Hillary, Zardari & One Iranian Bureaucrat

I am stunned, pleased and ashamed. In a few minutes from now, there’s a chance that the foreign minister of the biggest power on earth will meet … who? Not the President of Iran, or Iran’s army chief or any of the seniors, but the Deputy foreign minister of Iran, not a very powerful position within the Iranian system, and that too if the Iranians didn’t decide in the last minute that they don’t want to meet the Americans.

Richard Holbrooke, who has a dubious position as the U.S. special envoy for ‘Af-Pak’ has already met the deputy Iranian foreign minister, and that’s the highest the Iranians are willing to go in giving respect to Mr. Hoolbrooke, unlike the Zardaris, the Gilanis and the Qureshis and the rest of them who fall all over each other to get an opportunity to shake hands with this U.S. bureaucrat.

So desperate is the United States at The Hague to meet the Iranians that they begged everyone they know to convince the Iranians to attend this conference on Afghanistan where Washington hopes to get help getting out of the mess it has created in that country.

And just like typical stooges, our President Zardari and Foreign Minister Mehmood Qureshi rushed to Tehran recently on behalf of the Americans to plead with the Iranians to attend this U.S.-sponsored conference, not knowing that dragging Iran into Afghanistan is actually part of the U.S. plan to ditch Pakistan in the gutter and trample on Pakistani interests by uniting the world against our country. I mean how stupid can you be, Mr. President Zardari and Mr. Foreign Minister Qureshi?

Last week our President traveled secretly to Dubai to meet, not the U.S. president or vice president, not even the U.S. foreign minister, but some bureaucrat with a questionable title called ‘Af-Pak special envoy’. Imagine: the head of the 6th nuclear power, the 5th or the 6th largest standing army in the world, a nation with considerable strategic, political and economic position, flying off like some third-level government officer to meet a third-rate American civil servant in Dubai.

And here are the Iranians being begged by the Americans to meet them. And for what? So that Iran could permit NATO and the U.S. military to use its ports to transport fuel, food and equipment to Afghanistan. The objective is to rob Pakistan of any advantage in negotiations with the United States. Iran is of course dying to replace Pakistan as an equal partner of the U.S. and they will get that status on their terms, not like us in Pakistan where our ex-President Musharraf unfortunately gave the Americans so much access and now the puppet government of Zardari-Gilani has gone much farther than its predecessor [at least President Musharraf had certain red lines drawn for the Americans, which is why they destabilized his government].

President Zardari and the rest of the puppets in his government, especially Ambassador Husain Haqqani and Interior Advisor Rehman Malik [thank God Mehmood Ali Durrani is out] should be ashamed of themselves when Hillary Clinton begs a deputy minister in Iran for a meeting. In our case, any low-level officer in her office can call the President of Pakistan and he’d rush to meet not her but that low-level officer, and that too anywhere the low-level officer wishes, like Dubai for example.

Ambassador Haqqani is doing a great job for the Americans in this case. He arranged that secret meeting in Dubai so that no one in Pakistan can know what Mr. Zardari is cooking with the Americans. Not a single officer in the Presidency, in the PPP, in the media, the intelligence community or the diplomatic community knows what our President discussed with a U.S. government officer in secret in Dubai. Does Ambassador Haqqani not know that he is doing something wrong by arranging this kind of a meeting? Or is it okay as long as it serves American interests?

Holbrook is coming to Pakistan sometime next week after visiting India. Just wait and see how this political elite of ours will be begging the U.S. Embassy here for an invitation to his tea reception and a photo opportunity.

I hope to see the day when these politicians are disqualified from holding public office for the next 20 or 30 years and their little fieldoms, also known as political parties, are destroyed to pave the way for honest Pakistani leaders to emerge. It can happen in Russia (Putin), it can happen in Venezuela (Chavez), it can happen in Turkey (Erdogan), it can happen in Malaysia (Mahatir), it can happen in Iran (Nejad), it can happen in China (Hu Jintao). It certainly can happen in Pakistan.

Is Rehman Malik Blaming ISI For Lahore Attack?

A second Mumbai-style attack in Lahore in less than a month, both targeting Lahore, a city that has traditionally bore the brunt of Indian-inspired terrorism inside Pakistan.

