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Thursday, 12 November 2009
The Plus All Formula: Let us build Pakistan
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Imran Khan's Shireen Mazari and her shoddy journalism
However, it appears that Shireen Mazari (also known as Lady Taliban) has maintained her standards in her capacity as the Resident Editor of The Nation.
Here is what has been observed in The News (Editorial) today:
Shoddy journalism
Thursday, November 12, 2009 (The News)
Journalists lead dangerous lives in Pakistan. They are targeted by the terrorists whose actions they report and by politicians and bureaucrats whose failings and indiscretions they expose. All this is to be expected. What a working journalist may not expect, however, is to be stabbed in the back by one of his own, as has recently happened to Matthew Rosenberg, a journalist working for the Wall Street Journal. Mr Rosenberg has been accused in a local newspaper of having links to the CIA and Mossad and of acting in some undefined way as an agent of Blackwater. As if this were not enough to blight his life and career, he is further accused of having 'secret' meetings with Secretary Law and Order FATA Secretariat, Tariq Hayat Khan, and Additional Chief Secretary FATA, Habib Khan. Both are said to have 'fed' documents to Mr Rosenberg, thereby implicating them in his alleged espionage activities. The story is based upon information from a nameless source and has no supporting evidence. Mr Rosenberg has had to leave the country and is unlikely to be working here in the foreseeable future.
The editor of the Wall Street Journal has rightly and robustly sprung to the defence of his journalist and written to the editor of the newspaper that printed the story. The opening paragraph of his letter reads … "As a fellow editor I am writing to convey in the strongest possible terms our dismay and disgust over the slanderous falsehoods published on the front page of your newspaper on November 5th regarding our reporter Matthew Rosenberg." We might add 'grossly irresponsible' and 'unprofessional' to the list of printable adjectives that may be applied to this dangerous travesty of journalism. Accusations such as this, based on information from a single unnamed source are life-threatening in their gravity. At the very least there should one other corroborating source and preferably more than one where accusations as grave as this are made. The electronic media has recently reached a voluntary agreement to 'clean up its act'; and perhaps some sections of the print media need to do the same. (Source)
Condemnation by The Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned The Nation for publishing “a reckless and unsubstantiated story”. Last week, Pakistan Media Watch wrote about the incident – in which The Nation published an article with no facts calling an American journalist a spy. Here is what the CPJ wrote today:
Last Thursday, Pakistan’s The Nation newspaper published a reckless and unsubstantiated story accusing Wall Street Journal South Asia correspondent Matthew Rosenberg of being a spy. It’s an accusation that gravely endangers Rosenberg’s safety. Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Robert Thomson responded with a scathing letter to The Nation’s editor, Shireen Mazari, expressing his disgust at the publication of the story, which he called baseless and false. He demanded an immediate retraction.
It’s of course deeply disturbing to us at CPJ that a newspaper would publish a story like this that clearly puts the life of a fellow reporter in danger. But we are also concerned about the source for this scurrilous information, someone the reporter identified as “an official of law enforcement agency, who requested anonymity.” Could this be a deliberate government attempt to intimidate Rosenberg and other foreign correspondents working in Pakistan? That’s a deeply chilling possibility that must be investigated.
In addition, the Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal, Robert Thomson, wrote a scathing letter to Shireen Mazari conveying his “disgust” over “the slanderous and dangerous falsehoods published on the front page” of The Nation.
Dear Ms. Mazari,
As a fellow Editor, I am writing to convey in the strongest possible terms our dismay and disgust over the slanderous and dangerous falsehoods published on the front page of your newspaper on November 5 regarding our reporter, Mathhew Rosenberg.
Journalism is an important vocation and Pakistan has many fine and courageous journalists who operate in extremely difficult conditions. Foreign correspondents also have an important social role and are similarly exposed to danger from extremists. So for your paper to have suggested, absolutely groundlessly, that Matthew had some intelligence connection was a betrayal of our collective calling and has endangered him, all other Wall Street Journal correspondents, and all journalists and foreign correspondents in your country.
Let me set the record straight: Matthew is an experienced foreign correspondent who has worked for many years covering the region, including Pakistan. In that capacity, he has pursued no other agenda than seeking the truth and has had no other aim than to bring to the world’s attention news and analysis of what is happening in your very important country at a critical time.
Our profession has been done a great disservice by the utterly baseless article, and I call upon you to print an immediate and prominent retraction to ensure that it is widely understood that the piece was without foundation. At present, your paper is is guilty of spreading falsehoods, but it could ultimately be complicit in a far greater tragedy unless this wrong is corrected. We obviously reserve our right to pursue legal action in this instance.
Yours sincerely,
Robert Thompson
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Jihadi literature - an analysis by Hamid Akhtar
Hamid Akhtar offers a detailed analysis of the jihadi literature, the role of religio-political parties in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the propagation of this literature and its implications for Muslim societies.
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Friends of Taliban are planning to pressurize the Supreme Court of Pakistan
The following news items in today's newspapers can help us solve the puzzle:
SC clarifies report on Zardari’s cases
Source
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday clarified reports that said two cases of President Asif Ali Zardari were placed in a cause list issued in August for hearing on November 16-17. In a press statement, the court said the cases related to the year 1998-99 and were being processed according to routine. One of the cases related to the transfer of a case from one court to another, while the other was filed against an order of the Sindh High Court, wherein the court ordered the release of the property of an appellant. The court said both cases were old and publication of reports in a section of the press should not create any misunderstanding. staff report
PML-N pressured me to become ‘approver’ against Chaudhrys: Hamesh
LAHORE: Former president of the Bank of Punjab (BoP) Hamesh Khan has claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz pressed him to become an ‘approver’ against the Chaudhrys of Gujrat but he refused, a private TV channel reported on Wednesday. Hamesh said the Punjab government assured him that no action would be taken against him if he became an ‘approver’. He said that he had decided to leave the country to avoid becoming a political victim. daily times monitor
Murtaza Bhutto murder case: I was forced to become approver against Zardari: Suddle
Thursday, November 12, 2009
By Shamim Bano
Karachi
The News
Nineteen accused in the murder case of Mir Murtaza Bhutto and six of his comrades denied charges levelled against them and proclaimed their innocence.
Shoaib Suddle, the then Director Intelligence Bureau and presently the Federal Tax Ombudsman, said that the prosecution witnesses testified against him as the then government exerted immense pressure on him to become an approver against Asif Ali Zardari, which he refused.
Former IB chief Masood Sharif and Shoaib Suddle appeared in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge East-I Aftab Ahmed Khan along with 17 other accused and recorded their statements under Section 342 on Wednesday.
Suddle and Sharif, who were exempted from personal appearance, appeared in the court for the second time in 13 years.
They had earlier appeared in the court in 1997, a year after the incident took place.
Rai Tahir and Abdul Basit, who were exempted from personal appearance, also recorded their statements before the judge.
A written questioner was prepared by the court that pertained to three points; the accused hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Mir Murtaza Bhutto and his six comrades; secondly, they all had common intention to fire on the motorcade of Mir Murtaza Bhutto; and thirdly, they ordered their juniors to open fire on the motorcade of Murtaza Bhutto and his associates.
In the shootout, Bhutto was killed along with Aashiq Jatoi, Wajahat Jokhio, Sajjad Ghakro, Bachal Ujan, Yar Mohamamd Baloch, Rahim Brohi, and Sattar Rajpur while Dr Mazhar Memon, Asghar Ali and Ayaz Dayo sustained injuries.
Asif Ali Zardari and Shakaib Qureshi have already been acquitted from the charges. The rest of the accused include former chief minister late Abdullah Shah, late Zeeshan Kazmi, Shoaib Suddle, Masood Sharif, Wajid Ali Durrani, Shahid Hayat, Rai Mohammed Tahir, Agha Jamil, Shabbir Qaim Khani and Abdul Basit.
All the accused, however, denied charges, saying, they were falsely implicated in the case and they prayed the court to acquit them of all charges. When asked by the judge as to why the prosecution witnesses gave evidence against them, they replied that they gave false proofs on the instigation of the complainant party.
The judge asked the accused if they would record their statements on oath, to which all replied in negative, saying that they wouldn’t do so since there was no evidence against them. They also deposed that they did not give any instructions to any of the police personnel to open fire on the motorcade of Mir Murtaza Bhutto.
Clarifying as to why the PWs testified against him, Shoib Suddle said that four days before the incident i.e. on September 16 (1996), Mir Murtaza’s close friend Ali Sonara was arrested following which Mir Sahib along with his companions attacked the CIA Centre, threatened the police personnel and ransacked the office, alleging that the police chief ought to arrest him.
Secondly, he added, DSP Zafar Mithani, who was investigating the matter, misbehaved with the staff of the French Consulate and forcibly stopped them from entering into Hawkesbay. An inquiry was conducted and he was suspended. Later, the investigation was handed over to his father Ali Gohar Mithani who, according to Suddle, took revenge or was biased and that was why the PWs testified against him.
He deposed that due to this case he along with his family members underwent a lot of mental torture and he was also arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order.
In their defence, Rai Tahir and Shahid Hayat asked the court to call two defence witnesses - Rao Imran Ashraf, a reporter of an evening newspaper and Inspector Haider Ali. The court, however, directed to produce them on the next date of hearing on November 14.
The first hearing of the case was held in March 1997, six months of the incident as a tribunal was appointed in October 1996. Asif Ali Zardari was acquitted in March 2008 by the Sindh High Court while Shakaib Qureshi was acquitted in November 2008 by ADJ Abdur Rehman Bhatti. Another accused in the case, Haq Nawaz Sial, was killed in mysterious circumstances.
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Tragedy of the talk shows in Pakistan
Tragedy of the talk shows —Elf Habib
The shows obsessively promote the political circus splashing the spicier rhetoric and sensation. Their anchors, contrary to the common norms of calmness, insouciance and neutrality are often quite agitated, flippant and biased on certain issues. Some are almost too rapacious to devour their guests
The private channels in Pakistan have come a long way since CNN was first introduced by Benazir Bhutto to allow us “a window on the world”. They have become largely independent, even defied some of the Musharraf edicts and played a pivotal role in his ouster. Their strength to stir frenzied hysteria on various partisan and controversial issues like the restoration of the judiciary was witnessed during the Long March. They fiendishly flagellate the federal policies and performance, nonchalantly promote the Opposition and repeatedly project a coven of the dictator’s coteries, retired generals and bureaucrats as political and defence wiseacres, analysts and commentators. Even the politicians utterly pounded in elections are routinely solicited to swipe the state of current events. But their morbid infatuation with the fundamentalist, obscurantist and jingoistic notions and an inveterate apathy towards any rational approach, thought and realities is far more rattling to the saner elements.
Even Islam, persistently proclaimed as the leitmotif, lacks an evolving and enlightened interpretation essential for interaction and survival in modern pluralistic societies. A programme on a local television channel, for instance, eulogised the Taliban enforcement of standardised beard brands and compulsory prayers as great reforms in Afghanistan. The media naively ignores that immense resources required for a real welfare cannot be sustained through poppy trade, scuttling the transit supplies or mercantile fleets but can only be generated through modern education, skill and expertise. This in turn, can only be achieved through cooperation with the advanced industrialised Western states and not through alienation or confrontation against them. Yet they reinforce hatred against the West incited by the mullahs and dictators for their combined disdain against democracy and the inevitable evolution in human thought and culture.
Similarly, the mullah myths that the world is divided into Muslim and non-Muslims and that almost the entire world is continuously conspiring against Muslims are also fervently perpetrated. Our flubs and failures are also invariably imputed to our enemies rather than to our own weird vision, priorities and policies. India and Israel are particularly blasted for our miseries. No sincere attempt is made to squelch the suspicion, angst and attitude knowing well that the democracies like Britain, France and Germany have left behind the bitter hatred of several bloody wars and millions of deaths and are fast forging a larger single community. We, in contrast, have been squandering our resources trying to match our might against a ten times larger neighbour rather than caring for the vital needs, welfare and happiness of our masses and to diffuse the militancy and fissiparous fights.
An irrational angst against the US, evident in lambasting American policies and intentions, like the outburst on Kerry Lugar Bill, is another nauseating preoccupation. American policies are more ruthlessly anatomised in Pakistan than in the American media, which is rather more dominated by sports, cinema and celebrity gigs. We rail against this biggest donor that even interdicted the Indian onslaught with the famous “hands off West Pakistan” Nixon gesture. We would rather have the US conduct all its actions in accordance with the wishes of our mullahs, media magnates and anchors. The drone attacks are another irritant being consistently castigated as counter-productive and avoiding any dispassionate analyses of their impact in remote, inaccessible hostile and torturous terrains. Drone attacks, of course, are said to turn useful if they are conducted by Pakistan, implying that the problem really is not with their attacks but with their possession and ownership.
Touting the nuclear weapons as the most marvellous and sacrosanct achievement worthy of all human and socio-economic sacrifices is another media passion. Contrary to the global norms of accepting the people as our prime national asset and resource, the media has ironically glorified the nuclear arsenals as the national assets (asaasay). Nuclear stocks and the Taliban were, in fact, edified as the two great national assets. The Taliban trove has already turned devastatingly toxic making one shudder at the fate and future of the second asset. The media, of course, never emphasises that the largest nuclear stocks on earth could not save the Soviet Union from splintering, secure the safety of Israel or procure food, fuel and medicine for North Korea. They were no deterrent against the debacle and ignominy at Kargil, Taliban terror, the tension following the Mumbai carnage and the begging bowl syndrome.
