PAKI- A four letter word
WORTH GOING THRO' TILL THE END____________________________________________________________ __________ PAKI- A four letter wordPakistanis evoke highly negative emotions worldwide, including
in Muslim majority countries, says a US survey. Not just the
elites but the common Pakistani too is culpable in the country's
spectacular failure.AIt has never been easy being a Pakistani. Pick a terrorist
act committed anywhere in the world and chances are it has
Pakistani fingerprints all over it. In many places, the word
‘Pakistani’ is a four-letter word.So it must be a nasty kick in the guts for the Pakistanis to
learn that their only allies, the Chinese, as well as the majority
populations of several Muslim countries, including Egypt,
Tunisia, Jordan and Lebanon, see them as a bunch of baddies.A survey of 21 countries released on June 27, 2012 by the United
States-based Pew Research Center suggests that Pakistan is not
only a universally disliked country but the Pakistanis themselves
have learnt nothing from their history, continuing to support the
very actors who are responsible for their country’s negative image.It is a measure of Pakistan’s penchant for exporting terrorists,
counterfeit currency and drugs that India has constructed a
2043 km long steel fence across its border with its wayward
western neighbour. The floodlit fence is so bright it can be seen
from space as a bright orange line snaking from the Arabian Sea
to Kashmir.Now Iran is building a 700-km steel and concrete security
fence along its border with Pakistan “to prevent border
crossing by terrorists and drug traffickers”. When complete
it will make Pakistan the most fenced-in country in the world.You get the picture. Pakistan is not exactly a popular tourist
destination.In four of the five predominantly Muslim nations covered by
the American survey, over half give Pakistan negative ratings.
Jordan (57 percent), Lebanon (56 percent), Tunisia (54 percent)
and Egypt (53 percent) had an unfavourable opinion of Pakistan.
The only exception is Turkey, where attitudes are divided (43 percent
negative and 37 percent favourable).In East Asia, 52 percent of Chinese see Pakistan unfavourably, as
do 59 percent in Japan and 59 percent in India. The Chinese
response is not surprising as Pakistan-trained Uighur Muslims have
launched terror strikes in China. Japan, a nation historically
distrustful of foreigners, decided not to take chances and deported
more than 15,000 Pakistanis after 9/11.Runaway military most lovedEvery country has an army but the Pakistan Army has a country.
The Pakistani military runs a $20 billion commercial empire that
includes interests such as milk processing plants, bakeries, banks,
cinemas, heavy industry and insurance. Plus a good chunk of the
billions of dollars in American aid goes straight into the pockets
of the generals.This corrupt empire is walled off from civilians. Defence analyst
Ayesha Siddiqa, author of Military Inc: Inside Pakistan’s Military
Economy, says there is little accountability and widespread siphoning
of funds. The Pakistani military operates a virtual apartheid where an
increasingly poor civilian population faces discrimination at virtually
every level of national life – from jobs to pensions.Also, the Pakistani military has lost four wars against India.
After each of these wars Pakistan lost territory and the generals
their credibility. But bizarre as it sounds, this military is the most
respected institution in the country. As many as 77 percent say
the military has a good influence on the country, nearly the same
percentage (79 percent) as last year. The Pakistanis are either
very tolerant or very brainwashed.Sure, the military’s ratings have slipped from a high of 86 percent
in 2009, but all it takes is one border flare-up for the ratings to
travel north. The generals always oblige.The media comes next with a 68 percent rating, followed by
religious leaders at 66 percent.President Asif Ali Zardari receives the most negative reviews.
Only 12 percent believe he has a good influence, while 84 percent
dislike him. Attitudes about Zardari are particularly negative in
Punjab (96 percent bad influence) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
(95 percent).Why is he so unpopular? Well, Zardari has done more than any
previous leader to normalize trade and diplomatic relations with India.
His mending fences approach lacks the customary anti-India sting.Attitude towards militancyMilitant groups such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban have limited
appeal among Pakistanis. Relatively few Pakistanis express a
positive view of either Al Qaeda (13 percent) or the Taliban
(13 percent). Attitudes toward groups affiliated with the Taliban
fare no better in the eyes of the Pakistani public. Tehrik-i-Taliban,
an umbrella organization of Taliban-linked groups in Pakistan, and
the Afghan Taliban are viewed positively by only 17 percent and
14 percent of Pakistanis, respectively. The secretive Haqqani network,
which is also associated with the Taliban movement, is viewed
favourably by only 5 percent of Pakistanis.The attitudes toward Lashkar-e-Taiba are somewhat more
positive –
22 percent say they have a favorable opinion of this militant group.
