Pakistan - miscellaneous

Cultural and political change

Right at the Edge - Déjà vu: The Vice and Virtue brigade has taken control of a large swath of Khyber agency near the Afghanistan border. At the commander’s compound in Takya, the author and photographer encountered a group of armed men and boys sitting in a Toyota pickup truck, reminding them of Kabul in the 1990s , by Dexter Filkins - NYT

Pakistan's westward drift - The drift is not geophysical, but cultural , by Pervez Hoodbhoy - Himal Southasian

Pakistan looks to life without the general -
Critical changes transforming the nuclear-armed state as the pro-US strongman's power ebbs away. And these changes may not be welcome to the West , by Jason Burke - Guardian

Pakistan is at last finding its voice. The US would be wise not to gag it - For 2008 to be recalled as a democratic watershed, America must learn to respect the Pakistani answer to extremism , by Mohsin Hamid - Guardian

Zardari

Pakistan's Next President Is a Category 5 Disaster - If there's a case to be made against democracy, few countries make it better than Pakistan , by Bret Stephens - WSJ

Asif Ali Zardari: the godfather as president - He may be a pliant partner for the west, but with his record of corruption, Zardari is the worst possible choice for Pakistan , by Tariq Ali - Guardian

Mad and bad – but the West will turn a blind eye - Dogged by allegations of crime and corruption, Pakistan's new president could lose power to his army if he fails his restive people , by Jemima Khan - Independent

From 1998
House of Graft: Tracing the Bhutto Millions - Bhutto Clan Leaves Trail of Corruption - A special report , by John F. Burns - NYT

Two military dictators

A soiled past - Is resurrection possible for a dictator? Always possible. Time is a great restorative. All you have to do is await that moment when your successor has made an even bigger mess than you left behind. I should imagine that the currently-reviled ex-dictator of Pakistan should be back in some demand within a year or so, given the pace at which his tormentors, Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, have begun to torment each other , by M J Akbar - Khaleej Times Online

As Pakistan comes full circle, a light is shone on Zia ul-Haq's death - The plane crash that killed President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan has spawned myriad conspiracy theories since his C-130 plunged into the Bahawalpur Desert with his top generals and the US Ambassador on board , by James Bone and Zahid Hussain - Times

The Kalash - New Statesman

Pakistan's ancient religion - Maureen Lines gives insight into the ancient religion of the Kalash people who live in the mountains of Northern Pakistan

Temples of the Kalasha religion - Most anthropologists believe that a good deal of the Kalasha religion may have been borrowed from Islam

Are the Kalash being converted to Islam? - Some Western journalists get disappointed when the truth they wanted doesn't turn out to be what they were looking for...