Energon:
I am 3 quarters of the way through it - juggling it with about five other books (including a couple of very recent additions by Selig Harrison and AB Alam on Baluchistan
), plus school work, projects etc. etc. etc.....
On that note, I am somewhat disappointed by the book. I did not find it quite as well written or objective as Ahmed Rashid's
Taliban, on content where the two overlap (though Rashid apparently reviews it favorably). There is also an "American slant" to it - phrases like "Vodka soaked Soviet officers", and repeated descriptions of the Americans involved as "keen/sharp eyed", "decent" etc. (you know, mostly positive adjectives) made me question how objective his presentation of the facts was - especially when very rarely did he extend the same sort of verbiage to describe the other nationalities involved, but some interesting information nonetheless.
Now I am no supporter of the Saudis, I have always criticized the fawning attitudes of some Pakistanis towards the Arabs.
The role of the GID is indeed very interesting, however, the events of that era do need to be looked at within the context of the misinterpretation by all three intelligence agencies (CIA, ISI, GID) of the future risk posed by these elements. It did cement a long held view of mine that the Saudi royal family allowed the extreme Wahabi segments within the Kingdom a certain amount of free rein to maintain themselves in power. I don't think that automatically implies that they want these elements supporting "terrorism", but they do indeed support efforts by them to proselytize and expand their ideology outside of Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan is not the only recipient of this "largess" however - the British have also been having a strong discussion over the role of Saudi funded mosques and their content. At the very least the Saudi sponsored ideology supports an intolerant and unidimensional interpretation of Islam, but the problem cannot be solved as easily as simply banning Saudi sponsored Madrassa's, where would we stop? Ban the Indian Deobandis and Deobandi offshoots? Iranian affiliated schools?
The entire system, needs to be changed - with GoP monitoring of the curriculum, full declaration of assets and funding sources, independent auditing - essentially a level of transparency that would allow the State to avoid the "sledgehammer approach" of "banning" organizations, and instead making the rules clear, and then individually target specific institutions and Leaders who violate those rules.
The Saudis have already acted to influence GoP action against personalities that are in their favor - Hamid Gul was arrested after the emergency and released because of Saudi intervention, and it is possible that if the GoP does manage to implement the Madrassa reforms I mentioned, the Saudis might step in to protect some of their blue eyed boys, but we'll have to wait and see. Hamid Gul is an extremely high profile individual, and had contacts due to his involvement with the GID during the Afghan Jihad - I am not certain the Saudis would use up their political capital for any mere Mullah running a seminary.
