Saturday, December 26, 2009

Rs 193 billion hiest

he State Bank of Pakistan has reported an astonishing Rs 193 million
were written off by banks from 1997 to 2009. Therefore, an average
Pakistani contributed Rs 1,135 to the reportedly 97 thousand
beneficiaries. Had this amount been invested at the rate of 10% per
year in equal yearly installments (assuming that all governments are
equally corrupt) the citizens of Pakistan would have all been given a
payback of Rs 2,000 for their sacrifices in 2009. Can the numbers
since 1971 be released so that we know the true extent of our
impoverishment due to our government?

Citizens should be aware that this is just one from of corruption and
numbers would add up.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

All the Friends We Need

Pervez Hoodbhoy again makes a compelling argument that is based rational thinking. While an argument can be made that on grounds of prudence India should not be allowed to operate on Pakistani soil. But the fact of matter remains that Pakistan needs all the friends that it can get. 

Get up boys (and Girls)!

One impressive poem from Allama Iqbal.. My father used this poem every morning to wake us up for school. Didnt work then but it has been ignored for too long. Not much time left.

Monday, December 14, 2009

The Lesson From Moon Market

There are a number of lessons that can be learnt from the bombing in Moon Market, Lahore as given in this BBC report. The terrorists are killing but there is an equal number that is a victim of bad planning and weak governance. Providing easy measures would have brought down the death toll of any terrorist attack significantly down. But the sad thing is that it is not.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

US Luxuries and Pakistani Compulsions

One of the biggest surprises of the 2003 Iraq war was how everything thing went as planned till an unexpected sand storm forced the US army to dig in and wait it out. This predictability irked the generals as their experience shows that in a combat zone nothing is expected to go as planned and something must be wrong if it was. Other Generals warned that the objective in Iraq should be clearly defined and once it is achieved the US must withdraw. Removing Saddam from power was a byproduct not the objective of the war as this could have been achieved without any incremental cost. Infact the US allowed Saddam to quell the 1991 uprising in Karbala by allowing Saddam's air force to operate despite the declaration of "No fly zones". We all know that no weapons of mass destruction was found either. Now six years later US finds itself with the huge burden of an expensive war with nothing positive to show for it.

Today we also find ourselves in an similar situation where we are fighting a war without a clearly defined enemy or a clearly defined objective. Depending whom you ask the enemy can range from the almost omnipotent abstraction known as the "hindu zionist" lobby to the CIA-RAW-MOSSAD nexus that has somehow converged on a single objective and support people who, if ideology means anything, are their sworn enemies. There are also the good Taliban and the bad Taliban, the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban. One group also blames a
morally and financially bankrupt government as the real enemy that fails to stop terrorist attacks among other things. The definition of winning is also equally vague. Some claim that victory has been achieved and that all "backs that need to be broken" are already broken. Would victory be declared (by any side) when we have drawn a
line between us and them or continue to fight till every bolt in the jihadi machine has been identified and melted down. Would this be followed up by a comprehensive strategy to ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated and there are no rational reason for any one to take up arms against the state.

The last armed conflict on US soil ended in 1865 (Indian Wars of (1865–1870) should not be considered a war. Pearl Harbor (1941)and New York (2001) being two further exceptions). All US wars since then have been on foreign soils. Therefore, no matter how big the debacle there are always enough helicopters to fly from Saigon to waiting aircraft carriers in the South China Sea. This luxury allowed US forces fire bombed Dresden and Tokyo knowing fully well that no matter what the result of  second world war no retaliation of consequence was
possible.

Pakistanis don't have such concessions and an ill defined strategy is  already being translated into a rising body count. The death toll of  the 1965 India-Pakistan war is estimated to be about 6,800 on both sides. The known casualties during 2006-2008, by some estimates, is 17,000 dead (both sides) and as the figures for 2009 are tallied the number shall be well over 20,000.

