Pakistan

It breaks my heart to see what the troubles in Pakistan are doing to my parents and others of their generation, who went through the bloody partition on both sides of the divide. I have been involved in several discussions recently about the current political stalemate - with Musharraf going for the 'Zia option', i.e. stay in power as long as you can to avoid assassination. Benazir is fated as a champion of democracy although it was her government that officially recognised the Taleban (not to mention her goverment's gross incompetence and the various cases around the World concerning corruption that she and her husband are personally implicated in, and not to forget the suspicious death of her brother Murtaza) and the less said about the Sharif brothers, the better.

Also, as the constitution forbids a prime minister to seek a third term, both Benazir Bhutto & Nawaz Sharif should be barred from contesting any future election.

Meanwhile, several Western governments play favourites under the cover of sham democracy, providing ammunition to many extremists who insist that democracy is a bad thing. Whether it is a Western power or the Pakistani elite, the people of Pakistan are treated as pawns - and worse still, as fools.

Tariq Ali has written a very good summary in the most recent edition of the London Review of Books. Check out the comments of Mohammed Hanif, head of the BBC's Urdu Service.