The gutless cowards ruling Pakistan

It was only inevitable that the Pakistan government would sue for peace with the Taliban. In a desperate bid to stave of the approach of insurgency in the Punjab and Sind provinces, the spineless government caved into the demands of a bunch of thugs and virtually signed away a province over to these miscreants.

Any follower of the history of Pakistan will not be surprised. There is a precedent to this too. In 1965, Pakistan fought a war with India trying to settle the Kashmir issue, once and for all. The war ended in a stalemate. Although the territories of the then state of Pakistan was divided into West and East Pakistan, over 90% of the armed forces were concentrated in the West, essentially protecting Punjab and Sind from India. This was in line with the strategic doctrine that defense of East Pakistan lay in West Pakistan. Thus on the eastern front, the Indians outnumbered the Pakistani troops defending East Pakistan by more than three to one.This fact was not lost on the East Pakistanis who increasingly started viewing the army as a west Pakistani entity created to defend only West Pakistan. The seeds of secession which culminated with the creation of Bangladesh were firmly sown as a result of the 1965 War.

The good people of Swat and the North West frontier province are also learning the same lessons. When it come down to it, it is the most vulnerable of the citizens of Pakistan who are suffering. Statistically, the NFWP province are eons behind in development of human resources, infrastructure and other amenities as compared to the Punjab and Sind provinces. They are the one who need the support and help from the Pakistan armed forces to repel the raga tag bunch of hoodlums who have forcibly taken over their state. Yet the Pakistan government prevaricates. Despite the fact that thru a open and fair election, a secular progressive government under the Awami National Party (ANP) was elected to power, ( clearly throwing out the Islamist incumbent party which was in power) the central government claims that they are honouring the wishes of the "majority" of the people of Swat by "allowing" the Taliban to take over power in the state.

The hope of these spineless, gutless bunch of morons in power in Islamabad is that the blood lust of the Taliban vampires will be sated by the sacrifice of the boon dock provinces. Reading the Pakistani blogs, you see the same picture. What they don't realize is that once the slim pickings in these provinces are sucked dry, the Taliban will be looking greedily at the fat, rich and decadent core provinces of Pakistan. They will start with Baluchistan. It is out of the way and the same threat of random human suicide bombings will scare the government into relinquishing control into Taliban hands. Quetta is already under quasi Taliban control. Next will be Sind starting with Karachi where the MQM and the Pathan are already at war, with the Sindhis as silent spectators. Punjab seen as the Babylon of vices will pay the price last. And all because the government was not willing to take a stand.

What the government should do is to establish the writ of the state in every corner of Pakistan. What is the point in bemoaning the loss of sovereignty of Pakistan when the US blatantly bombs the NWFP, when at the same time not a whisper is raised about the existence of non Pakistani players extracting taxes and holding courts where they are police, prosecutor and judge.

Currently neither the Army nor the bureaucrats not the common citizen care about the fate of the outer lying provinces. What they don't know is that by not acting now, they have embolded the Taliban. Small two bit players are parleying with the government representatives as equals nay as superiors bargaining from a position of strength. If the government keeps this going, its only a matter of time before the inevitable happens. The Taliban version of hell will spead into every corner of Pakistan.

Zardari, Sharif and Musharraf, the bells of Taliban hell are tolling. They are tolling for you.