American agenda in disguise

It's extremely painful to see such a devastating situation in our beloved country. Our sponsored military and democratic leaders, both have brought this nation to the extent of disgrace, destruction and total socio-economic frustration. Whereas the bigger danger lies in a fact that our people neither have a vision nor they want to learn from history. As without a right assessment, no policy can rightly be framed to succeed.It's a historic fact that America has a very clear neoconic agenda to rule the world as the only superpower, with one secular world, one WTO driven economy and one IMF sucked community, with its sponsored puppet military or democratic rulers in different countries, like Musharraf in Pakistan. Same they did in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and some European countries.To ensure their success, they best utilise their agencies to manipulate the resources to trigger a conspiracy, in partnership with common enemies, and attack militarily, diplomatically, socially and economically. Like in Pakistan, they made a partnership with India and Israel. Through media, they, initially, reformed the public opinion by sponsoring the politicians, scholars, journalists and NGOs. In Pakistan, in the last 2 years, more than $1000 million is pumped into media to sponsor the anti-Islamic/Pakistani elements to promote religious confusion, political anarchy, ethnic divisions, economic crisis, disintegration and above all the socio-cultural obscenity to shake the very foundation of Pakistan, in the name of freedom of expression.It's because of our ghaddar/sponsored Pakistani leadership, that we are trapped in an engineered war. Othewise, in America, it's an established fact that this war is for the control of the world/oil resources and to eliminate all such elements, who cause any resistance. It's also a known fact, through reliable sources, that Israeli and Indian Airforce fighter jets are standing by at the Nagpoor airbase to have a joint operation against Pakistan's nuclear assets. The ignorants should also know that America has signed an agreement with India to attack Pakistan, by proxy. It should also be realised that the Israeli Army Chief recently visited the Kashmiri region, besides the military planning in India, to form an Ismaili State along the north-western belt of Pakistan.Even knowing all such facts, if we continue to follow the dictated foreign policy and keep killing our own innocent people in greed of money and cowardly reaction, then nobody else but we are solely responsible for our destruction and miseries. Whatever is happening today in Pakistan, is part of their international agenda, and we are blindly following it, under the influence of forged leadership and sponsored media. The American, Israeli and Indian agencies are comfortably operating on the soil of Pakistan and working to cause disintegration, hatred, confusion, frustration and socio-economic disaster by proxy of their Pakistani agents planted in politicians, security forces and bureaucracy. Such foreign agencies are also responsible for explosions and mass killing at mosques and public places and to put blame on the Pakistani Muslims.

People cry about economy that Pakistan will collapse without the American aid in trade-off our national security. But we should know that Allah has blessed Pakistan with plenty of resources, which makes it unique in the world. Even we can pay off our total debt ($38 billion), if we sell only one Gold-Copper mine worth $65 billion in Chaghi, Balochistan. And the rest can be used to meet the energy crisis by setting up/enhancing crash nuclear/hydal projects in cooperation with our time-tested friend, China. The people don't trust the government, whatever the tax is collected, is used for the benefit of elites and luxury of the government. And if only one year of tax is collected ($30 - 40 billion), it's sufficient to alleviate the poverty by starting mega projects alongwith welfare schemes.We have always been on the mercy of IMF, which provides funds, that are misappropriated by our corrupt politicians and the liability remains on the nation. Mind it, it was the sincere leadership of Malaysia that didn't allow IMF into their country, and you can see where stands, Malaysia now. Musharraf and others have been knocking the very foundation of the country and their blind followers have been following them for their personal benefits and party affiliations.So who is responsible, in addition to the external influences, we are also responsible for choosing and supporting such leadership, which is leading us to such a disastrous situation. Unless or until we sacrifice our personal interests over the national interests and think above the party affiliations, the miseries will remain and today's political leaders will continue to exploit our weaknesses. Today we need a leadership, which has got sincere feeling for the country and it's people.May Allah give us the strength to reform ourselves and overrun the weak rulers. Amin!

