A billboard in 2008 on Pakistani soil showing the map of independent Pashtunistan. ANP denied any involvement. [Picture courtesy of Online News Agency-Nov. 2008]
One of the heroes of the Pakistan Independence Movement had actually proposed the name Afghania for the province. So respect for the Pashtun identity, which makes the larger Pakistani identity, has always been there. But the manner in which ANP is whipping up linguistic sentiments, coupled with a daring attempt within the Parliament to change the constitution to give provinces unprecedented freedoms, indicates something bigger is happening than just renaming a province and revising the constitution.
A few months after ANP came to power in 2008, billboards showing the map of 'Greater Pashtunistan' mysteriously appeared in some parts of Pakistan's northwestern province. 'Greater Pashtunistan' is supposed to replace a disintegrated Pakistan, according to the proponents of this theory.
The ANP denied any link to the billboards at the time.
But whoever was behind that billboard knew there was a lot of talk going on in official and informal circles in the United States about the concept of Pashtunistan. This was probably part of a larger psy-ops program that aimed at pressuring Pakistan to align itself more with the US agenda.
Starting sometime in 2007, the US media and think-tanks launched a campaign for independent Pashtunistan and independent Balochistan. This campaigned has slowed but has not completely ended. Washington DC was the venue for several seminars attended by advocates of this theory. The origin of these theories is India, where analysts with links to the Indian security establishment have been advocating the breakup of Pakistan on linguistic basis, feeding on real grievances created by a failed bureaucratic and political ruling system. Indian officials have always bragged privately to their foreign guests about how they successfully used this method to cut Pakistan to size in 1971. [Click here to read how Indian analysts introduced the idea of breaking up Pakistan along linguistic lines to Washington after 9/11].
Blatant anti-Pakistanism in the US media has gradually decreased during the past year, mostly because US officials are now showing respect to Pakistan to gain its support to avert a defeat in Afghanistan. Much credit for this change also goes to the Pakistani military establishment and to the army chief.
But it is not completely over. While Pakistan has friends in Washington and others agree they need Pakistan, the anti-Pakistan elements in the US establishment took their latest 'seminar' on Pakistani Balochistan to Bangkok, apparently because such an event on Thai soil won't draw attention to its US backers.
There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that lends credibility to the theory that ANP's rise to power was part of the secret understandings that former President Musharraf agreed to with the Bush administration in 2006 and 2007 on the shape of future government in Pakistan.
Now three pro-US parties [ANP, PPPP, MQM] are running the show in Pakistan. PPPP has been busy enacting the American agenda of containing Pakistan's military and intelligence from within. This has failed. MQM is campaigning for a bill on provincial autonomy that will effectively end Pakistan as a strong country and turn its provinces into semi-independent states that can secede anytime they choose. This will bring Pakistan one step closer to the fate of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
As for ANP, instead of improving services and governance, the party is creating language-based hatred and divisions in Pakistan under the guise of renaming NWFP, which is a nonissue. Pakistanis are suffering a massive energy shortage and a general decline in the quality of life across the nation while these failed politicians are wasting time on creating ethnic- and linguistic-based divisions among Pakistanis.
The above is probably the most accurate context for understanding the latest political crisis in Pakistan over renaming a province and over passing a radical plan for changes in the constitution that would weaken the Pakistani state.
Pakistan will continue to suffer this type of instability as long as some of its political parties continue to work on foreign agendas, and as long as Pakistan's people and the armed forces tolerate foreign governments creating and maintaining proxies at the highest levels in Islamabad.
Unfortunately, nobody (even in Pak) buys these theories of AQ. It makes for interesting reading, though, and one can have a good laugh. But distorting facts and history will not help Pak get self-respect in the international community. If these theories have an element of truth, India would be the most dominating ppower in the region and not be a silent victim of Pak-sponsored terrorism. If India was a rogue state, it could have dismembered Pakistan in 1971.
ReplyDeleteDear Dennis,
ReplyDeleteIntelligent and respectful Indians are welcome here, frustrated ones are not. I will be more tolerant than the mainstream Indian media and will leave your comment intact. Indian news organizations don't take 1/5th of this from any Pakistani visitor. But then again, Pakistani newspapers show more tolerance and allow more Indians to write in our newspapers than Indian newspapers will ever do. Beneath your well crafted image lies a very bitter and small mindset. In 2006, when 59 Pakistanis were burned alive on a train by Hindu terrorists with links to Indian military, Hindustan Times asked me to write a short op-ed on the tragedy. I was full of praise for India and yet they refused to publish it. Why? Because I dared to say a word or two on the bad aspects of having Hindu extremists groups on Indian soil.
The only reason I am here is your last line: "If India was a rogue state, it could have dismembered Pakistan in 1971."
