Adil Najam
Har saal yeh samajh kay guzara hai aye Saba
Yeh ishq ki saddi mein adawat ka saal tha
Dear Readers,
While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP. While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
We hope you will continue to find ATP a useful venue to reflect upon and express your Pakistaniat. - Editors
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I am concerned by a couple of threads of argument that I hear in most discussions:
1) That the government somehow orchestrated this
2) That somehow Musharraf has no legitimacy to handle this.
To those who make the first point, please provide some evidence or else please stay quiet. This argument is akin to sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring the real problem. I heard a similar argument after September 11, 2001 when people said that the WTC disaster was an Israeli conspiracy since “all jews had been told to stay home”.
As to the second point, a democratically elected government will not magically result in this porblem going away. I am not defending Musharraf, but blaming all this on him is oversimplifying things a bit. This has been a growing problem since 1977. Its solution will take a long time and no democratically elected government in the recent past has shown any ability to tackle a problem of this scale.
The bottom line is this: We have to admit and understand the gravity of the issue at hand. Will we stand up and fight for our right to follow our religion as we see fit, personally, or will we allow those who claim they know the will of God to impose religion upon us? Only if we truly realize the magnitude of the problem and stop looking for simplistic explanations and excuses will we become ready to begin to tackle it.
There is news that yankess are planning a big airstrikes on north waziristan. They may “carpet” some hideouts. See today’s jang. I think emergency is imminent in Pakistan.
The government claimed the bomber tried to target the cops… but it now appears he tried to target PPPP workers… The Great Jackboot will no doubt try to malign the CJP, saying this wouldn’t have happened were it not for his rally…
The way things are going, we may well see Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat on TV one evening at 11 PM, with the beaten-to-death “Meray Aziz Humwatano…” line starting off his declaration-of-martial-law speech…
But as I watch this from thousands of miles away, I get the sinking feeling that my city is going the way of Bierut or Kabul… for the first time, these atrocities are happening at places I have been to and known… I remember being at the district courts last August to get some afidavits done, and as for G-6, memories abound of the times spent at friends’ homes and the various markets… for the first time, terrorism is something influencing me directly…
@Akif
“What to do about them? I don’t have the faintest idea. If Americans couldn’t control them in Iraq, how can the Pakistani forces do it in Pakistan?”
I think we can fight them the best. Because we created them and we know how to destroy them. They think they have the peoples support. Cut the support line. See who funds them, I think ISI knows that. Just cut the funding. Remember these are homegrown. People are in state of confusion, they think these sick people are fighting for Islam.
These problems are in NWFP and FATA. There should be a message from all the Ulemas across Pakistan and the Pakistanies living in these areas against these extremist people. Its time for a big rally against from all over Pakistan against these people. They are a small number thus can be defeated.
Its people like Hamid Gul and Mr. Beg who created this devil.
Here is a hint “What happened to the Kashmir jihadies? Where did they go? Who stopped Jihad in Kashmir?”
It is hard that the people who are supporting CJ for the Independence of Judiciary are killed.
Within seven days of Lal Masjid operation, there have been four suicide attacks in Pakistan and the security is high alert all around the country.
Unfortunately most of the discussion and debate about the LM operation on media and within the public domain were more about determining innocent or aggressor, rather than contemplating the aftermaths and backlash. It was prevailing opinion that after the successful completion of LM operation, the things will be fixed automatically.
Earlier, lawyers movement for Independence of judiciary was expected to determine the future course of democracy in our country. But LM spin has now eclipsed the historical landmark and hope of true democracy.
I think the future political setup now will be based on the alliances of curbing or protecting extremism. How how many innocent souls will have to surrender their lives willingly or unwillingly, no body knows!
God Bless Our Country