Baithak - A place where Pakistani Bloggers get United.
BUSH already has; Obama says he will; Hillary Clinton said she would; Palin thinks she absolutely should; and McCain probably will but won’t talk about it.Launch raids in Fata on ‘actionable intelligence’ to capture or kill high-value terrorist targets, that is.The debate is as old as the war in Afghanistan; however, it was given a […]
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BEFITTING a nation suffering from many ills, there are many soothsayers and would-be healers here. They have grand ideas for saving us that are rooted in familiar ideologies and idylls. The benevolent dictator, the malevolent avenger, the puritanical priest, the altruistic populist, the self-interested capitalist. I’m a wary incrementalist.The surest way to arouse my suspicion […]
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THE day Asif Zardari was supposed to make one speech, he ended up making three. Well, he only meant to make two, but he made three. This isn’t statecraft; it’s the blind leading the lame leading the deaf.The ‘second speech’ fiasco is being blamed on that political appointee at PTV, Shahid Masood. Here’s […]
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ASIF is batting on two strikes. Another swing and a miss, and he’s going home. The first strike was the bizarre, abortive handover of the ISI to Rehman Malik.The second was Kayani’s rebuke the day after Asif was sworn in as president. Ostensibly Kayani’s condemnation was of the Americans, but between the lines was the […]
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I APOLOGISE. I lied. I don’t believe it’s a question of if but when and who will stick the knife in whom first. Asif and Nawaz will not be able to make this arrangement last five years. I don’t know when and I don’t know how but I do know it won’t work.If […]
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By Baithak.Net
IT’S Asif’s transition now. While the compact with Nawaz lasted it was hard to sort out which ideas belonged to whom and who wanted what in the transition to democracy. But with Nawaz gone there’s no doubt about who is conducting the choir now — and he will own whatever it produces, discordant or otherwise.The […]
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COMING soon to a television near you: President Zardari. You could almost hear the gasps and cries and shrieks across the country when Raza Rabbani made the announcement.From playboy to first husband to public enemy to regent to president — Asif’s journey confounds even those who thought they had seen it all.The friends […]
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NOW that he’s gone, his legacy will be debated. As the hysteria subsides and the political pantomime of heroes and villains takes a brief hiatus, the question many will have is: what did Musharraf mean for Pakistan? The answer: it depends and it’s relative.It depends on what is good for Pakistan. Democracy? Then the general […]
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REVENGE can be sweet, but not if it is someone else’s. Asif is learning that lesson the hard way. He thought inheriting the country’s largest political party made him one of the big boys. His perma-grin suggested he had a plan to save the day. Turns out he didn’t.In fact Asif is nothing more than […]
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Every so often an optimist pipes up, “Pakistan isn’t all that bad.” It is. Forget politics, militancy and the economy for a moment; this is still a wretched place.By any measure, by any test Pakistan fails to provide its citizens a healthy, modern, varied life.Thank God for women. Chicago, the Broadway musical and Hollywood hit, […]
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“Whenever you see a deluge of stories in the media quoting government or intelligence officials, it’s always worth asking why those unnamed officials have chosen this particular moment to speak out. The accusations against the ISI — denied by Pakistan — are not new.“So I come back to my original question. Why turn on them now?“There […]
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FOR a few short hours the ISI had a new boss: Rehman Malik. Yes, the hyper-powerful, state-within-a-state, doer-of-all-things-bad-and-evil, Taliban-loving, government-slaying, election-rigging, tool-of-the-establishment ISI was going to report to a civilian, unelected adviser to a lame duck prime minister.So confident were Messrs Gilani and Malik of the scheme that they scampered out of the […]
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THE transition to a more democratic system is in peril. A triple crisis of politics, militancy and the economy is the battering ram at the door of Pakistan’s government. Each limb of the crisis is feeding off and compounding the other.While the vultures may be circling, the victim, the government, is prostrate and making it […]
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It is more than a little odd that a crisis with roots in American home mortgage abuses has led to Pakistanis losing life savings. In some cases, the lost savings could not have financed one month’s payment on some of the crazy mortgages offered to subprime borrowers in the United States.
Aren’t globally linked markets wonderful?
(New […]
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Brian Cloughley, author of A History of the Pakistan Army writes:
I had hoped that Senator Obama - young, intelligent, seemingly forthright, in tune with the modern age - would be elected. But on reading his recent speech I am in despair on many accounts, and particularly concerning his proposed policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
If he […]
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HOPE is this nation’s enemy. If it wasn’t for hope and its distant cousin, inshallah, Pakistan would be a very different country today — a better, more agreeable land.
