Marriage of Bhutto and Musharraf

I try to be respectful when writing about Pakistan because viewing another culture is rife with misunderstandings. Humor especially can be taken as disrespectful... but at some point you simply gotta laugh.

Above is the 'marriage' of Musharraf and Bhutto, two of the prime political candidates these days. [Yes, the photo is fiction.] Musharraf recently won reelection as President but his dual role as a military leader has always been a subject of controversy. Bhutto recently returned to Pakistan from her exile and is seeking election. There is much controversy of the joining of these two figures despite the pleasantries they exchange and the overshadowing(?) role of the USA in Pakistan.

For more of the serious side, read the latest email from the International Issues Forum in Atlanta, USA (below) - but keep laughing. ;)

Knowing that Pakistan's presidential election would occur in early October, we had been planning for quite a while to have a discussion about the results and their implications. But when Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled that despite the fact that current president Pervez Mushrraf won a wide majority of the votes (cast in the two houses of Pakistan's parliament and the four provincial assemblies), no winner could be declared until they ruled on whether his candidacy was legal, I was of the opinion that perhaps we should postpone our discussion until the situation was clarified. After all, we did not want to make Pakistan our subject so frequently that we would tire of it. Well, the events of the past week completely changed my mind. The return to Pakistan of Benazir Bhutto and the ensuing violence made it imperative that we follow through on our original intention to make Pakistan the subject of this week's IIF discussion. And when we again make the country the subject of a future discussion after the election is finally sorted out,or after new parliamentary elections are held, I seriously doubt that anyone will object.

As usual, I am sending along some background information:
In the past month, a number of excellent items relating to Pakistan have appeared on the Council on Foreign Relations web site. Here are a few of them:
Pakistan's Riddles
Haass: In Pakistan, Radicalism Is 'Spreading'
Backgrounder: The ISI and Terrorism: Behind the Accusations
Pakistan’s Tribal Warfare
After Musharraf Victory, Rough Ride Remains
U.S.-Pakistan Relations: An Update
Online Debate: Should the United States Continue Supporting Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf?

From The New York Times, here is a site with a profile of Pakistan, and if you scroll down, links to all of the newspapers recent articles about the country:
World: Countries and Territories: Pakistan

Here is an opinion piece from The Wall Street Journal:
Commentary: Bhutto's Balancing Act
From The Economist, here is a link to the Country Briefing on Pakistan, which has links to recent articles:
Country Briefing: Pakistan
Some articles from The Economist are "premium content," which requires that you log in to receive them. When you are asked for an e-mail address and password, use my e-mail address, c-r-h@mindspring.com, and the password "charlie," and you should be able to get them. If this does not work, let me know by return e-mail, and I will send you the articles you want, either as zip files or as regular attachments, whichever you prefer.
From the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, here are biographies of three Pakistanis who we will most likely be hearing a lot about in the coming months:
Pervez Musharraf
Benazir Bhutto
Nawaz Sharif

And a few weeks ago Newsweek published this profile of Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani (a/k/a Ashfaq Parvez Kayani), Musharraf's likely successor as head of Pakistan's armed forces:
The Next Musharraf

From the October issue of Atlantic Monthly, here is an article that discusses the future of Pakistan and its relations with the U.S.:
After Musharraf
And here is an interview with the author of the article:
The Pakistan Question

Here is an article from last summer's issue of Foreign Affairs:
A False Choice in Pakistan

Finally, here is the most recent update I could find on the internet of the Congressional Research Service Report dealing with Pakistan:
Pakistan-U.S. Relations 08-24-07
Since this is a pdf file, to read it you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded for free; here is the link:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Just click on the arrow beside "Choose A Platform" in step one, select your operating system from the drop-down menu, then click on "Download" in step two.
You might want to check to see if a more recent update has become available. Here is the best site to find these CRS reports:
http://opencrs.cdt.org/

Recently, Newsweek, with some justification called Pakistan "the most dangerous nation in the world." Pakistan is clearly an important country, and given the current state of world affairs, its relationship with the U.S. should be of interest to us all. I, personally, find what is going on in the country at present fascinating. I hope that you agree with me and that you will join us at Villa this Thursday for what I expect to be a most interesting discussion.