I see the kleptocracy known as the Zardari "Administration" has promoted the number of cabinet ministers to 55.
Mashala!..........Presumably that will solve Pakistan's national problems by inviting more PPP senior members to the proverbial trough.
A triumph of hope over expectations maybe? Wasn't that the number of cabinet ministers Benazir bhen had in 1990 when she was de-throned in 1990 at the behest of the Pakistani establishment and Americans.
The solution to Pakistan's problems is not going to be solved by expanding the number of cabinet members.
The solution to Pakistan's fundamental national problems over sixty years is not going to be solved by taking the begging bowl to every country with a spare billion $ or two, and then being turned down with soothing parting words of good intentions and friendship and not much else. After all why should other nations give their precious money away, which they worked for to a failed and corrupt enterprise like Pakistan, headed by a kleptocratic administration? Which may be removed by the Pakistani people in the near future.
A billion $ or two of other peoples money will ameliorate the FCR problem for a few months only, but Pakistan will be back to square one again within a few months.
Pakistan does not need quick fixes, with other peoples money which subsequently go into the pockets of the kleptocracy, but what Pakistan really requires is long term solutions that help stabilize Pakistan, and help make Pakistan a reasonable success.
From my understanding the Saudis are more receptive to Nawaz Sharif and the PML, than Zardari and the PPP. The Zardari administration was 'imposed' on Pakistan by an alliance of Anglo-American Jews with Israel, keen to weaken Pakistan and its military before a more substantial attack by America against Pakistan under President Obama, to destroy the country and secure Pakistan's nukes for Israel, and destroy and disband the huge scientific infrastructure and scientists around that project. In that sense Pakistan has to fail for the Jew, and Zardari is their man. He is perfect from their perspective, since he has a gangster background, Mr. 10% reputation which is now well established since 1990, mismanagement, cronyism, nepotism and certain cabinet members within his administration desiring to establish closer links with Israel, through Turkey and other nations.
Any wonder he does not wish the former Supreme Court judges reimposed. The man clearly and ONLY exists to look after number one. Nothing else.
I am confident that a country like Pakistan, with a population around 170 million, and 400 million by 2050 can muster men of stature to steer the country into straighter paths, and bypass the foreign backed Mir Jafars that keep being imposed on Pakistan by outside forces, to the detriment of Pakistan. ONLY Pakistanis know among their fellow countrymen who these men are.
Good men with administrative and leadership skills who are endowed with boundless courage. Out of a population of 170 million what are the odds of finding such men? How difficult can it be?
What I am sure is that such men will not come out of the corrupt leading parties such as the PPP, PML, and finally most certainly not the Islamic parties. These parties because of their structure will always choose the worst characters in the country. So Pakistan must seek new leadership from outside of its main parties, which involves a grass roots revolution by the people.
What the lawyers in Pakistan are doing is excellent, but its needs to come out of its narrow confines as a 'lawyers movement' into a national movement, mobilizing everybody, and every state. It mustn't be seen as an urban intellectual movement that is only angling for the lawyers interests of Pakistan. It must develop into a broader base of support and political activism, whilst still maintaining its political coherence. It thus must offer Pakistan clearly set out alternative agendas, which are fully and practically implementable by future administrations and are for the best interests of Pakistan. Otherwise it will look like yet another destabilization tool working for foreign Western powers (al-Qaeda, Renamo guerrillas of Mozambique, Contras, TTP....and so on)
I am only offering two cents worth of common sense advice, which millions of Pakistanis share.
Once the Zardari administration is removed then what has to be focused and asked is what next? His administration will be finished in 2009, for sure. Hopefully before he does any further damage to Pakistan. Hopefully before the Americans decide to attack Pakistan; though the longer his administration 'serves' in Pakistan this in turn increases the confidence of the Americans to attack Pakistan..................................................................so Zardari bhai is a liability to Pakistan. Under Zardari the dry runs of American attacks will continue until it turns into a full scale ground attack in the future. The agenda of removing Zardari bhai is not enough, we need more than that.
I will merely touch on some generalities.
America is not good for Pakistan. It never has been good for Pakistan. It is dominated by Jews, and Jews since 1945 have developed an anti-Muslim agenda, best exemplified by and culminating in the horrific incident of 9/11 which was a gross criminal act carried out by Jews against Americans' (to mobilize them as canon fodder) and against Muslims (to attack them for Israel's benefit) , through the fiction of GWOT and al-Qaeda. They reason that for Israel to survive and expand, Muslims and their countries must be attacked. Quite simple.
