Pervez Hoodbhoy

Islamabad succumbs

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2007-05-17T23:33:00Z

Pakistan's president is doing nothing to prevent the country's capital from becoming an Taliban stronghold.

After his ill-advised dismissal of the chief justice of Pakistan's supreme court ignited violent protest, President Pervez Musharraf may be banking on Islamic fanatics to create chaos in the nation's capital, Islamabad. Many suspect that an engineered bloodbath that leads to army intervention, and the declaration of a national emergency, could serve as a pretext to postpone the October 2007 elections. This could make way for Musharraf's dictatorial rule to continue into its eighth year - and perhaps well beyond.

This perverse strategy sounds almost unbelievable. Musharraf, who George Bush describes as his "buddy", supports an "enlightened moderate" version of Islam, and wears two close attempts on his life by religious extremists as a badge of honour. But his secret reliance upon the Taliban card - one that he has been accused of playing for years - is increasing as his authority weakens. (...)

- / Comment is free

Waiting for Enlightenment

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2006-07-23T13:38:00Z

The centrepiece of Pakistan's relationship with the West since September 11, 2001, has been dubbed “enlightened moderation” by its president and philosopher-general, Pervez Musharraf. Under his rule, Musharraf claims, Pakistan has rejected the orthodox, militant, violent Islam imposed by the previous chief of army staff to seize power in Pakistan, General Zia ul-Haq (who ruled from 1977-1988), in favour of a more ‘modern' and ‘moderate' Islam. But Musharraf's actions, and those of his government and its allies, are often at odds with this. In fact, after almost five years of ‘enlightened moderation,' it seems there is more continuity than change. And, with each passing day, it becomes harder to see how such a policy can hope to stem the tide of religious radicalism that is overwhelming Pakistani society. (...) -

What Pakistan's Bomb Could Not Buy

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2006-05-29T13:44:00Z

On the eight anniversary of Pakistan's nuclear tests, there is little point in debating whether we should have followed India down the nuclear gutter. But there is need for a sober stock-taking that moves us away from the still rampant, chest-thumping, nuclear triumphalism. So far the region's nuclear “experts” and “strategists”, actively assisted on both sides of the border by their respective states, have effectively monopolized discussion on nuclear policy. But many promises remain unfulfilled and various political and social costs for Pakistan are barely acknowledged. What are these? (...) -

US-India Nuclear Deal Fuels an Asian Arms Race

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2006-04-23T22:10:00Z

This article was published in the Economic and Political Weekly (India) and The Friday Times (Pakistan), week of 17 April, 2006.

For all who have opposed Pakistan's nuclear program over the years - including myself - the US-India nuclear agreement may be the worst thing that has happened in a long time.

Post agreement: Pakistan's ruling elite is confused and bitter. They know that India has overtaken Pakistan in far too many areas for there to be any reasonable basis for symmetry. They see the US is now interested in reconstructing the geopolitics of South Asia and in repairing relations with India, not in mollifying Pakistani grievances. Nevertheless, there were lingering hopes of a sweetener during President George W. Bush's furtive and unwelcomed visit in March 2006 to Islamabad. There was none.

This change in US policy thrilled many in India. Many enjoyed President Musharraf's discomfiture. But they would do well to restrain their exuberance. The nuclear deal, even if ratified, will not dramatically increase nuclear power production - currently this stands at only 3% of the total production, and can at most double to 6% if currently planned reactors are built and made operational over the next decade. On the other hand, Pakistan is bound to react - and react badly - once US nuclear materials and equipment starting rolling into India. (...)