Unfortunately, the media rather than illumining the need for building modern affluent industrialised welfare models like Scandinavian states or Britain has been acquiesced into advocating the medieval militaristic obsession. The modern welfare states evidently need a continuous and extensive investment in education, research and skill forming and the public welfare projects for which the defence expenditure has to be rationalised to not more than a fifth of the national budget. But the media has never ventured this vital and critical orientation. Nor has it ever highlighted the need to spruce the non-productive expenditure, the multilayered bureaucracy, overlapping corporations, excessive taxes and utility costs. It flagellates the authorities for lack of food, water, sanitation, fuel and power facilities without revealing the real reasons for the chaos or building pressure for their rectification. It even rarely bothers to guide the public on some ordinary mundane matters like traffic, cleanliness, cottage industries or initiatives for livelihood.
The shows obsessively promote the political circus splashing the spicier rhetoric and sensation. Their anchors, contrary to the common norms of calmness, insouciance and neutrality are often quite agitated, flippant and biased against certain issues. Some are almost too rapacious to devour their guests. One anchor petulantly ranted why a certain point so passionately felt by her was not explicated during a foreign visit; another anchor declares himself to be the number one columnist of the country; while commemorating ZAB’s martyrdom, one anchor had also invited a scion of the prosecuting family. A bubbling anchor, known for her characteristic shrill aggressive tone, was hooked on hydrogen bomb. The selection of guests, experts and the issues is also quite ambiguous. The largest political parties like the PPP and PML-N are often equated with the palookas like the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Some guests are allowed to perorate at length while others are repeatedly and relentlessly interrupted. The exasperated viewers often feel that the anchors should rather swap their seats. Some talk shows are just the anchor’s rudderless screeds.
Despite such evident bias and thrust, the channels never declare their political affiliation or sympathies. The Western media giants like the Fox, CNN and Guardian are openly known for their commitment and affiliation facilitating the viewers to understand a particular viewpoint. In Pakistan, ironically, each channel claims to be independent and impartial masking its true colours and association. Parallel to a dictators’ penchant to be apolitical, espousal to a particular party or thought still remains a taboo with the media giants. Enlightened citizen’s fora are thus needed to evaluate the media programmes. The media’ representative councils and official watchdogs similarly also have to be energised to replace the ruinous stranglehold of the clergy, emotions and the establishment by a more rational and realistic content and purpose.
The writer is a freelance columnist. (Daily Times)
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The shows obsessively promote the political circus splashing the spicier rhetoric and sensation. Their anchors, contrary to the common norms of calmness, insouciance and neutrality are often quite agitated, flippant and biased on certain issues. Some are almost too rapacious to devour their guests
The private channels in Pakistan have come a long way since CNN was first introduced by Benazir Bhutto to allow us “a window on the world”. They have become largely independent, even defied some of the Musharraf edicts and played a pivotal role in his ouster. Their strength to stir frenzied hysteria on various partisan and controversial issues like the restoration of the judiciary was witnessed during the Long March. They fiendishly flagellate the federal policies and performance, nonchalantly promote the Opposition and repeatedly project a coven of the dictator’s coteries, retired generals and bureaucrats as political and defence wiseacres, analysts and commentators. Even the politicians utterly pounded in elections are routinely solicited to swipe the state of current events. But their morbid infatuation with the fundamentalist, obscurantist and jingoistic notions and an inveterate apathy towards any rational approach, thought and realities is far more rattling to the saner elements.
Even Islam, persistently proclaimed as the leitmotif, lacks an evolving and enlightened interpretation essential for interaction and survival in modern pluralistic societies. A programme on a local television channel, for instance, eulogised the Taliban enforcement of standardised beard brands and compulsory prayers as great reforms in Afghanistan. The media naively ignores that immense resources required for a real welfare cannot be sustained through poppy trade, scuttling the transit supplies or mercantile fleets but can only be generated through modern education, skill and expertise. This in turn, can only be achieved through cooperation with the advanced industrialised Western states and not through alienation or confrontation against them. Yet they reinforce hatred against the West incited by the mullahs and dictators for their combined disdain against democracy and the inevitable evolution in human thought and culture.
Similarly, the mullah myths that the world is divided into Muslim and non-Muslims and that almost the entire world is continuously conspiring against Muslims are also fervently perpetrated. Our flubs and failures are also invariably imputed to our enemies rather than to our own weird vision, priorities and policies. India and Israel are particularly blasted for our miseries. No sincere attempt is made to squelch the suspicion, angst and attitude knowing well that the democracies like Britain, France and Germany have left behind the bitter hatred of several bloody wars and millions of deaths and are fast forging a larger single community. We, in contrast, have been squandering our resources trying to match our might against a ten times larger neighbour rather than caring for the vital needs, welfare and happiness of our masses and to diffuse the militancy and fissiparous fights.
An irrational angst against the US, evident in lambasting American policies and intentions, like the outburst on Kerry Lugar Bill, is another nauseating preoccupation. American policies are more ruthlessly anatomised in Pakistan than in the American media, which is rather more dominated by sports, cinema and celebrity gigs. We rail against this biggest donor that even interdicted the Indian onslaught with the famous “hands off West Pakistan” Nixon gesture. We would rather have the US conduct all its actions in accordance with the wishes of our mullahs, media magnates and anchors. The drone attacks are another irritant being consistently castigated as counter-productive and avoiding any dispassionate analyses of their impact in remote, inaccessible hostile and torturous terrains. Drone attacks, of course, are said to turn useful if they are conducted by Pakistan, implying that the problem really is not with their attacks but with their possession and ownership.
Touting the nuclear weapons as the most marvellous and sacrosanct achievement worthy of all human and socio-economic sacrifices is another media passion. Contrary to the global norms of accepting the people as our prime national asset and resource, the media has ironically glorified the nuclear arsenals as the national assets (asaasay). Nuclear stocks and the Taliban were, in fact, edified as the two great national assets. The Taliban trove has already turned devastatingly toxic making one shudder at the fate and future of the second asset. The media, of course, never emphasises that the largest nuclear stocks on earth could not save the Soviet Union from splintering, secure the safety of Israel or procure food, fuel and medicine for North Korea. They were no deterrent against the debacle and ignominy at Kargil, Taliban terror, the tension following the Mumbai carnage and the begging bowl syndrome.
Unfortunately, the media rather than illumining the need for building modern affluent industrialised welfare models like Scandinavian states or Britain has been acquiesced into advocating the medieval militaristic obsession. The modern welfare states evidently need a continuous and extensive investment in education, research and skill forming and the public welfare projects for which the defence expenditure has to be rationalised to not more than a fifth of the national budget. But the media has never ventured this vital and critical orientation. Nor has it ever highlighted the need to spruce the non-productive expenditure, the multilayered bureaucracy, overlapping corporations, excessive taxes and utility costs. It flagellates the authorities for lack of food, water, sanitation, fuel and power facilities without revealing the real reasons for the chaos or building pressure for their rectification. It even rarely bothers to guide the public on some ordinary mundane matters like traffic, cleanliness, cottage industries or initiatives for livelihood.
The shows obsessively promote the political circus splashing the spicier rhetoric and sensation. Their anchors, contrary to the common norms of calmness, insouciance and neutrality are often quite agitated, flippant and biased against certain issues. Some are almost too rapacious to devour their guests. One anchor petulantly ranted why a certain point so passionately felt by her was not explicated during a foreign visit; another anchor declares himself to be the number one columnist of the country; while commemorating ZAB’s martyrdom, one anchor had also invited a scion of the prosecuting family. A bubbling anchor, known for her characteristic shrill aggressive tone, was hooked on hydrogen bomb. The selection of guests, experts and the issues is also quite ambiguous. The largest political parties like the PPP and PML-N are often equated with the palookas like the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Some guests are allowed to perorate at length while others are repeatedly and relentlessly interrupted. The exasperated viewers often feel that the anchors should rather swap their seats. Some talk shows are just the anchor’s rudderless screeds.
Despite such evident bias and thrust, the channels never declare their political affiliation or sympathies. The Western media giants like the Fox, CNN and Guardian are openly known for their commitment and affiliation facilitating the viewers to understand a particular viewpoint. In Pakistan, ironically, each channel claims to be independent and impartial masking its true colours and association. Parallel to a dictators’ penchant to be apolitical, espousal to a particular party or thought still remains a taboo with the media giants. Enlightened citizen’s fora are thus needed to evaluate the media programmes. The media’ representative councils and official watchdogs similarly also have to be energised to replace the ruinous stranglehold of the clergy, emotions and the establishment by a more rational and realistic content and purpose.
The writer is a freelance columnist. (Daily Times)
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Is there an Al Qaeda - NATO connection?
NWFP was hit by another terrorist attack on Tuesday afternoon when a suicide bomber blew up his car in Charsadda bazaar. More than 30 people were killed and nearly 100 others injured, including several women and children. It was the third suicide bombing since Saturday in the battle-ridden province. Suicide attacks have become a routine occurrence during the past few weeks all over Pakistan, especially in NWFP. A spate of terror attacks in recent days is obviously a backlash against the military operation in South Waziristan against the militants. According to a Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman, the militants have retreated from various areas in South Waziristan as part of their war strategy and its fighters will launch a guerrilla war once the Pakistani military enters deep into all areas of South Waziristan. If the Taliban have actually managed to retreat from South Waziristan, they have either gone to North Waziristan or crossed the border into Afghanistan. When the Pakistan army was deployed for the first time since independence in FATA in 2004, the US and Pakistan agreed upon a hammer and anvil strategy whereby the US-led NATO forces were playing the role of the hammer in Afghanistan while the Pakistani forces played the role of the anvil in our tribal areas. The roles have reversed now. Successive military operations against the local Taliban have crippled their organisation, which is why they could now be crossing the border to safeguard their interests. The alarming factor is that the ‘anvil’ is nowhere to be seen as the NATO forces have vacated more than half a dozen key security checkposts on the Afghan side of the Pak-Afghan border opposite South Waziristan. In these trying times when Pakistan is in the midst of a civil war, the international community needs to come forward and help it. Instead, the NATO forces are leaving the door open for the TTP to cross over to the Afghan side without any repercussions. This would obviously undermine the military operation.
The Afghan Taliban, on the other hand, have strongly denied any association with the TTP’s campaign, strategy or tactics. Afghan Taliban commander Abdul Mannan condemned suicide bombing and termed it un-Islamic and wrong to target innocent people in blasts. He said the Afghan Taliban leaders have not crossed the border and are not hiding in Pakistan, but are targeting coalition and NATO forces from Afghan soil. With these remarks coming from the Afghan Taliban, it seems as if there is some other force helping the local Taliban and from the pattern of suicide bombings, it could well be the al Qaeda network. It is quite apparent that the TTP is getting massive funding from some source and proper training to carry out successive terror attacks all over Pakistan. The al Qaeda leadership has on a number of occasions declared war against the state of Pakistan, which makes it all the more probable that this global terror network could be supporting the TTP in its fight against the state of Pakistan.
The military is trying to eliminate the militants from the tribal region but it seems as if the country does not have enough funds for the purpose. This can be gauged from Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s statement that the government is now using development funds for the capacity building of law-enforcement agencies in a bid to improve security. If al Qaeda is actually helping the local Taliban, it is not only alarming for our country but for the whole world. Fighting the militants on this scale requires heavy-duty finances; it is time the international community, especially the US, rises to the occasion and helps Pakistan in this common cause. Peace and stability in this region, once achieved, will translate into peace all over the world. Source
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Good governance in Punjab? Chief secretary blamed for land grabbing
Punjab chief secretary blamed for land grabbing
The News, Thursday, November 12, 2009
ISLAMABAD: The Chief Secretary Punjab Javed Mahmood has blamed for land grabbing in district Qusoor.
In a media briefing in National Press Club here, Barrister Shahid Masood said chief secretary Punjab made changes in 160 years old record with the assistance of revenue department and the property case is under trial in the court.
He claimed that chief secretary did contempt of court by forcefully possessing the property with the help of police and government machinery despite stay order of the court.
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Meera's English and our colonial hang-ups
Our colonial hang-ups
Fly on the wall
Thursday, November 12, 2009 (The News)
Zafar Khalid Farooq
We Pakistanis love to mock. As a nation we enjoy nothing more than sneering at other people's behaviour and pretensions -- especially those of the rich, powerful and famous. And so it should be. Not only is it cathartic to deride our leaders, but also ridiculing the mighty is an important function of a democracy. It also happens to be mostly justifiable. I thoroughly enjoyed sneering at the inappropriate behaviour of former Law Minster Wasi Zafar when he, in what can only be described as an uncouth manner, verbally attacked Ansar Abbasi on 'Voice of America' (VOA), threatening him with his 'big arm'. Even better was watching the very same minister visibly perform a 'cabinet reshuffle' on 'Capital Talk'. Considering this was the minister at the time responsible for overseeing the whole chief justice fiasco, laughing at his oafish and vulgar behaviour provided much-needed catharsis for us mere mortals.
But what we choose to ridicule as a nation often exposes our own insecurities and foibles. This was evident last week when a clip of the Lollywood actress, Meera, speaking English poorly, erupted onto several social networking sites. My Facebook page was inundated with postings of the clip and barring a few exceptions, the overwhelming response towards Meera's verbal clumsiness was of one of contemptuous jeering from Anglophone Pakistanis. Here are just two of the comments (both from women):
"Hahahah! She is sooo embarassing! Stupid woman!
