This report makes you wonder how long America will be with him, what with Bhutto ready to replace him for us.
And how come the AmeriKan MSM has been ignoring these important events, readers?
"Tribal revolt pushes Pakistan to brink" by SAEED SHAH IN ISLAMABAD
IN AUGUST, militants in Pakistan's wild tribal region on the border with Afghanistan surrounded and captured more than 200 soldiers. Three were subsequently executed and the rest are still being held in a remote hideout in South Waziristan.
This would be a crisis for almost any nation, but in Pakistan, attention is focused on the drama of the political crisis in the pristine capital Islamabad, not the takeover of the rugged hills of Waziristan by religious fanatics.
Even the hostage-takers have grown frustrated by the lack of attention. Their spokesman, Zulfiqar Mehsud, said last week that the government was "not serious" about negotiating hostages' release.
A full-scale insurrection is taking hold in Waziristan, the most restive part of the tribal region which lies on the border with Afghanistan. It is an uprising not by a few foreign Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters, but the local population.
"Tomorrow they may declare the Islamic emirate of Waziristan," said Talat Masood, a retired general. "This is the greatest challenge since 1971 [when East Pakistan broke away to become Bangladesh]."
Last week, the tribal belt erupted into a full scale conflict between militants and Pakistani forces, claiming 250 lives.
In a massive escalation of the confrontation, Pakistani jets bombed civilian areas around the town of Mir Ali, in North Waziristan, where rebels were thought to be hiding. According to a local member of parliament, Maulana Nek Zaman, 55 civilians were killed.
"We know it because we buried them," Zaman said last week.
No official figures were provided for civilian casualties.
General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president and army chief, is embroiled in a different battle, for political survival. As the president, army commander and head of state, power currently resides with one man.
Since March, when Musharraf tried unsuccessfully to sack the country's chief justice, his moral authority and popularity have been sinking fast, while he grapples for a strategy to prolong his rule.
He has battled the country's lawyers and Supreme Court, which may yet rule against his plan to remain president in the next few days. He saw off his greatest political threat, exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was not allowed to return to Pakistan last month - the deportation of Sharif will also be shortly challenged in the courts.
All year, Musharraf has been involved in painstaking negotiations with another exiled former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, over a power-sharing agreement.
It seemed that he managed to finally cut a deal with Bhutto earlier this month, when he agreed to drop corruption charges against her, but the legality of that move has also been taken to the courts.
Bhutto has announced that she will return to Pakistan this week. With the verdict of the Supreme Court still hanging over him, Musharraf has now been reduced to publicly begging her to delay her arrival.
Meanwhile, Washington has been bearing down on Musharraf, pressing him to take action against militants in the tribal belt and pushing him to restore democracy through a deal with US-friendly Bhutto.
The former head of Pakistan's notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, General Hameed Gul, said that it is the Pakistani leader's attempt to "please" America which led to the insurgency in Waziristan.
"He went too far. Musharraf must learn to say no to America where our own interests are jeopardised," said Gul.
Pakistan's laws and its security forces have traditionally not been present in the fiercely independent tribal areas, which are ruled by local custom. The British Raj never managed to subdue the area in 200 years. The Russians were defeated by the same people across the border in Afghanistan - a country soaking up major Nato resources today.
It was only after 9/11, under massive American pressure, that the Pakistani army was sent into the tribal area, which had become a safe haven for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters fleeing from the US-led invasion of Kabul. Since then, it is increasingly the local Pushtun tribes, not foreign extremists, who have taken up arms against what they see as an invasion of their territory by the Pakistan army. It is a region where all men carry guns, usually a rifle or machine-gun slung over their shoulder, a weapon they will readily use. Telling militants from ordinary citizens is difficult.
Pakistan has tried several peace accords with tribal leaders, which allowed the army to pull out for periods, but according to Washington, these agreements only allowed the Taliban and al-Qaeda a safe area in which to regroup. In July the last such accord ended when militants unleashed a series of suicide bombings on Pakistani troops, following the bloody end to the siege of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, in which around 100 religious hardliners died. Despite US objections, the Pakistani army has said it will seek a new ceasefire deal.
The real danger of the situation in Waziristan is that the fighters and the fist-pounding mullahs could spread to the rest of the country, an outcome that would plunge nuclear-armed Pakistan towards civil war.
Already, in the North West Frontier Province, which borders the tribal belt, militants are beginning to terrorise the population. In the last week, bombs have been placed in record shops and barbers, despised by Islamic extremists who regard music and clean-shaven men as Westernised heresy. They espouse the obscurantist creed of Wahhabi Islam preached by Osama bin Laden.
In the valley of Swat, in the North West Frontier Province, a religious fanatic, Maulana Fazullah, has taken over the area. The police are too afraid to patrol and the local administration has gone into hiding. Pakistani army battalions have been sent to the area but as yet they are still in camp, awaiting instructions to deploy. Fazullah issues decrees over his own FM radio station, his men have even taken over traffic control duties - errant drivers have a machine-gun pointed at them.
Analysts point out that the same Pushtun tribesmen are settled in Karachi, the massive port city in the south of the country. More than three million Pushtuns live there. If they, seeing their kinsmen in Waziristan under attack, were to turn against the state, a Beirut-like situation could follow in Karachi.
General Masood warned: "Pakistan is a very dangerous country. It can explode."
This article: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1641152007
Wow, this is really a precarious situation for Pakistan.
Wish my Zionist-controlled War Dailies had kept me informed.
