Pen friends: Rohrabacher writes letter to Gilani, calls Pakistan a 'failed

[Edevelop]

WASHINGTON: US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has written a letter to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, condemning the recent violence in Balochistan and has dubbed Pakistan a “failed state.”
According to a copy of the letter received from the Congressman’s Washington DC press office, Representative Rohrabacher cites media reports that policemen killed four people in “unprovoked and
indiscriminate” firing during a raid on a house in Balochistan. Rep. Rohrabacher called it “yet another example in a seeming never ending line of stat sponsored violence targeting the Balochi people.”
Congressman Rohrabacher, who is also the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, in his letter, adds, “it has become increasingly clear to members of the US Congress that Pakistan is a failed state and no amount of US aid money will ever change that.”
Rep. Rohrabacher warned that US aid assistance for Pakistan will dry up once US forces leave Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s leverage over the US will diminish as a result. “It is clear that the Pakistani military and intelligence services have for years diverted money intended to help the people of Balochistan, and the other provinces of Pakistan, into funding terrorism and buying weapons to repress their own people.”
In his letter, Rep. Rohrabacher says that until Pakistan’s government and military deny ethnic groups in the country their right to self-determination, the country’s future will “remain bleak and marred by political violence”. He added that he has long held India to the same standard as well.
The Congressman’s letter to PM Gilani says, “the Baloch people have a right to choose their own political structure and America will no long (sic) play a willing role in helping your government to oppress them.”
Prior to this letter, Rep. Rohrabacher had introduced a house concurrent resolution, asking for the Baloch people to be given the right to self-determination. He has also introduced bills asking for Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped CIA confirm Osama’s presence at the Abbottabad complex, to be given US citizenship and be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
Rep. Rohrabacher also chaired a Congressional hearing on the human rights situation in Balochistan in
February this year, where-in he called for the Baloch to be given their right to self determination.

Pen friends: Rohrabacher writes letter to Gilani, calls Pakistan a ‘failed state’ – The Express Tribune

 

[yyetttt]

Yet USA is not failed state even though it has the most gun related deaths in the world.

Anyways what can we expect from The Express Tribune

Btw, Indian Trolls, "he added that he has long held India to the same standard as well".


IS THIS BECAUSE SUPPLY LINES SHUT DOWN?

 

[Dance]

He's an idiot and shouldn't be taken seriously.

He's not even significant in the US.

 

[EjazR]

For those who don't know history Dana Rohrabacher was the biggest advocate on Pakistan and a thorough anti-India Congressman in his earlier days

 

[Redbull]

"killed four people in “unprovoked and
indiscriminate” firing during a raid on a house in Balochistan. Rep. Rohrabacher called it “yet another example in a seeming never ending line of state sponsored violence targeting the Balochi people.”"

How would he know this? Just another conpiracy theory.

 

[ice_man]

He added that he has long held India to the same standard as well.

ahhhh this shall keep the trolls away & his outburst ignored!

 

[Mo12]

He added that he has long held India to the same standard as well.

ahhhh this shall keep the trolls away & his outburst ignored!

You seem more over joyed by this fact then anything else. What a shame really.

 

[niaz]

Whether Pakistan is a failed state or not, is debatable. However there is little doubt about the lack of governance. Here is an article published today in the News.

Poverty of governance

Taj M Khattak
Thursday, May 03, 2012


It is no small honour for a politician to be prime minister of a country, but this high position also carries enormous responsibilities. It is unfortunate both for the individual and the country when that opportunity is squandered while public expectations remain unfulfilled. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s fall from grace in the Supreme Court was therefore a sad moment in national politics.

The posture Prime Minister Gilani has adopted towards the superior judiciary which reminds you of what, in the American context, The Daily Telegraph described as Obama’s Law: “It’s judicial empathy if the Supreme Court agrees with me, and judicial activism if it does not.” President Obama recently stated that any attempts by the US Supreme Court to strike down the individual healthcare mandate passed by the Congress would be judicial activism of the worst kind and threatened to make that a campaign issue if it happens.

Gilani, however, ignored a fundamental fact: that the NRO, which is at the centre of all the present crisis, was not even debated in parliament where the ruling party has a majority. In litigations, there is a point up to which it is perfectly legitimate to explore all options for ends for justice to be served both ways, but not beyond a certain point. In popular perception, the prime minister and his legal team is way past that point and it would bring no credit to the country if the affairs of state are in the hands of an unrepentant, smiling convict. But surprisingly there is little concern for that. People have lost interest, with well-heeled lawyers visiting the courts only for some smart pre-lunch exchange with the bench and long adjournments, because it has little or no bearing on their lives.