"She's such a weird personality I swear. I dnt know y she has to try out such things to mke her self luk stupid."
Setting aside for a moment the wonderful irony of their own substandard English, what do these reactions tell us? Besides reinforcing the view that in Pakistan, gross misogyny is not the unique preserve of men, it also reminds us once more of the language contradictions and hypocrisy that plague the country.
How's this for a juicy paradox -- in the week that we were commemorating the life of Muffakir-e-Pakistan (the thinker of Pakistan), Shair-e-Mashriq (the poet of the East), Mohammed Iqbal, our English speaking elite, who are unable to tell their 'alif' from their elbow, were insulting someone for their language failings.
Rather than Iqbal, our high society, the likes that attend Fashion Pakistan Week, prefer to ape the linguistic achievements of that other architect of Pakistan -- Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Jinnah couldn't read or write the official language of the country he founded. Fluent in both English and Gujarati, at least he had the grace to acknowledge and apologise for his linguistic shortcomings. Having given a faltering speech in Urdu, delivered in the distinct clipped tones of the Lincolns Inn-educated barrister that he was, Jinnah regretfully informed the crowd in English that "my Urdu is tongawala Urdu".
The same can't be said of our present upper class who, instead, actively revel in their ignorance of Urdu, wearing it as a badge of pride to distinguish themselves from the illiterate proletariat. They delight in the cultural and social apartheid that this language divide confers -- preferring Fashion Week over Faiz, Mamma Mia instead of a mushahira. Yet, an elite that can't communicate properly with the majority of its people is one that is in perilous danger (just ask Marie Antoinette who was unable to read and write her native German). Name me a strong functioning society where such stark language segregations exist between its people?
So before we laugh at Meera, let's take a mirror to ourselves with our colonial hang-ups. At least she can speak her national language which is more than many of us, with our broken Urdu, can say. Surely, it should be us, the English elite that should be ashamed that we are unable to engage with our fellow Pakistanis on either a cultural or linguistic level. We should be embarrassed that English has become a barrier for capable people progressing in their careers in Pakistan. We should cringe that we are so far removed from our cultural heritage that we can't read our own alphabet. Suddenly, it is us who are the illiterates. So what if Meera's English is bad? She isn't English, nor is she someone who has enjoyed the best education that money can buy, unlike my Facebook deriders.
Considering her humble background and the exploitation she's had to endure throughout career in order to provide for her family, we should be saluting her, not mocking her. Ironically, with the proceeds of her exploitation, she is bettering the prospects of her family by sending her sister to the UK for study. Meera's belief that a foreign education is the only way to improve her family's social standing is a truly terrible indictment on Pakistan society. Sixty-two years after Jinnah created Pakistan, his people are still following his footsteps and getting their education abroad. Now that's something worth sneering at.
Email: zkfarooq@gmail.com and www.zafarkhalidfarooq.blogspot.com
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Taliban / Sipah-e-Sahaba kill Iran consulate official in Peshawar
Group responsible:
The jihadi and sectarian alliance between Sipah-e-Sahaba and Taliban (who usually operate under various banners such as Jundollah, Lashkar-e-Jhangavi etc).
Motives:
To damage the inter-sectarian harmony in Pakistan
To terrorize the Shia Muslim minority in Pakistan
To terrorize Pakistani journalists and media persons
Director PR Iranian Consulate shot dead
PESHAWAR, Nov 12 (APP): Director Public Relations Iranian Consulate, Peshawar Abul Hassan Jaafri was shot dead by unknown assailants in Gulberg Colony, Peshawar cantonment Thursday morning. He was immediately rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. It merits a mention here that late Jaafri had also served as reporter in Daily Frontier Post, The Statesman in early 90s and contributed scores of articles and features on various issues.
Pakistani Iranian consulate worker shot in Peshawar
12 Nov 2009 06:54:35 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Faris Ali
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 12 (Reuters) - A gunman shot dead a Pakistani working at Iran's consulate in the city of Peshawar on Thursday, police said, in an attack likely to compound strains in relations between the Muslim neighbours.
Police declined to speculate on a motive for the killing of consulate public relations officer Abul Hassan Jaffry, which came almost exactly a year after an Iranian diplomat was abducted in the same city. The diplomat is still missing.
"As he came out of the narrow street where his house is, an attacker on foot was waiting and opened fire and then ran away," Peshawar's police chief Liaqat Ali Khan told Reuters.
Hassan died on his way to the hospital.
"No one saw the attacker. We've just got shell casings from a pistol from the spot," he said.
Ties between mostly Sunni Muslim Pakistan and majority Shi'ite Muslim Iran were strained last month by a suicide bomb attack in southeastern Iran which killed 42 people.
A Sunni Muslim rebel group, Jundollah (God's Soldiers), claimed responsibility for the attack in which 15 Iranian Revolutionary Guards, including six senior commanders, were killed along with 27 other people.
Sunni Muslim militants like the Taliban and al-Qaida believe Shiites are infidels and often target the sect
Iran says the militants operate from the Pakistani side of the border and has demanded Pakistan hand over their leader, Abdolmalik Rigi.
Pakistan has condemned the bombing and vowed to help Iran track down those responsible, but says Rigi is in Afghanistan.
Iran's consul general in Peshawar, Abbas Ali Abdolahi, said Jaffry's killing was a plot by the common enemies of Iran and Pakistan.
"It aims to strain the relationship of the two countries," Abdolahi was quoted as saying by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB on its website.
Abdolahi said Jaffry was shot by two motorcycle riders.
On Nov. 13 last year, gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat in Peshawar after killing one of his Pakistani guards.
Peshawar is the capital of North West Frontier Province, which borders Taliban strongholds in lawless lands along the Afghan border.
...
AFP - PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Gunmen shot dead a Pakistani spokesman for the Iranian consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday as he was on his way to work, police said.
Attackers targeted Abu Al-Hasan Jaffry, director of public relations and protocol at the consulate in Peshawar, as he left for the office in his car, senior police official Nisar Marwat told AFP.
He died on the way to hospital, Marwat said. The motive for the killing was not immediately clear.
This is not the first time that an official at Iran's consulate in Peshawar comes under attack. Last year, Iran's commercial attache, Heshmatollah Attarzadeh-Niyaki, was kidnapped on his way to the consulate.
Jaffry was shot on a main road soon after leaving his home in the Gulberg neighbourhood of Peshawar, a witness said.
"Suddenly the firing started and when I reached the main road, I saw Jaffry bleeding with wounds and the attackers, probably more than two, had fled," a man, who declined to give his name, told AFP.
"Jaffry had been hit in the head and chest and his left arm was badly injured," he added.
A post-mortem examination was in progress at Peshawar's Combined Military Hospital, a police official said. A government official in Peshawar confirmed the killing.
Relations between Iran and Pakistan are close, but tensions rose last month when Tehran blamed Pakistan-based militants for a suicide attack that killed 42 people, including 15 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.
Islamabad has strongly denied that the militant group Jundallah launched the October 18 attack from its territory.
Shiites, who are a majority in Iran, account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 167 million. More than 4,000 people have died in flashes of sectarian violence in Pakistan since the 1980s.
....
The founder and godfather of sectarianism and jihadism in Pakistan was the military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq.
The jihadi and sectarian alliance between Sipah-e-Sahaba and Taliban (who usually operate under various banners such as Jundollah, Lashkar-e-Jhangavi etc).
Motives:
To damage the inter-sectarian harmony in Pakistan
To terrorize the Shia Muslim minority in Pakistan
To terrorize Pakistani journalists and media persons
Director PR Iranian Consulate shot dead
PESHAWAR, Nov 12 (APP): Director Public Relations Iranian Consulate, Peshawar Abul Hassan Jaafri was shot dead by unknown assailants in Gulberg Colony, Peshawar cantonment Thursday morning. He was immediately rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. It merits a mention here that late Jaafri had also served as reporter in Daily Frontier Post, The Statesman in early 90s and contributed scores of articles and features on various issues.
Pakistani Iranian consulate worker shot in Peshawar
12 Nov 2009 06:54:35 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Faris Ali
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 12 (Reuters) - A gunman shot dead a Pakistani working at Iran's consulate in the city of Peshawar on Thursday, police said, in an attack likely to compound strains in relations between the Muslim neighbours.
Police declined to speculate on a motive for the killing of consulate public relations officer Abul Hassan Jaffry, which came almost exactly a year after an Iranian diplomat was abducted in the same city. The diplomat is still missing.
"As he came out of the narrow street where his house is, an attacker on foot was waiting and opened fire and then ran away," Peshawar's police chief Liaqat Ali Khan told Reuters.
Hassan died on his way to the hospital.
"No one saw the attacker. We've just got shell casings from a pistol from the spot," he said.
Ties between mostly Sunni Muslim Pakistan and majority Shi'ite Muslim Iran were strained last month by a suicide bomb attack in southeastern Iran which killed 42 people.
A Sunni Muslim rebel group, Jundollah (God's Soldiers), claimed responsibility for the attack in which 15 Iranian Revolutionary Guards, including six senior commanders, were killed along with 27 other people.
Sunni Muslim militants like the Taliban and al-Qaida believe Shiites are infidels and often target the sect
Iran says the militants operate from the Pakistani side of the border and has demanded Pakistan hand over their leader, Abdolmalik Rigi.
Pakistan has condemned the bombing and vowed to help Iran track down those responsible, but says Rigi is in Afghanistan.
Iran's consul general in Peshawar, Abbas Ali Abdolahi, said Jaffry's killing was a plot by the common enemies of Iran and Pakistan.
"It aims to strain the relationship of the two countries," Abdolahi was quoted as saying by Iranian state broadcaster IRIB on its website.
Abdolahi said Jaffry was shot by two motorcycle riders.
On Nov. 13 last year, gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat in Peshawar after killing one of his Pakistani guards.
Peshawar is the capital of North West Frontier Province, which borders Taliban strongholds in lawless lands along the Afghan border.
...
AFP - PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Gunmen shot dead a Pakistani spokesman for the Iranian consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Thursday as he was on his way to work, police said.
Attackers targeted Abu Al-Hasan Jaffry, director of public relations and protocol at the consulate in Peshawar, as he left for the office in his car, senior police official Nisar Marwat told AFP.
He died on the way to hospital, Marwat said. The motive for the killing was not immediately clear.
This is not the first time that an official at Iran's consulate in Peshawar comes under attack. Last year, Iran's commercial attache, Heshmatollah Attarzadeh-Niyaki, was kidnapped on his way to the consulate.
Jaffry was shot on a main road soon after leaving his home in the Gulberg neighbourhood of Peshawar, a witness said.
"Suddenly the firing started and when I reached the main road, I saw Jaffry bleeding with wounds and the attackers, probably more than two, had fled," a man, who declined to give his name, told AFP.
"Jaffry had been hit in the head and chest and his left arm was badly injured," he added.
A post-mortem examination was in progress at Peshawar's Combined Military Hospital, a police official said. A government official in Peshawar confirmed the killing.
Relations between Iran and Pakistan are close, but tensions rose last month when Tehran blamed Pakistan-based militants for a suicide attack that killed 42 people, including 15 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.
Islamabad has strongly denied that the militant group Jundallah launched the October 18 attack from its territory.
Shiites, who are a majority in Iran, account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 167 million. More than 4,000 people have died in flashes of sectarian violence in Pakistan since the 1980s.
....
The founder and godfather of sectarianism and jihadism in Pakistan was the military dictator General Zia-ul-Haq.
Read more...
