Twirp : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Republic Pakistan

[Naresh]

<b>Folks :</b>

Bangladeshi Restaurants have menus like the “Chinese Takeaways”!

Example : It is always Murgh Mussalam, Mutton Rogan Josh, Pork Vindaloo etc. etc.

A Bangladeshi Restaurant will have Beef, Chicken, Fish, Lamb, Prawns and Vegetable be it Mussalam, Rogan Josh or Vindaloo etc. etc.

Muslim Restaurant will not serve Pork Dishes. Normally a Hindu Restaurant does not serve Beef Dishes.

Pakistani and Bangladeshi Restaurants will always have Beef on the Menu.

Thus one can always read the Menu which is exhibited in one of the Restaurant’s Windows!

Again - as pointed out by Bodhi Ji - all Muslim Restaurants most definitely declare their Halal Status.

Important : In London Pakistanis are operating Vegetarian "Mithai" shops, but, one look at the staff is sufficient to show their Twirpistani Origin.

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Bodhi]

Once I had a strange experience in USA. The restro-cum-sweet shop was named 'Govind', had radha-krishna/nataraja on display in the hall, and above all had a pure veg south indian type menu on display. That was sufficient for me to know that it was a Hindu-owned restro. However I later learnt at the time of paying that it was actually owned by a gujarati vohra muslim (by display of the picture of their spiritual leader at the counter). Did not have time to learn more about it.

[Shambhu]

Wow..that's interesting. Must be one of those "born and trapped into islam but trying to dilute out any real islam" types..I've known some gujarat bohras who were quite OK..

[Guest]

Thanks for the gyan Bodhi, Naresh, Mudy. You people need to share the experiences you had with pakis and BDs so that others can learn from them.

There is a guy surinder on BR who talked of having an thread called "talks-with-Pakis" so that others can understand the tricks the pakis play. Till now the thread has not materialized there, wonder if we could have such an thread here.

<!--QuoteBegin-"surinder"+-->QUOTE("surinder")<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-"VikasRaina"+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE("VikasRaina")<!--QuoteEBegin-->Has anyone ever heard this "Punjabi Durbar" programme of Radio Pakistan.
I did some years back during the dying days of Punjab militancy and it sounded stupid and silly.
To even hear a Paki say "Sat Sri Akaal" and "Wahe Guru" and then shed croc tears for Sikhs being tortured by evil Hindus in India is an experience in itself.
I would not understand it at that time and would get unneccessary worked up with programs like "Nila Tara Laal Sarovar" and program on kashmir  on PTV, but few years of BRF and with better perspective,
I now wonder How cool it was too see Arabised Islamic wahabi Pakistani's saying "Raj karega Khalasa" and "Wahe Guruji da khalsa, Wahe Guruji di Fateh".Too clever by half I guess.
Nothing brings more pleasure to Chanakian Yindoo heart than seeing Pakis praying for their own demise.Interesting point was that it was always women announcers who would greet listeners with Sat Sri Akal
and other Punjabi greetings.
The focus was that Muslims and Sikhs were some long lost brothers and they should join hands.There was some misunderstanding between the two due to cunningness of Hindus otherwise they always
had cordial brotherly relations.

It is still funny to see Pakistani's compartmentalizing Indians into Brahmin,Baniya and rest of the operessed community.I mean boss where are the other Hindus..On Mars ?
Does that say someting about Islamic mind..<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Pakis have a fascination for the Sikhs. They have fear/admiration/hate relationship with them. <b>I have had interesting conversation with Pakis (which I could post on a talks-with-Pakis thread, if it existed)</b>. Basically their biggest wet dream is that Sikhs & Hindus fight out real bad. Sikhs become independent. Hindus are humbled. Then the Pakis come in and defeat & screw the Sikhs. In the 1980's they (they thought) that they nearly succeeded. But the 80's are over. It is morning in Punjab.

