Why Devdas was so upset...

Counterpoints, a reply to a dear friend

Read the original post entitled 'Myth Busters' at Ali' Malik's blog, http://demopak.blogspot.com/

I must confess that I haven't been one of those who've followed your blog, but this last post reads as a sort of open challenge. I will not dispute the fact that the media has been manipulated time and again, but I believe the accusations you've levelled here need to be answered. Lets take it from the top.

Accusation 1: Mehsood and Taliban are US agents
So you deny that Mehsood and Taliban are following an agenda alien to Pakistan? By that, I mean an agenda that does not originate from inside Pakistan and is aimed at destablising Pakistan as a whole. Turkistan, Qari Zain and every other so-called 'rebel Taliban commander' who seems to have renounced Baitullah insist that he is being funded through Afghanistan by a combination of Mossad, RAW and other intelligence/national spy agencies. But since the ‘fundo media’ reported this too, I guess you will also dispute this assertion.

I am very impressed by this next para. I did not think someone who has watched events unfold before their eyes could have put such a slanted spin on events.

"Pakistan’s fragile federation was in near collapse during last couple of years of Musharraf rule and had it not been for US’s active efforts to save the federation from collapsing even by arm-twisting some of her Mid-Eastern allies, it could well have collapsed."

This, as opposed to the fact that now, separatist elements are openly advocating the creation of more provinces, demanding separate homelands for themselves, and coalition partners are openly negating the very premise of partition. And this seems to me to be a very one-sided view of the time-period you are referring to (the last long-march, if I am not mistaken).

Cases in point:
Najam Sethi’s interview with Altaf Hussain: Altaf admits he has little support in Punjab because he has opposed the two-nation theory and believes that the Musalmaans of undivided India did not gain anything from partition.
Whatever anyone’s personal opinions may be, and no matter what kind of spin you put on this, this one statement implies that Altaf Hussain is opposed to the idea of Pakistan as put forward by Mr Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of my nation. (I say ‘my’ because there is apparently very little support left for Quaid ka Pakistan.
“Yeh uska Pakistan hai jo sadr-e-Pakistan hai.” (Anwar ul Haq, CTC)

The resurgence of separatist parties: Apart from the fact that for the first time in Pakistan’s history, we stand at a point where no one political party commands a majority in any TWO of the country’s four provinces. The governments are, effectively, as of today: ANP in NWFP; PML-N in Punjab; an uneasy PPP-MQM coalition in Sindh and an even shakier PPP, PML-Q and JUI-F coalition in Balochistan. At least one senator (a so-called former Musharraf crony) Mohammad Ali Durrani, has already tabled a bill for constitutional amendments to facilitate the creation of new provinces. He asks for at least 16 more provinces to be formed. The MQM chief has echoed this sentiment, and says there is nothing wrong with such a move.
Secondly, a resurgence of separatist and nationalist (nasal-parast) parties has been seen over the past 12 months. During the ‘tyrannical’ reign of Pervez Musharraf, these elements were silent/had been silenced. However, with a return to power of the ‘People’s kee hukoomat’ these parties have found a new lease on life. They include the ANP (a comparatively more mainstream party); the Balochistan National Party, Balochistan Liberation United Front, Balochistan Liberation Army, Balochistan Liberation Front,·Baloch People's Liberation Front, the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and many more. Why is it that ethnic tensions, sectarian killings and other such problems are on a rise in Sindh and Balochistan?

Accusations 3, 4 & 5: that We face terrorist threat because we decided to side with US in War on Terror; that Suicide bombers are produced in retaliation to killings by Drone attacks; and, that Drone attacks are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty.

I will deal with all of these as one because they all focus on the ‘War against Terror’. I ask three questions in turn.

Firstly, why are all provinces (even the home province of the ruling PPP) willing to support the operation but unwilling to cope with the fallout, or, at the very least, support the IDPs displaced by the military action they voted for? And these are all things that have been reported by the ‘fundo’ media.
Secondly, we have settled that discrimination, resentment and maltreatment at the hands of the majority are the major factors behind the sense of deprivation that plagues our tribal belt and the remote areas such as Balochistan and south Punjab, which prompts men to blow themselves and renowned religious scholars up. However, this current government has done little, if anything, to check that. It seems as if today, one province’s hegemony has been replaced with another’s and the two ‘chotay bhai’ are suffering just as they were before.

CASE IN POINT:
Two-tier treatment in Pakistan's Jalozai camp
JALOZAI, Pakistan (AFP) — Koubad and Azizullah live in the same camp in northwestern Pakistan -- two of the millions of people displaced by a blistering government offensive against Taliban militants.
But while one of them comes from the wealthy Swat valley region and lives in the camp's "VIP" section, complete with electricity and a kitchen, the other, from Pakistan's tribal areas, is living in misery.

