Is it Zardari’s time for Ghardari?

These days every Pakistani is amazed at the way MQM has gained position in popular politics and attention by the media through their stance on NRO and Asif Zardari’s resignation. The way Mutehda leaders are responding, it appears that they themselves were not expecting outcomes of their decisions to be this positive for seeking attention at the National level and especially by the National level media which always appeared apprehensive about Mutehda’s Politics due to its rough behavior in Karachi towards private channels (Attack on Aaj T.V office and blocking of private channels transmission through cable operators etc).


Even though it is still too early to expect that MQM would be able to increase its National assembly seats from outside Sindh, Kashmir and Gilgit in the near future but they seem to be learning tricks of the trade (National level politics).Mutehda has done real damage to Pakistan People’s Party which now is unable to ENCASH Bhutto family’s sacrifices due to major corruption scandals and spilling mismanagement. Many ministers have joined their co-chairman by making commitments which they did not honor (after all getting rid of load shedding was not written in Holy grail!) and by getting involved in immoral (America’s visit dance party scandal) and corruption scandals (Raja Ashraf’s rental power plants along with a long list of Mr.Zardari’s friends involved with Land Mafia and Banking industry scandals).The silliest mistake of all was trying to get direct control over Intelligence agencies ( failed effort to merge ISI with interior ministry and use of IB funds to finance coup against PML(N) in Punjab.

At this stage Triumphs seem to be heading towards PML (N) which seems to be preferable by Army over Pakistan People’s Party (Shahbaz Sharif and Caudhry Nisar’s recent meeting with Army chief).Main stream media also acknowledges its popularity and in the memory of masses there are no major corruption scandals but a principled stance for restoration of judiciary and party’s position against NRO.


To add more to the misery of People’s Party leadership ,all the tools for controlling judiciary seem to be gone and party co-chairman wants to survive with a team which never believed in him (actually avoided him when Ms Bhutto was alive due to his never ending appetite for Free Rides and Lunch).

Some people say that Pakistan People’s party has always survived against adversaries and will still survive but in my opinion this time the fortress has been set on fire by the ones who were supposed to protect it and the only way out is to change the commander and bring in someone interested in saving the Castle (and in making it a fortress).

Is Iran involved in Baluchistan?

Couple of days back there was a suicide attack on Iranian security forces in which several people lost their lives and Iranian National ego was severely hurt. Immediately Irani Interior minister and President accused Pakistan for the incident. My personal opinion is that this incident took place in response to Iranian underground activities in Balochistan. Question is why? why would Iran be interested in Balochistan? In my humble opinion it is Gwader which reduces strategic importance of Iranian and other ports.

Chahbahar in south western Iran is likely to become the strongest competitor of Gwadar to transit trade for Afghanistan, Central Asia and China. Chahbahar is considered as the economic gateway to the world due to its location on the Oman Sea shore outside the Strait of Hormuz. It shortens the inland link from the sea to CIS countries by up to 100Km. Chahbahar provides the shortest link across to Central Asia and the Middle East. Even Bandar Abbas and Busher sea ports are said to be economically accessible for cargo.

GWADER,Located at the entrance of the Persian Gulf about 390 nautical miles east of the Gulf of Hormuz and about 234 nautical miles west of Karachi. 80 kms from the Iranian border. It is about 320 kms from Cape al-Hadd in Oman and situated in close proximity to the Iranian ports of Chahbahar and Bander Abbas. Strategically located outside the sensitive area of the Straits of Hormuz, a major conduit for global oil supplies in the region. The port came to worldwide focus during the first Gulf War when shipping lines were confronted with security issues. Gwadar, close to the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, is located on the southwestern coast of Pakistan.

Dubai is the hub of business not only for Gulf but also for rest of the world including Europe, United States, Africa, China and Central Asian States, simultaneously. The gulf region is facing many political conflicts at the moment and huge disturbances in the current administrative structure are expected in the coming years. In such a scenario, a substitute of Dubai is essential to be located before the crisis hits the finances of millions. The substitute shall be a nearest point probably, to ensure continuous supply line of oil from Gulf to the outer world. Fortunately, Gwadar proves to be the nearest and infact more cost-effective substitute of Dubai.

China is emerging as a super economic power of the world in the recent years. Despite occupying a huge area of world's land, it doesn't have any port of hot waters, which can be used the whole year. The distance of Chinese industrial approach to the Shinghai port is approximately 16000 km and the sea travel of 2-3 months is additional. This costs them a lot in the form of taxes and duties as well. As compared to this, Gawadar port is only on a distance of 2500 km from China and the port is working for the whole year because of the hot waters here. Therefore, the interest of China in the development of Gawadar port is infact in the interest of Chinese economy.

The central Asian states, after the independence from USSR, are trying to develop their economies. These states are land locked and Karachi was expected to provide them the services through Afghanistan. For the purpose, a highway from Peshawar to Karachi was constructed but due to Afghan crisis, this line couldn't be established. The Afghan situation is till not clear, so, Gawadar being near to Iranian border will provide port facilities to Central Asia as well.