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Shahid Masoods and Hamid Mirs of Israel
شاہد مسعود اور حامد مير جيسے اسرائل ميں پھی موجود ہيں؟
’سازشی نظریات‘
شاہزیب جیلانی
بی بی سی، یروشلم
اسرائیل میں کچھ دن گزارنے کے بعد یہاں کی اور کوئی بات سمجھ آئی ہو نہ ہو ایک بات واضع ہے کہ ’سازشی نظریات‘ رکھنے میں شاید یہاں کے لوگ سب سے آگے ہیں۔ مسلمانوں میں اگر یہ رجحان ہے کہ اپنے ہر مسئلے کا ذمہ دار امریکہ اور اسرائیل کو قرار دے کر جان چھڑا لیتے ہیں تو یہاں کے یہودی حلقے بھی کچھ کم نہیں۔
یروشلم میں مختلف مکاتبِ فکر کے جن یہودیوں سے ملاقاتیں ہوئیں اُن کی باتوں سے صاف لگا کہ اسرائیلیوں کو تقریباً ساری دنیا سے ہی شکایتیں ہیں۔ وہ مسٹر اوباما پر تنقید کرتے ہیں کہ انہوں نے فلسطینی علاقوں میں یہودی تعمیرات کے معاملے کو اتنا بڑا مسئلہ کیوں بنا لیا۔ برطانیہ اور یورپی یونین حزب اللہ اور حماس کی طرف ذرا سی بھی لچک دکھائیں تو اسرائیلی اس پر سیخ پا۔ غزہ میں لڑائی سے متعلق گولڈ سٹون رپورٹ ہو یا اقوامِ متحدہ کی مذمتی قراردادیں۔ اسرائیل کو سب سے شکایت ہے کہ وہ اُس کے دفاع کے حق کو کیوں نہیں مانتے۔
بی بی سی، سی این این اور الجـزیرہ جیسے عالمی نشریاتی ادارے بھی اسرائیلوں کی خاص تنقید کا مسلسل نشانہ رہتے ہیں۔ اس کی بڑی وجہ یہ ہے کہ اسرائیلی نفسیات میں یہ بات گہرائی میں رچی بسی ہوئی ہے کہ یہودی دنیا کے مظلوم ترین قوم رہے ہیں۔ ان کی نظر میں جتنی نفرتیں اور زیادتیاں یہودیوں نے سہی ہیں، شاید کسی نے نہیں ۔ ہٹلر نے انہیں صفحۂ ہستی سے مٹانے کی کوشش کی۔ پڑوسی عرب ملکوں نے بار بار ان پر جنگیں مسلط کیں اور اب اسرائیلیوں کی نظر میں محمود احمدی نژاد اپنے خفیہ ایٹمی پروگرام کے ذریعے انہیں نیست و نابود کرنے پر تُلے ہوئے ہیں۔
یوں اسرائیلی خود کو ہر وقت حالتِ جنگ میں محسوس کرتے ہیں اور اپنی اس ’بقا کی لڑائی‘ میں وہ خطے میں اپنے ہر اقدام کو جائز سمجھتے ہیں۔ پھر چاہے وہ فلسطینوں کے اجتماعی قتلِ عام کے الزامات ہوں یا مقبوضہ علاقوں میں عربوں کے ساتھ روزانہ کا نسلی امتیاز۔
اسرائیل ویسے تو خود کو ایک جمہوری ملک کہتا ہے لیکن بطور ایک نیشل سکیورٹی اسٹیٹ کے یہاں حساس معاملات پر تنقید اور بحث مباحثے کی گنجائش خاصی محدود نظر آتی ہے۔
یہی وہ وجوہات ہیں جن کی بنا پر پوری دنیا کو مشرقِ وسطیٰ میں فلسطینیوں کے ساتھ جو ظلم و زیادتیاں نظر آتیں ہیں اسرائیل انہیں دیکھنے سے قاصر ہے۔ طاقت کے اس کھیل میں جب تک اسرائیلی اسٹیبلشمنٹ پر قیامِ امن کے لیےمسلسل اندرونی و بیرونی دباؤ نہیں ہوگا، اسے اپنا رویہ بدلنے کی کوئی خاص ضرورت محسوس نہیں ہو گی
Read more...
Birds of a feather...
Birds of a feather flock together. Need some empirical evidence?
Here is a video of the union of the military and civil establishment responsible for the current plight of Pakistan. The event is the wedding ceremony of ex-DG Rangers Hussain Mehdi's son.
I wasted precious 3 minutes and 20 seconds of my life in watching this video clip. You want to try that?
Read more...
In the name of God, go. Let our next military saviour step in.
By Abdul Nishapuri
Friends of Taliban in Pakistani media are continuously and shamelessly suggesting that politicians are corrupt, and that democracy has failed to deliver good governance in Pakistan.
The second perspective is offered by Nazir Naji who deconstructs the myth that politicians are corrupt whereas military dictators are the saviours of Pakistan.
....
In the name of God, go
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Roedad Khan (The writer has been a key supporter of the military dictatorships of Generals Ayub, Yahya and Zia-ul-Haq.)
Some leaders sail with the wind until the decisive moment when their conscience and events propel them into the centre of the storm. Altaf Hussain's fateful decision not to support Zardari on the infamous NRO issue was a masterly stroke in the game of politics. Otto von Bismarck famously said that political genius entailed hearing the hoofbeat of history and then rising to catch the galloping horseman by the coattails. This is what Altaf Bhai has done, to the surprise of friends and foes alike.
Altaf Bhai's friendly advice to President Asif Zardari to sacrifice his exalted office for the sake of the country and democracy reminds me of the fateful "Norway Debate” in the House of Commons in May 1940. Britain was at war, facing the full might of Nazi Germany. In the backdrop of the dismal picture of failure and retreat which confronted the nation, L S Amery, MP, delivered the historic speech which led to the resignation of Prime Minister Chamberlain and elevation of Churchill as prime minister. "I cast prudence to the winds," Amery wrote in his diary, "and ended full-out with my Cromwellian injunction to the government… 'You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.' "
"I say solemnly," Lloyd George who followed Amery, declared, "that the prime minister should give an example of sacrifice because there is nothing which can contribute more to victory in this war than that he should sacrifice his Seals of Office." President Lyndon Johnson had won an enormous election victory and proposed civil rights legislations and Great Society. Less than three years later, broken by the Vietnam War, realising the nation no longer trusted him, and unable to appear in public, he announced he would not seek re-election. What is President Zardari going to do?
All presidents fall from their honeymoon highs, but no elected president in history has fallen this low this fast. All presidents are opposed, of course, and many are disliked; but few suffer widespread attacks on their personal integrity or veracity. President Zardari is one of those few. Zardari knows well the man responsible for the trouble he is in. He looks at him everyday while shaving.
Talking about despotic rulers, like himself, Mussolini said just before he faced the firing squad: "Have you ever seen a prudent, calculating dictator, they all become mad, they lose their equilibrium in the clouds, quivering ambitions and obsessions – and it is actually that mad passion which brought them to where they are." Absolute power, unrestrained by law, must make people mad. Power is heady substance. How else can one explain Zardari's erratic behaviour and his massive blunders?
Sometimes, once in a long while, you get a chance to serve your country. Today President Zardari is the Atlas on whose shoulders the state of Pakistan rests! Few people had been offered the opportunity that lay open to Mr Zardari. He blew it. No wonder, the country is gripped by fear and uncertainty. If Zardari remains in command of the ship of state, we will all go down like the Titanic.
At a time when the country is at war, Mr Zardari, the Supreme Commander, spends almost his entire existence in the confines of a bunker – which he seldom leaves these days. Mortally afraid of his own people and the sword of the NRO hanging over his head, he is more concerned about protecting himself and his power rather than protecting the country or the people of Pakistan.
Mr Zardari is so swathed in his inner circle that he has completely lost touch with the people and reality. He wanders around among small knots of persons who agree with him. His blunders are too obvious, his behaviour too erratic, his vision too blurred. He has painted himself into a corner.
A year after he captured the presidency, Zardari seems to have lost his "mandate of heaven." At a time when leadership is desperately needed to cope with matters of vital importance to the very survival of the country, Pakistan is led by a president who lacks both credibility and integrity. What is worse, he seems oblivious to the realities of his awesome responsibilities and is only interested in perpetuating himself.
What is it that people really expected from their president in a national crisis? It is something that the national psyche needs. The people, especially those in the war zone, expect the occupant of the Presidency to share their suffering, to assure those trapped in the crossfire that they will survive; that they will get through it. He has to be a Chief Executive who is in command, who reacts promptly, who alleviates human suffering. Above all, he must inspire confidence and hope. And so, he has to be that larger-than-life figure, which Zardari is not. No president and no prime minister can govern from a bunker.
These are critical days in Pakistan. Isn't it a great tragedy that at a time like this there is a loveless relationship between the rulers and the ruled? There is no steady hand on the tiller of government. The survival of the country, its sovereignty, its stunted democracy, its hard-won independent judiciary, all are on the line. Tragically, in our political life, we prefer to wait until things reach the emergency room. Each man feels what is wrong, and knows what is required to be done, but none has the will or the courage or the energy needed to speak up and say enough is enough. All have lofty ideals, hopes, aspirations, desires, which produce no visible or durable results, like old men's passions ending in impotence.
"Fortune is a fickle courtesan," Napoleon said on the eve of the battle of Borodino. "I have always said so and now I am beginning to experience it." When I watched Zardari a few days ago on TV, he was visibly undergoing a similar experience and looked like the captain of a sinking ship, the wind of defeat in his hair. How fortunes fluctuate! The calendar says Zardari will be around for another four years, but the writing on the wall shows the party is almost over.
For Mr Zardari, the accidental president of Pakistan, the moment of truth has arrived. His presidency is collapsing all around us; the wolf is at the door.
The presidency is more than an honour, it is more than an office. It is a charge to keep. Asif Zardari's sudden ascension to presidency caused panic among the people. Thrown there by accident, he is grotesquely unsuited for his position. Henry Adams once wrote that the essence of leadership in the presidency is "a helm to grasp, a course to steer, a port to seek." President Zardari grasped the helm more then a year ago but the country still doesn't know whether he has an inner compass, or a course to steer or a port to seek. It is now abundantly clear that he is not worthy of the trust placed in him by his people. He carries a serious baggage, dogged for years by charges of corruption until they were abruptly dropped under the NRO, which he tried to get validated through the Parliament but failed. No democrat should come to power through such an array of backroom machinations, deals with Generals or foreign powers. No wonder, too many people reject Zardari's political legitimacy.
The Zardari aura is crumbling. His star is already burning out, but he will stop at nothing to keep his lock on power.
The writer is a former federal secretary. Email: roedad@comsats.net.pk, www.roedadkhan.com (The News)
....
Ansar Abbasi:
...
Nazir Naji
Read more...
Friends of Taliban in Pakistani media are continuously and shamelessly suggesting that politicians are corrupt, and that democracy has failed to deliver good governance in Pakistan.
Here are two different perspectives on this topic: The first perspective is offered by Ansar Abbasi and Roedad Khan who suggest that in the interests of the country, President Asif Zardari must quit his position sooner than later.
....
In the name of God, go
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Roedad Khan (The writer has been a key supporter of the military dictatorships of Generals Ayub, Yahya and Zia-ul-Haq.)
Some leaders sail with the wind until the decisive moment when their conscience and events propel them into the centre of the storm. Altaf Hussain's fateful decision not to support Zardari on the infamous NRO issue was a masterly stroke in the game of politics. Otto von Bismarck famously said that political genius entailed hearing the hoofbeat of history and then rising to catch the galloping horseman by the coattails. This is what Altaf Bhai has done, to the surprise of friends and foes alike.
Altaf Bhai's friendly advice to President Asif Zardari to sacrifice his exalted office for the sake of the country and democracy reminds me of the fateful "Norway Debate” in the House of Commons in May 1940. Britain was at war, facing the full might of Nazi Germany. In the backdrop of the dismal picture of failure and retreat which confronted the nation, L S Amery, MP, delivered the historic speech which led to the resignation of Prime Minister Chamberlain and elevation of Churchill as prime minister. "I cast prudence to the winds," Amery wrote in his diary, "and ended full-out with my Cromwellian injunction to the government… 'You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.' "
"I say solemnly," Lloyd George who followed Amery, declared, "that the prime minister should give an example of sacrifice because there is nothing which can contribute more to victory in this war than that he should sacrifice his Seals of Office." President Lyndon Johnson had won an enormous election victory and proposed civil rights legislations and Great Society. Less than three years later, broken by the Vietnam War, realising the nation no longer trusted him, and unable to appear in public, he announced he would not seek re-election. What is President Zardari going to do?
All presidents fall from their honeymoon highs, but no elected president in history has fallen this low this fast. All presidents are opposed, of course, and many are disliked; but few suffer widespread attacks on their personal integrity or veracity. President Zardari is one of those few. Zardari knows well the man responsible for the trouble he is in. He looks at him everyday while shaving.
Talking about despotic rulers, like himself, Mussolini said just before he faced the firing squad: "Have you ever seen a prudent, calculating dictator, they all become mad, they lose their equilibrium in the clouds, quivering ambitions and obsessions – and it is actually that mad passion which brought them to where they are." Absolute power, unrestrained by law, must make people mad. Power is heady substance. How else can one explain Zardari's erratic behaviour and his massive blunders?
Sometimes, once in a long while, you get a chance to serve your country. Today President Zardari is the Atlas on whose shoulders the state of Pakistan rests! Few people had been offered the opportunity that lay open to Mr Zardari. He blew it. No wonder, the country is gripped by fear and uncertainty. If Zardari remains in command of the ship of state, we will all go down like the Titanic.
At a time when the country is at war, Mr Zardari, the Supreme Commander, spends almost his entire existence in the confines of a bunker – which he seldom leaves these days. Mortally afraid of his own people and the sword of the NRO hanging over his head, he is more concerned about protecting himself and his power rather than protecting the country or the people of Pakistan.
Mr Zardari is so swathed in his inner circle that he has completely lost touch with the people and reality. He wanders around among small knots of persons who agree with him. His blunders are too obvious, his behaviour too erratic, his vision too blurred. He has painted himself into a corner.
A year after he captured the presidency, Zardari seems to have lost his "mandate of heaven." At a time when leadership is desperately needed to cope with matters of vital importance to the very survival of the country, Pakistan is led by a president who lacks both credibility and integrity. What is worse, he seems oblivious to the realities of his awesome responsibilities and is only interested in perpetuating himself.
What is it that people really expected from their president in a national crisis? It is something that the national psyche needs. The people, especially those in the war zone, expect the occupant of the Presidency to share their suffering, to assure those trapped in the crossfire that they will survive; that they will get through it. He has to be a Chief Executive who is in command, who reacts promptly, who alleviates human suffering. Above all, he must inspire confidence and hope. And so, he has to be that larger-than-life figure, which Zardari is not. No president and no prime minister can govern from a bunker.
These are critical days in Pakistan. Isn't it a great tragedy that at a time like this there is a loveless relationship between the rulers and the ruled? There is no steady hand on the tiller of government. The survival of the country, its sovereignty, its stunted democracy, its hard-won independent judiciary, all are on the line. Tragically, in our political life, we prefer to wait until things reach the emergency room. Each man feels what is wrong, and knows what is required to be done, but none has the will or the courage or the energy needed to speak up and say enough is enough. All have lofty ideals, hopes, aspirations, desires, which produce no visible or durable results, like old men's passions ending in impotence.
