Pakistan is strife with rumors of US building a fortress of an embassy to camouflage a military base in the heart of Islamabad and Karachi. Many Pakistanis believe that US wants to destabilize Pakistan and that it’s in the interest of the US to Balkanize Pakistan so that it can secure Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Many are protesting the 12 embassies that India has set up in Kabul and Pakistani officials have protested that openly claiming that RAW (Indian Intelligence ) is training Afghans to fight Pakistan Talibans. Whatever the truth what can’t be denied is that, Pakistan is sitting in a very precarious position today.
When pressured to root our terrorism from its North, Pakistan had no choice but to send its army to root out Taliban. Pakistan army is fighting its own people to eradicate terrorists from within. That is not an easy task. This not only caused a strain on its meager resources, but also displaced about two million of the poorest people from their homes in the North causing an immense burden on the already weak economy of Pakistan. Thus Pakistan and its people are making huge sacrifices to help the US fight the extremists. What is our government getting in return? The 1.5 billion dollars will trickle into Pakistan through developmental projects, which we’ve all heard about before and which never really have reached the hands of the poor. It could be different this time since there seems to be more oversight of the monies going to Pakistan.
We know that our US government and State department is aware of the corruption that Zardari is tainted with and how his government has done nothing to give “roti,kapra,aur makan” (food, clothing, and shelter) to the common people who stood behind its slogan. In fact, Zardari has made the poor even poorer and the treasury deplete. However, the number of advisors to Zardari keeps increasing, the VIP culture is back as a nuisance and
Basic necessities like electricity and clean water are still non-existent. Despite the lack of progress and abject poverty in Pakistan, the only reason, I remain, hopeful, is that the people elected Zardari and through this extreme suffering during his tenure; they will learn to vote better in the next elections. After all, Americans waited patiently for years to choose a better leader after Bush’s policies alienated Americans from the rest of the world and caused the complete destruction of two countries in the name of bringing democracy, so can Pakistanis.
Then we come to the very important issue of where the money from the Kerry-Lugar Bill will really go and what is Obama’s policy toward Pakistan. . Center for American Progress recently held a meeting of the all the agencies working on AfPak. What was most surprising was that not a single Pakistani was on Holbrooke’s Interagency Team on AfPak. What is even more surprising is that the Senior Defense Advisor to President Obama on Pakistan and Afghanistan is Mr.Vikram Singh. The Senior Advisor on AfPak is Vali Nasr, an Iranian expert on “shiaism”.
Pakistani Americans are considering this as an attempt to exclude them from any policy making for their native country. This is contrary to what the President was saying to the Pakistani community. Candidate Obama told us that he would engage us in policy making that directly affects Pakistan. Who would know Pakistan better than us?
But then why are we excluded from advisory positions? It’s a failure on the part of Pakistan Embassy Washington, and the government of Pakistan, who should have the vision to look out for Pakistani Americans, like the Indians do. Instead, being the strongest bargaining position, Pakistanis are in the weakest position.
We protest this exclusion.
Anila Ali
Teacher, Community Organizer, Journalist, Activist
18845 Tabor Drive,
Irvine, Ca 92603
www.anilaali.com
It looks like the US Policy for Pak-Afghanistan is doomed for failure.
I cannot fathom that Obama’s advisors could be so openly biased when choosing advisors for such critical areas and issues such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Does the State Department not know that there is an absolute lack of trust between India and Pakistan and that they have gone on three wars over Kashmir? It seems the State Department is recruiting lobbyists to run policy in D.C. because to my utter disbelief, Obama’s Senior Defense Advisor on Afghanistan and Pakistan is a Hindu/Sikh. Looks like we’re heading back to Bush/Cheney era. So we can get ready for more trouble to come in Afghanistan and Pakistan.No progress will be made in that region unless they see that Obama administration is serious about being neutral and understanding the needs of the people of Pakistan. With Vikram Singh as the Defense Advisor for Pakistan and Afghanistan, we can be certain of mistrust from the start of the policy. Can we hire a Muslim to to be the Advisor for Israel Policy? To put it simply....