This war even lacks a clear communication strategy. It does not even have a name. Where is the daily briefing given to the people of Pakistan about the progress of the war and where are the identities of the people who are attacked and where is the list of casualties (is there a plan to build a Black Wall)  that have been killed in this
conflict? Why are we not identify every spot where a suicide attack happened so that our children learn from our mistakes and hopefully never repeat them? The impression one gets is that this war is not a classic battle between good and evil but an embarrassing family feud in which only what cannot be hidden is known and no further discussion happens in polite circles at least. The consequence is a mixture of juicy intrigues, conspiracy theories and street rumor that can hardly be used for analysis. More problems are created by indecision than by
bad decisions and at the current death rate every hour spent in procrastination cost about 0.97 lives.

Ideological Suicide Bombers

Here is an excellent article about how people like Zaid Hamid are misleading the nation. Dawn has taken a surprisingly positive turn and taken the side of reason. The article also states that the two points of view have to collide and Gul's point of view is that it should be up to the Rationalists to take the argument to the conspiracy theorists. I agree, despite the fact that the response is not going to be a convincing argument but a violent backlash. For instance yesterday's blog (below) shows a video about how Facebook had acted against Pakistan   by taking down Zaid Hamids page on it.

Closer inspection showed that violent reaction is being planned against the alleged "Israeli Agents" who launched the campaign against the page and brought it down. There are more then convincing suggestions that the even violent action is justified against these "miscreants".

Zaid Hamid and his supporters are the ideological equivalent of suicide bombers. While a suicide bomber chooses to take his life he also makes the choice to take others with him and without their consent. Similarly, these ideological suicide bombers are planning to take everyone with them with or without their consent.

Would it not be more rational to build a better Pakistan for our children and our children's children rather than dream of a trans national empire with Pakistan at the epicenter.

Ideological suicide bombing forms the basis of the actual act. Therefore, people like Zaid Hamid are trying to keep the ideology alive in a time when rationality might prevail and people make a wholesale rejection of  a very suicidal idea!

Watch this video carefully and see the Conspiracy Theory.

Readers should watch this video carefully. There are a number of things very comforting about it.

The message is by a amateur propagandist. Words like "cheap" and the entire tone is negative that is bound to put off readers. However, there is a more dangerous message. The messages assumes that Facebook has acted against Pakistan. Somehow the entire country is under attack (probably from Hindi Zionists) by one action by Facebook. The paranoia is also apparent as Facebook is part of the US establishment that is out to destabilize Pakistan and Facebook is just one of their policy instruments.

Such paranoia is always based on a complicated conspiracy theory far from a simple fact that can easily explain what happened here.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Fighting a confused war!

The key to fighting the war in Pakistan is to have a clearly defined counter strategy. Such a strategy can only be defined if the general discourse on the causes are also clear. There is no clear consensus any where about that the causes of the war are. Are we fighting a jungle fire or a monsoon flood. From the fantastical "hindu zionist" theory to the RAW, CIA and Mossad Nexus supporting their sworn enemies the definition of the enemy is not clearly defined.

If we don't know the enemy we don't know how to fight it. However, there are some rational voices that are making sense Pervez Hoodbhoy makes an obvious argument why India would be far madder than even our wildest imagination.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Following up on the Judicial

Hamid Mir is doing a good job by following up on the judiciary and the reforms that are required. He is doing an excellent program (click here).

I think he is bringing us back togather on an ideal that we all agreed on. Please keep up the good work.

Death of Habib Tanvir

Habib Tanvir died today in Bhopal.


Sunday, June 7, 2009

Speaking the truth

Moazzam Husain


The view was panoramic from atop Peochar from where the operational commander of the Special Forces contingent informed a private TV channel that ‘the militants’ leadership had fled by the time we got here’.

He moved on to speculate on the sources of arms and funds for the Swat Taliban alluding to a ‘foreign hand’. Within hours, rightwing blogs and discussion groups on the Internet were ablaze with activity. ‘See we told you, it was the Indians’. We finally have ‘proof’. Stop the operation … stop fighting America’s war, the noises came.