"Fortune is a fickle courtesan," Napoleon said on the eve of the battle of Borodino. "I have always said so and now I am beginning to experience it." When I watched Zardari a few days ago on TV, he was visibly undergoing a similar experience and looked like the captain of a sinking ship, the wind of defeat in his hair. How fortunes fluctuate! The calendar says Zardari will be around for another four years, but the writing on the wall shows the party is almost over.
For Mr Zardari, the accidental president of Pakistan, the moment of truth has arrived. His presidency is collapsing all around us; the wolf is at the door.
The presidency is more than an honour, it is more than an office. It is a charge to keep. Asif Zardari's sudden ascension to presidency caused panic among the people. Thrown there by accident, he is grotesquely unsuited for his position. Henry Adams once wrote that the essence of leadership in the presidency is "a helm to grasp, a course to steer, a port to seek." President Zardari grasped the helm more then a year ago but the country still doesn't know whether he has an inner compass, or a course to steer or a port to seek. It is now abundantly clear that he is not worthy of the trust placed in him by his people. He carries a serious baggage, dogged for years by charges of corruption until they were abruptly dropped under the NRO, which he tried to get validated through the Parliament but failed. No democrat should come to power through such an array of backroom machinations, deals with Generals or foreign powers. No wonder, too many people reject Zardari's political legitimacy.
The Zardari aura is crumbling. His star is already burning out, but he will stop at nothing to keep his lock on power.
The writer is a former federal secretary. Email: roedad@comsats.net.pk, www.roedadkhan.com (The News)
....
Ansar Abbasi:
...
Nazir Naji
Read more...
Zardari Unpopular Even Amongst PPP Voters?
Read more...
Zahir Ebrahim's analysis of Hamid Mir' attack on 'Let us build Pakistan'
Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
November 10, 2009
To: letusbuildpakistan
Ref: http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/2009/11/capital-talk-and-let-us-build-pakistan.html
Let me first state up front that I have no affiliation with any political party of Pakistan, its military, its intelligence apparatus, or any intelligence apparatus in the world for that matter, its newsmedia, or their collectively providing the essential proxy services to the hectoring hegemons for the orchestrated dismemberment of Pakistan. As far as I am concerned, as a Pakistani citizen, they all leave much to be desired. And I hope that many genuinely concerned and honest Pakistanis who are directly affiliated with any of these institutions also feel the same way. All that which these institutions and their leaders as well as their foot-soldiers can improve upon, begins by loudly proclaiming the correct solution for 2 + 2. All else will follow1. That is spelled out in the new book from Project Humanbeingsfirst.org : The Pakistan Decapitation Papers.
The sudden one-sided attack on letusbuildpakistan blog by Mr. Hamid Mir of GEO TV in their Capital Talk show of November 05, 2009 is intriguing. I have seldom read that little known website, and I have even less interest in their political perspective which appears to echo the same sacred-cow axioms of their erstwhile leader Benazir Bhutto. Indeed, the blog shares the primal axiom of 'militant Islam' being the first-enemy undermining Pakistan with the entire political-military ruling establishment of Pakistan and the United States. This is immediately apparent from their dialectical ode to Pakistan military on their website: “A tribute to Pakistani soliders fighting the terrorists of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Sipah-e-Sahaba”. Perhaps the website authors, too incestuously engrossed in their own perspectives, haven't yet had the time to read Alice's reflections when she isn't sliding down the rabbit hole in The Decapitation of Pakistan by its own Military!.
So, the public squabble among thieves is interesting, and perhaps carries some useful signal of what's to come down the pipe.
First, let's ponder upon the blatant facts of the matter before diving into deconstructing the politics behind the 'katputli tamasha' (puppetshow) on the Grand Chessboard. Despite the candid declaration by the tiny blog of its political affiliation with the Pakistan Peoples Party on its own contact page: “Abdul Nishapuri, the founding co-editor of the 'Let us build Pakistan' blog, and a member of the 'Critical Supporters of Pakistan People's Party'.”, and which largely appears to be a shoestring budget operation of ordinary individuals unable to even afford a paid hosted website, Mr. Hamid Mir could only think of picking on a tiny blog which openly advertises its affiliation to the ruling political party, to uncover all the ills which plague Pakistan?
Has GEO TV run out of more heinous criminals in Pakistan to target among those who incessantly wage war upon their own people by way of deception and are openly destroying the country on behalf of their foreign paymasters?
What's the real agenda behind the 'katputli tamasha' of attacking a tiny unknown website by none other than the mighty Mr. Hamid Mir – the “champion of democracy” and free speech – who himself shamelessly shills for the hectoring hegemons?
In order to understand that, one has to acutely comprehend the politics of Hamid Mir.
Below I reproduce a letter I wrote the distinguished 'democrat' journalist after witnessing his own brazen performance given at the Commonwealth Club of California in April earlier this year. That performance video is linked to in the following tutorial which unravels Hegelian Dialectics, how fourth-generation warfare is waged upon the public by way of deception to weaken the victim from within.
Mr. Hamid Mir's endearing performance before the largely pro-establishment American audience (and that description transcends the traditional left-right dialectics of American politics), finally convinced me that this highly regarded journalist from Pakistan made famous by his interviews of Osama Bin Laden, subsequently by being the people's street champion of free-speech and democracy under military dictatorship, and now being heralded as the hero of Pakistan's democracy in the United States by its own instruments of propaganda, is an outright intelligence asset.
Because, alternately, Mr. Hamid Mir being a mere dolt and a simpleton appears to be a rather bizarre proposition. For how can a journalist of his stature and experiences be so un-informed? Intelligence agents and assets permeate the newsmedia worldwide and are merely tunes to be played by the Mighty Wurlitzer. The fine art of the Mighty Wurlitzer is explained in the tutorial.
Therefore, anything which Mr. Hamid Mir sings is suspect, at least for the forensic mind already attuned to the hectoring hegemons' genocidal plays for “full spectrum dominance” on the Grand Chessboard. Consequently, Hamid Mir's tunes and diatribes must minimally be scrutinized from that perspective before taking them on face value. Such Machiavellian orchestration after all, is only according to the Pentagon's own recipe for fourth-generation warfare as examined in this recent editorial.
Since hearing that remarkable performance in California – whose delivery was undoubtedly most natural and very well done – I don't waste time on the melodies hummed by Hamid Mir except to extract any un-apparent signals, as the maestro directly rehearses the Mighty Wurlitzer's compositions. Which is of course most unfortunate for me because Mr. Hamid Mir used to be among my few favorite Pakistani journalists to watch in diaspora on the rare occasion that I did tune into youtube (don't watch or own a television), as the one who showed any chutzpah and boldness in questioning the ruling establishment. I thought he had wonderfully taken a page from I. F. Stone. Under forensic scrutiny however, it only turned out to be a dialectical noora-kushti among mercenaries with mindless commentaries rehearsed from the galleries, and all of it to keep the public glued to the edge of their seat distracted from the real show in town. While such diabolical narratives, both for manufacturing consent and manufacturing dissent, are highly prized by the hectoring hegemons, and of course duly rewarded by them, they are a treacherous deception played upon the wretched of the earth in the audience who always bear the full brunt of its import.
I have always known Machiavelli it seems, but certainly since I became a student of Noam Chomsky at MIT and learnt more political theory than I wanted to. But my mind was initially un-attuned to accept the role of famous people like Hamid Mir in manufacturing consent. They seemed to play the courageous dissenter's role so expertly – until I figured out the political theory of Manufacturing Dissent.
Mr. Hamid Mir in that highly regarded conversation at the Commonwealth Club retained all the core-axioms of the hectoring hegemons while echoing all their mantras – a matter that is fully fleshed out in the aforementioned book. In that conversation, Hamid Mir didn't even bother to play dissent, as he sometimes does in his musings in Urdu. He actually changed his role to manufacturing consent before the American audience. A very versatile asset. He may yet win his Nobel Peace Prize – President Obama unfortunately stole a march on the poor guy this year as already deconstructed.
Mr. Hamid Mir too will surely earn his own knighthood as the man of peace someday, the savior illustrious of Pakistan who helped save the world from the Pak-Nukes which were about to fall into the inglorious hands of the barbaric hordesmen of Osama Bin Laden: “[It's] Not a Clash of Civilizations, It's a Clash between the Civilized World and Barbarians”. Watch that myth-making under refined construction in the bizarre glorification of Hamid Mir at the Commonwealth Club of California by the 'whiteman' duly flattering the 'negro'.
Knowing all of that context, let's return to the question of Mr. Hamid Mir attacking the lame-duck Presidency of Mr. Zardari through the tiny blog 'Let us build Pakistan'.
GEO is really not that stupid to not know the difference between an entity trying to Machiavellianly create diabolical intrigues – which if GEO News really wanted to unravel, they could have within 5 minutes uncovered at least 20 websites, or a hundred prominent Pakistanis, who are clearly intelligence-ops and/or mouth-pieces working to directly undermine Pakistan by simply judging them for their crucial omissions and/or direct support of empire's own sacred-cow axioms – and the largely unknown ordinary individuals running the shoestring budget operation of 'Let us build Pakistan' who are even being quite candid about their political affiliation.
This is clearly indicative, at least to my mind, of some marching orders having been received by GEO TV. Hamid Mir is only executing them. It appears that a take down of the Zardari government is imminent, to be replaced by a different 'errand boy'.
They all work for the same puppetmasters. It's merely playing musical chairs to the same tune that is slowly removing one chair at a time every time the music stops. Everyone in this game parrots empire by keeping the core-axioms intact while offering variations of “Betweens”.
Therefore, it follows that they are all playing together by the same set of rules constructed by empire. Hence, they are all traitors to the state of Pakistan. If Pakistanis wish to become slaves by choice to the hectoring hegemons with a boot stamped upon their face in perpetuity, hold a referendum and ask them. Don't stab the people in the back.
Whether or not the gallows will ever welcome Pakistan's long list of traitors, stripping them naked of their thin robe to at least convict them in the court of public opinion, must suffice for an honest plebeian un-afraid to proclaim 2 + 2 = 4.
The above is an abridged version of the article. Full article is available here.
November 10, 2009
To: letusbuildpakistan
Ref: http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/2009/11/capital-talk-and-let-us-build-pakistan.html
Let me first state up front that I have no affiliation with any political party of Pakistan, its military, its intelligence apparatus, or any intelligence apparatus in the world for that matter, its newsmedia, or their collectively providing the essential proxy services to the hectoring hegemons for the orchestrated dismemberment of Pakistan. As far as I am concerned, as a Pakistani citizen, they all leave much to be desired. And I hope that many genuinely concerned and honest Pakistanis who are directly affiliated with any of these institutions also feel the same way. All that which these institutions and their leaders as well as their foot-soldiers can improve upon, begins by loudly proclaiming the correct solution for 2 + 2. All else will follow1. That is spelled out in the new book from Project Humanbeingsfirst.org : The Pakistan Decapitation Papers.
The sudden one-sided attack on letusbuildpakistan blog by Mr. Hamid Mir of GEO TV in their Capital Talk show of November 05, 2009 is intriguing. I have seldom read that little known website, and I have even less interest in their political perspective which appears to echo the same sacred-cow axioms of their erstwhile leader Benazir Bhutto. Indeed, the blog shares the primal axiom of 'militant Islam' being the first-enemy undermining Pakistan with the entire political-military ruling establishment of Pakistan and the United States. This is immediately apparent from their dialectical ode to Pakistan military on their website: “A tribute to Pakistani soliders fighting the terrorists of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Sipah-e-Sahaba”. Perhaps the website authors, too incestuously engrossed in their own perspectives, haven't yet had the time to read Alice's reflections when she isn't sliding down the rabbit hole in The Decapitation of Pakistan by its own Military!.
So, the public squabble among thieves is interesting, and perhaps carries some useful signal of what's to come down the pipe.
First, let's ponder upon the blatant facts of the matter before diving into deconstructing the politics behind the 'katputli tamasha' (puppetshow) on the Grand Chessboard. Despite the candid declaration by the tiny blog of its political affiliation with the Pakistan Peoples Party on its own contact page: “Abdul Nishapuri, the founding co-editor of the 'Let us build Pakistan' blog, and a member of the 'Critical Supporters of Pakistan People's Party'.”, and which largely appears to be a shoestring budget operation of ordinary individuals unable to even afford a paid hosted website, Mr. Hamid Mir could only think of picking on a tiny blog which openly advertises its affiliation to the ruling political party, to uncover all the ills which plague Pakistan?
Has GEO TV run out of more heinous criminals in Pakistan to target among those who incessantly wage war upon their own people by way of deception and are openly destroying the country on behalf of their foreign paymasters?
What's the real agenda behind the 'katputli tamasha' of attacking a tiny unknown website by none other than the mighty Mr. Hamid Mir – the “champion of democracy” and free speech – who himself shamelessly shills for the hectoring hegemons?
In order to understand that, one has to acutely comprehend the politics of Hamid Mir.
Below I reproduce a letter I wrote the distinguished 'democrat' journalist after witnessing his own brazen performance given at the Commonwealth Club of California in April earlier this year. That performance video is linked to in the following tutorial which unravels Hegelian Dialectics, how fourth-generation warfare is waged upon the public by way of deception to weaken the victim from within.
