Pakistan's Biggest Enemy Is Its Failed Political Parties

Our failed political parties will destroy our country while we keep focusing on 'saving' democracy instead of 'reforming' it. Three parties have turned Karachi into Beirut in their fight for control over extortion money. Yet we still have people claiming things will be better with repeated elections. The only thing that will happen with repeated elections is these failed parties getting stronger to take over the country.

Today I've published a piece in The News International arguing that Pakistan's political parties are destroying the country and need to be fixed.

My solution is to have a strong civilian federal govt clipping the wings of these parties with the help of the armed forces. Naturally, such a strong civilian federal government can't come through elections. Our judiciary and the military can find other means to bring quality Pakistanis to the top.

Here's a quote:

"Where in Britain or Europe can parties do what we have allowed our parties to do here? Our parties can block major roads at will and forcibly shut down entire cities. Their ugly flags and graffiti blot the face of our cities and towns. They can brandish lethal weapons in public, confiscate and burn newspapers in Karachi, cut television cables and isolate Quetta from the rest of the country. Last year, one or two parties killed my colleague Wali Khan Babur, a young television reporter, in a sad attempt to ignite linguistic riots because that’s the only way these parties can flourish."

Read the full op-ed here.

UPDATE: Just to prove my point, reports are coming in that the leadership of MQM fled to Dubai as the city was brought to a standstill thanks to the gang wars between the armed wings of MQM, ANP and PPPP. The PKKH website reported that top leaders including Sindh governor Ishrat ul Ibad, Dr. Farooq Sattar, Babar Ghouri , Kamal Mustafa and others were spotted relaxing in the executive lounge of Avari Hotel in Dubai Tuesday night.

Sindh Is Not A Card, Mr. Zardari

A large Sindhi cap is permanently displayed at Ayub Park, Rawalpindi.

There is a clear stench of deceit in Sindh Culture Day, being celebrated across Pakistan's Sindh province tomorrow. It has nothing to do with Sindh or with culture. In all likelihood, it's President Asif Ali Zardari's latest trick to blackmail his political opponents.

After all, what's the point in political groups taking out rallies waving the Sindhi cap and dress?

Sindh's culture and language are thriving like never before. They are not under threat of any kind. Sindhi language, one of Pakistan's oldest, is growing with Internet websites, newspapers, books, and television stations. All Pakistanis identify with the culture and language of Sindh. It's our culture and language. And we all own it and swoon to the great Sufi tunes of legendaries such as Abida Parveen and Allan Faqir, and the great words of Abdulatif Bhitai and Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, the great poet and Sufi saint of Sindh.

Pakistan's modern art, music, television and theater are greatly indebted to and enriched by the contributions of Pakistani Sindhis.



A young girl in a camp for flood victims near Hyderabad

 Instead of galvanizing the people on language, Mr. Zardari could have issued a call to the people in Sindh and across Pakistan to rise again for the victims of floods who are still homeless, and a large number of them are in Sindh. In fact, it is Mr. Zardari's government that turned these poor flood victims, especially in Sindh, into beggars, queuing by the thousands at government-run camps and offices for help and often getting beaten up by police for protesting government's corruption and ineptitude.

Mr. Zardari, who owns lavish real estate in the United States, France, UAE and the UK, is not concerned about them. He is worried about his seat of power and is looking for ways to survive.

What Mr. Zardari is trying to do is to create conditions to use the Sindh Card. Which means: if my government is toppled in any way, I will whip up Pakistan's Sindhis into demanding separation from Pakistan.

This threat is not new. A Zardari aide and interior minister in Sindh's provincial government, Zulfiqar Mirza, bluntly admitted he and his boss were contemplating this after the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Interestingly, late Mrs. Bhutto never thought of this even after the execution of late Prime Minister Z. A. Bhutto. Also, I am not sure who gave Mr. Zardari or the PPPP the right to represent Pakistani citizens who are Sindhis [or who gave the same rights to MQM, ANP, etc. to represent other languages?].

Mr. Zardari has spent three years in power and has done nothing for his hometown, Nawabshah, or his wife's hometown, Larkana, or for Sindh. When he's out of power, he and his supporters will conveniently blame Islamabad, the federation, the so-called Establishment, or the alleged Punjabi-dominated bureaucracy of neglecting his home province.

People of Sindh are patriotic Pakistanis. They are also not fools.

Not only did Mr. Zardari not do anything for his home province, he didn't even do anything for Taslim Solangi. A pregnant 17-year-old Taslim was thrown to hungry dogs by corrupt landlords in rural Sindh in 2008. Before she was ripped apart by dogs, she was forced to prematurely deliver her 8-month-old baby who was immediately thrown into a river. Her family begged for justice and never received it.

Taslim Solangi, thrown to hungry dogs

President Zardari won't help the victims of  floods, won't give justice to Taslim Solangi, but is ready to use Sindh to save his presidency.

Sindh is not a card, Mr. President. Sindh is Pakistan. Please don't poison the culture of Sindh by linking it to your politics.

Unfortunately, none of the many intellectuals in Sindh stepped forward and protested President Zardari's desperate attempts to politicize our Sindhi culture. That's because they know they will be harassed by Mr. Zardari's party that currently rules the country.

It is time that we stopped anyone in the future using language for politics and to divide Pakistanis in the name of democracy.

