It’s rare that I single out a post from another blogger as an excellent news source. However, this particular one from Richard Fernandez (aka “Wretchard”) of Belmont Club presents one of the best end to end views of where the fractures in Pakistan came from, the shape they’ve taken now, and what might need to be done to clean things up.
I’ll put up a few excerpts here to give you a taste but, I recommend reading the whole thing –
The degree to which the Pakistan has been patched together is expressed in its very name. “The name was coined by Cambridge student and Muslim nationalist Choudhary Rahmat Ali … he saw it as an acronym formed from the names of the ‘homelands’ of Muslims in northwest India — P for Punjab, A for the Afghan areas of the region, K for Kashmir, S for Sindh and tan for Balochistan, thus forming “Pakstan”.
…Unable to compete in conventional war with India, even with the acquisition of nuclear weapons, Islamabad began to use proxies to advance its foreign policy objectives. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Pakistan engaged in two conflicts with nuclear armed powers largely using proxy terrorist organizations and infantry under the cover of plausible deniability. The first was its war against India in the Kargil district, fought at a time when both nations already had nukes. The second of course, was the ISI’s participation in ousting the Soviet bear from Afghanistan.
With 9/11, the Pakistani’s were forced to choose between the West and the Taliban. While heretofore Pakistan had a de facto “export the problem” approach like the Saudi’s, American involvement in Afghanistan brought the state of affairs to an end. And thus, Fernandez argues, the real dynamic is how blowback from the fall of the Taliban exposed the weak seams of Pakistan’s patchwork…
Just how radically the Taliban’s defeat in Afghanistan affected Pakistan can be gathered from the fact that when in July, 2002 “Pakistani troops entered the Tirah Valley in the Khyber Agency” it was the first deployment into the area since independence in 1947. The Pakistani troop movement was in some respects like the invasion of a foreign country.
…In 2007 three ominous developments took place. The first was the open clash between the political representatives of the Islamic militants in the capital and President Musharraf as represented by the siege of the Lal Masjid or “Red” mosque. ..The second event was the Islamic militant offensive in the Swat Valley. “The fighting in Swat is the first serious insurgent threat from pro-Taliban forces in what is known as a settled area of Pakistan…The third and most serious development was the emergence of a campaign of suicide bombings and attacks in the cities of Pakistan itself, the most famous being the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
And a key point for mutineers commenting from across the seas on the latest troubles in Pakistan –
…From the viewpoint of the Western public, Pakistan is seen as a “safe haven” for Taliban threatening to take back Afghanistan. In the Western view, Afghanistan is being invaded by al-Qaeda stationed in Pakistan. But from the Pakistani point of view, as shown in al-Jazeera video below, it is the reverse: Pakistan is now being “invaded” from Afghanistan.
Question for Mutineers (particularly Pakistani ones) — how accurate is Fernandez’s view of the state of Pakistani civil society throughout the country?
We’ve always known that the NWFP was like a “a whole other country” more akin to Taliban Afghanistan than Karachi / Lahore but the degree painted by Fernandez is quite interesting. Most of the Pakistani’s I’ve known over the years came from the relatively urbane, affluent Punjabi / Sindh portions of the country… consequently, the window into country there doesn’t quite apply to the tale told here….
Great post Vinod.
Wasn’t NWFP pre-independence leader Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan (also known as Sarhad Gandhi) sympathetic towards India? What role did his political organization play in the post independence Pakistan, I think they were called Khudai Khidmatgars.
About Pakistan’s name, I think that the fact that the word “Pak” means ‘holy,chaste,pure’ in Urdu may also have played a part in the naming of a Muslim nation. Later on P for punjab K for Kashmir etc. may be used to “explain” it. My Pakistani friends (all either from Lahore or Karachi) have always mentioned MWFP as “sarhad” as in ‘border’ in Urdu. So I am not sure about the explanation of A for Afghan. Besides until the election (rigged by the muslim league) in NWFP, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan wanted to either stay Independant or join India or join Afghanistan. Due to his urging Pathans boycotted the referendum in NWFP and 80% people did not vote and from a rigged election finally NWFP was awarded to Pakistan.
I don’t know how much anecdotal evidence is worth, but consider this: I was recently reporting from Pirpiai, a village about 20kms from Nowshera. This is PPP leader Naseerullah Babur’s home district, has a literacy rate of over 80% and a majority of the population speaks English. In the 1960s, the Communist Party of Pakistan was the second largest party in the province. Without exception, every woman in the village now wears a bhurka. And I saw a barber shop that had the sign “No Shave” written in English, Urdu and Pushto. It was really spooky.
