An Almanack

Engineering is the most sought after career among the Indian middle class, replacing Civil Service in the British days. In addition to several elite schools like the IITs, India has several hundred Engineering colleges that churn out techies by the thousands. There is no shortage of talented and well-prepared students for these professional schools, despite the poor conditions in most of India’s high schools. The secret is that students, and parents, spend a fortune on private tuition. There is a whole cottage industry preparing students for the entrance exams.

There is a negative side to this. Sciences and humanities suffer as talent is sucked away into the professions. Still, overall, the system has benefitted society: the Indian economic boom is powered by the graduates of these many regional engineering colleges and to a lesser extent, the IITs.

Pakistan on the other hand has failed in its many attempts to revive its educational system. Not having outlets for their energies, young men-and some women- turn to militant religious organizations for inspiration and guidance. The havoc they cause is a problem for India and the rest of the world, but it is threatening the very existence of Pakistan. (more…)

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For someone living within American culture, India’s response to the Mumbai attacks looks either suicidally passive or diabolically clever. Despite daily statements that make vague threats (”all options are still open”) the most direct action India has taken so far is to cancel a cricket match with Pakistan. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister even sent the President of Pakistan a New Year’s greeting card.

The card carries the picture of a white dove with flowers in its beak

Zardari must have said ” Dammit! Why didn’t I think of that card thing?”.

What is going on here? Why coddle people who are still denying that one of the most vicious attacks on innocent civilians was launched from Pakistan?
(more…)

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India and Israel have both been victims of terrorist attacks in recent months. Their response could not be more different. Israel has opted for direct action, in a bold and widely condemned attack on Gaza, from where Hamas launched rockets to attack Israeli civilians. India has taken a judicial approach, collecting evidence against the Mumbai attackers and pressing Pakistan to extradite the terrorist commanders who directed the operation from within its territory. Which strategy will work in the long term?

I will not go into the root causes of either conflict. Instead, I will try to explain why each Nation is acting the way it is, and examine whether it is rational for them to act as they do. (more…)

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Ever since the Salman Rushdie incident, the word Fatwa has had a negative connotation. Perhaps no word has been as misunderstood, with the exceptions of jihad and madrassa.

It turns out that a fatwa is a kind of judicial opinion from an islamic religious authority. In nations that have adopted the Shariah as part of the legal system, a fatwa could have the force of law. But mostly, it is guidance for the faithful. Because Islam does not have a hierarchy like the Catholic Church, each religious authority has to rely on its own reputation as the force behind its fatewa.

Outside of the Middle East, the most respected school of Islamic studies is Darul Uloom, located at Deoband near Delhi in India. It was founded in 1866 after the defeat of Indian forces by the British. The school played an important role in the Freedom Struggle of India. It opposed the creation of Pakistan, and asks its followers to participate peacefully in Indian democracy. Its influence extends well outside of India. The mainstream of Islam in Pakistan is historically of the Deoband school. After Partition, certain logistical difficulties clearly exist and Saudi Arabia is playing an increasing role in providing support to the madrassas. (more…)

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Hoax phone calls used to be funny. As a teenager, Steve Wozniak, the inventor of the Apple computer, figured out the Bell System technical protocols- he and Steve Jobs had found the manual at the SLAC Library. Woz used this knowledge to call the Pope, pretending to be Henry Kissinger. His fake German accent was good enough to get the Holy Father out of bed. But before he took the phone, an aide figured out that it was some California teenager pulling a prank. (more…)

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The US National Intelligence Director has taken the unusual step of placing blame in public: AP

The same group that carried out last week’s attack is believed to be behind the 2006 Mumbai train bombings that killed more than 200, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said Tuesday during a speech at Harvard University.

McConnell did not identify the group by name. However, the Indian government has attributed the 2006 attack to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani terrorist group based in Kashmir, and the Students Islamic Movement of India.

Hard to know how to evaluate this information. The Bush Administration just isn’t that credible after the epic failure of intelligence on WMD in Iraq. They could be right this time: the boy who cried wolf was right one time too. Whether or not the LeT are behind this particular attack, it has already been designated a terrorist organization based on its previous record.

At first one may think that the LeT is a secretive organization, operating out of some cave in the mountains. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Although it is banned, the LeT actually operates freely in Pakistan: it just changed its name. It runs schools, hospitals and provides social services. Its headquarters is in Muridke: a suburb of Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city.They even have a website in English. and in Urdu ( the national language of Pakistan.) (more…)

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Anger in India is currently focused on its own Government. The mindless bloodbath that followed some previous attacks has not happened. What we see instead is a quieter rage, one that can be channeled to something constructive. For, rage has its uses too.

Every one, the US Sec State included, seems to be counseling the Indian Government against an overreaction. Certainly, no one wants a war between two Nuclear-Armed adversaries.

But what of the dangers of under-reaction? What will be the consequence to India and to the world if they are allowed to get away with it?

There seems to be consensus that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is behind this attack: (more…)

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President-elect Barack Obama is about to announce his foreign policy team.No matter who is on it, Obama promises that the policy will be set by him. Nowhere is his intellect more needed than on policy towards Pakistan.