The federal Pakistani government should seize our languages from these political parties and own them by itself. It should not let two-bit politicians use language for politics and divide Pakistanis along linguistic lines. Parties such as PPPP, ANP, MQM, PMLN and others have no right to self-appoint themselves as representatives and owners of entire groups of Pakistanis. The federal government should pass legislation to stop political parties from becoming linguistic parties. Democracy and political parties should not become tools for linguistic divisions. And this was certainly not the intent of the writers of our constitution.

We should have Sindh culture day and other culture days every year. But they should be organized by the federal government and celebrated nationally. Why should Sindh culture day be celebrated in Sindh only?

We need a federal government that can correct these abnormalities in Pakistani democracy.

ANP Shouldn't Be Allowed To Revive Its Old Pashtunistan Agenda

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]

ANP, a party whose founders opposed the independence of Pakistan, is once again pushing its shady agenda through a manufactured crisis over the renaming Pakistan's NWFP province.  By doing this, the party is trying to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of Pakistani Pashtuns, who are an integral part of the Pakistani state and one of its main pillars.

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.

A US Counteroffensive In Pakistan

A US Counteroffensive In Pakistan

A Loose Coalition Of Pro-American Politicians, Writers, Academics To Promote US Goals, Isolate Pak Military

Forget US diplomacy with the Pakistani government.  The Americans are now setting the policy agenda in Pakistan in direct talks with Pakistani political parties.  To ensure privacy, these talks are being held in Washington, away from prying eyes and ears in Pakistan.  Pakistani politicians, writers and some academicians are being recruited to promote US policies and isolate the Pakistani military and intelligence.  This is how a superpower occupies a nuclear-armed nation. 

Face Of An American Bully In Islamabad:

Is it our country or yours, Madam Ambassador?

By Ahmed Quraishi

Sunday, 27 September 2009.

WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—US political and military officials go on the offensive inside Pakistan, boldly confronting critics and seeking to build a coalition of pro-American supporters across Pakistani politics, media and the academia.  The goal is to create a domestic counter to the entrenched Pakistani policymaking establishment [read 'the military'] that is resisting American efforts to force Pakistan to become a voluntary full-fledged second theater of war after Afghanistan.

Signs of the new American aggressiveness abound from increased willingness of US diplomats in Pakistan to confront their local critics, to sweet-talking Pakistani politicians, media and academicians into openly promoting the US agenda through sponsored visits to Washington and Florida.

This is similar to a Plan B:  using local actors to force change from within.  Plan A, which was focused on coercive diplomacy and threats of sending boots on the ground into Pakistan, failed to yield results over the past months.

In essence, the United States is covertly raising an army of special agents and soldiers on Pakistani soil, with the help of local Pakistani accomplices, but without the full knowledge of the Pakistani military to avoid a confrontation.

This counteroffensive began with Ambassador Anne W. Patterson's attempt to intimidate a Pakistani columnist and a known critic of US policies.  Ms. Patterson did not seek a public debate to counter criticism.  Instead, she resorted to backchannel contacts to have the writer blocked.  In so doing, Ms. Patterson unwittingly broke a new barrier for US influence, creating precedence for how the US embassy deals with the Pakistani media.  This is something that the Ambassador's counterparts could never imagine pulling off in places like Moscow, Ankara, or Cairo.

Buoyed by this, the Ambassador went on the offensive.  This month, she held a press conference, released a long policy statement, and met Prime Minister Gilani to reassure him after reports suggested her government did not trust Islamabad with the expected aid money.  She also appeared on primetime television, carefully choosing a nonaggressive TV talk show as a platform to address Pakistanis glued to their sets in peak evening hours.

   

  
The US ambassador [left] kicking off her counteroffensive on Sept. 19, telling her Pakistani host she intervened to stop a columnist from writing against her government and affirmed she will do this again because criticism endangers the lives of US citizens in Pakistan.

The television appearance coincided with an interview she gave to a US news service accusing Pakistan of refusing to join the US in eliminating one of the Afghan local parties – the Afghan Taliban – whom her own government and military failed to wipe out in Afghanistan in eight years of war.  The statement played on the usual American accusations, backed by no evidence, that seek to explain the growing disenchantment of the Afghan people with the failed American occupation of their country by linking it to alleged Pakistani sanctuaries and covert support.

But hours before her television appearance, on Sept. 19, Pakistani police raided the Islamabad offices of Inter-Risk, a Pakistani security firm representing American defense contractor DynCorp, where a huge quantity of illegal sophisticated weapons was confiscated.  According to one news report, the Pakistani owner of the firm, retired Captain Ali Jaffar Zaidi, escaped from his house hours before the police arrived.  A Pakistani journalist, Umar Cheema, who works for The News, confirmed in a published statement that Mr. Zaidi told him a day before the raid that "the US embassy in Islamabad had ordered the import of around 140 AK-47 Rifles and other prohibited weapons in the name of Inter-Risk" and that "the payment for the weapons would be made by the embassy."

[The News reports today that the government has "disbanded" Inter-Risk, voiding its contract with both the US embassy and with DynCorp.  The company director Capt. Zaidi remains at large.]

In other words, Pakistani security authorities have found American and Pakistani citizens working for the US embassy involved in suspicious activities.

What Really Happened?

US ambassador Anne Patterson used her goodwill to seek the personal intervention of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Interior Minister Rehman Malik to obtain licenses for prohibited weapons.

Sixty-one pieces of sophisticated weapons were seized by the police at the Inter-Risk/DynCorp facility.

The question is: Why did the Pakistani police confiscate the weapons if they were duly licensed by the government?