I tread with caution here before jumping to any conclusions. The guns are of Russian, American and Indian origin we are told. This is one data point. The source of funds is a question mark and thereby potentially another data point. Now let’s consider a few more and then see if we can join the dots.

There is an international arms bazaar and some enterprising regional arms dealers. A variety of weapons are available in this region at a price. Moreover, theUS ticket out of Afghanistan is a well-equipped, disciplined Afghan National Army (ANA) — becoming an effective counter-insurgency force before 2020. For now, the force has a high rate of dropout and desertion. Its arms inventory has Soviet bloc weapons. New recruits, when issued American arms, often choose to sell them after dropping out. Some soldiers desert to the Taliban who offer $300 per month as against $70 in the ANA.

Consider also that the cache of weapons recovered from Lal Masjid was stolen from inside the Aabpara police station in the heart of our capital. It’s not just weapons that Nato loses in Afghanistan, sometimes its prisoners escape too. One of these was Abu Yahya al Libbi who on the night of July 10, 2005 along with three others escaped from the interim detention facility at the Bagram airbase. Libbi was one of the hundreds captured and interrogated by the Pakistani security establishment before being handed over to the Americans.

Al Qaeda today is a multinational organisation. It often does business under different brand names. Based on interrogation of suspects, the Egyptian interior ministry believes that the Feb 22 bombing in Khan el Khalili in Cairo was the work of an Al Qaeda cell masquerading as the Palestinian Islamic Army. The cell arranged paramilitary training in Gaza sending recruits there via tunnels under the border.

According to Al Ahram, Egypt’s leading independent daily, the arrested suspects in the Khan el Khalili bombing include a French woman of Albanian origin, a British national of Egyptian descent, two Palestinians, a Belgian national of Tunisian descent and two Egyptians — multinational par excellence.

Al Qaeda’s methods are modern. The organisation today operates in ‘network mode’ indicating a cellular structure as opposed to a hierarchy. It can keep a low profile and its cells can build the capability of its affiliates by infusing the use of information technology and other tools of globalisation. So while the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan destroys TVs, CDs and computers, Al Qaeda uses its video production facilities, websites and electronic bulletin boards as a force multiplier.

After escaping from Bagram, Libbi arrived in Swat and linked up with the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM). With help from Libbi, Maulana Fazlullah’s first illegal FM channel went on air in 2006. In time this pilot was scaled up into a successful propaganda machine with a series of elusive FM broadcast stations. These operated through portable transmission boxes of Chinese origin that could be mounted on trucks and even motorcycles. Libbi provided content development guidelines to Fazlullah: ‘Pakistan’s army should be treated as an occupying infidel army waging an offensive war on an invaded Muslim population.’

In the aftermath of the fall of the Lal Masjid in 2007, Al Qaeda arranged reinforcements for Swat from Baitullah Mehsud, its virtual proxy in Pakistan and host to a large contingent of foreign fighters. Uzbeks, Arabs and Chechens were sent to join Fazlullah’s forces in Swat. Training camps were set up and a large recruitment drive initiated. Within two years Al Qaeda transformed a primitive organisation into a formidable political and military force. This force not only extracted an unprecedented and unanimous concession for implementation of Sharia from Pakistan’s parliament but was later able to engage the Pakistani military in the longest battle of its history.

In terms of understanding the sources of funds for the Taliban, let’s pick up another data point: Tariq Azizuddin, the Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, was released after being held for three months by his Taliban kidnappers. According to this newspaper, the Pakistan government released an unspecified number of militants and paid $2.5m in ransom. Kidnapping for ransom is the Taliban’s second largest source of funds after narcotics. The released were associates of Taliban commander Mansoor Dadullah. It is very easy to ascertain who Dadullah works for. Pick up the ISI’s tactical interrogation reports on the released associates. Had they indicated a foreign intelligence connection during interrogation? Indeed, had Abu Yahya al Libbi indicated any such connections?

