June 5, 2007 ☼ Aside ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
This arrived in the inbox, all the way from a distant capital. Here’s an excerpt, but you should read the whole thing.
The other day I ran into (a Ministry of External Affairs) expert on Pakistan. “What’s going on in Pakistan?” I asked. “Musharraf is fighting with his back to the wall,” he said.
“That is a pity,” I said.
“No, that’s a blessing,” he said. “Now Musharraf will have to get off the fence. He must choose between the fundamentalists and democratic civil society.” “That’s good,” I said.
“No, that’s bad,” he said. “This is the worst time to take on the fundamentalists. Liberal elements are badly divided between supporters of the chief justice and the supporters of Musharraf!”
“Tsk-tsk! Confrontation was avoidable,” I said.
“No, it was necessary,” he said. “Now once and for all Pakistan will be forced to decide whether democratic law or the law of the mullahs must prevail.”
“This will clear up things,” I said.
“No, it will confuse things,” he said. “Both the MQM and PPP favour democracy. But the MQM favours Musharraf while the PPP favours the chief justice!”
…
“The Pakistan situation is very complex,” I said.
“No, it’s very simple,” he said. “Pakistan is a mess!” [Rajinder Puri/Outlook]It’s an accurate analysis yes; but also neither here nor there.
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