Emergency Still Rules
Things aren’t getting any better. More and more radicals have wormed their way deep into Swat, taking away what little tourist revenue this country generates. Some of the news stations that I like to watch are back on T.V.
Nothing much has changed as of yet in terms of governments actions, but I’m sure the military is doing a lot of nasty things we don’t know about. Musharraf still maintains that the January general elections will continue as scheduled. In October they held Parliamentary elections, and I believe that this is the first time in Pakistan’s history that a sworn in government has lasted its full five year term. Musharraf just dissolved the Parliament, and replaced them with a interim government, mostly of the PML(Q), who swore loyalty to Musharraf.
Whatever happens in January, I’m sure dictatorship will continue unabated. What this means for the future of democracy in Pakistan, I don’t know.
Martial Law
Once again, I set out to write another post, and guess what … a new exciting development unfolds, causing me to write an entirely new one. I certainly chose one hell of a time to come to this country!
What I was going to write about was the conspiratorial mentality of Pakistanis. As I predicted, I heard people blaming Bhutto for the latest incident, claiming that she either planned and executed it, or at least colluded with the terrorists in order to boost her polls. As gossipers often do, they bring up silly coincidences and allegations. It’s not just the uneducated with nothing better to do who engage in this exercise; Pakistani intellectuals too often have a knee-jerk reaction in which controversy leads right to speculation, sometimes bordering on the absurd. Skepticism is good, but it should be grounded. It’s wise to heed Occam’s razor – the simplest explanation tends to be the correct one (tends to be, for it can be otherwise).
Let’s suppose that her strategy really did involve killing her own supporters at a rally in order to gain sympathy. It certainly didn’t work. Her approval ratings are less than 10 percentage points higher than Musharraf’s paltry 21%. The maulvi (mullah) who claimed responsibility for the attack bragged about scaring her out of Pakistan. Sadly, rather than driving a nail in the coffin for their cause, the militants are as strong as ever. It’s amazing how this works – target civilians, create a buzz, encourage speculation, and civilians will come around to support you. Is this the Stockholm Syndrome or what?
But with more bombings in the Swat valley (a beautiful area which is home to Pakistan’s only ski resort) and other northern areas of the country, October 18th is practically old news. Musharraf officially announced, after months of rumors, that he was declaring emergency law. Oh, it just keeps getting better.
Actually, it doesn’t seem so bad right now, though I shouldn’t speak too soon. The only difference I’ve noticed is the media blackout on T.V. That’s no problem, I can still go online to get news. I doubt Pakistan will go as far as Iran or China. I haven’t noticed any increased military/police presence in Karachi, at least compared to their normal ubiquitous presence. Parts of Islamabad are closed off, and there is talk of curfews.
I’ll keep you posted.
