Mar 23, 2009

Corruption in India and development.

.
.
.
.


Did a paper on Indian corruption for my Masters, over a decade ago, and I see that the situation hasn't changed that much. I focused on the corruption around the License Raj, and its aftermath. It obviously was a very narrow focus, which doesn't explain the wider problem in India.







Its estimated that disloyal corrupt criminalized Indians have stashed away around $1,500 billion or $1,500,000,000,000 of the poverty stricken nations wealth in illegal accounts in Switzerland alone. Switzerland is not the only place you can stash your cash illegally.....there are numerous other tax-havens where banking laws are very lax........ Monaco, Liechtenstein, Channel Islands, Bermuda, Andorra, Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, relevant to India in terms of tax avoidance ...Mauritius, Seychelles, British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg, Macao, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates...............and of course London and "the City". So what amounts of money have the disloyal corrupt criminalized Indians stashed their cash in these other tax havens? $500 billion or $1,000,000,000,000?


The GDP of India by PPP is anything between $3,500 billion to $4,000 billion. The money illegally off shored represents anything between 50---70% of the GDP of India measured by PPP.

Bhara Big ney?

Astronomical sums. I don't think any other nation off shores as much of its own wealth as India, illegally. Phoolan Devi and the rest of India's 99% toil and slave, and less than 1 % of the country representing the elite loot the country..............is there a bigger crime and injustice in India? I DON'T THINK SO! What does this say about India's "ruling" elite?

Well obviously many of them are criminals, and corrupt who don't have much faith in the country.

Who are these disloyal corrupt criminalized Indians? Hey guess what you already know them. The Netas, the babus, and the captains of industry.......people in positions of power, responsibility, patronage, and rupees.

It all goes back to the British and the continuation of the British Raj system after "Independence" in 1947. Basically if you are going to rule a country, loot it ($1 trillion worth of Indian assets transferred to London 1757--1947), sermonize over it and treat it very badly (30 million Indians died under British rule)......then you need a lot of local criminalized chamars who don't have a problem with the British doing this to India, "No probs sahib we'll help you". Basically the decendents of these chamars, along with their colonial practices have continued with business as usual.

Baron Macaulay in 1835:

"We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population".

Now I know what he meant.


A very simple modern example is Zardari in Pakistan....its the most obvious and recent....the guys a felon who has done prison time for corruption, and has stashed away up to $2 billion of the impoverished nations wealth in foreign mainly Swiss accounts and in London. Washington arranges a "deal" with Washington's other criminalized puppet, Busharaf so that no charges are leveled against Zardari and Bhutto, which allows them to "share" power with Busharaf.....(be careful Nawaz Sharif!!!!) He is celebrated by Washington and London, and they help him into power in 2008, even though he has no real political experience, network, or any recognizable political base other than the support of some misguided Sindhi's......but London and Washington love and adore him, and eventually with the ISI's help enthrone him in the hope of controlling Pakistan even further for their particular geostrategic interests, after Busharaf.

The same applies to the Indian politicians and Bangladeshi politicians.

This is why India after 62 years of Independence still does not have good infrastructure, education, agriculture, industry, exports.....a nation of 1.2 billion exports a mere $175 billion.....thoo........Belgium with a population of 9 million exports $370 billion.....thooo..............Hong Kong with a population of 6 million exports $360 billion....thoo..........This is why India has 850 million people living on just 20 rupees a day, and 55 billionaires.......thoo, thoo, thoo.



A modern nation doesn't need a "Maharajah economy", where one guy monopolizes all the money, and doesn't use it, or spend it. A modern economy requires a big middle class with skills, making things, manufacturing things, buying things, with the nations wealth being more evenly shared, so that nobody, or very few have an interest in stashing the loot (their wealth isn't big enough for that), but they instead circulate and spend the money within the economy, and help and invest in it so that it grow's.

But you say oh look, India has great economic growth, 300 million middle class, and the famous trickle down and all that eventually.....................................I say when? When you have foreign educated, and backed criminals running the show can you have real meaningful economic growth that benefits everybody really, and not just statistically? Can I not judge for myself by looking at the dirt, filth, smell and poverty that exists in a lot of India to tell me that its really not working?.....Do I need a Ph.D in developmental economics to make such basic common sense deductions? Or do I need a Harvard educated NRI to tell me otherwise in CNN IBN, or NDTV?


Lets look at a more specific example of corruption, with the Arjun Tank project. It was first initiated in 1972.......and completed in 2008/9, finally being approved by the Indian army. Does "Shining India" require 36 years to produce or shall we say assemble a simple semi-indigenous tank? (most of its parts are foreign).............Tanks aren't that difficult to build, there are after all about 18 odd countries around the world manufacturing them. Tanks take 36 years to build if you have gross corruption in the relevant political bureaucratic elite which deal with this area......think of the issue from these criminals point of view......if India manufactures her own tanks then there is no opportunity for kick backs, and palm greasing from foreign prospective defense contractors, and the reason why India defers repeatedly in buying her basic defense equipment such as tanks, artillery, planes, warships and missiles from foreign sources. There are also allegations of deliberate sabotaging the Arjun tank project by elements within the project, along with politicians and babus...................unbelievable, toying with the security of the country like that, spending 2% on defense and appointing clowns to the defense portfolio who will not ask too many inquisitive questions.

Whats the harm? After all if our noble netas and babus making a bit of money on the side, with foreign money right, not Indian money, where is the harm? It of course relates to corruption and national security...............if you cannot manufacture your basic defense items how do begin to defend the nation reasonably...........foreign supplied equipment means foreign supplied spare parts for your vital defense equipment....which is a dangerous scenario to be in when you are fighting a real war against a real enemy. Put simply as things stand the Indian armed forces are not in any position to fight a comprehensive war (over months), with 40 odd ordnance factories to back them up in times of war.



But the wider issue is this. If you can't sort out such basic requirements as building a simple tank.....and it subsequently takes 36 years...........then how do rely on the same netas and babus to solve and address the BIG urgent national needs of India? If they make a big hash over such simple project, with the massive talent pool in India in the first place, what does that mean for India really?

Does India require a revolution at the top?

Does the colonial era elite schools need to be dismantled?

But I see that India will be celebrating and hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2010.



Mar 20, 2009

Iranian air defence, and Russia's second tier policy towards Iran.

.
.
.
.












.
.
.
.

























Russians are partly ethnically Iranian/Aryan. Of the 142 million Russians maybe 70--80 million are of Iranian/Aryan descent, and the rest are made up of Slavs, Uighur-Altaic's and some Germans, West of the Urals in the Baltic hinterland. The Scythian empire (800 BC to 200 BC) stretching from Hungary to Siberia was essentially an Iranian/Aryan empire. The Scythian empire and the Iranian/Aryan run Persian empire mostly co-existed.



With the creation of the Romanov Russian empire from the 16th century, we essentially had a rebirth of the earlier Scythian empire under the rule and direction by the same people, covering almost exactly the same geographical area.

Therefore Russia must help their "brothers" to the South who now are threatened with illegal unwarranted attacks by the JEWUSA, and its little master ISRAEL. We see the result of failure to help brothers in need in the Balkans, where now both Bosnia and Kosovo are failed narco states. Russia's weakness and indecision allowed these tragedies and crimes.

Russia's weakness and defensiveness allowed NATO next to Russia.

