Category Archives: South Asia

Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, has been killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack at an election rally in the city of Rawalpindi. Continue reading →

Balochi nationals support the claim that the ruler of the Khanate of Balochistan, Mir Ahmad Yar Khan, was coerced by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the first governor-general of Pakistan, to sign the document of accession. Critics dispute such claims as unrealistic and contrary to popular support for Jinnah, as the Khan of Kalat ruled even after Jinnah’s death with the support of the government. However, the Khan was not an absolute monarch; he was required to act under the provisions of the Rawaj (the Baloch traditions). Continue reading →

This is not about Musharraf anymore. This is about clipping the wings of a strong Pakistani military, denying space for China in Pakistan, squashing the ISI, stirring ethnic unrest, and neutralizing Pakistan’s nuclear program. The first shot in this plan was fired in Pakistan’s Balochistan provincein 2004. The last bullet will be toppling Musharraf, sidelining the military and installing a pliant government in Islamabad. Musharraf shares the blame for letting things come this far. But he is also punching holes in Washington’s game plan. Continue reading →

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Since taking power in 1999 and appointing himself President in June, 2001, Musharraf engaged in a precarious balancing act and ruled repressively. He tried to secure Pakistan’s traditional geopolitical and strategic South and Central Asian interests. In addition, he supported the domestic Islamic fundamentalist right against traditional political elites and popular opposition from below. He also aimed to please Washington post-9/11 under threat of being declared a hostile power if he didn’t and was summarily told by Deputy Secretary of State Armitage his punishment would be “to be bombed back to the stone age.” To avoid that, he stopped supporting the Taliban and provided the Bush administration vital logistical help in its attack and occupation of Afghanistan. Continue reading →

I think the New York Times has this one right. “For more than five months the United States has been trying to orchestrate a political transition in Pakistan that would manage to somehow keep Gen. Pervez Musharraf in power without making a mockery of President Bush’s promotion of democracy in the Muslim world. On Saturday, those carefully laid plans fell apart spectacularly.”

Not since Hamas’ dramatic victory in the Palestinian elections has the disconnect between Bush’s democratic rhetoric and reality of U.S. policy been so starkly exposed. In the former case, Washington responded to democracy with rejection, and support for the Fatah coup. How will it respond to Musharraf’s assault on the fading façade of incipient Pakistani democracy? Continue reading →

For anyone marinated in the history of Pakistan yesterday’s decision by the military to impose a State of Emergency will hardly comes as a surprise. Martial Law in this country has become an antibiotic: in order to obtain the same results one has to keep doubling the doses. What has taken place is a coup within a coup.

Post also includes other articles and video report from Al Jazeera. Updated daily

Latest….
Jemima Khan joins Pakistan protests in London
Imran Khan on hunger strike
Pakistan court throws out Musharraf challenges
The U.S. Game Plan in Pakistan
US military strike on Pakistan advocated Continue reading →

Musharraf has stated that if he wins the election, he will step down as the Chief of the Army and if not he will remain as head of the army. So the result of this election pledge is that whatever happens Pakistan will continue having Musharraf in power in some form or the other, whether as President or Chief of the Army and regardless American influence will be further entrenched. Continue reading →