent of just a handful of rupees, i.e. people will just have to pay for the costs involved in the extraction, processing and distribution of these items. Combined with Islamic land reforms that will fully utilise the agricultural potential of Pakistan, this will have a knock on effect on food prices and availability and thus will ensure that staple food items are produced abundantly and within easy reach of the people.
Only with the comprehensive application of all the sub-systems of the Islamic system, i.e. the ruling, economic, social, judicial etc, can such progression and development be brought about. Any superficial and partial implementation of this, e.g. the recent Nizam-e-Adl regulation in Swat, will only lead to failure and mockery of Islam as a whole. For it must be understood that Islam is made up of the above interlocking sub-systems, that do not work independently of one another. A simple illustration is the punishment system in Islam for theft. In the entire thirteen centuries’ history of the Islamic state, this penalty is stated to have only been issued a few hundred times. If it were to be implemented in today’s Pakistan on a standalone basis, then tens of thousands would fall under its remit. Rather, this rule is designed only to be enforced when the economic conditions in the country are in accordance with Islam, i.e. where all the basic needs of the people are being met and justice is imparted equally to all. In such a climate if someone does steal, then he would be punished because he done so out of greed and not need, which is the essence behind the rule.
In conclusion, such a reformation in Pakistan will fulfil the original goals laid out for the country by its founding fathers. By enlarging to encompass the neighbouring Muslim countries, this new Islamic state will indeed be a formidable challenge to any opposition. Beyond this point, the scope of the Islamic state is only limited by how quickly it can expand into the rest of the Muslim world. For from Morocco to Indonesia, the entire global Muslim Ummah desperately awaits a sincere and strong Islamic leadership unified under a single Khaleefah. Such a potential superpower can then present to the entire globe the much awaited ideological alternative to the defunct capitalistic system.
pkpolitics does not agree nor disagree with the views of authors of contributed articles
by Atif Salahuddin
West’s Bailouts and Bonus Culture Show The Corruption of Democracy
The financial crisis engulfing the West’s leading economies shows no signs of abating. In desperation to save their economies we have seen the British and American governments announce bailout after bailout in order to revive their economies as their financial sector crashes and industrial output slumps. They have resorted to borrowing ever more huge amounts of cash, mainly financed by surplus rich nations such as China and the oil rich Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE buying their government issued treasury bonds. In desperation, they have even started to print more money, more respectably referred to by Western economists as ‘quantitative easing’, a sure sign of the bankruptcy literally of their economies and most crucially of their fundamental economic and political policies. In a relatively short space of time these apparently wealthy and powerful Western governments have been thrown into panic and disarray. The events since August 2007 have been truly remarkable.
As it has become damningly clear it is the entire banking system in these countries, which over the years leveraged itself many times over in casino style investments, that is at the heart of this Western originated crisis. For years the West has lived off easy money, financed mainly by foreigners to create a mirage of illusionary wealth that never actually really existed. Instead the illusion was created by huge interest based credit bubbles to dupe their domestic publics into believing that all was well and they were wealthy. In reality they were not and it was inevitable that at some point the penny would drop and the credit bubbles would crash and collapse in on themselves as is now the case.
In attempts to stave off the failure and bankruptcy of their banking systems various Western governments, in particular the British and American governments, have doled out Billions and Billions of either Euros, Pounds or Dollars to save them, plunging these governments deep into debt. Yet these huge sums have so far failed to trickle down to the ordinary Western consumer in the form of new loans and have thus failed to stimulate their economies. This is why we are seeing huge job losses in both the US and Britain, currently running at over 600,000 and 100,000 jobs per month respectively. The reason for this is that almost all of this money is being used to help clear the huge red ink on the balance sheets of these banks where the actual losses made in these investments – such as the derivatives markets, a market estimated to be $600 trillion as opposed to the total annual world GDP of $60 trillion - are by virtue of the very nature of these secretive financial contracts, still unknown. America and Britain, having been reduced to their weakest economic position in decades, have resorted to increasingly beating the war drums over Pakistan as they desperately seek to divert attention away at home from their growing economic disasters.
What is equally astonishing is that any other business facing such unpayable liabilities would have normally been forced to go into bankruptcy and into some form of administration under capitalist doctrine. Instead the world is being treated to the spectacle by those who preached the superiority of the free market being forced to adopt state sponsored socialism to save these bankrupt banks. The argument provided by these Western governments that the re-capitalisation of these banks is essential to the recovery of the economy does not hold much water with many people; nearly all of this money is being used to underwrite previous bad investments at these banks. That is why we have not seen these banks resume any significant levels of lending again.