The only logical answer is that the licensing procedure, which includes clearance from the country's intelligence and security departments, was not followed.  

Apparently, Washington's staunch allies inside Pakistan's elected government helped their friends with advanced weapons into the country without the knowledge of important national security departments of the government.

This raises serious questions because of several reports recently that implicate Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, in issuing a large number of visas to US citizens without proper clearance from Islamabad.  Since US tourists are not exactly flocking to Pakistan, Amb. Haqqani is suspected of having facilitated private US security agents to enter Pakistan.  A spate of recent reports have exposed the presence of private American security firms on Pakistani soil.

When the country's security departments finally paid attention to Ambassador Haqqani's indiscretions, the ambassador, who is a former journalist, is suspected of leaking a protest letter he wrote to his country's intelligence chief, apparently attempting to clear his name before his American friends.  Of all places, the letter, which is a classified government communication, surfaced in New Delhi, on the screen of an Indian television news channel.

Ambassador Haqqani's letter secret that blasts the ISI surfaces in New Delhi. Pakistanis joke that Mr. Haqqani is 'the US ambassador to the United States, stationed at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington DC.'

PATTERSON'S LIE EXPOSED

On Sept. 30, Mr. Ansar Abbasi of The News published the full content of a letter written by Ambassador Patterson to Interior Minister Rehman Malik, dated March 30, seeking his "intervention" to grant Inter-Risk and DynCorp "the requisite prohibited bore arms licenses to operate in the territorial limits of Pakistan and as soon as possible."

The letter creates a new dent in the US embassy's counteroffensive that seeks to downplay the presence of private US security firms in the country.  A Web news portal, PakNationalists/AhmedQuraishi.com released fresh evidence this month showing the infamous US security firm formerly known as Blackwater recruiting military-trained agents fluent in Urdu and Punjabi.

A screen shot from the secure server of BlackwaterUSA.com that shows the American defense contracter hiring Urdu- and Punjabi-speaking agents to serve in Pakistan, where the pro-US government and the US ambassador are vehemently denying the presence of American mercenaries on Pakistani soil.

To quell the controversy, Ambassador Patterson went on record confirming that five million US dollars will be spent by her government to build new living quarters for US Marines within the embassy compound in Islamabad. But the number of marines utilizing this facility will not exceed 20, she assured Pakistanis recently. 

The Sept. 19 raid, however, proves there will be a far larger number of armed Americans on Pakistani soil eventually than the figure given by Ambassador Patterson.

US MERCENERARIES IN PAKISTAN?

The strong denials of US officials on the presence of private US security firms in Pakistan do no tally with the circumstantial evidence.  At least three verified incidents have been reported in Islamabad alone over the past few weeks that involve armed US individuals in civilian dresses.  In two incidents, Pakistani police officers arrested and then released armed civilian Americans after intervention from the US embassy.  In one incident, a Pakistani citizen reported being assaulted by armed Americans in civilian clothes.  Police officers refused to register a complaint against the Americans for fear of being reprimanded in case of intervention by the US embassy.

US DOLLARS RECRUITING PAKISTANIS

TO WORK AGAINST PAKISTANI MILITARY

Private US security agents sneaking into Pakistan is one level of the current US engagement with Pakistan.  Another level is political and seeks to isolate the Pakistani policymaking establishment, and especially the Pakistani military and the country's powerful intelligence agencies, from within, after months of incessant one-sided US media campaign demonizing the country's military and intelligence services.

On the political front, Washington's Pakistan handlers have launched a new bout of US meddling in domestic Pakistani politics.  The US government has put into high gear its contacts with Pakistani political parties.  Washington is now conducting direct diplomacy with these parties.

A high level delegation of MQM, which controls the port city of Karachi, the starting point of US and NATO supplies headed for Afghanistan, is in Washington meeting US political and military officials. 

A similar exercise is planned with the ANP, the small ex-Soviet communist ally currently governing the NWFP, the Pakistani province bordering Afghanistan.

Both parties came to power thanks to former President Musharraf's secret 'deal' brokered by Vice President Dick Cheney and his State Department officials in 2007.  The deal sought to create a pro-American ruling coalition in the country that would ensure that the Pakistani military is aligned with the US strategic goals in the region.

The Americans are trying to accentuate what they see as pro-Indian, pro-American strains within the two parties. 

Washington began this program quietly in 2007 after getting a green signal from President Musharraf to increase US involvement in Pakistani politics.  There are reports that nazims of several districts in Sindh, Balochistan and NWFP were invited to Washington to meet US government and military officials over the past thirty months.  But these were very low key visits.  In fact, they were so secretive that ANP chief Asfandyar Wali refused in early 2008 to confirm or deny a visit he made to Washington after the Feb. 2008 elections in Pakistan.  In contrast, no effort was made this time to downplay the current visits by MQM and ANP delegations to Washington and their meetings with US and NATO officials.  And as in all of these covert visits, the federal Pakistani government, the Foreign Office and the country's security departments are not privy to what is being discussed between US officials and the leaders of the two Pakistani political parties on US soil.  In fact, US officials arranged the meetings on US soil precisely in order to circumvent the Pakistani government.

While there is no immediate evidence that Pakistan should be alarmed by Washington's direct diplomacy with Pakistani political parties outside Pakistan's territory, Islamabad needs to be wary of strong strains within Washington's policy establishment that have been focusing on exploiting Pakistan's ethnic and linguistic fissures in order to support its so-called 'Af-Pak' agenda. 

