Thus, fiftyfour years and a month after gaining independence and tearing India apart, did the Islamic Republic of Pakistan choose the status of “Frontline Ally” of the United States. The General had little alternative. He had been assured that the US would bomb Pakistan into the Stone Age if he refused. Worse – India would help the US to do so. In a TV address a few days later, Musharraf cast himself as the Prophet Muhammed (praise be unto His name) temporarily aligning with one evil (the Great Crusader Satan) to defeat another  (the Hindoos), much as the Prophet aligned with the Meccans to defeat the Jews before treacherously conquering Mecca.  He neglected to add that unlike the Prophet, he had made a Faustian bargain – his own indefinite continuance as “Chief Executive” in exchange for the soul and freedom (some would say worse) of his country and its people.  

Three years later, how has Pakistan fared? Musharraf and Pakistan are praised by top US administration officials for their “cooperation”^[ii]. The General’s Teflon coating is intact as the “best hope for stability in Pakistan”. This even after his bosom buddy General Mehmood Ahmed was exposed as the probable “Mustafa Ahmed” who sent the first $100K payment to Mohammed Atta and received the final balance of $26K from the 9/11 terrorists. Even after he had to sell out Pakistani hero Dr. Abdul “Xerox” Quadeer Khan when their black market enterprise in nuclear weapons and technology was exposed. One wonders at what US Senator John McCain in 2001 called the “bent poker” game between the US and Pakistan. It appears that Musharraf and Pakistan have been “debriefed” in strip poker though Musharraf is allowed to have his outer uniform.  

Citizens’ Rights

Musharraf is not alone. The FBI is reported to have trained young Pakistani women to monitor X-ray machines at all Pakistani airports, presumably revealing everything about the jehadi Atta-wannabe jet traveler. Radiation scanners are being installed at all entry and exit points of major cities like Karachi^[iii]. Imtiaz Gul^[iv] quotes a diplomat: “It is the penetration of Pakistan’s telecom systems by the US organisations that has yielded better results and won it appreciation by President George W. Bush.” Apparently, the US is monitoring every electronic communication in Pakistan. The ISI itself is monitored by the FBI-CIA, with every phone call being tapped and analyzed.  

Niloufer Mahdi^[v] rants in her trademark arcane verbiage: “What is irrecusable is that Pakistan's unreserved submission to Washington's orders is constituting a grave problem of which the deleterious implications are yet to be played out. Unremitting American pressure on Pakistan to execute and accelerate the pace of its role in America's war on so-called terrorism has severely compromised Pakistan's position, internally, regionally and at systemic level.” 

Not to be outdone, Dr. Shireen Mazari, Director-General of the Pakistan Institute of Strategic Studies calls Pakistan “the most-abused ally of a superpower”^[vi], citing FBI sting operations, the Nuclear Black-Market Elimination Act (HR4965) Bill, and “a new US design to infiltrate Pakistan with hundreds of men and women well versed in Urdu and Pushto so that they can keep the country under close and continuing scrutiny".  Whines she: “Clearly, this reflects the total lack of trust of the Pakistani state, on the part of the US, despite the Pakistan government constantly going that extra mile for the US-led war on terrorism.” Sad indeed for the leader of the future Caliphate of the Ummah. 

Sovereignty

By November 2001, Pakistani airspace was completely controlled from US aircraft carriers. Four forward air bases along the Afghan border are in American hands. Understandable, if one considers the prospects for an aircraft carrier captain to get any sleep, remembering the 12 or so F-16s still capable of taking off from Pakistan carrying Chinese nukes, 30 minutes from his ship – and that Mohammed Atta’s suicidal classmates at Hamburg included at least one PAF Squadron Leader. There are at least 24 FBI field offices inside Pakistan. Hundreds, if not thousands of Pakistani citizens have been grabbed off the streets and shipped to Jordan, Guantanamo and other locations without so much as an extradition hearing.

