The dangers of new provinces

The parliament  approved the 18th Amendment, but it has inadvertently opened a Pandora’s box of issues; one of which is the creation of new provinces in the country. After a new debate over the issue was initiated, major political forces all clamoured in favour of new provinces, each toting their own agenda. To say nothing of the Seraiki belt or Hazara, even cities and areas like Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Malakand, Bannu, Hyderabad, Karachi, Loralai and Gwadar would vote with huge majorities for being made capital cities of new provinces. Would such a decision be acceptable to the country?

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MORE PROVINCES WOULD INEVITABLY DEEPEN AND AGGRAVATE THE EXISTING TENSIONS

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by Rustam Shah Mohmand

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 In a country with massive illiteracy coupled, with virtual non-existence of institutions, it is easy to camouflage motives, dodge the electorate, divert attention from the pressing issues of security, lawlessness and economic deprivation, and the daily humiliations that the vast majority of Pakistanis have to endure. The electorate, in a display of disregard for candidates’ moral credentials, voted the same politicians into office who were even proved to have produced fake degrees for meeting the eligibility criterion for running for Assemblies.

In such a situation if reference is made to the people of a particular area or region, seeking their views on the creation of a new province for them, there would be an overwhelming positive response to the proposal. 

To say nothing of the Seraiki belt or Hazara, even cities and areas like Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Malakand, Bannu, Hyderabad, Karachi, Loralai and Gwadar would vote with huge majorities for being made capital cities of new provinces. Would such a decision be acceptable to the country?

Pakistan-Afghanistan: Washington’s managed chaos backfires [Viewpoint Russia] 2 of 2

President Putin was the first foreign head of state after 9/11 to convey his sincere condolences to President Bush, for the skeptical Soviet veterans of the CIA Ghost War in Afghanistan, it took a suspension of disbelief to consider Al-Qaeda, the OGA’s favorite jihadist outfit in the days of yore, as the main and only perpetrator of this heinous crime against the American people. Without a smoking gun, the official storyline about the true cause of the 9/11 disaster was inconclusive; numerous  botched attempts  to suppress mounting evidence to the contrary or discredit it as a loony conspiracy theory only further ignited sinister suspicions about ‘an inside job.’

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THE PREPAID EXPENDABLES!

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In US  foreign policy deliberations, Pakistan and Afghanistan,  the Cold War ‘allies’ were nothing more than pre-paid expendables in a long-distance proxy war of attrition, to be discarded as spent cartridge shells.

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by Eugene Khrushchev 

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Dr. Robert Gates, the top CIA spook who used to be at the helm of the Ghost War against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, in his reincarnation as the DOD chief in 21^st century, expressed a reserved regret that the United States had precipitously abandoned Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Right: Gates at the CIA – Earlier Days

It was rather a disingenuous statement: the United States couldn’t have abandoned Afghanistan and Pakistan, because it never had any long-term commitment for this particular duo – before or after the Soviet pull-out.

In US  foreign policy deliberations, these Cold War ‘allies’ were nothing more than pre-paid expendables in a long-distance proxy war of attrition, to be discarded as spent cartridge shells.

A glaring display of the cynical approach to bilateral relations and gentlemen agreements – Uncle Sam doesn’t abandon places, it only betrays allies – was a rude awakening to American sidekicks who aspired to be treated as equal and respectable partners.

A generation later, the US of A still hasn’t formulated any comprehensive strategy that wou!ld transcend the patron/client fly-by-night transactional approach.

Small wonder that the post 9/11 re-engagement of Pakistan and Afghanistan by the USA has been met with deep-rooted anti-American resentment in the region.

Pakistan-Afghanistan: Washington’s managed chaos backfires [Viewpoint Russia] 1 of 2

Responding to a question on how can America’s short term mentality be changed, says Brzezinski. Yes, if we develop a more effective and longer-range response to the current crisis instead of simply wallowing in the present difficulties. But we are so preoccupied with the current crisis and so lacking in a longer-term perspective that we have no strategic vision. The democracies that thrive with financial systems that are out of control and generate selfishly beneficial consequences only for the few, without any effective framework, that is the real problem”. Image: Zbigniew Brzezinski at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington.

