Emperor's new clothes
By Simon Tisdall (THE GUARDIAN, 31/10/06):
Prince Charles' visit to Pakistan this week is intended to repair relations strained by problems ranging in severity from last year's London bombings and the Prophet Muhammad cartoons scandal to alleged ball-tampering during the Oval Test match. But even if further controversy is avoided, the royal tour will dramatise the dilemmas closing in on Pakistan's unelected leader, General Pervez Musharraf.Charles and Camilla's expected side-trip to Pakistan-controlled Azad Kashmir, scene of last year's devastating earthquake, is a case in point. Tens of thousands of displaced people are still struggling to rebuild their lives there.
The mountainsides around Balakot, a town levelled by the quake, remain dangerously unstable, their tottering homesteads and ruptured roads prey to sudden lethal landslides.… Seguir leyendo »