<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Caliphate of Pakistan</b>
by Sandhya Jain
The assassination of a charismatic but flawed leader has disguised the reality of a Pakistan that is emerging as a critical geo-political hub in an increasingly multi-polar world. So far unrecognised, the 'Caliphate of Pakistan' is adroitly positioning itself in an uncomprehending world. Mercifully, India has recognised the security implications for itself.
In a concerted strategy, initiated at least since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, sections of the Pakistani clergy and Islamised Army (including ISI) have coalesced to give Islam a nation ruled by sword and shari'ah. Pakistan has impressive military credentials and the 'Islamic bomb'. <b>More pertinently, the American failure to hold Afghanistan post-September 11, 2001, and the near collapse of the Hamid Karzai regime, has gifted Islamabad the strategic depth it craved to its west. Radical sections in Jammu & Kashmir are dying to form its eastern hinterland.</b>
None of this would have been possible but for the millions of dollars and petro-dollars dexterously extracted by successive Pakistani regimes from the United States and Saudi Arabia, which have helped Islamabad jump out of the squalor of underdevelopment to the pinnacle of jihadi irredentism. Both have funded the Pakistani journey for reasons of their own -- motives that diverged more than they converged -- and thus bear some responsibility for the terrible denouement that climaxed in the cold-blooded murder of Benazir Bhutto.
Washington and Riyadh have multiple agendas, which they are pursuing with varying levels of success; and, it is no one's case that there were no other players in the world's most valuable piece of strategic real estate. Hence it is difficult to say which ball was being juggled in which hand when bombs detonated in Liaquat Bagh. A credible sequence of events is impossible to create without full disclosure in several capitals; still, some points are in order.
In the weeks prior to Bhutto's assassination, Russian President Vladimir Putin led his United Russia Party to a resounding victory, and is set to get his nominated successor elected in March 2008. <b>Kremlin's leadership of the Central Asian gas and oil-rich economies has given it a lead in the emerging world economic order where the strength of nations will lie in sovereign resources, a fact understood by China. </b>Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov, an important Russian ally, returned to power in December 2007.
Press reports reveal that prior to Bhutto's murder, there were secret talks between the Afghan Taliban and Britain. Given the obvious inability of the US-led alliance to hold the ground in Afghanistan or Iraq, and the growing reluctance of native armies to die for private corporate interests, <b>it seems fair to surmise that a deal was being struck to permit a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, in return for protection of Western strategic assets in the region.
</b>
As the Taliban was conceived and mentored in Islamabad, this would have elated the radical sections of the Army-ISI, which disliked the half-stitched deal between President Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. The grant of amnesty against allegations of corruption to Bhutto, whose two terms as Prime Minister were dogged by corruption charges against her husband, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, and whose enormous assets abroad defy rational explanation, would hardly have pleased these groups. In the circumstances, her shrill rhetoric against the jihadis, particularly her promise to allow hated American troops to hunt for Osama bin Laden in Pakistani territory and let the International Atomic Energy Agency interrogate nuclear scientist AQ Khan, would have rendered her immediately expendable.
The Saudi role in the tragedy seems more indirect. Saudi polity is schizophrenic on account of the absence of credible military power; most Gulf leaders are forced to rely on the US for security. <b>Riyadh's quest for modern janissaries led it to fund Pakistan's nuclear ambitions and radicalisation via madarsas. </b>Saudi money kept Islam Janus-faced in its jihad against Jews, Crusaders, and Hindus (for Jammu & Kashmir). <b>While incidents east of the International Dateline help stave off pressure on the West, Islam recognises its true oppressors, and it is only a matter of time before it feels emboldened to turn fully westwards.</b>
The murder of the Washington-endorsed 'democrat' served multiple ends. It reinforced the universal belief that friendship with America is the kiss of death. It nullified the White House attempt to broker democracy through Bhutto and Mr Pervez Musharraf. It told Washington that the disliked mullahs and madarsas still called the shots in Pakistan.
To return to the Saudis, it is pertinent that unlike Bhutto's family that prides in its links with Oxford University and the Western elites who acknowledge them only when convenient, Mr Nawaz Sharif is a conservative politician wary of America. The former Prime Minister chose Saudi Arabia as his country of exile when ousted by Mr Musharraf; and returned to Riyadh when denied entry in Islamabad in September 2007. But following Bhutto's successful homecoming on October 18, 2007, Mr Sharif insisted on returning to ensure a genuine election. Mr Musharraf made a sudden dash to Riyadh, and in November, Mr Sharif returned. But soon afterwards, possibly owing to American pressure to honour the deal with Bhutto, the regime had Mr Sharif banned from contesting elections for life.
It is now uncertain how the February election will play out in Pakistan, if held. What is certain is that the bickering in the Pakistan People's Party and the Bhutto clan has only begun; and, that the rise of Mr Sharif will enhance Saudi clout in the region and the Islamic world. Washington, Riyadh and Islamabad have common interests in containing Shia Iran, but it remains to be seen how long the Muslim world will tolerate continued Western military presence on its soil along with subservience to Western geo-eco-strategic objectives.
Whichever way the situation develops, the Army is sure to stay at the helm of affairs in Pakistan, a temporary reprieve for America which has invested heavily in this institution. The suspiciously silent new Army Chief, Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, bears watching. <b>Despite the rallies, hartals, and street violence, it bears remembering that monotheism creates institutions that determine the course of the nation. In Pakistan it is the Army, in America the corporates. </b>Weeks ago, some of us told the naïve Indian Americans that Ms Hillary Clinton would lose the Iowa primary.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
by Sandhya Jain
The assassination of a charismatic but flawed leader has disguised the reality of a Pakistan that is emerging as a critical geo-political hub in an increasingly multi-polar world. So far unrecognised, the 'Caliphate of Pakistan' is adroitly positioning itself in an uncomprehending world. Mercifully, India has recognised the security implications for itself.
