Clarion Content

Unfortunately the situation in Pakistan has gone from bad to worse. Unable to completely supress the desires of the Pakistan people for freedom the United States backed, military dictator, Perez Musharraf has declared martial law. Insiders say the main issue is not the failure of Musharraf to make a deal with one of his two civilian predecessors as President. Rather, the problem continues to be unrest in the tribal areas the Clarion highlighted in early October.

The reason General Musharraf declared this state of emergency was not because he was unsuccessful in extra-judicially removing the Supreme Court's Chief Justice, the Chief Justice, who stood up to the General and told him he would have to remove his uniform before running for the presidency again, no, rather, the General declared this state of emergency because unrest (read: low intensity conflict) had gotten so bad in Baluchistan and Wazhiristan(in the Northwest Frontier) that it had started to spread outside the northwest provinces to the rest of the country including Lahore and Islamabad. Reports indicate Pakistani Army casualties from this conflict have skyrocketed from 100 last year to more than 700 this year, including 600 in July alone. Complicating matters much of Pakistan's Army is recruited from these very same provinces. Musharraf and the Army have conducted hundreds of court martials this year of rank-and-file soldiers refusing to fight.

Pakistan is literally coming apart at the seams. Civil society such as it exists is disintegrating. America? America is supporting its dictator. No mind that he has cancelled elections, used the cover of martial law to forcibly remove that problematic Supreme Court Chief Justice, ordered thousands more members of civil society detained without cause or warrants. Unarmed lawyers are being beaten in the streets by policemen with clubs. And America backs its man.

The Pakistani Army is the largest landowner in Pakistan. It consumes over 50% of the annual budget in a country where schooling is beyond the means of all but the wealthiest. It it any wonder that parents are sending their children to the madrasses in droves. The Army has over $4 billion dollars in business interests, beyond soldiering. Is it any wonder this feudalistic society foments extremism?

Now, hear. The catchiest of Catch-22's is, Pakistan, is a nuclear armed state. Holder of the loosest nukes this side of the Ural Mountains. Pakistan is the home of the notorious A.Q. Kahn who let the nuclear genie far enough out of the bottle to bring North Korea into the club. These nuclear weapons and whose finger is on the button is America's first and foremost concern about Pakistan, the whereabouts of Osama Bin-Laden are a distant second, and General Perez Musharraf's health and equanimity matter no more than his ability to control access to those nukes. The health of civil society and the average citizen's freedom isn't even on the radar.

Labels: Middle East, Politics