Anne Patterson, Queen of Pakistan

In her small womanly frame Anne Patterson packed a punch that the manliest of men would feel proud of. Thanks to WikiLeaks disclosures, it is public knowledge that during her 3-year sojourn in Pakistan as the USA Ambassador, she was effectively the uncrowned queen of Pakistan, before whom the half-men at the top of Pakistan’s power structure humiliated themselves shamelessly.

By an odd coincidence, I have recently been reading Fahmida Riaz’s collection of poetry, titled “Main mitti ki moorat hoon”. Two couplets struck me as particularly apt in describing the character and inner nature of those who kowtowed before Queen Anne. Though they appeared to possess the outward form of men they were, in reality, devoid of manhood.

فہمیدہ ریاض ؛ میں مٹی کی مورت ہوں

لب ہیں مصروف قصیدہ گوئی

اور آنکھوں میں ہے ذلّت عریاں

With utter degradation dancing nude in their eyes, they laid their personal and national honour at the queen’s feet! And who were ‘they’? Why, none other than our President, our Prime Minister, the leader of the main opposition party, the commander-in-chief of Pakistan’s army, and many lesser names – including a “maulana” who came bearing his religion on a tray, to be traded for personal gain.

کس سے اب آرزوے وصل کرے

اس خرابے میں کوئی مرد کہاں

When men lose their inherent manliness, what are poor women to do? Oh, the futility of longing for physical union when manliness has vanished from the scene!

After the storm

Nothing much seems to have changed. Those shameless men appear to be as busy as ever in their wheeling and dealing. If anything has changed it is an awareness that they need to "unite" so they can better serve themselves by deceiving the nation and lying to it! Fahmida Riaz, again:

اور دیس کے سب چوروں کو

ان پٹے ہوۓ مہروں گو

پھر جشن مناتے دیکھیں

شہنائی بجاتے دیکھیں

WIKILEAKS’ ROLL CALL OF SHAME [added 22 Dec 2010]

ZARDARI (President)

A glimpse of Z’s self-abasement before Queen Anne in January 2008: the loyal servant claimed the US was “our safety blanket”, and he reminded his queen that Benazir Bhutto had only returned to Pakistan because of “clearance” from the US. He begged: “I need help, especially from the US”. Anne’s assessment, cabled to her superiors in Washington, was that Z had designs to be PPP’s candidate for Prime Minister with Washington’s blessing. For once the Queen had underestimated the stupendous levels of her underling’s ambitions and his low cunning!

Zardari had no qualms humiliating himself before visiting Americans. At a meeting with two US congressmen in May 2008, he blurted out: “We are here because of you... We won’t act without consulting you.” The faithful servant has lived up to his word: he has been consulting the American Ambassador regularly on policy questions and political appointments (the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Senate chairman, the National Security Adviser, etc).

In Zardari Anne had found a perfect stooge to serve American interests in Pakistan. She recognised that Zardari’s government was “weak, ineffectual and corrupt”, but that was neither here nor there. What mattered was the value of that deeply unpopular Pakistani to the USA interests in Pakistan: “Zardari is our best ally in the government,” Anne cabled from Islamabad. A cable sent by her in February 2009 recommends: “we should help the Zardari/Gilani government complete its full five-year term in office”.

GILANI (Prime Minister)

This sorry specimen of humanity vies with Z to plumb the depths, to see who can sink lower. If it is possible to imagine a man entirely devoid of principles, the image of Gilani would come to mind (unless your favourite hate figures happen to be Z or Mush). Anne knew him inside out: ‘Gilani knows his place and will toe Zardari’s line’.

Gilani and Zardari are the only two people who showed extreme willingness to deceive the Pakistani nation and Pakistan’s National Assembly and to promote USA interests by sacrificing Pakistan’s. While loudly condemning drone attacks in public, they tell the Americans to carry on and not to worry. “We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it” Gilani told Anne in August 2008. Zardari, for his part, has been uncovered by American journalists: this sick man is reputed to have told the Americans that the heavy loss of innocent Pakistani lives that accompanies each drone attack does not bother him in the least – which he brushed away as “collateral damage” : wanton waste of human life treated in the same way as loss of property!

These two inhuman monsters, held in virtual bondage by the USA, have kept up with their sickening stream of incessant lies to the Pakistani public to this day.

ASHFAQUE KAYANI, Chief of Army Staff (C-in-C)

He was fond of sharing state secrets of the most sensitive kind with Queen Anne. He confided in her his distrust of Nawaz Sharif and the selection of a successor to Zardari after his possible removal from the Presidency!