A lot of work has been done over the past three years in several Washington think tanks on Pakistan's linguistic and ethnic fissures and how these can be exploited by Washington to weaken Islamabad and force it to follow the US agenda in Afghanistan and the region.

During Pakistan's worst domestic instability in 2007, mainstream US media outlets were leaking policy and intelligence reports focusing on alleged separatism in several Pakistani regions.  This week, some of the most ardent American supporters of separatism inside Pakistan – the usual suspects from the US think-tank circuit – came together in Washington to launch a political action committee that seeks independent status for a Pakistani province, Sindh.  The ceremony for the launch of the 'Sindhi American Political Action Committee' was addressed by Selig Harrison and Marvin Weinbaum, two think-tank types with extensive links to the US intelligence community and both advocates of engagement with Pakistani separatists as a leverage against Islamabad.

The new American confidence in openly meddling in Pakistani politics should raise alarm bells in the Pakistani capital.  This is the strongest sign yet of how weak the federal Pakistani government, and in turn Pakistan itself, appears to outsiders.

The weakness of Pakistan's ruling elite is inviting American hounding at a time when the American bully is on the retreat elsewhere.

A condensed version of this report was published by The Nation of Lahore on Saturday.

© 2007-2009. All rights reserved. PakNationalists.com

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium

without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Abida Hussain & Foolish Pakistani Commandos

Abida Hussain, one of the main feudal landlord-politicians in the Punjab province, appeared on the state-run PTV last night and unloaded all her suppressed anger at former President Pervez Musharraf.

She used the common cover story of democracy and dictatorship, she being a democratic warrior feudal princess, of course, [who owns hundreds of poor men, women and children who work for free on her farmlands and who are forbidden to have basic human rights. But that doesn’t matter since most of Pakistan's 'democratic warriors' belong to this same category.]

So anyway, she talked about democracy and dictatorship but never mentioned the real reason for her anger against the former military ruler:

By making graduation a precondition for running for public office, the military 'dictator' ruined Abida Hussian's career and forced her to sit for university examinations when she crossed the age of 50.

I heard she passed her graduation exams but I'm not sure what her score was. The important thing is that this feudal democratic warrior queen is seething with anger at the fact that she and her husband had to stay out of active politics for nearly a decade in which they had to hurriedly prepare their young daughter to run for office in order to save whatever clout her family wielded in her feudal domain in the backwaters of Punjab.

So you can understand Mrs. Hussain's anger when she told a reporter for Wall Street Journal in Jan. 2008 that Musharraf was a "poor thing ... a son of clerks. His mother was a typist."

Unfortunately, the Pakistani media and civil society reelected these feudal-minded inept politicians back to power. People like Abida Hussain don't make even 1% of Pakistan's population but you see how she and those of her ilk sneer at successful middle class Pakistanis. She calls them 'clerks'. Poor clerks.

During the TV show, at one point she got so angry with Musharraf that she took it out on the special operations unit of the Pakistani military just because Musharraf came from that unit. She called them 'foolish'. Well at least they get some real professional training, Mrs. Hussain. What good are you if not for your papa's wealth?

Her co-panelist on the show was a lady parliament member from Mr. Nawaz Sharif's party, someone by the name of Mrs. Ishrat Ashraf.

Members of former prime minister Sharif's party face a dilemma on TV talk shows these days. There is a competition within the party on who can heap more scorn on Musharraf. That makes the former prime minister very happy since he is obsessed with the man who threw him out of power a decade ago.

So was the case with Mrs. Ashraf. Not to be outdone by Mrs. Abida Hussain from the ruling PPP party, Ashraf said something even more hilarious.

I will let Mr. Amanullah Rabbani, one of the members of our PakNationalists Group, describe it:

"Then Ishrat Ashraf said that it is a shame that a man like Musharraf was the chief of the brave army of Pakistan. My answer to her: Can anyone please inform her who made Musharraf chief of Army Staff?!!"

Yes. Interestingly it was Mrs. Ashraf's boss, former premier Nawaz Sharif, who ignored more generals that were senior and promoted Gen. Musharraf in the belief that he would be a docile army chief.

Almost the entire Pakistani nation 10 years ago warmly welcomed the fact that Gen. Musharraf refused to be docile and saved the nation from these feudal landlord-politicians who want to run this nuclear armed nation like they run their farmlands and factories.

It's another story that Mr. Musharraf in one of his worst failures returned the country back into the hands of people like Mrs. Abida Hussain, the clerks-hater.

The French-German Tussle In Pakistan

I have received this urgent alert from Mr. Zaid Hamid, the renowned Pakistani security analyst, regarding the Franco-German diplomatic tussle over selling submarines to Pakistan. The government of Mr. Asif Zardari wants to buy the French subs, mainly becuase the French pay heavy commission/bribes. The German subs are more effective. The Pakistani military appears to have chosen the German subs. But the dollar-hungry government of President Zardari wants to oblige his old friend Nicholas Sarkozy. Obviously the kickbacks will be received by a group of Pakistani and French officials.

Here's Mr. Hamid's alert:

"The French and the Indians are using extreme pressure, bribes and diplomacy with the Pakistani government and the Pakistan Naval Headquarters to block and cancel the German submarine deal. The French want to sell their subs and the Indians are scared of the German platform and technology. Someone powerful in the government is selling the nation's honor as we write. Someone please act immediately."