Why, you ask? How Scrooge-like to turn on hope? The trouble with hope is that it delegates, leaving the real, hard work of getting things done to […]
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The precise location of a Pakistani border post that was destroyed by American airstrikes last month, killing 11 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers, was not in an American database used to prevent accidental attacks on friendly forces, an investigation into the episode has concluded.Had the coordinates of the remote outpost been logged into the database, it would […]
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The mountain of white marble shines with such brilliance in the sun it looks like snow. For four years, the quarry beneath it lay dormant, its riches captive to tribal squabbles and government ineptitude in this corner of Pakistan’s tribal areas. But in April, the Taliban appeared and imposed a firm hand. They […]
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American military and intelligence officials say there has been an increase in recent months in the number of foreign fighters who have traveled to Pakistan’s tribal areas to join with militants there.The flow may reflect a change that is making Pakistan, not Iraq, the preferred destination for some Sunni extremists from the Middle East, North […]
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By Baithak.Net
The mountain of white marble shines with such brilliance in the sun it looks like snow. For four years, the quarry beneath it lay dormant, its riches captive to tribal squabbles and government ineptitude in this corner of Pakistan’s tribal areas. But in April, the Taliban appeared and imposed a firm hand. They […]
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The ministry of commerce cares about your health. Or, more precisely, it is worried that pollution will affect your health. So in its bid to save Pakistanis from the scourge of vehicular pollution, it has blocked the import of mobile hospitals by Edhi. The ministry, in its infinite wisdom, has done this despite the fact […]
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American military and intelligence officials say there has been an increase in recent months in the number of foreign fighters who have traveled to Pakistan’s tribal areas to join with militants there.The flow may reflect a change that is making Pakistan, not Iraq, the preferred destination for some Sunni extremists from the Middle East, North […]
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BOYS will be boys, but grown men need to stop acting like brats. Nawaz Sharif and Dr A.Q. Khan can’t believe they aren’t getting their way, so they are chucking all their toys out of their prams.The trouble for the rest of us is that they have grown-up toys such as governments and nuclear secrets.Take […]
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LET the Americans bomb us. In Fata, northern Pakistan, wherever they think militants are hiding with their predators, supersonic bombers and helicopter gunships. Let them pummel militant hideouts and sanctuaries until they have fired their last cruise missile and bunker buster.This was the recommendation of a retired bureaucrat and scholar with an encyclopaedic knowledge of […]
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Riding with the paramilitary convoys was Haji Namdar, the chief of the self-proclaimed pro-Taliban organization Amal Bil Maroof Nahi Anil Munkir that is based in Khyber Agency. His presence was meant to be a secret as his organization was supposed to be one of the targets of the operation.He was taken along […]
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By Baithak.Net
POLITICS 101: compromise good; confrontation bad. It’s a lesson our democracy brigade refuses to learn. The complaint that the long march should have achieved something more is really code for wanting to give the government a black eye.If a frenzy had been whipped up on Parade Avenue, parliament had been stormed and the damn politicians […]
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Ex-army chief, Mirza Aslam Beg, the keeper of many national secrets and one of the most influential generals between the mid-80s and the early 90s, puts forth a surprisingly straight forward assessment of the establishment’s view on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. Some facts will be disputed, other statements will make people raise an eyebrow, but it […]
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THE Asif-Musharraf axis has won; the warrior judge has lost; and the black coat will not go down in history as a symbol of revolution. The transition is back on, and the country is better off for it.We now know how the judicial crisis will end: the PCO judges will stay; Chief Justice (CJ) […]
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By Baithak.Net
THE summer blockbuster is here. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and Aitzaz Ahsan are on a mission to bring President Musharraf to justice. Barnstorming the country, the dynamic duo wants a climactic showdown in the shadow of parliament. Over in his fortress Musharraf is defiant, ready to grind out a Pyrrhic victory if that’s what it […]
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By Baithak.Net
WANT political paralysis? Then try a game of ‘will-he-or-won’t-he’. First, pick your option: sack the president; replace the army chief; amend the constitution; impeach the president; restore the judges; break the coalition; dissolve parliament; declare martial law; or spill state secrets. Then pair your choice with one of these men: Asif, Nawaz, Musharraf, Kayani, A.Q. […]
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By Baithak.Net
The Miama Herald carries an interesting piece on the Kalasha - a pagan community of 3,000 up in Chitral. Their culture is dying and their lifestyle under threat from development and creeping Islamism in the region (Swat is nearby).Here is something Pakistan must fight to help survive.
