After a rather turbulent flight (Pakistan airlines) I arrived at 4pm. in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

I didn’t know what to expect from this trip throughout Pakistan because of the recent liquidation of Osama Bin Laden.

I noticed a lot of commotion in and out Islamabad definitely due to the worlds’ most shocking news.

Before going deeper into this matter I want you (fellow bloggers) to know something more about Pakistan and its population. It hasn’t been easy for the Pakistani.

Pakistan used to be much bigger and was originally divided in two parts being east - & west wing (with India in between).

·      The east wing (now Bangladesh) is on the Bay of Bengal bordering India and Burma.

·      The west wing (now Pakistan) stretches from the Himalayas down to the Arabian Sea.

The break-up of the two wings came in 1971 when the east wing (Bangladesh) seceded with help from India. Pakistan has been at war with India the last few decades, like I told before.

These (civil) wars have been the major raison why civilian politics in Pakistan has been tarnished by corruption, inefficiency and confrontations. Ever since, Pakistan  has not reached a renewed political stability (Taliban, Al Qaida, Military government,...)

They even came under military ruling in October 1999 (as their government lost public support). The coup leader, General Pervez Musharraf, pledged to revive the country’s fortune, but faced the same problems as the earlier ‘democratic’ government. He faced economic challenges as well as an increasing polarisation between Islamist militancy and the modernising secular wing of Pakistani Politics.

Under growing pressure to reintroduce democratic rules, Musharraf resigned in August 2008.

Pakistan’s place on the world stage shifted tragically after the horrible 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. They became a key ally of Washington against terrorism. The country dropped all former support for the Taliban regime and Osama’s Al Qaida.

Since 2009, the government has been waging a military campaign to flush the militants out of the tribal areas along the Afghan border, were numerous Taliban-linked militants are staying.

I can only hope that the recent assassination of Al Qaida‘s leader Osama Bin Laden can make Pakistan’s population again revive. Hopefully this is the end of this horrific decade of pain and disaster due to Muslim extremists.

Because in the end nobody really realizes Pakistan is a country with an estimated population of 184.7 million inhabitants. How many of them would actually be happy?!

After months of intensive research America finally received a trustworthy tip-off about the potential hiding spot of Al-Qaida’s leader. Under Obama’s reign team six (America’s top finest navy seals) got authorized to go in.

Every living person, I think, has seen America’s revenge on terrorism. Hopefully countries are undertaking enough measures to protect themselves from those destroyers of mankind.

I hope this can be a new beginning for Pakistan and its population because I’ve been treated perfectly. I can’t complain about their hospitality because I’ve been staying with a local farmer for a week and everything has been shared like families do.

Tomorrow my last flight takes me to the worlds’ richest oil country.

Saudi Arabia here I come.

Signed

Louis Dessein

14-04-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Louis BMA1