Interestingly, the deal with the German government was almost sealed when the Zardari government began contacts with the French government to sabotage the German deal. Shamefully for Pakistan, the government of Angela Merkel actually went the extra mile and even pacified the opposition in her country to the deal with Pakistan. Now the Germans are waiting for Pakistan's Ministry of Defense to simply issue a purchase order. This hasn't come.

For more details about the intrigues and the under-the-table moves on this deal, click and read this report:

Are French Bribes Stopping Zardari Govt. From Buying German Submarines?

No Jokes on Zardari or Rehman Malik, Please!

In 2006-07, Washington brokered a ‘deal’ with an outgoing military ruler to restore democracy in the country. Pundits warned that Benazir Bhutto and her husband weren’t exactly democrats. Washington needed yes-men in Islamabad. It got what it wanted. This is how American-imposed democracy looks like in Pakistan today.


You have to give it to Pakistan’s civilian dictators. This is their second major anti-democratic action in less than a week.

The first was the scrapping of town and city governments across Pakistan. These governments challenged the 60-year old monopoly of the politician-landlords of Pakistan and their powerful families. The ‘local’ governments empowered middle and lower class Pakistanis for the first time. Ironically it was a military-led government that introduced the system. It had some flaws but it did make more Pakistanis part of the decision making process.

It was a matter of time before the combined Pakistani political elite struck down the local governments. Interestingly, all Pakistani politician-landlords, the feudal arbiters of Pakistan’s destiny, are united on this. No surprises here.

The crack down on expression through SMS and the Internet is the least that the elected government can do. For example they can’t do much about the 50+ independent television news channels in the country licensed under the last military-led government.

While there is no question that Pakistan needs cybercrime legislation to regulate the alternative media, the problem with the new act is that it is designed to stifle and punish legitimate criticism. Much of the legitimate political criticism on Internet and harmless jokes through SMS messages will be blocked by this new law.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik gave three reasons and three layers to the new draconian cybercrime law:

1. To protect lady members of parliament who receive abusive calls or text messages.

2. To curb ‘slander’ against the ‘political leadership’ of the country; the loosely defined ‘cyber crimes’ are punishable by a 14-year jail term.

3. To prevent terrorist or banned groups from using the Internet for propaganda against the Pakistani military.

There is no question that the main aim of this law is the point number 2 above, to counter criticism against the PPP-led government.

The Pakistani military and the female parliamentarians [points 1 and 3 above] were dragged in as camouflage.

I am accused of being soft on the Pakistani military and I am yet to see any significant Internet propaganda against the Pakistani military by terrorists or banned groups. The complaints of lady politicians can be handled through existing laws. The only party that faces constant criticism and ridicule for its policies through SMS messages and emails is the PPP-led government. There is no other reason for the cybercrime law.

The ‘Democratic’ Government’s Previous Attempts

The PPP-led government tried to crack down on SMS and emails last month when it levied a new tax on all text messages. The tax was going to ruin this source of revenue for Pakistan’s five cellular companies and send a wrong signal to one of the fastest growing sectors of the Pakistani economy.

As soon as the tax was announced, a text message began making the rounds in Urdu that can be roughly translated as, ‘The government has imposed a tax on all messages. This means that until now President Zardari was getting abused for free. Now he’ll get paid every time someone abuses him!’

Mr. Zardari’s Spelling Mistakes

Another proof of how this law is not as innocent as it sounds is the PPP-led government’s first brush with Internet and SMS criticism last year.

In September 2008, Mr. Zardari visited the Mausoleum of The Great Leader [Pakistan’s Founding Father] in Karachi and jotted down a few words in the visitors’ book. It turned how he made some embarrassing spelling mistakes. Someone photographed the page using a cell phone and posted it online.

The government and party spokespeople said the picture was fake. But one of Pakistan’s senior most columnists, Ardeshir Cowasjee, investigated the matter on the ground and exposed the real story. It turned out the President’s men were sent to remove the page and rewrite the message with the corrections. [

Click to see this story as relayed by Mr. Cowasjee].

Incensed at the embarrassment, Mr. Rehman Malik, a former director of the Federal Investigations Agency [FIA] was assigned to punish those publicizing the President’s spelling skills. No less than the official news agency, the APP, was ordered to issue a warning to Pakistanis on sending SMS messages and emails on the subject. [Click to see the story].

Rehman Malik’s Hurt

The question is: Why now? What exactly prompted Interior Minister Rehman Malik, a powerful aide to President Zardari and a former director of FIA to introduce the new cybercrime act?

A day before unveiling the new law, an anonymous writer posted a revealing report on Internet that explained how Mr. Malik and Mr. Zardari contacted Indian intelligence and agents from Israel’s Mossad spy agency and promised them information on Pakistan’s nuclear program in exchange for money. [Click here to see the report. Or click here for an alternative link.]

The report said that the activities of both Mr. Malik and Mr. Zardari were the main reason behind the dismissal in 1996 of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto’s government. Zardari was a minister and Malik was running the FIA.

Several versions of this story have been circulating in Pakistan for the past several years. But the new Internet version is the first time that someone has articulated what happened in a detailed report rich in references and names. No one knows for sure if the story is true. Neither Mr. Malik nor Mr. Zardari has commented on the allegations now or ever.

