.
.
.
The Pashtun's have their Taliban backed by the Pak military and ISI, the Baluchis have their Jundullah backed by the Pak military and ISI, Sindhis have their own armed group as do the MQM for the Mohajirs.
In an era where the constitution is being wholly ignored in many significant parts of Pakistan, and might seems to be right these days, then perhaps the PML-N should SERIOUSLY think about setting up its own private militia, of about 300,000 filled and organized by the party with retired military officers within its ranks, who are clearly vetted.
Who can blame the PML-N for doing such a thing, if the army and police can't protect the nation from the rampant Taliban coming out of Swat and threatening key Punjabi cities like Wah, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. In light of the real situation in Pakistan, this might not be a bad idea in the circumstances. If the PML-N does not understand this fundamental current reality, but instead rely on mere peoples power and the Lawyers movement...............the PML-N will surely be the loser in the coming months and years. Unfortunately this is the present nature of Pakistani politics, and it is for the PML-N who must be totally realistic and face this fact about current Pakistani politics.
We should remember that the Bolsheviks in Imperial Russia in 1918 were not widely popular, and most Russians opposed them, since the majority of Russians were conservative and believed in 1. GOD 2. Mother Russia (strong nationalism) and 3. the Czar at the top of all that, unifying the whole nation. Atheist Jewish Communism, with its internationalist overtones was irrelevant to ordinary Russians naturally, after all why should ordinary Russians care about the welfare of workers around the world.
BUT through their strong party organization the Bolsheviks fanned out from their small traditional strong holds in the big cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow to slowly defeat their enemies, over a period of 3 years by 1921, through ruthless armed struggle mixed with simple populism with the manipulation of the abject poor.............promising and giving them land and property (this is what is happening with the Swat Taliban......but under obscurantist fundamentalist Islam...whilst the Pakistan military looks on).
This is also what happened in Iran in 1978-1982, where a coalition of different political groups from constitutional democrats, to left wing parties and of course Islamic parties overthrew the Shah with covert Western backing. The Iranian military though used initially against the protesters later became hapless bystanders as the Islamic revolution progressed; they were ordered by the Shah, and American officials not to intervene in the evolving revolution. Eventually what happened was that a lot of the key senior officers were subsequently executed, or exiled, with the mullahs creating the Revolutionary Guard and Basij to check the power of the conventional Iranian military. Then a few years later one by one with Western guidance the mullahs eliminated the non-Islamic groups in the coalition, so that they could run the country by themselves.
He is happy in the USA after he helped them establish the Islamic Revolution.
Logically speaking, the Taliban should not win in controlling most of Pakistan as most Pakistanis expressed in free and fair elections their desire against Islamic parties in the February 2008 elections.........this is fact. But we see from history how through clever manipulation small extremist minorities can sometimes usurp power over the majority, and it is from this threat that the PML-N in the absence of any strong guarantees by the traditional custodians and guardians of the state, who must prepare themselves for the coming struggle with the Taliban.
The Taliban offer nothing but utter abject misery and loss for the majority of the Pakistani people, as they propagate an ideology which is wholly unsuitable in relation to the serious challenges Pakistan as a nation state of 180 million now faces and will face in the coming years and decades.
In undertaking such a serious course the PML-N should formulate a MOU with the PML-Q, ANP, MQM and PPP, beyond Zardari. The Taliban poses a threat to all these parties, as they are religious purists who don't believe in sharing power, just like the Iranian mullahs and the Jewish Bolsheviks in Russia.
