More on the kidnapping

I must have been sleeping when these reports came out.

UN HCR Head in Pakistan Kidnapped?

This is a new story. I wonder why I haven't heard this over the last week. If the issues in FATA were not enough, a burgeoning Baluchi independence/insurgence movement is not going to help Pakistan. I'll post more when I find it.

Its not just FATA anymore

For the past few years, we just keep saying its a FATA problem. For the rest of the country, its not a big deal, we have our own issues. Lots of people have been on the record as saying that if we left the "crazies" in FATA alone, then all of this would go away. Let them have their Shariat and their Talibanization up there. And of course the inevitable comments that it is America's problem, not ours. Well, it can be anyone's problem, but it is OURS! The Taliban or the TNSM or the tribals or whatever you want to call them, have now attacked a police station in Mianwali, a real city in Punjab. If this doesn't tell us that we can't ignore the problem, or brush it aside as someone else's, God help us, I don't know what will!

Fareed Zakaria & Pakistan

Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek on a new strategy to the Afghan war. Refer to page 3 for comments about Pakistan. Obama reads Zakaria. We should pay heed to his words. The next issue of Newsweek makes a lot of interesting comments about Pakistan and the effects that changes in American foreign and military policy will have on Pakistan. Difficult times lie ahead.

Torture of Women in Baluchistan

Hat tip to Teeth Maestro for tracking this report down.

You can question it, you can say its propoganda, you can say what you want. But these allegations need to be investigated thoroughly, and either shown as false or if true, the perpetrators have to be brought to justice. Why won't the same journalists who were willing to go to every length to find the identity of Kasab, now go to every length to verify or refute these allegations? We need answers. As a nation, we need to face the truth, no matter how ugly or horrific.

DAWN - Opinion; January 23, 2009

Good article by Ayesha Siddiqa.

Key Quote:

So, while it is true that Muslims are no different from the rest of the world in their desire for good governance, improved political structures, which might resemble the democracy of the western world, are missing precisely because of the absence of a structured discourse on a new social contract.

Pakistan in Peril?

Must read, eye opening review of a must-read book.

Mullah Omar is holed up in Baluchistan? Pakistan and the ISI have been training the Taliban over the last 5 years? One wonders why all of this doesn't make it into the Pakistani press and television chattering classes. Just more denial isn't it?

Journalists are Terrorists! HA!

Ha! Ha! Another Asif Zardari pearl of wisdom! If you don't like what they say about you, call them terrorists! Thats even one-upping George W and Dick!

Ayaz Amir on the War on Terror & Pakistan

Ayaz Amir, perhaps Pakistan's finest English columnist today. Quote:

Had he (Zulfikar Bhutto) conducted himself more wisely Pakistan might have been spared Gen Zia-ul-Haq and his hypocritical Islam. What a joke Zia played with Pakistan. There couldn't be a more Islamic country than ours. Yet that wily ruler, for purposes of his own, was bent on converting this country to Islam once more.

So look at the sequence of events. Bhutto gifted us Zia, Zia gave us phoney Islamisation, from the womb of that hypocrisy arose the first Afghan jihad, and the dragon's teeth sprouted by that jihad in time led to Al Qaeda and the rest of the mumbo jumbo we are having to live with today. And let not the Yanks think they had nothing to do with this progression. They scattered the dragon's teeth with us and lauded it as a noble act. As they battle the Taliban, and their satellites futilely try to track down the elusive chief of Al Qaeda, let them show some indulgence for Pakistan's present troubles, for we and they were partners in the same crime.

Lawyers a menace?

Has the lawyer's movement in Pakistan jumped the shark? Seems like criticism is increasing.

What a load of ....

How desperate we are to find a grand narrative. How desperate we are to find some kind of meaning and reason for the turmoil that afflicts us. Let it be because someone tossed pages of the Quran into the sea, not because as Pakistanis we acquiesce to those who are more corrupt than those waters from which the pages were pulled. We respect those who do nothing but steal, and when we condemn, we condemn not from the indignation of the oppressed, but the indignation of those who covet. And so, we sit back and try to find a grand narrative to explain our shortcomings, rather than saying yes, it is I who is to blame.

By the way, it is acceptable to discard pages of the Quran in flowing water. Check with any respectable Faqih. Emphasis on respectable.

Schools for girls closed in Swat

While we can't keep fighting endless battles in FATA and the NWFP, how do you deal with people who make things like this happen? They seem to live in a parallel universe, where none of the things which matter to the rest of us, seem to carry importance for them. How do you negotiate with people like this, or try to bring about change? If education is the answer, and dialogue the key to success, then how do you engage these people in meaningful dialogue to allow people to be educated?

This is what makes this problem so difficult.

George Bush and Cognitive Dissonance

While no one has ever accused George Bush of making decisions within a strong cognitive framework, his comments in his farewell address were just too much to bear.

He said:

Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This Nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense and to advance the cause of peace.

He says this the same day that Israel bombs a UN Humanitarian depot in Gaza, and while the EU and the UN all condemned it, all the United States did was have a chat with the Israelis. What oppression, what despair is anyone being freed from here? The UN is almost the only source for relief aid currently in Gaza. Hundreds of pounds of food and potable water were destroyed in this bombing. Do the Palestinians not count as oppressed people? Do they not feel despair?