On 1 Aug 2007 Obama said:

The first step must be getting off the wrong battlefield in Iraq, and taking the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He said he would make the hundreds of millions of dollars in US military aid to Pakistan conditional on the following actions by the Pakistani government:

1. substantial progress in closing down terrorist training camps
2. evict foreign fighters
3. prevent the Taleban from using Pakistan as staging area for attacks in Afghanistan

I have not heard a clearer analysis yet. There is more: (more…)

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So what do we know so far about what is going on in Mumbai? (more…)

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Daniel Markey was Policy planning staff member, South and Central Asia portfolio, U.S. Department of State (2003-2007). He is now a senior fellow for South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. It is interesting to listen to the diissolution of Musharraf through the words of Dr. Markey:

Mar 3 2008

Musharraf is a diminished asset. He is exceedingly unpopular. No one disagrees with that. The time has come to really get on sort of the right side of history, essentially for the United States to jump into the future and work with more popular forces in Pakistan

Feb 23 2008

Musharraf is obviously a poison pill. He is fading out.

(more…)

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It’s official. The Grey Lady hath spoken. The Pakistani secret service (ISI) has been aiding terrorists even as they claim to be fighting them. Not only that, they rigged the original election that made Musharraf President. The plan was to hold the extremists in reserve, to use against India and Afghanistan when the Western powers lose interest in the region. Except they ISI lost control of them. Once you convince people that they will go to heaven for killing, it is hard to make them stop. Duh.

Will anything change because NYTimes wrote a font page lead story stating the obvious? Probably not. Still, it is one step in the right direction.

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Breaking News….

The crack investigation team set up by General Musharraf to investigate the death of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto has submitted its report. The conclusions might surprise some who made hasty deductions based on a grainy video.

Mrs. Bhutto died from a severe case of indigestion. Having lived abroad for so long, her stomach could no longer handle the spicy food of her homeland. A particularly spicy meal of Naan and Chicken Tikka at Army HQ in Rawalpindi did her in. Other than that, the dinner was a nice affair.

In the videos shown you can see her bending over suddenly with stomach pain. Purely by coincidence a young man in the crowd can be seen raising a revolver and aiming it at her head. The near simultaneity of these two events led most of the world to mistakenly conclude that Mrs. Bhutto was assassinated. The truth is mundane but inescapable.

Unscrupulous elements are trying to take advantage of the confusion. They will be put down mercilessly. The truth has always been on the side of the Glorious Pakistan Army.

Absurdistan Zindabad!

We return to our regularly scheduled program now.

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Other Posts on Pakistan

Contrary to popular wisdom it really is the time now to assign blame. It lies squarely with the Pakistani Army and its Commander-in-Chief, Pervez Musharraf. The same army assassinated her father, Zulfikar Bhutto, after a sham trial. The same army has been plundering the country’s wealth and put its judges in jail in the name of security. (more…)

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Other articles on Pakistan
Excerpt from an interview with President Bush by ABC News Nov 2007.

What’s his name has agreed to hold elections in January, and he’s agreed to take his uniform off. Frankly, I think he should do that in the privacy of his own home, but hey, everyone wants the man to take off his own uniform, so lets let him do it anyway he wants. Make sure you cover it live Charlie.

Do you mean Musharraf?

Yeah him. Have trouble remembering his name. General. General something. Hey, he knows how to call me, I don’t need to remember his name. (more…)

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Next in Line?

Despite his willingness to blog on our site , I also think it is time for Musharraf to go. It is not enough that he `take off his uniform’. It is time for Musharraf to retire from the Army and give up the Presidency. If he is merely overthrown by his own hand-picked successor, the situation will only get even worse. (more…)

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The Lincoln of Pakistan

Other posts edited by P. Richard Saunders

Editor’s note I am posting here the full text of my dear friend Mushie’s decree imposing emergency rule. A partial text of the decree has been published before by BBC. I have been able to obtain additional secret parts of the decree as well as Mushie’s own commentary explaining the thinking behind it. A couple of words had to be redacted to preserve good relations with allies. So here goes: (more…)

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My friends abroad, I am writing this with joy in my heart. Our long national nightmare is over. Full Democracy has been achieved and Full Justice has triumphed. Extremism in all its forms has been defeated. The humiliation of public servants by the judiciary has been stopped. Our Mission has been Accomplished. (more…)

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Read Also Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3

The shadowy machinations in Pakistan bring to mind another time and place where a President who had also been a General acted decisively to enforce a Court Order. The President was General (retd.) Eisenhower dealing with a crisis that started almost exactly fifty years ago today. The Governor of Arkansas, Mr. Orval Faubus, was determined to prevent black children from attending the same school as white children. In a bit of political grandstanding, he personally blocked the entrance to the school in Little Rock Arkansas to prevent the Federal Marshals from carrying out an order of the supreme Court (in Brown v. Topeka) to integrate schools. (more…)

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We were just leaked a white paper on the situation in Pakistan written by up and coming analysts who used to man the South Asia Desk at State. Now they write in a blog named The Washington- Not!. For reasons of modesty they wish to remain anonymous. But they acknowledge the influence of the ponderous and inebriated Malarkey penned by a more senior former State Department official (from whom they hope to get a job some day). (more…)

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Read Also Part 1, Part 2

Pakistan is at a turning point. There might be reason to be cautiously optimistic. The Supreme Court has recently (more…)

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P. Richard’s Almanack

Politicians are despised everywhere. According to most of us, they are corrupt, devious, self-serving, lazy, unprincipled, ignorant and dumb. Not a day goes by that we don’t hear about yet another politician doing something idiotic or getting into legal trouble¹.Yet, we need these rogues. (more…)

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