Well, in the same way, the administration has to reach out to the Pakistani American community and involve them in policy making or this issue will become a bone of contention with Pakistanis!
The US must prove its good intent to Pakistani by being a neutral negotiator- not on the side of India or Pakistan but on the side of economic progress for that region with Pakistanis also involved in policy making at the Center of American Progress. There is not a single Pakistani who can voice their needs- not in the White HOuse not in the State Department not in Afghan Pakistan Policy advisory. They have many Afghan-Iranians and Indians to write policy on Pakistan - but they can't find a Pakistani to be an advisor on Pakistan Policy? That is not possible. It could be that our state department is playing in the hands of lobbyists and ignoring Pakistani completely by keeping them away from policy making for their region of birth. Thus the US will again lose credibility when it makes such insensitive blunders as this one.
The Pakistanis have been unhappy about the Indians opening up 12 embassies ( missions) in Afghanistan. They claim that Indian Intelligence RAW operates there and trains Afghans to fight Pakistanis.
So now we go and put a non-Pakistani, a Hindu, in charge of advising the President on issues relating to Pakistan. Let's rethink and reevaluate or our efforts in Pakistan are doomed!
Pakistan is our key ally in the battle against the extremist Taliban. Every day many innocent Pakistanis are being killed in the military action. Over two million of the poorest Pakistanis were displaced due to the military action against the Taliban in the Northern areas of Pakistan. The people of Pakistan saw the warped philosophy of the Taliban and stood behind the military action and the US.
Some aspects we need to understand as Americans are:
1. The Pakistanis feel they get sidelined; they get used and then left in the lurch.
example, after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, when Pakistan was US's key ally,
we left the people without help, without infrastructure without hope, thus US lost a lot of credibility in Pakistan and the north and Afghanistan became a breeding ground for Al-Qaeda.
2. There is a basic lack of trust between India and Pakistan and Afghanistan and Pakistan. We cannot sandwich the policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan and call it "AfPak". This has caused resentment amongst Pakistanis who question this policy. Afghanistan's infrastructure, institutions need to be rebuild completely but Pakistan has all its infrastructure, it's institutions are functional and we saw evidence of it when the judiciary took to the streets in the civil movement recently to restore the judges who were fired by Zardari.
Pakistan's needs must be understood. The Afpak needs to go and a PakPolicy needs to formulated.
3. Despite a very successful army action against the Taliban in the north, the drone attacks that are killing many innocent women and children are not halting. Thus the Pakistanis are questioning US's sincerity towards Pakistan.
4. The US must step up and encourage India and Pakistan to resume peace talks. The US can pressure both nations into coming to a compromise so that the billions of poor in India and Pakistan can be given a better life. Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan met at the recent Sharm-al-Shaik meeting but we can really negotiate peace. With this peace process, it becomes even more important to resolve the Kashmir issue. No lasting peace can achieved without resolving the Kashmir issue over which India and Pakistan have gone to war thrice in 1947, 1965, and 1991.
Lastly, the Pakistani Americans feel disenfranchised when they get a call from the White House saying their request for a congratulatory message from the President on Pakistan's Independent Day Celebration on August 8th, 2009 at the Exposition Park L.A. is denied because "they have too many requests." This makes us ponder:
Do we have a voice in this administration???????
My answer is NO; oh, but Pakistan is our key ally in the war on extremism.
While watching on TV screens the demonstrations in Tehran against the election of president Ahmedinajad, I was intrigued by the constant anti-American rhetoric I heard from the troublemakers in Iran. When will sanity come to the Iranian demonstrators? President Obama has many a time expressed his deep friendship with the Muslim world including Iran and it is beyond my understanding why the leaders in Tehran blame America all the time for their current misfortunes. I feel deeply hurt over the blaming of America for the follies of the hard liners in Iran and other countries. I suggest that as President Obama tries for resumption of diplomatic relations with Iran, he should make it clear to the Iranian government that America will not tolerate false blame throwing by the Iranians against the US.
