good stuff – great blog!…

After reading your posts I am DEEPLY saddened, that you are more preoccupied by what is Pakistan and what is Aghanistan — There are no such countries in the eyes of God — we are all JUST Muslims, and part of the same Ummah. I worked with Afghani refugees for a long time and I speak Dari but I am a Pakistani and was born and raised in Islamabad in a Pakistani family — but the Afghanis used to tell me they hate Pakistanis and that I am just an exception – But how could you hate your own brothers and sisters? It is MY Pakistani mothers and father who taught me to care for my Afghani brothers and sisters – no one else.

We can blame the “WEST” for our problems all we want — but at the end of the day, if we continue to think along the lines of our fictional nationalities, then we will go no where. WHo cares if NWFP is part of Afghanistan or Pakistan; how could ANYONE fight for a “nationality” which means nothing in the sight of God? We must all join hands and fight to better the condition of all our peoples. An Afghani is just as much my brother as a Pakistani, and I hope a day will come in Afghanistan, when they stop hating us for our government’s policies and recognize us as their brothers and sisters as well.

Lastly — on the authority of Abu Dawud, the Prophet of Allah (s.w.) said: “” …People should give up their pride in nations because this is a coal from the coals of hell-fire…”

Another one reported by Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi says: “Behold, Allah has removed from you the arrogance of the Time of Jahiliyyah (Ignorance) with its boast of ancestral/national glories… All people are the children of Adam, and Adam was created out of dust.”

In another instance – Bukhari and Muslim both report – the Prophet (s.w) was asked regarding “Nationalism” (’asabiyah in Arabic) and he responded: “Leave it. It is Rotten.”

There is No Afghanistan and No Pakistan — there are no lines drawn on the world that we could see from the moon — they are all a figment of our imagination. What is true though is that we are all part of one nation — even if we carry different passports and speak different languages.

Well, whist talking about so called wrongdoings of our politicians, lets not forget following.

1. Paki economy is largely imports driven and hardly anything that qualifies as Made in Pakistan.

2. Our foreign exchange reserves are mainly due to alms doled out by America (we always stand before them with begging bowl), remittances from Gulf employed. Earning from exports does not even constitute 20% of reserves (correct me if I am wrong)

3. A useless army, which eats defence budget and gets thrashing in every war and getting thrashed within country right now.

4. Horrible power supply, which no relgious leader is bothered about.

Any answers?

a candid opinion…u may use any sort of language and/or expression.
thanks

I’m sorry, but to construe the taliban as “people” is an enormous insult to everybody else. They are neither intelligent, nor islamic, nor human. No afghan with a blackberry or a penchant for kundera is strapping a bomb to himself!

I do agree there have been some wrongs perpetrated by musharraf, but i believe none of those occurred in the nwfp or afghanistan. the only place where musharraf slapped himself was with baluchistan, though even that is a highly sensitive issue.

btw, waziristan is now the “islamic emirate of waziristan”. catchy, kinda goes with the title “islamic emirate of afghanistan” that was envisioned by the taliban.

You do have observation. If Afghanis think NWFP their inherent right, does that matter? What about the people of NWFP themselves. If they want to be with Pakistan, they should have their say in the federation and Afghanis should stop whining about it. If people of NWFP wants to be with Afghanistan, why not let go if it democratically, instead of making the place difficult to live in.

But I do believe that every human being unless brainwashed religiously or otherwise, do have brains to think whats good for himself. I am sure, Afghanis have more grudges against Pakistan than just being unhappy about NWFP’s absorption in Pakistan. Moreover, even if you are right and this disdain has been there for ages, how come all that hatred is pouring out now with tens dying every day. I agree there had been instances before but it had been never like this where every week hunderds die.

There is definitely wrong being done by this governement and Musharraf is all responsible for it because his government is not a democratic government and its a one man’s rule.

the reason that disdain exists is because most afghans believe that the NWFP rightfully is a part of afghanistan. as a result, they’ve been fostering hate for far longer then either the soviet invasion and the following installation of the taliban by the pakistani govt or before the war on terror. hence, your correlation between afghanis hating us as a result of our association with the US is rather naive.

moreover, ask any pathan living in peshawar before the afghan refugee crisis and they’ll tell you of peshawar being a quiet, clean and hospitable place. now, peshawar’s got a substantial drug problem (which has been there since the afghan refugees started pouring in), not to mention how afghans own just about the whole of peshawar (in terms of real estate). this is not a diatribe against afghanis, but it really goes to show what they think of us when we’re harbouring an enormous of their population YET they feel the need to constantly hurl abuse (and far more dangerous things) at us.

you also talk of a misconception in relation to who suicide bombers are. correct me if i’m making a sweeping generalization here, but isn’t every suicide bomber in pakistan either part of the taliban or al-qaeda? or are lawyers just deciding now that maybe attaching some bombs to themselves will get the cjp back?

maybe some bellhop from serena decided to strap a bomb to himself and blow himself up infront of the mariott so that more people would look towards serena?

umar: you’re on the spot, somehow i knew there was something wrong about the sunni taliban making love to the hardline shiite iranis, but it was rather stupid of me to still go ahead with the statement.