Read the whole article at:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5htk7YLmcgcR5zd4Axu6Kh9DehBLw

And lastly, and this is in response to the “US is our guardian angel” argument, when was the last time the United States of America did anything for any other country of the world out of the goodness of its own heart. Yugoslavia? Vietnam? Korea? Afghanistan? Haiti? Mozambique? Somalia? Sudan and Darfur? Palestine? Lebanon?
They have a plan. That plan will unfold, with or without you and me. My job is to make sure I can explain that to everyone in my country who doesn’t understand that. If our interests align today, they may not tomorrow, and this democracy we are all proud of can derail in the snap of my fingers. As you yourself have said, all you need to do to take over is to send three battalions, one to the presidency, one to lock up all MNAs and MPAs and one to PTV. And done. Pakistan is yours.

"Shout, shout. Let it all out. These are the things I can do without..."

Withdrawal is a horrible thing to go through, especially alone. Unfortunately, alone is how you end up if you’re not everything the world wants you to be.

Great thing the human mind is. It can rationalize even the most unforeseen of events, explain the inexplicable and come up with amazing explanations for things it didn’t even dream of in its wildest dreams. And it’s a symbiotic relationship. This allows you to stay sane through the bewildering wilderness you find yourself in when something like this happens.

But last night, as my brain began senselessly rationalizing the past 6 months of my life, I couldn’t help but ask, “Where was all this three months ago?” It answered, “Would you have listened three months ago?”

It was right. I wouldn’t have.

Rationalization # 1: You knew this would happen. This was why your ring tone for her was this song:
“They say that every heavens got a thousand rooms
So take me on that freedom ride
My heart is like a hunters in the silent moon
My nerves just feel electrified
Meet me on the staircase
Outside a darkened room
Light me like a naked flame
The voice of mother nature states
All things must pass
And nothing can remain

You raise me like a building to the very top
Rush me to the end of time
You fill me full of danger
You give me future shock
Then you leave me wasted dying”
She’s a River – Simple Minds


Discovery: I call it ‘Happiness at hundred (kmph)’. It works. You need 5oz of any sedative drug, standard pot will do. Smoke that joint as you accelerate, faster and faster through the night. So disoriented you forget that its Saturday night and start wondering why so many people are out and about at 0200 hours. But as you race through the night, the endorphins rush through your system and you feel like that car’s heading to Mars.

Realization: This is what has become of me. This is what I have become. I wasn’t always like this. And no matter what anyone else might say, it is my fault.

“And I go blind
Wasting my time
The rivers in front of me”

FIN

Aey watan paak watan, paak sadar, paak watan!

Just one of the many shady and inhuman deals our 10% President has been involved in.


Lawyer says 11 French killed in Pakistan over submarine money
CHERBOURG, France, June 18, 2009 (AFP) - A probe into the 2002 killing of 11 French engineers in Pakistan is focusing on France's failure to pay a commission for the sale of submarines to Pakistan, a lawyer for the victims' families said Thursday.
The lawyer, Olivier Morice, said former president Jacques Chirac and former prime minister Edouard Balladur had been mentioned in the decision to halt the payments.
Morice spoke after two French anti-terrorist investigating magistrates had met with families of the engineers killed in the attack on May 8, 2002 in the Pakistani city of Karachi. A car packed with explosives was driven into a minibus carrying the Frenchmen, all engineers working for a French state firm, DCN, that was building submarines for Pakistan. The 11 engineers and three Pakistanis were killed.
Investigators had been looking into an Al-Qaeda link to the attack.
But Morice told AFP: "The Al-Qaeda track has been totally abandoned. The motive for the attack appears linked to the non-payment of commissions."
Morice said the payments were stopped when Chirac became president in 1995 because he wanted to stop part of the money financing the campaign of Balladur, who was his political rival on the French right at the time.
Magali Drouet, a daughter of one of the men killed, quoted one of the anti-terrorist judges, Marc Trevidic, as telling the families that this theory was "cruelly logical".
She added that according to this scenario, the attack was carried out because the special payments were not made by France to Asif Ali Zardari, who is now Pakistan's president but was a minister at the time.
High-ranking politicians would likely be called in to testify, said Morice.
Details of the payments emerged in 2008 as part of an investigation into French arms sales.
Police seized documents from the French firm, now known as DCNS, which discussed the companies used to pay fees in connection with arms sales.
One unsigned document spoke of Pakistan intelligence services using Islamist militants.
It claimed that "the Karachi attack was carried out with complicity within the (Pakistani) army and the office supporting Islamist guerrillas" within Pakistani intelligence.
The document, which has been added to the case file, said those who employed the Islamist group had financial aims.
"It involved obtaining the payment of unpaid commissions" linked to the sale of French submarines to Pakistan in 1994, it said.
A French investigator, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that "new elements" had been found in the inquiry, but declined to give details.
Balladur, head of the French government before Chirac became president, said Thursday that he knew of nothing improper in the submarine deals.
"There were indeed agreements made with the Pakistani government," he told French television. "To my knowledge, all of it was perfectly regular. I have nothing else to add."
Two alleged members of Al-Qaeda-linked group Harkatul Mujahideen al-Aalmi were found guilty by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan in 2003 over the Karachi attack.
But the high court in the southern province of Sindh last month acquitted the pair, saying in an order that "the prosecution has failed to prove the case against the appellants beyond any reasonable doubt."