The level of training of these people and the choice of targets leaves little doubt that someone is trying to teach Pakistan a lesson. It is baffling to see Interior Advisor Rehman Malik so eager to quickly pin the blame on groups such as Lashkar Tayyeba or Lashkar Jhangvi that were active in the Kashmir freedom struggle in the past and are dormant now. Accusing these groups is an indirect swipe at the Pakistani security and intelligence agencies that implemented State policy in the past of supporting the freedom fighters inside the disputed territory with India.

Why is Mr. Malik not willing to consider the possibilty of Indian involvement? Is he afraid of upsetting the Brits or the Americans? He knows more than anyone else that we have conclusive evidence of Indian involvement in terrorism in Balochistan and the tribal belt. Unfortunately, Pakistani media projection is not as strong as the propaganda of the American and the British media that supresses these facts. Pakistan has shared this information at the highest levels with the Americans, who continue to protect the Indians in Afghanistan because of long term strategic interest.

Additionally, where are those local agents of Indian intelligence that were arrested from various Pakistani cities in the past few weeks and months near both the Indian and the Afghan borders? Why are we scared of bringing these people out? Please cut through the thick propaganda smokescreen of the biased Anglo-American media and let the world and the peaceful Indian public opinion also know about the activities of their security agencies.

There is no question that terrorists involved in the attack will eventually turn out to be Pakistanis. No foreign-induced covert terrorist operation can succeed without local elements. The only country other than the United States that has an elaborate, Pakistan-focused intelligence setup in Afghanistan is India. The Indians are actively using the chaos in Afghanistan to create a wedge between the U.S. and Pakistan by indirectly supporting terrorist elements. This is one level of the covert war in the region. The second element is the suspicion that the U.S. is supporting the insurgencies inside Pakistan either directly or through the Indians and possibly other players.

Since we are unable to make our concerns heard throughout the world because of the bias and the choking grip of the American and British media, the only other way to highlight the nefarious and terrorism-abetting activities of Indian security and intelligence agencies is by cutting off rail, air, and road links with India, including denying Indian airlines the right to use Pakistan airspace and denying Indian overland trade to Central Asia pending the investigations and a review by Pakistan of Indian activities inside and around Pakistan.

This is also the time to neutralize elements in the Pakistani government such as President Zardari and Mr. Rehman Malik whose assets, lives and apparently loyalties lie outside Pakistan. Democracy cannot be allowed to become a trojan horse for foreign powers to meddle in Pakistan.

Take action on India, Mr. Malik.

Our Intellectuals Sicken Me

More Pakistani ‘intellectuals’ came out to cheerlead President Obama’s new speech than any American, British or Afghan commentators. In fact, there were more American, British and Afghan critics of some aspects of the new policy than there were Pakistani critics.

I love this subject because it proves one of my oldest ideas that I developed some ten years ago or so: That Pakistani intellectuals, generally, have a slavish mindset and are a prime reason why we Pakistanis never developed pride and a sense of identity and being. How can you when your intellectuals, the people who shape the faith of nations, don’t have any faith?

Immediately after Obama’s speech, I was stunned to see respectable names such as Dr. Riffat Hussain, former ambassador Tariq Fatimi and retired Gen. Talat Masood and others come out on different news channels and act as America’s apologists. I mean how dumb can you be to start blowing the horns of victory just because Obama decided to give you some more money in exchange for bringing the war to your country?

Let me tell you what the real deal is: It’s a mixture of ignorance and greed. Ignorance because our State and Government are so weak they don’t have mechanisms where they can convey Pakistan’s viewpoint to these analysts so that they don’t shoot from the hip when they write for newspapers or appear on TV. And greed because many of our ‘analysts’ have no hope in a weak State and Government and dream about receiving a call from the American or the British ambassadors promising them some job or scholarship abroad for the next five years. Trust me, it’s more pathetic than most of you think.

Pakistanis, Not IDPs

Pakistani television commentators and anchors are acting like a herd of sheep. Half a million Pakistanis are homeless. Our media calls them “Internally Displaced Persons” [IDPs] or “tribal refugees”, as if they are some ‘thing’ and not our fellow citizens. We Pakistanis must not let the U.S. and British media numb us into using such terms about our own people. The mistakes of the American and British occupation commanders and soldiers in Afghanistan have led to tragedies in our entire western region. If you can, telephone and email these newspapers and TV anchors. Tell them that you are offended as a Pakistani when they call the Pakistanis in our tribal belt as ‘IDPs’ or ‘Pashtun refugees’. Tell them they must be called ‘Pakistanis in our tribal belt.’ Let’s not compromise on showing compassion to those Pakistanis whose lives have been destroyed because of America’s cruel and unjust war.