As an American Muslim, I feel highly distressed by the abuses inflicted by the Iranian government on Iranian women and men after all they are human beings. My sympathies are with the women of Iran who were peacefully protesting against the alleged rigging of elections. I hope and pray that the women of Iran will soon enjoy the liberties and rights promised to them by Islam.
Obama's decision to speak to the Muslim world from Egypt was hailed by most Muslims. However, some argue that it's not a good choice because Egypt has a corrupt dictatorial regime of Hosni Mubarak with thousands of political activists in jail and no freedom of speech.
To some extent I agree with these critics. Arabs represent only 20% of the Muslim world; in other words clearly most Muslims are NOT ARABS. Considering that, he should have chosen a Muslim country that has respect for law, embraces democratic ideals, allows others religions to co-exist and is truly progressive. What he's done is that he's played in the hands of the same old same Washington political gurus. Whoever gave you this advice, respected President, blundered. Also, stopping in Saudi Arabia for a luncheon with a Muslim country with no democracy and the worst human rights abuse record doesn't go down well with Muslim moderates. It is the Saudis who want to spread the Wahabism( their distorted version of Islam) in the rest of the Muslim world.
In all a fairness, this was a reward to the Hosni government for being an ally of the United States for so many years and for being a useless moderator of peace between Israel and Palestine. But now that the reward is given, Mr.President, let's do some real work- let's show the Muslim world what a democratic Muslim country should really be like- progressive-liberal- free - with the same liberties we have -with right to free speech and religion. Let's lead the Muslim world into the twenty first century rather than reward the tyrants and monarchs by paying official visists to endorse their rule. This is a mistake of the past- let's not continue doing it.
An die-hard believer in Obama's policies, I must say I was a little disappointed myself at his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. I wrote a pice in Pakistan Link and I add that to my blog as well. I was surprised to see so many supporters of the President protesting on Wilshire Blvd. while he was here in L.A. fundraising for DNC.
President's promise to us was that the war in Iraq would end in sixteen months but that seems unlikely with the present state of affairs. that leaves supporters like me, a little disheartened. We have destroyed two countries and taken them back to dark ages; we still have not been able to come up with a viable plan for both countries. For the sake of national security, the military plans aren't being shared with us, I hope business is not getting back to the way it was in D.C?
I was moderating a forum arranged by a non-profit organization, COPAA and a few Pakistani Students
organizations of Ca. The hope that was lit up like lightening when Obama took oath of office, dimmed a little when I heard, a very moderate professor say:
"I feel President Obama is going back on his promises to end wars."
The reason his comment resonates with me is that this American professor has traveled all over the Muslim world and is very aware of the ground realities. Another professor came to President's defense and
reminded the audience that he has done a lot in a short time; he is building bridges with the Muslim world which no President has done before.
As a Pakistani American, I urge the government of President Obama to hear us out. US governments meet officials in power in Pakistan, some of them very controversial and tainted with corruption, and they make deals with them. This makes the Pakistanis think that America makes deals only because of self-interest and forgets the ideals of her founding fathers, liberty, peace justice for all.
If America really wants to impact change and spread the ideals of democracy in Pakistan, it must sow the seeds of democracy by forcing political parties to hold elections within to choose their leaders. Pakistan is an inheritance of the landlords like the Chaudhrys and the Bhuttos. They are feudals, they own the land that the 40% of the iliterate Pakistani grow crops and live on. They are like the serfs in medieval times, they own allegience to these landlords and they have no choice but to stamp a vote for their mostly corrupt feudal lord. If we really want to democratize Pakistan, after the war on extremism is over, we must pressure Pakistani governement to have their political parties hold elections for their leadership. Why did Zardari become the chairman of his party? The old party big wigs of PPP are still unhappy with that decision.
