Category Archives: Pakistan

IN THE RAPIDLY UNFOLDING CRISIS IN Pakistan, no matter what happens to President Pervez Musharraf – whether he survives politically or not – he is a lame duck. Continue reading →

The fallout of the 1980s Afghan War on both Afghanistan and Pakistan was devastating. Pakistan teemed with drugs and arms, and a nasty ethnic war ensued between the indigenous people and the migrants who’d settled in Pakistan after the partition of India. General Zia introduced Sharia’a, Islamic law. Our history books were rewritten, scientific inquiry stifled, artistic expression censored, and the right to theological debate completely eradicated. An amended, draconian version of the Blasphemy Law, first introduced by the British in the nineteenth century, was now passed by ordinance, as were other laws that still exist today, such as the infamous Hudood Laws that target women.

And all of it was happening under the tutelage of American Democracy. Continue reading →

The military regime suffers from a crisis of credibility. Islamic militants of all hues remain powerful in many parts of the country. They frequently show their destructive prowess within Pakistan as well as in Afghanistan. Doubters like Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and think tanks like the International Crisis Group believe that the Musharraf government is, at best, ambiguous and ambivalent in its approach and a reluctant partner in the war on Islamic extremism. At worst, they accuse the military government of allowing the Taliban, al-Qaida, and other militant groups to “regroup, reorganize, and rearm” themselves. Continue reading →

“The intelligence director told me that (Mr Armitage) said, ‘Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age,'” Mr Musharraf said. Continue reading →