Pakhtuns and contemporary Political challenges
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Pakhtun nation seems to be trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea.The devil is in the form of state institutions headed by anti-Pakhtun elements namely civil and military establishment and biased institutions.
The deep blue sea is the mob of those traitors of the Pakhtun soil who have been working for all the biased and anti-Pakhtun institutions of Pakistan and are involved along with the oppressed classes in their criminal role of killing their own brothers in the name of religion , working against the interests of their own land due to being so called public servants. They are concentrating all their energies to help the ruling junta suck the blood of their own Pakhtun brothers ,sisters and children.
The religious elements among the clergy have been on the payroll of ISI and other anti-Pakhtun agencies for selling out the lives of innocent youngsters in the name of religion in Pakistan which is so much under the control of oppressors that even the Chief justice is begging for justice.
The current movers and shakers in the higher echelons of power in Pakistan cannot tolerate the very word "Pakhtun" even within the geographical units of Pakistan - hence they have coined absurd names NWFP,FATA,Balochistan for North,Central and South Pukhtunkhwa respectively for the Pakhtun territories in Pakistan.
A commonly proposed solution to the problems of Pakhtuns is adopting reformative approach which means establishing schools,increasing literacy rate,poverty alleviation,capacity building ,striving for peace ,establishing NGO’s,propagating [pro-establishment] religious teaching etc.This approach has flaws as it is based on the followig assumptions.
1) That Pakhtuns enjoy freedom and equal status in Pakistan
2) That the state is taking care of their basic human rights and needs
3) That the non-Pakhtun leaders and parties are there for their rights
4) That the existing system prevalent in Pakistan is right and even “islamic” and has the solution to their problems.
The flaws are becoming evident and proving catastrophic for the political entity and even existence of Pakhtuns with each passing day.
It is suggested therefore that :
a) The only thing Pakhtuns have to strive for is Political autonomy
b) The only way to achieve political autonomy is to impart political consciouness to the masses and mobilise them to fight politically for their freedom against the occupation of oppressor class aka Punjabis and Mahajirs in Pakistan
Pakhtun political parties should therefore :
1) Win the sympathies of Pakhtuns by raising voice for their rights and warn Pakhtun masses from getting entrapped in the clutches of Pakistani troika aka military establishment, civil beaureocracy and religeous theocracy specially those Pakhtuns who are involved in the dirty game of ethnically cleansing the Pakhtun nation.
2) Set a clear target of achieving political autonomy for Pakhtuns
3) Mobilise Pakhtun masses for political struggle to achieve the target
The near future events will form a critical juncture in the political history of Pakhtuns.The change seems to be inevitable due to the continuous military interventions and dictatorial rule to suppress the basic human rights of the poor and oppressed nationalities in Pakistan.
It seems that the near future is going to witness a major geo-political change in south asia.Azad Balochistan, Azad Pakhtunistan ,Greater Punjab and Sindho Desh with Karachi as Jinnah Pur for Mahajirs (or the remaining Pakistan consisting of Punjab and Sindh) are the probable options.
Pakhtuns might initially resist the change due to the sixty years of state indoctrination along with other Pakistanis.However they will be compelled to form a separate state and become part of a politically and economically weak Azad Pukhtunistan sandwitched between powerful neighbours to safeguard US interests.But as the new option might atleast give them the right to live instead of being killed by their so called muslim brothers for some US bucks so they might opt for it.However it will be a challenge for them to demand merger into Afghanistan.
Similarly in case Azad Balochistan is formed it will serve US interests in the Arabian ocean via Gawadar in which case again the Pakhtun nationalist forces will face the challenge of demanding merger of Pakhtun belt (south Pukhunkhwa) of Balochistan into Afghanistan.
The dramatic changes in the political arena of Pakistan shows that the great game –which might turn out to be a blessing in disguise - has already commenced in Pakistan and is going to get expedited with each passing day especially after the proposed 18-Feb 2008 election drama.
__________________
Pukhtoon Khan
http://geocities.com/Pakhtoonworld
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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There’s clearly an array of powers at work creating the case right now for a war on the Pashtun tribal regions. These things don’t just happen in a vacuum. Wars seem to start with the careful choreography of the news media. The war masters, the maestros, start feeding their lap dogs, the press. The music is then played by the press for the rest of us to hear.
Notice how all the papers are beginning to play the same thing about the Afghan and Pakistan border? The theme of “lawless frontier” is being played every week. The sound drowns out the reality of a noble 5000 year old culture of some 42-million people.
We hear instead about the vilified denizens of a “lawless tribal frontier.”
What you missed it? Well, it’s only been playing for about two weeks. You need to tune in to the inside pages. The maestros have been composing for a while longer…. Their creative juices kicked in about the time Sen. Obama, answering one of those deadly sucker-punch sound bite questions showed us his war face telling us he would take action on “high-value terrorist targets" in Pakistan if President Pervez Musharraf "won't act.
That’s the sunshine it took to start the war-sap flowing. War-sap is sticky stuff, its residue has been known to encapsulate the creatures that get too near and preserve them there for posterity.
There is a legal system in place of course, in this lawless frontier. It’s been there for 5000 years. The Pashtun call the system the jirga. But its not part of the sharia law, it’s unique to the Pashtun and precedes Islam by thousands of years. But we don’t sing about that just now.