Only such brutal honesty can lead the people of Pakistan to the exit door out of the present quagmire. By pointing the finger at others we may drop the ball again. At 2 pm on Oct 1, 2001, a jeep laden with explosives rammed into the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly in Srinagar. Jaish-i-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the attack. That same evening an as-yet-unexplained fire gutted the sensitive records portion of the GHQ.

A month after the attack on the Indian parliament, President Musharraf made his famous ‘U-turn’ speech in January 2002. Three days later another fire gutted the records, this time of the interior ministry on the 16th floor of the Shaheed-i-Millat secretariat in Islamabad’s Blue Area. A dark chapter of Pakistani history may have been obliterated by these fires. But burning evidence of your past sins does not get you to a viable future.

The choices we make today will determine whether the 15-year-old in the madressah will — in 10 years time — emerge as a reformed, skilled and economically productive citizen of what will then be a modern state. Or whether he would have risen to become a warlord and will be seen negotiating with a foreign mining contractor for the grant of a concession to a full block of Thar coal — in what will possibly be a denuclearised Pakistan with a nominal government. By choosing to speak the truth today, we choose a better future.


Whither Pakistan? A five-year forecast

BY PERVEZ HOODBHOY | 3 JUNE 2009

First, the bottom line: Pakistan will not break up; there will not be another military coup; the Taliban will not seize the presidency; Pakistan's nuclear weapons will not go astray; and the Islamic sharia will not become the law of the land.

That's the good news. It conflicts with opinions in the mainstream U.S. press, as well as with some in the Obama administration. For example, in March, David Kilcullen, a top adviser to Gen. David Petraeus, declared that state collapse could occur within six months. This is highly improbable.

Now, the bad news: The clouds hanging over the future of Pakistan's state and society are getting darker. Collapse isn't impending, but there is a slow-burning fuse. While timescales cannot be mathematically forecast, the speed of societal decline has surprised many who have long warned that religious extremism is devouring Pakistan.

Here is how it all went down the hill: The 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan devastated the Taliban. Many fighters were products of madrassas in Pakistan, and their trauma partly was shared by their erstwhile benefactors in the Pakistan military and intelligence. Recognizing that this force would remain important for maintaining Pakistani influence in Afghanistan--and keep the low-intensity war in Kashmir going--the army secretly welcomed them on Pakistani soil. Rebuilding and rearming was quick, especially as the United States tripped up in Afghanistan after a successful initial victory. Former President Pervez Musharraf's strategy of running with the hares and hunting with hounds worked initially. But then U.S. demands to dump the Taliban became more insistent, and the Taliban also grew angry at this double game. As the army's goals and tactics lost coherence, the Taliban advanced.

In 2007, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, the movement of Pakistani Taliban, formally announced its existence. With a blitzkrieg of merciless beheadings of soldiers and suicide bombings, the TTP drove out the army from much of the frontier province. By early this year, it held about 10 percent of Pakistan's territory.

Even then, few Pakistanis saw the Taliban as the enemy. Apologists for the Taliban abounded, particularly among opinion-forming local TV anchors that whitewashed their atrocities, and insisted that they shouldn't be resisted by force. Others supported them as fighters against U.S. imperial might. The government's massive propaganda apparatus lay rusting. Beset by ideological confusion, it had no cogent response to the claim that Pakistan was made for Islam and that the Taliban were Islamic fighters.

The price paid for the government's prevarication was immense. A weak-kneed state allowed fanatics to devastate hitherto peaceful Swat, once an idyllic tourist-friendly valley. Citizens were deprived of their fundamental rights. Women were lashed in public, hundreds of girl's schools were blown up, non-Muslims had to pay a special tax (jizya), and every form of art and music was forbidden. Policemen deserted en masse, and institutions of the state crumbled. Thrilled by their success, the Taliban violated the Nizam-e-Adl Swat deal just days after it was negotiated in April. They quickly moved to capture more territory in the adjacent area of Buner. Barely 80 miles from Islamabad (as the crow flies), their spokesman, Muslim Khan, boasted the capital would be captured soon. The army and government still dithered, and the public remained largely opposed to the use of military force.