These are the issues that trouble the minds of the young people in pakistan. That we Americans, want to impose democracy but only want leaders that are sympathetic to the west and have no respect for their choices. There are parties like the MQM that have leaders that have risen from the sheer hard work and merit, we must promote that thinking if we want to sincerely democratize Pakistan.
I believe that Pakistan's in dire need of a reformist movement. However, it needs its own people to speak up against a corrupt government and the menace of Taliban. We can say as much as we like, pour in dollars and dollars of our hard earned money in social development projects in Pakistan but it will not get into the hands of the needy unless there is an oversight committee of the stakeholders consisting of Pakistani-Americans and members of the Obama Administration, and other Americans who also have a vested interest.
My friends and family in Pakistan have been bombarding me with emails asking me if Pakistani Americans are concerned about giving money to President Zardari and his corrupt government.
The answer is, we are extremely concerned and we want President Obama to heed our calls and meet with us before Congress decides what to do about the structuring of the monies to Pakistan. For me, it's shameful that Pakistan begs for monies from the US to fill the pockets of Zardari's government, which is full of incompetent appointed and selected cronies and felons. If Pakistan decides to take huge sums of our tax monies, then it should not complain about sovereignity when we send drones up north to annihilate Taliban.
Zardari government sits and watches as women are raped, flogged and stoned, innocent are beheaded, and women are hated! Then his ministers have the shamelessness to condone these acts as "culture and customs".
This is a chance for the Obama administration to do what the other US governments didn't have the foresight and vision to do:
We should ask Zardari to:
1. Ban Taliban and all it's affiliated orgs. and do a complete round-up of all Talibans in Pakistan
2. Have the military take over the police outposts in the tribal areas
3. Set up shelters under the umbrella of UN for women that are abused
4. Immediately STOP issuing Pakistani passports to Afghans or people without proper papers. Spot check al passport offices.
5. Ban jirgas and set up speedy trial courts in the northern areas- it's the tribal jirgas that order the floggings etc.
6. Do spot checking to stop the infiltration of Afghan Taliban in big cities like Karachi and Lahore. Send them back to Afghanistan.
7. Revamp and rewrite the curriculums in madarsas and strictly impose the new curriculum. They can't be completely shut down as they will cause strain on poverty stricken parents as who have sent them there as they provide food and shelter to thousands of kids. If Mortenson can do so can the government.
8. Punish the perpetrators of heinous crimes towards women in speedy courts to make examples.
9. Withdraw the ban on music, womens' faces in advertising and restore other freedoms for women in the north.
10. Take off the ban on the media. The media revolution is the best thing that has happened in Pakistan and it's thanks to a dictator- Musharraf. Media must remain free. Zardari must free the media.
Agreed that Taliban are a most dangerous threat to peace in Pakistan and are poisoning the fabric of the society, but I ask, why does the media create such doomsday scenarios? It is simply to put pressure on the weakened and corrupt Pakistani government. As my friends ask me daily, is life normal in Pakistan for my family, I have to tell them about the ground reality. Most of Pakistan is alive and well. If you visit Karachi or Lahore, you will be amazed at the resilience of the people. For them life is as normal as can be. They have lived through many political turmoils and three wars. They are angry that the world only sees Pakistan being taken over by Taliban whereas life is really happening for most of them. My sister called me at 3 a.m. from Karachi and told me how much fun she'd had at a Sufi concert at a new private club. People were decked up in gold, diamonds, skimpy Western clothes and designer clothes and felt no perceivable and imminent dangers. She teaches in a co-ed school established by the British. Perhaps our reporters should also focus on areas of Pakistan where people are modern and very Westernized in their thinking and appearance, so much so that I feel I have become too conservative in my thinking. My friends in Karachi all drink and smoke. They wear boob tubes, spaghetti straps and so on..all the things we do in the west. How then is all of Pakistan under Tablibanization? Pray tell.