Bhutto's widower wins presidency

Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has won a sweeping victory in Pakistan's presidential election. The election was called after Pervez Musharraf resigned rather than risk being impeached. Mr Zardari faces severe economic problems and a rampant Islamist insurgency that are threatening Pakistan's stability. During the voting a bomb killed at least 15 people near Peshawar city. The president is elected by secret ballots in the national and four provincial assemblies. Mr Zardari won 481 votes out of 702, far more than the 352 votes that would have guaranteed him victory, leaving his two rivals trailing far behind. In Sindh province, Mr Zardari won all 65 votes. In North West Frontier Province (NWFP) he got 56 out of the 65 votes. In Balochistan province he won 59 of the 65 votes. By contrast he only won 22 out of 65 seats in Punjab province, the heartland of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's PML-N party. The two daughters of Mr Zardari and Ms Bhutto hugged friends in delight in the gallery of the national assembly as the results became clear. Members of Mr Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) declared the result to be a "victory for democracy". Controversy Mr Zardari was thrust into the centre of political power by the killing of Ms Bhutto last December after which he became head of the PPP.Mr Zardari is one of Pakistan's most controversial politicians. For years he has been hounded by allegations of massive corruption - although he has never been convicted. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took his PML-N party out of the governing coalition last week, accusing Mr Zardari of breaking key promises. Many in Pakistan fear the country is facing a return to an old-style politics of confrontation at a time when urgent action is needed to improve the economy and deal with a raging Islamist insurgency

Juggling demands Mr Zardari is seen as pro-Western and supportive of Washington's self-declared war on terror. He will have to juggle the demands of the United States, Pakistan's powerful army, and strong anti-American sentiment in the country. Our correspondent says Mr Musharraf tried to do that and failed. She adds that Pakistanis hope that Asif Zardari will have more success, but they see little in his past to encourage them. The fortunes of the Bhutto-Zardari family have fluctuated dramatically. Mr Zardari spent years in prison while Gen Musharraf ruled Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated at an election rally in December. Her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was hanged during the military dictatorship of President Ziaul Haq. A further reminder of the dangers of public life in Pakistan came on Wednesday when gunmen attacked the motorcade of the prime minister. Two bullets hit his car, although he was not in it at the time officials say. The other candidates for the presidency were Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui, a former judge who had the backing of Mr Sharif, and Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who was nominated by the PML-Q party that supported Mr Musharraf. In the Islamabad parliament, members of the upper house, the Senate, were due to vote first, followed by the lower house. Pakistan's four provincial assemblies of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and the NWFP had a similar schedule. However, voting in the NWFP capital, Peshawar, was delayed when a 5.6 magnitude earthquake hit the area and neighbouring Afghanistan, prompting deputies to flee the assembly building. The provincial assemblies are given equal weighting with 65 votes each. In the three assemblies which do not have 65 deputies, the value of each deputy's vote is adjusted by a mathematical formula. There is only one round of voting and whoever has most of the 702 votes wins.

Deteriorating ties

IS America a friend or foe? If that is ambiguous today, there is no doubt the coming days will settle the issue one way or the other. Distrust has been building up between the leader of the war on terror and the "frontline state" for years. It centres on America’s belief that Pakistan is not doing enough and that elements in the ISI are helping the Taliban. Consequently, American leaders, including President Bush, threatened to act unilaterally in Fata if "actionable intelligence" were available. The threat was translated into action in full force in South Waziristan last week. The strong reaction in Pakistan and the condemnatory resolution passed by parliament seem not to have mattered with Washington, for it has launched more attacks since then. The future is even murkier, since the US and its allies are likely to react angrily to Pakistan’s decision to suspend fuel supply to the coalition forces in Afghanistan. These developments need to be studied against the barrage of anti-Pakistan statements in Washington, especially the venom exhibited by a man who could be America’s next president.

In a TV interview Barack Obama complained that the Bush administration had "wasted" the $10bn it gave in aid to Pakistan. He said that aid should not have been given without strings attached, and that Islamabad was receiving American military aid to prepare for war with India. Irrespective of the absurdity of the last charge, Pakistan has to wake up to the danger to its security if Obama makes it to the White House. His statement coincides with US press reports which quote Pentagon officials as saying that cross-border raids are not only necessary, more such raids could follow. Talking to German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung, Gen Tariq Majid, the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, said Pakistan reserved the right to "appropriately retaliate" against such raids. While one can understand his anger, it is very obvious that Pakistan can do very little by way of retaliation.The truth is we are in a foreign policy mess. Worse still, there is hardly a government which could adequately articulate Pakistan’s position on the issue and steer the ship of the state out of stormy waters. The protracted constitutional/political crisis is taking its toll, and there is no doubt governments hostile to this country have taken into account Pakistan’s political instability while drawing up their schemes. It is time Islamabad sorted out its relationship with Washington. Unfortunately, America too will be unable to take major foreign policy decisions until the next administration takes over. The least the Pakistani leadership can do in the meantime is to set its house in order.