The average Pakistani, endowed with common sense and not much education understand even this.
The Pakistani military and Pakistani elite do not understand this simple fact. Why? Perhaps misplaced self interest with false perceptions (the problem and struggle of many other nations, not just Pakistan).
The Pakistan military is trained by the UK/USA through various training programs especially for the senior echelons, and the Americans have provided abundant supplies of arms to Pakistan from their vast arsenal. Sounds good, whats the problem? There is no such thing as a free lunch.
The Americans using this have subverted Pakistan as a nation, through the Pakistan military and especially ISI. Since the advent of general Iskander Mirza from 1956, the military have been involved in Pakistani politics for over 35 years, and the history of Pakistan through the military is a history of one disaster after another. The military by dominating the political sphere thus crowd out potentially able CIVILIAN leaders from rising, organizing and leading the country, and only accommodate and work with third rate civilian politicians, sycophants and bureaucrats into their power structure. This is a clear subversion of national politics. When the third rate politicians do eventually manage to get into power under a civilian government they are equally subverted by the military and ISI. Benazir 1988--1990, 1993--1996; Sharif 1990--1993, 1996--1999. Zulfikar Bhutto 1972-1977.
Is the Pakistan military good at their job? Do they serve the country? Legitimate questions which Pakistanis must ask. Question worth asking if you think you are qualified to run an entire nation.
Have they defended Pakistan professionally and bravely? NO!
In 1965 with two weeks of reserve spares which the Americans deliberately restricted lest it be used against India, the Pakistan military conducted and initiated a war against much larger and powerful India. Within one week of the war the Indians threatened to overrun Lahore. The Americans, and Soviets applied pressure on their respective spheres of influence and the Indians halted their advance, and inevitable decisive victory for India, whilst the Pakistan armed forces ran out of vital military parts. No territorial gains for Pakistan; American military aid officially is cut off, and Pakistan military weakness is exposed, and finally the weaknesses and contradictions of the Pakistani state is exposed which would lead to the break up of the country a few years later.
1971. Worse. The country is divided. The Pakistan military is directly and indirectly responsible for the genocide of 3 million of its own civilians, and over 90,000 Pakistani military personnel surrender to the Indians, in their own country which they have just raped, massacred and destroyed, for the world to see.
1990, a near war again with India averted by the good offices of American pressure. 1999 Kargil, the second worst performance after 1971, in what looks like worse still political maneuvering by "General" Musharaf to fault the Sharif administration, and thus sacrifice the lives of up to 4,000 paramilitary forces (NLI) and irregulars from the Northern areas, just so that "General" Musharaf could get back into power. Forget Pakistan's national military IZZAT and standing; forget those brave 4,000 killed, we don't know them, and we don't care about them; forget the fact that both nations are nuclear powers.
So the Pakistan military aren't very good at their own nationally legally mandated job, they are a disaster in their own field, let alone trying to run Pakistan; a complex Third World country of 170 million with many well wishers in the USA, and UK!!!!
But that's not all. The Pakistan military in servitude to their Western friends have built up and created another legacy which threatens the very existence of Pakistan. Islamic fundamentalism. Pan Islamic fundamentalism.
The British, as part of their pseudo-Crusader heritage, and Jewish interests articulated through the Rothschilds promoted Islamic extremism in Muslim countries, both as a legitimating tool to appropriate power from local state actors who oppose the British, and to subvert latent and rising nationalism in Muslim countries, of the type that had taken place in Europe a century earlier.
Local nationalism was seen as a threat to British interests and so they built up the forces of Pan-Islamism, with its vague notions of a Muslim ulema working together. Wholly impractical, and the British knew it, but a great tool for subverting and misdirecting nationalism in Muslim countries (because once a nation identifies its true needs through the forces of nationalism, and defines its problems and solutions exclusively, then it can begin to move forward as a national entity----Pan Islamic fundamentalism, with it broad generalized ill-defined notions and based on exclusive religious logic and rhetoric subverts such an important national task).
And so we have the creation of the Muslim League in 1905 with full British encouragement. The British assistance for the Wahabi House of Saud into Saudi Arabia and the control of Mecca and Medina, over the more moderate Hashemites. The creation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1920's, which later expanded into the greater Middle East with both British and American assistance. The organization and funding of certain Ayatollahs in Iran, with a view to taking power eventually in 1979, and over throwing the increasingly nationalist American puppet, the Shah. Where the Pakistani military have aided and helped in this subversive British and later American/Israeli scheme (Israel created Hamas to destroy and subvert the secular PLO) begins many years earlier, and especially through the ISI, run by the Pakistan military.
