PERSIAN GULF: Bhutto's death shakes the region

Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on Thursday reverberated powerfully in the oil-rich Persian Gulf kingdoms, where many Pakistani and other South Asian expatriates live and work.

Impoverished workers from that region constitute the main labor force driving the Gulf’s booming construction works. The Gulf, emerging as the Middle East's services and financial hub, also attracts skilled and educated engineers, managers and scholars from the South Asian subcontinent.

The Gulf News, a United Arab Emirates English-language daily, said the killing stunned local expatriates. "Pakistanis in the UAE have reacted with shock and grief to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and described her demise as a national tragedy," the paper reported.

MIDDLE EAST: No domestic bliss

Human rights advocates have shined a spotlight on the plight of maids from South Asia imported to the Middle East. The nonprofit group Human Rights Watch has accused the Lebanese and other governments in the Middle East of failing to curb serious abuses against Sri Lankan domestic workers.

New-York-based HRW estimates 600,000 Sri Lankan women work in the Arab world, many without basic legal protections. Its 130-page report, released today, focuses on violence against Sri Lankans in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

PERSIAN GULF: Watching the old country

The Persian Gulf's huge Pakistani community is watching with concern as events unfold back home. At Sherview, Dubai-based blogger and commentator Anwar Sher writes:

It is blatantly clear that self interest, which has been the hallmark of most of the nation's leaders, be they in uniform or not, has begun to unfold in a sadistic soup of side deals, broken promises, exiles and finally the show of the power of the gun muzzle through 'emergency powers.'

BTW, fellow Babylon contributor Laura King described in a Nov. 8 article how the Internet has become an essential tool for opposition to President Pervez Musharraf.

Dubai's Gulf News on Wednesday published an opinion piece by Pakistani American Hussain Haqqani taking Musharraf to task:

Only a belief in the divine right of army chiefs can explain some of the assertions made by General Pervez Musharraf in his press conference over the weekend. He claimed that "I did not violate the Constitution and law of this land," even after suspending the constitution. Quite clearly, he sees his decisions as the law of the land.

The United Arab Emirates' Khaleej Times published a Nov. 10 opinion piece by Indian journalist Praful Bidwai, blasting Musharraf's argument that he had to impose martial law in order to stop the growing power of Muslim extremists:

Musharraf's martial law is certain to increase public alienation, social turmoil and political instability. That will prove conducive to the further growth of extremism. Musharraf has aborted the democratic political process which alone could have acted as a buffer against extremism.

The Persian Gulf kingdoms' Pakistani expatriates wield money and influence, and Pakistan's officials have taken notice. In response to an article in the Bahrain-based Gulf Daily News about the security of his country's nuclear weapons arsenal, Pakistani diplomat Mohammed Saleem wrote:

The government of Pakistan has a strong custodial control of its nuclear assets. They cannot fall into unauthorized hands. We have the expertise, personnel and a multi-layered system, devoted to safeguarding our nuclear assets. The state agencies are fully vigilant. We also have an impregnable system of nuclear export controls.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

PAKISTAN: Whereabouts unknown

The first bad sign is someone's mobile phone failing to ring. The Pakistani addiction to cellphones cuts across all social classes; if someone's phone is turned off, chances are good that something is amiss.

Over the last two days, as hundreds of lawyers, human rights activists and political leaders have been rounded up by police, those who have been detained or have fled into hiding are finding ways to get the word out to friends and associates, like a trail of electronic breadcrumbs left behind.

"JUST TAKING A LITTLE TIME OFF," said a wry text message from an opposition party worker who went to stay with relatives in the country because she feared arrest.

PAKISTAN: A little kindness amid chaos

On the night Benazir Bhutto’s convoy was attacked on the outskirts of Karachi, I hurried out of my hotel to get to the scene. For the last mile or two, I had to travel by motorbike — one ridden by a young follower of Bhutto’s Pakistan People's Party, flagged down by my desperate driver when he realized he wouldn’t be able to get close enough.

As we approached the chaotic scene, I felt my dupatta — the shawl-like scarf worn by Pakistani women and adopted by foreigners like me — fly off my shoulders. As I jumped off the bike, I looked around. I spotted it, but it had already been trampled, perhaps run over by another motorbike. The ground was sticky with blood and pebbled with broken glass.