- / Japan Focus

Assessing Pakistani Science

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2006-02-21T15:58:00Z

Constitution Avenue in Islamabad, the 8-lane arterial road that goes into the heart of Pakistan's political establishment and the Presidency, is lined with impressive buildings bearing the names of many scientific institutions. These include the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, Pakistan Science Foundation, Islamic Academy of Sciences, Pakistan Council for Science and Technology, Committee on S&T of Organization of Islamic Countries (COMSTECH), Commission on S&T for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), and others. A short distance from the Presidency is the head office of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, the largest single science-based institution in the country. Other institutions are spread across Islamabad. Their large numbers, astronomically high real estate value, and obvious wealth, shows that Pakistan's ruling establishment wants to be seen as taking science seriously. The question is: does it, and how far down the road has Pakistan's science actually come since 1947? (...) -

The nuclear complex: America, the bomb, and Osama bin Laden

Pervez Hoodbhoy, Zia Mian — 2006-02-16T19:10:49Z

This article is adapted from Pervez Hoodbhoy, "When?" (Los Angeles Times, 10 July 2005) and "Bin Laden and Hiroshima" (Znet, August 2005)

The twin ambitions of American empire and radical Islamism could bring nuclear catastrophe to the world. A different ethical and political project is urgently needed, say the Pakistani scholars Pervez Hoodbhoy & Zia Mian.

"Power over life and death - don't be proud of it. Whatever they fear from you, you'll be threatened with." —Seneca (Roman philosopher and statesman)

The decisions to incinerate Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 were not taken in anger. White men in grey business suits and military uniforms, concluded after much deliberation that the United States "could not give the Japanese any warning; that we could not concentrate on a civilian area; but that we should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible... [and] the most desirable target would be a vital war plant employing a large number of workers and closely surrounded by workers' houses". It was justified by the belief that it would be cheaper in American lives to release the nuclear genie. Besides, it was such a marvellous thing to show Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

The victorious are rarely encumbered by remorse. Headlines like "Jap City No More" brought the news to a joyous America. Crowds gathered in New York's Times Square to celebrate; there was less of the enemy left. The president responsible for giving the order, Harry Truman, said: "When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true." Not surprisingly, six decades later, even American liberals remain ambivalent about the morality of nuking the two Japanese cities. (...)

- / openDemocracy

No Burial For Balakot

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2005-10-15T02:20:00Z

Four days later, they are still not even trying to extricate the dead in the town of Balakot, flattened by an earthquake that hit Northern Pakistan on the morning of October 8. From under the rubble of collapsed buildings, a gut-wrenching smell of decaying corpses now fills the town. The rats have it good; the one I accidentally stepped upon was already fat. If there is indeed a plan to clear the concrete rubble in and around the town, nobody seems to have any clue. But the Balakotis are taking it in their stride - nose masks are everywhere.

From this destroyed mountainous tourist base town, a relief group from my university returned today (Thursday, Oct 13, 2005). We were just one of the dozens of groups of ordinary citizens that were spontaneously galvanized into action after the enormity of last Saturday's earthquake became apparent. (...)

- / ZNet

Bin Laden And Hiroshima

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2005-08-07T03:00:00Z

The decision to incinerate Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not taken in anger. White men in grey business suits and military uniforms, after much deliberation, decided the US “could not give the Japanese any warning; that we could not concentrate on a civilian area; but that we should seek to make a profound psychological impression on as many of the inhabitants as possible... [and] the most desirable target would be a vital war plant employing a large number of workers and closely surrounded by workers' houses.”[i] They argued it would be cheaper in American lives to release the nuclear genie. Besides, it was such a marvelous thing to show Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

Headlines like “Jap City No More” soon brought the news to a joyous nation. Crowds gathered in Times Square to celebrate; there was less of the enemy left. Rarely are victors encumbered by remorse. President Harry Truman declared: “When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast. It is most regrettable but nevertheless true.”[ii] Not surprisingly, six decades later, even American liberals remain ambivalent about the morality of nuking the two Japanese cities. The late Hans Bethe, Nobel Prize winner in physics of Manhattan Project fame and a leading exponent of arms control, declared that “the atom bomb was the greatest gift we could have given to the Japanese”[iii]. (...)

- / ZNet

Reforms! What Reforms?

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2005-07-08T11:15:00Z

Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, appointed as chairman of the Higher Education Commission by General Pervez Musharraf in 2002, lays claim to setting up a "revolutionary programme" of reforms that is already reversing the decades-old decline of Pakistan`s universities. Not a day passes without the announcement of some big achievement — a new university, college, equipment, training programs, awards and seminars. The chairman seems particularly proud of what he has achieved when it comes to promoting teaching and research in physics. (...) -

India Through Pakistani Eyes

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2005-02-16T19:02:00Z

Is India now set to become a science juggernaut, a leader of the coming "Asian Century"? A nascent superpower of the East? Some Western analysts think so, with the National Intelligence Council, a CIA think-tank, putting India at the very top under the head "availability of scientists and engineers" together with high marks for foreign technology licensing and absorption. But will this be enough? Where is India actually heading?