From the mid 1970's we see the selection of highly dubious and extremist Islamic fundamentalist groups, and leaders from Afghanistan, with British encouragement. The creation of the Taliban in 1994 from Pakistan, and later the al-Qaeda myth. What goes around comes around, and the Pakistan military should have known better. The Afghan adventure for the Pakistan military has been a disaster, and now threatens the very existence of Pakistan, since the Americans keep repeating that they must attack sovereign Pakistani territory to destroy organizations that they had essentially encouraged, created and worked with through the ISI in the first place.
Yes the Americans have given Pakistan $10 billion since 2001; written off foreign debt approaching $8 billion, with better trade terms with America and finally the lifting of sanctions imposed in 1990, and 1998. One may say it is a lot, but where has all this led to in terms of the cooperation provided by the Pakistan military?
What is the sum total of harm that America and the UK have inflicted on Pakistan? How do you measure this? $100 billion or is it $400 billion; a nation denied many opportunities, and missed chances of even having reasonable success, never mind talk of being a first world country.
Well the economy is collapsing now; there is a civil war in parts of Pakistan and finally the Americans may attack Pakistan under President Obama............this is where all the years of Pakistan military cooperation with the West has led. It now threatens the very existence of Pakistan, that's where.
The Pakistan military are the primary agents of subverting Pakistan, with foreign encouragement since the 1950's.
So what needs to be done in relation to the Pakistan military?
The arms and aid that they receive from America gives them confidence, over confidence, misguided over confidence. One British military journal talked about military officers in the sixties, in the Pakistan army who all imagined themselves as Napoleons. Napoleons who felt that they had a manifest destiny to run Pakistan. Normal effective societies are not run by the military, they are run by civilians. Few military Generals, and very few one may add have proved good leaders and administrators of their nations in addition to having effective military careers; George Washington, Napoleon and Ataturk.....these are exceptions to the general rule.
So my first suggestion is that Pakistan should not cut its military budget by 30% as suggested by the Jews in Washington for Israel. 3% of GDP defense expenditure is a very reasonable level to spend around the world, and for Pakistan given the security scenario and the threats from the Jews in America, perhaps a little bit too low; I would go for 6% of GDP defense expenditure. No, what I would suggest is to completely cut the American military aid of about $1.2 billion a year, most of which according to the Americans is not used for ops in FATA, as intended but is either redirected to arms programs targeting India or is simply pocketed by the corrupt elements of the military. The cutting of this American military aid will not fundamentally affect Pakistan's military performance, but will cut out the influence that such sums buy within the Pakistan military for America.
By 2003 for example, through the Iraqi intelligence, America had bought ALL the generals in the 400,000 strong Iraqi army. And so the Iraqi army surrendered without a fight, and since that episode the Jews have flooded the country of Iraq as Americans or as 'special Israeli advisers', looted its treasures literally in the case of the Baghdad Museum , killed 1.2 million of its people through the arming of various militias, made 4 million Iraqi refugees, and are now attempting to divide the country into 3 parts..........If the Iraqi generals under Saddam knew.
Pakistan military officers need to be solely trained on Pakistani soil, and not sent to the USA/UK on special programs. I am not aware that Napoleon, or Genghis Khan had to go to foreign countries to learn their military skills.
The ISI needs to be disbanded and reconstituted under a new name, with civilian officers only separated from the military.
Pakistan needs to close the American military bases on its soil, and restrict any use of its military bases by America.
All foreign security personnel need to leave Pakistan.
The Pakistan military needs to reorientate away from their focus on India, into focusing more on its Western borders, and any possible future conflict with the USA. Is Kiyani ready for a fight with the USA, and is he ready to defend his country? No he obviously is not, trained in the USA, and surprise surprise headed the ISI.
If the American attacks continue on sovereign Pakistani territory, the imposition of a complete blockade against Afghanistan. It is simply criminal that Pakistan allows full flow of goods to Afghanistan, whilst the Americans attack Pakistan. Obviously this the work of Kiyani/Zardari. Any normal Pakistani leader with an ounce of patriotism would have imposed a complete blockade by now.
Finally in this area perhaps the most important for me. I would like to see a Pakistan army that represents the best traditions of Muslim history in South Asia. The fighting skills of Mahmud of Gazni; Mohammed Tuglaq, Allauddin Kilji; Sher Shah, Akbar the Great and Tipu Sultan. Not as now a third rate copy of the British Raj army from the 1930's, acting as a male nachniwali Mujra for Western and Jew geostrategy in the region. Fighting its best wars, its most aggressive wars against its own people. An armed force that has killed more of its own people than any other army in the world. Is this why it has been given significant non NATO status? Because the Jew likes its record and performance.
