[Reader-list] Ten myths about Pakistan

[taraprakash]

I found nothing illuminating in the article. Thankfully I use other sources 
except reader list for reading news.
Just because a journalist works for an authentic news agency, it doesn't 
mean he/she becomes credible. What do you say about Praveen Swami working 
for Hindu?
Of course Barkha Dutt or anyone in Imdian media will do better to put their 
own house in order before commenting on the ills of Pakistan.
I agree that it is not fair to criticize everything that comes from 
Pakistan, I also believe that it is wrong to applaud everything that comes 
from there.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Aman Sethi" <aman.am at gmail.com>
To: <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 3:56 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Ten myths about Pakistan


> Dear Taraprakash,
> Mohammed Hanif is in fact, the HEAD of the BBC Urdu service, - the
> very same service that you so approvingly quote. So I would give him
> far more credence than you have.  Further, since the BBC Urdu appears
> to be a paragon of journalistic practice - i think he is well suited
> to make a few remarks on the stereotypical way in which pakistan is
> portrayed in the Indian media.
>
> I find it really amusing that indians can dedicate reams to pointing
> out (in painful detail i might add) how barkha dutt or rajdeep
> sardesai got it wrong - but when a pakistani writes a reasonably
> illuminating opinion piece - he is asked to put his house in order.
> best
> a.
>
> On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 3:14 PM, taraprakash <taraprakash at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I wonder if this article is talking about Pakistan or Pakistanis. 
>> Generally
>> when media talks about a country, India, Pakistan, US etc., they mean the
>> governments not the people. If you need to know about the nexus between
>> Pakistan state apparatuses and these Jihadi groups, one can just visit
>> www.bbcurdu.com
>> As far as I know, this site is not part of the Indian media. BBC Urdu
>> service, that has its headqurters  in Pakistan, and that was first to 
>> send
>> its correspondents to Kasab's village to confirm his identity as a 
>> Pakistani
>> national, is running a feature on Jihadis and Pakistan establishment 
>> links.
>> The site also has an interview with Hamid Gul, former ISI chief and one 
>> of
>> the founding members of these jihadi groups. On being asked "what was the
>> relevance of these groups once the USSR forces had been defeated in
>> Afghanistan?" Gul says that earlier the US had an even-handed approach
>> towards India and Pakistan. But now there is a tilt towards India, so 
>> these
>> nonstate actors are required as a deterant to India. The author of the 
>> below
>> article also ignores the fact that different Jihadi groups are working
>> towards different agenda. So much so that Pakistan establishment  differs
>> between good taliban, those who don't  attack Pakistani army, and bad
>> Taliban, those who destroy pakistani infrastructure. So much about the
>> homogenity of these groups. How much active these Jihadi groups in the
>> Indian territory, is also dependent on what kind of relationship India 
>> and
>> Pakistan governments have. So much about decoupling of the Pakistani 
>> state
>> and these groups. I wonder if the mango exporting author heard that Navaz
>> Sharif interview that was not broadcast only on India media. In the
>> interview given to one of the Pakistani channels Sharif said that the
>> government had something to hide in Faridkot. I wonder if the mango
>> exporting author reads anything by Hoodboy and Mariana Babar, both
>> Pakistanis. Yes, Indian media have lots of shortcommings, but before 
>> anyone
>> from Pakistan addresses them, they need to first put their house in 
>> order.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "M Javed" <javedmasoo at gmail.com>
>> To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
>> Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 1:19 AM
>> Subject: [Reader-list] Ten myths about Pakistan
>>
>>
>>> Ten myths about Pakistan
>>> 4 Jan 2009, 0032 hrs IST,
>>> Mohammed Hanif
>>>
>>> Living in Pakistan and reading about it in the Indian press can
>>> sometimes be quite a disorienting experience: one wonders what place
>>> on earth they're talking about? I wouldn't be surprised if an Indian
>>> reader going through Pakistani papers has asked the same question in
>>> recent days. Here are some common assumptions about Pakistan and its
>>> citizens that I have come across in the Indian media...
>>>
>>> Pakistan controls the jihadis: Or Pakistan's government controls the
>>> jihadis. Or Pakistan Army controls the jihadis. Or ISI controls the
>>> jihadis. Or some rogue elements from the ISI control the Jihadis.
>>> Nobody knows the whole truth but increasingly it's the tail that wags
>>> the dog. We must remember that the ISI-Jihadi alliance was a marriage
>>> of convenience, which has broken down irrevocably. Pakistan army has
>>> lost more soldiers at the hands of these jihadis than it ever did
>>> fighting India.
>>>
>>> Musharraf was in control, Zardari is not: Let's not forget that
>>> General Musharraf seized power after he was fired from his job as the