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THE FAILED US FOREIGN POLICY IN THE AFPAK REGION

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by Eugene Khrushchev 

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Washington’s policy of “managed chaos” has backfired in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

VT Editor, Col. Eugene Khrushchev says the US excelled at chaos building but has yet to succeed at managing it.

 The sleep of reason brings forth monsters.

El sueño de la razon produce monstruos.

 …Francisco José de Goya

Afghanistan is in dire straits due to the United Kingdom’s ‘divide & rule’ colonial legacy and an unholy alliance with the United States circa Charlie Wilson’s endless War, which mutated from carefully inflamed anti-Soviet insurgency into anti-American jihad.

The  most notorious hallmark of British Great Game machinations and resultant  invasions is the Durand Line, which arbitrarily sliced through  Pushtunistan, planting an irredentist time bomb between Afghanistan and  Pakistan.

While artificial demarcation has neither been addressed nor defused, it has continually undermined Afghan-Pakistani and American-Pakistani security cooperation via cross-border sorties  and gunfire on both sides of the Durand Line.

Obama does the right thing in Afghanistan

US and her allies have failed in Afghanistan. Every sort of modern weapon save nuclear devices have been used against the Afghan resistance. Tethered blimps laden with censors that looked like the gigantic killer robots from H.G. Well’s “War of the Worlds.” In fact, the Afghan War is a one-sided conflict between a backwards people living in the 12th century and the high-tech military might of 21st century America. But in spite of this, in spite of its overall military superiority, west remains the looser in this decade long war on Afghanistan. 

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“WE’RE OUTTA THERE” – US PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES  WITHDRAWAL OF US TROOPS FROM AFGHANISTAN

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by Eric Margolis

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Far-called our navies melt away—

On dune and headland sinks the fire—

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday

Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!

[Rudyard Kipling 1897 “Recessional”]

The poet laureate of British imperialism might write the same stanzas today about its successor, the American Empire, which, having reached its high water mark in the bleak mountains of Afghanistan, is set to begin receding.

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta just announced that all US combat troops would withdraw from Afghanistan by mid-2013. Of the 90,000 US Afghan garrison, 22,000 will depart this fall. Some sort of training mission will remain.

The Shrine of Hazrat Ayub Ansari in Istanbul

This is the approximate spot where existed the house of Abu Ayub Ansari (R.A.) The Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa (SAAW) initially stayed here  for several months on his migration to Madinah. Which is why of all the Sahaba i.e. the companions of the Holy Prophet, Hazrat Abu Ansari has a unique honor. When the Prophet migrated to Medina on his camel, all the residents stood in the way and, one after another, begged him to stay with them. Not to disappoint anyone, the Holy Prophet left it to the camel to do the choosing. The camel moved for a while and then sat before the house of Hazrat Abu Ayub Ansari. The Prophet stayed here for several months thus bestowing him a unique honor in the Islamic History.

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UNIQUE HONOUR – UNIQUE PLACE

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by Hafeez R. M.

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“Walk upto the Grand Bazaar and take Bus No.39”, was the short and sweet advice when I asked a passerby how to go to the shrine of a great Sahabi, Hazrat Abu Ayub Ansari.

 It was my second last day in Turkey and the shrine was a must-see place.

Of all the Sahabas, Hazrat Abu Ansari had a unique honor. When the Holy Prophet, Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa (SAAW), migrated to Medina on his camel, all the residents stood in the way and, one after another, begged him to stay with them. Not to disappoint anyone, the Holy Prophet left it to the camel to do the choosing. The camel moved for a while and then sat before the house of Hazrat Abu Ayub Ansari. The Prophet stayed in his house for several months thus bestowing him a unique honor in the Islamic History.

His real name was Khalid Bin Zaid. As per tradition in Arab World, he was known by the name of his son as Abu Ayub (father of Ayub). He was born in 576 in the family of Banu Najjar of Medina. He learnt Quran by heart and collected 150 Hadis. He loved to fight for Allah. In fact, he participated in almost every war in the early Islamic history notably Badr, Uhud, Hendek, Khyber, the Conquest of Mecca, Hunayn and Tabuk. So much so whenever a flag was raised, he was there with his life and wealth.

