Ambassador syedahsani

Here is my take The Future of Pakistan By Usman Khalid, Secretary General Rifah Party of Pakistan May 05, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- I have just returned from Pakistan after two weeks in Lahore and Islamabad. I found every citizen concerned that the onslaught of the Taliban from the North and the MQM/Baloch Nationalists from the South – aided and abetted by India, Israel and America – would end in the break up Pakistan. Without naming India, Israel and America as the originators of such a scheme, the American and British media and think tanks also articulate the same dire scenario. What is worrying is that the public in Pakistan is also aware that the present government of Pakistan is neither willing nor able to do anything to prevent such a calamity. And yet there is no panic. The country functions and is comfortable with a government that does little but express hopes for a better tomorrow as ‘democracy has returned’. The American press has stopped accusing the military of ‘duplicity’ (supporting the Taliban while making half-hearted efforts to crush them) but the Indian media continues to toe that line which was first articulated by the American neo-cons. The intelligentsia of Pakistan does get a fair airing of its views on the many private TV channels that challenge the American as well as the Indian line but there no discernible Pakistani line. The absence of a statement of Pakistan’s national interests and policies both by the government and leading political parties of Pakistan is creating complications and raising anxieties among the many friends of Pakistan. Mahboob Mahmood (known to have the ear of President Obama) has written a long article under the title “A New Beginning for Pakistan: America’s strategy for success.” He begins by saying, “President Barack Obama has been a strong supporter of the twin propositions that (a) a stable, peaceful and progressive Pakistan is crucial for success in the global engagement that his predecessor had so trippingly mislabelled the ‘war on terror’ and (b) the problem of Pakistan must be addressed at a military, political, diplomatic and economic level. While these propositions appear to make sense, the battle for Pakistan is close to being lost. Only a strategy born at the ground zero of defeat will be able to engender a new beginning for Pakistan.” Mahmood’s conclusion is a dire warning but it is not misplaced in its accuracy or the foundation on which it is premised. Pakistan does appear to be on the verge of a triumph by a Taliban led theocracy. But it is also true that 95% of the population of Pakistan dread it. How come those who command less than 5 % support can overpower one of the finest armed forces in the world and no civil society mechanism is able to resist their onslaught? The answer is: ‘war lords’. We are all familiar with the warlords of Afghanistan who engaged in a decade long internecine war after the exit of the Soviet Union until the Taliban emerged as the ‘warlords with the Quran’ to bring some semblance of order in that country. But the Taliban were warlords and still are; theirs is a fascist cult albeit an Islamic one. But Pakistan’s largest city – Karachi – has also been ruled by ward lords of the MQM after they ‘defeated’ the law enforcing agencies. The ordinary people are afraid of the police and the military; the MQM made the police and the military their target. The people as well as the politicians took notice. The MQM mafia has been partners in every ‘democratic coalition’ in post Zia era. The Pakistani Taliban regularly cite their example. They say: why is enemy (India) sponsored armed mafia that killed more than 600 policemen in Karachi acceptable in power and upholders of Islam as a polity are unacceptable? General Musharraf was a Mohajir himself and the MQM supported him eagerly in appeasing India or ignoring the aspirations of the people of the Punjab (over the Kalabagh Dam) and of Kashmir by making unilateral concessions to India. It did not take long for the Taliban to realise that they were the only force that could challenge the MQM and other ‘secular-ethnic parties’ in Pakistan. The base of support for an effective force to fight and resist ‘ethnic-nationalist’ and ‘India appeasers’ is much wider. Three parties in the ruling coalition – ANP, MQM and JUI – are well known for their Indian links but that the PPP is also led by ‘India appeasers’ was new to the public. The ‘opposition’ has yet to come to terms with that. The religious parties continue to support the Taliban as they always have but the factions of the Muslim League are uncertain how to view their new Taliban role as ‘enforcers of Sharia’. The population dread the Taliban style rule but they dread being split into four countries and to go under Indian suzerainty even more. The Taliban appear to be the lesser evil just as they were in Afghanistan. Mahmood’s View of t