P

akistani President Zardari is visiting India on a private visit to pay his respects at the dargah of the great Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Rajasthan state, but media on both sides of the border are trying to get the most out of this visit to raise their viewers’ ratings.

I just saw the interview of Hamid Mir on one of the news channels in India covering this visit.

When its anchorwoman asked Hamid Mir, a respected Pakistani journalist, whether it was not true that the Pakistani Army and ISI are clandestinely supporting Hafiz Muhammad Saeed as an anti-Indian asset, instead of answering in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, Mir hid himself (and Pakistan) behind the standard answer of “it was the CIA that had started helping terrorists [aka mujahedeen] during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.”

Really, Mir! Come on, now! Why do you and your kind always hide behind the CIA’s skirts?

Actually, Mir should have used this opportunity to explain to his own Pakistani people how Pakistan has been downgraded to a serfdom of the USA just for a “handful of dollars”! It has become a mercenary state that will work with anybody for money with no sense of conscience!

Unless Pakistan earns what it spends and stops depending on dole from the US (and now also from China), it will remain what it is today!

I hope the Pakistani political leadership rises to the occasion, sends its army to the barracks, its fanatic religious elements to their masjids and seminaries and shows the courage to rule their country democratically for the prosperity and betterment of its people. India awaits this development with all the hope and will help Pakistan to its limits!

K.B. Kale
Mumbai, India