India.
Refocus, away from India militarily and in terms of 'winning' against India. The miniature attack dog mode for masterji has to go; 1948, 1965, 1971, 1990 almost and 1999.
Sign an FTA with India. It is simple and cost effective. It will boost Pakistan's economy.
Legalize the LOC. Pakistan will never take control of Kashmir, it is more probable that Pakistan proper will disintegrate well before that juncture ever happens, so acknowledge and face up to reality if you have the balls.
Kiyani and Zardari have not visited India. But India is the super power in the region, and that is logically, as a Pakistani leader the first country to pay official respects to. Comprehensive real co operation with India can solve many Pakistani problems, and has never been tried before. I am not talking about mere gesture politics...a bus or rail link here and there. The time is now. I don't think the Jew trained agents of Kiyani and Zardari will ever go to India, so its up to the new civilian leadership after Zardari.
Civilian elite.
The British ruled India proper just under a hundred years. A lot of their rule involved using local people. 500 Maharajahs and their states operating autonomously, and thousands upon thousands of Zamindars, or big landowners, functioning in the big Indian states collecting taxes for the British, and enforcing British rule. India upon independence abolished both these classes, Pakistan did not. Why? You have to look at how Pakistan was created and the politics of the country.
Pakistan did not get rid of its Zamindars, as the party which founded Pakistan, The Muslim League (founded in Dhaka, East Bengal 1905 with heavy British involvement) was a British colonial figment dominated by..........................Muslim Zamindars loyal to the British empire.The Congress Party was run by technocrats and upper middle class men with ability, with a significant grass roots connection to the masses (See the Hollywood movie "Gandhi" 1982 directed by David Attenborough.....)
The Muslim League on the other hand created by the British had no grass root support to challenge the Congress Party. It was a ceremonial talking shop fretting about the Hindu dominated Congress party, and the ridiculous idea that Muslims would be swamped and marginalized in an independent India. Again fear triumphs over reason....in 1941 Muslims constituted 23% of the Indian population. In 2008 they constitute about 34% of South Asia's overall population. By 2050 they will be about 44%. In addition from a racial perspective, and historical perspective, the Muslims especially from the North Western parts of South Asia have been more assertive, and the very idea that such races would be subjugated by Hindus is wholly unfounded and spurious.
Basically the British did not want an united India at independence, as it would be a 'Great' nation and they used the Zamindar puppets in the Muslim League to amplify the British opinions. So in 1942 with the bulk of the Congress Party leadership in Prison or detention, the British activated the Muslim League as a full mass movement, allowing it to organize with capable technocrats....like Sarwardy, Jinnah, Fazle Haq and so on. Thus the Muslim League talking shop fretting for most its existence, suddenly at a critical time in Indian history, during the course of WWII becomes a real party, with agendas of an independent homeland for Muslims.
Jinnah is an enigma. Fore fathers descended from Brahman Gujarati's. Unlike most Congress leaders he never spent any time in the Raj Prison. Ate ham sandwiches openly, and drank alcohol until it did serious harm to him, whilst as leader of the Muslim League. Most of his speeches between 1940-47 were in English to the Muslim masses who didn't understand English. He spent an inordinate amount of time for a "freedom struggle leader" practicing law in London, rather than getting involved in the thick of it in 1930's India where many promising developments for India were taking place.
The 500 Zamindar/Tamindar/Sardar families of Pakistan constitute a national threat to Pakistan's existence as a reasonable successful Third World country. They must be abolished just as they were in India in 1948, maybe under the disguise of a comprehensive popular 'land reform'. They send their children to exclusive private schools in the UK/USA where they grow up completely detached from Pakistan and its people, and they function in the classic colonial model envisaged by the colonial British and their visions of a thousand year empire, using a class of local brown Sahibs. They hoard $10 billions of Pakistani assets and transfer them to foreign accounts in London and America. Pakistan is not poor, but the Zamindars continually undermine Pakistan by such activities. Through the "moth eaten" failed state of Pakistan elements within Britain hope to step back into South Asia and rekindle the dreams of empire, through these Zamindars.
The Pakistan economy.
The IMF, WB, ADB, international financial markets can pose a threat to the sovereignty of a country. What is good for Peter is not necessary good for Paul. We live in a complex nuanced world, and every nation has its own personality and characteristics. This is not an argument against much needed reform to remove the shackles and heritage of British colonialism or 60 years of poor governance, but in your eagerness to escape these two past evils, we should not embrace the wrong policies proscribed by people who have very little inside knowledge of the dynamics of Pakistan.
