March 16, 2009: A Historic Day for Pakistan?

The news that the Pakistani Government has finally given into the demands of the “long marchers”, and protesters is officially about 10 hours old now, and the nation is gripped with a euphoria that has driven everything else from their minds.

I am no historian, but it reminds me of the time, back in 93-94, when the supreme court of Pakistan reinstated Nawaz Sharif’s government, after it had been dismissed by the then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, taking advantage of the 8th amendment. The mood of the nation was exactly the same back then. There was talk of change, of an independent judiciary not bowing to political pressure and taking the right decision in favor of an elected prime minister. But what happened next? Did this nation really witness any change? Was democracy able to save us? Are we still not standing where we were 10 years ago?

Some might argue that no, we have moved forward. And I wont deny that either. I guess we have. But what price we have had to pay? The past ten or so years will be marked as one of the darkest of the three darkest periods of our only 62 years of existence. Musharraff, despite his promises of change and ridding the country of corrupt politicians, did not only follow in the footsteps of Zia and Yahya Khan, he left his own dark marks on this nations history, marks that the future generations will feel for some time to come, just like the ripple effects of Zia’s doings can still be felt today, almost 21 years after his death.

Manmohan Singh Wins

So Manmohan Singh got his vote of confidence. Good for him. Now he and his party can go ahead with the Nuclear deal with the US… IF Bush can pull it off before he leaves office. Whatever led to the vote and whatever the outcome was, that’s news… everyone knows about it.

But what’s the Pakistani reaction to this? That’s the interesting part. In fact, its a whole debate. See on one hand, Pakistan has managed to fall back…. in any race it might’ve been in with India. The two neighbors are still considered rivals, officially or unofficially. The official stance has been changing though, amid realization that Pakistan has fallen behind… way behind. But one cannot forget the nuclear tests of 1998 or the Kargil war of 99 either, neither can one forget the military standoff of 2001-2002. Not rivals anymore? well maybe not in cricket!!! and that too, because Pakistan, once again, has very successfully fallen behind.

Coming back to the Indo-US nuclear deal, what are Pakistanis complaining about? Are we even in the same league as India when it comes to influence on the global economy? We are a nation of, and i hate to say this, corrupt and frustrated illiterate and ignorant fools, who are just sitting around waiting to be bombed from all sides. India on our eastern border would never miss an opportunity, neither will Afghanistan, who already happen to have lots of Indian support, not to mention American and Nato forces on their side. Does America even need to attack us from the Arabian sea? Not really.

The nuclear deal has opened the door for India to get military supremacy Pakistan can not even dream of achieving, not to mention power solution that will obviously contribute to the already rapidly growing economy.

We, well… we can sit around and wait for the electricity to come back on for two hours before going out again for another three.