There are a lot of reasons why Pakistan can legitimately be described as a shithole. There’s the horrendous treatment of women and minorities, the nuclear tipped threat it poses to its neighbour India, the ignorance, superstition and backwardness that Pakistan’s people are mired in, the horrific way that progressive Islamic reformers and secularists are handled along with the fact that Pakistan appears to produce or export nothing more than religious extremists and rapists.
However one of the most noticeable and recent reasons to treat Pakistan as the world’s turd that refuses to flush is their alliance with the Taliban of Afghanistan. It has long been suspected that the reason why the Taliban were able to come back into power so quickly is because they were assisted in doing so by elements in the Pakistan government. Islamic extremist terrorists who might have found themselves hunted down by Afghan forces and their Western Allies knew that they could slip into Pakistan where they would be safe and be sheltered by the Pakistani government.
Now much of what many people suspected was going on has been admitted by a member of the Pakistani government according to a report in the news magazine Op India (h/t ROP).
OpIndia said:
After the Taliban called Pakistan their ‘second home’, Pakistani Minister Sheikh Rashid has now confessed on a TV show that the Imran Khan-led government has indeed been the custodian of the Talibani leaders.
“We are the custodians of Taliban leaders. We have taken care of them for long. They got shelter, education and a home in Pakistan. We have done everything for them,” declared Rashid openly while speaking on Hum News programme ‘Breaking Point with Malick’.
Welcoming the Taliban and snubbing the US, Rashid in another interview last week had also revealed that Pakistan is unwilling to shelter the US troop for a long time. “Their stay in the country is only for a limited period,” remarked the minister.
It is notable here that Rashid is the same person who had once said Pakistan has the technology to develop ‘smart bombs’ that would kill only Hindus in India and spare the Muslims.
The Imran Khan government is gradually shedding its pretence of having nothing to do with the Jihadi organization. In fact, as the Taliban strengthens its position in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s dreams of ‘conquering’ Kashmir with its assistance has come to the fore.
Successive Pakistani governments, including that of Imran Khan, have feigned friendship with the West whilst giving backing to the same Taliban who have been killing Western troops who were sent to Afghanistan in order to fight the Taliban. Pakistan is not on our side, that is something that is very plain to see and maybe we should reconsider, in the light of admissions of Taliban support, the massive amounts of aid that countries like the UK send to Pakistan? Some may say that giving money to the Pakistani government helps to keep them out of the arms of the Chinese but the Pakistani government still aligns with the Chinese despite the money that we give them. Maybe it’s time to treat Pakistan as a rogue state and an enemy because after all that is how they seem to be acting?
Please dont believe everything OPindia says, they are not to be believed completely they are funded by high powered hindu fanatics. Not saying there is no smoke without fire but take what OPindia says with a pinch of salt.
Thanks for the heads up. I’m aware of their bias but I used this story as there are an increasing number of claims made from elsewhere about Pakistan’s involvement with the Taliban.
All attempts to encourage (or drag) Pakistan into C21, using aid or threats have failed. I believe this is mainly because it’s been men communicating with men (& Islamic hard-line men have not been listening, as they like things the way they are).
So now it’s time the women stepped up! I suggest they adopt the methods in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (411BC) to ‘improve’ their menfolk – old methods which should work (but I’m sorry for the goats).
I’m aware of the Lysistrata Option and how it related to the Peloponnesian War but there is a massive difference between the Ancient relatively cultured Greeks and the modern barbarian Pakistanis. The Greeks might have been persuadable and may not have engaged in retaliatory violence against Greek women. The Pakistanis on the other hand……? As for the poor Goats in Pakistan well they probably suffer unwanted intrusions whether or not women are available.
Joking aside, there’s some truth in what you say about women being a conduit for reform in Pakistan. Maybe if those in Pakistan or in the Pakistani diaspora or even women’s groups in the west who want to see change in Pakistan then maybe working through women by providing them with more opportunities and more support might be an answer?
In many ways this is old news.
It’s been known for years that the Pakistani ISI has cooperated and supported the Taliban notwithstanding the fact that since the Taliban and the Haqqani network are also linked this has enabled Islamic terrorism within Pakistan.
Whilst the West was in Afghanistan we needed Pakistan as a land-bridge into the Country and so had to turn a blind-eye to the fact that Pakistan was at one and the same time helping us (for a goodly fee in terms of aid of course) and our enemies.
Now we are out perhaps we could cut off all future aid in response to Pakistan’s double-dealing and also their slow genocide of all minorities.
And let’s be clear: as Pakistan has “islamised” under al Huq and his successors up to and including Khan it has definitely ceased to be a friend to any non-Muslim Country – as I suspect China may well find out in future, the murder of the Chinese engineers being just the first case.
Admittedly, China is unlikely to accept the sort of blackmail tactics Pakistan has used on the west, nor is China concerned with “hoomin roights” so Pakistani politicians and military might just decide that annoying the Chinese isn’t worth the consequences.
However, there are plenty of Jihadists in Pakistan who are not under government control (whatever the ISI may think) so the “annoyances” may well happen anyway if China gets too involved.
I agree the Islamisation of Pakistan has been building for a long time. Yes it got worse under al Huq but there is a lot of evidence to suggest that the founder of Pakistan Mohammed Ali Jinnah was not the secular Muslim that he painted himself to be. I’ve read and heard stuff that claims that Jinnah turned more towards religion later in his life but kept this quiet and secretly desired an Islamic State outcome for Pakistan.
You are correct in saying that we in the West once needed Pakistan as a land bridge for Afghanistan but now we don’t and maybe this will be the opportunity to cut unnecessary aid to Pakistan.
China could end up being shafted by the Pakistani Government just as many other governments have been so shafted. The current Pakistani government is close to China but how long and how agreeable that closeness will be remains to be seen, especially if the various Islamic terror groups that exist in Pakistan start to turn their attentions to China and Chinese interests. The Pakistani govt has been pretty quiet on the subject of the Uighars in order to curry favour with the Chinese but the PK govt might not be able to keep the violent nutjobs that they’ve nurtured under control regarding this issue for ever.