[R-G] Imperialism blamed for Pakistan's woes

[Anthony Fenton]

Imperialism blamed for Pakistan's woes
News Features By Travis Lupick
Publish Date: November 15, 2007
http://www.straight.com/article-118419/imperialism-blamed-for- 
pakistans-woes

Hari Sharma knows how to piss off a government. In 1965, he left  
India for work in the United States. Three years later, he was asked  
to leave for "fraternizing" with Students for a Democratic Society,  
the Black Panthers, and other iconic groups of that era.

After relocating to Canada, SFU hired Sharma as a professor. Over the  
next few years, political activity resulted in his Indian passport  
being revoked and a year-long battle for Canadian citizenship.

Today, Sharma is 74 years old and president of the South Asian  
Network for Secularism and Democracy. His view on the present  
situation in Pakistan has been shaped by a life of activism for  
secularism and peace.

"Get the fucking Americans and Canadians out of Afghanistan and that  
problem would be solved forever," Sharma said, answering a question  
on how to control Pakistani Islamists.

Sharma, who is from India, told the Georgia Straight that he does not  
see Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf's November 3  
declaration of a state of emergency as a simple power grab. Nor does  
he view it as a strike against Pakistani opposition leader Benazir  
Bhutto.

Sharma said that he, along with others in Vancouver's South Asian  
community, interprets recent events in Pakistan as a more complex  
chapter of U.S. and, more recently, Canadian interference in the region.

"Musharraf is Washington's man," Sharma said, arguing that billions  
of dollars of U.S. aid ensure that American interests are given  
priority in Pakistan. "Now Ms. Bhutto has the same feathers on her  
head; she is Washington's woman."

Sharma's argument was echoed by Haider K. Nizamani, a Pakistani board  
member for SANSAD and professor at UBC. He told the Straight that  
Bhutto has convinced the Bush administration that if there is ever  
going to be a moderate Pakistan, she is going to have to be a part of  
it.

According to Nizamani, George W. Bush has tried to forge a  
partnership between Musharraf and Bhutto, so that together they can  
overcome more radical segments of Pakistan's population. As long as  
the U.S. was "calling the shots" in Pakistan, Nizamani argued,  
stability was not possible.

"It is all tied to American and NATO and Canadian occupation of  
Afghanistan," he said.

On November 8, the Straight reported that the Pakistan-Canada  
Association had issued a news release supporting Musharraf, in stark  
contrast to a SANSAD release that condemned Musharraf's declaration  
of emergency law.

However, on the matter of foreign intervention in Pakistan, the two  
South Asian groups seemed to have much more in common.

In a phone interview, the PCA's president said that Bhutto's October  
18 return to Pakistan was part of a U.S. strategy of hedging its  
bets. Farrukh Alam argued that Bhutto was told by Bush to return to  
Pakistan and that Musharraf was told to accept her. "Bhutto has been  
forced on Pakistan by our foreign, western friends," Alam said.

Sharma guessed that Bhutto's next move would be to increasingly  
present herself as the democratic opposition to Musharraf's military  
regime.

"She is demanding he resign right away," he said. "If that demand is  
serious, than it changes the character of Bhutto's position in  
Pakistani society."

Link: South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy official site