PAKISTAN UNDER MUSHARRAF MILITARY REGIME, AND THE QUESTION OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM

Written by Aftab Hassan Khan


It is been over four years that General Musharaf is been in power. Three years with a naked military regime andrepparttar last one year with a so-called democratic government and he as a president. General Musharaf is a lucky military dictator who realisedrepparttar 125976 changed world situation after 11th September 2001 so he changed his policies overnight to become a partner of American imperialism inrepparttar 125977 "fight against terrorism". He, at least in words, changed his life time support to religious fundamentalist and to some extent abandoned them without any shame or apology.

World imperialism in return awarded him by accepting his dictatorial rule without a question or doubt. Imperialist forces rewarded him by rescheduling his loans and granting him some new loans as well. He became darling ofrepparttar 125978 western rulers and a family friend of President Bush. He becamerepparttar 125979 award-winning president of Pakistan who was invited by President Bush in June 2003 at Camp David, as was boasted byrepparttar 125980 Pakistani government control media.

General Musharaf wins this position by his hard work to pleaserepparttar 125981 international imperialist institutions like IMF,World Bank and WTO. He acted blindly onrepparttar 125982 precious advises of these institutions to implementrepparttar 125983 restructuring plan of public sector, privatization, lowering ofrepparttar 125984 trade tariffs and deregulation’s. "This isrepparttar 125985 painful recipe that we must adopt if to overcomerepparttar 125986 economic recession and to startrepparttar 125987 recovery ofrepparttar 125988 sick economy" he boasted as he took power in October 1999 in a bloodless coup. He had overthrown an unpopular rich Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz Sharif was not able to complete his full five-year term although he had a two third majority inrepparttar 125989 parliament elected inrepparttar 125990 year 1997. Nawaz Sharfi tried his best to implementrepparttar 125991 policies IMF, World Bank and WTO. But was unable due to massive resistance byrepparttar 125992 workers and small traders. General Musharaf took power precisely to implementrepparttar 125993 unfinished agenda of Nawaz Sharif.

The result ofrepparttar 125994 implementation ofrepparttar 125995 imperialist guided polices is a disaster forrepparttar 125996 working class of Pakistan. The recent Sate Bank Pakistan report indicate an increase of at least 15% more poverty withinrepparttar 125997 last three years despite allrepparttar 125998 media hype of a great recovery ofrepparttar 125999 Pakistan economy under Musharaf. The government claim that there are record 11 billion US Dollars foreign reserves due torepparttar 126000 polices ofrepparttar 126001 regime.

Political Front

The masses have lost all confidence onrepparttar 126002 main capitalist political parties. You can not find any difference of policies amongrepparttar 126003 two main stream parties, Pakistan Peoples Party of Benazir Bhotto and Pakistan Muslim League of ex Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The two were at one time representing quite different policies; PPP was a populist radical party, which at one time was able to attract many working classes to its fold.But Under Benazir Bhotto,repparttar 126004 PPP has become a right wing conservative party closely linked at different times withrepparttar 126005 army generals andrepparttar 126006 American imperialism. Benazir Bhotto were elected twice as Prime Minister (1988 and 1994) but was unable to deliver any reform agenda. She is at present in exile and since 1998, living in Dubai and running its party via emails. A court in Pakistan on corruption charges sentenced her. Her husband is in a Pakistani jail forrepparttar 126007 last seven years for allegedly corruption, nepotism, murder and attempt of murder charges. The PPP emergedrepparttar 126008 largest parliamentary party duringrepparttar 126009 October 2002 general elections begging around 22 percent ofrepparttar 126010 votes. The PPP is at present part of an alliance called Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) along with some other main bourgeoisie parties. The ARD has been unable to launch any mass agitation againstrepparttar 126011 present regime despite all its claims of launching one.

Religious Fundamentalism

The distrust ofrepparttar 126012 masses onrepparttar 126013 main political parties has led many to take political refuge underrepparttar 126014 religious parties. The religious parties have formed a united alliance called Mutihida Majlis Ammal (United organization for Action). The MMA have won over 15 percent ofrepparttar 126015 votes duringrepparttar 126016 October general elections. They have formed a provincial government in NorthWest Frontier Province, and part ofrepparttar 126017 provincial government at Baluchistan. NWFP province is next to Afghanistan. The formation ofrepparttar 126018 government byrepparttar 126019 religious fundamentalists in this province has given a major boast torepparttar 126020 Talban Mujahidin in Afghanistan. It is here where Americans want Musharaf to go for a crack down onrepparttar 126021 provincial government. The central government have led many raids onrepparttar 126022 so called Alqaida hideouts in this province to pleaserepparttar 126023 American imperialism thatrepparttar 126024 Musharaf regime is serious to have a go on religious fanatics.

The ongoing growth of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan is a serious threat torepparttar 126025 progressive forces of Pakistan. The religious fundamentalists have several trends within its ranks. But overall they are all united in their extreme right wing, semi fascist approaches in politics. They promote conservative’s family values that mean women as half of men. Their anti imperialist sloganeering does not deserve them to earn as a real anti imperialist force. It is semi fascist forces againstrepparttar 126026 imperialists at this juncture of history. Religious fundamentalism has grown tremendously particularly afterrepparttar 126027 collapse of Stalinism. It has provided to some extent a feeling of security for many ordinary Muslims. Some ofrepparttar 126028 religious parties have build their infrastructures on a mass basis inrepparttar 126029 shape of religious educational institutions, Mosques and charity organizations withrepparttar 126030 assistance ofrepparttar 126031 American imperialism duringrepparttar 126032 eighties. They also had tremendous help fromrepparttar 126033 reactionary rulers of Saudi Arabia. They were waiting for their turn to become mass base. That turn has come and they enjoy massive support amongrepparttar 126034 masses more than what they had gotrepparttar 126035 votes inrepparttar 126036 general elections of October 2002.