PS: Pakis hate the Brahmins for being high caste, and hate the Baniya for being low caste.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[SSridhar]

<!--QuoteBegin-Bodhi+Apr 23 2008, 10:49 AM-->QUOTE(Bodhi @ Apr 23 2008, 10:49 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Once I had a strange experience in USA.  The restro-cum-sweet shop was named 'Govind', had radha-krishna/nataraja on display in the hall, and above all had a pure veg south indian type menu on display.  That was sufficient for me to know that it was a Hindu-owned restro.  However I later learnt at the time of paying that it was actually owned by a gujarati vohra muslim (by display of the picture of their spiritual leader at the counter).  Did not have time to learn more about it.
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I had a similar experience in Southern France, Montpellier. A Gujarati Muslim with a half Hindu name (Ram) runs a good restaurant. He told me that there is a small Gujarati community which follows both Hinduism and Islam.

[Guest]

<b>Appointment of Pak envoy to US a slap on Musharraf's face</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The nomination of <b>Husain Haqqani as the new Pakistani ambassador </b>to the United States, by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, is being seen as a resounding slap on the face of President Pervez Musharraf [Images]. Haqqani -- a former journalist, diplomat and currently associate professor at Boston University � is one of Musharraf's fiercest critics.

In fact, Haqqani has not visited Pakistan for years, fearing possible imprisonment

Senior diplomatic sources told rediff.com that the decision by Gillani to appoint Haqqani was clearly an indication that President Bush's 'good friend and buddy' Musharraf was fast becoming a non-entity. Musharraf, one of the few leaders Bush has hosted at the President's retreat in Camp David, may soon be marginalised to the position of a mere ceremonial head of state
......

A little over four years ago, he came to the US, and enjoyed a nearly two-year stint as a visiting scholar in the South Asia Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a leading Washington think tank. He then joined Boston University as an associate professor in international relations and director of its Center for International Relations.
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Nareshji,
Yeh kya ho raha hai !!!!.
Your man finally on big seat. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Should we roll red carpet for HH.

[Naresh]

<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Apr 30 2008, 11:31 AM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Apr 30 2008, 11:31 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Appointment of Pak envoy to US a slap on Musharraf's face</b>
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The nomination of <b>Husain Haqqani as the new Pakistani ambassador </b>to the United States, by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, is being seen as a resounding slap on the face of President Pervez Musharraf [Images]. Haqqani -- a former journalist, diplomat and currently associate professor at Boston University � is one of Musharraf's fiercest critics.

In fact, Haqqani has not visited Pakistan for years, fearing possible imprisonment

Senior diplomatic sources told rediff.com that the decision by Gillani to appoint Haqqani was clearly an indication that President Bush's 'good friend and buddy' Musharraf was fast becoming a non-entity. Musharraf, one of the few leaders Bush has hosted at the President's retreat in Camp David, may soon be marginalised to the position of a mere ceremonial head of state
......

A little over four years ago, he came to the US, and enjoyed a nearly two-year stint as a visiting scholar in the South Asia Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a leading Washington think tank. He then joined Boston University as an associate professor in international relations and director of its Center for International Relations.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Nareshji,
Yeh kya ho raha hai !!!!.
Your man finally on big seat. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Should we roll red carpet for HH.
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<b>Mudy Ji:</b>

HH is more of a representative of the United States and he along with Zardari are forming a Trioka with Mush the Tush.

