President Pervez Musharaff’s Views

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In the US of A Mush-e-ruff said

when he, talking to Pakistani pressmen in the US, said that `democracy of minority` could not prevail in Pakistan, nor could the country be held hostage to the whims and will of a few persons and parties.


Now what was the reason for TNT.....the minority couldnot stand the thought of being in a minority....is the good general making a CASE FOR ANOTHER DIVISION OF PAKISTAN!


I guess the pakistanis have learnt the ability of the minority to make merry hell very well after all they did it in the 1930 and 1940s. and have done it in India.

Now when the chickens have come home to roost mush-e-ruff is getting cold feet!

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re: #19 by arjun_m on June 30, 2003 11:03am PT

Notwithstanding the personal integrity of General Musharraf and his immediate circle, the rest of the system is still very fishy. Of particular concern is the secrecy of Pakistan`s defense budget. Pakistan spends $27 per capita on defense. How much of this is spent on salaries of poor soldiers and how much ends up in the generals` pockets is a closely guarded secret. Luckily, one of the American conditionalities for aid is that Musharraf would continue the democratization process. This means sooner or later, the politicians will also get a chance to audit the defense budget. Given the media explosion and rising political awareness in Pakistan, IMHO the first parliamentary defense committee in Pak history is likely to be formed within 2 years!

#12 Field Marshal Romair

{{There is an interesting X factor here. Pakistan has not placed any pre-conditions to talks with India. While India has always placed quite a few. The reason is that India`s economy has recently been stronger, and India had better relations with the USA. Now Pakistan is best friends with the USA.}}

Eric Margolis Romair’s favourite strategic ‘expert’ and commentator on ‘South Asia’, has a rather different - and IMO more realistic - take in his June 29 column:

http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis_jun29.html

“When the US says jump, it wants Pakistan to jump”

Pakistan`s military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, was granted the honour last week of an audience at Camp David with the Great White Father. U.S. President George Bush, who three years ago couldn`t even name Pakistan`s leader, hailed Musharraf as a ``statesman`` and ``friend of freedom.``

Gen. Musharraf was offered a conditional $3 billion US aid package, provided: a) Congress, which hates Pakistan, approves; b) Musharraf continues to arrest Islamic militants and support the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan; c) makes no trouble with India over Kashmir; d) doesn`t supply nuclear technology to North Korea.

…

In a startling public insult to a ``friend and ally,`` Bush refused Musharraf`s request to release F-16 fighters bought by Pakistan in 1989. Pro-Israel members of Congress blocked delivery of the aircraft to punish Pakistan for its nuclear program. Ironically, Pakistan`s inability to acquire modern warplanes to counter India`s state-of-the-art French Mirage 2000s and Russian MiG-29s and SU-30s compelled Islamabad to rely ever more heavily on its nuclear forces to deter hostile India, whose powerful military seriously outnumbers and outguns Pakistan.

…

Obey, Washington warned Islamabad, or we will foreclose your loans, impose trade sanctions, cut off spare parts, and give India a green light to go after you. …. But Musharraf, with a near-bankrupt nation, and faced with what he viewed as a Hobson`s choice between obedience and ruin, caved in to Washington`s demands and became, overnight, its compliant servitor.

One couldn`t fail to notice the contrast last week between the leaders of Pakistan and India. While Musharraf was at Camp David playing the loyal sepoy to the American Raj, India`s Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee was concluding an historic strategic agreement with rival China. …

…

Before leaving the U.S., President Musharraf rightly warned Americans that terrorist attacks were largely due to smoldering political grievances around the world, and that ``state terror`` against Muslim peoples was being ignored or abetted by America - an obvious reference to Palestine, Chechnya and Kashmir. Unfortunately, Bush was too busy trying to organize an international campaign against Hamas and Israel`s other Palestinian opponents to heed Musharraf`s sensible warning.

….

Musharraf`s pleas to Bush to help resolve the Kashmir dispute - the world`s most dangerous crisis that risks nuclear war between India and Pakistan - were ignored.

``Take your money, go home, arrest more militants, and don`t cause trouble,`` was Washington`s sendoff message to the general.

I received this e-mail from a friend today...thought I would share it with you Chokies... And here it was, a piece about another glorious general. How fitting.

