Pakistani politics (catch all)

[carl]

Omar:

I am always completely pessimistic about Pakistan having any chance at all given the Pak Army and the feudal elites. But after reading some of your comments I should be thinking more often that Pakistan is filled with people like that ambulance driver and policeman in Karachi that were profiled in the TV special I forgot the name of.

[davidbfpo]

Carl's post:

I am always completely pessimistic about Pakistan having any chance at all given the Pak Army and the feudal elites. But after reading some of your comments I should be thinking more often that Pakistan is filled with people like that ambulance driver and policeman in Karachi that were profiled in the TV special I forgot the name of.

My initial post April 2011

Peter Oborne, one of the UK's best reporters IMHO, has been in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial capital and a huge city beset with problems:

In the last 60 years the population of Karachi has risen from 300,000 to nearly 20 million. The pressure for homes, water and food - compounded by high levels of unemployment - has lead to furious conflict between the rival ethnic groups, with around 1300 people killed in gangland violence last year.

His report is based on following an ambulance driver, employed by a charity and a shorter period with a police inspector, who states:

...at least 100 of his officers have been killed in the past year.

The title of the thread comes from his closing comment - worth fast forwarding to, if twenty five minutes cannot be spared.

The film clip on: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/u...ld/4od#3180510

The written summary is on: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/u...2011/episode-4

The links do work in the USA and a SWC viewer responded:

They should stop making cop shows about Americans and make cops shows about Karachi cops. That was something.

__________________

[omarali50]

Not really about politics this time (except tangentially)

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksd...real.html#more

[omarali50]

Shia and Sunni in Pakistan. Some musings about the latest outbreak of violence..

http://www.brownpundits.com/2013/11/...i-in-pakistan/

[omarali50]

The polio jihad
http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksd...ihad.html#more

excerpt:

...The fact is no CIA or Mossad operation and no unethical drug trial is sufficient excuse for killing innocent health workers trying to stop a lethal disease. If people are doing so, they need to be told that it is not acceptable to do so, instead of using every atrocity as another opportunity to attack imperialism, capitalism or whatever ideological current you hold responsible for the state of the world as a whole.

I realize that the above paragraph is not philosophically air-tight. If capitalism is indeed the cause of all evil, then everyone who is gumming up the onward march of international capitalism is, by definition, a good guy. But my contention is that Western activists (and their Westoxicated Eastern admirers) do not really believe in any such absolute clash of good and evil and would not really want to live in the pre-industrial utopia of the Taliban. They only find it easy to admire heartless killers when faraway people are being discussed. I realize that I cannot stop this huge anti-capitalist cultural force with one article, but I just wish they would stay off the topic of polio vaccination. Humanity is tantalizingly close to wiping out this menace. It would be a shame to fail now just to make a point about the CIA or capitalism or American imperialism.

- See more at: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksd...ihad.html#more

[carl]

Here is another example of why the poor, long suffering Pakistani people don't deserve their miserable excuses for an army and gov.

A high school boy takes on a suicide bomber heading for his school and dies.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Secur...801-10-2014%29

[omarali50]

The 12 year old game may be coming to an end...and the end is likely to be just the beginning of a bloody new phase. So I wrote a survival guide for Pakistani liberals:

http://blogs.outlookindia.com/defaul...id=3142&eid=38

Excerpts:

Everyone and his dog is predicting an operation against the Pakistani Taliban by the Pakistan army. The word is that the TTP (or factions of the TTP, confusion about that being a standard part of Pakistani discourse and probably of the situation on the ground) has crossed all limits, attacking even in Punjab and killing soldiers, not just bloody civilians. The army has responded with shelling and air attacks and if this pattern continues, then the unstable equilibrium of the last 12 years may not be easily restored. If that does happen, then Pakistan could be in for a rather brutal fight. The fighters are not equally matched; on one side is a nuclear armed semi-modern state, on the other a few thousand deranged fanatics and their distant backers (whether in Saudi Arabia, India or Langley hardly matters, though I do think there are more in Saudia than in the latter). It would seem an easy bet that the state will eventually triumph. But even insurgencies that do not succeed can go on for a long time. Besides, given the ideological support the Taliban enjoy in Pakistan, they are unlikely to be easily swatted away. They are also experts at blowing stuff up and seem to have a lot of explosives. On the other side, the state and its fighting arms are not exactly famous for their world-beating efficiency or the surgical precision of their actions. So irrespective of the outcome, the interim period is likely to be blood-soaked, violent, painfully long and frequently shocking. While Pakistani liberals are much more robust in the face of violence than their Western counterparts (having seen a good deal of it in the last 12 years), they may not be fully ready for the mayhem or the moral dilemmas to come. Therefore, I have penned a quick survival guide for you and us, the liberals and ruling-elite leftists of Pakistan. I hope it helps (and while some remarks are frivolous and even facetious, the overall intent is serious)....

...If you must (and if everyone you know is a Tariq Ali or Arundhati Roy fan, you may have little choice) stand up and create a huge storm in the phase V living room teacup about the corrupt Pakistani elite, slaves of America, oppressors of the Taliban, upper class nitwits, etc. then do so strategically. Be very visible within your own group and on social media, but completely invisible on the ground. Otherwise, people are known to vanish off the face of the earth and then turn up in Manghopir with a few extra holes in their body. Stick to you safe zone.
At the same time, don’t panic and sell everything to your Memon friend at half price. The state is likely to win. Every wise Jamatia in Pakistan has one foot in Malaysia if not in the US, so there is no reason why liberals should not take precautions and make sure their green card is current and cousin Jimmy in New York is not terminally upset at you for some silly thing or the other. But premature evacuation may leave you with egg on your face (or worse). Stay calm. Take reasonable precautions. Avoid panic. If the #### hits the fan, run for your life, but don’t up and run every time Uncle Rashid says the sky is falling. Uncle Rashid has been saying that for 65 years and his commercial plots continue to go up in value. Hold tight and pray to Allah. All will be well.