It is well said : <b>Crooks of a Heather - Flock together</b>

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

Nareshji,
Civilian Pakistan is fully back in Unkle shoe rack. Nawab would have been a problem. Now Fauji and civilian will fight for love/pat from unkle, how lovely?
We see lot of HH on every channel, now we may have to see him more in better suit without Cohen. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sharif, Zardari talks continue even after five hours </b>DUBAI, April 30 (AFP): Leaders of Pakistan's ruling coalition, Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif held talks in Dubai on Wednesday amid a deadlock over the reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf. The two leaders were still locked in talks more than five hours after they started a second meeting at around 1130 GMT in a Dubai hotel, following a shorter meeting earlier the same day. “We are still talking,” Sharif told reporters between the two sessions. (First Posted @ 17:00 PST; Updated @ 21:55 PST)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
After Chai-pani, beer, whiskey, sugar mill deal, paper mills deal, Export deal, 25% commision deal, now what else they are discussing ???? Beats me.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Afghan spy chief claims Karzai plot hatched in Pakistan, Islamabad rejects claim KABUL, April 30 (Reuters): </b>The plot to kill President Hamid Karzai over the weekend was hatched in lawless tribal areas of neighboring Pakistan, the Afghan intelligence chief claimed on Wednesday. Intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh said there was no evidence that Pakistan's government or its intelligence agencies were involved. He claimed the militants involved in the weekend plot were in phone contact with people in Pakistan's Bajaur and North Waziristan tribal areas and the main northwestern city of Peshawar, he said. In an initial reaction, Pakistan army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the allegation that the attack on Karzai had its roots in Pakistan's tribal areas appeared “baseless.” “Anybody can say that militants (in the tribal areas) have done this or that,” Abbas said. “How can one validate such claims?” (Posted @ 19:35 PST)
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[ramana]

<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Apr 30 2008, 06:51 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Apr 30 2008, 06:51 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sharif, Zardari talks continue even after five hours </b>DUBAI, April 30 (AFP): Leaders of Pakistan's ruling coalition, Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif held talks in Dubai on Wednesday amid a deadlock over the reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf. The two leaders were still locked in talks more than five hours after they started a second meeting at around 1130 GMT in a Dubai hotel, following a shorter meeting earlier the same day. “We are still talking,” Sharif told reporters between the two sessions. (First Posted @ 17:00 PST; Updated @ 21:55 PST)<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
After Chai-pani, beer, whiskey, sugar mill deal, paper mills deal, Export deal, 25% commision deal, now what else they are discussing ???? Beats me.
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The current CJP is a BB supporter. NS wants to bring back Chaudhry who is Punjabi and could be NS supporter. NS thinks bringing in Chaudhry will be the easy way to get rid of Mushy. But 10% is worried that it will bring back the RATS. So quite a circular whirlpool. Lets see the one with more <b>backing</b> will prevail.

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The current CJP is a BB supporter. NS wants to bring back Chaudhry who is Punjabi and could be NS supporter. NS thinks bringing in Chaudhry will be the easy way to get rid of Mushy. But 10% is worried that it will bring back the RATS. So quite a circular whirlpool. Lets see the one with more backing will prevail.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
For Mushy, they will use old practice, mango crate. I think something more on table. I don't think Unkle will let Nawaz guys around. Some are saying big money is causing delays.
Don't forget they are meeting in Dubai Hotel. Everyone is listening. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Naresh]

<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Apr 30 2008, 11:53 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Apr 30 2008, 11:53 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Nareshji,
Civilian Pakistan is fully back in Unkle shoe rack. Nawab would have been a problem. Now Fauji and civilian will fight for love/pat from unkle, how lovely?
We see lot of HH on every channel, now we may have to see him more in better suit without Cohen. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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<b>Mudy Ji :</b>

Both the Pakistani Civilian Leadership – Comprising of the Bureaucratic, Feudal & Political Leaders – as well as the Military Leadership are now Permanent Inhabitants living in Uncle Sam’s Dog Kennel.

Thus they will bark at each other but get along with each other as per the Rules of the Dog Kennels run by the Good Ol’ USA! <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

Now we have to go back to old books and start again, Gosh, I was thinking something good will happen, something new but Pakis are very disappointing, same old, why they don't catch phrase "Change" "Yes We can" etc.
Very boring.

Now we have to see when fundoos start having field days in India, they were too busy blowing each other. India's security apparatus is busy spying opposition party and Mayawati tantrums.
Pakis are done with Punjab, Kashmir, now I think place of interest will be West Bengal.

