Saleem's Post

  General Asim Munir has arrived in China on a four-day official visit. His visit is aimed at boosting bilateral defence ties between Pakistan and China and seeking a financial bailout amidst pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Pakistan to arrange at least $6 billion to bridge the external payment financial gap.   It is widely believed that the establishment intends to resurrect the traditional "Iron Brothers" relationship with China that started after the 1965 War between Pakistan and India. During this war, the U.S. blamed Pakistan for starting the hostilities by sending infiltrators into the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJ&K). President Johnson punished Pakistan by cutting off all the economic and military aid to its SEATO and CENTO ally. Thus started the re-defined Sino-Pakistan relationship that withstood the stresses and strains of the Cold War and lasted well into the present geo-political re-alignments. Kartarpur is a...

  Pakistan has remained in the eye of the storm since the 1970 general elections that resulted in a civil war, leading subsequently to India's military intervention in East Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh. This happened because, during the 12-year autocratic rule, starting in 1958, the cohesiveness between Pakistan's two wings weakened to the extent that the elite classes in both wings gradually lost their romance with a united Pakistan and looked for an excuse to get rid of each other. The separatist tendency in East Pakistan found open expression and was translated by the Bengali intelligentsia into a popular movement, abetted strongly by India. That the West Pakistani centers of power, particularly the Punjabi and Sindh feudal class, had also gravitated towards separating the two wings, is generally ignored. Moving forward from the Cold War period, the India-Pakistan rivalry has shifted to a lower dimension where proxy operation...

  Close on the heels of independence followed a massive influx of refugees from India. Hardly a month had elapsed when the specter of Kashmir started breathing down Pakistan’s neck. The Pakistan Army was still struggling to create a semblance of its General Head Quarters. Units and equipment apportioned to the nascent army had slowly begun to move from the cantonments and depots located in India. A frail government, smarting from the wounds of partition and the massive challenges of establishing refugee camps, lacked the political will and military power to address the problem. This was the beginning of the evolution of a particular mindset that would henceforth govern the decision-making process in Pakistan.   Pakistani politicians and bureaucrats often complain that whereas Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and its first governor general had declared that the future relations between India and Pakistan would be like those between the U...