The best model for Pakistan is development through the mobilization of ones own resources. This is the China model---high savings and investment, without any reliance on outside sources. High emphasis on exports with a balance of payments surplus. Pakistan is a rich country with a PPP near $470 billion, with about $350 billion actually registered as part of the official economy.What is required is to get that wealth effectively mobilized into the right sectors.
There is also huge amounts of Gulf Arab money which could be more effectively directed away from mere construction investment, and instead towards blue chip strategic industries such as power stations, machine tools factories, steel mills and other heavy engineering capitol projects.
I am profoundly confused why a nation like Pakistan which built nuclear bombs against all odds, builds excellent tanks, good missiles including cruise missiles, scientists with Nobel prizes.....................................has an export of ONLY $18 billion, with imports of $36 billion. What is the problem? Exporting textiles can earn Pakistan only so much, and exporting food is criminal given the shortage in all areas in Pakistan. Why can't the scientific talent in the defense sector and the overall country be directed to increasing exports, and saving the country and take it out of trouble?
To me this is a conspiracy. But by whom? The stupid military? Why would they not want to develop the country? after all aren't they jealous of India and and don't they want to compete with India? Or is it the fault of the 30 'commercial' families? I use the term 'commercial' carefully, because I am sure such families aren't really doing business in the Microsoft sense. Is it the fault of the bureaucrats in the government departments of Trade, Commerce and Industry failing to organize the nation in that direction? Isn't it their job?
Musharaf fretted privately about India's success (envy of the incompetent), but in his 9 years of power never really put the Pakistan economy on a sound position. In terms of:
1) Creating a viable manufacturing base. Pakistan is still essentially a basket weaving economy with rockets.
2) Significantly increasing exports, and achieving a balance of payments surplus.
On paper the Musharaf years look good economically. But one thinks most of that 'development' was superficial because:
1) America helped financially, gave aid worth $10 billion, cut a section of the foreign debt $8 billion, gave favorable trade terms to Pakistan, and lifted the embargo's imposed after the Pressler amendment 1990, and the 1998 embargo.
2) Borrowed money from other sources, including the IMF, WB, ADB, and so forth.
3) National asset sales based on the IMF/Monetarist model.
4) Substantial investments from Gulf countries by Arab businesses.
5) The Transfer of expatriot assets into Pakistan since 2001, and 9/11.
One can't even be sure whether Mr. Shaukat Aziz the PM, the former employee of a Jewish bank from America, who I think has since fled the country? was being honest with the public, and whether the figures which he produced about 'development' are that reliable.
The rapidity with which the economy has collapsed since Musharaf relinquished power, suggests the 9 years he spent steering the economy were superficial. Yes we can all to easily blame Zardari the mastan from Sindh, its all too easy and obvious, and I have indulged, but one must also ask what kind of economic stewardship Musharaf/Aziz did for the economy over 9 years for it to fail so quickly and dramatically which then forces Zardari to go around the world ignominiously begging for more money?
Lets make a small promise. I know whenever the military take over, they like hiring former World Bank employees and what not from America. How about in the future, technocrats from INSIDE Pakistan get exclusively selected before being given sensitive positions in Pakistan, AFTER rigorous tests for competency, incorruptibility, a scintilla of loyalty to Pakistan and its people and so forth. We cannot begin to know what mess Mr. Shaukat Aziz has created in Pakistan, until he answers vital questions.
Pakistan's population was 33 million in 1951, is now 170 million and will reach 400 million by 2050. In such a situation decentralization is the ONLY option. Decentralization done effectively can make a country efficient and successful, and the UK did so very recently.
The paradox is that the more you attempt to control everything from Islamabad the greater the chances that you could lose control over the whole country. When you fly a kite don’t you pull and also loosen the strings to balance things. Unless you have the discipline to be like a Pol Pot or a North Korean type government, backed by China; Not feasible or morally desirable in in the case of Pakistan.
I would like to see greater responsibilities given to the big city municipalities such as Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi and other major cities running everything except security, currency, and diplomacy.
I would like to see the four states given more autonomy, as this makes Pakistan administratively more efficient. Municipal assemblies fully functioning with state assemblies, and a national assembly looking after the ministry of the interior, defense, the foreign office, intelligence, currency and international trade. Nothing else.
6) anti corruption drives.
7) national security.
8) media.