And then a miracle of sorts happened. Sufi Mohammed, the illiterate, aging leader of the Swat sharia movement, while addressing a huge victory rally in early May, lost his good sense to excessive exuberance. He declared that democracy and Islam were incompatible, rejected Pakistan's Islamic constitution and courts, and accused Pakistan's fanatically right-wing Islamic parties of mild heresy. Even for a Pakistani public enamored by the call to sharia, Mohammed's comments were a bit too much. The army, now with public support for the first time since the birth of the insurgency, finally mustered the will to fight.

Today, that fight is on. A major displacement of population, estimated at 3 million, is in process. This tragedy could have been avoided if the army hadn't nurtured extremists earlier. For the moment, the Taliban are retreating. But it will be a long haul to eliminate them from the complex mountainous terrain of Swat and Malakand. Wresting North and South Waziristan, hundreds of miles away, will cost even more. Army actions in the tribal areas, and retaliatory suicide bombings by the Taliban in the cities, are likely to extend into the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, the cancerous offshoots of extremist ideology continue to spread. Another TTP has recently established itself--Tehrik-e-Taliban Punjab. So one expects that major conflict will eventually shift from Pakistan's tribal peripheries to the heartland, southern Punjab. Indeed, the Punjabi Taliban are now busy ramping up their operations, with a successful suicide attack on the police and intelligence headquarters in Lahore in May.

What exactly do the Pakistani Taliban want? As with their Afghan counterparts, fighting the United States in Afghanistan is certainly one goal. But still more important is replacing secular and traditional law and customs in Pakistan's tribal areas with their version of thesharia. This goal, which they share with religious political parties such as Jamat-e-Islami, is working for a total transformation of society. It calls for elimination of music, art, entertainment, and all manifestations of modernity and Westernism. Side goals include destroying the Shias--who the Sunni Taliban regard as heretics--and chasing away the few surviving native Christians, Sikhs, and Hindus from the frontier province. While extremist leaders such as Baitullah Mehsud and Maulana Fazlullah derive support from marginalized social groups, they don't demand employment, land reform, better health care, or more social services. This isn't a liberation movement by a long shot, although some marginalized Pakistani leftists labor under this delusion.

As for the future: Tribal insurgents cannot overrun Islamabad and Pakistan's main cities, which are protected by thousands of heavily armed military and paramilitary troops. Rogue elements within the military and intelligence agencies have instigated or organized suicide attacks against their own colleagues. Now, dazed by the brutality of these attacks, the officer corps finally appears to be moving away from its earlier sympathy and support for extremism. This makes a seizure of the nuclear arsenal improbable. But Pakistan's "urban Taliban," rather than illiterate tribal fighters, pose a nuclear risk. There are indeed more than a few scientists and engineers in the nuclear establishment with extreme religious views.

While they aspire to state power, the Taliban haven't needed it to achieve considerable success. Through terror tactics and suicide bombings they have made fear ubiquitous. Women are being forced into burqas, and anxious private employers and government departments have advised their male employees in Peshawar and other cities to wearshalwar-kameez rather than trousers. Coeducational schools across Pakistan are increasingly fearful of attacks--some are converting to girls-only or boys-only schools. Video shops are going out of business, and native musicians and dancers have fled or changed their profession. As such, a sterile Saudi-style Wahabism is beginning to impact upon Pakistan's once-vibrant culture and society.

It could be far worse. One could imagine that Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is overthrown in a coup by radical Islamist officers who seize control of the country's nuclear weapons, making intervention by outside forces impossible. Jihad for liberating Kashmir is subsequently declared as Pakistan's highest priority and earlier policies for crossing the Line of Control are revived; Shias are expelled into Iran, and Hindus are forced into India; ethnic and religious minorities in the Northern Areas flee Pashtun invaders; anti-Taliban forces such as the ethnic Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Baluch nationalists are decisively crushed by Islamists; and sharia is declared across the country. Fortunately, this seems improbable--as long as the army stays together.