But let us leave aside such romantic notions of "brotherhood" and let us talk cold hard facts, and the importance of the defense and survival of Russia itself. These are issues I have covered before in 2006 addressed to Putin, and I am making them again.

If the JEWUSA with ISRAEL are allowed freely to attack Iran, without any hindrance, where they initially destroy the country, as the JEWUSA did in the Balkans and Iraq (1991---2003) from the air, and then invade after weakening Iran's defenses, then the JEWUSA empire will have a continuous link from Iraq........Iran.....and Afghanistan. A solid block and base from where they can strike against Southern Russia.

In understanding this policy one must inform oneself of the British agent of influence professor Bernard Lewis in utilizing America, and the creation of the artificial "Arch of Crisis" using Islamic fundamentalists and the role of Zbigniew Brzezinski from the early 1970's (The Grand Chessboard). The covert arming, funding training of Islamic fundamentalism, as a fifth column to spearhead the JEWUSA empire, and threaten Russia on its Southern borders, amongst other strategic policies else where.(Operation Cyclone, Operation Greenbelt, the creation of the Taliban, "al-Qaeda" and the coordination of action by the Islamic Brotherhood in the Greater Middle East under the umbrella of several Islamic fundamentalist groups.)

An attack and invasion of Iran is an attack and invasion of Russia, and this is where Russia must fight, properly. It is in this area where Russia must not be unambiguous or indecisive. The defense of Venezuela and Cuba is less relevant for Russia. The defense of North Korea is less relevant for Russia, as the Chinese can more than adequately defend that state if required...............it is the isolated Iranians that Russia must defend, because of the geography of that country.

The Mullahs of Iran are unpalatable, installed puppets of the UK in 1979 to weaken Iran internally and destroy Iran's reputation externally-------these UK installed agents have done good work for their masters. However it would be wrong for any Russian administration to conclude that in providing arms to Iran now would somehow constitute a tacit acceptance of and defense of a vile theocratic state. This narrow perception misses the bigger issue related to intrinsic Russian geostrategic interests in that area, and that Iran is an important bulwark against the further expansion of the JEWUSA empire into Russia, with the ultimate goal of dismembering Russia as in the Balkans......."The Grand Chess Board".

With this ultimate hidden Anglo-JEWUSA goal in mind, Russia must as a matter of necessity, re-arm herself without having to explain to the world, in addition to comprehensively equipping Iran not with piecemeal defense contracts here and there, but provide real proper investments into the Iranian military machine, without being apologetic. That such defense agreements between the two countries should not have to be exposed to the whole world in minutiae detail........for example 30 M1 Tors, with 400 missiles for $800 million contract. The nature of military contracts and their actual purpose allows the opponents of Iran/Russia to guess the critical strategy of Iran's defense policy.

America invaded Iraq under false pretenses as almost everybody including prominent people within the USA also know and subsequently in retirement state. Then they occupied the country for 6 years and have killed unofficially 1.2 million people, making 4 million refugees, destroying the country in the process of dividing it into little ethnic based pieces, and now proposing to stay indefinitely so that they can kill a few more million for the Jew.

With Afghanistan again invaded under false pretenses, as many know 9/11 was the act of the Jew and their agents in America, and then the Taliban created by America through the Pakistan military given a false choice of accepting a lie, or be threatened with invasion in 2001. Since the invasion of that country 8 years ago by America, they have created a failed narco state, where the conditions of the country are worse than under the Taliban. Criminal warlords with private militia's essentially control the country, with the result that few criminalized elements in the USA, and UK are enjoying the fruits of the Afghan occupation through the vast 800 a ton a year narcotics trade from Afghanistan. Indeed Russia is a victim of this trade as a substantial amount of this narcotics business ends up in Russia effecting ordinary Russians.

In light of such "criminality" and deception by the USA, UK and their allies there is no need for Russia to constantly declare to the world how bad the USA is, with the same speeches again, again, again, and how "correct" Russia is. I do not propose that Russia should emulate and become like the JEWUSA, that would be disagreeable, but that at a minimum Russia must rearm comprehensively, rearm Iran and adopt a more aggressive posture against the JEWUSA in this theater.............without having to detail what items are being transferred to Iran.

How ironical.


The Soviet Union poured perhaps between $50--100 billion worth of arms into Saddam's Iraq between the 1970's and late 1980's to fight mullah Iran. Thousands of Russian advisers were present in Iraq helping the Iraqi military. The Scuds missiles, the MiG's, the T54/55/62/72 and numerous other arms that created the 1.2 million Iraqi military machine by 1988. How ironical that the Soviet Union poured so much military subsistence, some never to be repaid, into a regime which some allege was headed by a American backed agent....Saddam Hussein, and as many people know certain key men around Saddam were working for the Americans, especially by 2003.


The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan partly as a response to what was happening in Iran again, with the fall of the Shah, and the ascendancy of the mullahs. The Soviet Union spent $300---$800 billion in the Afghan war, sacrificing perhaps up to 20,000 soldiers killed, 40,000 wounded, which added enormous pressure on the already fragile Soviet economy leading to the final meltdown and disintegration of the country in 1991..................ALL partly because of the actions of the Soviet Union around mullah Iran, to contain it from further expanding and spreading its type of religious fundamentalism which was an anathema to the secular Soviet Union, especially in relation to Central Asia and the Caucasus.


How ironical than that the reduced mini-descendant of the Soviet Union, struggling with many internal problems and NATO expansion, is now a 'defender' of the vile evil mullah regime, installed by the UK/USA originally in 1979?


And yet, in reality Russia is NOT really defending the mullah regime, but in actuality defending Iran and her people, when Russia provides over inflated expensive piecemeal defense equipment to that country. This Russia must continue with greater speed and urgency in this matter. They must send more military personnel into Iran to train the Iranians.......it is no good having mountains of arms rusting away in Siberia. That such arms should be put to good use.


How ironical that the Soviet Union expended so much blood and treasure against the mullahs, around Iran, in Iraq and Afghanistan especially, but yet never succeeded in removing the mullahs from power in the first place?


WHY? Stupidity, incompetence of the KGB?


What is the secret of the mullah being in power in Iran for 30 years?

Are they Machiavellian political geniuses? Hardly!

Are they loved by ALL Iranians? Hardly!

Are they ruthless competent effective administrators in Iran? Hardly!

Is Iran in the other side of the world from Russia? Hardly!

Does Russia have no contacts of influence in Iran? Hardly!.....the left in Iran (The Tudeh umbrella organization), the group that opposed the Shah most, the group that sustained the greatest amount of persecution at the hands of SAVAK (very few Islamists were persecuted by SAVAK) and finally the most able and intelligent anti-Shah elements who were very overtly pro-Soviet Union, were defeated by the Mullahs and killed and exiled between 1981-82.

Why? Why couldn't the Soviet Union manipulate the Tudeh to their advantage more effectively to eventually develop an acceptable type of Socialist government in Iran which didn't threaten its neighbors?

Perhaps the 700,00 strong KGB was over rated.


In fact the mullahs are not that smart.....most have basic education by Western standards. So who is guiding them?


The primary source is the UK. Historically the UK has been active in Iran since the 19th century. Through their long experience in the country they have built up considerable local Iranian networks of Mullahs (The British realized early on the importance of mullahs in Iranian society), Bazaari, mafia elements and of course the ruling elite.