...SR

GEN. AQLEEM AKHAR RANI, SJ, HJ, VC
IRON CROSS CLASS I, LEGION D`HONOR DE FRANCE
1924 - 2002


JULY 02, 2003 IS THE DEATH ANNIVERSARY OF GENERAL AQLEEM AKHTAR RANI
RANI - THE LADY WHO HELPED GENERAL YAHYA COPE WITH
THE WAR GOING AROUND HIM. I THINK YOUR PAPER SHOULD
PUBLISH A MEMORIAM - A SHORT TERSE ONE - REMINDING THE
NATION OF THIS BRAVE HERO OF THE PAKISTAN ARMY AND
THE HIGHEST RANKING FEMALE FULL GENERAL OF THE PAKISTAN
ARMY. THIS HEROINE MUST BE REMEMBERED JUST AS THE
DRUNKEN HEROES OF 1971. LIKE AN OLD SOLDIER SHE NEVER
DIED - SHE JUST FADED AWAY IN THE ANNALS OF MILITARY
HISTORY. THE NATION MUST CONSTRUCT A MONUMENT TO
TO THIS GREAT GENERAL AS PER THE DESIGN SUBMITTED
BY NAYYAR ALI DADA - WITH GENERAL YAHYA HALF NUDE
PISSING INTO THE FOUNTAIN POOL SURROUNDING THE MONUMENT.
I DO NOT BELIEVE SHE CORRUPTED THE HIGHER COMMAND
DURING 1971 BUT IN FACT GAVE THE GENERALS HOPE FROM
DRUNKER DISPAIR....HER NAME WILL BE REMEMBERED LIKE
THAT OF MANSTEIN, HOEPNER, ZHUKOV, PATTON, ROMMEL
AND MONTGOMERY....

re: Soma Kumar

++
Musharaff, the man, did not disappoint me, although I must confess that I had hoped that he would turn out to be a more dynamic person.
++

I agree. Musharraf is a straight shooter who doesn`t know how & when to build rapport through diplomatic niceties and strong interpersonal skills. He should be smart enough to switch styles when talking to Indians, Pakistanis, Europeans and Americans. But perhaps this is easier for politicians than for generals.

pmisra #17

{{As usual, our friend HotAir (oops, I meant Romair) quickly and firmly inserts his foot in his mouth. FYI, over 60,000 indians will visit Kashmir valley this year. I cannot find the correct link right now, but when I do so, I will post it.}}

Apparently tourism officials are expecting 200,000 visitors theis year. Rsridhar first posted the following article from The Wall Street Journal on Bina Shah’s Karachi board. [A certain Pakistani savant, in his typically pompous delusional style, saw this article as pointing to thaw between India and Pakistan as the cause for improvement in the situation in the valley.]

URL for this article [needs WSJ subscription]:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030611_007207,00.html

``FEER(6/19)Kashmiris And Tourists Share New Sense Of Optimism

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
(From The Far Eastern Economic Review)
By Joanna Slater

FOR 25 YEARS, Ghulam Mohammed has ferried passengers across the calm surface of Dal Lake in the city of Srinagar. On a recent evening, he stands near his shikara, a kind of Kashmiri gondola, and looks out from the shore. In front of him, the lake is full of similar boats, all propelled along by boatmen with heart-shaped paddles.

``Last year it was not like this,`` Mohammed remarks. ``This time we have nice business.``

Until 1989, the beauty and mountain air of this part of Kashmir ensured that men like Mohammed made a good living out of a stream of visitors from India and elsewhere. Then came the violence, as Pakistan-based militants began a 14-year battle to wrest the region from India`s grip.

That fight continues, but this summer there`s a hint of change. Amid improving relations between New Delhi and Islamabad, and with much of the rest of India in the grip of a deadly heatwave, Kashmir is once again attracting visitors -- people like Preeti and Neeta Oswal.

Wearing jeans and sunglasses, the sisters look like any other hip Indian students. But their choice of holiday destination is anything but typical: ``Our aunt and uncle said, `Couldn`t you find any other place to go?``` laughs Preeti, 21. ``But we had heard a lot about Kashmir. When we arrived, we thought `Wow, we`ve come into a new world`.`` In many ways it is: The sisters saw their first snowfall, rode in a cable car and slept in a houseboat. Tourism officials predict the state could receive 200,000 visitors this year, the highest level in four years.

Along with the tourists, something else has drifted in on the mountain air -- a sense of cautious optimism, even if it has more to do with an improvement in locals` daily lives than with any broader hopes for peace. The much-detested India-backed ruling party was kicked out in largely free state elections late last year. There are also fewer outbreaks of violence within Srinagar, though some say it`s just shifted to less visible locations.

Even the weather seems to be cooperating. Scant rain and snow in recent years had dried out the landscape around Srinagar, ``as if the valley itself were crying,`` says one local leader. No longer: wild flowers are in bloom and horses are grazing alongside a stream inside the city.

Strolling on a sunny Sunday afternoon, Faisal Shah says he stayed out with friends until 10:30 the previous night near the city`s main market, something the 20-year-old medical student had never done before. For years, fear of militant strikes and security sweeps by Indian forces led businesses to close at sundown. But these days, says Shah, ``people are becoming a bit more confident.``

Down the street at a bakery, it`s a similar story. The proprietor describes how he used to flee the store, leaving doors unlocked and products on display, when shooting broke out. But on a recent Saturday night the bakery stayed open until 10 o`clock. Just a year ago, it would close at 6 p.m.