Mr. Hamid Mir's endearing performance before the largely pro-establishment American audience (and that description transcends the traditional left-right dialectics of American politics), finally convinced me that this highly regarded journalist from Pakistan made famous by his interviews of Osama Bin Laden, subsequently by being the people's street champion of free-speech and democracy under military dictatorship, and now being heralded as the hero of Pakistan's democracy in the United States by its own instruments of propaganda, is an outright intelligence asset.
Because, alternately, Mr. Hamid Mir being a mere dolt and a simpleton appears to be a rather bizarre proposition. For how can a journalist of his stature and experiences be so un-informed? Intelligence agents and assets permeate the newsmedia worldwide and are merely tunes to be played by the Mighty Wurlitzer. The fine art of the Mighty Wurlitzer is explained in the tutorial.
Therefore, anything which Mr. Hamid Mir sings is suspect, at least for the forensic mind already attuned to the hectoring hegemons' genocidal plays for “full spectrum dominance” on the Grand Chessboard. Consequently, Hamid Mir's tunes and diatribes must minimally be scrutinized from that perspective before taking them on face value. Such Machiavellian orchestration after all, is only according to the Pentagon's own recipe for fourth-generation warfare as examined in this recent editorial.
Since hearing that remarkable performance in California – whose delivery was undoubtedly most natural and very well done – I don't waste time on the melodies hummed by Hamid Mir except to extract any un-apparent signals, as the maestro directly rehearses the Mighty Wurlitzer's compositions. Which is of course most unfortunate for me because Mr. Hamid Mir used to be among my few favorite Pakistani journalists to watch in diaspora on the rare occasion that I did tune into youtube (don't watch or own a television), as the one who showed any chutzpah and boldness in questioning the ruling establishment. I thought he had wonderfully taken a page from I. F. Stone. Under forensic scrutiny however, it only turned out to be a dialectical noora-kushti among mercenaries with mindless commentaries rehearsed from the galleries, and all of it to keep the public glued to the edge of their seat distracted from the real show in town. While such diabolical narratives, both for manufacturing consent and manufacturing dissent, are highly prized by the hectoring hegemons, and of course duly rewarded by them, they are a treacherous deception played upon the wretched of the earth in the audience who always bear the full brunt of its import.
I have always known Machiavelli it seems, but certainly since I became a student of Noam Chomsky at MIT and learnt more political theory than I wanted to. But my mind was initially un-attuned to accept the role of famous people like Hamid Mir in manufacturing consent. They seemed to play the courageous dissenter's role so expertly – until I figured out the political theory of Manufacturing Dissent.
Mr. Hamid Mir in that highly regarded conversation at the Commonwealth Club retained all the core-axioms of the hectoring hegemons while echoing all their mantras – a matter that is fully fleshed out in the aforementioned book. In that conversation, Hamid Mir didn't even bother to play dissent, as he sometimes does in his musings in Urdu. He actually changed his role to manufacturing consent before the American audience. A very versatile asset. He may yet win his Nobel Peace Prize – President Obama unfortunately stole a march on the poor guy this year as already deconstructed.
Mr. Hamid Mir too will surely earn his own knighthood as the man of peace someday, the savior illustrious of Pakistan who helped save the world from the Pak-Nukes which were about to fall into the inglorious hands of the barbaric hordesmen of Osama Bin Laden: “[It's] Not a Clash of Civilizations, It's a Clash between the Civilized World and Barbarians”. Watch that myth-making under refined construction in the bizarre glorification of Hamid Mir at the Commonwealth Club of California by the 'whiteman' duly flattering the 'negro'.
Knowing all of that context, let's return to the question of Mr. Hamid Mir attacking the lame-duck Presidency of Mr. Zardari through the tiny blog 'Let us build Pakistan'.
GEO is really not that stupid to not know the difference between an entity trying to Machiavellianly create diabolical intrigues – which if GEO News really wanted to unravel, they could have within 5 minutes uncovered at least 20 websites, or a hundred prominent Pakistanis, who are clearly intelligence-ops and/or mouth-pieces working to directly undermine Pakistan by simply judging them for their crucial omissions and/or direct support of empire's own sacred-cow axioms – and the largely unknown ordinary individuals running the shoestring budget operation of 'Let us build Pakistan' who are even being quite candid about their political affiliation.
This is clearly indicative, at least to my mind, of some marching orders having been received by GEO TV. Hamid Mir is only executing them. It appears that a take down of the Zardari government is imminent, to be replaced by a different 'errand boy'.
They all work for the same puppetmasters. It's merely playing musical chairs to the same tune that is slowly removing one chair at a time every time the music stops. Everyone in this game parrots empire by keeping the core-axioms intact while offering variations of “Betweens”.
Therefore, it follows that they are all playing together by the same set of rules constructed by empire. Hence, they are all traitors to the state of Pakistan. If Pakistanis wish to become slaves by choice to the hectoring hegemons with a boot stamped upon their face in perpetuity, hold a referendum and ask them. Don't stab the people in the back.
Whether or not the gallows will ever welcome Pakistan's long list of traitors, stripping them naked of their thin robe to at least convict them in the court of public opinion, must suffice for an honest plebeian un-afraid to proclaim 2 + 2 = 4.
The above is an abridged version of the article. Full article is available here.
Read more...
Anchor-istan: Media jihadis and their vision of Pakistan
Guest blog by: Bahadar Ali Khan
After watching Pakistani media’s talk shows, the assertions made by learned anchor-persons of these talk shows and reading the Urdu columnists I have visualized a future scenario of good governance for Pakistan. Under the recommendations of the media persons of our country and right wing parties, I have come to the conclusion that we should make a government just as they recommend and infer every day in their allotted air time. My understanding is that after we have this government inplace all of our problems would be resolved for ever. We’ll no longer be accepting US dictations nor we would be needing their arms. India would flee from Kashmir. Another popular hate-subject, Israel would be annihilated. The Western civilization would cease to exist and US and European will get back to stone age. All the corrupt elements from the Pakistani society would chastise theirself and anyone who obtained expensive plots from government would return it in the greater interest of the general public. Also anybody who got anything except salary would return it.
Now let us see how this government of ‘angels’ would look like. Nobody can doubt that best person for Pakistan’s presidentship is General (rtd) Hamid Gul. Syed Munawar Hassan is the best candidate for the Prime Minister of Pakistan. None other than Imran Khan suits the best for ministry of religious affairs. He is so good at collecting donations that he would run his ministry purely on donations and nothing would be taken from national exchequer. Shireen Mazari can be appointed ambassador to US. Qazi Hussain Ahmed would become Pakistani High Commissioner to India because by doing so one day he would fulfil his life long wish of heralding Pakistani flag on Delhi’s Red Fort. He can do this secretly on any weekend. Rest of the portfolios of economy, defence, foreign affairs, strategic affairs, science and literature and many other section can be filled by the appointments of very talented and expert on every subject media anchor-persons. These people are so capable that every ministry would run in an exemplary fashion.
There would be a National Consultation Council whose members would be from the board of the directors of “Ideology of Pakistan Limited”. General Mirza Aslam Beg can be appointed as governor of Baluchistan and because of terrain of his province he would be more effectively keep an eye on the ’strategic depth’ and US activities in Afghanistan. MQM suits best for the governorship of Sindh because though they are kind of misfit for this set up but the problem is that if we appoint anybody else the governor, MQM would not let him enter the governor house.
I believe if this government comes into being all of our assets including Talibans and nuclear weapons would get safe for ever. We will defeat NATO and allied forces in Afghanistan and later on will continue our march towards Central Asian states until we get our strategic goals and during this course our strategic depth would expand as far as North Pole goes. This government will neither take any foreign aid nor will return anybody’s loan. In order to appease Taliban this government will shut down all the girls colleges and schools.
After watching Pakistani media’s talk shows, the assertions made by learned anchor-persons of these talk shows and reading the Urdu columnists I have visualized a future scenario of good governance for Pakistan. Under the recommendations of the media persons of our country and right wing parties, I have come to the conclusion that we should make a government just as they recommend and infer every day in their allotted air time. My understanding is that after we have this government inplace all of our problems would be resolved for ever. We’ll no longer be accepting US dictations nor we would be needing their arms. India would flee from Kashmir. Another popular hate-subject, Israel would be annihilated. The Western civilization would cease to exist and US and European will get back to stone age. All the corrupt elements from the Pakistani society would chastise theirself and anyone who obtained expensive plots from government would return it in the greater interest of the general public. Also anybody who got anything except salary would return it.
Now let us see how this government of ‘angels’ would look like. Nobody can doubt that best person for Pakistan’s presidentship is General (rtd) Hamid Gul. Syed Munawar Hassan is the best candidate for the Prime Minister of Pakistan. None other than Imran Khan suits the best for ministry of religious affairs. He is so good at collecting donations that he would run his ministry purely on donations and nothing would be taken from national exchequer. Shireen Mazari can be appointed ambassador to US. Qazi Hussain Ahmed would become Pakistani High Commissioner to India because by doing so one day he would fulfil his life long wish of heralding Pakistani flag on Delhi’s Red Fort. He can do this secretly on any weekend. Rest of the portfolios of economy, defence, foreign affairs, strategic affairs, science and literature and many other section can be filled by the appointments of very talented and expert on every subject media anchor-persons. These people are so capable that every ministry would run in an exemplary fashion.
There would be a National Consultation Council whose members would be from the board of the directors of “Ideology of Pakistan Limited”. General Mirza Aslam Beg can be appointed as governor of Baluchistan and because of terrain of his province he would be more effectively keep an eye on the ’strategic depth’ and US activities in Afghanistan. MQM suits best for the governorship of Sindh because though they are kind of misfit for this set up but the problem is that if we appoint anybody else the governor, MQM would not let him enter the governor house.
I believe if this government comes into being all of our assets including Talibans and nuclear weapons would get safe for ever. We will defeat NATO and allied forces in Afghanistan and later on will continue our march towards Central Asian states until we get our strategic goals and during this course our strategic depth would expand as far as North Pole goes. This government will neither take any foreign aid nor will return anybody’s loan. In order to appease Taliban this government will shut down all the girls colleges and schools.
Maulan Abdul Aziz ( Lal Masjid fame ) will be appointed Pakistan’s permanent representative in United Nations where he will brief the rest of the world about Pakistan power and importance. He will construct a mosque in the UN building whose students would march in the streets of New York and anybody ( any women ) not following the proper dress code will be kidnapped and brought to UN Mosque where she would be tortured to get the dose of spirituality. If the US, because they are host of UN office, do something derogatory or put any restrictions on our envoy’s actvities , our government will transfer the head quarters of UN to Waziristan. Osama bin Laden will be our Ambassador at large where he will work on the puritinization of the infidels and if some infidel not followed his line, he would be slaughtered.
Our new government will keep friendly relationship with China only one condition, if all Chinese men stop shaving their faces and their women put on modest dress. If China not followed these condition then we would teach them a lesson by sending our Mujahideen in their Sinkiang province. This government would definitely fulfil the longing for waging a war against US and in that war our government would destroy US.
The only problem that is left to be tackled as what will happen to the current lot of Politicians. So our pious government would arrange their punishments from the federal Shariah Court. And their worst punishments would be to appoint them on higher posts but stop them from taking bribe and perks.
So what do you think?
Source: http://bkhan.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/anchor-istan-a-vision-of-a-pure-government/
Our new government will keep friendly relationship with China only one condition, if all Chinese men stop shaving their faces and their women put on modest dress. If China not followed these condition then we would teach them a lesson by sending our Mujahideen in their Sinkiang province. This government would definitely fulfil the longing for waging a war against US and in that war our government would destroy US.
The only problem that is left to be tackled as what will happen to the current lot of Politicians. So our pious government would arrange their punishments from the federal Shariah Court. And their worst punishments would be to appoint them on higher posts but stop them from taking bribe and perks.
So what do you think?
Source: http://bkhan.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/anchor-istan-a-vision-of-a-pure-government/
Read more...
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Sugar Fiasco
Posted by: Jarri Mirza
Guest blog by: Humza Ikram
The recent sugar fiasco shows the volatile civil administrative structure of our society. In terms of western capitalist economist point of view it’s a result of non-documented trade which exists in our trade culture and lack decision making in real time environment. But the even worse part of the story is our reaction to the problem.
A very bad trend has emerged in the society where whenever a problem occur in the country suddenly everyone becomes a Prophet and the television anchors becomes the chosen one who gets the revelation from God. And then race starts every anchors tries to prove his revelation is real and pure and other tries to prove his God is real and he doubts the others God’s actual existence. This happened in the series of event his happened in recent history.
Right from the Lal Masjid episode these TV anchors tried to outdo the others. And one anchor (Kamran Khan) did the unimaginable he tried to offer mediation between the cleric and government official. And thank to him we saw 24/7 reality television like no where in world. Same pattern can be observed in the event followed that like Lawyers movement, Brigader Imitiaz episode, High treason case against musharaf, minus one formula and even the administrative issues like Petrol development levy (PDL) issue and the recent sugar crises.
When some liberal writers and commentator used to advise them not to glorify Taliban; they termed them as a western agent like in the case of Prof. Pervez HoodBhoy and social commentator Nadeem Farooq Paracha. And I remember when BB raised her voice against lal masjid activities and showed her concern we saw round the clock television analyzes why BB is raising her voice from London on these innocent Muslim missionaries.
