The divided land of the poor is suffering due to the united interests of the pure imperialist forces. The United States has been exploiting the psychopathic self delusion of military leaders of Pakistan due to which they have been considering themselves as the defenders of the so called fortress of Islam. Indoctrinating the people of Pakistan with the utopian idea about Pakistan as the fortress of Islam is meaningful because it is but logical to justify the rule of any military dictator as fortresses are ruled by commanders not common people.

When the US sees its interest in any region of the third world it starts investing in the internal conflicts and contradictions present in that region. The installation of Saddam and fabrication of his Bath Party to contain and confine the anti imperialist revolution in Iran and the installation of General Zia and emergence of Mujahideen to contain the anti imperialist Saur revolution of Afghanistan are examples from the recent past.

It is interesting to note that US does not want stability in the third world countries. Stability means peace. Peace implies progress. Progress paves the way for industrialisation.Industrialization gives birth to democracy. Democracy brings national leadership. National leadership safeguards national interests. National interests are always against the economic interests of the multinational companies and their native imperialist states. It is therefore comprehendible why third world countries are suffering from political instability. Third world countries including Pakistan are huge consumer markets for the products of these multinational companies. Multinational companies invest huge amounts in the third world countries to discourage indigenous production and encourage consumerism. On the contrary national leadership keeps industrialization through indigenous production, industry oriented technical training and employment of national human resource on top of its priority list. In case of Pakistan the vested interests of the establishment have been the main hurdle in the emergence of national leadership which could ensure the achievement of economic and hence political independence through industrialization.

It is important to know the technique of imperialist powers to safeguard their economic interests. United States promoted and installed Saddam, made him a Sunni cum national hero and used him against Iran. When he attacked Kuwait, US got alarmed about her oil-interests in neighboring sacred US colony - Saudi Arabia and decided to do away with him.Saddam due to the confidence and experience of ruling the oil-rich Iraq for decades thought that he had become a national hero and started resisting and opposing US interests. It was the time for US to remind him his real political stature and consequently he had to face the music for his self deceit.

Another example was that of General Zia.He was appointed by the US to get rid of Bhutto as the latter � being true popular leader, was taking steps in the national interest of the people which were going to culminate in the establishment of a democratic system in the country. When General Zia delivered the first deliverable of hanging Bhutto he was granted a prolonged tenure by the US to deliver another challenging task. This task was the confinement and containment of Saur revolution in Afghanistan and Shia revolution in Iran � both of which were anti-imperialist in nature.

General Zia with the help of US used the brave and religious minded Afghans across the Durand line to contain the Saur revolution by fighting PDPA which was aided by USSR. On the other hand he amplified the shia-sunni sectarianism in Pakistan by fabricating sectarian parties to create hatred for shias in order to contain the anti-imperialist revolution of Iran. Similarly MQM was established to counter act the anti-imperialist voice of ANP by creating hatred for Pakhtuns to contain the anti-imperialist Saur revolution of Afghanistan.

The best thing which happened to the US as a by-product of Afghan war was the disintegration of USSR.The consecutive successes of General Zia disillusioned him about his real stature. He was convinced due to some self conceived arguments that his presence in power was synonymous with the survival of Pakistan and even with the larger interest of the �Ummah�. He also wrongly considered himself to be a popular rather national leader which was neither a reality nor acceptable to the then sole super power. Consequently the super power had to help him ascend to the heavens during his flight from a comparatively higher altitude.

After the military dictatorship of General Zia, a catharsis was given to the Pakistani nation in the form of glimpses of democratic governments of PPP and PML but the imperialist powers continued their vigilance on the remnants and fallouts of the Afghan war, the potential danger of Iran for US-backed Israel, the rising economic hegemony of China and the probability of misuse of nuclear teeth of Pakistan by the Islamic extremists.

As imperialist powers are never interested in the political stability of third world countries so they had to create a scenario to bring a strong person to safeguard their interests in Pakistan. It was in these circumstances that Musharraf came into power out of the blue sky.

The major US concern about the fallout of Afghan war and the rise of religious elements became a reality on 9/11 after which US re-prioritized its agenda and extended the tenure of Musharraf to deliver the deliverables. Musharraf formed his own party with the help of agencies by buying the loyalties of a major chunk of Muslim league which is historically known to welcome invaders, dictators and oppressors. He won the loyalties of Punjab by adopting the slogan of Pakistan first which infact meant Punjab first and military foremost. He installed religious government in Pushtoon regions to control Pakhtuns who have been over indoctrinated with retrogressive and pro-establishment version of religion. He gave power to his ethnic group MQM for his political backing in Sindh.

After making the setup he shifted his strategic depth from India to Afghanistan on the directives of US. While he succeeded in getting rid of the religious extremist which could be potential threat to US from other parts of Pakistan, the military forces faced tough retaliation while controlling the regions of Pakhtuns who posses a long history of retaliation against aggression and who do not consider submission as wisdom and prefer to rule in hell than to serve in heaven. That is why Mushahrraf had to use peace pacts with the Pakhtuns in order to pacify them. The act of voluntary peace treaties with Paktuns was a step in the right direction though not appreciated by US due to its policy of destabilizing Pakhtun regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan to justify her presence.

It was sometime after these treaties that Musharraf got confidence and started acting like a national leader and took some steps which were in the national interests of the country and even dared not to cooperate in the so called war against terrorism on a couple of occasions.

This daring gesture by a military man was against the to-do list given to him by the US and hence the invisible hand started reversing and nullifying all what would have otherwise gone to the credit of his military regime. Everything started getting reversed with every passing day. This was to remind the army chief cum President that if a person hired for promoting a particular definition of national interest dares to define it himself then his definition of national interests becomes notional entrust and the person himself becomes resident of his real estate instead of remaining the real president of a state.

The forces of Pakistan are trained to be under a false sense of respect rather a delusion of grandeur. Its leadership wrongly says yes to any chance granted either by the US or by the descendants of the firangeee-loyal families of Pakistan to �save� the nation. When the verdict of history is announced to keep the record straight and things in perspective the military dictators come to know about their real stature and realize that there is a difference between commanding disciplined employess of a formation and demanding freedom for the exploited masses of a nation.

The moral of the story is that a strong leaf of a weak tree might break the discipline and plunge into deep waters following a light stone in order to create the same ripple effect but contrary to a light stone a strong leaf always lacks the weight required to mobilize the still waters.