Few Pakistanis get to visit India, the so-called "enemy country", and fewer still to independently assess the development of science and education across its hugely diverse regions. I had the exceptional good fortune to make such a visit recently, made possible by the award of UNESCO`s Kalinga Prize for the popularization of science. One part of the Prize included a 4-week lecture tour that took me around India: Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bhubhaneswar, Cuttack, Calcutta, and then back to Delhi again before I returned home to Islamabad in mid-February. Although the Prize was awarded in 2003, frosty Pakistan-India relations had made my tour impossible until 2005. (...)

Reforming Our Universities

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2005-01-12T02:21:00Z

[This article first appeared on January 3 (Part I) and January 4 (Part II), DAWN.]

There is a severe and long-standing crisis in higher education. But, until the present military government took the initiative, there was no rehabilitation plan. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, appointed as chairman of the Higher Education Commission, was the wonder-man charged by General Musharraf with turning the situation around. He was quick to make a powerful pitch for vast increases in funding.

Foreign donors, worried about the implications of Pakistan's sinking educational system, obliged. The higher education budget zoomed by twelve times (1,200 per cent) over three years, a world record. A number of new and innovative utilization schemes were announced. (...)

- / ZNet, Dawn

Can Pakistan Work?

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2004-10-20T14:48:55Z

An essay and commentary on a book by Stephen P. Cohen, 'The Idea of Pakistan', the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC., 2004, 367 pp. Published in the November/December 2004 issue of Foreign Affairs.

When he founded Pakistan in 1947, Muhammad Ali Jinnah-an impeccably dressed Westernized Muslim with Victorian manners and a secular outlook- promised the subcontinent's Muslims that they would ﬁnally be able to fulﬁll their cultural and civilizational destiny. Although the new nation arose from a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing and sectarian violence, and its fundamental premise was that Hindus and Muslims could never live together, its early years nevertheless held some promise of a liberal, relatively secular polity. (...)

Pluralism in Pakistan

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2004-10-01T03:59:00Z

The following article, published in June in Dawn (Pakistan), was in response to a strong article by the head of one of the most powerful and intolerant religious-political parties, published a few days earlier in Dawn.

In summer 2001, while visiting the University of Maryland, I went to hear Qazi Husain Ahmad, emir of the Jamaat-i-Islami, lecture at the Brookings Institute in Washington DC. He spoke on Islam, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. What I heard both surprised and impressed me. Much of what Qazi Husain said was more or less along expected lines - Islam being misunderstood in the West, unfair US embargoes upon Pakistan after the nuclear tests, the unwarranted hostility towards the Taliban (although he disagreed with their rejection of education of girls), etc. But the rest was refreshingly new and remarkably enlightened. (...)

- / ZNet

Miracles, Wars, and Politics

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2004-09-17T03:23:00Z

On the morning of the first Gulf War (1991), having just heard the news of the US attack on Baghdad, I walked into my office in the physics department in a state of numbness and depression. Mass death and devastation would surely follow. I was dismayed, but not surprised, to discover my PhD student, a militant activist of the Jamaat-i-Islami's student wing in Islamabad, in a state of euphoria. Islam's victory, he said, is inevitable because God is on our side and the Americans cannot survive without alcohol and women. He reasoned that neither would be available in Iraq, and happily concluded that the Americans were doomed. Then he reverentially closed his eyes and thrice repeated "Inshallah" (if Allah so wills). (...) - / ZNet

Pakistan: inside the nuclear closet

Pervez Hoodbhoy — 2004-03-03T05:00:00Z

Abdul Qadeer Khan, regarded as the “father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb”, was accused then pardoned by President Musharraf for his role in trafficking nuclear technology. But what sort of man is Qadeer, and what does his story reveal about the United States's role in Pakistan's nuclear proliferation? A nuclear physicist from Pakistan sends an exclusive report. -