From these patterns you can conclude one thing and to describe that I want to Quote Colin Powell famous telephone call to Musharaf “either you are with us or against”. Same goes for these television anchors. These television anchors are authority on law, business, investment, security, defense, diplomacy you name it they know everything and trust me they do their home very well you can which can be seen in recent case of national embarrassment because of Talat Hussain’s stupid arguments with Hilary because of his incorrect stats . Thank God Zaid Hamid was not in the panel.
The even worse phenomena which is developing is the superior courts are also following the act of the media and respected judges are trying to become like chief economist of the country that can be seen with carbon surcharge case which was part of this budget and which also the only few unanimous budgets of our history like the year 2008-09. Which was later challenged by PML_N in the Supreme Court on the second thought after they voted for it the parliament days before that after they were humiliated by TV anchors of showing impotency while passing the budget? And Supreme Court judges acted like the chief economist of country.
Let us analyze the recent sugar crisis and the role of media, government and judiciary.
WEEK 1: TCP delayed the decision to import sugar to benefit some key politician.
Stance of media and which was later adopted by Punjab government: it’s the negligence of federal government what can we do.
WEEK 2: key politician are hoarding sugar. Punjab government responded quickly and started series of operation on mills and distributors .they received acclaimed from all over Pakistan and media teams even started to count the quantity of sugar collected by Punjab Government each day and one poor lady TV anchor even said in one of her program if Punjab government can confiscate four months of required sugar for Pakistan in a week whether we actually required to import sugar. Later news reports suggest PML-N MPA’s were storing sugar at the places and report of Sheikh Mumtaz Hashmi and his brother in law involved in hoarding 600 bags of sugar, story become instant hit at youtube and social networking sites like Facebook.
WEEK 9: from late decision of importing sugar to no sugar shortages we have reached the debate of good governance mixed with kerry lugar bill, NRO and other legislative issue to finally stage which can be described in article of Shaheen Shebai “have counted already started ?”To suggest Asif Ali Zardari’s days at presidency are over.”
In my opinion media did not bother to address the real problem they are actually running a campaign to show governments inability to run the state affairs. My suggestion we should once and for all have to decide whether we will remain hostage to their 24/7 campaign or try to understand things objectively.
Read more...
Guest blog by: Humza Ikram
The recent sugar fiasco shows the volatile civil administrative structure of our society. In terms of western capitalist economist point of view it’s a result of non-documented trade which exists in our trade culture and lack decision making in real time environment. But the even worse part of the story is our reaction to the problem.
A very bad trend has emerged in the society where whenever a problem occur in the country suddenly everyone becomes a Prophet and the television anchors becomes the chosen one who gets the revelation from God. And then race starts every anchors tries to prove his revelation is real and pure and other tries to prove his God is real and he doubts the others God’s actual existence. This happened in the series of event his happened in recent history.
Right from the Lal Masjid episode these TV anchors tried to outdo the others. And one anchor (Kamran Khan) did the unimaginable he tried to offer mediation between the cleric and government official. And thank to him we saw 24/7 reality television like no where in world. Same pattern can be observed in the event followed that like Lawyers movement, Brigader Imitiaz episode, High treason case against musharaf, minus one formula and even the administrative issues like Petrol development levy (PDL) issue and the recent sugar crises.
When some liberal writers and commentator used to advise them not to glorify Taliban; they termed them as a western agent like in the case of Prof. Pervez HoodBhoy and social commentator Nadeem Farooq Paracha. And I remember when BB raised her voice against lal masjid activities and showed her concern we saw round the clock television analyzes why BB is raising her voice from London on these innocent Muslim missionaries.
From these patterns you can conclude one thing and to describe that I want to Quote Colin Powell famous telephone call to Musharaf “either you are with us or against”. Same goes for these television anchors. These television anchors are authority on law, business, investment, security, defense, diplomacy you name it they know everything and trust me they do their home very well you can which can be seen in recent case of national embarrassment because of Talat Hussain’s stupid arguments with Hilary because of his incorrect stats . Thank God Zaid Hamid was not in the panel.
The even worse phenomena which is developing is the superior courts are also following the act of the media and respected judges are trying to become like chief economist of the country that can be seen with carbon surcharge case which was part of this budget and which also the only few unanimous budgets of our history like the year 2008-09. Which was later challenged by PML_N in the Supreme Court on the second thought after they voted for it the parliament days before that after they were humiliated by TV anchors of showing impotency while passing the budget? And Supreme Court judges acted like the chief economist of country.
Let us analyze the recent sugar crisis and the role of media, government and judiciary.
WEEK 1: TCP delayed the decision to import sugar to benefit some key politician.
Stance of media and which was later adopted by Punjab government: it’s the negligence of federal government what can we do.
WEEK 2: key politician are hoarding sugar. Punjab government responded quickly and started series of operation on mills and distributors .they received acclaimed from all over Pakistan and media teams even started to count the quantity of sugar collected by Punjab Government each day and one poor lady TV anchor even said in one of her program if Punjab government can confiscate four months of required sugar for Pakistan in a week whether we actually required to import sugar. Later news reports suggest PML-N MPA’s were storing sugar at the places and report of Sheikh Mumtaz Hashmi and his brother in law involved in hoarding 600 bags of sugar, story become instant hit at youtube and social networking sites like Facebook.
WEEK 3: Peshawar and Lahore High courts took suo mou moto action against hoarding.
WEEK 4: week four ended with all kinds of speculation what could be the court judgment.
WEEK 5: finally the wait was over the courts announced there decision.
Client features of court decision
• NWFP government should look into smugglings of sugar to Afghanistan. (this remarks actually negates the LHC remarks if Punjab government is failed to stop inter-provincial smuggling of sugar how could NWFP could stop smuggling of sugar to Afghanistan where price is huge as compare to Punjab TO NWFP and where NWFP does not have control over Tribal Areas since there is no provincial police.
• There was no actual shortage of sugar.
• LHC CJ khawaja sharif suggested to bring back nationalization of sugar mills if sugar mills , not actually confronting his argument but I want to remind him he was previously Attorney general of Zia in Punjab and his previous boss and mentor Zia use to say “Socialism is haram”.
• Most astonishing was the LHC out did the PHC they also calculated the price ex mill price of the sugar.
WEEK 6: Week six provide to be the contradiction of week 1 now all the brilliant TV commentators were convinced that there was no sugar shortage in the country and funny part is if they are now convinced that there is no sugar shortage why the media brigade humiliated Watoo?
WEEK 7: Sugar mill association went to Supreme Court because they felt court didn’t listen to them and announced the decision in haste.
Current situation sugar have reached from 47 to 100 at some please since the courts intervention which halted the normal market mechanism and actually give provided the environment for the opportunist for hoarding and to earn quick buck .and the million dollar question is where is all the sugar which Punjab government confiscated.
WEEK 9: from late decision of importing sugar to no sugar shortages we have reached the debate of good governance mixed with kerry lugar bill, NRO and other legislative issue to finally stage which can be described in article of Shaheen Shebai “have counted already started ?”To suggest Asif Ali Zardari’s days at presidency are over.”
In my opinion media did not bother to address the real problem they are actually running a campaign to show governments inability to run the state affairs. My suggestion we should once and for all have to decide whether we will remain hostage to their 24/7 campaign or try to understand things objectively.
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A new dawn for Gilgit Baltistan: Elections in the fifth province of Pakistan
Gilani declares Gilgit, Skardu ‘major cities’
By Our Correspondent (Dawn)
Wednesday, 11 Nov, 2009
SKARDU: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday promised free, fair and transparent elections in Gilgit-Baltistan and a level playing field for all political parties.
Addressing a public meeting at the Police Ground, the prime minister said the region had a vast hydroelectric potential and development of the sector would help reduce poverty and unemployment.
Mr Gilani said that work on Diamer-Bhasha and Bunji dams would start soon, adding that over Rs5 billion would be spent on hydel projects in the region.
He said 200 schools had been made functional at a cost of Rs2 billion and Rs1 billion was being spent on making 100 dispensaries functional this year.
He said that Rs10 billion had been allocated for education and 33 buses had been given to various schools and colleges.
He advised the finance ministry to approve various projects in health and education sectors so that shortage of staff could be overcome.
Mr Gilani said that Chalat in Hunza-Nagar, Danyur in Gilgit and Phandar in Ghizer districts had been given the status of tehsil and urged the administration to put up files of Gultary, Kharmang and Shigar for their elevation to the level of districts.
He declared Gilgit and Skardu as ‘major cities’ and said that Skardu airport was being upgraded to an international one for developing tourism.
Mr Gilani said that 5,000 people would be recruited in Gilgit-Baltistan police force and their salary would be equal to that of Islamabad police. He said that equal number of recruitment would be made from each district.
Mr Gilani said people affected by earthquake in Kondos (Ghanche district) would be compensated.
The Benazir Income Support Programme is being expanded and a proposal is under consideration to enable it to cover health insurance, electricity bills and school fees. He also said that orphanages would be built in all districts.
He ordered the local administration to pay compensation to people dislocated by Satpara dam.
After the elections, Mr Gilani said, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan would have their own governor, chief minister and advisers.
‘They will have their own government which can make budget and undertake development schemes.’
Qamar Zaman Kaira, the region’s governor, also addressed the gathering and said he hoped the people would support PPP candidates.
PPP’s provincial president Syed Mehdi Shah welcomed the prime minister and called for the establishment of an engineering university in Baltistan.
A massive development package for Gilgit-Baltistan announced
SKARDU (SANA): Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani announced on Tuesday a massive development package for the uplift of Gilgit-Baltistan. Gilani said that the government has already released 10 billion rupees for the uplift of Skardu.
Addressing a mass gathering organized by Pakistan Peoples Party here Tuesday on the last day of election activities, the PM said that the government will declare Gilgit and Skardu “big cities” and will provide all facilities considered necessary for developed mega metropolises.
Gilani announced to recruit 5000 policemen for Gilgit-Baltistan law enforcing force, adding that the minimum wages of the public servants of the region would also be equivalent to rest of the country, i.e. Rs 6000 per month.
The elections in the territory would be free, fair and transparent, assuring the people that their voices are being heard in the corridors of power, Gilani maintained.
The PM announced to provide 100 buses’ fleet for the school-going children of Skardu, saying that 200 more educational institutes and 100 dispensaries would start working in the region this year as well.
....
Elections today after hectic campaigning
Ruling party has candidates for all 23 seats
By Mohsin Ali, Gulf News
Islamabad: Pakistan's main political parties yesterday wound up their hectic electioneering campaigns in northern Gilgit-Baltistan region ahead of polls there to elect a legislative council.
The country's ruling Pakistan Peoples Party has put up candidates for all 23 general seats of the 34-member council up for the grabs in the elections today.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), political ally of PPP, has fielded candidates on 19 seats, followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Q with candidates on 15 seats and main opposition PML-N vying for 14 seats.
PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif has been feverishly involved in the party's campaign, delivering a series of public speeches in which he promised to bring development to the region.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani addressed a large political rally yesterday at Skardu in Baltistan, assuring free, fair and transparent polls and level-playing field for all parties.
He said people of Gilgit-Baltistan would have internal autonomy with their own chief minister, independent public service commission, separate judiciary and election commission.
Gilani announced that 200 new schools and 100 dispensaries would start working in Skardu by the year's end.
The prime minister said he had already allocated Rs2 billion (Dh158 million) for education and Rs1 billion for health sectors in the Gilgit-Baltistan.
The status of the region has been subject of a controversy, with a segment claiming it was historically a part of Kashmir and the others demanding the region's representation in the Pakistan parliament.
....
Gilgit votes
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 (The News)
The upcoming election in Gilgit-Baltistan will be the first since the territory was granted status as an autonomous region in August this year. Though the measure stopped short of making the area a province as its people demand – the Legal Framework Order built on the PPP's legacy in the area. The late Benazir Bhutto had introduced electoral reform here and her father had played a role in ushering mainstream politics into an area that had at the time been largely isolated from Pakistan. The PPP as such has enjoyed traditional strength in the area. But this could change as campaigning ends ahead of voting on November 12. The failure of the party to bring in new candidates and the loss of credibility of old guns who have frequently failed to keep promises may mean the party fails to secure a full hold over the 33-member Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly. Of these, 24 will be directly contested and nine – including six for women and three for technocrats – will be filled later. Though the significant population of Ismailis is seen by some analysts to give the PPP an advantage, many predict a hung house.
Other parties have been campaigning hectically too. The PML-N chief has made a personal trip up to the mountainous area, donned the traditional woollen cap to guard himself from the freezing winds and – rather oddly – portrayed himself as the true heir of the Bhuttos. The PML-Q, using posters on which the portrait of Pervez Musharraf appears, has also been active and – rather late in the day, the ANP has recently stepped up its efforts, apparently suddenly realizing it needed to play some part in an election being held in what it sees as its backyard. As always, some independent candidates will claim seats. The MQM, eager to expand its influence beyond urban Sindh, has fielded 19 candidates. Only the PPP, with 23, has more. Altaf Hussain has also spoken to people over giant television screens – a novelty in Gilgit which attracted much attention. So too did the MQM's message against sectarianism and extremism, in a region that has seen repeated Shia-Sunni violence. The MQM showing could prove extremely interesting, with other parties generally steering clear of the extremist question. Even before voting gets underway, there have been warnings about unfair means and neutral monitors have stressed the need for a fair, transparent process. We must hope this advice is taken and people genuinely allowed to determine who they wish to represent them.