They agree Taliban is a menace but they have faith that they'll be able to get rid of them. She said she's heard of random incidents of Taliban stalking women dressed in Western clothes but that's been the case during many regimes in the past. There is always an extremist element in every society, US not being devoid of them.
The poor Pakistani girl was flogged and the world took notice but what about the human rights abuse that happens in Saudi Arabia on a daily basis but it's ignored as Saudi is a rich, powerful, and sovereign state.
Pakistan's sovereignty is frequently violated when we send drones to kill the Taliban and all the innocent are collateral damage. That's what we do that makes us seem arrogant to the rest of the world.
Taliban is a menace Pakistan has inherited after helping the Afghans. The thankless Afghans have ruined Pakistan and its way of life. So much for Muslim brotherhood. I remember the Pakistan where my father would wear tuxedos to balls and my mother would wear the most gorgeous sarees and they'd fearlessly drive to the US and British Consulates for parties. Since the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the Afghans have crowded Pakistan, taken Pakistani passports illegally and infiltrated the streets and homes of the people of Pakistan. They are the menace not the Pakistanis. The Pakistanis have been enlightened moderates for years. The founder of Pakistan, Muhammed Ali Jinnah, educated in England, was from a minority sect of Islam but this was never an issue because Islam believes in the co-existence of all religions. This very important fact has become a travesty, thanks to the hijacking of Islam by the dogmatic teachings of the Saudi clerics who have brainwashed the Afghans and Pathans of the tribal region. These barbarians hate women and want to keep them in chains. They blame a muslim women for all evil, they are the root of all evil in the Muslim world. The Prophet of Islam married his boss, a business woman and loved her until she died. They want to bury Muslim women within the confines of their homes. They blame the woman for their vices. They believe that the man is supreme and infallible and the woman was only created to serve him. She is an animal who mustn't have any opinions or a life of anything other than subservience to a man.
Why don't we attack the backward thinking of the Wahabis in Saudi who have exported this to the rest of the world. In Pakistan, women still drive, work and travel freely. In Saudi Arabia, women don't drive and can't travel without a male brotherly chaperone. Yet, the media doesn't expose the real culprits.
I am so glad that I was encouraged to read, travel, explore, think and decide for myself by my great Pakistani Muslim parents.
Sorry I couldn’t save you from flogging, sister!
The recent flogging of a seventeen year old girl in swat, Pakistan is by far, the biggest indicator of the failed, corrupt government of Zardari.
As a Muslim today I can say unequivocally that I am ashamed. I am ashamed to say that a young woman was brutally flogged 46 times in a street for walking with her father-in-law. I am ashamed that I was not there to help her. I am ashamed that I can’t go back to Swat and be a voice for all those women that are battered, oppressed in the name of Islam. I am ashamed of the way my religion has been hijacked by the barbaric Taliban.
I am a Muslim woman too. The Allah I know is Merciful; in the Quran I read and understand, Allah encourages us to forgive each other, repent and ask for his forgiveness- if we expect his mercy we must first show mercy on each other. Islam is the most beautiful religion, which has been slaughtered and butchered by the very people that are supposed to safeguard it. The Quran I read commands my husband to take care of me, just like my parents did. The Prophet of Islam that I follow said that the best among all mankind is the one who treats his wife the best. These unIslamic people are not Muslims- they are the followers of Satan; out to defame Islam. They have lost all humanity and are using the name of Islam to inflict injury on the weak; to show prowess over weak women is no act of bravery.
Then there are those that say it is Allah’s order to flog women or men if found guilty of fornication. But hold on…you need four witnesses, these witnesses must be of sound character, sound judgment they must be seen as fair and honest. If any one of the four is not found to have any one of the qualities, he must be given appropriate punishment for lying. The poor girl who was laid flat on her back, held like an animal for slaughter by two men, and then flogged 46 times because she went out for a walk with her father-in-law! The Taliban authorities say a father-in-law is not a mahram. But according to the Quran a father-in-law is a mahram, a father-in-law cannot marry his daughter-in-law so he is a mahram. Why wasn’t the father-in-law flogged? He went for a walk with her, didn’t he? If these barbarians who call themselves Muslims are going to misinterpret Islam, they need to first learn how to read it themselves instead of relying on their clerics for interpretation.
