1/ Late 90’s Talibaan link up with Osama.

2/ Right wing zealot generals / officials get more and influential in Pak Army, Hameed Gul the driving Force. Greater objective, persue Pan-Islamism particularly in central Asia with a nuclear Armed Pakistan State.

3/ Nawaz Sharif blunders aapoints Mush and then fumbles the power to him – set back number one for the zealots – still the game is on.

4/ 9/11 happens Mush takes a U-turn in the face of eminent US attack / clear and present danger. Army’s cleansing starts one by one.

5/ Hameed Gul’s political ally Jamaat is weak and recieves set back after set back, on the other side in Afghanistan Talibaan are beaten back and Osama manages to escape to our tribal heaven.

6/ Hameed Gul puts his weight behind PTI and literally takes it over ideologically, whereas, Nawaz Sharif takes flight.

7/ Meantime Mush (survives assasination attempts) sets about doing what was un-thinkable in Pakistan democratic / undemocratic history i.e. he appoints professionals on merit to re-build our institutions mainly the finacial ones. Then he does the un-precedented, he gives this nation independent media.

8/ Elections are held PP gets the most seats, is offered the govt sans Benazir, PP refuses BB cant take that risk so step in the Chaudhry brothers.

9/ Meantime the global war on terror is waging, Al-Qaeda and its allies show they Know how they can use media and its intellectual sympathisers infilterate Pak channels.

10/ The strategy now is to portray Mush as pet of Bush and discount everything else he does. Mush fumbles on the justice issue and Lal Masjid follows suite.

11/ the situation demands consensus in the Nation on how to counter extremism in the North, but that will not happen. PTI and Jamaat aside, which will obviously oppose such action by generating sympathies for the tribals, where the Man with the beard will continue to enjoy freedom. BB will continue to play to the western media portraying herself as champion of democracy fighting against so called dictator ship. The fact is that BB’s fight is not with Mush, its with the Chaudhry bros and they are heading for a showdown in Punjab.

12/ Meantime forces of the right continue to align behind PTI / Jamaat, they will try to use NS but will continue to rant against Mush and discrediting BB at the same time. Its a win win for them.

However, in any equation there are some unknown variables and those are the ones that ultimately determine the fate of the problem.

The territories that comprise todays Pakistan were jelled by the British to form a state. They themselves didnt know what they wer doing, but felt an obligation towards those who have served them well to save them from Nehru’s land reforms.

Jinnah negociated with the tribes, the baloach under Khan of Kallat never wanted to be the part of Pakistan, but under pressure from British they accepted Jinnahs offer and signed an agreement with him. That agreement is legally still valid and the Baloach show it off even today when the federation of Pakistan encroaches upon their land.

You said Pakistan army should have integrated the tribes in 1947. That is naive, in 1947 our army was commanded by a British General, the tribes were the Northern army which ventured into Kashmir and reached Srinagar, unfortunately upon reaching there, the native instincts kicked in and they started whole sale loot maar allowing the Indian army to sneak in via the Airport and beat them back.

Talibaanization is a relatively recent phenomenon, first promoted by Gen Naserullah Babar of PPP, in the refugee camps, objective to secure Afghanistan for oil transit, which severely back fired with the advent of Osama.

And there was George Bush…..

As you can see its a sequence of one screwed up event after other with no end in sight. The best we can do is marginalize them in their area, but that requires National consensus…which is a big question mark.

I agree with on certain point, but might disagree with you on others. But that is for a later day. Please visit, this and this post on my blog, and also check out this category if you like.

@V yep that’s faiz. one of the only two revolutionary poets of the subcontinent the other being Iqbal. Funny, revolutions have this mysterious connection. Poetry written decades ago still makes perfect sense today. Gives you extra energy we have an opportunity to take their cause forward. This is what happens when civil rights are challenged. This game will always have the same pawns and the same rules.

:D

True, but what was our Army doing since 1947? They should have integrated those areas (mind you were peaceful until few years ago) into Pakistan long time ago. But then they were too busy fighting war with the help of these militants. This is nation gets when our priorities are all meshed up.

Any news about that station, is it banned yet?