Pakistan Is Betraying Its Proud Tribesmen

This picture saddened me no end. The proud tribesmen of Pakistan, those who beat the English and the Russians and fought their way to liberate half of the Indian occupied Kashmir are now facing an American conspiracy and a Pakistani complacency.

America’s Afghan blunders have resulted in expelling the proud Pakistani tribesmen from their homes and turned almost half a million of them into refugees in their own country.

If this wasn’t enough, here comes Pakistan to treat them as animals in the ‘tent cities’ built for them near Peshawar. And then come the Americans and the Indians to spread literature encouraging the Pashtun to demand a separate homeland called Pashtunistan.

For a year and a half, we at AhmedQuraishi.com and PakNationalists Group have been explaining to Pakistanis, with original reporting and informed analysis, how Pakistan’s tribal belt was peaceful until 2005, and how ‘non-state actors’ in Washington DC have used the Afghan soil to create, arm and sustain insurgencies inside Pakistan that run from the Chinese-built Gwadar port in the south to the Chinese border in the north. The suicide bombings, the attacks and the destabilization is punishment for Pakistan for supporting the Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan and for insisting to stick to Kashmir against the wishes of India, Washington’s new regional slave-soldier.

The anti-Pakistan insurgencies hide behind the covered faces of the so-called Pakistani Taliban who receive money and weapons from Afghanistan.

Now the Americans want to expand the process of more and more Pakistani tribesmen leaving their homes and escaping deeper inside Pakistan. The suspicion is that Washington wants to create a buffer zone between the U.S.-occupied Afghanistan and Pakistan, a zone inhabited by no one. All Pakistani tribes pushed out. The strategy is working. The number of these Pakistanis who have become refugees inside their own country is nearing half a million.

Pakistani media and journalists are playing an unfortunate role in helping the Americans by focusing on failed Pakistani politicians and their power games that are diverting the attention of the Pakistani public opinion from the important issue of the plight of these brave Pakistani tribesmen and how our government is silently abetting the Americans in humiliating them.

I wrote recently in The News that Pakistan needs a Putin, a Pakistani nationalist who loves his homeland and his people and who is ruthless enough to do what’s right for all of us and for the homeland and liberate it from the clutches of the stooges of the Americans and the Brits. I hope he comes before it’s too late.

Going After Musharraf?

From day one, I had no doubt that Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was no hero. Only the images of his harassment by the police under Musharraf's orders turned this close friend of a dictator into a champion of democracy. This is Pakistan, where crooks are perfectly matched with a fake democracy designed to fool the masses and deliver nothing except crises and destruction.

The man was hand in glove with Musharraf. After his dismissal, his reinstatement became a personal crusade camouflaged as a battle for independent juduciary. As a proof that this was a battle devoid of any higher principle, Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry did not hesitate for a second in mortgaging his 'cause' to the politicians. He let Aitzaz Ahsan use him to help Benazir Bhutto get a better deal from Musharraf. He then let both Zardari and Nawaz use him to win elections. And then he allowed Nawaz Sharif to use him to get back at Zardari.

Now that all the corrupt players of Pakistan's dirty politics have decided to end this issue through some kind of a secret arrangement, the Pakistani people and the media is beginning to smell rat.

To hide this rat, Iftikhar Chaudhry, Nawaz and Zardari are planning to raise a nonissue that they hope will distract the Pakistanis from discovering the truth. They are planning to go after Pervez Musharraf. If they do this, they'll get to hide the truth about why, for example, the newly reinstated chief judge won't go after President Zardari's NRO.

I'm writing someting about this shortly, backed by some startling information. Ali Khan, a Pakistani blogger based in the U.S. who edits PakistanFirst.com has also reported receiving information about moves in this direction. His information sources are often stellar.

If they indeed go after him, Mr. Musharraf has only himself to blame. He is the one who let Mr. Sharif leave the country back in 2000 despite serious allegations against the former premier. He's the one who listened to the Americans and agreed to the NRO, the most shameful piece of legislation even by the standards of Pakistan's fake democracy. And finally he is the one who let all his enemies gang up on him while he enjoyed the good life with his incompetent political allies.