1) The British installed Colonel Reza Khan, an illiterate who could neither read or write, and perhaps of Jewish extraction, into power in 1921 from the ranks of the Persian COSSACK BRIGADE.

2) Then the British removed him from power with Soviet help in 1941, and installed his son Reza Shah Pahlavi. Then the British reinstalled him again using the Americans in 1953.

3) Then the British removed him in 1979, and installed the mullahs, using the Americans again. Then the British removed the Americans from Iran with the takeover of the American embassy, giving them an exclusive say in Iranian affairs (52 hostages held for 444 days...correct?).......Almost all American covert ops have been easily compromised inside Iran, though of course in reality America has never been that keen on removing the mullahs from power in Iran.

SO IT IS THE BRITISH WHO SUSTAIN THE MULLAHS IN POWER IN IRAN, CLEARLY.

The French play some part also. If we recall the intensity of travel between Paris and Tehran, of prominent Iranian political figures between 1979--82........and maybe also the Germans.

Why do the British and Europeans like the mullahs? The mullahs have basic education, are stupid, easily manipulated and controlled. The mullahs suppress Iran's natural development and that from the British perspective is good (Competitive male envy). On the other hand an Iranian administration run by educated middle class people would be deemed a 'challenge' to British authority in Iran. To be sure much of the current Iranian cabinet are educated, Ahmedinejad has a "Ph.d" in traffic management and town planning, BUT Iranian democracy is a facade and Ahmedinejad is a mere theatrical front in the reality of the power structure in Iran, which is that a group of Mullahs behind the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei actually run Iran, making the key decisions, and behind them the British. That's it.

The tools of the mullah power are
VEVAK, with a staff of about 20,000 officially and a network of informers running into the millions (Stasi East Germany). The 125,000 Revolutionary Guard with the top officer echelon sharing the loot of the nation and some power with the mullahs, increasingly. Finally the sections of the urban poor, and rural population most of whom are not well educated but can be easily manipulated and mobilized by the mullahs using Shia Islamic symbolism and Iranian nationalism.

Threats both psychological and physical, loss of jobs, imprisonment and executions are the routine means by which the Mullahs backed by Britain maintain themselves in power illegally, against the wishes of the vast majority of Iranians. The so called assembly and Presidential elections are clearly rigged to ensure the desired candidates of the mullahs win.....candidates are vetted by the mullah run Guardian Council, which itself is controlled and checked by the Expediency Council, also run by the mullahs. Europe naturally likes to do business with mullah Iran, and is given a soft pass by the European media, and especially the UK media.

There are of course weaknesses in the mullah regime which Russia can utilize to overthrow the current regime in Iran.................this would constitute the second tier policy of Russia with Iran. The first tier policy is giving priority of selling and leasing of the full range of conventional arms to Iran in significant Saddam like quantities.............$50---100 billion over the next few years. the $800 million deal for the sale of 30 M1-Tor with 400 missiles might be good for defending one site in Iran, lets say protecting Bushehr, but if the JEWUSA with Israel want to target anything from 1500 to 2000 targets in Iran, primary military and secondary infrastructure, then that much publicized sale, with over inflated prices is worth nothing, and is ineffective gesture politics for both Russia and Iran.

So what are the weaknesses of the Iranian mullah state?

1) The mullahs are British installed puppets and most Iranians don't like them, especially now after 30 years. Maybe 70% of Iranians don't like them. The mullahs main supporters are the rural population and sections of the urban poor.

2) The mullahs have harmed and killed many innocent Iranians since their ascendancy into power with the help of the British. Not since the Mongol invasion in the 13th century have so many Iranians perished under foreign backed rule. between 2---4 million mostly educated middle class Iranians have in addition elected to live in foreign countries, in exile. Ordinary Iranians who live under and understand the illegitimacy of the mullahs and their threats of force in order to stay in power. Beyond the foreign media, ordinary Iranians understand that they essentially live in a theocratic dictatorship, and the elections of Iran both parliamentary and presidential have no value.....such things merely replaces one set of mullah approved puppets with another set of mullah puppets.

3) The Ordinary Iranians are ashamed and affronted by the routine revolutionary rhetoric of the mullahs which elevates Islamic culture over traditional Iranian values. The daily incantations of religious sacrifices, and other extreme manifestations of Shia Islam, as somehow the norm of the Iranian state....and the essence of the nation, deeply shames ordinary Iranians conscious of their Great nations history and culture.

4) The corruption of the ruling mullah elite, where many mullahs have become millionaires, and the transfer of huge amounts of Iran's assets into foreign accounts in London, Switzerland, the Gulf and other places......juxtaposed with the poverty of ordinary Iranians. Real living standards are now 61% of their 1979 levels for the average Iranian. Food prices are expensive, rent is expensive, fuel is expensive........more so now than before. The ruling mullah elite talk the language of religious observance and peity, but do not apply this rule to themselves.........ordinary Iranians understand and even see this fact before them in such places as Tehran, Ishfahan and the Gulf states.

5) The new generation of Iranians not born during the revolution, and who have no emotional attachment to that event. Their desire for reasonable careers and work, and a future where they can aspire to certain expectations as with many of their age around the world, and the reality and frustration of not meeting these expectations under the mullah Iran British backed system.

6) The bizzare economic system which the mullahs manage in Iran with state owned enterprises, numerous charities and other such uneconomic economic activity based on patronage, corruption and peculiar economic theories centered around the mullahs and their particular whims.

These are all weaknesses that Russia can exploit to remove the mullahs from power, and install a more reasonable administration which is an ally of Russia, and with whom Russia feels more comfortable to work with. Granted that Russia does not have a good track record of installing reasonable men in such countries to the South, in satellite states of the former Soviet Union, and one thinks of Chechnya and other such states where semi-gangster hardmen are preferable to sophisticated educated locals, but that Russia must appreciate that Iran is hardly Chechnya, with a population of 70 million, and a more sophisticated educated leader of the moderate persuasion must lead the country in any post mullah environment, inshallah.

That perhaps this is a better outcome for Iran, Russia, America and Israel, where conflict and the fear of conflict is avoided, with the possible instability in Southern Russia.


Hypocracy and neo-imperialist arrogance.

.
.
.
.

Its is the height of impertinence to inform India that she must withdraw troops from the Pakistan border first, to reduce tensions in the region so that Pakistan can continue fighting a fake war on behalf of America. India never moved substantial troops to the border of Pakistan in the first place after Mumbai 26/11, as stated by the head of the Indian army, and indeed it was Pakistan which actually moved some troops to the Indian border in anticipation of an Indian backlash. In all events India must maintain her vigilance against cross border insurgency, especially in Kashmir, and in addition heightened vigilance along the whole of the Indo-Pak border in light of the security situation in the region.

Its is the height of impertinence to inform India that she must withdraw troops from the Pakistan border first, and direct India as to what she must do with her defense strategy, and troop deployment when the country advising is in a fine royal mess in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place, strategically.

Its is the height of impertinence to inform India that she must withdraw troops from the Pakistan border first, to ease negative apprehensions on Pakistan's part, when America unofficially for free has been pouring $10 billion worth of arms into Pakistan since 2001, arms systems which are then directed against India.

