uncover cover

 The image above is beautiful - it shows a very attractive girl with lists of cities across her chest - very attractive. Now for the less important part of the picture, which unfortunately is more important to this story is the footer of the image which reads, “PIA - the most relaxing way to fly.” The image was used as the face for Pakistan’s flagship airline company through the 1960’s and 1970’s to show where Pakistan stood in the highly religious Islamic world. Islam and the Middle East go hand in hand - one cannot be separated from the other - but the clear demarkation was expected from Pakistan (although not a part of the Middle East), to be a progressive accepting Islamic Nation where there would be a clear separation between the Rule of Law and the Islamic Schools of Thought. The father of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a product of British education and life envisioned a Pakistan that would be religious where needed and modern in their own right. One of his quotes comes to mind, “We should have a State in which we could live and breathe as free men and which we could develop according to our own lights and culture and where principles of Islamic social justice could find free play.” Pakistan has moved away from what Mr. Jinnah envisioned - the birth of a progressive Islamic nation has metamorphosed itself into a chaos ridden stew where the Rule of Law and the Constitution seem to have no place. History speaks of four coups that have disassembled the structure of the state. Pakistan is on the frontier of the “War on Terror” and is facing high civil unrest and suffocation. The only bright spot in the recent elections is the victory for the secular and progressive Awami National Party in the North West part of the country. The other faces are far too familiar - Nawaz Sharif, who has been embroiled in corruption for sometime now and the same goes with Bhutto’s widower, Asif Zardari who has quite a few skeletons in his cupboard. I was surprised to see that the last charge against him was dropped - this would not have happened to someone not in power, of course! President Musharaff is in a precarious spot - now that the Parliament has been formed, it will be interesting to see who turns out to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif of the PML-N and Musharaff can’t stand each other and Zardari has been in loggerheads with the President ever since the coup. What about the “common man” that all these flout about? The system is broken - on both sides of the border (India and Pakistan). Although there is rampant economic development on the Indian side, the old face bureaucracy and partisan politics has shown its face again - I am talking about the Nuclear deal that India reached with the United States and now the Communist and other leftist parties threaten the stability of the government if the Congress Party led coalition front ratifies the deal. I know I am side tracking from  the topic of this discussion - but these are issues that concern the make up of the entire area.  I am feeling sick writing - so am going to conclude right now. Expect more soon..on this subject. Grazie!