[smalishah84]

Originally Posted by Cevno

I agree with you here, but that is easier said than done. His personal integrity may be clean but to really clamp down on corruption he would have to act on his supporters as well as close associates from time to time too. And he may require them to stay in power too on the other hand. Especially if he heads a coalition government where the trade off may be between staying in power or acting on corrupt in many instances.

Also then there is the question of the civilian government not having power to act over the army and ISI and army giving immunity to many associates who do the same. I guess though in this regard it would be a step in the positive direction.

Most of Imran's party is filled with clean people so you can rest assured that corruption due to his party's office bearers will be much much less (if at all). If there is corruption from his own party Imran can keep a check on that himself.

Secondly his stated view is that if he came into power in a coalition govt then depending on his status i.e. PM or otherwise. In case he is just a junior partner he will probably not join the govt since the parties in power i.e. PPP or PML will be his enemies in any case. Secondly in case he becomes PM he will act on the charter of his party which he has been proclaiming for the last 15 years i.e. try to bring in a new independent judicial system for the first time in the history of Pakistan. That has always been his stated primary goal. Once such a system is in place there will definitely be a check on corruption whether from his party or from other parties. Not only that Imran is also in favor of importing the corruption laws from China i.e. executing people found indulging in financial impropriety above a certain level.

Originally Posted by Cevno

But the US don't have to live next to the terrorists, do they? They have ended the Taliban rule and made it tougher to attack them and that's really what there first objective was, even though they failed at mostly everything else.

What does this mean? The US is not supposed to be living here. The whole point is that they have not really eliminated the taliban completely have they? There is no alternative in Afghanistan even after 10 year of US occupation. The US is only present in Kabul and all they do is to sit all holed up in their military base. The rest of Afghanistan is totally lawless and not under their control. As in 88 when the USSR left now when the USA will leave fighting will relapse between different factions and most probably the Taliban will re-emerge.

Originally Posted by Cevno

And then there is a difference between having talks and keeping military option open/doing operations at the same time, and removing the military option of the table and then having just talks with what are terrorists with extreme positions.

Taliban's stated aim is to spread and implement their version of Islamic rule all over the region and then the world. What do you negotiate with them with such a position? What can the Pakistani government really offer them?

The whole point is that nobody ruled out military option. Only that the political dialogue never really started and the military operations started.

The Taliban neither have the support nor the resources to take over the region and the world. They are not the 3rd Reich that they are being made out to be. The max that they can do is to start suicide bombings (which they have been doing in any case).

Originally Posted by Cevno

It's also clear that many terrorists in the country have support from the military / ISI elements and it is only at this time, that the civilian government should push the military to break of these ties rather than hold talks with them and let them strengthen further and gain a bigger support base in the establishment, which was these guys do when you go soft on them and as a result of the War recruiting people right now ideologically won't be tough in uneducated and uninformed areas either. It may provide short term peace in Pakistan(though have adverse effects in Afghanistan and maybe India too), but in the long term being too sympathetic to what are terrorists will again only come back to haunt Pakistan.

If you had seen Imran's rally yesterday you would have noticed that he called out that he doesn't want enmity with India. Also a number of times he has stated on national TV that the "establishment" will have to go along with him if they want Pakistan to survive. Whether the military will listen or not is not clear BUT what is clear is that Imran certainly would want his way to prevail when he is in power and I believe he also has the integrity to resign if things don't go his way. In the past the politicians also used to compromise with the military because they did not want to let go off their seats of power where they could easily loot and plunder (along with their henchmen).

Besides Imran brings with him two other things that no other politician does and the first of those is credibility.

The second is hope.

What better alternatives are out there? If nothing Imran brings hope to hundreds of thousands all over the Pakistan. He is seen by many as the only ray of hope. We all know that Imran might not be able to solve all of Pakistan's problems. Hell he might not even be able to solve a single problem but one thing I do know. That he will die trying.