What can the United States, which is still the world's preeminent power, do to turn the situation around? Amazingly little.

In spite of being on the U.S. dole, Pakistan is probably the most anti-American country in the world. It has a long litany of grievances. Some are pan-Islamic, but others derive from its bitter experiences of being a U.S. ally in the 1980s. Once at the cutting edge of the U.S. organized jihad against the Soviet Union, Pakistan was dumped once the war was over and left to deal with numerous toxic consequences. Although much delayed, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent acceptance of blame is welcome. But festering resentments produced a paranoid mindset that blames Washington for all of Pakistan's ills--old and new. A meeting of young people that I addressed in Islamabad recently had many who thought that the Taliban are U.S. agents paid to create instability so that Pakistan's nuclear weapons could be seized by Washington. Other such absurd conspiracy theories also enjoy huge currency here.

Nevertheless, the United States isn't powerless. Chances of engaging with Pakistan positively have improved under the Obama administration. Real progress toward a Palestinian state and dealing with Muslims globally would have enormous resonance in Pakistan.

Although better financial monitoring is needed, Pakistan's support lifeline must not be cut, or economic collapse (and certain Taliban victory) would follow in a matter of months. The government and army must be kept afloat until Pakistan is fully ready to take on extremism by itself. The United States also should initiate a conference that brings Iran, India, and China together. Each of these countries must recognize that extremism represents a regional as well as global danger, and they must formulate an action plan aimed at squeezing the extremists.

Thus, Pakistan's political leadership and army must squarely face the extremist threat, accept the United States and India as partners rather than adversaries, enact major reforms in income and land distribution, revamp the education and legal systems, and address the real needs of citizens. Most importantly, Pakistan will have to clamp down on the fiery mullahs who spout hatred from mosques and stop suicide bomber production in madrassas. For better or for worse, it will be for Pakistanis alone to figure out how to handle this.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Agreering to Disagree!

We disagree and we disagree vehemently. But the other day we just stepped back and considered for a second. And this is what came out. We are still going to disagree. But it is always important to remember that we have more in common than we assume.

Transparency, but of course…

This is exactly what I was thinking about this morning. Where is the transparceny in the matter. How are we going to get a cathartatic closure. Chances are Swat is going to be another painful sore in the national psyche that is going to haunt us for a long time. The only question is the size and the consequences. Is it going to be 1971 amputation or just a minior scar like 12 May 2007.

By Kamran Shafi

THE blinding speed with which the army high command is claiming success upon success in Buner and Swat, and now, increasingly in Waziristan, is astounding to say the least.

It is so particularly for those who have watched with dismay its non progress during the many years that the Commando held this country by the throat, and indeed, for those who followed its accomplishments with consternation and alarm, during its first foray into Swat two years and more ago.

Let’s get an important matter out of the way at the very start i.e. when one questions the strategy that the army high command employs, one in no way questions the dedication of the unit commanders and the young officers and jawans who are in the frontline in the battle against the terrorist Yahoos. One only questions the wisdom of the brass-hats; questions fuelled by top generals saying not too long ago that the likes of Baitullah Mehsud and Fazlullah (aka Mullah Radio) and Mangal Bagh were ‘patriots.’

So then, according to the army’s PR wallahs literally tens of Yahoos have been killed, among them some middling commanders. Hang on though. Why, pray, have their corpses not been shown to the media? We hear too of the plush and well-accoutred bunkers with caches of ‘sophisticated weapons’ (whatever that means), marble floors and all, which have been discovered. Why are we not taken on a tour of these underground palaces might one ask? Why are pictures of the seized weapons not shown in the print and electronic media? Indeed, why is the media not allowed in the war-zone; why is it not ‘embedded’ with the forward units so that credible reports could get to a highly agitated and sceptical nation?