The religious parties grew withrepparttar 126037 help ofrepparttar 126038 army andrepparttar 126039 state. You can say that religious fundamentalist forces in Pakistan are mainly due torepparttar 126040 heavy economic and social help by different groups withinrepparttar 126041 state. But that is only a part ofrepparttar 126042 whole story. They have also grown because ofrepparttar 126043 tremendous disappointments byrepparttar 126044 main political parties to offer any social help torepparttar 126045 masses during their power periods from 1988 to 1999. The religious parties have now offered an alternative to these capitalist feudal political parties.

Can they come to power in Pakistan? Would it be like Afghanistan or like Iran? It is difficult to say thatrepparttar 126046 religious parties will come to power through elections. The bourgeoisie and American imperialist forces will not allow that to happen. They can become junior partners inrepparttar 126047 power but not asrepparttar 126048 sole representatives ofrepparttar 126049 people of Pakistan. The religious fundamentalist provincial government is already under threat formrepparttar 126050 Center and is not being tolerated. The ongoing popularity of these religious fundamentalists groups has also increasedrepparttar 126051 hopes ofrepparttar 126052 masses to solve their economic problems. Yet inrepparttar 126053 province of NWFP,repparttar 126054 MMA government have failed to addressrepparttar 126055 question poverty and unemployment. They have tried to compromise withrepparttar 126056 Center to be able to continue their government. Although a Sharia bill is been introduced inrepparttar 126057 assembly that will give maximum powers torepparttar 126058 fundamentalists groups to monitorrepparttar 126059 Islamic functioning ofrepparttar 126060 state andrepparttar 126061 public. But generally they have carried out policies dictated byrepparttar 126062 Center. The result is not very good in their favor and many questions about their credibility have arisen.But despite this experience in this province, they are making headways inrepparttar 126063 most populated province of Punjab. They are also controllingrepparttar 126064 largest city of Pakistan Karachi. At this cityrepparttar 126065 Mayer elected duringrepparttar 126066 year 2001 is from Jamaat-I-Islami.Atrepparttar 126067 time whenrepparttar 126068 armed forces ofrepparttar 126069 country are trying find outrepparttar 126070 remnants ofrepparttar 126071 Taliban inWaziristan and other parts of tribal belts, they seem to have forgotten that these Taliban also exist inrepparttar 126072 City likes Karachi. It is notrepparttar 126073 slum of this city where they have been regrouping but infact itrepparttar 126074 seat of learning,repparttar 126075 University of Karachi, where they demonstrated their power on November 5 2003, atrepparttar 126076 Student Teaching Center hall. Sources said that around eight to ten activists of Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba,repparttar 126077 student wing of Jamat-I-Islami,repparttar 126078 main religious fundamentalist party in Pakistan, attackedrepparttar 126079 hall, smashingrepparttar 126080 things on display. The attackers alleged thatrepparttar 126081 exhibition was promoting obscenity and vulgarity, said a frightened student atrepparttar 126082 condition of anonymity. “I do not know what is their idea of obscenity. You can see that we had clothes on textile display, computer and posters on graphic and products on industrial designs, said a female student of final year. She said that they did not even bother to look atrepparttar 126083 materials on display but they stormedrepparttar 126084 place and smashed anything that was in their range.Incisdent like this are very common whererepparttar 126085 religious fundamentalist have taken control ofrepparttar 126086 educational institutions. The semi fascist thugs are found in every major cities and are in growing numbers.

Vice President?

Written by Ed Howes


Christians are quite aware they are commanded to "avoidrepparttar appearance of evil." The Vice President and President ofrepparttar 125975 United States of America tell us they are Christians and to rest easy, they only appear to be dealing in evil. Isrepparttar 125976 Vice President in reality,repparttar 125977 United States President of Vice?

Recently Vice President Cheney responded to a question aboutrepparttar 125978 awarding of no bid contracts to Halliburton. His response was that he has nothing to do withrepparttar 125979 awarding of contracts and would not know how to influence them. If I was Vice President and wanted to help a friend win a contract, I would callrepparttar 125980 friend and ask how I might help. My friend would know exactly what to do. It doesn't seem all that difficult to me.

To avoidrepparttar 125981 appearance of evil, Vice President Cheney should have resignedrepparttar 125982 day Halliburton obtained its first no bid contract for Iraq, or Afghanistan. On this day,repparttar 125983 President should have requested he step down, if they would avoidrepparttar 125984 appearance of evil. Is it a coincidence these executives frequently speak of evil? Are they mirroring? That is, are they accusing others of faults they abhor in their selves?

On one segment ofrepparttar 125985 25 January edition of 60 Minutes, we learn that a Halliburton subsidiary does business with terrorist supporting states. Does this meanrepparttar 125986 War on Terror is a money making fraud? Is that whyrepparttar 125987 target of American justice was switched from Al Qaeda to Iraq as early as November 2001? New business for all our good buddies? It only appears that way. Don't you worry 'bout a thing King George is on top ofrepparttar 125988 world. Either these men are not Christian or evil has no appearance.

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