Instead many ordinary people in the West have wondered that a more effective alternative might have been to use just a small portion of this taxpayer money to start new banks from scratch, free from such liabilities. Yet the investors in these business have been amazingly fortunate that not only have they had their debts underwritten by the American, British and other Western governments but they have also been lucky enough to retain some sort of shareholding – all for nothing as opposed to losing all ownership to the new owners as is the case with any other business going bust – and still receive billions in taxpayer bailouts. Moreover these Western banks have not only been able to obtain these huge cash handouts from Western governments, but have still had the audacity to award themselves, other executives and other senior employees huge bonuses whilst ordinary businesses continue to go bust and people lose their jobs as a result of their decisions – bonuses that encouraged and rewarded such reckless risk taking that is at the heart of this problem in the first place. So the question has to be asked, whose interests did these Western governments really put first?
The most understated fact so far is that it is clear that a huge wealth transfer is taking place – from the ordinary people to the banking elite and any other conglomerate of interests who can leech on to this latest capitalist driven gravy train, a transfer that in truth amounts to state enforced theft on behalf of these banks. Inevitably this has lead to a huge public backlash in countries such as America, Britain and France. The fury seen at the recent G20 summit in London is only the tip of the iceberg. The examples of the AIG executives in America awarding themselves obscene bonuses using taxpayer money and Sir Fred Goodwin, the former Chief Executive of RBS in Britain walking away with a £700,000 per annum pension for life has been simply too much to take for the ordinary taxpayer who in turn faces an inevitable combination of severe tax rises and savage public spending cuts in the years ahead. In response and as a diversion from the real issue of the banking bailouts the Democratic controlled US Congress hurriedly passed a law making all such bonuses awarded at such US taxpayer bailed out corporations liable to a special 90% tax. In the UK, Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension has been the subject of much ministerial discussion but a way to revoke his pension has yet to be found.
This leads to a wider but fundamental question about the fairness of the Western ruling system, about democracy itself. Western leaders, politicians and opinion makers have championed democracy throughout the world, including Pakistan, as a representative and equitable form of ruling. Democracy they argue asserts the will of the people – ‘rule of the people by the people for the people’. They argue that it allows man to legislate as needed according to the situation, with the superiority of temporal over the spiritual.
So the questions that naturally pose themselves are why are these Western governments continuing to bailout these banks at huge expense despite seeing the growing public anger in their countries? Why have they allowed the existing shareholders a continued stake in these bailed out banks when their businesses have actually failed? Why did the American Congress not instead pass a law making it illegal to award any kind of bonus by any taxpayer bailed out corporation instead of allowing an accounting loophole whereby the amount of the desired bonus can be scaled by a factor of ten? Why has the British Parliament failed to pass emergency legislation confiscating the pension of Sir Fred Goodwin? In fact given the complete ability of Western democracies to legislate whatever they want, why have the American, British and other affected Western governments not passed laws severely penalising retrospectively the culprits behind the financial ruin of these Western banks, confiscating the financial gains of the like’s of Lehman Brother’s former CEO Dick Fuld and others of his ilk, making them face jail time as appropriate for their roles?
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and other such incidents we saw Western governments in the name of security move swiftly to curtail individual freedoms and bring in new laws to detain alleged terrorists for longer periods of time without charge. Yet in the aftermath of this unfolding financial disaster we have seen Western governments drag their feet. The failure of Western governments to punish these individuals and the banks but instead reward them with huge taxpayer bailouts indicates a profound deeper failure of democracy itself.
The reality is that democracy has actually failed to look after the interests of the ordinary people in these affected countries in the West. In fact it has actively sought to protect the interests of the rich and powerful elites who have used democracy as a vehicle to achieve their objectives; in this particular situation it is the banking elite who are clearly benefitting. When millions are spent in elections in democracies it is obvious that only the rich, powerful and well connected can afford to indulge in such power play. This is why when Barack Obama raised nearly $750 million in campaign contributions during the American Presidential election expectations for ‘real change’ have to be balanced against the reality that those people who donated such staggering amounts of money will expect, indeed demand, favours back in return in the form of tailor made regulation and legislation. This is why in all major Western democracies there is a very close relationship between legislators, pressure groups, corporate lobbyists and rich individuals; this is a recipe for rule by the rich and the powerful as democracy itself has simply become another commodity for sale. Political control in the West by powerful vested interests and elites has been achieved through a sophisticated guise. Small wonder then that in a rare moment of candidness American Senator Dick Durban recently said “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.”