The fact remains that issues such as Mr. Zardari’s initial foreign policy blunders with Pakistan’s traditional allies China and Saudi Arabia, his apologetic policy toward a belligerent India, his embrace of Hamid Karzai who is seen in Pakistan as an American puppet, his US-brokered rise to power, and the questionable source of the immense wealth that he and his close aide Mr. Malik have accumulated after their stints in power, not to mention the general revulsion in Pakistan toward unimaginative and incapable politicians, all of this will ensure that both of them and their closest aides will remain on the hit list of political satirists.

The question is: Can Pakistan’s self-styled democrats take it?

What More Evidence On Mr. Zardari Do We Need?

Someone in the Presidency in Islamabad should inform Mr. Asif Ali Zardari to go easy on his passion for kissing American bottom.

I know he is grateful to the United States government for restoring his and his late wife's billions of dollars in unexplained wealth, and for elevating him to power in Pakistan.

But he should go easy on how he expresses his gratitude.

Under his command, the Pakistani government has conferred the nation's highest civilian award on at least three or four US citizens in less than a year.

That's a world record for US officials. No one has shown them this much love. Not even the Brits.

And now Mr. Zardari is repeating like a parrot what the American media and some US officials and think-tank types say about Pakistan that it 'created' the Taliban and other extremist groups to serve foreign policy interests.

Of course, that's baloney.

There is nothing wrong if Pakistan identified friends among Afghan and Kashmiri groups that emerged because of crises in those regions.

It is our right to support our friends as much as the Indians are supporting Tibetan terrorists on Indian soil, or the Americans are secretly backing Chinese Muslim groups.

This is why a majority of Pakistanis have been shocked by the irresponsible statement by the President of Pakistan 'admitting' that Pakistan has 'created' violent groups.

The presidential spokesman, Farhatullah Babur, is busy firing off angry statements to newspapers scolding what he calls ‘Bhutto-haters’. A better use of his time might be to show his boss some recent examples of what others do to protect their interests.

Mr. Babar can tell Mr. Zardari the story of the American woman caught red handed in Tehran a couple of months ago with documents in her hand stolen from a sensitive government department. She was accredited as a journalist by a respectable American newspaper that issued her a reporter's badge knowing that she is no journalist and knowing that she will be spying for CIA.

When the operation was botched and she was arrested, all Washington's threats were gone and were replaced by somber pleas for her release with quiet winks that if Iran releases the spy, America might consider going easy on Iran [unfortunately the Mullahs in Tehran fell for the ruse.]

Yet no US Senator or Congressman came out to say, 'Why are we sending spies to other countries' or 'Let's admit that we've created the Jundullah terrorist group to bring down Iran's government.'

In any other self-respecting nation, President Zardari would've been impeached by now. But not in Pakistan. We're destined to enjoy the bitter fruits of the Am-Brit imposed democracy.

A Democracy Of Thieves

… and fraudsters, rapists and murderers. This is the truth about Pakistan’s democracy that Washington and London lobbied to impose on the country’s otherwise creative and hardworking people. The government in power, led by Mrs. Bhutto’s widower Asif Zardari, is made up of your choicest convicts whose names read like an entry book in a maximum security prison.

The opposition, led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, is even funnier. I’m not sure if we Pakistanis are supposed to laugh or cry. In the past six months, Mr. Sharif’s party has produced ministers and members of parliament with the following list of achievements:

attempted rape and murder
attempted smuggling of diamonds
attempted cheating in an academic examination
and a sexist slander against a lady member of parliament

And now we have a lady member of parliament from Mr. Sharif’s party appearing in a security camera showing impressive self confidence as she buys jewelry and clothes worth US $1,000 using a credit card she stole from another woman at a health club.

I believe that the accused lady politician, Shomaila Rana, can’t be blamed. Pakistan’s superrich feudal elite, which has a monopoly over politics and runs political parties as family businesses, has produced a ruling class that looks down at the country’s middle and lower class Pakistanis. Mr. Sharif, widely seen as Mr. Zardari’s future replacement, often gives the look of a vengeful man whose compass is stuck in 1999, the year he lost power to a military intervention.

So, next election we’ll be replacing government thieves with opposition thieves.

I leave you with these two fine short commentaries.

The first one is this hilarious commentary by Riaz Jafri, a retired colonel of the Pakistan Army who resides in Rawalpindi:

“One has to admire the nerves, the cool confidence and the calm composure of the lady MPA while presenting the allegedly ‘stolen’ credit card and affixing her signatures on the bill on making the purchases. Not an eye blinked nor a finger quivered during the entire episode, which would have made even a three-war hardened soldier like me sweat profusely. If the honourable MPA can be that deft, skilled and expert with a card not belonging to her, then what havoc could not be expected of her playing with the millions of the state funds and other lucrative deals entrusted to her by the nation? Hers is the 5th case bringing ignominy to the party. When an elderly white bearded Haji MPA can cheat in an examination, when an honourable minister can not only allegedly bypass the customs channels but also manhandle the custom staff on duty, when an honorable minister can misbehave with a lady MPA on the floor of the assembly and when an honorable minister is accused of raping a woman under threat of murdering her, can the image of the politicians and the political parties remain untarnished and clean? One would not be wrong in assuming that probably these are only a few out of the thousands of cases that have surfaced. A proverbial tip of the iceberg! How many more must have gone unnoticed and consequently unpunished. If such are our leaders, do we need foes?”

