Center for a New American Security

Not so long ago, I had a conversation with a Pakistani businessman about the prospects for economic growth. The conversation turned to import and export. Now, as someone who has personally had to clear Ms Henley-on-Thames "minimised" 250+kg of shipping through Islamabad airport customs, I have seen a little of the dark dealings it takes to get things done in a place where corruption is part of the background noise.

I literally could not wait for Londonstani's take on this corruption scandal surrounding Pakistan's cricket team*, so I'm jumping the gun here. My father was a sports writer and my mom a basketball coach, so I grew up surrounded by sports, and I am ecumenically enthusiastic about them. I can take as much interest in an American football game as I can in a rugby game and as much interest in a cricket match as I can in a baseball game. A few years ago, I watched New Zealand play England in a cricket test match at Lord's Cricket Ground, which is as hallowed a ground as hallowed gets.

As bad as the flood damage is in Pakistan, there is a positive side. My latest article on the afpak channel is about the young Pakistanis with the skills and connections to do what their leaders can't.

An article in the Financial Times this morning intimated that perceptions of both government corruption and support for militant groups are causing international donors to keep their pocketbooks closed in supporting victims of the floods in Pakistan.

August 14 is Pakistan's independence day. The run up to independence day in Pakistan looks pretty much like anywhere else, flags hawked on every street corner and patriotic songs on the radio. But in a country commentators seem to love to describe as "nearly failing", independence is fragile enough to force Pakistanis to give more thought to what their country means than those dozing after a BBQ in more stable countries.

Yesterday, I attended a conference on counter radicalisation strategies organised by the Pak Institute of Peace Studeis (PIPS) and the United States Institute for Peace (USIP). I'm pasting my notes here because I think many readers working on the region and Pakistan in particular will find them useful. But at the same time, for the general reader, it provides a rare opportunity to see what professional analysts with an intimate knowledge of context and history as well as the advantage of local language knowledge make of current situation.

While Pakistan's most immediate disasters (floods, an aircrash, wikileaks, diplomatic squabbles etc) have taken up the headlines, the political killings in Karachi haven't gotten the attention they deserve. Most of the news reporting is focused on tallying up the tit-for-tat death toll. But yesterday, the interior minister said he suspected militant outfits could have assassinated a key Karachi politician in an effort to kick of sectarian warfare in the already volitile city.

Ghaith Abdul Ahad breathes a breath of minty fresh air into the fetid Wikileaks debate. It was kind of obviously really; everyone was arguing about Pakistan's links to the Taliban, the Pakistanis denied it, the Pakistani media complained, the British PM slapped Pakistan around publicly in India, the Americans said it was OK, the Pakistanis were behaving much better now. The only people who didn't get a say in it all were the Taliban. Until Ghaith went and asked them.

I really serious (heart) the way BBC Urdu's Mohammed Hanif can get his point across about US complicity in the mess that is Pakistan without sounding whiny, crazy or stuck deep in the depths of denial.

Check out his op-ed from the NYT to get an understanding of why Pakistanis might have reservations about US intentions.

There's more that connects drone attacks and the AirBlue crash than the fact both relate to Pakistani airspace. Huma Yusuf writes in the Dawn newspaper that in Pakistan the thread of poor governance runs through terrorism and natural disasters.

As Huma points out, where government fails to provide, extremist groups see plenty of opportunity: