
By Majed Iqbal- US secretary of state Hillary Clinton completed her three day tour of Pakistan in the last week of October attempting to win the hearts and minds of a population which has become instrumental to Americas War on Terror.
Many Pakistani commentators dubbed her visit as a ‘charm offensive’ to re-build that ‘trust deficit’; a long overdue initiative to ease tensions with the Pakistani masses that have been having second and third thoughts about their ‘use and abuse’ partnership with the US since its inception in 2001.
The tour saw concentrated efforts in dialoguing directly with the public on a range of issues which the people of Pakistan were thinking about on Pakistan- US relations.
Hillary Clinton’s “people to people” diplomacy — with journalists, students and common people, which included town hall meetings in a “no holds” barred question and answer session at a university in Lahore were part of a new packaging.
This was possibly an approach to re-build that trust in an open and transparent way, a somewhat ‘revolutionary’ step away from more clandestine approaches with Government ministers and opposition figureheads to manipulate political will.
Clinton, who professes deep personal affection for Pakistan and its people, was aiming to be cautiously optimistic in her visit to maybe change as many hearts and minds among Pakistanis. Read the rest of this entry »
COMMENT- Musharraf rewarded for ‘Services’
21 07 2009By Majed Iqbal-Musharraf, the Darling of the west and dedicated comrade in the War on Terror has landed in London for a new chapter of his life and has been officially inaugurated in the House of commons. He now moves into his new £500,00 house with his family as he plans ahead his life in a country to whom he has been very close with in the last decade under his self- declared positions as General, Chief Executive and President of Pakistan.
After providing his support to the Americans and the British in steering Pakistan for their agendas and providing his ‘unstinting support’ in the war on Terror, Musharraf, the one who sacrificed Pakistan’s strategic depth with Afghanistan, the one who massacred men, women and children in Lal Mosque, the one who allowed over fifty FBI offices in the country to abduct Pakistanis at will, the one who silenced media and ordered torturingof outspoken journalists and editors of newspapers, the one who made foreign Western culture readily available to the youth through the Cable and Media channels and heir own version of MTV to distance them further from Islam, the one who said that i know more about Khilafah than Hizb ut-Tahrir and began harassing, jailing and torturing its members, the one who allowed America to use its airspace to bomb Pakistan’s citizens since 2005, the one who sold off the gas and Electricity utilities to foreign multi–national companies making the people in Pakistan suffer and the one who talks about ‘Pakistan first’ and then does everything to destroy the country has been warmly received and accepted in Britain. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Caliphate, Lal Mosque Crisis, Musharraf, Pakistan, Secularism, War on Terror
Categories : Comment, Pakistan