Sovereignty under attack

Pakistan was founded through democratic process but against the popular will of Hindu majority of the subcontinent. They have never accepted Pakistan with open heart and arms. Since Independence, newly born Pakistan found newly born India as a hostile neighbour. Indian occupation of Kashmir, the then princely state resulted in three wars between the two countries. Due to Indian hostility Pakistan was obligated to make friends with anti-Indian forces at the regional and international level, which includes China and the Taliban regime.Pakistan supported the Taliban movement to end the internal clashes and infighting between different warring groups in Afghanistan. The stable Afghanistan was a necessity for stability in Pakistan. The anti-Taliban lobby (the then Northern alliance) was led by Ahmed Shah Masood and his allies.
They were anti-Pakistan and were the supporters of India. Supporting Taliban was a good move at that time. However, after 9 / 11, the US administration exerted pressure on the General Musharraf to support them in its effort to eliminate the Taliban regime. Musharraf was a dictator and he had no other option but to adhere to the instructions of Bush administration.The Musharraf government turned against Taliban in such a haste that it over looked the ground realities and our national interest. Presently, Pakistan and Afghanistan are fighting against the extremist forces but it is the height of treachery on the part of Mr Karazi that he is damaging the interest of Pakistan with the collaboration of India and Israel. This all travesty and tragedy is because of the wrong policies of the General Musharraf who surrendered before the Bush administration in every possible way and compromised our sovereignty.Just a few days ago our so-called friends, the NATO forces attacked a village, Angur Adda, on our borders, which left nearly 25 innocent civilians dead. It was an attack on our sovereignty. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi summoned the American ambassador to foreign office for an explanation and condemned the attack on our sovereignty. There is a need for an all parties' conference on these issues. It will strengthen the PPP government's mandate to revise Pakistan's role and strategy in the War on Terror. Pakistan must tell the NATO forces that enough is enough and we will not accept its outrages.It is in the interest of US to prevent India and Israel from stoking violence in our tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. President Karzai always blames Pakistan for supporting terrorists but the reality is other way round. Islamabad repeatedly asked Kabul to seal the Pak-Afghan border but the request went unheeded. It clearly indicates their malevolent intentions.The million-dollar question is that whether our friends really want to eradicate terrorism and extremism from Pakistan? If yes, then they have to win the hearts and minds of people, which cannot be won by killing innocent citizens. It goes without saying that if NATO will continue such aggression and violation of international law then the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis, who are moderate will stand up against them and will fight like warrior poets, which is not in the interest of anyone whether America, Afghanistan, or Pakistan.