So it is evident that GWADER and Chahbahar are competitors and their simultaneous existence would reduce Bargaining power of both the countries with economic entities which are interested in trading around this region.This aspect becomes even more significant as Iran is not and never was in good books of Europe and America and with the development of Gwader these regions would't be pressurised to improve relations with Iran and on the other hand due to Gwader,Iran will not be in a position to negotiate with the mentioned regions in a dominant fashion.

Another fact is that Except for Bhutto era,Pakistan was never really close to Islamic countries of Shia Belt (Iran,Iraq,Lebanan etc)and its strategic alliance has always been with Sunni countries like Saudia,Turkey etc so in case of a major strategic issue there is not much historical or sentimental affection to hold back a direct clash.

Lets hope that both of these counties can join together and make a greater use of their strategic location.

What is you opinion?
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Information sources for this post:
Rupee News
Gwader fact sheet
CSS Forum

United States of Pakistan???

Everyday when we wake up till the time we sleep, media keeps on reminding us about the fact that how insecure our lives are. Experts keep on discussing that what went wrong, what is going wrong and what will go wrong. These experts appear on one after another channel, explaining incidents and discussing events. A Lot is highlighted about possible changes in Map of Pakistan, Indian intervention in Balochistan, Growing hatred against Punjab by other provinces (so possible split of the larger province),Terrorism, corruption, Growing crimes due to economic reasons and only God knows the limit of what else more.

I was in my mid teens when I used to hear that Bengalis got separated because Bhutto did not accept their election success but with the passage of time I came to know that there were economic reasons too like Bengalis were not getting their share through the income of Jute and the resource allocation was not suitable for the large population of Bengal. Circumstances have not changed even now as I observe economic reasons for an unstable Pakistan. For example if our national resources are split on the basis of population than Punjab gets the largest share, If major chunk of budget is allocated to Defense expenditure than it goes to Army which seems to be dominated by Punjabi population. NWFP demands royalty for water reservoirs built in their area; Balochs demand the same for Natural Gas (along with control over Guwader port), Sindhis are not happy about water resources distribution etc. The hatred has reached to an extent that a Baloch leader was saying it in a T.V interview that if Pakistan army can use American weapons to kill Balochs than why can’t Balochs use Indian support to retaliate.

Pakistan has four provinces and there are separation movements in three of them

Balochistan Liberation Force (BLF)
Giyay Sindh
Tahreek e Taliban Pakistan

Unlike 1971 this time it’s more than Indians who are involved in Pakistan. Indian involvement in Balochistan is carefully discussed but rumors have it that Iran, Saudia and America are also directly involved in our part of the world. This intervention is ignored and or welcomed due to economic reasons. Four provinces are like brothers fighting at the dinner table for having larger share out of the limited food. These brothers are seeking foreign support without realizing that they will be kicked off the table once the family split is completed. The tragic part in our national story is not resource limitation but the fact that we are all Muslims and sharing and sacrificing is part of our religion.

Where would this lead us to? Would NWFP be added to Afghanistan as an AFPAK POLICY by Americans? Would Balochistan be handed over to China to ensure execution of AFPAK POLICY? Would Sindh join India? Would Punjab survive without any water sources and eventually unite with Indian Punjab? Is it all real? Or its just media celebrating its freedom which it never had in the history of this Nation? Is our existence actually at stake? Would Pakistan split and remaining part of it would survive as an American colony?

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Parental Codes(and social checks?)

Parental Codes???

The most important aspect of Globalisation is advancements in Telecommunication and free information flow .Access to knowledge and entertainment which belongs to another culture / society sounds and feels exciting as it is new to us and mostly it’s in a form which is not acceptable by our cultural and religious discipline so its tempting to be rebellious and break away from traditional school of thought (Which apparently looks backward and outdated).

There is nothing wrong with being rebellious or trying something new but the issue is about lack of coaching and guidance in this regard from elders to their youngsters. Mostly our elders just give orders about what to do and what not to do but rarely do they feel comfortable discussing adulthood related issues with the teenagers. In our society Internet is unfiltered, Movies are uncensored and Cable unchecked. Most of the foreign channels give warnings regarding Viewers restrictions (SNLV 13/16/18 OR 18+ etc) but the problem is that what is acceptable for viewing of and 18 years old American is not supposed to be acceptable for a Pakistani of any age .Similarly uncensored and smuggled CDs are a bit too easily available in our society. In case of WEB it is argued that the number of adult entertainment sites is too large to block but still some effort can be made to reduce this number.

In Urban areas usually average marriage age ranges between 22-30 years whereas adolescence starts at around 12 years so in case of this much access to adult entertainment content, there can be very obvious issues like practicing what is being watched at LCD screens without realizing our society’s digestion for repercussions (and our society is certainly a lot less tolerant for the outcomes even though it shows great patience for the causes and agents responsible for these issues).

What should be done about it?

Nothing as it is bound to happen with the developments in technology?

Or Instead of restricting access we should be more open about discussing the adolescence related issues?

Do we need to seek rescue through religion??

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