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| India-Pakistan |
| In Pakistan, the Prime Minister has no control over the military budget (opinion on Bhutto) |
| 2007-12-31 |
| Commentator responding to criticism of Bhutto as a feudal lord and her alleged collaboration with Islamists: It is simply poor understanding to imply that anyone who the "feudal lords" put up is going to win. Many landowners flocked to Bhutto's party precisely because Bhutto was popular with the rural masses. Her many opponents were also large landowners, often more powerful than the landlords who supported her. This claim of "feudal lord" is simply a canard continually repeated by the urban elite. More critically, often represents a racist attitude of the Muhajirs and Punjabis towards Sindhis. It is similar to the Chinese condemned Tibetan leadership as feudal. The reality is that, like in the rest of the third world, the urban population claims the lion's share of the resources while the majority lives in rural areas. Moreover, the cities in Pakistan have higher percentage of militants because of the ethnic divisions -- most Sindhis are predominantly sufi in outlook. It should not be surprising that many rural politicians are landowners, after all the peasants are often illiterate and have few resources to run for office. However, the landowners belong to many different parties, and the peasants are not dumb -- they do know who to support from among the landlords. Ms. Bhutto's support had nothing to do with the fact that she belonged to a landowning family, so did many of her relatives who were not as popular. The idea that Ms. Bhutto had anything to do with the murder of her brother is plain libel. The forces which conspired to kill his brother also wished to discredit Ms. Bhutto in the process. The reality is that the Pakistani intelligence agencies, such as the ISI, are not controlled by the office of the Prime Minister (Ms. Bhutto could not even exercise any control over the military budget). Her niece, watching her aunt killed as her father was, seems to be finally realizing as much -- as her most recent statement shows. Sindhis generally believe that Pakistani military agencies were responsible for the death of Ms. Bhutto and her siblings. |
| Posted by:Zhang Fei |