Busted flat in Baluchistan, waiting for a train...

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Thursday, May 28, 2009 - 3:56 PM Share

"LAHORE: The internally displaced persons (IDPs) are Pakistanis and they are free to go anywhere in the country, said Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani here on Saturday...."

So is it true after all, as former Army Capt. Kris Kristofferson wrote, that "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"? (Btw, I wonder if his time in Ranger School prepared him for dating Janis Joplin and Barbra Streisand.) The name of that song, of course, was "Me and Baba Maqee."

The problem here is that some flatlander Sindhis are feeling overwhelmed by mountain people refugees, of which there are an estimated 2.4 million. A nativist Sindh party named the JSQM is making an issue of it.

TARIQ MAHMOOD/AFP/Getty Images