UPDATE 1-French probe alleged Pakistani role in bombing PARIS, June 19 (Reuters) - French magistrates investigating an attack in Pakistan blamed on Islamist militants that killed 11 French nationals in 2002 are looking into allegations it was linked to corrupt deals, lawyers for the victims' families said. A coach carrying French naval engineers and technicians was bombed as it left a hotel in Karachi in May 2002. The attack killed 14 people in total. Pakistani authorities at first blamed Islamist militants and two men were sentenced to death for taking part in the attacks, but their convictions were overturned on appeal in 2003. French magistrates Marc Trevidic and Yves Jannier told the victims' families they were now investigating allegations the attack was orchestrated by unnamed Pakistani officials angry with France over the non-payment of bribes tied to a defence deal. "The investigating magistrates told us that they believed this scenario was extremely credible," one of the relatives' lawyers, Olivier Morice, told reporters. According to these allegations, some kickbacks ended up in the campaign funds of then Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, a rival of Jacques Chirac in the 1995 presidential election, a judicial source familiar with the matter told Reuters. President Nicolas Sarkozy was Balladur's campaign manager in the ballot and was also budget minister when the lucrative sales contract for the French Agosta submarines was signed. He rejected on Friday the magistrates' suspicions. "Listen, this is ridiculous," Sarkozy told reporters at a news conference after an EU summit in Brussels. "This is grotesque ... We have to respect the grief of the families. Who would ever believe such a tale?" he added. Balladur also denied any knowledge of wrongdoing. Asked about the allegation by French state television, Balladur said: "As far as I am aware, everything was completely above board. I have nothing more to say. If anyone has any proof, let them speak up." Lawyer Morice said the investigating magistrates had obtained a top secret internal memo in October 2008 from the state-owned shipbuilder which contained the allegations. The memo, copies of which were shown on French media on Friday, says French and Pakistani officials connived to take bribes as part of the sale of the submarines to Pakistan. It says France stopped paying the bribes after the 1995 election, won by Chirac, and that Pakistani officials kept asking for them for several years.
The allegation is that they eventually lost patience and organised in retaliation the attack on the bus full of French engineers, who were working on the Agosta submarine project. Trevidic and Jannier cannot speak publicly about their investigation because the rules of their position forbid it.

"Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again..."

CRACK! A sharp, loud sound reverberates through my whole body. I turn to look at those around me, but none of them seems to have heard anything. Somewhat relieved, I turn and sink back into the state of uneasy acceptance that has become almost second nature. It’s been a sensation that’s stayed with me from childhood, kinda like the hiccups you get after crying for too long. And like a stubborn child, bawling on the inside, I lean back on the head-rest of this ancient bed to write yet another chapter in the tragedy of my life.

Recently, I posted a quote by Ingmar Bergman onto my Facebook page that read, “My basic view of things is — not to have any basic view of things. From having been exceedingly dogmatic, my views on life have gradually dissolved. They don't exist any longer...” I realise now that Bergman quantified this feeling long before I’d even felt it. Now what does that tell you about the human brain? If two musicians sitting in different continents, in different time zones, interacting with different peoples, living in different cultures playing on different scales altogether can come up with the same progression of notes on two separate occasions, how can you deny the presence of a Borg-like collective human thought-bank, secretly planting ideas into the heads of those it wants to empower or destroy.

In this dichotomy, I think I would have to be on the collective’s shit-list. I used to go around telling people to learn from their mistakes. I figured anyone dumb enough to make the same mistake twice, thrice or even four times over was unworthy of respect. And although that belief stays as it is, I have come to value my intellectual prowess (or the lack thereof) much less than I used to.

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled, according to CS Lewis in ‘The Screwtape Letters’, was convincing men that one is equal to the other, i.e. the belief that ‘I’ am no less than ‘you’, and in some cases, ‘I’ am more than ‘you’. ‘Animal Farm’ talked about how all animals were equal but some more so than others. And, of course, Bertrand Russell told us all about self-centricity, calling it ‘persecution-mania’. By this he meant people who thought all bad things happened to them and that the world essentially revolves around them. Catch 22: only insane men flew combat missions over German cities in WW2, and clinically insane men were not allowed to fly. But if you came and asked to be grounded, you were conscious of your insanity, and hence, not insane. So get back in the cock-pit, flyboy.

Inescapable.

I’ve been unfaithful to this blog for too long now.