Its is the height of impertinence to inform India that she must withdraw troops from the Pakistan border first, when America has been pouring in economic aid into Pakistan, some of which could then lead to further arms purchases by the Pakistan military. $15 billion for the next 10 years; $5 billion one off payment and $7.6 billion IMF loans, in addition to Gulf State loans unspecified.

Its is the height of impertinence to inform India that she must withdraw troops from the Pakistan border first, when America through the Pakistan military for the better part of 30 years or more has been encouraging the arming and funding of some very extreme radical fundamentalist Islamic groups, some of which operate against India, and the resultant death of up to 50,000 Kashmiris, and the huge cost of maintaining 500,000 security forces in Kashmir by India.

Its is the height of impertinence to inform India that she must withdraw troops from the Pakistan border first when the USA destabilizes Pakistan and replaces one USA puppet, Busharaf with another USA/UK puppet, Zardari whose well known sleazy background and less than one year in office performance leaves much to be desired. His ascendancy into power has allowed certain extremist elements in Pakistan to become very bold recently under a weak government in Islamabad, and which also subsequently concerns and impacts on India. India for better or for worse was happy with Musharaf, as at least under him India knew who was in charge in Pakistan and whom to hold to account. Zardari from India's perspective apprehends insecurity and uncertainty.

There is much hype and talk by the American media and the Anglophone media and "Bollywood" in India of a "strategic partnership" and a warming of friendship between India and the USA, beyond the fourth grade promise however of making India into a great power by the USA, in the substantive matters, briefly highlighted above where it counts its been quite the opposite with a flourish and a smile.

________________________________________



US asks India to pull back troops from Pak border


NDTV Correspondent

India has come under unexpected pressure from the US; NDTV has learnt that the Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon has been told that it's India, and not Pakistan that should make the first moves towards restoring peace.

The US has asked India to pullback troops from the Pakistan border.

Outraged, India has told US that Pakistan is responsible for tension between the two countries. India has also told the US that it hadn't deployed extra troops after the Mumbai attacks. Rather it was Pakistan which has sent thousands of troops.

However, India on Thursday also clarified the Mumbai terror attacks had nothing to do with its relationship with Pakistan.

But External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that India still believes terrorists used Pakistani soil and infrastructure in that country to launch the 26/11 attacks.

The reason for the latest US move is that President Barack Obama is gearing up to launch a bigger military offensive in Afghanistan.

For this, he needs more Pakistani troops to help along the volatile Afghan-Pakistan border, troops, which Islamabad moved to the Indian border.

It's obvious that America has its own compulsions at this point that have led it to put pressure on India in this manner.

Mar 19, 2009

A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step

.
.
.
.
Peace, For Now: Military Breaks Warring Politicians, Wait For The Next Crisis.

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

Let’s not pat ourselves on the back too much. The celebration and the sighs of relief must not eclipse a worrisome development: The massive, embarrassing and unprecedented failure of political leadership in Pakistan over the past couple of weeks. (The failure and loss resides only in one quarter, and that is Zardari's. Its all embarrassing if you are a Zardari supporter and you approve his style of "non-leadership")That failure was no small event. (Is the glass half full or half empty........I think the events of the past week were not a failure, but a success for ordinary Pakistanis....."People Power" so on)

The original sin of disturbing the Pakistani political process is born by the United States and Britain. The attempts at political manipulation by both countries as far back as 2006 have destabilized Pakistan. (since the creation of Pakistan infact----a couple of excellent female authors from Pakistan have written informative books about this foreign manipulation of Pakistan through mainly the military)

Their latest intervention was designed to protect their interests. Let’s celebrate the moment. (be careful how you arrange your sentences, the last two sentences preceding my comment here make it sound as if Pakistanis should celebrate the fact that Western interest for the moment have not been harmed by the events of the last few weeks..............which I am sure, barring a secret account in a certain small country you did not mean to say. One hopes you are not yet another journo....in the official Pakistani media who has bought his position through selling his ezaat and country.........you realise, especially with the young you play an important pivotal role)

But let’s also take our politicians to task for their failed leadership. And let’s keep an eye on the next crisis. It is coming.


(Why only the politicians? Why not the little budding Napoleon wanabees in the Pakistani military............Make a list Ahmed, and list all the disasterous events in Pakistan's history, with who exactly was in power when such disasters occurred.........like a reality check, and no Abdus Salaam astro-physics challenge here)


—This is the first time that Pakistan’s military joined middle class Pakistanis in forcing change on the country’s closed club of elite politicians. (Lets rephrase that.............Sharif launched a political campaign despite threats---3/3/2009 Lahore---governors rule in the Punjab...etc, and Sharifs agitation had mass cross country support...........the Pakistan military and Zardari didn't want this confrontation so they accepted Sharif's position.......the Pak military didn't shuttle between Sharif and Zardari trying to settle the dispute, but quietly and correctly read the situation and popular mood in the country, and did the right thing for the sake of the military and of course for the country......but they certainly did not negotiate between the two parties)

This may not have been intentional. The recent failures by the political elite and the positive intervention for change by the middle class and the military represent a leap forward in Pakistani politics. This moment in our history must not pass unnoticed. (Yes this is a significant moment in Pakistani politics) The events of the last two weeks prove what many of us knew already: that this is a dangerously fragile political system made worse by the inability of its existing players to exhibit the full range of public administration skills and the imagination necessary to run a nation as complex and promising as Pakistan.

(Agreed that the current batch of Pakistani leaders are not perfect. Zardari is proving to be a disaster clearly and one hopes and doubts whether he will complete his full term as President. In previous blogposts in 2007 I criticised Sharif openly, and emphasised the need for tighter control by the Pakistani military under Musharaf. Because I thought the military brought stability and a certain degree of prosperity for Pakistan.......The Indians prefer to deal with the Pak military also, but I've been reflecting that perhaps this was a false illusion....and that the Pak military far from creating intervals of stability whilst in power were in fact creating very serious problems whilst in power which later manifest themselves negatively against Pakistan and the overall national interests. Simple example: The whole range of armed Islamic fundies backed by the Pakistan military since the 1970's in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh and India.....you reap what you sow..........Pakistan now is being called the most dangerous country on earth, and the Americans are talking of striking Quetta and other non-FATA parts, killing Pakistani civilians, destroying parts of Pakistan, whilst the PAKISTAN DEFENCE FORCES look on impotently..........who caused this situation Ahmed? Not Zardari or Sharif, but the Pakistan military.

Granted 2 innings Sharif is not perfect. There are obviously serious questions about him and his party with his brother and wife playing prominent roles in "his" party....with this overt banana republic bongo bongo arrangement, BUT a civilain politician is a civilian politician elected by the people, good or bad......if good a second term follows, a feat which no Pakistani politician has achived accepted ZA Bhutto. In fact most Pakistani civilian leaders have problems completing their first term, forget a second one.

Sharif if he gets into power will have to perform and deliver far better leadership than Zardari, otherwise there will be considerable anger against him, from the people, and he knows that........there are certain expectations from the people, which he alone has raised, and he simply when in power has to deliver. That said it means right now he has to pick a very effective team of managers, and future cabinet members who can effectively and successfuly govern Pakistan from within Pakistan................Bill Gates was asked once what he would do when he got older and if he were to lose his youthful enterprenial exuberance, with innovative ideas......he replied I'll just pick and surround myself with the best of the new generation of experts in this area to work for me......and that is what Sharif has to do, before he ascends power AGAIN for the third time, soon hopefully as Pakistan expects. The nation of 180 million people have plenty of talented professionals who have excellent technocractic abilities, well proven already in their field, and Sharif just has to pick them from the Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Baluchistan..........but not clearly his informal business buddies, and a cabinet of 55 pigs at the trough )


The failures of this political class are magnified by the success of the media, the civil society and the lawyers in achieving what was impossible for the politicians. These new players represent a majority of middle and lower class Pakistanis who historically have been prevented from playing their due role in public life by a closed hereditary political system consisting of powerful families and vested interests.