Consequently this is also the same reason why the Western ruling elites hate Islam so much as Islam presents a clear alternative with detailed political, economic and social solutions. The prohibition on interest based transactions, the need to own a commodity before being able to sell it on or the requirement to have your currency fully backed by either gold or silver, the main root causes behind the West’s financial disaster, are enshrined in the Shariah and cannot be legitimised in any way. These elites cannot stand the thought of the revival of an alternative ideological state where the legislation cannot be manipulated for any benefit. The Khilafah, or otherwise known as the Caliphate, would be ruled by implementing the Shariah, which cannot be changed by any man as Allah(SWT) is the sovereign with the political ruling authority vested in the people as the Caliph would be elected. As Allah(SWT) says:
“Fain would they put out the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light however much the disbelievers are averse.”
Surah As-Saff 61:8
The Khilafah and the Shariah provide a model that ensures that not only is the law consistently applied but also itself does not become subject to a politician’s whim, negotiation or a faustian deal. In contrast not only is the Western economic model facing a crisis of confidence as capitalism fails as an ideology but it’s democratic ruling system also stands exposed as being wholly corrupt as it looks after the interests of it’s powerful elites; with it’s widely acknowledged societal problems the whole premise of the Western way of life is under question like never before. With democracy failing in the West with such institutionalised corruption, it is perfectly evident why democracy has also failed to solve Pakistan’s problems as well.
Despite this the Western ruling elites still have the nerve to insist there is no other alternative available as the way forward. Yet Islam provides an alternative, a way of life that has been successfully implemented at state level for over 1300 years; it is sheer intellectual dishonesty by these Western elites to remain in public denial as they seek to protect their interests. In the process though they are giving the ever more growing impression that rather than implementing any sound economic theory, in desperation their crony capitalism is more likely being made up on the back of an envelope as the West sinks further into the abyss.
by Ameer Dagha
Seeing as things have been for the past few years (or decades rather), is it still not clear that things are not changing any time soon? Pakistan has been gripped to the very core by corruption, greed, selfishness, illiteracy, fascism, feudalism and (very recently) the so called “war on terrorism”. Looking at the way things have been progressing in the past few months, it is crystal clear that the present government does not possess the support of the people nor the acumen to steer our country out of this mess. Those people in the PPP who make its backbone have been sidelined and the throne has been overtaken by a handful of people who (as much as they would love to think), do not “represent” the people.
So why is this? Why in a country where we are oh so vocal about the idea of democracy and rule of law, is there such a vast gulf between the people and equality? The reason is that we have no democracy. Yes we have it down on paper but it is just as good as our parliament. A ‘sovereign’ parliament that takes orders from one man (henceforth referred to, as ‘The One’) before even switching the lights on. It is just as good as ‘The One’s’ word, which can be changed in light of the fact that it is not Holy Scripture. It is just as good as our Ministers for Postal Services and Education who justify barbaric acts as ‘tradition’. It is just as good as the NRO which wipes a very dirty slate clean by merely painting over it. We are told that the recently restored Chief Justice had become controversial. At the same time, ‘The One’ who has been controversial for more than a decade has the ‘mandate of the people’. Our democracy, yet again, is only as good as these double standards.
The point of this piece today is to highlight a double-standard that in my opinion is of tremendous consequence. In order for one to rid himself of the symptoms, the disease needs to be identified. Well, in all honesty Pakistan has many diseases and one of the most deep-rooted is the huge divide between the poor and the elite. This division is a very fitting analogy of wise words that tell us that “to remain silent in the face of cruelty is a manifestation of cruelty itself”. The rich and powerful in our country are very unforgiving in blaming Pakistan for being what it is. However, they are all too forgiving in excusing themselves of the responsibilities that fall on them as (able) citizens of this nation. Able citizens who can make a difference should they open their eyes to see and their senses to feel the pain and suffering of those that are less fortunate.
We need more Abdul Sattar Edhis, Tehmina Durranis, Ardeshir Cowasjees and the like. Those who decided to do something and make a difference. And by God we have plenty more.
Consider this a request, a plea or a desperate cry for help from the lesser fortunate. Do all that you can to strive and make our home a better place, for every bit helps. Shun the double standards that plague our society and we will see it change for the better. The time to choose is fast running out.
by Shaukat Ali
PKPolitics presents first ever Urdu column in audio format. The topic of this column is that the analysts are showing us only one angle of the current situation and not the complete picture.