Bombing: Of the People, By the People, For the People
 

In September 2001, Musharraf insisted on – and won – some tough conditions for supporting America. He won a promise that Pakistani troops would not be ordered to fight inside Afghanistan. Understandable – the Taliban Army whom they would have to fight was 80% Pakistani. No problem. Northern Alliance General Dostum and the US Air Force ensured that the Pakistanis in Afghanistan were pulverized and buried on the Shomali Plain – or shipped in metal containers into the desert for burial. Today, the irony really hits home – as the Pakistan Air Force and Army are forced to bomb and machinegun their own citizens using those US-supplied F-16s and Apache helicopter gunships in Waziristan and Baluchistan^[vii] - most recently on orders from the Russia, of all places. The US is showing tremendous sensitivity towards Pakistani feelings by not having the 101^st Airborne “Fallujah”ing Pakistani cities. Instead, “Washington is getting around the ban by signing up former Delta Force commandos, SEALs and Green Berets and assigning them to special duties in Pakistan”^[viii]  “Three years later, Pakistan is the setting for the third hot war in the global war on terrorism, joining Afghanistan and Iraq as places where the military hunts and battles al Qaeda and other terrorists.”

Respect Abroad
 

Nusrat Nasarullah^[ix] bemoans the status of the Pakistani Passport. Not surprising, considering Pakistan’s unchallenged monopoly on the origin of terrorist acts against the US^[x] and all over the world^[xi]. Former ISI chief and Ambassador to the UAE, General Durrani is said to have managed to “lose” over 25000 passport blanks during his tenure. Musharraf can attest to the fact that Pakistan is a responsible world power. For instance, when terrorist sex-offenders murdered over 350 children, teachers and parents at a Russian school, Prime Minister Putin is said to have called Musharraf and assured him that Pakistan-funded and trained terrorists were responsible, and asked Musharraf to “help”, much as America had asked him to “help” after the 9/11 attacks. Musharraf immediately responded by sending Pakistan Air Force jets to bomb villages in western Pakistan, as a true ally in the war against terrorism.

What rankles is of course the lack of recognition, even among Arabs, of how superior Pakistan is to India – forgetting the “corrupt” cricket team which lost to the short dark rice-eating Hindoos by huge margins before home crowds. M. Iqbal complains from Dhahran that even as the flag was being raised at the Pakistan Embassy on Independence Day, Bahrain radio was blasting the Hindi song, “West or East, India is the best” – and Bahraini respect for Pakistan is indicated by their deporting over 1500 Pakistanis last year. Other nations save Pakistani Honor and Dignity by simply not admitting them.

The Sher-e-Economy

Subservience has brought wealth – well, to those who matter. Loans have been forgiven. While the rest of the world sank into recession, Pakistan thrived from terrorism, the foreign exchange reserve shooting up from under $500 million in September 2001 to over $6B a year later. And that’s not counting the immense reserves of the Fauji Foundation, Al Rashid Trust and Musharraf’s personal fortune.

Pakistan has always maintained preeminence in trading skills in such items as hashish, sugar and wheat. Recently, however, following a bright idea to extort baksheesh from an Australian exporter, wheat exporters around the world ganged up on the Pakistan Trading Corporation and forced it to buy at far higher prices and sign away its rights^[xii].

Meanwhile, trade with India is booming, as the degrading Bollywood culture swamps the Land of The Pure with movies showing conspicuous alcohol consumption, women with exposed ankles (and a lot else), loud music, and Unbelievers all over selling better than “Rooh Afza” in summer. Pakistan has a $288B/yr trade deficit with India^[xiii]. This is not the Pakistani Official Delegation returning from a short trip to Delhi with 14 baggage trolleys filled with suitcases^[xiv].  True Pakistanis understand the Indian economy perfectly^[xv]: “Besides the export of human hair, there is the cow dung, cows urine, the Ganges water and murtees of various Hindu gods and goddesses exported as religious souvenirs which are in high demand the world over.” Meanwhile, Pakistan’s main exports – hashish, AK-47s, RPGs and IEDs, sex-offenders and other “fedayeen” – are facing unfair tariffs and fences.

