SOUTHASIA Online

Lady Luck sure doesn't seem to be on Pakistan's side lately. Facing frequent and harsh criticism from its strongest allies, the country could certainly use some pixie dust to help it fly away from the numerous problems facing it at the home front or in the international arena.

Apart from the usual cases of domestic disturbances, such as growing corruption or the case of innumerable fake degrees that have plagued the Pakistani political and social fabric, comes a new kind of spotlight laden with bad publicity. The 92,000 secret and classified U.S .documents, titled ‘the Afghan War Diaries 2004-2010,' recently released on the WikiLeaks website have accused Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency of never severing ties with the Taliban and secretly continuing to aid the Afghan insurgency by playing both sides. This classic perception of U.S. taxpayers' money being spent to kill U.S. troops has aroused quite a reaction from the general American public. However, those in the government, media, academia and many policy makers have looked onto this leak with, perhaps, indifference. The documents focusing on the Afghan war, which will be remembered as one of the biggest failures of this decade, do not offer anything new, groundbreaking or particularly alarming.  Civilian deaths are unaccounted for, drone attacks are out of control and the ISI is involved; it's an old story. However, in the case of Pakistan, the ISI cover up has instigated a very unexpected and shocking reaction, that too from a rather unlikely source.