Why don’t we see Muslim men flogged that have raped women and killed innocent people? To deflect attention, the Muslim clerics are creating preposterous stories about some conspiracy theories suggesting American involvement in this flogging. They suggest that this would give the Americans a reason to enter Pakistan. Preposterous!
The corrupt and spineless government of Zardari has sold Pakistan to extremist elements. Its Information minister dismissed this occurrence as having happened before the FATA peace accord. These are the same leaders who dismissed the burying of five women in Baluchistan as simply “an age old custom.” These apathetic leaders must be put on trial for allowing this barbaric and shameful act to occur. As a leader of the free world, I urge President Obama to force President Zardari to investigate this brutality.
As a Pakistani American, I hail the President’s New Plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
As the new plan was being unveiled, a suicide bomber attacked innocent worshippers at mosques in Peshawar.
Agreed that a reduction in violence came with the surge of 30,000 troops, but that should not be considered a panacea for the problems in Afghanistan. The reason why the troop surge was successful was because the Sunni Awakening Movement that sued to fight for Taliban decided to join the US forces. It isn’t as if Baghdad is a very normal city; it’s walled and there are numerous checkpoints. To model the Afghanistan policy isn’t exactly wise. We are dealing with a completely different mindset of people and geographical conditions. Iraq is flat lands and Afghanistan is full of rugged and mountainous terrain. To model a strategy after a concept like the Sunni Awakening Movement may lead to failure because the Iraqis conceptualized this movement. The Afghans must come up with their own movement for the restoration of peace and democracy; it should not be conceived by the US. It’s peace, economic stability and progress that can give root to such movements.
Afghanistan has other socio-economic problems that need to be addressed first beginning with a change in the corrupt and unpopular government of Hamid Karzai. This starts with a president who is chosen by the Afghans and not seen as a crony of the Americans. He may be less friendly to the US but may prove to form a stronger central government. The next step would be to provide training and structure to the Afghan government. Then the US can focus on economic development and stability of that region.
As far as Pakistan is concerned, the US has to provide economic assistance to the FATA tribal areas of Pakistan. The government of Zardari is extremely vulnerable and Nawaz Sharif seems to have matured as an opposition leader. His ties with the religious organizations could prove to be an asset for our goals in Pakistan, getting rid of Al_Qaeda, as he gathers more support for his party. His recent call for March proved the people’s desire to rally for change and their discontent with the present government.
I applaud the Europeans, especially President Nicolas Sarkozy, for intensifying efforts to try to achieve a meaningful cease-fire by actually daring to travel to the region for talks. . On the other hand, President Bush’s policy has been to sit back and watch Israel when trouble flares up. Our very own ,Condoleeza Rice has done nothing but phone foreign leaders. I thought Middle East peace was her legacy? They have now left it to Gordon Brown to save the failing British economy and save the innocent of Gaza. Good chance he’ll fail at both.
One can understand President- Elect’s decision to remain quite on this issue as not to send mixed signals but he and his team better have a plan ready for a broader solution to the crisis. He will have to revive peace talks as soon as he takes oath.
The Muslim leaders have proven to be worse than any others. They have been impotent for a long time. If only they could unite on this issue, a cease-fire could have been achieved and hundreds of innocent lives could have been saved! They meet, greet, and write a strong statement and then return to their protected worlds.
If the rogue states like Iran and Syria start siding up with Hamas, (it is claimed Iran has already declared support) then the world will face an alarming escalation of this crisis.
And with that may God bless the peoples of South Asia and enhance their capacity to give the world a better future and more happiness in the years to come.