The Major Non-NATO Ally

All this loyalty is not without reward. Musharraf’s friend General Colin Powell designated Pakistan a Major Non-NATO Ally, joining an exclusive club with major powers such as Thailand and the Philippines.  One of his subordinates clarified the implications^[xvi]: “the United States wanted a long-term relationship with it. However, this status was neither “the way around any kind of licensing procedure” nor even “a mutual defence agreement”.  Hopeful rumors tell us that the US is about to approve F-16 sales, following that of 8 old Australian C-130s. Pakistan’s Chief of Air Staff (who replaced the one martyred in a plane crash after terror suspect Al Zubeidah started spilling the beans about the Hamburg Squadron Leader and other connections) explains the situation thus^[xvii]: "The PAF wishes to acquire the latest technology and is struggling for it, but the Western world is not cooperating with us in this regard due to some political and other reasons." From the list of other MNNAs, one realizes a major common feature: none of these have or need nuclear weapons. Pakistan earned admission to this list by June 2002, as reported before^[xviii]. Ever-more virile-looking North Korean missiles, repainted in Islamic color are tested, with the range now to hit Israel and much of China. As for support from the US in “liberating” Kashmir from the evil Indian system of conducting elections every five years, the State Department had this to say: “there are certain universal truths and one of them is that terrorism and violence is not the way to achieve an objective... And that is our position.”

It is very clear who runs Pakistan. “US assistant secretary of state, Christina Rocca, gave the necessary directions to Pakistan’s foreign minister Khursheed Ahmed Kasuri over the telephone.” That was to “hunt down Taliban supremo Mohammad Omar and Hizb-e-Islami chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in its tribal areas.”^[xix]. Operations are underway.

Democracy and Freedom Flourish

One wonders at the freedom of the Pakistani media. The readership of the English-language media amounts to 0.1% of the Pakistani population, roughly equal in number to those who support the US over Al Qaeda in the war on Terror. There are rumors that 99% of even those are actually internet fans like me – short, dark, rice-eating evil Hindoos, but we are entertained by the bravery of its editors when not on Death Row for blasphemy, as the editor of the Frontier Post was. For example, Ardeshir Cowasjee of The DAWN followed up a column on corruption with another detailing a phone call from a Minister threatening physical violence against himself and his editor. Nearly as brave as General Musharraf in his motorcade, “jehadi” bombs going off as ordered, 30 seconds to 2 minutes after he passes. Reminds me of the slapstick buffoons in the Gemini Circus.

On the other hand, Pakistan appears to have a few true friends around the world. Besides  General Powell, I can count desi “journalists” Shekhar Gupta, Seema Mustafa and Sarmila Bose. These haven’t yet cottoned on to a simple fact. The western media have moved on -  leaving behind the Pamela Constable-style hyperventilating adulation of Paki terrorists. Constable herself disappeared from view after a Close Encounter of the Third Kind with some of the “gentle, secular” subjects of her adulation in Afghanistan.

Democracy is clearly flourishing in Pakistan, a living example of the “One Man, One Vote” ideal. I speak, of course, of General Musharraf who has the vote. He even lets other people vote for him. While his “referendum” in 2002 produced only a 98% approval rating, despite such wonders as a 6000% approval rating in his home constituency of Gujranwala, he now claims 99.6% approval.  The new Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic is clearly democratic. After all, as a citizen of a western democracy – the United States, he could be considered Governor of the 52nd state of the USA. His election was democratic too – he was congratulated on his victory by 10am on polling day^[xx].  Easy – his opponent is in jail on a life sentence. For treason – he wrote bad things about the President-General.

There do appear to be some stirrings by troublemakers still left in Pakistan, despite the experience of Mujib ur Rehman and his Awami League in 1970, and the fate of the people in Gilgit / Baltistan, Pakhtoonistan, Baluchistan and Sindh when they demanded freedoms in the past. The most vocal supporters of these are ex-Pakistani leaders such as Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Sharif, not exactly considered paragons of democracy or integrity themselves. Everyone knows that with Army rule there is no corruption.

The Faustian bargains made by Pakistan regularly since 1947 seem to have really paid off. On this third anniversary of Pakistan’s return to total “Gulami”, most of us short, dark, rice-eating Indians would enthusiastically agree with the statement: “There but for the Partition go I” and thank Providence that The Pure remain separate from our land, even if it does take electrified fences on the LOC.

Many Happy Returns of Gulami Din, Pakistan!

Narayanan Komerath