Concordia Journal reports:

“When The Economist called Pakistan “the most dangerous country in the world” last May, Julian Schofield disagreed. He finds the country so stable it’s boring.”

Indeed the Observer’s Jason Burke wrote his own analysis of the country back in January, during those days of panick following Benazir’s death:

“…In the two weeks in December I spent travelling through the backwaters of the country - in rural Sindh, in the belt between the mountains of the North West Frontier and the Indus river, in the interminable suburbs of Rawalpindi - what struck me again and again was not the chaos and political instability, but the tedious grind of everyday life in a country where half the 170 million population still live in rural areas and where for most people each day is tough, precarious and uncertain.”

“…I’m not about to invest in the Pakistani stock market, nor buy a house in Islamabad (not least because the massive real estate boom of recent years makes it impossible) but I’d just point out that in the 15 years I’ve been travelling to, reporting on and living in Pakistan, its unlikely existence has always been continually said to be threatened but has always, albeit chaotically, continued.”

“…Pakistan’s bizarre capacity to absorb shocks that would destroy most nations.”

IRNA reports.

Barack Hussien Obama’s revelations last week that he visited Pakistan for three weeks back in 1981 have raised more then a few eye-brows.

What Obama was trying to do was to bolster his foreign policy credentials against his rivals. After all Hillary has visited close to 80 nations as First Lady and McCain served abroad with the military. The fact that Obama has lived in Indonesia as a child is a definite plus (or minus) towards his ambition of White House domination.

It is of interest how an American election campaign contender is able to use such trips to foreign nations as an electoral policy boost. If the late Benazir had ever bragged during a campaign rally that she had spent three weeks in the US her supporters would probably not have been impressed. Some might have even booed. As is widely known, she had actually spend significantly more then three weeks in the US and the UK– during her educational years at Harvard and Oxford and the later years in exile. And let’s not forget that mansion in Surrey which landed her in a lot of trouble over corruption charges.

However as most pious and wise politicians in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan are only too painfully aware: to have lived in the West is nothing to brag about if one is to run for the office. With foreign interference in Pakistani affairs at a record high, there hangs a general wariness of imported leadership.

The fact is that Benazir was far from the only Pakistani leader to have lived or studied abroad. Her charismatic father Zulfikar Bhutto who ruled in the 70s had studied at the University of California and at Oxford. The next potential Bhutto to become Prime Minister, the young Bilawal, is also studying at Oxford in line with family tradition.

Pakistan ’s first Prime Minster, Liaquat Ali Khan, had also studied at Oxford . Even Pakistan ’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was called to bar in the UK . During the movement for independence in the Subcontinent, following a period of disillusionment, Mr Jinnah returned to the UK to lead a quieter life for a while. Shaukat Aziz, who served as Prime Minister under Musharraf during 2004-2007, had worked abroad with Citibank in a number of countries including the UK and US prior to taking the office.

Indeed it is not just Pakistani politicians who have spent time abroad, the generals have done it as well. Serving in the Pakistan army Musharraf attended a one year course at the Royal College of Defence Studies. Pakistan ’s conservative-minded dictator through the 80s, General Zia ul Haq, had trained at the Commander and Staff College of the United States . Both these leader forged a very close alliance with the Americans, Zia against the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan and Musharraf against the Taliban who haunt the tribal belt. An earlier General who ruled Pakistan in the 60s, Ayub Khan, had attended the Royal Military College at Sandhurst .

However one important Pakistani leader who has not studied in the West is Nawaz Sharif, who twice served as Prime Minister and holds the second highest number of seats in the current newly elected democratic coalition. Hillary Clinton has already expressed her concerns over the man who helped forge Pakistan ’s close ties with the Taliban during the 90s and then spent 8 years in exile, in Saudi Arabia of all places. He has recently called for a dialogue with the militants causing havoc in the country and has questioned the strategy being used by the US in its War on Terror. Perhaps his failure to see the light is explained by his lack of western education?

Minus Mr Sharif though, it is clear that Pakistani leaders have traditionally understood their British and American counterparts much better then their country has been understood by the West. With those three weeks Barack spent in Pakistan , though, all this could change.

Miss Pakistan World Mahleej Sarkari considers Musharraf to be a hunk! The Times of India quotes her to have said on the pageants’ website:

“You know like Benazir, all men around the world thought she was a beauty, similarly Musharraf is a hunk. He has enough charisma to have young girls going nuts.”

Does someone need glasses or have we all underestimated the irresistible sexual allure of Pakistan’s world famous dictator?

Much has been made in the press the previous few days over the deplorable killing of an innocent Hindu worker in Karachi over blasphemous remarks. Now some reports are emerging that the murder occurred due to false rumours being spread about blasphemy and that the real reasons were a personal dispute.

It is certainly not uncommon for individuals to hide under the cover of blasphemy in order to settle private scores.

The fact however remains that an innocent person was killed, and that religion was unjustly pushed into carry out the crime. The authorities must forcefully persecute the perpetuators of this evil act and set an example so that religious minorities in the country have a greater sense of security in the system.

Gallup Pakistan Poll:

30% Hillary

14% Barack Obama

8% John McCain

48% No views given ( Musharraf for American President?)

Dawn reports that a protest was held against MQM by about 50 Britons of Pakistani origin outside the party’s offices.

The protest was in response to the recent violence in Karachi. “The MQM secretariat remained shut from inside throughout the demonstration,” said the paper.

Below are some extracts about the ‘mysterious’ party in the British media, following last years’ violent killings in Karachi:

Running Karachi - from London (Daily Telegraph)

“The man in charge of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, was at his usual command-and-control post at the weekend: a sofa in north London…

His political addresses by telephone have been known to last up to four hours, while a Western diplomat in Pakistan described the MQM as “something out of Chicago - nobody leaves the party”…

When asked why Mr Hussain was not deported to Pakistan before he was granted citizenship, a British diplomat said: “He has not committed a crime on British soil.”

Mysterious world of a movement in exile (The Independent)

“Mr Hussain has been accused of directing attacks against political opponents while sitting in London. At the same time he forged a political alliance with General Pervez Musharraf and is said to be in regular telephone contact with the Pakistani leader. The party insists it is secular and liberal and in the forefront of the “war on terror” against Muslim fundamentalists.

MQM was accused of sparking the violence in Karachi in May when gunmen opened fire on supporters of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry; 42 people were killed. The security forces were accused of standing by and allowing MQM members to carry out attacks. Mr Hussain, however, denied the charges, saying that his members were victims and pointing out that 13 of them have been killed. Dr Farooq Sattar, the head of the party in Pakistan, said: “There is a conspiracy against us.”

The rules change when dictators serve US interests (IMRAN KHAN) (The Guardian – Comment is Free)

“Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even the US state department and the European Union have issued reports about the MQM’s terrorist activities. The only independent provincial assembly in Pakistan recently denounced the party as a “terrorist organisation”, and last weekend the conference of opposition parties jointly resolved to support the legal proceedings against Hussain.”

Jacobabad, located in the Sindh province of Pakistan, has the reputation of being one of the hottest places in the world. Keeping with this image it was the scene of the latest protest against the acquittal of late Benazir’s husband Zardari over the murder of her brother Murtaza Bhutto. Read this for a telling account by Fatima Bhutto of the assassination of her father which took place while the late Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Interestingly yesterday the results of a by-election in Jacobabad gave victory to the Pakistan People’s Party – with a voter turnout of 15%. Wonder what the rest of the 85% were thinking? This must be what tyranny of the minority feels like.

The city of Jacobabad is named after a British officer by the name of John Jacob who founded it during the days of the British Raj.