Pakistan?

In my effort to comment occasionally on current topics in the news, I've run up against the sand dune that is Pakistan. Sand dune because it's shaped by wind and tides, because it's hard to gain footing or traction, because there seems to be a top, but no pinnacle; a nuclear power with vast numbers of urban poor, vast numbers of rural poor, military elite, corrupt governments, wealthy industrialists, scheming entrepeneurs, ungovernable tribal regions, border hostilities with India, Islamic fundamentalists, and the WOG's.

WOGs are "westernized oriental gentlemen", a phenomena common in the aftermath of British colonial rule. I'm particularly referring to the legal community. The fellows in with black suits with brief cases currently in the news for demonstrating against President Zadari, who won election in 2008. Their principle complaint is Zadari's failure to reinstate a supreme court chief justice fired by the former military dictator, Musharraf. The problem for Zadari, widower of assasinated Benazir Bhutto, is that the supreme court justice had been clear in saying he wouldn't approve of Musharraf's deal that allowed Bhutto to bring her husband back to Pakistan after he was exiled, having served prison time on corruption convictions.

Zadari's problems also involve the former prime minister, Sharif, who was deposed by Musharraf and leads an opposition party. Sharif was a good Prime Minister, and is the son of a leading industrialist, posessing considerable personal wealth. Zadari's problem is that when Sharif led his party into an alliance with Zadari he stated two conditions, that there would be no deal struck with Musharraf, and that the Supreme Court justice would be reinstated. Zadari, inheriting Bhutto's party, was going to win the election after Bhutto's assasination, so why did he agree to that second condition? Presumably, because he knew that once elected he would ignore it, and use the powers of the office to isolate and marginalize Sharif. He's tried.

While Sharif is not an Islamist, he is a nationalist, and has gotten along with the generals in the past. Zadari is a corrupt opportunist who married well, and enjoys the support of the US because he's tolerant of American incursions into the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. He's replaced his wife's senior advisors with his own people in the party hierarchy. As I've said before, if you want to appraise the state of American diplomacy, look at the people we're supporting abroad. Usually, they're of the Zadari ilk.

The generals will play a role in settling the current unrest, and may not support Zadari too strenuously, since his ties to America will impose on the army the role of fighting with the Islamic fundamentalists, a job they don't really want and, based on recent developments in the Swat valley, may not be competent to do.

PS One other complicating factor in the Pakistani formulation is a simmering antagonism between natives and the more enterprising emigres who fled India in the late 40's. Shamir's father was one of those emigres.