And by the way, the Islamic extremists in Pakistan actually have been helping Baluchi rebels in Sistan-Baluchistan in Iran to attack Revolutionary Guards as well. So they are not just a threat to the stability of Pakistan.

There’s more to that than what meets the eye.

Its not only the Taliban that hate the US-Pakistan alliance, its the people of Afghanistan as well. I am not defending what US had to do to dig out terrorists from Afghanistan but I am explaining the effect of US-Pakistan led assault on the innocent civilians in the name of collateral damage.

And I certainly agree that our previous leaders weren’t angels in themselves either. But whatever they did, none of them was able to complete its term. Which is still better than dictatorship. Democracy improves overtime and Dictatorship deteriorates. Moreover, our past democratic governments could be corrupt but this one is beyond. And if I were to choose between two evils, I would choose the lesser one.

again, are you even remotely aware of the current geopolitical climate in the middle-east? why would taliban carry out suicide bombings in iran? iran has a fundamentalist islamic government, the taliban would probably marry ahmedinijad and co. THAT, is why they haven’t carried out attack in their beloved Iran (even though iran is mostly shiite).

That I would have to disagree. The Taliban nearly went to war against Iran in 1998 in response to the diplomat killings.

And a top Iranian cleric actually has condemned Pakistan for its inability to rein in these extremist elements that attack their Revolutionary Guards.

They hate Pakistan because of the atrocities brought upon them by US-Pakistan partnership on War on Terror. And Pakistan has committed these atrocities in the time of Musharraf and not before him.

hahahahahhahahahaha you joking, right?

Should I bring up the atrocities committed by the Taliban against the Shi’a Hazara population? Yakaolang and Mazar-i-Sharif ring a bell to you? What about the slaughter of 13 Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif?

It seems like it is okay if they commit atrocities against others, but heaven forbid if others commit atrocities against them.

And by the way, the Islamic extremists in Pakistan actually have been helping Baluchi rebels in Sistan-Baluchistan in Iran to attack Revolutionary Guards as well. So they are not just a threat to the stability of Pakistan.

for starters, you’re actually saying that the US and Pakistan brought atrocities upon the taliban controlled afghanistan?

seriously?

again, i feel the need to ask, are you completely serious and at home with THAT statement?

did musharraf and bush go hand in hand while employing an “islamic police” and beat burqa-wearing women whose ankles were visible? did bush buy a katana and perform daily beheadings on a football field in the capital? did musharraf tell everyone that they must grow a beard for it is islamic and if they don’t they shall be punished? did rumsfeld find it fit to decree that no afghan girls or women would get an “education”?

seriously, can you please elaborate on exactly WHAT atrocities are far worse then THAT?

they hate pakistan because pakistan’s a bedfellow with the US. they hate pakistan because pakistan helped the US in dethroning the taliban and their detestable excuse of an islamic government. are you defending the right of the taliban to rule afghanistan? i thought it was general consensus that the taliban are the scum of the earth, but apparently you didn’t get the memo.

again, are you even remotely aware of the current geopolitical climate in the middle-east? why would taliban carry out suicide bombings in iran? iran has a fundamentalist islamic government, the taliban would probably marry ahmedinijad and co. THAT, is why they haven’t carried out attack in their beloved Iran (even though iran is mostly shiite).

you state quite rightly that democracy is an iterative process, and that it requires time to filter out corrupt politicans and lawmakers. but, unfortunately, you seem to believe in the myth that pakistan possesses a couple of intellectuals in some suburban area of lahore or karachi who will rescue the country out of its self-appointed decline.

that isn’t going to happen.

if you go back to the start of musharraf’s reign, lets say he doesn’t go on to screw nawaz sharif, and nawaz bhai continues to reign. as we’ve both agreed to the fact that our leaders prior to mushy were corrupt, then there’s no reason to believe that one day nawaz would wake up and go “oh shit, i should help my country now”. hence, what would’ve followed is more corruption followed by maybe a rigged election where whoever takes the podium will just continue.

at the end, circa 2007 in a non-mushy universe, we would technically either be in the exact same spot, or we’d be worse off.

lets remember, mushy’s dethroned the cjp temporarily (or permanently), but after leghari demolished benazir’s govt, the first thing nawaz came back and did was make sure that the president couldn’t demolish the government (hence the mushy coup).

