BlueBloggin

LAHORE/LONDON (Reuters) - Pakistani police put opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for a week on Tuesday as the Commonwealth threatened suspension unless President Pervez Musharraf repealed a state of emergency.

Army chief Musharraf set off a storm of criticism when suspended the constitution, sacked most judges, locked up lawyers, rounded up thousands of opposition and rights activists and curbed the media.

The Commonwealth, a 53-member body consisting mainly of former British colonies, gave Musharraf until November 22 to end emergency rule and take other steps to address his country’s problems, or Pakistan would face suspension.

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“Our plan is on. Definitely she’ll try to come out. We will start our procession from here and if they try to stop us, the whole of Punjab will be a battleground,” said Bhutto spokeswoman, Fazana Raja. Police have said Bhutto could be the target of a suicide assassination bid, like the one that killed 139 people at a rally last month welcoming her back from eight years in self-exile”We will try to go out, we will try to go ahead with the march. There are two laws in the country at the moment, one for the opposition and one for the government,” Bhutto’s spokeswoman Naheed Khan told AFP.

Since 1951, the United States Agency for International Development has provided nearly $7 billion to support Pakistan’s development efforts. This assistance has strengthened the political, economic and cultural ties between the two nations.

Since before 1951, the US has had it’s hands in Pakistani affairs. The US has basically groomed this diverse country as an extension of it’s influence in the area. Just like Saudi & Egypt & India, Pakistan has been groomed and manipulated to assist US wants and needs. This arrangement has caused much resentment among segments of the population. Those unhappy segments are the terrorists we created. The same terrorists that resent the leaders the US bought and paid for. The US has figuratively ‘broken the camel’s back’. US influence is now so volatile that we contaminate everything we touch … even though we delude ourselves that our way of living is a gift to our allies. Our politicians have sold the humanitarian motive to it’s constituents. But, we watch aghast, as spectators at a horror movie while Pakistan disassembles before our eyes. Aghast, because the nukes the US, Russia and Europe have helped them build are now at risk of falling into the hands of those unhappy factions we created. The responsible parties to this dangerous tragedy must acknowledge the mess it has made and attempt to reconcile. Bhutto and Musharraf are polar opposites that we have tried to combine. The only common ground is their willingness to deal with the US … but we have made them impotent and they struggle on their interpretation of Democracy.

While the knee jerk western world thinks that “Sanctions” can stop the infighting, sanctions would be more inflammatory. The Pakistanis have their own lives to live - the city mouse and the country mouse live in two different worlds. They are at odds already, this political horror flick may be the final spark that erupts into a conflagration of Civil War. From Civil War to World War Three, the world has a lot at stake here. Real solutions are not forthcoming. Strong arming this situation is NOT a solution.

Filed under: Bhutto, Bush, Casualties, Cheney, Collateral, Condoleezza Rice, Corruption, Deception, Defiance, Democracy, Elections, Foreign Policy, Holy War, Horror Flick, Hypocracy, Islamabad, Islamic Jihad, Lahore High Court, Marshal Law, Musharraf, Nuclear, Pakistan, Russia, Taliban, US State Department, War, civil war, consequences, escalation, nation building, profiteers, responsibility, state of emergency, terrorists