Pakistan reaps what it has sown for decades. And the response from Washington? Send them more money -- money that will almost certainly end up in the hands of people like Malik Ishaq. "70 Murders, Yet Close to Going Free in Pakistan," by Sabrina Tavernise and Waqar Gillani in the New York Times, August 5 (thanks to Bill):
MULTAN, Pakistan — It has been 12 years since Fida Hussein Ghalvi testified against the militant who was charged with killing 12 members of his family. But some days he feels as if he were the one who ended up in jail. He still gets threats, his servants all quit and an armed guard is posted at his gate.Most maddening is the fact that the militant — Malik Ishaq, one of the founders of the country’s most vicious sectarian group, whose police record has a dizzying tally of at least 70 murders — has never had a conviction that stuck.
In Pakistan, the weakness of the state is matched only by the strength of its criminals. When Mr. Ishaq was arrested in 1997, he unleashed his broad network against his opponents, killing witnesses, threatening judges and intimidating the police, leading nearly all of the prosecutions against him to collapse eventually.
Now, with the cases against him mostly exhausted, Mr. Ishaq, 50, jihadi hero and leader of the militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, could be out on bail as early as this month. That prospect terrifies Mr. Ghalvi, whose world has shrunk to the size of his house in this central Pakistani city....
What is more, the country’s intelligence agencies have a long history of nurturing militants as proxy forces over the heads of the police. Few civilian victims, judges or even police officials dare to buck what Pakistanis take for granted as an untouchable network of support.
Such was the case with Hafiz Saeed, a cleric who was freed from house arrest in June, despite abundant evidence that his group was behind the attacks in Mumbai, India, that killed more than 160 people last year.
Mr. Ishaq is no exception. Pakistan’s spy agency, hedging against the Shiite revolution in neighboring Iran and in favor of the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan, began pouring money into hard-line Sunni groups like his in the 1980s.
These days, Mr. Ishaq, a cigarette dealer with a sixth-grade education who has been in jail since 1997 with 44 cases against him, no longer seems to have official support, police officers said. Even so, convicting him has been all but impossible.
One of the main reasons is fear. Beginning in 1997, Mr. Ishaq stood trial in the deaths of 12 people at a gathering of the Ghalvi family, who are Shiites. Soon after the trial began, witnesses began to die. Mr. Ghalvi’s older brother was shot to death in his general store. A cousin was gunned down on his way to work.
Intimidation of witnesses became a more effective tool after 1990, when an Islamic provision known as “blood money” was passed that allowed criminals to settle their crimes with victims’ families outside court. According to Tahir Wasti, a former legal adviser to the Punjab provincial government, it gave a frightened family even greater incentive not to go through the pain of a prosecution.
The law, set in motion by the 1980s military dictator Zia ul-Haq, caused the number of canceled cases in districts in and around Multan to double between 1981 and 2000, according to Mr. Wasti. Only 3 percent of murder cases in the area end in convictions, he said, a fraction of the rate in the United States.
“The provision has shaken the whole criminal justice system,” said Mr. Wasti, who has written a book on the subject. “It has encouraged all the criminals of Pakistan. They have used this loophole to kill whoever they want.”...
The United States has not helped. According to Christine Fair, an expert with the RAND Corporation, little more than 2 percent of United States financing to Pakistan has gone to assisting the police from 2002 to 2008.
The problem is likely to get worse. Militant groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are now entwined with the Taliban, Al Qaeda and criminal gangs with international ambitions. It is precisely this mix of violent crime and religious rhetoric that has made the insurgency so poisonous, Ms. Ahmed argues.
Fair trials of jihadis who have committed violent crimes are the only way to expose them. “It strips away that veil of ideology,” she said, “and leaves behind that naked face of a criminal.”
But such trials are rare, leaving people like Mr. Ghalvi, who dare stand up to militants, living in a strange state of suspended animation. He waits anxiously for his appeal. His cotton fields have declined. He no longer goes outside to buy his own clothes....
Re-posting what I recorded of the original comments for this article, made while we were still using IntenseDebate:
GOZAN said - (quoting) "In Pakistan, the weakness of the state is matched only by the strength of its criminals."
By definition, no islamic state can be strong, because islam supersedes statehood- it does not act as a subculture within a larger framework, it is the framework, making the trappings of statehood incidental.
The state serves islam and therefore serves jihad.
The so called "moderate" rhetoric coming from Pakistani leaders toward the west will continue as long as the copious amount of money keeps flowing, but is only window dressing unless the Pakistani government takes more active steps to refute terrorism and protect the non muslim populations within its borders. I'm not holding my breath.
-EBONYSTONE (quoting GOZAN) - "By definition, no islamic state can be strong, because islam supersedes statehood. . . ."
A very astute observation, gozan. It's particularly true in the case of Pakistan, which was founded as a homeland for the sub-continent's Moslems. Millions of Moslems of many different nationalities from all across India fled there after the partition to join the native tribal groups.