( Tamindars/Zamindars 500 families, no connection with Pakistan, and are where they are because of the British Raj originally.............most of their assets are abroad just in case 1948 India happens in Pakistan, and they send their children to exclusive schools and universities in the UK, and USA. 30 "Commercial families" basically the same, of which Sharif is part of ........so great to see the Middle class break that monoply, and bring greater geniune critical representative government to Pakistan....its a slow process............Sharif must choose a team which overwhelmingly represents and rewards this class)

But let’s not pat ourselves on the back too much. The celebration and the sighs of relief must not eclipse a worrisome development: The massive, embarrassing and unprecedented failure of political leadership in Pakistan over the past couple of weeks. That failure was no small event. It made our homeland the butt of international jokes. It forced other countries to intervene. It forced our military to intervene. The political failure ran across the board: an inept, dysfunctional government matched by an equally dysfunctional opposition where politicians led the nation to a dangerous impasse. Apart from paralyzing the nation, politicians pursued a series of vengeful, immature moves that pushed the country dangerously close to mutiny, destruction of public peace and a possible rift across ethnic lines.

(This is politics; Third World politics, but at least it was short a few weeks, and no great damage civilian and property wise)

We have hopefully resolved one crisis. But this is the lull that precedes the next one. Let’s not fool ourselves. Ours is a flawed political system that will continue to generate crises. The two top political offices of the country, the President and Prime Minister, will continue to be a source of friction and instability even when both belong to the same political party. Our political parties have ceased to be incubators of change and have regressed into ethnic, sectarian and religious politics. And once again, we’ve seen how a political crisis came close to igniting a confrontation between two provinces that could have taken an ugly turn. All of this calls for major changes in the political system before the next crisis results in permanent damage. The frustrating part is that not all of this change may be possible democratically. A failed political system won’t change itself. If the politicians can’t do it, the civil society should. And the military should break out of its traditional support for the feudal elite and help committed Pakistani citizens in bringing change.

(The military should not support any party in the country. They should be neutral. However at all cost the Middle class must overcome the ruling elite of the Zamindars/Tamindars and commercials......that I am in favor of....so your guessing correctly that we haven't seen the end of it yet......1) Sharif must be allowed to contest elections. 2) Governors rule of Punjab revoked. 3) The removal of Zardari, soon 4) New elections are called where Sharif wins, and forms a populist broad based team as stated before.)

Here the Pakistani military has a role. The recent crisis unintentionally proved the reality that the military is a positive force for stability and change in an unstable political system in transition. The military played a role in distorting the system through military coups. But the same military can also help in supporting the middle class Pakistani civil society in reforming the system, pretty much like the military did this time.

(Inshallah!............the vast majority of the 25,000 odd officers are mainly middle to lower middle class.....so they have a class interest. Kiyani is of lower middle class back ground....father NCO? )

Our ultimate goal here should be the type of political system and not how it comes (about). (Agreed.........more power to the people......liberal democracy that functions effectively being run by mainly talented educated people with the requisite skills in their field.........and governments that fulfill their full terms sucessfully)Pakistan needs a political system where political parties are democratized and party leaderships are rotated through internal ballot, where language- and sectarian-based politics are proscribed, and where the different districts of the country are made to get busy in local development instead of getting busy in mass national politics.

(Absolutely!!! not nepotism or a kleptocracy like Zardaris present government, where leaders are annointed to their position because of their name, or money muscle power. That political acumen and ability should be emphasised far more.........that is better for the long run. Electing criminal losers like Zardari was bad for the PPP, and for Pakistan.....nobody wins.)

Without this kind of change, the existing system will continue to generate crises and encourage foreign intervention. Here, it must be noted that the original sin of disturbing the Pakistani political process is borne by the United States and Britain. The attempts at political manipulation by both countries in Pakistan as far back as 2006 have destabilized Pakistan. Their latest intervention might have turned out to be positive but it was designed to protect their interests inside the Pakistani government.

(Correct!!!!! Zardari is their puppet as was Busharaf......but they thought they could control Pakistani affairs far more through Zardari..........they didn't count on the courage of the Pakistani people, and their level of tolerance of such foreign backed mischief against Pakistan, and their simple desire to live in a reasonably run nation, with leaders that put their interests first...

The British ran things in Pakistan between 1947----65, mainly through the officers of the Pakistani army, and senior officers who had served in the British run Indian army. Officers who had inherited a psychological and emotional soft spot for Bilaat. Since 1965, it is America which has played a greater role in Pakistani affairs.........as they started destabilising the Ayub Khan regime, for conducting a war against India using American arms, and not happy for being friendly with China at the initial stages 1963--65.......)


Let’s celebrate the moment. But let’s also take our politicians to task for their failed leadership. And let’s keep an eye on the next crisis. It is coming.

Mar 18, 2009

So what are the big issues.

.
.
.
.

Well in many ways they are quite apparent, and clear, and one only requires the courage to identify them as they really are. One doesn't have to be a super genius decoder, but rather just a little application of common sense on what one feels is right, or not quite right:

The Kashmir question

This 87,000 square meters area, which is not economically important and populated by a few million people (there is no emotional attachment for me to the Kashmir question), after 62 years has taken far too long and a bit too much energy from the productive capacities of India and Pakistan. Both nations have elevated the issue to such extreme levels that real flexibility on both sides has not been forth coming, but instead gesture politics and minutiae concessions of a bus link here, and road access there......but nothing substantive.

It is a shame that the land of Gandhi, the original one who gave us independence, the Buddha, Asoka, Kautilya and Akbar the Great cannot solve this simple problem, either through a "Grand bargain" which elevates beneficially and reinforces the respective leaders of each country
(with possibly Noble Peace prizes beckoning)........or incrementally, cautiously implementing policies which are irreversible which makes eventual peace inevitable in Kashmir, despite whatever is happening in the rest of South Asia. (In this case you find the points of mutual agreement and you push those, and sign up on those....then you build on that and move on to another issue) This gives the stallers, and saboteurs on both sides of the border, both internal and external less chance to throw a spanner in the works.

Emotionally, historically and aesthetically speaking I prefer the "Grand Bargain" option. The image of both leaders of India and Pakistan meeting in a military tent exactly on the border of Indian Kashmir/Azad Kashmir, and signing peace over Kashmir finally, hugging, shaking hands, after so many years will have a symbolic healing effect for the whole of South Asia. Historically it turns a new page.

This can be done. It is logical. One only needs to overcome the gross unimaginative lethargy of the Congress Party, and the negative interference of the Pakistan military, in the past.

