By Abbas Zaidi
Since 9/11, General Musharraf has systematically destroyed every institution in Pakistan. Thanks to the economic policies of Shaukat Aziz, the Citibank executive that Musharraf imported from New York to run PakistanŽs economy first as finance minister and then prime minister, there has been so much poverty and frustration in the country that few economists are confident that things can improve even marginally in the foreseeable future. Men have been killing their families and then committing suicide because they cannot feed them. Widows and divorcees have been putting up their children for sale, jumping into rivers or in front of trains because they cannot afford a meal.
There is one man that the people of Pakistan (85 percent, according opinion polls) believe is responsible for their plight: General Musharraf. It is, however, not just poverty that Musharraf has wreaked on Pakistani masses. He has given another gift to the country and its people: on 3 November 2007 he sacked and imprisoned 60 judges of the Supreme and High Courts of Pakistan. In the words of Aitzaz Ahsen, President of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association, sacking and imprisoning 60 judges (along with their families) is unprecedented in the legal history of the world. Since 3 November 2007, the lawyers and the people of Pakistan have been campaigning hard to have the judges restored, but Musharraf has shown no respect for the law of the land. People by and large strongly believe that he has had a hand in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto too. This is borne out from the fact that only days before her assassination, Benazir in her e-mail to Mark Siegel wrote that if she was assassinated, Musharraf would be connected to it.
Musharraf is so much hated in Pakistan that no one can praise him in public and not be manhandled. This is why, the Musharraf-backed Muslim League (Q) was thrashed in the national elections held on 18 February. For the success of his party, Musharraf had been campaigning like a man possessed. He declared that peopleŽs vote on 18 February would be a vote for or against him. The result on 18 February brought Pakistan PeopleŽs Party and Muslims League (N) in power, the two parties that Musharraf had demonized for years.
The vote on 18 February gave the people of Pakistan hope. They believed that after years of MusharrafŽs misrule, their own representatives would do something for themin whatever measure. But they also believed that Musharraf was the hurdle which must be removed before any good could come their way. All and sundry demanded that he resign. But then the government of the United States of America jumped onto the Pakistan stage like a Hollywood macho. From John Negroponte and Mark Boucher down to State DepartmentŽs junior officers plus a pack of high ranking military officers began to "meet" (actually bully, as Pakistanis think) the elected representatives of Pakistan even before they had formed the government. Soon Bush and Rice weighed in and the new government of Pakistan was told that Musharraf would stay at all costs. By the first week of June 2008, there was so much pressure on the parliament that it appeared that Musharraf would be impeached. PakistanŽs leaders and ministers gave clear indicationseven a dateto this effect. But then suddenly George Bush phoned Musharraf and assured him of his personal support. Next day Musharraf was howling like a wolf amidst a herd of sheep. He held a press conference and not only bragged about his "constitutional powers" (as if he had ever respected PakistanŽs constitution!), but also he insulted the people of Pakistan in a manner that even the heartless Nero would not have even imagined: To a question that the people of Pakistan could no longer afford to eat even pulses (the cheapest commodity in Pakistan), Musharraf responded with an extremely malicious sneer: "They should eat chicken!"
On 12 June 2008, half a million lawyers and general public gathered in Islamabad after a two-day Long March in order to force the government to restore the judges. From every city, town, and village people walked more than a thousand miles with their little kids shouting "Hang Musharraf!" Thousands of them had brought the dictatorŽs posters which they spat on and beat with shoes: In Pakistan, these are the most hateful expressions one can make. The huge gathering in Islamabad was addressed by a number of lawyers and politicians, and all of them demanded that Musharraf be tried for high treason, a crime whose penalty is death. Musharraf has been a serial committer of this crime. One can imagine the hatred the people of Pakistan have for the United States for unabashedly supporting Musharraf. People are angry that the sole superpower in the world has undermined democracy even before it could start functioning. It is very convenient for the likes of the CNN and Fox to put innocent-looking American kids on TV with "Why do they hate us?" question. American networks, however, have never asked, say, a Pakistani to answer this question. Instead they have George Bush answering the question: "They hate our freedoms!" Pakistanis do not hate the United States. You will find millions of Pakistanis who have their relations living happily in the United States. Pakistanis are very appreciative of American educational institutions: You will find few Pakistanis who do not want their children to study in America. Many Pakistani parents sell their properties to send their children to the United States to study. American scientific and technological advances awe and astound Pakistanis. They have no reason to hate America or the Americans, but they always say: "We have no inclination even to think ill of your freedoms. DonŽt rob us of our own. Period."
Since its establishment in 1947 Pakistan has been a frontline state for the United States. Till the 1980s it played a pivotal role in containing, undermining, and ultimately destroying the Soviet Union. The American-backed Afghanistan jihad against the Soviet Union in the 1980s was launched from Pakistan. And now Pakistan is the "most allied ally" in the American War against Terrorism. As a result, Pakistani society has become the most violent society in the world. Having done so much for the United States, the people of Pakistan deserve support and understanding. The United States can at least rid Pakistan of the Taliban who have turned Pakistan into a sectarian battlefield of great bloodshed. The United States has had an indirect hand in the creation of the Taliban in the first place. Now it can destroy this evil once for all. But it is very clear that the United States is not interested in wiping off the Taliban, but control and use them in places like Iran and South Lebanon. Given the TalibanŽs hatred of Iran (because the Iranians are Shias, and the Taliban Wahabis/Deobandis like the Saudis), and American malevolence towards the Islamic Republic (one of the few democracies in the Islamic world), making of a US-Taliban brotherhood may not be too far.
But sadly, the United States has never done anything that can benefit Pakistan. The billions of dollars of loans (wrongly called "aid") that it has been giving to Pakistan have landed in the generalŽs hands. But it is the people who have been repaying the loans with high interest on them. Instead of helping the people of Pakistan, the United States has strangled PakistanŽs democracy every time it was brought to life by the people of Pakistan. Dictators like Generals Ayub (in the 1950s and the 1960s), Yahya (in the late 1960s), Zia (1980s), and Musharraf (since 2001) were (and are) whole-heartedly backed by the United States despite the fact that their crimes against humanity were blatant, glaring, and persistent. Pakistanis are a very talented people, but years of corrupt rule of the corrupt army have deprived them of most of their civic, constitutional, and natural rights.
It appears that the American Empire does no more than invent and reinvent all kinds of slogans about democracy and freedom, and show off the First Amendment and "We, the People" drivel to gain moral superiority. But the people of Pakistanbesieged by depraved generals and bloodthirsty Talibanwill always say: "the Emperor wears no clothes!" |
Sometime in late 2006, US Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte visited Israel. According to a security source speaking on condition of anonymity, at a meeting with the heads of Israeli intelligence at Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, intelligence branch officers presented a small time bomb. On the margins of the discussion, dealing with various security analyses of Israel’s neighbors, Col. Eli Ben-Meir, head of the technological branch of army intelligence, said that according to his assessments the Syrians were working on an "unconventional weapons project."
Aswat al-Iraq: A lawmaker from Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militias rejected on Saturday a visit by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State 
Baitullah Mehsuds jaunty appearance at a press conference in South Waziristan underscores the wide latitude Pakistans government has granted the militants under a new series of peace deals, and its impact in Afghanistan, where and American commanders say cross-border attacks have surged since March, says a report published in the New York Times on Monday. 
Pakistan's new government signed a peace deal with pro-Taliban militants in a northwestern valley Wednesday, despite calls from the United States to clamp down on Islamist rebels.