Sayonara Swat and Rawalpindi

A suicide bomb blast near Pakistan Army's General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi killed seven people and injured 11 others . I agree with Anjum Niaz's view in today's The News that while His Enlightened Moderation should get his due share of criticism, we should allow other actors in this fatal game to beat the rap under the guise of "anti-Mush"or "anti-imperlialist/US" - as these are the actors who are (unfortunately) likely to outlive Mush and bound to stay with us long after Mush is gone.


it is time we moved beyond the spectre of a lame-duck general and apportion equally the blame on others who with their unfettered greed have eviscerated the law and ruled over us as if Pakistan was their personal fiefdom.

Why have we fallen in a Musharraf rut? We rarely question the malfeasance of the mullah, the military and bureaucracy that have kept the majority of 170 million Pakistanis poor, illiterate, unskilled, and chained to medieval religious beliefs that over time have ripened into rabid faith often exhibiting itself in the worst of inhuman practices like suicide bombing, beheading, lashing, honour killing, slaughtering and stoning to death of helpless victims.

Where is the nazim? Where is the police head? Where is the military commander? Probably cooling their heels in some temperature-controlled, crony-infested, delicacies-laden 'office' while Stone-Age brutalities get daily enacted in their own backyard. And what are the politicians doing? Plotting who the next caretaker prime minister will be and who will be his/her cabinet of chamchas.