They had nothing in common except Islam and a legacy of British law and administration.
The latter has been steadily eroded, leaving only Islam.
-ISLAMMACHTFREI said - India's estimated 150+ million remaining Muslims (including or even especially those in Kashmir) should be relocated to Paki NOW!
-IPSOFACTO said - Etnic cleansing and religious profiling? I thought that was an Islamic speciallity not to be used in democracies.
-KAFFIRKANUCK replied - Relocation is not “Cleansing.” Basically, it’s kicking them out for violating the terms of their say. But we don’t have the law or the apparatus to make it happen. So don’t equate crimes against humanity with a conservative need to defend what has been built, not to watch their kids piss it away, but for Totalitarian Mo show up with his minions and take it over.
JUSTSAYNO2ISLAM - And we gave Pakistan 2 billion dollars why?-
-ALERT said - For this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k45qeLNe5zg__(Reco... dispatches / conversation between terrorists and their sponsors, in Pakistan).
MRSJ said - Crazy situation - how is blood money justice?
Worryingly, blood money cases have started to appear on the streets of the UK. The Somalian community in Bristol often settles cases of non-lethal stabbings and beatings with blood money through the Sharia court system. The police either never get to hear about it or turn a blind eye.
Figures out last week show that Bristol's schoolchildren are more than 50% non-white - and that's mostly Muslims (Somalian & Nigerian), as the more prosperous among the long-settled Afro-Caribbeans are, like many middle-class white families, fleeing the city for safer areas - even the Yardie gangs are leaving.
Bristol is my nearest big city - last time I ventured there, at times I thought I was in a foreign land.
-TANSTAAFL said - My thoughts and prayers are with you, Mrs. J.
Never ever, ever, ever give up.
Sir Winston Churchil
-GRAVENIMAGE said - Worryingly, blood money cases have started to appear on the streets of the UK. The Somalian community in Bristol often settles cases of non-lethal stabbings and beatings with blood money through the Sharia court system. The police either never get to hear about it or turn a blind eye.
..................
Uh--what a horror, Mrs. J. One of the great strides the West has made in criminal justice is have it handled dispassionately by the state--rather than a matter for the clan or the tribe. To roll this back to the barbaric system of blood money--especially in Britain, the home of so much of the brilliant Western concept of justice--is tragic beyond words.
Blood money also embraces the idea that the individual has no intrinsic worth--their worth is based entirely on their status in the tribe. The concept of individual rights is the very cornerstone of Western philosophy and the whole idea of human rights.
-NOPCHERE said - Your situation is a tragedy, Mrs. J. Here in the USA, we are 20 years behind "the progressive UK's social progress". and our progressive politicians are working overtime to catch up with the UK.
Never give up, the future is unknown.
-MRSJ said - Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers.
-YOM AL JUMAH said - MrsJ
In all likelyhood you are a middle aged whitie, who probably does not go to Bristol that much...so you live in a village outside of Bristol. I am puzzled as to how do YOU know that Somalian community in Bristol settle things with blood money?... Is this simply for the eyes of the postees here or do you have deinate proof...please enllighten me!
-MRSJ told YAJ - My age or my colour has no bearing on my post - and I'm sure using the term "whitie" is considered racist, as it would if I were to call you "darkie" - and I detest racism!
I have close friends in many areas of Bristol, including the police force.
To confirm my statement, there was recently a story carried in the Daily Mail, which mentions the Somali community in East London:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196165/B...
".....if Somali youngsters fight, the community knows straight away who was involved. He explained the operation of the gar system; ' the elders in the accused's family would call the victim's family and ask for a meeting.It is happening all over the country. It is very rare for families to call the police because they can come to an agreement within the community.'
Please see the box within the text of the story on the Daily Mail where it explains about the compensation - or in other words, blood money.
I hope my reply does enlighten you, but call me 'whitie' again and this will be the last time I ever reply to any post of yours.
-KAFFIRKANUCK to MRSJ - Hey, at least he didn’t say “round eye”, or “white devil.” Got to take their slips of righteousness and run it through their bodies like a lance in a tournament, to just immediate deflect back with an ultimatum, ‘cause he’ll use that giants you. “never give in, never surrender!
JEFFS said - (quoting) '"The United States has not helped. According to Christine Fair, an expert with the RAND Corporation, little more than 2 percent of United States financing to Pakistan has gone to assisting the police from 2002 to 2008."
And why exactly should we be helping anything or anyone in Pakistan besides the non-Muslims? Stop the jizya already.'
CJK said -(quoting article) "In Pakistan, the weakness of the state is matched only by the strength of its criminals."..............
This will continue to be true until Pakistan becomes an 'islamic Republic' in practice, at which point the strength of the state will BE the strength of the criminals just like in the 'islamic Republic' of Iran or saudi arabia.............mohammedanism is criminality for all intents and purposes.
DEUSVULT said - "an 'Islamic Republic' with Nukes...".
END of my record of the original comments for this article -dda.