The second brief one is by Joshua Kurlantzick, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who wrote this insightful paragraph while reviewing a book on Pakistan:

“[T]he country remains in the grip of venal, feudal, wealthy politician-landlords like the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and the current president, Asif Ali Zardari, for whom democracy means one vote one time, after which the victors go on to dominate indefinitely. Worse, greed and graft have led Islamabad’s ruling class to ignore large portions of the population, who remain illiterate, and their incompetent governance has opened the door to” chaos.

You American? You Can Get This Award For Free

Pretty soon half of Washington will be wearing Pakistan’s highest civil award if President Zardari and his Washington office boy Husain Haqqani have their way.

Pakistan has many gracious American friends and we must show them our appreciation. We also need to help ordinary Americans cut through the anti-Pakistan propaganda that some US officials and government agencies are indulging in.

But installing a pop-an-award coin machine in Islamabad is not the way to do it. Especially when Mr. Zardari and Mr. Haqqani are using the award to appease those in Washington who brought the odd couple to power. The people in Washington are not stupid. They can see through the actions of Mr. Zardari and Mr. Haqqani.

Why should the good name of Pakistan’s highest civil award and the Quaid-e-Azam be muddied by Pakistan’s versions of Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy?

US Congressman Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, is probably the fourth American citizen in less than a year to receive The Crescent Of The Great Leader [Hilal-e-Quaid-e-Azam]. And as in all previous cases, Mr. Haqqani recommended the awards and Zardari ordered them.

The joke in Islamabad these days is that Mr. Zardari has amended the rules to state that US citizenship and connections in Washington are now prerequisites to qualify for the prestigious award. Pakistan’s Independence Day, 14 August, used to be the occasion to announce these awards for those who have done exceptional service to the nation.

President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani have amended the rules to allow the president to confer the award anytime he pleases. In the good old days before Pakistan turned into an American protectorate with a US-installed government, civil awards used to be announced once a year on August 14, the Pakistan Independence Day, for investiture on the next Pakistan Day on March 23.

But those were the good old days. To look at it from one angle, it’s good that Pakistan is hitting rock bottom under the stewardship of this exceptional leadership. This will teach our people a valuable lesson in identifying future charlatans.

Our Funny Presidential Spokesman

Presidential spokesmen are supposed to maintain high standards of public conduct but obviously not in Pakistan where foreign-brokered deals often bring fake democrats to power.

A simple fact is that the Presidency released an official photograph of the President and the Prime Minister with the Pakistan Cricket Team. This official photograph taken inside the Presidency showed no trace of the traditional portrait of the Quaid-e-Azam. Instead there were four – not one but four – portraits of PPP leaders on the wall behind the President and the team members.

Instead of firing off an angry statement [The News, 1 July 2009] full of fume and bluster, Mr. Babar could have admitted an oversight, acknowledged the importance of the official portrait of the Founding Father of the nation, and ended the controversy by saying this will not be repeated. While at it, he could have also taken the courtesy of giving full respect to the ‘Quaid-e-Azam’ instead of repeating the single word ‘Quaid’ several times in his statement. [He should excuse us since we Pakistanis are lost now with so many permanent ‘Quaids’ leading our illustrious political parties.]

But instead Mr. Babar ended up giving us a long lecture about “the detractors of the Bhuttos,” the “Bhutto-haters,” and my favorite line, “It is a measure of the greatness of the Bhuttos that even a mention of their name boils the blood of the detractors forcing them to stoop as low as to fabricate lies.”

Is this how a Presidential Spokesman should sound like in a large important nation? He is right in a sense because it is not true that the portrait of the Founding Father has been removed from the Presidency. But why should the Presidency release an official photograph showing the framed pictures of four party leaders and none for the man who should be there in the first place? Is there no protocol officer in the Presidency who could prevent such blunders?

And when will we see people like Mr. Babar act professionally like government officials should and not like some smalltime party activist shouting street slogans?

If you like this, check out these two earlier posts:

Pakistan's Founder Jinnah Has No Place In His Homeland

PPPistan or Nawazistan or Altafistan or Pakistan?

Pakistan's Founder Jinnah Has No Place In His Homeland

This picture was an official handout from the Presidency on June 26, 2009, showing President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani receiving Pakistan's cricket team, winners of the T20 World series. The portraits of the PPP leaders can be seen in the background. No trace of the official portrait of the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's Founding Father.

The current democracy in Pakistan was installed by the United States. All the parties in power now in the country are pro-American and pro-Indian: the PPP, MQM, JUI-F and ANP. The last one, ANP, spent most of its career supporting separatist ideas. MQM's chief has just given a statement that opposes the very independence of Pakistan. But these ruling parties are not alone in completely ditching the Pakistani flag and the official portraits of the Founding Father of the nation. There is PMLN, JI, and other smaller parties that never raise the Pakistani flag in their rallies or public events.

This is how The News International, the largest Pakistani English-language daily newspaper, reported the story on Saturday, June 27:

The portraits of Founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah have been removed from the Prime Minister House and Presidential House, Geo News revealed Saturday.Two days ago, President Asif Ali Zardari hosted a reception in the honour of national cricket team on winning the ICC Twenty20 World Cup title. On this occasion, the team players and officials had a group photo with President Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.There are pictures of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, Bilawal Zardari Bhutto and President Zardari without any picture of founder of Pakistan are seen hung in the backdrop of photo.Similarly, an Internship Award ceremony was held with PM Gilani in chair on Friday. On this occasion, the stage was decorated with the pictures of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto, President Zardari and PM Gilani; however, there was no picture of Quaid-e-Azam.In a similar photograph, President Zardari was administering oath of Federal Mohtasib to Dr Shoaib Suddle; however, the backdrop flashed with a picture of Quaid-e-Awam sans any photo of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammed Ali Jinnah.Similarly, in a meeting with US delegation, no photograph of Muhammed Ali Jinnah was visible.Under law, to hang the portrait of Quaid-e-Azam at offices of government officials, President and Prime Minister is compulsory.

