[Reader-list] Ten myths about Pakistan

Tue Jan 6 02:40:59 IST 2009

he's also written about the mango paiti that exploded.
http://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/a-case-of-exploding-mangoes-the-new-pakistani-novel/

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 11:57 PM, taraprakash <taraprakash at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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