Actually, all we are seeing is dated footage of a tank with a dodgy engine, belching masses of smoke; and of troops charging and hitting the ground, over and over again. The only worthwhile pictures we have seen thus far were those of five wild-eyed Yahoos, seemingly foreign jihadists, to a man cruel- and sadistic-looking, who were reportedly arrested during the present operation.

Let me repeat what I had written last week: that transparency was sorely needed to repair the damage done to the army’s image. GHQ should realise too that repeatedly saying that the army is succeeding now because the people are behind it is most disingenuous. Who asked the people if they were with the army when it first went into Swat years ago? Who has asked the people now? The fact of the matter is that for reasons best known to itself, it did not acquit itself well earlier, and that is that. The fact of the matter is that every report that came out of Swat left a confounded country even more baffled as it struggled to understand just why the Yahoos were being given free rein to murder and slaughter and pillage and steal and whip and execute, sometimes under the very noses of our troops.

Let me encourage GHQ to allow access to the frontline to journalists so that a bewildered and frightened nation can see independent reports of operational success against the Yahoos. This will not only set the people’s fears at rest, it will also impel them to salute our country’s fallen sons. Also, and this is critical, the operation will not be deemed anywhere near being successful unless some of the Yahoos who are the main culprits, are not arrested/killed.

Indeed, how is it that not one of the main criminals is dead yet? How is it that their locations are not known when they are giving long interviews to the press, both domestic and foreign every other day? Indeed, how is it that our expensively funded intelligence agencies have not been able to ferret out even one of them in all this time?

Transparency, gentlemen, complete transparency, please. And perhaps a little introspection to see what went wrong and who let the matter fester until it became the monster it has become? And, perhaps, an inquiry to lay blame at the offender’s door, followed by severe punishment so that never again will our country’s affairs be trifled with.

The way the PML-N acted against its elected MNA from Rawalpindi for cheating, and against a Punjab provincial minister for misbehaving with customs officers at Lahore airport are lessons in accountability. These actions should be welcomed by all those who cherish democracy, because it is imperative that political parties who say they espouse the rule of law show that they will hold even their own to account. Kudos, then, to Mr Nawaz Sharif and Mr Shahbaz Sharif.

Which immediately brings me to the shenanigans of M/S Kaira and Gondal, ministers in Mr Asif Zardari’s cabinet, in New York, during the alms-seeking mission just recently concluded. The two are seen in widely circulated pictures on the Internet (I got at least 30 mails containing them) alighting from a Hummer stretch limo; dollar bills being showered on them; and the bhangra being danced to the beat of a dhol. And all of this a mere four days after the Swat operation/the mass exodus of refugees with just the clothes on their backs, began.The fact that this is a family paper prevents me from using colourful, or shall we say explicit language, but by golly did you trample all limits of decency, of humanity? One must ask too what their hosts were thinking when they went overboard as they did? We hear so much nonsense about ‘hamara piyara mulk’ and other such high-sounding, holier-than-thou nonsense from the Pakistani diaspora. Well, where did the piyara mulk and its travails go when they behaved so disgracefully at a time when mourning should have been more in order?

The PPP, which has already hurt itself so deeply for reasons we all know well, should discipline the ministers concerned, who in their turn, should at the very least have the courage to tender an immediate public apology.

Let me end with saying that the latest attacks on Lahore and Peshawar by the criminal and cruel and unfeeling Yahoos should be answered with the utmost aggression. ‘We will gouge your eyes out if you so much as dare to target innocent citizens of this country, you brutes,’ should be the clear message. At the same time the country must defend itself against such attacks by the political leadership gingering up the intelligence agencies to do a better job, and by sacking people out of hand if they do not come up to mark.

Also, there are many types of explosives detectors in the market which should be procured on a war-footing and installed on all the country’s major roads. Every activity should take second place to the control of terrorism – the only way to send a clear message to the Yahoos that we will not succumb to their evil.

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk