For the life of me, I don't understand why people here in the US aren't more engaged with and interested in the current happenings in Pakistan. It's a US ally in the "War on Terror", it has nuclear weapons, it's intelligence agency has been accused of being the direction behind four of the largest Islamist terror groups on the planet and it is run by a US-backed military dictator who wants to be in charge for at least five more years - making a mockery of Bush's rhetoric about spreading democracy.
And it is currently going through a major political upheaval which could depose that dictator or lead to a martial law crackdown.
Yet I know few care because there are very few blog-posts or mainstream media stories about those happenings and because traffic to my posts on the subject is pitifully small. What's the reason for the disinterest? Anyone?
Anyways...
Seven judges have now resigned in protest at the dictator's move to sack his nation's Chief Justice, who would probably have been a barrier to said dictator gaining that five more years of power. And people in Pakistan are getting nervous about the declaration of martial law. One Pakistani newspaper editor puts it plainly - the options for Musharaff are "more democracy or greater repression" and there's no way Musharaff is going for the "more democracy" option. Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times newspaper says "Musharraf is capable of declaring martial law, and he's capable of making a political retreat and calling it a victory."
Shall I give you a reason to be interested? Am I the only one who sees some basic parallels in attitudes with the current scandals afflicting another rightwing leader who tends towards the dictatorial and is now in trouble?
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