Please, I definitely don’t want the Pashtun to start signing their homeland song either. I don’t want to learn that an 1893 border line drawn with the blessing of Queen Victoria divided a group of mountain dwellers along the Afghan and Pakistan boarder in two.
I thought mountain ridges where proper borders. Everybody uses them. I just can’t handle the sound of another this-a-stan or that-a-stan popping up. So please, I don’t want to know about a Pashtunistan. And I definitely have no interest in anything 5000 years old, if it means Obama can catch Osama on good intelligence, bring it on! That should be Commander Obama’s war face call: “Bring it on!” Hmmmm, that sounds familiar.
What is this Pashtuni-whatever, Pashtunwahli, anyway?
They openly express somewhat defiantly, total cultural independence and have seen conquering armies and powers come and go through the millennia. Probably because of their original geographic high mountain foothold they could stand off vast armies with terrain advantage. Well it’s about time maybe for all that to stop.
And, how come they sound more like American cowboys than foreigners? Darn it, if we are going to start another little war, can’t we start it with some body that doesn’t live like my great, grandfather?
Setting aside the Pashtun mostly pray to the same God I do, grandpa did, and great grandpa too, how on earth did they adopt the same code as the old cowboy code of the west?
According to “lawless frontier” musical score, the first impressions I hear is Pashtun love rifles, chewing green tobacco, and appreciate a good sense of humor. So what's not to like? I can’t go to war on that.
If I fell out of the sky and landed in a group of people like that, I'd get along just fine, especially if I were being chased by the law. What they call Nanawateh we call asylum. Nanawateh is extended even to an enemy, just like the Cowboy Code of the Old West. Except if you are granted asylum (called Lokhay Warkawal) by the Pashtun elders as a group you're in like Flynn! They protect you even if it means forfeiting their own lives. Man that is lawless. Imagine a code of living where a principal was so honored, that it exceeded my duty to the state. Hmmm. Now that is lawless. Isn’t it?
Better to just seek hospitality, then they’ll treat you like a king, which makes me want to open a 5-Star hotel somewhere in the snowy peaks along the boarder if I can find a few acres for a ski-lift not planted in opium poppies, viewed on Google Earth satellite, not that anyone is actually checking the carefully cultivated fields above 6,000 feet along the borders. I would feel right at home there, not unlike parts of Tennessee or California.
Look at the forces arrayed here. My little fantasy war is going to happen.
The Democrats need to show they can be trusted with national defense again, be it Hillary or Obama. And McCain says fight to win.
The second verse of the song is still being written: Floating the contingency balloon. Up, up, and awa-a-a-ay, in my beautiful ball-o-o-o-on….
Obama or Hillary, or McCain get sworn in January 20, 2009. By mid June, whoever is President is going to make a push into the boarder regions the so-called "lawless frontier tribal zones” and “on good intelligence,” unless of course my leader does it first before June 20th. The operation will be Pakistan’s (well okay we’ll give them a few billion). It will be a fast coordinated air-ground attack with airborne US intelligence and lots of surrounding US air cover as a safety check to insure the operation stays within operational parameters. Pakistani’s will not go into Afghanistan and vice a versa. Meantime the Pakistan Navy will be backed up (some would say surrounded and outgunned) by the US Navy to keep a lid on the operation seeing to it they don’t launch an attack on India by Pakistan Islamic fundamentalist-leaning ground forces. We’ll hold India’s hand throughout the entire episode and offer security where needed.
Up, up and awa-a-a-ay in my beautiful …. This thing’s going to happen regardless of who wins.
You can’t deny the poetic justice in someone with a Muslim name (Obama) catching a renegade terrorist (Osama). Can you imagine the songs that we could write about that? To the tune of “Froggy went a courting.”
Obama went a hunting and he did hunt, uh-huh
Obama went a hunting and he did hunt, uh-huh
Obama went a hunting and he did hunt, he hunt Osama on the Mount
Obama went a hunting and he did hunt, un-huh. …..
The best time to wage this little war would be during the Chinese Olympics. China would likely remain quiet with their hands temporarily full with the Olympics.
So my fantasy, glorious, contingency war needs to be brief, violent, and force the Pashtun jirga to rethink their long term cultural interests. It needs to end with Osama in a holding tank, brought up on charges in the world court.
If it fails? Well what do you expect from the lawless tribal frontier area in Pakistan with questionable army allegiance? Corruption is everywhere.
I’d still like to open a 5-star hotel with some good ski-runs. You don’t suppose the opium production their so good at, has anything to do with the foolishness of some of our drug laws? Nah.
Victor Davis Hanson says you have to look at war with a long term perspective in order to understand its meaning. Long term is real long term. It may well turn out that while many say Bush's legacy must be a failure, history may have a completely different take on things, long after both you and I and our great grand children have come and gone. It may turn out, that doomed legacy of a Bush Presidency we hear so often this campaign-cycle ends up being written 1000 years from now as the President who started Islamic Reformation and brought freedoms that enabled thinking people to ask questions about religious practices that eventually changed the world and started the east and the west talking again.
The Ritz, I like that franchise, a 5-star Ritz, mini-conference center. A Pashtun bag-piper paying my old favorite, “The Ass in the Graveyard” with double malt scotch, in the bracing night air.
Respectfully,
Warbucks
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