Vinod — Wretchard is an idiot. The piece is not only strategically misinformed, it is has basic factual errors. Don’t waste your time.
Some examples.
Wrtechard wrote: of Pakistan’s challenges from the very beginning was to keep from falling apart, a task that fell largely to the military.
No. The task fell to political actors, especially the Muslim League and other parties. Which failed. The military took control and, as a political actor, cemented the failure. Then Bhutto finished the job.
Pakistan suffered a disastrous defeat at India’s hands in the Kargil but had better luck supporting the Taliban against the Soviets.
No, the Taliban were created after the Soviets withdrew. PK supported guys like Hekmatyar against the Soviets. This is a basic chronological error.
When US troops drove the Taliban out of Kabul they turned those explosive forces back upon Pakistan. Ending the rule of al Qaeda and Taliban in Kabul was purchased at the cost of turning Pakistan itself into the main battleground.
No. The Afghan Taliban continue to fight Karzai and the international forces. The militants turned on the Pakistani military after the gvt attempted to take control of the tribal areas and, especially, the red mosque incident.
Look — that’s three significant errors int he first two paragraphs. I strongly reccommend reading the original NYtimes/IHT on the Frankenstein monsters hatched by the ISI that have now turned on their creators. I don’t recommend Wretcherd.
Oh, one more:
The ISI created and nurtured these Islamic terrorist groups not as an end in themselves but in order to hold the fractious Pakistani state and its threatened borders togethers
No. The groups were mostly created to fight India. Really, how can Wretcherd write a piece on the ISI’s militant groups without once mentioning the word “Kashmir”.
Uh, the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1990. The Kargil War was in 1999.
Mr Yogi.
KAGK remained under house arrest, but his son became a prominent politician. Also a bit of an iconoclast:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Wali_Khan
The party became the Awami league nuder the son’s mantle — its Pak’s main opposition party right now.
Wretchard’s blog entry is not worth the paper it’s written on. Too many factual errors, including the basic timeline of Pakistan’s history. And the conclusions about “proxy wars”, etc., seem to be pretty much regurgitated from other analysis in the media, so they seem reasonable at first glance.
Instead of rebutting it line by line, I’ll give a chronology of the relevant events in Pakistan that contradicts the blog entry, when I get some time.
In the meantime, you might amuse yourself with some of my (admittedly cynical) rantings on http://bbrahmin.blogspot.com.
I am glad somebody said it. It is not said often enough, unfortunately.
They stole the ‘I’ from India, I’m sure! It’s WAR now, people!
4 · Ikram said
Boom boom dishoom dishoom.
What is so obvious that as soon as the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in early 1989, the trouble in Kashmir started. I dont know why the “experts” are not able to connect these simple dots.
3 · Bubs said
May I ask where this anecdotal evidence from? any link? There is no town in NWFP with 80% literacy rate not now and not in 1960. The Communist Party in Pakistan was banned in 1951 and it did not contest any elections in Pakistan ever under the Communist Party name. In fact there were no elections in Pakistan in 1960. Without exception every women and Pirpai wore burka in 1960 too.
12 · HP said
Read: Without exception every women IN Pirpai( pirbhai) wore burka in 1960 too.
11 · RC said
You make an excellent point. Furthermore, did you know that the Kashmiri violence became drastically reduced after 9-11?
2 · RC said
There is something about the term “Land of the Pure” which strikes me as an ethnically cleansed land. Perhaps I’ve read too much from some Indian nationalist websites.
Another thing, if PAK stands for “Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan”, where is the letter that stands for Bengali, since this was the single biggest province when Pakistan was formed in ’47?
If that was the case, you may not have had a Bangladesh now, would you. Though I doubt how much Pakistan has learned – look at Sindh, look at Balochistan, FATA. And in latest news, more marines are being deployed for Afghanistan as the situation there is getting worse.
16 · Ardy said
I’m not sure I understand your point. The way the Pakis have much internal disputes and civic unrests, it’s possible that the name ‘Pakistan’ will one day become ‘Tan’, since no Punjabis, Afghanis (Pasthuns), Kashmiris, Sindhis, etc. live there.
“Tan” – now that would be a real nice name for a Desi country.
12 · HP said
pirpiai does infact have a literacy rate above 90%. Having said that, it still is hardly different from other villages in NWFP. The people share the same social outlook as they always have.
I am from Pripai and my village really have a literacy rate of above 90%. The village have produced very respectable names in the country & province since early 1900.