____________________________________

Pakistan was created by the British to clip independent India's wings, to reduce its strength as a possible future power in Asia which could challenge British interests. The trumped up Muslim League established in Dhaka in 1905 with the urgings of Lord Curzon, a talking shop consisting mainly of Muslim aristo's totally loyal to the Raj, and against any talk of Indian independence and Gandhi's movement, disconnected from the Muslim masses mainly.(See post about Jinnah)

However, whilst the Muslim League was used as the tool by the British to create Pakistan, it is the Pakistan army that has been the main tool of control of Pakistan for the British, and later the Americans from 1951, and the passing of Laiqat Ali Khan. Training of certain key officers, personal patronage, substantial arms aid and person to person friendship of British/Pak senior officers mainly, with the British creation of the ISI in 1948 which have all been the avenues through which Britain and the USA exercised control over Pakistan, under military dictatorships and even during civilian rule.

However it is now 2009, and Pakistan is a failed state under the military's watch (1999---2008) with an unofficial population of 180 million people, and 400 million by 2050. The military realise that the old game cannot work for ever, and something new must be tried. Pakistan faces substantial internal security, social, political and economic problems which the Pak military with the best will in the world won't be able to solve by themselves. In addition in Afghanistan a foreign force is massing with the objective of occupying Pakistan, and securing Pakistan's nukes for Israel........something for which Pakistan militarily must prepare the nation.

The Pakistan military can wish for all the arms in the world, and the billions of military aid given free.....maybe unofficially $10 billion since 2001, which have all mostly gone into systems targetting India, and the Americans know it, as much as they know that "al-Qaeda" does not exist, and the Taliban are "controlled opposition" created in the insistence of the Clinton administration from 1994. The Pakistan military know that they can never capture, secure and hold the whole of Kashmir viably, as a nation with an economy one eigth of India. The Soviet Union by 1989 had 65,000 tanks, 55,000 APC's 30,000 artillery TOW, 8,500 frontline jet fighters, and 40,000 nuclear warheads, backed by a 700,000 strong KGB, the best intelligence service in the world in its time. BUT IT ALL COLLAPSED.........within a matter of a few years it went from being a totalitarian superpower to a divided disentigrated nation that in the 1990's became almost part of the Third World...........most of it is still Third World except Russia with its petro -dollars.

Pakistan's national strength does not just come from the military, but that there are other factors which contribute to making Pakistan finally successful. Such things as the economy, industry, finance, agriculture, art and culture, civil society and Democracy......................along this road to success for Pakistan, away from security question and the military center stage, of which decades after decades after decades have been tried and wasted, and which have resulted in the GREATEST CATASTROPIES in the nations history (I'm including Kargil as an operation not scantioned by Sharif)........Then therefore logically a new road must be tried to protect and safeguard Pakistan's future, and that road involves peace over Kashmir with India, and an FTA with India.

So in this critical light, to relieve Pakistan of its negative energies, legalising the LoC, and signing a comperhensive peace deal over Kashmir is absolutely logical, and urgent. Then the Pak military can focus on the Western border, and civilian politicians can get on with the business of sorting out Pakistan's internal problems.

In my opinion a comprehensive FTA between Pakistan and India before the peace deal, something that is less contentious should be entertained as an initial step to the main objective. One agreement reinforces the other.

As to India, the Civilian politicians are very mediocre, corrupt, slow and in the case of some working for foreign intelligence as Mir Jafars. BUT at least India is a fully functioning democracy, and India unlike Pakistan does not initiate wars against her neighbors, and subsequently lose them humiliatingly, one after the other, and still not get it who is manipulating who. The Indian politicians for all their faults are more responsive to the needs of the ordinary Indian in comparison to the Pakistani military and ordinary Pakistanis.

So we must seek peace between India and Pakistan over Kashmir through civilian governments with popular mandates in both countries. Zardari is a puppet of the USA/UK, and he has been ordered by his foreign masters not to visit India, and he obediently has not. So we must look else where for movement in this area.




Mar 16, 2009

BND und ich.

.
.
.
I landed in Munich Germany without any money, only the clothes on my back, and started wondering the City, after I left the UK in 2002 and Greece in march of 2003. I eventually found some Bangladeshis who very generously offered me lodging, and food. I soon found some work washing dishes at restaurants, and then I enrolled on a German language course.

The Polizei harassment began almost immediately, both physical and psychological with the intelligence present in the background in civilian clothing, wondering around strutting about posing, with a variety of expressions, as if observing some exhibition or game. Most possibly my secret service MI-5 files were passed on to the BND, based in Parlach near Munich, and British advisers from MI-5 most certainly also came over and "trained" them in the British techniques of torture and psychological ops. What I experienced was not that different from what I experienced in the UK, though being gassed was very ironical in Germany, MUNICH.

In addition in the course of my 25 months there, I was stopped 5 different times, and checked for my I.D by the Polizei. There were also mock road blocks by police on bus lines I used..........I say mock road blocks because no actual searches were conducted by the inspecting police; just a show of power.The most dramatic incident however with the Polizei took place at a church.

I was determined to work whilst in Germany, and had not taken any state benefit for a full 15 months and was determined to sustain myself. For me in terms of self dignity and self worth this was important....to be useful to others and to one self......However sometimes it does not quite work out like that, and by May and June of 2005 I was without any money, and literally starving (I went a whole week without food in the richest city in Germany, another irony). So desperate I turned to a social welfare organization for foreigners who advised me that I could get free meals at a church.

I went to the church, self conscious and embarrassed, and joined the queue for food. Mid way through my food, the Polizei arrived and ushered me into their car. Apparently I had been involved in some kind of violence. The young officer who spoke perfect English apologized in terms of his expression, and explained that this is what he had to do.....kind of like following orders. He shrugged his shoulders, and remonstrated with his hand in an Italian like fashion. So there I was on the Volkswagen polo, and as soon as I arrived at the Polizei station a senior police officer said I could go, no questions asked, answered or any follow up. Needless to say I never went back to that church again for food, but found another alternative church where finally I could eat without any problems. My conclusions were that this was "Marienplatz Polizei", and Marienplatz is a place where Jews have their synagogue and congregate, and I assumed the Polizei were behaving in a "Juden Polizei" way when he said, "sorry we are following orders".


In my last 10 months there I lived on state benefit for a considerable period of time, in private rented accommodation paid for by the state. However, although my basic needs were provided for by the state, I could not live in such conditions for ever. I had to find productive work and build a career, and so I applied to some places to teach English. But the job situation even in Munich was bad, and as a result I started thinking about moving out of Germany all together. I had consistently made an effort to establish a career in law, and after 10 years of effort, time and money when I saw no hope in this area, I decided to move on and pursue another equally respectable career, teaching English as second language.

It was a respectable profession. Most of my family were teachers, and you can live, travel, and see many countries with such an occupation. Otherwise in Germany I also was at the receiving end of harassment and at times it was quite quite painful…….(the aura of Nazi Germany had not quite disappeared) They really went for it at times, especially if my writing displeased them. I was writing and faxing my personal ideas to an American source on a variety of political subjects, and other areas. They were using gas and micro-wave to torture and of course the usual psy-ops. My understanding was that in Germany I would never be allowed a regular job, and the best I could hope for was washing dishes, if that (the general environment of washing dishes was so hostile that I didn't last very long in the jobs). In addition the general tenor of the German security was disrespectful….belittling of me as a person in what were often tough times for me in that city.