You must be a good propagandist. India in 1971 violated international law and launched an unprovoked one-sided invasion of Pakistan while Pakistanis were busy in an internal matter. There was no Kashmir jihad then or LeT, or anything of the sort. Yet India spent two years organizing a terror militia in East Pakistan and then seized a post-election crisis to invade. India is a rogue state. For more information on Indian terrorism and rogue-characteristics please click here and read [http://groups.google.com/group/paknationalists/web/what-punjabi-taliban].
You will be surprised to learn facts that India's free media unanimously conceals from its people. This unanimity of Indian media reminds me of how uniform the Soviet press used to be in the good old days. Only happens in India.
Dear AQ,
ReplyDeleteAccepted that HT did not publish your views after calling for it. Bad enough. By the way the editor of HT is the biggest critic of that one group of Hindu extremists who are accused of plotting terror. Having said that, just compare how many terrorist acts have occurred in India which points fingers to Muslims backed by ISI? Simply put there is no comparison. While there are only 2 acts of terrorism attributed to this Hindu group. Equally condemnable. No sane Indian condones acts of terror.
Again on 1971, nobody will buy this theory that India violated international law. International Law provides for humanitarian intervention in order to prevent genocide. Secondly, since 1948, under one or the other pretext, Pak through its regular army or irregulars have initiated military action overtly or covertly to take Kashmir. The last of such instance was in 1999 - Kargil. That it has not succeeded so far is another matter altogether.
In India the press could not be gagged even during the brief period of Emergency. It is difficult to agree that the press in India is not free. Certainly no press freedom anywhere in the world allows publishing of inflammatory articles and propaganda.
Dinnse,
ReplyDeletei do not understand, what exactly you want. in your every post, you criticize Pakistan passionately and when we criticize India , you feel heat. i think, all the majority of peoples in Subcontinent are fanatics. they have predetermined agenda and only want to read what they like.
if you do not like the stuff here, then you can enjoy your valuable time on other forum.
on every news , you try to post negativity for Pakistan, and just want to hit maximum score. perhaps you get appreciation in India but not here.
if you think you talk with facts then we do the same.
I think, AQ is doing great Job.
Your comments mean only one thing - You just want one side of the coin to be seen, and that the other side does not exist. Well, if that be so, then Pak should not clamour for re-start of composite dialogue. Let it continue with its monologue - talk to itself. What I am writing is neither for the public in India or in Pakistan. There are people who exist beyond the sub-continent. They need to know both the sides. AQ, and others like you can post your views on various websites. Let the people outside the sub-continent judge what is right and what is wrong. Since I feel Pakistan is in the wrong, I continue to air these views. In any case, the webmaster of AQ has the delete button to erase my comments. Let him do it.
ReplyDeleteDennise,
ReplyDeleteYour comments are very pathetic like any other subcontinent writer.
I do not like to argue with you that who want one side of the coin to be seen and bla bla
I think everybody understand your agenda. Keep writing your valuable search for Pakistan, and try to demoralize as much you can. InshaAllah, God would protect Pakistan.
Please put me in your ignore list as I have nothing to do with your India. I am just here to discuss about Pakistan issues, From now on, I would not argue with your post. You are beyond my understanding. Please keep writing. Soon, peoples in the world would be able to identify the lies as you write for entire world except subcontinent.
According to my view, all these talks of a foreign hand trying to divide this dear country of ours seem a fallacy. We are weak from the core, and that’s the true; we have divided ourselves into different religious groups, and ethnicities, and so such billboards exist. We as a nation must get together and eliminate these differences, and save Pakistan.
ReplyDeleteZainab Ali
Well said Zainab. I agree with your views entirely. I hope your fellow countrymen agree with this view point.
ReplyDeleteDennis has been trying very hard to present a misleading impression of the Indian press.
ReplyDeletePlease click the link below which will take you to an article by Professor John Briscoe, a South African of Irish descent. If you are short of time and cannot read the full article, do at least read the following three short paragraphs from "War or peace on the Indus":
Living in Delhi and working in both India and Pakistan, I was struck by a paradox. One country was a vigorous democracy, the other a military regime. But whereas an important part of the Pakistani press regularly reported India's views on the water issue in an objective way, the Indian press never did the same. I never saw a report which gave Indian readers a factual description of the enormous vulnerability of Pakistan, of the way in which India had socked it to Pakistan when filling Baglihar. How could this be, I asked? Because, a journalist colleague in Delhi told me, "when it comes to Kashmir – and the Indus Treaty is considered an integral part of Kashmir -- the ministry of external affairs instructs newspapers on what they can and cannot say, and often tells them explicitly what it is they are to say."
This apparently remains the case. In the context of the recent talks between India and Pakistan I read, in Boston, the electronic reports on the disagreement about "the water issue" in The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express and The Economic Times. (Respectively, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Water-Pakistans-diversionary-tactic-/articleshow/5609099.cms, http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/ article112388.ece, http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/india/River-waters-The-next-testing-ground/Article1-512190.aspx, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Pak-heats-up-water-sharing/583733, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Pak-takes-water-route-to-attack-India/articleshow/5665516.cms.)
