After seeing the video clip of her stating that she was safe because it was against Islam to murder her, I knew that she was another liberal fool. Having said that, I am so very sorry for what is happening in Pakistan. But given the snake pit festering in the Tribal Area of the Northwest part of that country, we can see this and more coming. And it will keep coming until that area is brought under control. But this is what can happen when a government fails to extend full control over its territory.
"This government has brought a curse on us. Bomb blasts, strikes, unemployment, inflation and now they're snatching bread from us."For many Pakistanis, food trumps Al-Qaeda as election issue by Nasir Jaffry, Agence France Presse January 13, 2008.Officials loyal to President Pervez Musharraf have tried to play down the wheat crisis, but every day -- when suicide bombings don't grab the headlines -- Pakistani media carry images of desperate people queuing for bread.
Like a form of Chinese water torture on the psyche of an already traumatised and downtrodden nation, analysts said it could play a decisive role on election day.
"The wheat shortage occurred because the government ignored domestic consumption of 22 million tons per annum," Khaleeq Arshad, a senior member of the All Pakistan Flour Mills Association, told reporters. Arshad, who owns his own mill in Lahore, said the government exaggerated the yield of last year's "bumper crop."
It then compounded the problem by allowing the export of 1.6 million tons of wheat, against a target of just 500,000 tons, he said. The result was a handsome economic windfall for some, and seething frustration for millions of ordinary Pakistanis.
"The prices have doubled and now the most basic food item is available only at exorbitant prices -- it's a disgrace," said 30-year-old school teacher Sakina Batool. "I don't know how they claim credit for fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda when they're killing their own people through starvation."