This is hardly surprising because the Lashkar mostly targets India.How Pakistanis see IndiaWhen asked which is the greatest threat – India, the Taliban, or
Al Qaeda – a clear majority named India. Roughly a quarter cited
the Taliban and only 4 percent say Al-Qaeda. This is despite the fact
that Al Qaeda blew up the Karachi naval base last year.Only 22 percent of Pakistanis have a favourable view of India,
although this is actually a slight improvement from 14 percent last
year. Supporters of the two major opposition parties – former
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N)
and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are much more likely to name India as
the biggest danger (71 percent and 61 percent, respectively)
than those that affiliate with Zardari’s governing Pakistan Peoples’
Party (PPP), where this view of India is held by 46 percent.Pakistanis in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions are
more likely to dislike India. For example, 84 percent in Punjab
and 90 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa see India as a serious threat,
while 64 percent in Sindh and 61 percent in Baluchistan say the same.This should alert liberal Indians who rush to the border to hold
“candlelight vigils” for peace. Most Pakistanis are united by their
hatred and fear of India – it is only a matter of degree; some
hate more, others less.Biting the hand that feedsIndia does not get any aid from the United States and yet among
all 21 nations Pew surveyed, Indians seemed most favorably
disposed towards it. Only 12 percent said they had an unfavorable
opinion of the United States.On the other hand in Pakistan, which is heavily dependent
on American cash and weapons, 80 percent had a negative
opinion of America, with 74 percent regarding it as an enemy
country. Around four-in-ten (38 percent) said US economic aid
is having a mostly negative impact on Pakistan, while just 12
percent believed it is mostly positive.Curiously, 40 percent said American military aid is having a
mostly negative effect, while only 8 percent said it is largely positive.
Pakistan’s military stockpile is largely American supplied. Do the
Pakistanis believe their North Korean knockoffs will do a better job?Be Pakistani, act IndianOne of the ironies of Pakistani life in the West is that they
pose as Indians, the very people they hate so much. According
to Asghar Choudhri, the chairman of Brooklyn’s Pakistani American
Merchant Association, a lot of Pakistanis can’t get jobs after 9/11,
and after the botched Times Square bombing, it’s become worse.
“They are now pretending they are Indian so they can get a job,”
he told a US wire service.That is because Indians are among the highest educated and
best paid ethnic groups, besides being highly integrated
immigrants. Pakistanis, on the other hand, have been
accused of honour killings, cousin marriages, child sex
rackets, and terrorist activities in the very lands that gave
them shelter.From Ramzi Yousef, who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993
(eight years before Osama Bin Laden) and is now serving
a 240-year prison sentence to Mir Aimal Kansi, who shot
dead two CIA agents and was later executed by lethal injection,
to Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square “Idiot Bomber”,
there is a long list of Pakistanis who have left a trail of terror.Terror on courseThe Indian mask that many Pakistanis wear is to get around
Western suspicions. Back home, it’s business as usual. Two
incidents amply demonstrate that Pakistanis have learnt nothing
about the dangers of flirting with terror. One was the widespread
outrage across the country over Bin Laden’s killing by American
commandos. The other was the unholy fracas over Kansi’s execution.The day after a Virginia, United States, court handed the CIA
shooter the death sentence, four Americans were shot dead on
the streets of Pakistan. After his execution in 2002, Kansi’s
funeral was attended by the entire civilian administration in his
hometown Quetta, the local Pakistani Corps Commander, and
the then Pakistani ambassador to the United States.Thousands of mourners turned out as Quetta city shuttered down.
Kansi’s coffin, draped in black cloth with verses from the Koran
embroidered on it in gold, was carried on the shoulders of
young men some 10 miles from the airport to his family’s home
in Quetta.In Islamabad, the capital city, lawyers and university students
poured out on the streets in support of their newest ‘martyr’.Veteran’s viewVeteran Indian writer Khushwant Singh is hardly the sort of person
you would call anti-Pakistani. In fact, he’s been accused of
“trenchant secularism” because he often backs the Muslim view
against the Hindu-Sikh narrative. For decades, Singh’s house has
been a watering hole for many of his Pakistani friends, who come
to vent their frustrations. His mostly tabloid rants aren’t taken too
seriously but he has a finger on the Pakistani pulse.In November 2008, 10 Pakistani terrorists raided the Indian city of Mumbai,
killing 166 people – mostly innocent civilians. How did the common
Pakistani react when confronted with the fact that it was an operation
planned and executed by their countrymen?On the first anniversary of the attack here’s what Singh wrote in his
column in the daily newspaper Hindustan Times: “To begin with,
there was blank denial of any Pakistani being involved in the crime.
This was tinged with apprehension that India may retaliate
by carrying out similar operations in Pakistan and trigger off
yet another mutually destructive war. When that fear proved
baseless, it was replaced by a sense of achievement, a feeling
of pride that their countrymen could plan and execute such
a daring exploit with such finesse…Even the fact that among
the innocent victims over 40 were Muslims was brushed aside.
The sense of false pride in performing a foul deed still persists.”This is a snapshot of Pakistani society where the arrow of time is
travelling backwards, taking it into a spiral of medieval madness.
Where the death of a terrorist merely means he will be instantly
replaced by a hundred clones.Is it any wonder that Paki is a four-letter word?
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