I personally do not believe that musharraf has been worse. I think till the steel mills privatization fiasco, he still had his wits about him. Now, I don’t see him taking this country anywhere but down again.

musharraf has not by any means had an easy ride. he’s had to placate the utterly crass politicians in our country, at the same time he’s been required to play an active role in the “war on terror”, which in my humble opinion was the right thing to do.

unlike the other arab countries who’ve decided that silence and apathy are the way to go, we have a duty to our religion to weed out these excuses for human life. unfortunately, though the notion and the act are applaudable, the involvement has left us with a terrible headache in terms of the presence of al-qaeda/taliban in waziristan.

moreover, the US hasn’t turned out to be quite the ally we’d hoped (what is it now, the 3rd time the cunts have screwed with us?).

as for the CPI, i concede. though the fact that its based on surveys by business people and the like and states mostly corruption activities prevalent in handling business, i still think a drop from 71 to 142 is appaling.

As you requested my friend, here is the URL for the CPI 1998.

CPI 1998

If you noticed, Pakistan is at 71.

Here is the URL for CPI 2006.

CPI 2006

Pakistan now is at 142.

Therefore, I was a bit conservative in stating the 50 positions decline but nevertheless you wanted exact statistics.

As far as my stupid statement about suicide bomber goes. What is it that Taliban hate so much about Pakistan that they are doing these acts in Pakistan and not in Iran or any other Afghan neighbour. I agree with you that they do not have that strong control over Afghanistan anymore, but according to your ‘” hence they are keepign themselves busy by screwing and killing pakistanis. “” it seems that you think its a fun activity that they are involved in.

They hate Pakistan because of the atrocities brought upon them by US-Pakistan partnership on War on Terror. And Pakistan has committed these atrocities in the time of Musharraf and not before him.

Lastly, I am not an advocate of the success of the previous democracies that existed in Pakistan before Musharraf. But my friend, democracy is an iterative process. It requires its time before it can filter out corrupt politicians and lawmakers.

Yes, our previous leaders have been corrupt but Musharraf has been worse. Moreover, over time, democratic process would have refined and improved the situation but it was never given that time.

either way, waziristanis don’t like being associated with pakistan or pakistanis (since they’re pashtun and want reunification with afghanistan for the whole of the nwfp), and you have to be remarkably naive to believe that the taliban and/or al qaeda don’t have a strong presence there.

pakistan, as a “sovereign” nation, needs to protect its citizens for the suicide bombings, and the only, ONLY way to do that is to take care of the “issue” of waziristan (unless you want to count a complete upheaval of civilization in pakistan as another way out, which is the only way you’re going to satiate those pathetic excuses for islamic scholars, imams and muslims that proclaim jihad on just about every fucking thing).

umar: can you please provide a link to the figures of the international corruption index that you state?

also, the suicide bomber statement is rather stupid. the reason your “ratio” of suicide bombings has increased is because the taliban are no longer in power in afghanistan, hence they are keepign themselves busy by screwing and killing pakistanis.

its really funny how everyone, EVERYONE mentions democracy in pakistan and how it’ll help us out of our ‘hole’. Will it really? have you SEEN our politicians? not only are they the scum of the earth but they are also uneducated!

we are a country with 4 provinces yet we have provincial assembles and provincial cabinets, a chief minister, governor and chief secretary. THEN, we have a national parliament and senate, ALONG with a federal cabinet full of, you guessed it, MORE politicians!

musharraf now has completely lost his marbles, which i assure you is far worse because now we have absolutely no one capable of running this fine country.

no one.

the very people we need musharraf to get rid of (the mma and all other fundos) are now seemingly wreaking more havoc. so tell me, where exactly do we go now from here?

On another note, what’s wrong with attacking terrorists in Waziristan?

Ya… bomb them all, women, children and the elderly like how Musharraf’s government is doing. They are fighting for their land against an outsiders. Let these sheep herders have their freedom.

1) If Benazir and Nawaz were worse than Musharraf and Nawaz openly supported Taliban. Why is it that the ratio of suicide bombings between Nawaz’s times and Musharraf’s time is 100 times more ?

2) Why is it that International Corruption Index states Pakistan to have dropped 50 positions worse now from where it was in Benazir and Nawaz time?

3) If our economy is actually progressing because of Musharraf’s policies, why is it that we have the highest inflation rates in the world where as China has 80% lesser inflation rate compared to us even when their economy is developing at a faster rate?

4) Our problems with Balochistan seems to be ages long, why is it that they have started to retaliate in violence now, why not a few years back ?

5) Lastly, if Musharraf is so sure about his policy making abilities and his popularity, why doesn’t he let go off the uniform and try to run for elections on equal grounds as for other political parties. According to you and Musharraf, he would surely win

Musharraf with all of their flaws, is much better suited for Pakistan than other leaders.

On another note, what’s wrong with attacking terrorists in Waziristan?

You missed cricket

Hahahah. Who can forget.