In a concerted strategy, initiated at least since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, sections of the Pakistani clergy and Islamised Army (including ISI) have coalesced to give Islam a nation ruled by sword and shari'ah. Pakistan has impressive military credentials and the 'Islamic bomb'. <b>More pertinently, the American failure to hold Afghanistan post-September 11, 2001, and the near collapse of the Hamid Karzai regime, has gifted Islamabad the strategic depth it craved to its west. Radical sections in Jammu & Kashmir are dying to form its eastern hinterland.</b>
None of this would have been possible but for the millions of dollars and petro-dollars dexterously extracted by successive Pakistani regimes from the United States and Saudi Arabia, which have helped Islamabad jump out of the squalor of underdevelopment to the pinnacle of jihadi irredentism. Both have funded the Pakistani journey for reasons of their own -- motives that diverged more than they converged -- and thus bear some responsibility for the terrible denouement that climaxed in the cold-blooded murder of Benazir Bhutto.
Washington and Riyadh have multiple agendas, which they are pursuing with varying levels of success; and, it is no one's case that there were no other players in the world's most valuable piece of strategic real estate. Hence it is difficult to say which ball was being juggled in which hand when bombs detonated in Liaquat Bagh. A credible sequence of events is impossible to create without full disclosure in several capitals; still, some points are in order.
In the weeks prior to Bhutto's assassination, Russian President Vladimir Putin led his United Russia Party to a resounding victory, and is set to get his nominated successor elected in March 2008. <b>Kremlin's leadership of the Central Asian gas and oil-rich economies has given it a lead in the emerging world economic order where the strength of nations will lie in sovereign resources, a fact understood by China. </b>Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov, an important Russian ally, returned to power in December 2007.
Press reports reveal that prior to Bhutto's murder, there were secret talks between the Afghan Taliban and Britain. Given the obvious inability of the US-led alliance to hold the ground in Afghanistan or Iraq, and the growing reluctance of native armies to die for private corporate interests, <b>it seems fair to surmise that a deal was being struck to permit a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, in return for protection of Western strategic assets in the region.
</b>
As the Taliban was conceived and mentored in Islamabad, this would have elated the radical sections of the Army-ISI, which disliked the half-stitched deal between President Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. The grant of amnesty against allegations of corruption to Bhutto, whose two terms as Prime Minister were dogged by corruption charges against her husband, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, and whose enormous assets abroad defy rational explanation, would hardly have pleased these groups. In the circumstances, her shrill rhetoric against the jihadis, particularly her promise to allow hated American troops to hunt for Osama bin Laden in Pakistani territory and let the International Atomic Energy Agency interrogate nuclear scientist AQ Khan, would have rendered her immediately expendable.
The Saudi role in the tragedy seems more indirect. Saudi polity is schizophrenic on account of the absence of credible military power; most Gulf leaders are forced to rely on the US for security. <b>Riyadh's quest for modern janissaries led it to fund Pakistan's nuclear ambitions and radicalisation via madarsas. </b>Saudi money kept Islam Janus-faced in its jihad against Jews, Crusaders, and Hindus (for Jammu & Kashmir). <b>While incidents east of the International Dateline help stave off pressure on the West, Islam recognises its true oppressors, and it is only a matter of time before it feels emboldened to turn fully westwards.</b>
The murder of the Washington-endorsed 'democrat' served multiple ends. It reinforced the universal belief that friendship with America is the kiss of death. It nullified the White House attempt to broker democracy through Bhutto and Mr Pervez Musharraf. It told Washington that the disliked mullahs and madarsas still called the shots in Pakistan.
To return to the Saudis, it is pertinent that unlike Bhutto's family that prides in its links with Oxford University and the Western elites who acknowledge them only when convenient, Mr Nawaz Sharif is a conservative politician wary of America. The former Prime Minister chose Saudi Arabia as his country of exile when ousted by Mr Musharraf; and returned to Riyadh when denied entry in Islamabad in September 2007. But following Bhutto's successful homecoming on October 18, 2007, Mr Sharif insisted on returning to ensure a genuine election. Mr Musharraf made a sudden dash to Riyadh, and in November, Mr Sharif returned. But soon afterwards, possibly owing to American pressure to honour the deal with Bhutto, the regime had Mr Sharif banned from contesting elections for life.
It is now uncertain how the February election will play out in Pakistan, if held. What is certain is that the bickering in the Pakistan People's Party and the Bhutto clan has only begun; and, that the rise of Mr Sharif will enhance Saudi clout in the region and the Islamic world. Washington, Riyadh and Islamabad have common interests in containing Shia Iran, but it remains to be seen how long the Muslim world will tolerate continued Western military presence on its soil along with subservience to Western geo-eco-strategic objectives.
Whichever way the situation develops, the Army is sure to stay at the helm of affairs in Pakistan, a temporary reprieve for America which has invested heavily in this institution. The suspiciously silent new Army Chief, Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, bears watching. <b>Despite the rallies, hartals, and street violence, it bears remembering that monotheism creates institutions that determine the course of the nation. In Pakistan it is the Army, in America the corporates. </b>Weeks ago, some of us told the naïve Indian Americans that Ms Hillary Clinton would lose the Iowa primary.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->