I still stand by my belief that the existing political elite in Pakistan is inept, uncreative and now compromised thanks to the 'outreach' done by the US and the UK embassies in Islamabad.

The best way is still this:

1. Ban any political party that is based on ethnicity/language. This will eliminate 98% of these parties.
2. Enforce fair and free internal elections, monitored by the Election Commission of Pakistan. No party allowed to run for office without this condition.
3. An interim, technocratic government in Islamabad for a minimum of five years, assigned to execute a visionary plan of reform that would include more administrative provinces and new laws organizing political activity and absolute focus on economic and education rebuilding.
4. Harsh measures against politicians who try to defy this plan. Harshest measures if necessary.
5. Stern warning to countries such as the US and UK to desist from interfering in Pakistan's internal matters. If they are allies, then they should support the stabilization of Pakistan.

See this PPPistan or Nawazistan or Altafistan or Pakistan?

Pakistani Ministers In New York

I have nothing to add to this except to say, shame on us because we keep electing the same losers:

“Pictures from The Big Apple have been freely circulating on the internet, capturing the ministers of Pakistan in the throes of ecstasy while they shake their booty in a stretch limo that can outstretch any stretch limo. Inside, the stage is designed for fun and games. Loyal "supporters" of President Zardari's cabinet ministers whipped up the limo and the party was on. The custodians of Pakistan's destiny gyrated, shook their butts and roared with laughter and pleasure as the greenbacks flew, just as they do in the great "mujras" here. Mr Qamar-uz-Kaira and Mr Nazar Gondal, surrounded by their loving friends, had a blast. The reports say that by the time the party was over $16,000 had been thrown into the Big Apple's stratosphere. Not bad for a mission that went without shame to beg for more US aid.

What the legislators from Pakistan were celebrating is not known, but it was obviously a good-enough reason. As for what the bewildered Americans are making of this strange and bizarre performance of the president's party that had arrived with large begging bowls and looking like something the cat had brought in – well, we will never know. They must be wondering what kind of demented people now run the affairs of this blighted nation, which has nothing of substance left and certainly no shame in asking for alms every few hours. What has the president to say about this behavior? Is this conduct unbecoming? Can you hold a public office and behave like a common party lout? Where is the sense of decorum? Breeding? Education? Perhaps there is none of that, because they have none of it anyway. Will they be openly reprimanded? We shouldn't hold our breath. Worse things have gone unpunished.

No explanation will be required. The official thinking on this would be that there is no need to tell anything at all. As for the errant ministers who don't deserve to be where they are, no need to ever worry. Neither will they ever be questioned nor, God forbid, punished. Instead, they will, things being bizarre here, rise to greater heights and accumulate lots of money on the way up. This is not the first time public money and our tattered image has been further eroded by those whom a capricious twist of fate has placed where they least deserve to be. The capability of these people who call the shots in Pakistan today is very questionable. In real life you wouldn't even give them jobs as peons in your office. But this is not real life. You could sweep all this under the carpet because graver offences are taking place daily and the louts were just "boys" letting down their hair and partying, but it further depresses millions who see in such behaviour the end of our existence.

As for the "Chak De" business, the former president's Chak Shahzad villa has been under the spotlight. But rest assured, the media is as usual lying and gunning for a man who has given his all for this country. Nothing is amiss at the ranch, so we are told. This is wonderfully reassuring news. It transpires that the villa--constructed on land that has always been controversial, illegally occupied and in violation of all rules and regulations, and where the Big Man has built his retreat--also has an agricultural electricity connection which is meant for genuine farms and not plush retreats from the buzzing capital. This connection, of which the Big Man knows nothing and which is not noticed by his staffers who are forever searching haystacks for needles, is the cheapest form of electricity in Pakistan. When the story breaks with irrefutable proof in the form of power bills, the lying machinery goes into auto-drive. First there is denial, then indignation, then more mumbo jumbo. In between, IESCO, quietly "changes" the telltale meter and gives the connection another cloak to wear. By some twist of fate, Chak Shahzad is beamed to the FATA areas and, lo and behold! The villa receives a FATA power connection. Not as cheap as the agricultural one but cheap as dirt, nevertheless. FATA? Could IESCO not come up with a better lie? Even lying presupposes some common sense, which IESCO does not have.

Denials have been flying like drones. The issue is being sidetracked, so that the heat can be taken off. Since there is an open season on lying at all times of the year, this is easy to manage. No one can dare question anything that touches the life of the royals, even ex-royals, so this too will be dumped into the overflowing garbage dump of our national shame. Pakistan continues to be raped and plundered at will, particularly by those who claim to be its biggest champions. The common folk, slapped by absence of power in this summer and random acts of the violence that stalks our lives, have nothing to look forward to. This is our destiny. As Zia Moheyddin once said at a cricket match which Pakistan converted from an easy win to a bewildering loss, "Shikast hamara muqaddar ban-chuki hai." Defeat has become our destiny.”

This fine column was written by Masood Hasan in The News on Sunday, May 31, 2009.