"me no big chief …

Ms Benazir Bhutto returns to her homeland to meet the powers of destruction.
In an interview with the BBC,

Ms Bhutto said she was lucky to be alive.
“I don’t believe the state or the government was involved in the attack on me at this stage,” she said. “But I do believe that the sympathisers of the militants had managed to infiltrate some of our agencies… to give covert support to the militants.” Ms Bhutto says she has sent President Musharraf the names of three former military officials she accuses of involvement in the attack.

Photo: Washington Post

The truck of Pakistan former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is parked after an explosion in Karachi, Pakistan on Thursday, Oct 18, 2007. Two explosions went off near the vehicle carrying former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto, killing or wounding dozens of people. Party workers and police said Bhutto was unhurt. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)

It must be painful to see one’s own homeland being destroyed from within.
To have to blame one’s own country’s people for the murder of one’s motherland.

Pakistan was “born” 60 years ago. It didn’t exist before then.
The founding fathers of Pakistan had a clean slate to write on.
The story of Pakistan shapes from that moment.
But somewhere it has all gone wrong.

I only see a series of wrong decisions.
I cannot call it mistakes,
for I am sure they were made convinced they had the best of Pakistan at heart.
But in 1947, no one could have envisaged what the world would be like 60 years on.
If in 1947 the world was in black and white, in the ensuing sixty years it has got all swirled up in shades of greys.
Today there are too many grey areas.

Just the division of the British India itself, was a tragedy.
It led to mass migration of millions, leaving them homeless and penniless.
Death estimated to be around more than half a million.

Both countries came to existence with million paupers born overnight
who needed to be accomodated and looked after.

1956: Pakistan decided to ditch secularity to become Islamic.
The very reason it was formed, to protect “a minority” was lost.
Instead of protecting “any minority”, it chose to make other religions feel alienated.
Every other religion in Pakistan perceived themselves as an unwanted community.
It only weakens the country if their own citizens feel they do not belong.

The letter K in paKistan represent Kashmir.
As early as 1933, the Muslim League created the name Pakistan on an acronym.

Mr Jinnah and his fellow founders, I believe, became obsessed with Kashmir.
They could not accept their new found country without having Kashmir.
The Kashmir conflict led to three wars, and two major confrontations with India.
No other issues. Just Kashmir. And that war never died out. It still goes on.

Whenever the Pakistani military has felt threatened in an internal power struggle,
Kashmir was an issue that could be relied on to stoke up public passion, public support.

Pakistan lost a bigger area of land in the East, but did it stop the country functioning.
It did not cause the country to disintegrate or collapse.
Yet Pakistan could not give up on a smaller piece of land, Kashmir.

Instead of building the infrastructure of their new homeland, improve law and order, health and education, she spent time efforts and more of all a fortune
to fight wars and to strengthen her Military.

This inevitably led to:
Shift of disproportionate power to the Military and not the State.
And in doing so, she lost her democracy.
Yes, some of their politicians were corrupt, and lined their own pockets, but the country had her voice. But they have also had military dictators, has one now, who may or maynot be honest we will never know, but the people of Pakistan have lost their voice.

The race for a nuclear bomb.
Pakistan’s military successfully convinced the government, that to counter India’s “aggression”, Pakistan needed a N-bomb to survive.
India has never showed any aggression towards Pakistan.
India’s N-programme was aimed against China’s N-arsenal against who we had fought a war over disputed territories.
India didn’t need N-deterrent against non-nuclear Pakistan, she needed against China.
No country develops N-bomb, to invade another country for occupation.
No life is known to survive in a radio-active wasteland.

What did it cost Pakistan. To become an ally of China.
1963, Pakistan signed over a tract of Kashmir to China “as a gesture of goodwill”.

A tract of land that did not belong to Pakistan to handover.
No plebiscite was held in that piece of land to determine what its people wanted.
Soon after, Pakistan had a N-programme with China’s help. And America’s knowledge.

Aligning themselves with any state that were India’s enemy, ie China and America.
Once aligned to dishonest superpowers, they were left at the mercy of these States.

If America wanted to fight “commies” in Afghanistan, they had Pakistan’s soil to form its base for a proxy war. Arms were flown in. The country became a military training ground; was flooded with foreign fighters and firearms.

Dollars and support to the Pakistan Military and America had everything they wanted.
The Pakistan military wanted money and weapons, they got what they needed.
Their Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was entrusted to train mujahedins,
and support the Talibans to fight and kill the Soviets…only for being communists.
In turn, the ISI became intensely powerful, the islamic fanatics got arms and weapons.

The Americans turned a blind eye when Pakistan diverted some of that money and weapons to create training camps for militants, to fight their own proxy war in Kashmir.

America invaded a sovereign state to remove a “dictator” and introduce “democracy”. Two countries away, their “biggest ally” has a military dictator.
America has done nothing to bring democracy to Pakistan.

In 1933, when the concept of Pakistan was floated,
had the intelligent men behind it realised 60 years on she would be a military State.
Deeply indebted to China on one hand and America on the other.
Playing the dangerous game of playing one against the other.
Two superpowers, that has traditionally been enemies.

I try to imagine a situation where Kashmir had been allowed to choose for themselves.
No invasion by Pakistani army assisted tribals, no loots or rapes or plunders.
No need for signing an Accession, no need to ask India for military help.
I am certain, Kashmir would have gone for a secular democracy.
The third sibling of our independence.
And a painless birth.

I try and imagine Pakistan and India, instead of fighting wars over Kashmir, spending their resources to build; to give their citizens better life, better living.

I even try to imagine an undivided India.

The mind boggles with the hindsight, with only the ifs without any of the buts.

PakistanKashmirIndiahistorynewsdemocracy

Posted by littleindian on . |

Tags: America, dictatorship, ISI, military, Musharraf, Pakistan
Posted in India, News, World Politics