President Zardari ??? [:O]

Who will we be defending ourselves from on THIS September 6th?

Sunday, August 24, 2008

By

Zakintosh

For many years Pakistanis have observed September 6th as the National Defense Day (also dubbed Army Day), albeit with decreasing fervour. The decline in excitement, other than one that any joyous escape from school a holiday brings, has been caused, partially, from the passage of time from the 1965 war: most of the readers of this blog had not even been born then, while others now have a better understanding of the misadventure. Another factor, however, is also the growing disenchantment with, and opposition to, the political role of the Army.

This September 6th, again, if the Presidential Election takes place, the Army may be on many minds – or at least in the warped minds of those who continue to look upon it as the only possible political saviour. Let us hope, however, that politics is not on the Army’s mind – an oxymoron, some would argue – and General Kiyani (despite the warning bells that the letter quoted Ardeshir’s column today echoes) will continue to depoliticize the Army.

But, hey, there is such a thing as pushing someone too far! And we may be leaning too hard on him already.

President Zardari? asks the headline in today’s Dawn, announcing the acceptance of the proposal (to contest the presidential election) by arguably the most controversial figure Pakistan’s politics has ever seen.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Saturday formally named its Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari as its candidate for the office of the president.

“Being the party’s deputy secretary-general, I am pleased to announce that PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has accepted the will of the party to become Pakistan’s next president,” said the Leader of the House in the Senate, Mian Raza Rabbani, while announcing the decision of naming Zardari as the candidate for the office of the president.

The News, another national newspaper, featured a story yesterday, spelling out why many are afraid of such a possibility. Here’s how it ends:

Zardari’s nomination has generated a stir among the political, social, bureaucratic, and security circles of the capital. It would be for the first time that a single person would run the state, the government and all its organs, as well as the country’s biggest political party.

If elected, president Asif Ali Zardari will also be Chairman National Security Council, who will be armed with the authority to appoint the Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, provincial governors, Chief Election Commissioner, Attorney General, and the powers to dissolve the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies under Article 58-2(b).

Compared to Musharraf, Zardari as president will be much more powerful as he will also control Pakistan’s biggest political party bequeathed to him by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto along with all her political and monetary assets.

After having a hand-picked, “yes” prime minister, compliant judiciary, presidential powers under 17th Amendment and the biggest political party which would wait for his nod for any action, Zardari is set to become more powerful than Musharraf or any politician in Pakistan would ever have dreamt of.

[Aside: Does no one at The News know that a preposition is not something you end a sentence with?]

Dawn’s headline proved really disturbing for a dear friend, Tony Afzal, living in the USA. He was horrified enough to write a letter to the newspaper’s editor, suggesting things I wouldn’t suggest. I cannot quote it in full, since it has not yet been published – though he did send me a copy. This is what he asks all of us: As a people, have we now come to this? Are we all collectively deranged?

My short answer: Yes! (Based on my conviction that the majority is always wrong. After all, when everyone thinks the same, no one really thinks. And those that try to do so, loudly, get shafted!)

Source: http://www.kidvai.com/windmills/2008/08/who-will-we-be-defending-ourselves.html

Musharraf exits the Pakistani stage as storm clouds gather

Musharraf exits the Pakistani stage as storm clouds gather

By

Rich Bowdenon August 20, 2008 7:40 AM

Pakistan’s former leader Pervez Musharraf resigned yesterday in an emotional address to the nation ahead of impeachment proceedings brought by the country’s newly-resurgent Parliament. Musharraf dominated Pakistani politics for almost a decade and strode the world stage as one of the U.S.’s chief regional allies in the war against terrorism. However the euphoria expressed at the ousting of the one time strongman was tempered with the knowledge that Islamabad is likely to face a protracted power struggle to fill the vacuum.

Musharraf’s ascendancy was the catalyst that brought together the two main parties; the Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), though the two have traditionally been rivals throughout the country’s history. With the chief reason for the parties’ awkward and fragile coalition now gone, the country could face an uncertain, if not violent, political future.

The record of the two parties coalition since obtaining office in February is mixed and there have been squabbles over key issues such as immunity for Musharraf and the vexing question of whether to reinstate the judges ousted by Musharraf, an act which proved to be the tipping point for Musharraf in the eyes of the Pakistani public.

No Chance of Another 9/11

U.S. Is Lying !

No Chance Of Another 9/11 From Pakistani Tribal Areas

The entire U.S. policy is focused on ensuring a head-on collision between the Pashtun tribes of the tribal area and the federal army of Pakistan. That would cause such a chaos and anarchy in the mainland through reactionary terrorism that Pakistan would be given the status of a failed state clearing the way for a massive invasion of the country to ‘secure’ the nuke assets to prevent them from falling into the ‘wrong’ hands.

By

ZAID HAMID

Tuesday, 22 July 2008.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—

‘Pakistan, for example, had no enemies in the Taliban or al Qaeda until (the Pakistani leader) made them such at our behest. Likewise, there could have been no better Afghan government for Pakistan than the Taliban regime, and yet (the Pakistani leader) helped America destroy it and replace it with the Karzai regime, a government that has allowed an enormous increase in the Indian presence in Afghanistan. ‘To date, Pakistan has lost more soldiers killed and wounded than the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. More dangerously, the offensives are stoking the fires of a potential civil war between Islamabad and the Pashtun tribes that dominate much of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. This situation is heaven-sent for Pakistan’s enemies, the Karzai regime, and India, to fuel Pashtun irredentism. ‘

Writing the above in the Washington Times on 7 April 2006, a CIA insider, Michael Scheuer, admits the reality of the situation and the blunders of the Pakistan government as well as threats which the U.S. war on terror has brought for Pakistan from Afghan and Indian sides.

“Pakistan in 2015. Pakistan, our conferees concluded, will not recover easily from decades of political and economic mismanagement, divisive politics, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction. Nascent democratic reforms will produce little change in the face of opposition from an entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties. Further domestic decline would benefit Islamic political activists, who may significantly increase their role in national politics and alter the makeup and cohesion of the military—once Pakistan’s most capable institution. In a climate of continuing domestic turmoil, the central government’s control probably will be reduced to the Punjabi heartland and the economic hub of Karachi.”

From NIC, http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2015.html (U.S. government think tank plans to truncate Pakistan by 2015. the analysis is stunningly in line with proposed new maps below for the Middle East released by U.S. armed forces journal earlier).

We have no doubt in our mind that U.S. does have almost identical plans for Pakistan in the same way that it collaborated with the Indians directly to dismember Pakistan in 1971. The way U.S. is sponsoring the Pashtun sub-nationalist group ANP, which happens to rule NWFP these days, and they way U.S. is supporting Balochistan Liberation Army and has a very suspicious relationship with Mr. Zardari and Mr. Altaf Hussain, we remain seriously concerned that another game plan to dismember Pakistan is already on the roll.