Lessons and contradictions

My dear Waheed:
By the time you read this, your new president would have been elected, but I cannot comment on it because I wrote this the day before. Deadlines won't let one wait, even for Doomsday. But if things have gone according to form, Asif Zardari should be the President of Pakistan. Congratulations! What is there to comment about though? It is the will of the people expressed in all its majesty under democracy in action. Congratulations to all those who were harping on about "free and fair elections" for the last nine years, that democracy would "remain incomplete" without the return of the leaders of the two "mainstream parties", whatever that means.I'm not being cynical. I'm being factual. Zardari is the democratically elected President of Pakistan under the convoluted British colonial system that we have willingly adopted. So one should now also accept this system, however reluctantly and without necessarily agreeing with it, because that is also what the people apparently want through their "representatives". I am a democrat and bow to the will of the majority. If I oppose President Zardari, it will be purely on issues, merit and performance and strictly within the confines of the constitution that we have and the sort of democratic practice that it engenders. I will never be one to ever beseech the army to "save the country". That's best left to the purveyors of democracy who do it better than anyone when there is 'dictatorship'. "Save the country" from what? From itself?Last week I told you about both the symbolic as well as the real powers of the president, but I forgot three. One is that he can dissolve the National Assembly and therefore dismiss the government. The second is that he appoints the chiefs of the army, navy and air force as well as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, under which comes the Special Projects Division that is responsible for our nuclear assets and weapons. The flip side is that as the appointing authority he can obviously also dismiss all four of them according to rules and procedure. These three powers, combined with his other powers, plus the fact that he is elected, makes Zardari the most powerful president in our history after his father-in-law, who in his early days in power was not fettered by a constitution, operated under martial law as the world's first, and so far only, chief martial law administrator and after it was lifted under draconian emergency rule throughout his era.However, division of powers is vital in a country like Pakistan, but it must be a balanced division, so that no one wields so much power that he is unchecked and unbridled and becomes a dictator. We have seen that whenever a ruler has tried to concentrate all power in his office, like Mr Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif did, we get into serious trouble. That all power should reside in the office of the chief executive of the country should apply only if he is elected directly on the basis of one-person-one-vote with Pakistan as one constituency and not indirectly through any sort of electoral college, be it a special electoral college as in the USA or the lower house of Parliament as in Britain and Pakistan or the Parliament and all the Provincial Assemblies for when we elect presidents. That dilutes the will of the people, meaning it dilutes democracy. It's a devious device to actually divert and thwart the will of the people. What is the need for an electoral college anyway? Why in this day and age do the people need parliamentarians or any other gaggle to tell us what their will is? Why can't they tell us themselves? Why don't we trust the people to tell us directly who they want their leader country to be, not through a third party which supposedly knows the people's will? That is the height of pomposity.The excuse for electoral colleges is that otherwise the largest province, the Punjab, would capture power permanently. That's balderdash. For one, that's precisely what the Senate with equal number of seats from all the provinces is for, to balance the demographic imbalance. For another, since when has Punjab 'hijacked' the top job? I'm the last person to be parochial, but look at the last nine years. Our president was not a Punjabi. Our first post-2002 prime minister was Baloch, the stopgap for two months a Punjabi, and the third half-Bihari half-Kashmiri. Most of the army's vice chiefs of the period have been non-Punjabis. The deposed chief justice, though ethnically a Punjabi, is from Balochistan, a post to which he might not have been elevated had he not been domiciled in our smallest province, a distinct advantage over being from the largest province. Look at the four top jobs today. The president (probably) is a Sindhi. The prime minister is from southern Punjab, which makes him culturally pretty Sindhi, no bad thing. Both the chairman Senate and the speaker of the National Assembly are from Sindh. They all got there because of the Punjabi vote, as has every elected non-Punjabi prime minister before them. If you look at our electoral history, the Punjab has always voted nationally while the other provinces have always voted parochially and even ethnically. But isn't democracy all about the will of the majority? Then why thwart it? We tried with East Pakistan and lost it.Could the real reason for electoral colleges be that without them it would be impossible to make proxies for the real wielders of power? Could it be that it might lead to the election of a chief executive who challenges the status quo by challenging the hold of the feudal baron, tribal warlord and the fake 'divine' whose credibility lies in a grave? Imagine: if we had a direct election for our chief executive with a two-candidate race in the second ballot, as in France, Imran Khan, who for all his follies and foibles is still less bad than all those now on offer, would give a run for his money to any comer. Under the indirect system through a miniscule electoral college comprising the oppressors of the people, he doesn't stand a chance. Get it?Look son. You come from a democratic household. That is how your mother and I have brought our children up. Make up your own mind. Don't take everything I say as the gospel truth. I am only doing my parental duty of giving you, your sisters and all the young people of Pakistan advice based on whatever knowledge I have been able to gather through formal education, from some of my elders, especially my father, and my experience, which has been much more intense than my 59 years would normally warrant. It's just the firmament that I, and many of my generation, have lived in. Always question what you hear and read, not in that irritating adversarial way that children of your age often do, but in your mind. Beware the tyranny of the written word, especially in newspapers. I've told you many times: if you read something for an hour, think about it for 10 hours. Question it, analyse it, understand it, digest it; then come to your own conclusions or take the theory forward. As the poet said: our grasp should be beyond our reach, else what were the stars made for? Beware even more the tyranny of the spoken word, especially on television. Beware the word of the demagogue, the politician, the self-styled analyst in an intellectual wasteland, the obscurant who peddles his own particular interpretation of religion in a confused State. Beware him who wears patriotism on his sleeve while questioning the patriotism those who dissent. Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Love for one's country is as natural as love for one's mother. Those who loudly proclaim their love for their mothers have got to have something wrong with them. Those who loudly proclaim their patriotism are implicitly questioning the patriotism of others. Those who wear religion on their sleeves are implicitly questioning the faith of others. This is the height of hypocrisy. Never forget: there is a world of a difference between Faith and religion, which is only a collection of customs and ritual that soon become dogma under a bureaucracy called a clergy in an institution called a church in the generic sense. Love for country and parent is assumed, because it is normal and natural. Faith in God the Supreme Being is quite different from dogma at the mercy of the often half-baked cleric.Ah, my son, I used a word that has long become the anchor of our society - hypocrisy - causing it to be underpinned in a plethora of contradictions. I told you about one national contradiction last week: when there is dictatorship we want democracy and when we have democracy we want dictatorship. Another is that every 'democrat' has tried to become a dictator and every 'dictator' has tried to become a democrat. It drives one up the wall. I once read a report that 70 percent of Pakistanis suffer from mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia. No wonder. And they pick up a doctors' report that we all know was meant for some other reason to show that Asif Zardari is demented? If Zardari is demented then we are all lunatics.