At the time Musharraf was kicked out in August 2008, and in February/March 2009 over the restoration of the judiciary, Kayani nudged his Queen – possibly, also the British High Commissioner - to interfere in Pakistan’s domestic politics.

NAWAZ SHARIF (leader of the main opposition party)

Nawaz Sharif tried as hard as anyone to convince the Queen of his “pro-Americanism.” Freely joining the self-abasement ritual in January 2008, Nawaz reminded Anne that he had overruled his army chief and had contributed Pakistani forces to the US coalition in the first Gulf War. Nawaz expressed “hurt” that the US did not remember the valuable service he had performed in the face of PPP’s defiance: organising street demonstrations against the policy of Pakistan joining the coalition!

Nawaz also thanked the US for having arranged the appointment of Kayani as the army chief! So, was Kayani’s appointment the result of a USA act of benevolence or was it a USA conspiracy?

These gems came from a former Prime Minister of Pakistan who has ambitions to control the reigns of power once again!!

“maulana” Fazlur Rehman (leader of a divisive politico-religious party)

In November 2007, he requested Patterson for her backing to become Prime Minister, no less! He hoped to visit the US because, according to his party’s political principles, “all important parties in Pakistan have to get the approval of the US.” Anne’s dismissive comment was that F had made it clear to her that “his still significant number of votes are up for sale.”

LAST WORD

Where do we stand today? On August 14, 1947, we thought we had found freedom, but it has turned out to be another kind of slavery. The Wikileaks dispatches make it abundantly clear. The independence of Pakistan is a myth. Pakistan is no longer a free country. Today it is not just a “rentier state”, not just a client state. It is a slave state with a puppet government set up by Washington.

[taken from http://thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=20219&Cat=9 ]

Pakistan's Pakistani "friends"

Pakistani's extraordinary article on BBC's website


On 24 November, 2009 the BBC published an article by a Pakistani writer Ahmed Rashid. If you are not told the author's name you would probably think it comes straight out of the USA's propaganda machinery. This article is noteworthy for wanton distortion of facts and for defending the interests of the USA and India at the expense of Pakistan's. My e-mailed a reply to BBC was:


The author seems quite ill informed and biased. His lack of intellectual honesty shows through in many of his comments, especially his reference to a "retired senior army officer" claiming that Hakimullah Mehsood has been whisked to safety by the Americans. This "officer" is none other than General Mirza Aslam Beg, the Commander-in-Chief of Pakistan Army, 1988-1992. He enjoys considerable prestige and is acknowledged to have reliable contacts in the Army and elsewhere. His claim is that the USA has been playing a double game against Pakistan which, I think, is apparent from the chain of events over the past few years and the mass of evidence unearthed by the Pakistan Army this year. 


The action of Pakistan's armed forces in Swat and South Waziristan has resulted in the capture of huge quantities of weapons manufactured in India and the USA. The capture of rebels and mercenaries has revealed the extent to which non-Pashtun mercenaries from Afghanistan and elsewhere have infiltrated Pakistani territory with the active assistance of Indians and Americans who have flooded Afghanistan. 


The loud propaganda by India and the USA has drowned the truth to the extent that the evidence that Pakistan Army has presented to the world has been ignored. Pakistan's corrupt and weak government, which was imposed on the country by a secret deal put together by the USA, is beholden to its foreign benefactors and says little. In my opinion, a lot of Pakistan's problems stem from the USA's attempt to keep a firm hold on those who rule Pakistan: after the fall of the unspeakable Musharraf they are probably delighted to have found a near-clone Zardari. However, the USA'a grip on Pakistan's armed forces is no longer as strong as it was under Musharraf. The current Army Chief, General Kayani, seems to have a genuine desire to follow a strategy which, in his judgment, is in the interests of Pakistan. I think he has many enemies within the country and without and his room for manoeuvre is limited. 


That Pakistan is entitled to pursue policies that are in its own interests is a sentiment that is beyond the comprehension of people like Ahmed Rashid. The USA is pursuing its own interests in Central Asia - what is good for it is not necessarily good for Pakistan. And vice versa. Of the key personalities in Pakistan who have a hand on the reins of power, only General Kayani seems to understand this. But his freedom of action appears to be limited. You can read more in "An Open Letter to General Kayani" in my blog: 


http://sakibahmad.blogspot.com/2009/11/terrorism-in-pakistan.html


Dekha jo kha ke teer kamee.n gaah ki taraf
Apnay hi dosto.n se mulaaqaat ho ga'ee !

TAILPIECE

Apparently, the BBC did not have the courage to publish the most critical part of my response. It only published the first and the last paragraphs, leaving out the two middle ones. You can read the original article, and readers' comments, by clicking this link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8369914.stm