``You`re not fully secure, but it`s much better,`` says A.R. Bhat, an insurance surveyor who has an office above the bakery. The Indian security forces are not ``so much harsh`` as in the past, he adds. However, when it comes to the current thaw between India and Pakistan, Bhat, 65, is cynical. The two countries ``are not sincere . . . They want to distribute Kashmir like a piece of bread,`` he says. The only chance talks will succeed, he says to his American questioner, is ``if you people are also sincere. You wanted Saddam to go, he went.``

Visitors, though, are happy to forget talk of politics. Down at Dal Lake, Dimple Bafna from New Delhi, who hadn`t visited Srinagar in 23 years, is waiting for a ride. Motivated by vivid memories of previous trips, she`s come with her four sisters and two children. ``We had heard it`s become much safer than previously,`` she says. ``We thought, `Let us take a chance`.``

The only downside, she says, is that the Kashmir of her memory was more lush and less commercialized than today`s reality. Should violence ebb in the valley, the new challenge in attracting visitors may be living up to the region`s previous reputation -- a welcome change from living down its present notoriety.``

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Soma here is something for you and all the chowk gangs to read and mull over....

ans yes, dear Romair - I guess you have heard of the pakis in the US arrested for being terrorist`r`us even before the esteemed mush-e-ruff left the soil of the US of A. And now here something for you to chew on.....soon that one-step-from-pakistan=game of any terrorist activity will become apparent to all the world.....


http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-katz-devon063003.asp

title:A Global Network

quote 1:

The indictment of the eleven individuals never mentions al Qaeda, however al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba are very much connected financially, ideologically, and militarily. On September 12, 2001, Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks, releasing a statement maintaining, ``The attacks on the World Trade Centre and other places were not an act of terrorism but an Islamic duty.`` Though al Qaeda soon became and was the official perpetrator of the September 11 attacks, Lashkar-e-Taiba`s claim of responsibility was not far from the truth.

Quote 2
Lashkar-e-Taiba tends to keep a low profile amongst Americans, but it is one of the most organized and best funded terrorist groups and remains a breeding ground for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. The terrorist group has trained thousands of mujahedeen, sending them to areas as diverse as Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, and the Philippines.

Quote3:

Lashkar-e-Taiba is the military wing of the religious group, Markaz Dawa Waal Irshad, which had among its founders Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden`s mentor and original founder of al Qaeda. Azzam, assassinated in 1989 by unknown assailants, traveled the globe spreading his Jihadist ideology, seducing many disaffected men to participate in jihad, for no more than the sake of jihad. Azzam`s most famous quote is no doubt the most telling about his ideology: ``Jihad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences, and no dialogues.``


(me: see that conection already being made...ooops ROMAIR there it goes.....how long before its cutains for the military of pakistan

all the indications so far are that Pakistan IS ALWAYS JUST STEP AWAY FROM ANY TERRORIST ACTIVITY - BE IT THE ACTUAL GUYS WHO DO IT, THE FINANCIERS, THE TRAINERS, THE CAMPS, THE ORGANISORS etc. The charade is over.

It was this message that the US of A and Bush gave mush-e-ruff in Camp David hence the constipated look on the illegal dictator`s face. As they say the `game`s up`.)

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Hotair #12

[quote]
I doubt any Indian would want to visit it now openly, unless he is part of the security forces.
[end-quote]

As usual, our friend HotAir (oops, I meant Romair) quickly and firmly inserts his foot in his mouth. FYI, over 60,000 indians will visit Kashmir valley this year. I cannot find the correct link right now, but when I do so, I will post it.

It is a substantial recovery from the 1999-2001 period though not as much as before 1989. Getting tourist flows up to pre-1989 is one of Mufti Sayeed`s main goals.


Soma:

you are wasting your time on Musharraf. You might as well go to Bal Thackeray and ask him for advice on Hindu-Muslim relations. This guy is a loser, unfortunately he is going to kill a lot of people before he is eliminated/retired/sent into exile. He is completely following the standard Paki dictator formula. You can review the life-histories of other Paki dictators to understand his ultimate fate.

Only fools think that Kashmir is the only dispute between India and Pakistan. There are wide-slew of disputes from history, primarily having to do with Pakistan`s self-appointed role as a custodian of Islam in South Asia and Indian resistance to this nonsensical notion.

Without positives to take us forward, we will remain mired in these disputes. Sensible indians and pakistanis need to focus on strong positives that will help take us forward. Recently, the indians made progress on ``positives`` with the Chinese. Doesn`t mean we dont have big disputes with them, but them first we try to get more positive stuff going.

But military people are unlikely to understand stuff like this. Musharraf is trained as a commando, shooting from the hip and making sudden raids is more his thing. Beyond that he is big 0 strategic thinker. Even LK Advani comes off as a reasonable person in comparison.

harimau,

......... don`t be ridiculous! ....... india, a donor nation - how silly can you get! ........ india ranks 124 out of 173 countries on the human development index scale and as far as i know there are millions of indians sleeping on the streets of calcutta or trying to catch a rat for dinner ............ all right, pakistan ranks 138 and a lot of pakis haven`t heard of dental hygiene and are sharing tents with their pet sheep, but let`s not get carried away and start giving away money to norway and sweden .........i think there are plenty of folks in india who need the money more than the starving scandinavians ........... this is almost as silly as pakistan giving ``aid`` to bangladesh.........