Since April 2005, after leaving Germany the BND have been following me around the world and continuing with the harassment using the locals. I have no connection with Germany, nothing. My stay with Germany was by accident, as I had plans of working in another country but couldn't. Thus whilst being constructive, I never picked up the German language and bothered to learn it, or develop any friends whilst there. There was no emotional attachment to the country, and the negative treatment did not help matters.

However the BND has shown considerable dog like interest in me. In fact a bit too much interest. Now I could understand this if I was writing quite a lot about Germany, politically, or belonged to a certain political party in Germany but of course the pure truth is that such things don't apply to me. Presumably its not about eggs whatever symbolically that may hold for them..........this is not the BND's area or concern anyway. My only conclusion, in the absence of clear answers is taking the "Juden Polizei" analogy and that the BND is "performing" for the Jew. That since 1945, the German nation has been infused with huge amounts of guilt of the Holocaust, and that as part of the repayment of this Holocaust crime Germany must pay the Jew reparations and debts.

Again its not my problem, and not my concern what self inflicted guilt and punishments the German nation imposes on itself....its their choice. I do however have a problem if the Jew uses the German state apparatus to get at me for some ill-defined unlawful reason. And that in the course of serving the Jew agenda the BND break the law in the course of harassing me, whilst encouraging others to do so along the way.

___________________________________________

Jew codes and their dogs

Germany. Code Number 3. Probably working for European Jewry.................objective is destruction and finished in Switzerland. Switzerland and Zurich is the financial center of Jew money in Europe......and therefore from a ritualistic Jew perspectives the most appropriate place.

South Korea. Code number 3...........working for New York Jews. Dogs, T-shirts, and books are the other symbolic codes

Japan. Code number 7/11/24 ..........working for the London Jew.

London Jew. Code number 5................put in a oil drum with spent nuclear fuel, and sent to the bottom of the North Sea.

The dogs who are playing these Jew games are few, and from security. They are not representative of the overall people in those countries. Though it doesn't stop these dogs from waving the flag in the name of illegality. Most Germans are good honest people; Most Koreans are good honest people; most Japanese are good honest people, and finally most people in the UK are good honest people, as stated from personal experience and time in these countries.

________________________________________

What is it all about?

Male ego, male envy, simple racism......because if I was an ethnic English I would not be going through this.

Covering all these human foibles and exploiting the competing emotions is the Jew with his own set of agenda's.

The Jew constitutes only 0.2 % of the world population. And yet his local rabbi has told them that the earth his theirs to inherit, as the "chosen people". But how do you inherit the earth, if you are only 0.2% of the world population..........simple you create competition between groups and get them to destroy each other, and after the destruction you step in and take control. Pure and simple.

example?

German Nazism (funded by Jewish Bankers)

VERSES

The Soviet Union (funded by Jewish bankers)

10 million Germans killed 1940---47.

60 million Soviets killed 1918---1991.

Germany is now totally run by Jews, and that is speaking from personal experience.

Most of the key former Soviet Union states are run by Jews (Ukraine Russia), and again speaking from personal experience. So good are the Jews in Russia, that that country will cease to exist in 60-70 years.

So where do I come into all this?

Imagine that as a Jew on the serious business of taking over the world, hatch schemes which take many decades and careful planning to take shape, with not an inconsiderable financial investment in such schemes in addition. Take Hitler for example (see previous posts), it is alleged he was identified by the Jews in Germany as a future tool of their schemes as early as 1919 (full 20 years before WWII), whilst still others maintain that he was identified and propagated by the Jews even earlier........then all that careful grooming, and finance to achieve his objective, which was to launch a genocidal war against the Soviet people, whilst simultaneously destroying Germany in the process.

How can I say this without being egotistical.

What if through my "unique" experiences in life, to an extent by considerable education, and the chance company of certain good peoples opinions (mainly in the UK), I am able to decipher the schemes code shall we say if not of the world, then at least for South Asia, the area that I was born in and originally come from, and to which I have certain emotional attachments, naturally.

And this ......."skill" for some Jews with big ideas is too much, too too much, for have not their local rabbi since they were children promised them the earth? And hence the bizarre illegal antics and surveillance around me, since 1985.

Better late than never.

.
.
.
.
Finally we have a security expert from India, possibly ex-RAW who acknowledges the reality of the power structure in Pakistan. So lets bring out the champagne bottle!!!! Its no good writing years and years about a country unless and until you have identified the REAL power behind the throne.................otherwise all your security assumptions and analysis is just "pissing in the wind".

Since the creation of Pakistan, Britain was the main power of influence, well into the 1950's. Britain helped create the ISI in 1948, and most promising officers recruited in Kakul, about 5 every year were sent to Sandhurst for further training that gave the British considerable leverage over the Pakistani military. Finally close friendship between senior British officers and their Pakistani counterparts........General Walker/Zia ul Haq.......Sir Charles Guthrie/Musharaf......these personal touches which most analyists don't notice are an important avenue through which a foreign power, as an informal friend can leverage considerable influence in Third World militaries.

From the 1960's the Americans with their huge arms aid, and economic aid replaced the influence of the British to a certain degree within the Pakistan military ($4 billion worth of aid 1954--69)..........But this may seem deceptive, even after this period the British with just a handful of senior British officers continued to exert considerable influence. Some alternative writers such as Peter Goodgame have suggested that the Mujaheddin of the 1980's idea in Afghanistan was more closely linked to the British then to the Americans.

So Kapila Sahib 50% right, and great to see FOR THE FIRST TIME an Indian security expert identifying correctly the real power structure in Pakistan. But don't forget the British. Remember a lot of people "advised" Zardari this week including the British. They have a role in Pakistan, no less, and Zardari was brought to power by both the USA/UK, since they assumed they could through him control Pakistani affairs, and its nukes more directly.

Then from a security perspective of South Asia we can look at the Taliban, "al-Qaeda" and the Kashmiri insurgency/terrorism in a new light................this is from an Indian security evaluation/ formulating a "nirvana".

________________________________________

By Dr. Subash Kapila at SAAG.

Concluding Observations

The United States has for more than 60 years stood on the wrong side of history in Pakistan. Its support of Pakistan’s military regimes and civilian dictators has brought about a cumulative effect where Pakistan’s very existence as a nation-state has been made fragile and where anti-Americanism is the predominant mood in the masses.

Commencing in March 2007 and repeated now in March 2009, the massive turnout of Pakistanis on the streets in protest demonstrations is a reminder that they demand a complete transformation of Pakistan’s governance and political set up. Pakistanis predominantly want unadulterated democracy, human rights and liberal political institutions.

For the United States it is a major and critical policy dilemma as to whether it has the will to forsake the Pakistan Army as its instrument to further its strategic interests in South Asia and foster uninhibited democracy in Pakistan. It has yet to give any indications to this effect.

A delicate and serious situation.






.
.
.
.
Preliminary reports of the BDR mutiny and massacre of 25/2 point towards outside involvement, namely Pakistan's ISI working out of the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka to sabotage the judicial process in Bangladesh which is going to investigate and prosecute former Pakistani military personnel along with their local Bangladeshi collaborators in relation to the genocide in East Pakistan in 1971 during the Bangladesh Liberation War (Case that may even be referred to the International Criminal Court of Justice at the Hague).

If true this is indeed very serious, very serious indeed.

Obviously the parallel military and civilian investigations need to proceed at their own pace, and interim reports published from time to time to keep the public informed of developments. When the reports are finished copies should be circulated to all SAARC member countries, and especially India and Pakistan.

