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Pakistan's flawed and feudal princess It's wrong for the West simply to mourn Benazir Bhutto as a martyred democrat, says this acclaimed south Asia expert. Her legacy is far murkier and more complex William Dalrymple Sunday December 30, 2007 The Observer One of Benazir Bhutto's more dubious legacies to Pakistan is the Prime Minister's house in the middle of Islamabad. The building is a giddy, pseudo-Mexican ranch house with white walls and a red tile roof. There is nothing remotely Islamic about the building ..... Which is, of course, exactly why the West always had a soft spot for Benazir...

Pakistan may not make it The country's future now depends on a power struggle between the army and Bhutto's son Peter Galbraith Monday December 31, 2007 The Guardian With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's survival depends on the outcome of a struggle between the army and Bhutto's Pakistan People's party, now headed by her 19-year-old son Bilawal. The protagonists are mismatched and the odds are that Pakistan will not make it. For all its flaws, the PPP is Pakistan's only true national institution. As well as overwhelming support in the Bhutto family's home province of Sindh, it has substantial...

ANALYSIS-"Failed state" Pakistan raises nuclear threat Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:41am EST By Luke Baker LONDON, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Security experts fear Pakistan's nuclear materials could fall into the hands of Islamic militants as the country's instability deepens in the wake of Benazir Bhutto's assassination. In early 2005, a joint security assessment by the CIA and the U.S. National Intelligence Council predicted Pakistan would become "a failed state, ripe with civil war, bloodshed, inter-provincial rivalries and a struggle for control of its nuclear weapons and complete Talibanisation" by 2015. Following Bhutto's death in Rawalpindi on Thursday, some experts believe...

Pakistan’s heart of darkness C. Uday Bhaskar Saturday, December 29, 2007 Benazir Bhutto’s assassination has brought into relief the multiple security challenges the country faces. The tragic but not unexpected assassination of Benazir Bhutto at an election rally in Rawalpindi has pushed Pakistan into far greater internal political turbulence and societal discord than ever before. Civil society in Pakistan is shell-shocked and the possibility of a protracted civil war-like situation cannot be ruled out. The fallout of this dastardly event will add to the many challenges that a beleaguered President Musharraf and the Pakistan military are already facing. Unconfirmed reports...

Al Qaeda is right under Musharraf's nose December 28, 2007 Since 9/11, there has been hardly any jihadi terrorist strike anywhere in the world in which there was no Pakistani connection. Since 2002, there has been hardly any jihadi terrorist strike in Pakistani territory in which there was no connection of the Pakistan army's general headquarters. By GHQ, one does not mean the entire army; one means some elements in the GHQ. The first wake-up call about the possible presence of one or more sleeper cells of Al Qaeda [Images] in Rawalpindi came in March 2003. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, who...

Times Online December 28, 2007 Pakistan military can deliver security, but not a long-term solution Bronwen Maddox, Chief Foreign Commentator of The Times The burning barricades set up across Karachi today by Benazir Bhutto's supporters do not have to presage civil war. Pakistan has gone through a year of crisis, as eight years of military rule has unravelled, yet enough of the country's institutions work well to have provided a powerful steadying influence through the growing turmoil. The military itself, the strongest organisation in the country, is the biggest insurance against widespread sectarian violence. The civil service, the judiciary (even...

After the shock Greg Sheridan, foreign editor | December 29, 2007 The West is failing to keep alive its friends in the Muslim world. Foreign editor Greg Sheridan writes that Thursday's murder also underlines the failures of Pakistan's dictatorial President THE assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a catastrophe for Pakistani democracy and society. It is also a savage setback in the larger war on terror. To assassinate a two-time prime minister, a moderate and liberal woman leader in the world's only Islamic nuclear power, is a signal victory for the terrorists. Bhutto's assassination also has wide geo-strategic consequences. It leaves...

Impact of US wargames on Pakistan N-arms ‘negative’ By Anwar Iqbal WASHINGTON, Dec 2: US-sponsored wargames that simulate capturing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons to prevent them from falling into wrong hands are having a negative impact, experts say. On Sunday, The Washington Post carried a detailed report on such exercises, pointing out that the all such games came to the same conclusion: Pakistan’s cooperation -- particularly that of its military – was crucial. According to the Post, the US government has conducted several such games in recent years, examining various options and scenarios for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons: How many troops might...

Pakistan’s been here before MURTAZA RAZVI Friday, November 30, 2007 at 0000 hrs It’s only the generals riding the fanciest horses who find this political merry-go-round ride enthralling. What ails Pakistan today is not Pervez Musharraf, in or out of uniform, nor indeed the lack of a stable political system. These are but symptoms of the graver malaise eating away at the heart of the state: the continued stranglehold of the armed forces over all power. The proposed palliatives — the bitter pills in the form of Musharraf as a civilian president, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif or the erstwhile king’s...

American Connection Fri, 2007-11-30 02:51 By Asif Haroon American connection has all along remained a key element of our foreign policy and has experienced several vicissitudes. All our political and military leaders apart from Quaid-e-Azam have pursued US centric policies. Major reasons for this tilt towards US camp have been our security concerns coupled with economic woes. Pakistan joined the US sponsored defence treaties in the early fifties to thwart Indian as well as Afghanistan and former Soviet Union aggressive designs and to possibly find a solution to the Kashmir dispute. The SEATO and CENTO pacts were in actuality meant...