>>> army chief by an elected prime minister. Musharraf first appeased
>>> jihadis, then bombed them, and then appeased them again. The country
>>> he left behind has become a very dangerous place, above all for its
>>> own citizens. There is a latent hankering in sections of the Indian
>>> middle class for a strongman. Give Manmohan Singh a military uniform,
>>> put all the armed forces under his direct command, make his word the
>>> law of the land, and he too will go around thumping his chest saying
>>> that it's his destiny to save India from Indians . Zardari will never
>>> have the kind of control that Musharraf had. But Pakistanis do not
>>> want another Musharraf.
>>>
>>> Pakistan, which Pakistan? For a small country, Pakistan is very
>>> diverse, not only ethnically but politically as well. General
>>> Musharraf's government bombed Pashtuns in the north for being
>>> Islamists and close to the Taliban and at the same time it bombed
>>> Balochs in the South for NOT being Islamists and for subscribing to
>>> some kind of retro-socialist, anti Taliban ethos. You have probably
>>> heard the joke about other countries having armies but Pakistan's army
>>> having a country. Nobody in Pakistan finds it funny.
>>>
>>> Pakistan and its loose nukes: Pakistan's nuclear programme is under a
>>> sophisticated command and control system, no more under threat than
>>> India or Israel's nuclear assets are threatened by Hindu or Jewish
>>> extremists. For a long time Pakistan's security establishment's other
>>> strategic asset was jihadi organisations, which in the last couple of
>>> years have become its biggest liability.
>>>
>>> Pakistan is a failed state: If it is, then Pakistanis have not
>>> noticed. Or they have lived in it for such a long time that they have
>>> become used to its dysfunctional aspects. Trains are late but they
>>> turn up, there are more VJs, DJs, theatre festivals, melas, and
>>> fashion models than a failed state can accommodate. To borrow a phrase
>>> from President Zardari, there are lots of non-state actors like Abdul
>>> Sattar Edhi who provide emergency health services, orphanages and
>>> shelters for sick animals.
>>>
>>> It is a deeply religious country: Every half-decent election in this
>>> country has proved otherwise. Religious parties have never won more
>>> than a fraction of popular vote. Last year Pakistan witnessed the
>>> largest civil rights movements in the history of this region. It was
>>> spontaneous, secular and entirely peaceful. But since people weren't
>>> raising anti-India or anti-America slogans, nobody outside Pakistan
>>> took much notice.
>>>
>>> All Pakistanis hate India: Three out of four provinces in Pakistan -
>>> Sindh, Baluchistan, NWFP - have never had any popular anti-India
>>> sentiment ever. Punjabis who did impose India as enemy-in-chief on
>>> Pakistan are now more interested in selling potatoes to India than
>>> destroying it. There is a new breed of al-Qaida inspired jihadis who
>>> hate a woman walking on the streets of Karachi as much as they hate a
>>> woman driving a car on the streets of Delhi. In fact there is not much
>>> that they do not hate: they hate America, Denmark, China CDs, barbers,
>>> DVDs , television, even football. Imran Khan recently said that these
>>> jihadis will never attack a cricket match but nobody takes him
>>> seriously.
>>>
>>> Training camps: There are militant sanctuaries in the tribal areas of
>>> Pakistan but definitely not in Muzaffarabad or Muridke, two favourite
>>> targets for Indian journalists, probably because those are the cities
>>> they have ever been allowed to visit. After all how much training do
>>> you need if you are going to shoot at random civilians or blow
>>> yourself up in a crowded bazaar? So if anyone thinks a few missiles
>>> targeted at Muzaffarabad will teach anyone a lesson, they should
>>> switch off their TV and try to locate it on the map.
>>>
>>> RAW would never do what ISI does: Both the agencies have had a
>>> brilliant record of creating mayhem in the neighbouring countries.
>>> Both have a dismal record when it comes to protecting their own
>>> people. There is a simple reason that ISI is a bigger, more notorious
>>> brand name: It was CIA's franchise during the jihad against the
>>> Soviets. And now it's busy doing jihad against those very jihadis.
>>>
>>> Pakistan is poor, India is rich: Pakistanis visiting India till the
>>> mid-eighties came back very smug. They told us about India's slums,
>>> and that there was nothing to buy except handicrafts and saris. Then
>>> Pakistanis could say with justifiable pride that nobody slept hungry
>>> in their country. But now, not only do people sleep hungry in both the
>>> countries, they also commit suicide because they see nothing but a
>>> lifetime of hunger ahead. A debt-ridden farmer contemplating suicide
>>> in Maharashtra and a mother who abandons her children in Karachi
>>> because she can't feed them: this is what we have achieved in our
>>> mutual desire to teach each other a lesson.
>>>
>>> The writer is the author of 'A Case of Exploding Mangoes'
>>>
>>> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Sunday_TOI/Ten_myths_about_Pakistan/articleshow/3932145.cms
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>>
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