Blogging from Karachi

I'm in Karachi for a few months and had planned to set up a new blog, but haven't got around to doing it and figured I'd just report here about what's been happening in Pakistan in the last 24 hours. Musharraf has imposed martial law. He's calling it an emergency but it's martial law. The constitution has been suspended, major opposition figures are under arrest, elections have been called off, censorship laws have been put in place, and the judiciary is being gutted and replaced with compliant judges.

In his address last night, Mush said he had taken this act because he couldn't bear to see Pakistan commit suicide. Well, actually, it's Musharraf's actions that are suicidal, both at a personal and national level. He has most likely put Pakistan on the path to disintegration and chaos. He has definitely sealed his own fate and I expect he will be gone within 6 months (whether violently or not, I can't say).

This moment is akin to 1970, just before civil war broke out. The situation was different then in that it was a majority of the country that was being oppressed. But the similarity is that we have the military yet again using brute force and oppression as the key to solving political problems. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that using even more force against then-East Pakistan was absolutely counter-productive and served only to hasten the pace of Bangladeshi independence. We can see today that sending in even more U.S. troops into Iraq is absolutely counter-productive and will never secure peace. Then why can't the idiots at GHQ see that what they have just signed on to is absolutely suicidal? Of course, I know why. It's because they are, above all else, power-hungry and desperate, and if things don't go exactly according to their plans, well then, it's time to get serious and impose martial law. Musharraf is like a petulant 5-year old boy who isn't winning the game so he takes his ball away and goes home. But in this case, he's set himself up for a fatal end.