Chinese president congratulates Musharraf on re-election www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-29 19:59:41 Print Special report: Pakistani Situation　 BEIJING, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao Thursday sent a message to Pervez Musharraf, congratulating him on his re-election as Pakistan's president. In the message, Hu said that China and Pakistan have always respected, understood, trusted and supported each other on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence since the two countries established diplomatic ties more than five decades ago. He said that Pakistan is China's good friend, neighbor, partner and brother all in one, noting that the two countries have forged...

Will Benazir have control of nukes if returns to power? * Report says Benazir saw Dr AQ Khan as a potential ally * She reacted differently to sharing N-technology with Iran, N Korea By Khalid Hasan WASHINGTON: If Benazir Bhutto assumed power, it remains an open question if she would be willing to exert civilian control over Pakistan’s nuclear programme, or would even have the ability to do so, according to a report published here. According to an article by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins in Foreign Policy, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on a 1989 visit...

Can Pakistan's Military Be Trusted? Friday, Nov. 09, 2007 By ROBERT BAER The mess in Pakistan should make us miss the Cold War — really miss it. There was a time when Washington could call up Islamabad and order a jihad on the Red Army occupying Afghanistan — and Islamabad would salute. Islamabad was our loyal ally in the Cold War. Granted, no one in Washington was happy when Pakistan started developing a nuclear bomb in the '70s. Or when it finally tested one in May 1998. But still, we slept nights knowing that Pakistan's pro-American, Western-trained generals, our generals,...

Can Pakistan’s nukes get loose? Seema Guha Wednesday, November 21, 2007 Unlikely, say Indian strategic experts. The army is still in control NEW DELHI: Alarm bells about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into the hands of jihadi elements in that country have been ringing for quite sometime now. In fact, with the growing Talibanisation of the frontier region of Pakistan, the US and the rest of the Western world have been worried. The New York Times’ recent report about the Bush administration spending up to $1 million to keep Pakistan’s nuclear weapons secure created quite a stir in India. The government...

If only Pervez were more like Suharto Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor | November 08, 2007 PAKISTAN'S Pervez Musharraf is a weak, ineffective and foolish dictator. He is a dangerous friend and an impotent enemy. Long a trafficker in terrorism himself, he now justifies a second military coup by raising the spectre of further terrorism. Nowhere in the world today is more important, more dangerous or more fluid than Pakistan. And it is all of that in part because of the personality and performance of its dictator. Sometimes the word dictator can prevent clear thinking in the Western liberal mind, as...

Pak spent bulk of US aid on arming against India Agencies Silicon Valley, November 21: Pakistan has used a significant portion of the US aid since September 11 attack to arm itself for a confrontation with India instead of conducting war on terrorism, according to a strategic think tank. Most of the USD 10 billion US aid is supposed to compensate the Pakistani government for sending its 80,000 or so soldiers to the Northwest Frontier Province and providing support to the US war in Afghanistan. However the money has been used for procuring high-tech weaponry to arm the military for...

PAKISTAN: Critical & Catastrophic Scenarios - International Terrorism Monitor: Paper No. 307 By B. Raman Pakistan has been in a state of unstable equilibrium due to the erratic decisions and actions of President Pervez Musharraf since March, 2007, and his inaction against pro-Al Qaeda jihadi terrorist elements in the tribal areas, which has led to the emergence of a de facto jihadi state in the South and North Waziristan areas of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and in the Swat Valley of the Provincially-Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). 2. The Mehsud tribe, headed by Baitullah...

Since ‘war on terror,’ Pakistan imported more arms from US than previous 50 yrs New Delhi, November 17:It's well-known how high the stakes are for the United States in Pakistan amid the political crisis and the violence in the Waziristan region but for the first time, there are numbers to show how heavily Washington has invested in Islamabad: the total value of Pakistan’s arms purchase from the US since the war on terror began in 2001 is almost 20% more than the that of the previous 50 years put together. This startling data figures in a report prepared for the...

Pakistan's nuclear-armed army faces its sternest test yet By Rahul Bedi. Asia Pacific, 10:30 AM IST As Pakistan slips further into anarchy, it is its omnipotent 500,000-strong army that deserves attention as it remains the only institution, however imperfect, capable of providing a modicum of stability amidst grave turbulence. Events on the ground, however, indicate that like Pakistan's politics, its judiciary and civil society, disturbing cracks are also emerging in its nuclear-armed army that has directly or indirectly ruled the country for most of the country's 60 years. And, as it increasingly engages jehadis in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas...

Military rule will not quell Pakistan’s Islamists By Robert Templer Published: November 15 2007 18:50 | Last updated: November 15 2007 18:50 However the tempestuous politics of Pakistan play out, one thing is certain. General Pervez Musharraf can no longer claim any legitimacy to lead his country. His approval rating is just over 20 per cent, most Pakistanis do not want him to be president again and the Supreme Court was expected to declare his candidacy illegal before he threw the judges out. He may be able to rig elections due in the new year but he and his regime...