If there is a general consensus that Pakistan's military through the ISI was involved, and there is sufficient apprehension that other attempts might be made by the same people using their local contacts again, then perhaps for pure self interest reasons, the present government should think about:

(1) Closing the Pakistan High Commission in Bangladesh, including Consulates, indefinitely.

(2) Closely monitoring all institutions in Bangladesh which have close linkages with Pakistan.

(3) Review ALL military and security linkages that officially and unofficially exist between Pakistan and Bangladesh, ranging from exchange programs to arms transfers.......I know for a fact the Pakistanis dump a lot of their obsolete arms into Bangladesh as good will gestures, followed by advice and training.




This is a very very serious matter, especially in light of what Pakistan has done in Bangladesh before, in the countries history. That such elements of Pakistan should not be lightly let off, without being fully exposed to especially the whole of South Asia, and held to account. That Bangladesh should cease once and for to be a staging post for Pakistani military operations, within Bangladesh and against India, in especially the North East and ULFA. We need detailed reports of the who and how of the ISI in Bangladesh, and the same with their local Bangladeshi contacts.



I don't want to get into a numbers game. Officially it is stated 3 million Bangladeshis were killed by the actions of the Pakistan army in 1971, and perhaps 500,000 women raped. Whilst other Bangladeshis state that the real figure is much lower in the hundreds of thousands, and a good deal of the killing was done between pro and anti Pakistani Bangladeshi forces. Never the less, Bangladesh as a self respecting country must as duty to the nation, fully investigate that episode officially as a government, and opportion blame where it is due, and try the people who committed genocide in East Pakistan......we are talking of a only a few chauds from Pakistan working with their local chauds in East Pakistan. This is not about Pakistanis verse Bangladeshis.

A partial first step towards progress.

.
.
.
.

Well I suppose this is a kind of victory for the people of Pakistan, and people's power. And in addition it is good that this victory was achieved with minimal loss of life (nobody killed) , and no physical damage to the country, in a short time span of a few weeks between the declaration of Sharif's intention and the achievement of the result.

This is all good, shabash.


The Chief justices removed by Musharaf will be reinstated hopefully without any preconditions, whether overt or covert on their reappointment of positions which were rightly theirs in the first place. That the new Chief justice will not have to be grateful to any degree, in terms of his work and toeing the establishment line as he independently goes about his work of investigating corruption across the board, and other such serious matters that makes Pakistan a failed state banana republic.

So Zardari has relented under pressure from the USA, Pak army, his own party members and of course the actions of Nawaz Sharif, and the lawyers movement. In the MoU before elections last year he promised the Chief justice would be reinstated, but reneged on this promise to Nawaz Sharif after coming to power for a year until now.........so Zardari works under threats, and nothing else.........not reason..........or logic......or what is morally or constitutionally right for Pakistan...........the man was a small time gangster whom Benazir inexplicably married to begin with, and mass political movements seems to be the only provable tool which forces him to reconsider his most undesirable policies.

So will anything change for Pakistan overall now? Not really.............the reappointment of the Chief justice; the eligibility of the Sharif brothers to contest elections in 2013; the removal of Zardari's appointees in the Punjab will solve very little in terms of addressing the fundamental problems of Pakistan, namely Zardari, his gross corruption, surrounding himself with the "birds of a feather flock together" types, and naturally and most understandably his desire not to govern Pakistan seriously, but instead go off into foreign countries all too often (in light of the "situation" in Pakistan) to cement his private money laundering deals with his foreign criminal contacts, as the President of Pakistan..................with an ever bigger smile as the situation in Pakistan goes from bad to worse.

Zardari is the most obvious overt problem for Pakistan in the short term, as he has been in power for less than a year, and behind Zardari are the geniuses in the Pakistan military and their record of interference in politics since 1951, beginning with the assassination of Liaqat Ali Khan...........in fact the military are the bigger problem for Pakistan.........and behind them the USA/UK who back them, arm them, train them, finance them, and guide them with bright ideas, false information, and false egotistical based hopes----"you will get strategic depth against India if you use the Taliban to take over Afghanistan."

But OK lets take one thing at a time.

Zardari is going to be around for another 4 years if he serves his full term. In my humble opinion even a few more months of Zardari's rule will prove to be an unmitigated disaster for Pakistan, but the small time gangster was elected on apparently fair and transparent elections. So the Pakistani opposition can't through "peoples power revolution" again, legitimately unseat him, because that will defeat the very exercise and principle they want to up hold, namely a stable democratic system, where governments, Presidents and PM's change through the ballot box, and not through "Peoples power".....Further, what is to say if another more competent government comes to power, and that the same method of agitation can't be used against them.................the most clear and closest example being Bangladesh where the party out of power calls "Hartals"..........basically closes down the country for certain times of the year, and the consequent loss of a whopping 35% of national GDP production as result, in the bad old days.


The current concession of Zardari along Sharif's demands is a clear victory for Sharif, and a clear defeat for Zardari. Maybe Sharif can use this "victory" to go to the Pakistan parliament and organize a vote of no-confidence against Zardar's government, and then fresh elections might follow, which gives Sharif the chance to be elected sooner rather than 4 years later and show that he can as a civilian politician govern Pakistan effectively for once, with a military which overtly seems disinterested in getting involved in civilian affairs.

Let me repeat that Pakistan cannot handle 4 more years of Zardari' rule, and not even a few more months. Perhaps the great Pakistan Peoples Party with their long history might wish to reconsider selecting a more able leader other than Zardari, as the head of their party..........perhaps they will earnestly reflect that had they elected a more competent leader of the party, someone who was not so overtly corrupt and administratively incompetent, the whole of Pakistan united under his leadership and party, would NOW be celebrating the effective governance of the Pakistan's Peoples Party.

Nothing pays more to have an effective, non-corrupt leader of the party, over the greasy back door wheeler dealers.

On the other hand quite obviously in Pakistan's case, a nation can avoid the drama and circus of crisis upon crisis if they do not elect small time gangsters who have done prison time to lead and shoulder the heavy burden of being President of Pakistan at such a critical and challenging juncture in Pakistani politics.

________________________

Pakistan government agrees to reinstate judges

By NDTV.com correspondence.

It has been a huge victory for the people of Pakistan with Asif Ali Zardari-led government giving in to the demands of Nawaz Sharif. The government has agreed to reinstate all the judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary who was removed by the then president Pervez Musharraf.

Addressing the nation on Monday, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said," The Pakistan government has decided to reinstate the judges, including Iftikhar Chaudhary. The decision was taken in consultation with President Zardari."He also said that prohibitory orders under Section 144 have been lifted.

As the nation celebrated, Gilani said, "We will ask court to lift charges against the Sharif brothers and I invite Nawaz Sharif to work together on charter of democracy."He also said that all the lawyers and activists who were arrested will be released and the Chief Justice will take over on March 21.

Anticipating the developments, lawyers had gathered outside the deposed Chief Justice's residence in Islamabad celebrating and shouting slogans in his favour.Earlier, Gilani met President Zardari and Army chief General Kayani on Sunday night to discuss the situation.This comes a day after Nawaz Sharif defied house arrest and began leading the long march to Islamabad. Tens of thousands of people joined in, perhaps making President Zardari to reconsider the decision.