Daily Times, Pakistan
Monday, March 12, 2007
CNN airing 'Divide Pakistan' ads
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: A maverick 'academic' based in Europe has been buying airtime on CNN for the past two weeks to advertise his book, 'Divide Pakistan to eliminate terrorism', according to a report in the Times of India
The 15-second spot, which is aired every day, charges Pakistan with terrorist activities across the world and says the only way to stop this is to split the country into half a dozen separate entities, including Sindhudesh, Jinnahpur, Balochistan and Pakhtunistan, says the report.
The author of the book, which is being sold on Amazon.com for $ 15.95, is Syed Jamaluddin, who describes himself in a blog (www.dividepakistan.blogspot.com ) as a British citizen and a chartered accountant with a degree in conflict management.
On Amazon, he is described as ''an active writer on issues concerning Pakistan's involvement in various terrorist activities in the South Asian region''. He was ''forced to leave Pakistan after the military coup of General Musharraf in 1999'.' It says he also ''liased with political and religious parties of Pakistan as well as government agencies'.'
Washington's think-tank circuit, where Pakistani scholars and commentators are frequent visitors, has no idea who Syed Jamaluddin is. The conjecture is he is a disgruntled spook out to embarrass Pakistan, which is already seen by many in the United States as the "grand central — if not a sponsor — of terrorism". .
Indian officials too said they had no idea of the book or the author. One official visiting Washington from New Delhi, when told about the ad, joked that dividing Pakistan was a terrible idea. ''One is bad enough - who wants to deal with four or five?''
According to the jacket notes for the book on Amazon, 'Divide Pakistan to eliminate terrorism' is "'Syed Jamaluddin's vision to address issues related to combating terrorism emanating from Pakistan which have dramatically transformed the entire region into a systematically controlled network having vicious effects on global peace".' This book, it says, gives an in depth analysis about the role of Pakistan's intelligence agencies and the Tablighi Jamaat in producing future terrorists. The book also claims to provide ''specific information about the actual tactics" of the intelligence agencies and Tablighi Jamaat and their strategy "to disrupt international peace in the name of Islamisation of the world". Jamaluddin, who declares General Musharraf a "terrorist in uniform", has also been circulating an online petition calling Pakistan's division .
Pakistani diplomats in the US, who toil ceaselessly to counter critical newspaper editorials by writing plaintive letters to editors, seem to be stumped by the ad, which usually airs in the morning. A 30-second prime time spot on CNN can cost as much as $ 20,000.
-- My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty. - Jorge Louis Borges