[Naresh]

<b>Mudy Ji :</b>

You want changes in Pakistan - here they are - for the worse! <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->

<b>1. Pakistan’s Opposition says Pakistani price-hike record will be sent to Guinness Book</b>

<b>2. 84 listed companies report huge losses in four days</b>

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

Nareshji,
This is same recycle stuff, they are repeating same story from 1996-98. During those old golden days within few days whole cycle, auto parts, Pharma, bed sheet industry went into big loss. Later, we heard China is manufacturing them for Paki raja. Now these 84 industries will head towards China. Some may end up in India. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Then slowly people will start making noise and Army will encourage street protest. Then we will see another coup. I am still sticking to my 9 months-13 months time period. By then new adminstration will be in US and India.

[Naresh]

<b>Mudy Ji :</b>

On a serious note, Pakistan has been created based on a Lie.

It was created, not for the Muslims of the Indian Sub-Continent, but, for the Leadership of the Indian Muslim League as the Paedophile and his coterie of sycophants would not even by able to achieve the post of Official Dog Catcher if the filling of that post (like in the US, I believe, where even an ordinary Post Master is appointed or “re-confirmed” by a new President) was controlled by the Indian Central Government Parliament-Authorities.

In addition it is India’s Good Fortune that every Pakistani Leader has followed faithfully in following the Paedophile Qaid and acted as “I DA MAN” whereby the rest of the leadership is left Twiddling their Thumbs.

Again it was India’s further Good Fortune that the Pakistani Army has “Taken Over” the Ruling of Pakistan and along with the Feudal as well as Religious Leaders has brought Pakistan to its Sorry and Terrorist State.

It is not that I have lost hope for Pakistan. It is just that the very idea of Hoping for an Improved Pakistan is a Crime against God and Man - also Women.

<b>Lastly, our Indian so-called Secular Leaders-Media can Live in the Hope of a Pakistan which will Cease to be an Enemy of India and wanting to Conquer India, Destroy all Non-Muslim Religions and Islamize India, but, I assure you they will Die in Despair</b>

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Guest]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Lastly, our Indian so-called Secular Leaders-Media can Live in the Hope of a Pakistan which will Cease to be an Enemy of India and wanting to Conquer India, Destroy all Non-Muslim Religions and Islamize India, but, I assure you they will Die in Despair<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually, Indian elite are part or extention of Paki elite, same blood, same thought, same motive and same master.

[Naresh]

[center]<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Roti or killing machines? : Dr Farrukh Saleem</span></b>[/center]

<b>Imagine; one out of every two Pakistanis is short on food. Imagine; one out of every two Pakistanis is food-insecure. Imagine; one out of every two Pakistanis is managing to subsist on less than 2,350 calories per day. In March 2007, there were 60 million Pakistanis short on food. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>That number now stands at 77 million; a 28 percent increase in just one year.</span>

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), over the past year, "food prices in Pakistan have risen at least 35 percent, whereas the minimum wage has risen by just 18 percent, leading to a nearly 50 percent decline in the purchasing power of Pakistan's poor…" On March 27, the World Bank warned that "Pakistan must take immediate action to prevent its economy from collapse" and that "painful adjustments" would be needed to prevent a crisis.</b>

All right, one out of every two Pakistanis is going hungry and what do we do. We go out and buy killing machines. Imagine, over the past five years our decision-makers have bought killing machines worth $4.55 billion from the US alone. All right, Pakistan is now officially more water-stressed than is Ethiopia. What have we done about it? Well, we have bought 500 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, 1,450 two-thousand-pound bombs, 500 JDAM bomb tail kits and 1,600 Enhanced Paveway laser-guided bomb kits. The bill : $667 million entirely paid with Pakistani national funds. All right, UNICEF says that 200,000 Pakistani children die annually because of unsafe drinking water--dysentery, diarrhoea, typhoid, and gastroenteritis. What do we do? We go out and buy 60 midlife update kits for F-16A/B combat aircraft. Total value: $891 million (of which $108 million was paid by the US under its Foreign Military Financing).

All right, we haven't built a major dam in 27 years but we have paid out a colossal $1.43 billion for 18 new F-16C/D Block 50/52 combat aircraft with an option to buy 18 more. Not just that, we have already transferred $298 million to the US treasury for a hundred Harpoon anti-ship missiles (of which 70 have been delivered) and $95 million for 500 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles (of which 300 have been delivered).

What is the US up to? They have provided us $1.6 billion in Foreign Military Financing when they know very well that we actually need food for our undernourished citizenry and clean drinking water for our children.

According to the Pakistan Water Gateway, within the next 15 years at least "one out of every three Pakistanis will face critical shortages of water threatening their very survival." And, how are we preparing for that eventuality? Well, we have four Agosta 90B and three Agosta 70 class submarines. To be certain, an Agosta 90B has a crew of 36 plus five officers, so in effect 164 of our brother Pakistanis will be safe.

According to Gallup Pakistan, "Sixty-six percent of a national sample of respondents from the rural and urban areas of all four provinces say they have lately faced difficulties in obtaining atta (flour) for their daily food consumption." What do we do? We go out and buy six AN/TPS-77 surveillance radars for a cool $100 million.

Roti or killing machines? The story doesn't end at $4.55 billion going into the U.S. treasury. Now we are looking at buying Class 214 submarines from Germany's Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, or is it France's Direction des Constructions Navales Services. Our new big-ticket idea will cost us Euro1.2 billion.

Roti or killing machines? Imagine; the Islamic Republic routinely submerges into absolute darkness of the Dark Ages while our Muslim leaders contemplate buying ultramodern Class 214 submarines featuring air-independent propulsion using polymer electrolyte module hydrogen fuel cells. Imagine; no roti, no pani, no bijli--and no justice. But, proud to be the 11th largest arms importer on the face of the planet.

<b><i>The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist. Email : farrukh15@hotmail.com</i></b>

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Naresh]

<b>Mudy Ji :</b>

Further to my post of Yesterday, 03-05-2008, at 02:05 PM here is the confirmation of my view in respect of the Creation of Pakistan being based on a Lie and as such I feel this Posted Article - along with its other Parts - must be Archived and Made a Part of the First Page of this and subsequent <b>Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Republic Pakistan</b> :

[center]<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>The Army, Allah, and America - Part I : Shuja Nawaz</span></b>[/center]

<b>Although the Muslim way of life was a motive behind the call for the creation of Pakistan, its early political leadership did not provide an Islamic blueprint for its political development or goals. <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>In fact, the movement for Pakistan was not an Islamic movement as much as it was a movement by Indian Muslims to seek greater social and economic opportunities for themselves.</span> <span style='color:green'>Indeed, according to one view, it was the movement of the salaried classes and hence was not supported either by the Islamist parties or by the rural masses in the Muslim-majority provinces.

The Pakistan Army too, the largely Muslim rump of the British Indian Army, was saddled at birth with this paradoxical identity: the symbols of Islam but the substance of a colonial force, quite distant from the body politic of the fledgling state.</span></b>

One symbol of Islam was a set of numbers : 786. These three numbers represent the numerical equivalent of letters of the opening sentence of the Holy Quran, Bismillah irRehman irRahim (In the name of Allah, the Merciful and Beneficent), the words that all Muslims intone before the start of anything worthwhile in their lives. 786 became the identification number for the General Headquarters of the new Pakistan Army when it took over the operations and offices of the British North Command in India in Rawalpindi after independence. This numerical coda was emblazoned on all gateposts and vehicles, as a reminder that this was the army of a Muslim country. But the Islamic identity was only in name at that stage. The senior echelons were still British officers who had opted to stay on, and they were in turn succeeded by their native clones, men who saw the army as a unique institution, separate and apart from the rest of civil society and authority. This was the dominant cultural ethos of the army at the time. And as the country grew in age, this initial schism between the cantonment (military reservation) and the city pervaded the army's thought processes and seemed to guide as well as bedevil the military's relationship with the civilian sector in Pakistan. The army initially retained its largely moderate and secular nature.

