Comments on: The more you look, the less you see in Swat sharia deal

By: Noor Fatima

Noor Fatima — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:02:45 +0000

Swat peace treaty is a good step taken by the apk government. Before the shariah people there used to get their heads cut off! there was no justice at all now atleast there is peace there.

By: bulletfish

bulletfish — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:00:28 +0000

Punjabiyaar,
Pakistan will keep on asking for more money because in this economic climate it will carry on play victim and passive supporter of terrorism. Zardari will keep stating that if Pakistan fails, the world fails speech over and over like a broken record.

Pakistanis (even in the diaspora) will soon stop calling themselves Pakistani. If asked where they are from, they will reply that they are Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashtun, Baluchi, Swati…etc.

It reminds me of the time after the Iranians stormed the US embassy in Tehran and kidnapped the Americans. Most Iranians started saying, “No, I am not Iranian, I am Persian.”

Everyone gets ashamed of their motherland’s actions and distances themselves from it.

By: riverScrap

riverScrap — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 16:23:23 +0000

Agreeing to a ceasefire without clear terms and without making provisions for the Taliban to disarm – or even moderate its charter – sounds like a really, really dumb idea. This is a coup for the Taliban and will only embolden them in the region.

Do the maths: Taliban fighters blow up the Indian embassy in Afghanistan; they assisanate Pakistan’s Bhutto in a wave of suicide bombings; they launch a Mumbai-style attack on Kabul’s ministries; they ramp up attacks on US convoy routes; they resume brutal beheadings of innocent foreign civilians…

And the Pakistani government’s response? Bowing down to an unconditional ceasefire with zero culpability and no real prospect of altering the Frontier Province’s apocalyptic path. It boggles the mind.

By: Punjabiyaar

Punjabiyaar — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 16:48:38 +0000

Another theory for this ceasefire could be, that something BIG is cooking up in Pakistan, May be they are planning some really big attack on INDIA or USA, Political govt. or Army knows it and just to deny it later on, they are giving safe havens to terrorists in SWAT and around.

Giving Shariya to taliban NOW will provide diplomatic cover to paki govt LATER. They will blame NON-STATE actors in SWAT this time, regret the ceasefire decision, impose pakistani law again in swat and ask more money from world to fight terrorism.

Anybody thinking similar thing ?

By: Tom Heneghan

Tom Heneghan — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:24:39 +0000

Venkat, go back and read that passage more carefully. I said “more speed and less fuss,” but you twisted that into “speedy” and “just.” I made no statement about the justice of such courts. It’s also interesting to see that you seem to want to defend Pakistani courts against charges of being corrupt and slow. I wonder how many Pakistani readers would agree with that…

By: bulletfish

bulletfish — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:00:50 +0000

Taliban funding will most likely arrive in 2 fashions:

(1) secretly from wealthy Arab nations.
(2) kidnapping, extortion and blackmailing of Swati families who have relatives working in Western countries USA, UK…etc). Might as well include Dubai.

By: SMJ

SMJ — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:49:06 +0000

This trend of retreating and shrinking the government’s writ geographically seems to have just begun. I think soon we might hear of more areas in the north and perhaps even Balochistan compromised. I will call this slow death of a country that has long been on the verge of a total collapse as a failing state.

By: Venkat

Venkat — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 06:18:14 +0000

The moral equivalence being drawn between Shariat ["speedy" and "just"] and secular legal system ["corrupt" and "slow"] by Islamabad-friendly Reuters and other media correspondents is shocking, to say the least. If Shariat is seen as just and speedy, why not push the whole world into accepting it?

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:49:14 +0000

Honey, I shrunk Pakistan!

“Successive Pakistani governments are making a habit of surrendering territory and sovereignty to the Taliban in exchange for nothing”

Pakistan is slowly shriveling up. I guess the next time Benazir Bhutto’s ghost visits her dear husband President Zardari, his one line report will say, “Honey, I shrunk Pakistan!”

“By securing their eastern front through peace deals with Pakistan, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are free to focus their entire firepower on American and NATO forces”

“the deals give the Taliban and Al-Qaeda safe havens where they can train, recruit and fundraise”

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/936/op7. htm

By: azad dp

azad dp — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:52:17 +0000

Zain is in usual denial mode and dismissive as an action of uneducated and underprivileged; and Umair said its all to do with jobs and development.

An American Pakistani looks at it from a very different prism:
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfai th/salman_ahmad/2009/02/rescuing_pakista n_from_the_tal/all_comments.html

SIDDIQUE MALIK:

The problem is not just the Taliban, but archaic mentality of most Pakistanis and I especially include educated Pakistanis. They have all been brain-washed by mullahs to the extent that even educated Pakistanis shy away from honest discussions. This handicap exists even in Pakistani diasporas in various parts of the world. In Louisville, KY, exists a group of a few hundred Pakistanis almost all of whom are accomplished professionals and most of whom are successful practicing doctors. They have a group email address. The other day, a fanatical member posted a fatwa saying that it was wrong to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day and also it was wrong to be a friend with non-Muslims. When I strongly objected to this assault on humanity in the name of Islam, another fanatic started to justify the fatwa. A handful spoke against it, but they castigated me more for being so open than condemned the fatwa. Suddenly, every one’s feelings started to get hurt, and the issue died. The fatwa still stands and every one in the group has promised to be polite to each other and not offend each other. So much for the abilities of educated Pakistanis to confront the Taliban and its like.
FEBRUARY 24, 2009 12:49 PM | REPORT OFFENSIVE COMMENTS

Living here in USA this spinechilling news convinces me swat is just the tip of iceberg.