Pakistan’s Punjab problem

Our historical memories were those of the Muslim conquest of India. Our heroes were Mahmud of Ghazni and Muhammad of Ghaur, Babar and Akbar. But these were transnational heroes, from beyond the high mountains separating Hindustan from the lands to the west, of little use to us, except as flickering memories, when Pakistan came into being and we were very much on our own, having to manage things ourselves. In any case, there were no infidels to fight and subjugate. There were no more battles of Panipat to be fought except with our own problems and, in many instances, our own demons.

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PUNJAB AFTER INDEPENDENCE: HISTORY SHOULD HAVE MOVED ON

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by Ayaz Amir

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Punjab is more than half of Pakistan, in politics, culture and industry. Whether anyone likes it or not, the task of governing Pakistan, of getting Pakistan right, falls heaviest upon the land of the five rivers (now three after the Indus Basin Waters Treaty).Call this the burden of geography or the curse of history.

History, however, left Punjab unprepared for the task of leading Pakistan. Punjab had a long tradition in poetry, literature and culture. But the one tradition it did not have, or did not possess in abundance, was that of rulership. In all of recorded history, from Alexander to the present, who are the Punjabi rulers that we know of?

In Alexander’s time Porus whose kingdom straddled the River Jhelum, the battle between him and the Greeks commemorated in legend. Then after a gap of two thousand years just one name: Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A few Punjabi politicians attained prominence under the British: Sir Fazal-e-Hussain, Sikander Hayat of Wah and Khizr Hayat Tiwana. And then, after the horrors of Partition, the sorry lot whose contribution has been second to none in mismanaging the affairs of the new republic.

Navigating a complex world

Responding to a question on how can America’s short term mentality be changed, says Brzezinski. Yes, if we develop a more effective and longer-range response to the current crisis instead of simply wallowing in the present difficulties. But we are so preoccupied with the current crisis and so lacking in a longer-term perspective that we have no strategic vision. The democracies that thrive with financial systems that are out of control and generate selfishly beneficial consequences only for the few, without any effective framework, that is the real problem”. Image: Zbigniew Brzezinski at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington.

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The financial crisis of 2007 exposed two things: the systemic defects of the American economic ‘model’ and how political and economic power has in fact ebbed away from the West to the East.

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by Dr. Maleeha Lodhi

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“Anyone who tells you America is in decline or that our influence is waning doesn’t know what they’re talking about”. So declared President Barack Obama in last week’s election year state-of-the-union address. Zbigniew Brzezinski certainly knows what he is talking about when he discusses these issues in his new book: ‘Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power’.

The former national security adviser is among America’s most insightful strategic thinkers and his latest book doesn’t disappoint. The book is a tour de force of his country’s place in a vastly transformed world when the era of western supremacy has passed.

In assessing America’s relative decline Brzezinski joins the wide-ranging debate about whether America’s hour of power has receded and its implications for the world. 

Dr. Abdus Salam: Beyond Physics

Dr. Abdus Salam would have been as great a man as he was even if he did not win the Nobel Award in physics. But we would have conveniently forgotten him. That he did win the Nobel Award is a source of cosmetic and hollow pride for many Pakistanis. Cosmetic and hollow because it is also a source of visible unease. Even when we acknowledge that he was a great scientist (after all, the Nobel Committee thought so), we are uncomfortable acknowledging that he was a great man whose significance goes beyond his science.

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BETRAYING THE GREAT SON OF PAKISTAN

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by Adil Najam

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Jan 29^th marks Dr. Abdus Salam’s birth anniversary. (See new biography of Dr. Salam here).

It should be a moment of deep reflection for all of us. He would have been as great a man as he was even if he did not win the Nobel Award in physics. But we would have conveniently forgotten him. That he did win the Nobel Award is a source of cosmetic and hollow pride for many Pakistanis. Cosmetic and hollow because it is also a source of visible unease. Even when we acknowledge that he was a great scientist (after all, the Nobel Committee thought so), we are uncomfortable acknowledging that he was a great man whose significance goes beyond his science.