As Pakistan moved from being a newly post-colonial state (in the latter days of President Muhammad Ayub Khan's rule) which represented a hybrid of the British Raj and Pakistan but in which Pakistan was an ally of the United States, to being a true post-colonial state (under President Zia-ul-Haq) which saw an attempt at forging a new national identity through forced Islamisation of the army and state. It is still searching for its identity as a nation. Zia, for better or worse, tried to give it an autonomous identity based on his idea of Islam. The key factors at play in the country's history eventually became three, sometimes conflicting, entities: the Army, America, and, more recently, Allah.

Contrary to the more recent view of an ancient nexus between the army and Islamist groups that has become fashionable especially in the West and among scholars pandering to the worst fears of the West about Pakistan, the Pakistan Army has not had a close relationship with Islamic parties in the past, except in certain instances when the army tried to use these groups to undermine populist opposition parties in what was once East Pakistan and in certain areas of West Pakistan. Indeed, under the first military ruler, General (later Field Marshal) M. Ayub Khan, there was rank antipathy toward the mullahs. As Ayub Khan noted in his diary in 1967: "The fight with the mullah is political. It started from the time of Sir Syed. The mullah regards the educated Muslims as his deadliest enemy and the rival for power. That is why several of them opposed Pakistan and sided with the Congress. They felt that with the help of the Hindus they will be able to keep educated Muslims out of power. So we have got to take on all those who are political mischief-makers. This battle, though unpleasant, is unavoidable. It has to be waged sometime or the other in the interest of a strong progressive Pakistan."

It was only during the regime of General Ziaul Haq that the military-mullah nexus was formed, first for the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union and then to help the Kashmiris against the Indian army. Ironically, the United States fostered the military-mullah alliance since the alliance was directed against its archrival, the Soviet Union. The military-mullah alliance continued in one form or another till an electoral alliance, a real deal with the MMA under which the mullahs supported Musharraf in his bid to remain chief of the army staff and president concurrently. While this relationship broke later, this deal allowed the mullahs to gain political traction on the national scene for the first time ever. They took over the government of the volatile North-West Frontier province, the scene of much fighting recently and allowed the forces of radical Islam to assert themselves in Pakistani society: banning clean-shaven men, video and CD shops, and generally trying to introduce other antediluvian laws in the areas they controlled.

The US-Pakistan relationship, which is a recurring theme in my new book Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within (Oxford University Press 2008), can be described as a roller-coaster relationship. It has had its cyclical ups and downs. Yet, the ties have remained unbroken. Unlike US ties with, say, Iran, the relationship has been kept alive with Pakistan even when one side or the other drew back. But it became almost predictable, as US interest shifted across the globe and Pakistan's internal situation changed over time.

Early last year the Military Intelligence Directorate of the Pakistan Army reportedly prepared a long-term analysis of Pakistan's relationship with the United States, charting its cyclical ups and down over the decades. It deduced that a downturn was expected in 2007, as the US prepared to ease out of its dominant role in Afghanistan. After that Pakistan would be left holding the bag yet again and having to cope with rising internal Talibanisation and trouble on its western frontier. This assessment may well have been behind General Pervez Musharraf's moves to clear out his moderate and judicial opponents in a self-inflicted coup against his own Supreme Court and heavily amended Constitution. The assumption was that the US would not react strongly; since it badly needed the Pakistan Army to seal the border with Afghanistan and that the only alternative to Musharraf was the spectre of Islamist radicals controlling Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

In selling this line, Musharraf was one in a long line of Pakistani strongmen and dictators, who milked the United States for military support and financial assistance to keep themselves in power, all in the name of preserving Pakistan's integrity. On his part, in buying this line, President George W Bush and his team also were working from an old Cold War playbook. As always, the US found itself between the rock of support for a freedom agenda and the hard place of support that only a military strongman could provide. As a result, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte spoke in the House Foreign Relations Committee on Nov 7, 2007, of supporting the "people of Pakistan" but came out on the side of the autocratic President of Pakistan whom Negroponte called an "indispensable" ally.

To the people of Pakistan, it was a case of déjà vu all over again. With minor adjustments, history appeared to be repeating itself.

(To be continued)

<b><i>The writer is the author of Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within which will be released in Pakistan this month by Oxford University Press. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and can be reached at www.shujanawaz.com</i></b>

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->