Taken together, these reports make astounding reading. Not only was the message the same in each case ("no real issue, just Pakistani shenanigans"), but the arguments were the same, the numbers were the same and the phrases were the same. And in all cases the source was "analysts" and "experts" -- in not one case was the reader informed that this was reporting an official position of the Government of India.
The full article can be read here: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=232342
That’s totally my perception, and among the various reasons behind democracy still being a vague concept here, is feudalism. In our villages, people are still dependant on the decisions of village elders or CHAUDARIES; their children are not allowed to study, fearing they would stop obeying their orders. People also take more pride in their respective ethnicities instead of being a Pakistani; we need to rise as a nation, so that no one else can point a finger at us.
ReplyDeleteNo comment, eh, on Professor John Briscoe's article?!
ReplyDeleteFor all I know 'Zainab' may be an accomplice that Dennis has to push his nefarious agenda here.
We Muslims believe in Truth and Justice even when it costs us dear. The worst critics of the current Pakistan government, and the previous government headed by the puppet Musharraf, are to be found among the Pakistanis. The problem for the hypocritical Indians and the Americans is that any such criticism extends to their governments as well. They would like us to present only half-truths, leaving out the dastardly acts of their own governments!!
Summary of Pakistan
ReplyDeleteCorruption in each level of society
Leaders have very short sighted objectives. How they can develop country
We are Muslims but our way of life is totally opposite.
We just like to talk. Nobody wants to sacrifice for the future of the country.
I think, corruption is mother of all evils in Pakistan.
As a Nation, do we believe in Good Character? Or our definition for good character has been changed. How many generations have to wait for socially stabilized Pakistan?
Thanks, Shahbaz, for holding up a mirror to our nation in which we can see ourselves. There are lots of people who think the way you do. The problem is how to bring them together effectively for the good of the country.
ReplyDeleteAt one time I thought people might unite behind Imran Khan, who is honest, generous and courageous. However, these qualities are not enough. We need someone who is also wise and patient and has the personality to attract and inspire people and keep them united. Any suggestions?
Well said, Mr. Sakib Ahmed. Imran Khan should be made the President and Shoaib Malik (of Sania Mirza controversy) the PM. Both incidentally could not find a spouse in Pakistan. And both are honest and courageous. (Imran had the courage to marry a Jewess and Malik the courage to marry a girl from Pak's arch enemy, India). This combination will be interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSAKIB,
ReplyDeleteImran Khan could be right choice for Pakistan if the people forget about his past and think only about new political Leader Imran khan. Very hard, he cannot win with ¼ of popularity. He talks about honesty and justice but minority in power does not like this slogan, could end up their superiority.
Pakistan is in complex situation. People’s attitude has been changed to make quick money and pursuing short cuts in the life because of deep rooted corruption in our society and foreign powers interference increasing day by day.
The societies like Pakistan, where money talks for major to minor things, need a leader with strong character and passion for Islamic republic of Pakistan.
If we only respect merit, we could be in developed countries within five years.
But, will they? In any case, it is difficult to have confidence in Imran's decision making capacity. A wiser person than he is needed as leader, with Imran playing a key role in the team. Maybe Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry after he retires from the Supreme Court?
ReplyDeleteRight now, Pakistan's self-styled political masters are playing a dirty trick on the nation. Under the guise of the otherwise excellent "18th amendment to the constitution" they are scheming to revoke the clause that requires political parties to hold elections. If the 18th amendment is passed in its present form the way will be clear for the likes of Zardari and Sharif to become leaders for life, passing on the succession to members of their families.
Our compatriots are singing and dancing, quite oblivious of the trap lurking in the 18th amendment!
So long as the constitution allows Zardari to continue to be both president and party leader, I doubt if the 18th amendment will make much practical difference in the short term.
Shahbaz,
ReplyDeleteFurther to my comments above, please click the link below for Javed Chaudhry's remarkable article:
http://sakibahmad.blogspot.com/2010/04/daily-express-news-story.html
sakib,
ReplyDeleteWell, Article is very truthful. But our leaders come from our society. They belong to Pakistan but they act for others and themselves. My question is why our society cannot produce good loyal leaders for the country. One of my friends thinks about Pakistan’s top tree as follows:
Mostly people in Pakistan want to be a doctor or engineer. Who cannot meet the criteria for this profession, they go for commerce. After commerce, peoples go for competition exam then remaining go for army. You can put the army after medical and engineering profession. Left over goes for teaching and whatever they find in the life.
And who cannot find anything in the life; they become politicians and our leader.
If one analyse our leaders bio-data, they can easily find out their real potential