Domestic Circus...

Benazir Bhutto’s political heir (Oh yeah! The same Mr. 10% we have come to admire in so many ways) is busy shuttling between London, Dubai and Islamabad. Not only that, he has advised our national cabinet to follow his routine travelling in order to avoid the grave threat of terrorism. So, now we have Pakistan’s federal cabinet meetings taking place in five star conference halls in any and every country except ours. That way at least our muppets, oops! Ministers are safe from terrorists. On the other hand, one Mr. Nawaz-I-got-a-hair-transplant-Sharif is still busy harping on the judges’ restoration tune. Does he not realize that societies need decent supplies of food, health and education before dwelling on such important issues or did his hair transplant specialist leave something inside his brain that is hampering him to change his focus of attention? The question takes me to our very own Mr. I-will-leave-when-this-nation-wants-me-to (Oh! Such love and regard for this nation, sigh!) Come to think of it, Pakistan’s very own version of Mr. Know-it-all would be thanking his stars for the circus that is our government has become these days. He’d be sitting in his study with his Bridge mates and laughing at the merry-go-round that he, himself, had started. My sincere advice to Mr. 10% and Mr. Hair-transplant would be to get rid of him before he becomes bored of their circus. After all, he would have the perfect I-told-you-so excuse for getting rid of both clowns-in-disguise. On a side note, does anyone know who is running the country right now? Who prepared the if-you-thought-you-had-too-many-problems-already-this-would-surely-rock-your-boat budget? It can’t be Mr. 10% or Mr. Transplant as they are never in the country neither can it be Mr. I-hate-honest-judges as he is pretty much occupied with arrangements for his departure just in case the other two clowns ever get back to their senses.

Obama and Our Chickens...

Meanwhile, on the U.S. Elections’ front, JFK wanna-be is still confusing people with his name that rhymes with Osama. The other day, I had to make my colleague repeat his statement when he told me about Obama’s speech. On the first attempt of hearing, I had thought that may be Al-Jazeera had found another tape of Islamic-world’s-answer-to-Michael-Jackson from the caves of Waziristan. Anyway, my naïve colleague was so scared after listening to our local media’s version of the speech that I HAD to listen to what he had to say. He quoted Obama’s numerous statements from that speech. Some of the things he said:

“Make no mistake: we can't succeed in Afghanistan or secure our homeland unless we change our Pakistan policy.”

“We must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights.”

“We must expect more of the Pakistani government”

“The greatest threat to our security lies in the tribal regions of Pakistan, where terrorists train and insurgents strike into Afghanistan. We cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary, and as President, I won't.”

I must admit that upon hearing this I, too, felt bad maybe offended as well. Then clouds of misconceptions gave way to rational and logical thinking. After all he is right in saying all that; isn’t he? Pakistanis are definitely not doing enough in this grand War on Terror and we certainly need to do more. I mean more than 70 incidents of suicide bombings in the country, killing 500+ personnel of the army and police besides 320+ civilians since the dawn of 2007 obviously illustrate Pakistan is not doing enough. Even the terrorists are so bored of Pakistani military’s inactivity that they have decided to up the tempo of their activities just to get some tough competition. They are chickens coming home to roost after all.

Iran's Unquestionable Friendship with Pakistan

There has been one good piece of news for Pakistan recently: Iran’s testing of ballistic missiles. Iran has once again shown tremendous commitment to its friendship with Pakistan by testing these long-range missiles. In the times of anti-Pakistan banter taking the pole position throughout the world media, Iran has made sure that it doesn’t get left behind in this frenzy. At least, now there is a competition for the place of Uncle’s Sam’s next target; with the difference being that Pakistan, as a country, (keeping in line with its cricket team’s tradition) hasn’t made ANY efforts to win it.