I am getting into a pretty good workable groove updating the What Others are Writing section on the sidebar with the intent that each of you can find at least one interesting article per day or it can serve as a way of keeping track of world headlines in regards to foreign policy, war, the fight against terror and our military. In this effort I have added a couple of new sources for our What Other are Writing section that include: The Strategy Bridge, Al Monitor, Asia Times etc. I am still looking for a good source that covers South America and Africa. If you have any suggestions please let me know in the comments below. Anyway, check out our front page and let me know what you think.
Ideally, I could feature one of the sidebar articles each morning, a must-read article of the day or most thought-provoking article, something short that basically summarizes why this is important and promote the work we are doing gathering the articles. One particular article has stuck with me for a couple days and the headlines that have followed only reinforces its importance. In addition, I just happened to listen to a couple excellent podcasts about the region so I thought today would be a good day to begin our Featured Article posts.
Today’s featured article comes from Deutsche Welle or DW. It is produced in Germany and is one of my favorite sources for information because of its unbiased approach to reporting that considers the entire world. It is truly an excellent resource and should be a daily stop if you are interested in what is going on in the world without the stain of U.S. politics.
Earlier this week, DW featured a profile of Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and wife of Muhammad Safdar, a leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party and I have thought about the potential for this movement ever since.
Why this is important.
Pakistan, good or bad, has been the most consequential country in our 20-year war in Afghanistan. There is no doubt that the safe haven that was provided to the Taliban and al Qaeda within their borders has prolonged this war and will ultimately lead to our withdrawal. However, only looking at them negatively would not paint the entire picture of how they have aided the war on terror and the fine line they must walk to not devolve into a lawless and ungoverned country like their Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Bottom line, Pakistan is important and there is serious unrest that could change the region, the war on terror and both, Chinese and Indian relations.
To demonstrate the unrest there all you have to do is read some of the headlines:
Pakistan seeks to ‘control digital media’ amid anti-government protests – DW
Pakistan’s Anti-Government Movement May Hit the Brick Wall of the Security State – Foreign Policy
Blast at Pakistani religious school kills seven, wounds more than 80 – Reuters
So, what is the anti-government movement and who is Maryam Nawaz? Back to our featured article in DW:
Muhammad Safdar, a leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) party, was recently arrested at his hotel in the southern city of Karachi. Safdar’s wife, Maryam Nawaz, blamed the country’s military establishment for it. “We all know who hates the ‘honor the vote’ slogan,” she remarked, in a veiled reference to her country’s military generals.
Maryam is one of the few female politicians in the heavily male-dominated profession in the country. She is also at the forefront of a nationwide opposition movement to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan, who came to power in a controversial election in 2018.
Together with her father, the former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, she has maintained that the military conspired against their government by framing them in corruption cases and installing Khan through a rigged election.
Immediately I was reminded of Benazir Bhutto and the promise of change she represented prior to her assassination in 2007. Bhutto and her political party were on the ascent as the war in Afghanistan was really beginning to spin out of control. By this point, it was becoming apparent that Pakistan was not doing all they could to aid our effort in Afghanistan and that the war there could become a protracted slog. The sentiment of the Bhutto comparison was shared with DW as well.
The 47-year-old Maryam entered politics in 2012 and was put in charge of her father’s election campaign in 2013. The same year, she was appointed as the chairperson of the prime minister’s youth program, however she quit the post in 2014 after her appointment was challenged in a court.
In July 2018, she was sentenced to seven years in prison on corruption charges. In September 2018, the Islamabad High Court suspended her sentence.
She has drawn comparisons with Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s former prime minister, who was assassinated in an election rally in 2007. Bhutto was also critical of the military, which she had accused of targeting her family and hanging her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in a “fake trial” in 1979.
Like Maryam’s father, Bhutto’s father, too, started his political career under the tutelage of a military dictator, but then parted ways to launch a democratic movement.
“Before she was assassinated, Benazir Bhutto became close to my father and now today, Bilawal and I, their children, are going to maintain that relationship,” Maryam said at a rally in Karachi on October 18.
Khan’s supporters accuse the Sharifs and the Bhuttos of massive corruption and a lack of democratic culture within their own parties. They say that Khan managed to end the duopoly of the two biggest political dynasties in Pakistan.
Will she and the anti-government movement they are leading actually change the trajectory of Pakistan? I do not know but this is something we should all keep our eye on and you should read the entire article. Pakistan is an interesting and important country with a deep complex history that that will continue to be key in the fight on terrorism. In addition, this complexity just so happened to be touched on in a recent podcast I listened too.
There is no doubt that history and culture matter in foreign relations and understanding those two things requires some knowledge of the region. While these podcasts do not offer a deep dive into Pakistan, they do provide an overview of the complexities of the region and the deeply intertwined interests there. To wrap things up for this post, John Batchelor interviews Alice Albinia about here book Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River. The podcasts and book are described as follows:
“Alice Albinia is the most extraordinary traveler of her generation. . . . A journey of astonishing confidence and courage.”―Rory Stewart
One of the largest rivers in the world, the Indus rises in the Tibetan mountains and flows west across northern India and south through Pakistan. It has been worshipped as a god, used as a tool of imperial expansion, and today is the cement of Pakistan’s fractious union. Alice Albinia follows the river upstream, through two thousand miles of geography and back to a time five thousand years ago when a string of sophisticated cities grew on its banks. “This turbulent history, entwined with a superlative travel narrative” (The Guardian) leads us from the ruins of elaborate metropolises, to the bitter divisions of today. Like Rory Stewart’s The Places In Between, Empires of the Indus is an engrossing personal journey and a deeply moving portrait of a river and its people. 18 illustrations
The podcast is broken in two parts, is relatively short and provides some entertaining insight into the region. Give it a listen!
Part 1:
Part 2: