May 26, 2002 06:38 PM
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(Updated Oct 09, 2002 04:39 PM)
The Civilization and Culture of Pakistan: The ancient civilization dates back to tens of thousands of years, which is now called the “Indus Valley civilization”. But since the present day people of Pakistan, bear no resemblance to the people that settled on the banks of Indus river, I wouldn’t credit Pakistan for that civilization.
The present day society like that of India is varied, a mixture of feudal and modern with equal presence of religious purists, liberals, fanatics, traditionalists etc. The cities of Karachi and Lahore are vibrant, chaotic and decadent like any other Indian city. It might come as a shock to many who believe that Pakistan is a deeply conservative and religious society – but the nightlife of Lahore is not any different from that of Bombay and its red-light areas are as notorious.
Kashmir: Kashmir is both Pakistan’s weakness and strength. As a nation, Pakistan would have crumbled long ago, but the universal obsession with the cause of Kashmiris unites the Punjabis, Sindhis, Baluchastanis, Mohajirs, Shias and Sunnies. Kashmir is also the reason, why Pakistan is not able to progress rapidly, the war machine created by the ISI sucking up its resources.
ISI: (and other villains) In India, we joke about the “foreign hand” – an excuse, used by our politicians for blaming every disaster. But ISI is not a joke. Its hands are big, huge and monstrous. There are some people in India who believe President Musharaf controls the ISI. They are dead wrong. ISI rules Pakistan, had always ruled Pakistan and will continue to rule Pakistan. Weather there is a democratic government or a military regime, none can go against the mighty ISI and when they dare, they are bumped off like Gen.Zia or Nawaz Sharif.
How did this intelligence agency became so powerful? Because, it was trained under the expertise of the most deadly, demoniac and dangerous agency – CIA. Our experts who appear on TV studios debating about the tilts and balancing acts of US Govt are very naïve if they believe in their stupid theories. Pakistan is ruled by ISI, which is a south-asian front of CIA. It was ISI-CIA combine which produced the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. The so-called war on terrorism is just a lot of noise – an excuse to control oil and drug fields of Afghanistan and Iraq, an easy way to earn huge commissions on increased arms spending.
The other villains are the Britishers who created the mess in the first place. The prime reason, Pakistan was created, was to check India from becoming a big powerful superpower. As it is they had China to contend with, which they never managed to conquer. The creation of Kashmir problem, apart from keeping their arms factories running, also allowed them a foothold in the South Asian region.
Solutions: There are two possible solutions to the Kashmir problem. The best solution would be if both India and Pakistan would realize that they are mere pawns in the deadly game being played and came together to form a federation along with other SAARC nations. Srinagar could be made a capital of this new federation. Kashmir could be made military free zone, with high degree of autonomy and people of Kashmir be allowed to travel freely between the Indian and Pak held Kashmir.
Since this solution will be unacceptable to the rulers of Pakistan, the other way is to stop this ridiculous policy of blow hot-blow cold that is currently being followed by New Delhi. India should prepare a white paper and present to the world steps that it would take if Pakistan fails to put an end to the infiltration and support to militant groups. We should lay down a firm step-by-step method by which Pakistan would be punished if fails to keep the level of militancy down. For example at first level, India could end of diplomatic relations, at second level – declaration of Pakistan as terrorist country and so on. The biggest weapon India has is the control of water. As the ultimate step India could threaten that it would block the flow of upper rivers. Without the water from these rivers, Pakistan’s very existence would be endangered forcing the leadership to make peace with India.
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