President Nixon wasn’t exactly one of the best presidents of the United Stares. In fact, he is the only one who was forced to resign from the Oval Office. But he was honest on two counts. First, while defending his aides John Ehrlichman and Bob Haldeman as dedicated and fine public servants during the height of the Watergate affair and expressing the hope that they will come out all right, he added truthfully that it probably does not make a difference any longer since they have already been convicted in the minds of millions of Americans. Second, in his resignation speech, he said he was resigning as he felt he no longer had the support of the American people. Any such thoughts amongst our own rulers?

Ever since assuming power, the Gilani government seems to have given a twisted meaning to its slogan of “Democracy is the best revenge” and displayed scant concern for public woes with spiralling food inflation, electricity and gas load-shedding, the rising price of petrol, unchecked corruption, cronyism and a wobbly foreign policy. It has an unprecedented track record of accommodating, pardoning and rewarding tainted individuals. This affinity for the tainted in large numbers and interference with investigations every now and then has lowered the morale and motivational level of state officials.

The recent Bannu jailbreak is a good example of the stark contrast between determined attackers and unmotivated jail staff. On its most fundamental duty to protect the lives and property of its citizens in Karachi, the commercial hub of the country, it has all but lost the battle and the will to discharge its functions. This has caused deep public resentment and eroded public support for the government.

Bismarck famously said that hunters seldom tell the truth after a hunt, generals not during a war and politicians never before an election. People in Pakistan are fairly realistic and have never expected that their popular sentiments will connect in any meaningful manner with the actions of the rulers whom they empower through the electoral process. But the high price being extracted from the public due to the wide chasm between the conduct of our present rulers, with their singular objective to prolong their rule and enhance personal gains, and the unfulfilled democratic aspirations of the populace, has reached backbreaking proportions.

There had long been murmurs in the media about allegations of corruption against the prime minister’s family and he could have intervened if he wanted to. But it is now a familiar practice to denounce even daylight robberies as politically motivated charges, with the joke going too far when past dictators also sing the same raga. Both President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani have repeatedly claimed credit for not incarcerating anyone as political prisoners during their rule. Well, that may be true, but it begs the question: has anyone been put behind bars for wrongdoings?

Even in areas where the government receives foreign assistance, its performance has been dismally poor. In the case of the ongoing anti-polio campaigns for example, it receives help from the UN and the Bill Gates Foundation. Yet we are far behind Burma (Myanmar) and Sudan in efforts for the eradication of this crippling disease.

According to a report published in The Economist last year there were at least 115 confirmed cases of polio in Pakistan, up from the previous year. The current annual global number is roughly 1,000, down from 400,000 about three decades ago. In next-door India, with a far larger population, only 44 cases were confirmed last year, down from 250,000 three decades ago. The World Health Organisation fears that over 200,000 children may have missed polio campaigns in the last two years.

China had been free from polio since 1999 but recently it has reported ten fresh cases in the region bordering Pakistan. While the world edges forward towards global eradication of the crippling disease, we could well be the last remaining reservoir of this endemic poliovirus transmission; an added dubious distinction, to say the least. Public health concerns demand greater focus on polio campaigns rather than obsession with Ephedrine quotas, but only if the government had been sincere with its people.

The government’s relations with the military can best be exemplified by the Seraiki phrase: “Majal hai, sain,” meaning “How dare you,” or “How dare I,” depending upon phonetic emphasis. For how else can one interpret the prime minister’s salvo on the floor of the National Assembly declaring the actions of the COAS and the former director general of the ISI unconstitutional one day and taking a U-turn a few days later? But the prime minister isn’t all that naïve, as some might think. Just consider: there would have been no Memogate (with allegations of treason against some individuals), had the prime minister’s move to place the ISI under the interior ministry succeeded.

The opposition leaders have asked the prime minister to resign in the wake of the Supreme Court’s verdict and the PML-N has even called for early elections. However, the major political parties have made the next elections look more like discussions about who will win rather than how they can change the destiny of Pakistan through an agenda favouring the people. Politicians have become performers in public rallies or over telephone addresses, where the audiences hear them articulate their concerns without any real hope that these will be addressed once these individuals enter the corridors of power. An election, therefore, does not end agony; it only begins new agony where the winners have to recoup the election investments.

The phrase “every man has his price” is attributed to Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first prime minister who ruled for two decades. If President Zardari can be credited with one thing, it is his fullest understanding of the phrase and his near perfection of this art. Zardari could well be in power for a long time if he does not lose his forte of performing balancing acts in any situation thrown at him. With a convicted Gilani and his scions under clouds in other matters, a political transaction is complete and its time to move on.

But generous as Zardari is, he will let Gilani have the pleasure of running the marathon in the appeal process.

The writer is a retired vice admiral. Email: tajkhattak@ymail.com

Poverty of governance - Taj M Khattak