Pakistan: A Journalist’s View
For the casual observer of international news Pakistan must be enigmatic, bewildering and scary. It’s a “hornet’s nest,” declares The Economist. Almost from its inception in 1947 Pakistan has been dominated by the three As: Allah, Army and America. The country of some 200 million people has been ruled either by military dictators or corrupt civilians. Pick your poison. There are coups and rumors of coups. The prime minister may be ousted. The president may face criminal charges. The intelligence agencies wield supernatural powers. And in the shadows are jihadis. Relations between Islamabad and Washington are “badly strained,” the NY Times reports. No surprises there given the many U.S. drone attacks and invasions culminating in the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers. When you are master of the universe and you pay stipends to servants you expect what? Silence and loyalty.
Interview by David Barsamian.
Recorded at Harvard.
Speaker
Beena Sarwar
Beena Sarwar is an independent Pakistani journalist and documentary filmmaker. She is the Pakistan editor of Aman ki Asha, a joint initiative of The News in Pakistan and The Times of India. She was a producer for GEO TV, the largest 24/7 news channel in Pakistan.
Neil Wijeratne –
I was greatly impressed by the forthright,very informative factually articulated observations made by Beena on AR this morning. It gave me an indepth, clear and precise understanding of the present situation in Pakistan. Whereas it also clrear from Beenas observations that what is needed by the Americans and all other international communities intersted in the people of Pakistan is to assist, foster and nurture all that is moving in the direction of establishing a more effective form of Democracy in that country.I think its time ALLAH,Army and America worked together to establish a true form of democracy.