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Pakistan has just moved to daylight saving time, the first country in South Asia to try this to stave off a crippling energy shortage. But will it work ? Or will it make life a bit more difficult for people travelling across South Asia where most countries have their own national clocks, sometimes minutes apart, […]
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In April, on the highway outside the little Punjabi town of Renala Khurd, Aitzaz Ahsan was waylaid by a crowd of seemingly deranged lawyers. The advocates, who wore black suits, white shirts and black ties, were not actually insane; they just seemed that way because they were so overcome with excitement at greeting the mastermind […]
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AT noon on Jan 20, 2009, George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, will cease to hold office. In reality, the Bush era is already over, swallowed up by the unfolding drama of an historic presidential election season.However, good or bad, scorned or embraced, Bush has been consequential to the US and […]
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By Baithak.Net
THE man who would have been ameer-ul-momineen thought he had become kingmaker. It turns out that Nawaz is the court jester, a punching bag for the amusement of Asif and Musharraf.The era of post-politics is over before it began. The international community is tut-tutting, our homegrown democrats are beating their chests and everyone is a […]
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GO east, says the foreign minister. A stronger presence there will boost trade and investment. Yes, but don’t forget about the west would have been the parting advice of the petroleum minister. Unlike that other PPP–PML-N dispute, the Janus-like coalition approach to matters economic was in fact welcome.The reason is that another skeleton is set […]
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‘Forgive us our trespasses’ By Cyril AlmeidaPITY the judges. For decades, they were scorned for not standing up to military dictators. But when they finally decide to take on a weakened autocrat, the politicians turn on them for trying to chuck him out.It’s now official: Iftikhar Chaudhry, the people’s hero, is the establishment’s bugaboo. Asif […]
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IF you nurtured a nest of snakes in your backyard, would you be surprised if the snakes slipped through the fence or underneath the doors and bit your neighbours and friends? Apparently, if you were one of this country’s foreign policy mandarins, you would be.As the resident sponsor of jihad in South Asia for nearly […]
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Justice Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon of the Lahore High Court Tuesday allowed a girl from Faisalabad to undergo gender reassignment (sex change) surgery.Naureen Aslam sought legal protection for her surgery as the doctors had refused to perform an operation after an already widely reported case in the recent past pertaining to gender transformation of a girl, […]
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Salahuddin Amin’s account‘I felt as if my skin was ripping’In an account that Salahuddin Amin has written of his 10 months as a prisoner of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, he describes how his first three days were spent in a cell with a small camera in the corner of the ceiling. The light was kept […]
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Haji Namdar is not a name familiar to most Pakistanis. He’s a trader and al-Qaeda/Taliban facilitator in the Khyber Agency. Or at least that’s what al-Qaeda/Taliban thought. Turns out that for $150,000 the Americans were able to turn Namdar and thwart the centre-piece of the militants war strategy this spring.Read all about it here.
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THE holy grail of civilian supremacy is control of the country’s nuclear programme, a sphere of national policy so secret that no prime minister since Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has had any input of substance.That is why Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s statement that he is satisfied with the command and control […]
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What do a New York apartment, feng shui, a plane crash and a household Pakistani name have in common? Click here to read the story in The Wag.Thanks to Amina Jillani for the link.
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The US has promised to curb air strikes by drones against suspected militants in Pakistan, as part of a joint counter-terrorism strategy agreed with the new civilian government in Islamabad, the Guardian has learned. That strategy will be supported by an aid package potentially worth more than $7bn (£3.55bn), which is due to go before […]
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Contrary to the PM’s vows of austerity, a Federal Minister, immediately after taking charge of his portfolio, ordered to renovate his office as in his view it was below his standard and grandeur, sources told The Nation here on Monday.Sources told that the Minister for Labour, Manpower & Overseas Pakistanis, Syed Khurshid Shah, was not […]
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Providing details of the amount spent on luxuries by former Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi, Khosa said an additional amount of Rs 119 million was spent on furnishing the building, spread over an area of 17.5 kanals.He said the pool of VVVIP vehicles consisted of 16 cars, including nine bullet-proof vehicles. “The bullet-proof vehicles were purchased […]
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The Prime Minister’s promise of ending VIP culture, which he made on the floor of the National Assembly soon after taking oath, is being put to test by his close associates in the party as well those closely working with him in the government.One such party senior member was recently elected to a responsible public […]
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Pakistan’s reluctance to make a full commitment to intelligence-sharing raises a number of difficult questions: Is the ISI still cooperating with or even aiding the Afghan Taliban? Do the military and the intelligence services operate outside of political control? Is it possible to collaborate with the Taliban and not the Taliban’s allies, al-Qaeda? Why do […]
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Independent analysts say Zardari has Sharif’s buy-in to ditch Chaudhry and the issue won’t break the coalition. But Sharif won’t say so publicly as he has to manage dissent in the PML-N.Both Zardari and Sharif spent time in jail under Musharraf and understand the need for Pakistan’s political class to wrest control from a state […]
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Hamid Nawaz Khan, retired general and caretaker minister of the interior, correctly frames the issue of peace talks with militants:Public sentiment now is for seeking peace with the terrorists. Seeking peace is a very noble aspiration indeed. It is even nobler when the strong side is keen to look for it. But, is it peace […]
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