Recommended readings:
Rabia Shakoor's post on "The Gilgit-Baltistan elections" on Grand Trunk Road.
Murtaza Razvi's post "Away from the Lunatic Fringe" on Dawn Blogs
Three Cups of Tea - by Greg Mortenson
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2nd Instalment Of Truth - NRO Actually!
Selection by: Jarri Mirza
This is in continuation of my earlier post on NRO, posted on November 7, 2009, which can be seen at http://marvisirmed.com/?p=193. We were trying to learn about this Ordinance clause by clause. So far we have examined Section II and saw that a major amendment in Criminal Procedures Code could well be used to control the damage (if any), if the federal and provincial governments want. We’ll now move on to next sections.
Section III of the Ordinance adds up a new subsection to section 39 of the Representation of People Act (RPA) of 1976. The RPA has been amended many times after its promulgation in 1976. The latest amendment came in 2008. The said Section 39 of the RPA deals with the consolidation of election results. It previously had six subsections. The seventh subsection thus added involved immediate providence of the election results by the returning officer, to the contesting candidates and their election agents who are present during the consolidation process. It is provided that the returning officer will provide them the copy of the result of the count sent to the Election Commission. It must be noted here that all political parties agree that this amendment to the RPA 1976 is beneficial for the electoral process and its free, fair and transparent holding.
Sections IV and V of NRO can be read clubbed together for better comprehension. Both of these sections provide that no member of the Parliament or of Provincial Assemblies could be arrested in a NAB related case unless recommended by Special Parliamentary Committee on Ethics. These sections also provide that such Committees on Ethics will be constituted in Senate and in National / Provincial Assemblies, having equal representation of opposition and ruling party members. The members of these Ethic Committees will be appointed by the Speaker(s) National / Provincial Assemblies / Chairman Senate as recommended by the Leader(s) of House(s) and Leader(s) of the Opposition. There will be 8 members in each of these committees and a chairperson.
Moreover, both of these sections actually make amendment to already existing National Accountability Ordinance of 1999. Under Section 31-C of the NAO, the officers of banks and financial institutions who might be charged for appropriation and right off/ waiver of loans etc, under NAB, were given protection. These two sections of NRO (Section 4 and 5) actually extend this protection to the elected representatives of people.
The protection given to the bank officers under NAO 1999 provides for the NAB to not arrest any such accused unless a formal approval is given by the Governor State Bank of Pakistan. Similarly, if some officers / other persons associated with NAB investigations are accused of hampering such proceedings, s/he will not be charged with out the sanction of a Committee headed by NAB Chairperson.
In the presence of such a protection for the bank / government officers that already existed in the form of NAO 1999, the temporary protection given to the elected representatives of people doesn’t seem a big deal. Further, this protection seems to be given to curtail political victimization of the opposition members by any sitting government. This provision, negotiated by PPP with the then military ruler, seems to be in accordance with Charter of Democracy agreed between PPP and PML-N according to which, no political victimization will be done against each other. It seems that CoD was being formally institutionalized when this very clause was being negotiated.
It must be mentioned here, that a special meeting of Parliamentary Committee on law and Justice was convened on October 31, 2009 under the Chairpersonship of Begum Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry who is member of National Assembly from ruling PPP. The said Committee comprises 16 members including the Chairperson, 4 members from PML-N, one from MQM, 3 from PML-Q. That makes one chairperson, 7 members from PPP while total 8 members from other parties. This Committee discussed the Ordinance clause be clause and approved with simple majority.
Strangely enough, all major parties i.e., PPP, PML-N and PML-Q unanimously agreed to scrap these two sections of NRO. Should we think that all the parties agree to carry on with political victimization of each other?
Section VI of NRO provides for a new sub-section in Section 31 (A) of National Accountability Ordinance 1999. This new section says that any judgement of the court passed in the absence of the accused, would be void and should not be complied with. This Section was specifically added for the benefit of Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto – two main leaders of major political parties who were thrown out of the political arena in Pakistan. This clause also seems to be an outcome of Charter of Democracy. In the absence of PML-N from the entire discussions of NRO with the General, PPP and MQM negotiated this clause, to the clear benefit of Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mohtarma. This is the section which made it possible for Mian Nawaz Sharif to stage a comeback.
Section VII , the last of NRO, provides for the withdrawal of all the cases against the holders of public offices, which were initiated by the Federal Government prior to October 12, 1999. These cases will only include the pending cases, and not the cases in which decisions have been finalized, or plea bargain has been settled by NAB. This also does not include cases related to cooperative societies and financial & investment companies, no matter if they are initiated prior to October 12, 1999.
Under this Section, protection is also provided to the NAB members & functionaries, federal, provincial and local governments and their functionaries against persecutions, on account of withdrawal of such cases.
It is very clear that all parties including PML-Q (including its Patriot members e.g., its Parliamentary Leader Faisal Saleh Hayat among many others), MQM, some members of PML-N and PPP are the beneficiaries of this section. It is also ironic that PML-N who is the biggest critic of this Ordinance, took active part in the Law & Justice Committee deliberations on NRO until Section 6. As soon as discussion started on Section 7, they staged a walk out. It may probably be due to the reason that the said section benefits only the mid level leaders of PML-N, and not the main leadership.
We’ll continue our discussion on NRO in the next instalment of truth, let’s assimilate this much first!
SOURCE:http://marvisirmed.com/?p=197..
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Article written by: Marvi Sirmed
This is in continuation of my earlier post on NRO, posted on November 7, 2009, which can be seen at http://marvisirmed.com/?p=193. We were trying to learn about this Ordinance clause by clause. So far we have examined Section II and saw that a major amendment in Criminal Procedures Code could well be used to control the damage (if any), if the federal and provincial governments want. We’ll now move on to next sections.Section III of the Ordinance adds up a new subsection to section 39 of the Representation of People Act (RPA) of 1976. The RPA has been amended many times after its promulgation in 1976. The latest amendment came in 2008. The said Section 39 of the RPA deals with the consolidation of election results. It previously had six subsections. The seventh subsection thus added involved immediate providence of the election results by the returning officer, to the contesting candidates and their election agents who are present during the consolidation process. It is provided that the returning officer will provide them the copy of the result of the count sent to the Election Commission. It must be noted here that all political parties agree that this amendment to the RPA 1976 is beneficial for the electoral process and its free, fair and transparent holding.
Sections IV and V of NRO can be read clubbed together for better comprehension. Both of these sections provide that no member of the Parliament or of Provincial Assemblies could be arrested in a NAB related case unless recommended by Special Parliamentary Committee on Ethics. These sections also provide that such Committees on Ethics will be constituted in Senate and in National / Provincial Assemblies, having equal representation of opposition and ruling party members. The members of these Ethic Committees will be appointed by the Speaker(s) National / Provincial Assemblies / Chairman Senate as recommended by the Leader(s) of House(s) and Leader(s) of the Opposition. There will be 8 members in each of these committees and a chairperson.
Moreover, both of these sections actually make amendment to already existing National Accountability Ordinance of 1999. Under Section 31-C of the NAO, the officers of banks and financial institutions who might be charged for appropriation and right off/ waiver of loans etc, under NAB, were given protection. These two sections of NRO (Section 4 and 5) actually extend this protection to the elected representatives of people.
The protection given to the bank officers under NAO 1999 provides for the NAB to not arrest any such accused unless a formal approval is given by the Governor State Bank of Pakistan. Similarly, if some officers / other persons associated with NAB investigations are accused of hampering such proceedings, s/he will not be charged with out the sanction of a Committee headed by NAB Chairperson.
In the presence of such a protection for the bank / government officers that already existed in the form of NAO 1999, the temporary protection given to the elected representatives of people doesn’t seem a big deal. Further, this protection seems to be given to curtail political victimization of the opposition members by any sitting government. This provision, negotiated by PPP with the then military ruler, seems to be in accordance with Charter of Democracy agreed between PPP and PML-N according to which, no political victimization will be done against each other. It seems that CoD was being formally institutionalized when this very clause was being negotiated.
It must be mentioned here, that a special meeting of Parliamentary Committee on law and Justice was convened on October 31, 2009 under the Chairpersonship of Begum Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry who is member of National Assembly from ruling PPP. The said Committee comprises 16 members including the Chairperson, 4 members from PML-N, one from MQM, 3 from PML-Q. That makes one chairperson, 7 members from PPP while total 8 members from other parties. This Committee discussed the Ordinance clause be clause and approved with simple majority.
Strangely enough, all major parties i.e., PPP, PML-N and PML-Q unanimously agreed to scrap these two sections of NRO. Should we think that all the parties agree to carry on with political victimization of each other?
Section VI of NRO provides for a new sub-section in Section 31 (A) of National Accountability Ordinance 1999. This new section says that any judgement of the court passed in the absence of the accused, would be void and should not be complied with. This Section was specifically added for the benefit of Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto – two main leaders of major political parties who were thrown out of the political arena in Pakistan. This clause also seems to be an outcome of Charter of Democracy. In the absence of PML-N from the entire discussions of NRO with the General, PPP and MQM negotiated this clause, to the clear benefit of Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mohtarma. This is the section which made it possible for Mian Nawaz Sharif to stage a comeback.
Section VII , the last of NRO, provides for the withdrawal of all the cases against the holders of public offices, which were initiated by the Federal Government prior to October 12, 1999. These cases will only include the pending cases, and not the cases in which decisions have been finalized, or plea bargain has been settled by NAB. This also does not include cases related to cooperative societies and financial & investment companies, no matter if they are initiated prior to October 12, 1999.
Under this Section, protection is also provided to the NAB members & functionaries, federal, provincial and local governments and their functionaries against persecutions, on account of withdrawal of such cases.
It is very clear that all parties including PML-Q (including its Patriot members e.g., its Parliamentary Leader Faisal Saleh Hayat among many others), MQM, some members of PML-N and PPP are the beneficiaries of this section. It is also ironic that PML-N who is the biggest critic of this Ordinance, took active part in the Law & Justice Committee deliberations on NRO until Section 6. As soon as discussion started on Section 7, they staged a walk out. It may probably be due to the reason that the said section benefits only the mid level leaders of PML-N, and not the main leadership.
We’ll continue our discussion on NRO in the next instalment of truth, let’s assimilate this much first!
SOURCE:http://marvisirmed.com/?p=197..
Read more...
NRO Actually! (1st Instalment Of Truth)
Selection by: Jarri Mirza
Article written by: Marvi Sirmed
Before I write something about my own personal take on NRO and its legitimacy, I would like to analyze what it actually is and what it is about. While we hear a lot about in the media (generally biased against one party or the other), it is all the more necessary to look into what this word NRO means, what document it is and what it means to the politics in Pakistan. Since the writing could take many pages, and I’m doing it in detail clause by clause, I think we should make it easier for the reader to grasp the information in easiest possible way.
I would apologize from my lawyer friends for not writing this piece in a way they are used to read legislations in. And it is mainly because this piece is intended to serve lay people instead of technical professionals in the field of law. I would try my best to refrain from the legal jargon as far as it is possible. Even then, if there’s something beyond the understanding of a common person (me included), I would request the reader to kindly bring it in the comments so that we could collectively try to understand it. For the purpose of making the continuity easy, I’m calling these pieces “Instalments of Truth”, and this is the first instalment!
I often hear and read comments by lay-persons, saying that NRO was “signed” by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Now, here’s where the folly lies! NRO is an abbreviated form of National Reconciliation Ordinance 2007, which is a piece of legislation. Legislation, as we all know, is a forte of the parliament in a parliamentary democracy like Pakistan. Pakistan, like many other nation satates, follows West Minster style of parliamentary system (UK, India, Australia, Canada to name few of the parliaments that follow West Minster). There is a corresponding system of government, commonly called Jeffersonian Parliaments, commonly called Presidential form of government (mainly USA). In a West Minster style parliamentary system like the one followed by Pakistan, President is the ceremonial head of the state, who has limited role in legislation.
According to the powers conferred upon the president, by the Constitution of Pakistan 1973, the President can issue an Ordinance as a piece of legislation when the Parliament is not sitting. Exercising the same power, General (now retired) Pervaiz Musharraf issued an ordinance called National Reconciliation Ordinance 2007, commonly known as NRO. Since it was an Ordinance, it was signed by the President of Pakistan, not by any political party sitting outside the government at that point in time. It is however, debatable, how this ordinance came into being. Without getting into the details of its origin for the time being, we’d go to what it says. The readers can refer to the original text of the NRO wherever s/he deems necessary, which I’ve already put on one of my blogs under the link: http://marvi-sirmed.blogspot.com/2009/10/national-reconciliation-ordinance-2007.html
The Ordinance has seven distinct Sections. Section I deals with the title of the Ordinance as is the usual practice of drafting a legislation.
Section II deals with an amendment in the Criminal Procedures Code (CrPC), which has been there since 1898. This Section of NRO amends section 494 of the CrPC, which empowered only the Prosecutor Generals to withdraw pending Criminal cases. After the amendment introduced by NRO, the Boards at Federal and Provincial Levels could be constituted to review the cases pending from 1st January 1986 to 12 October 1999. These Boards will see if the accused persons in these cases have been falsely involved in these cases on politically motivated reasons. In this case, the Review Boards thus created, can recommend withdrawal of cases to the respected governments.
These Review Boards would be of two types: Provincial and Federal. The Provincial Boards will be chaired by respectable retired Judges of High Courts and will comprise Advocate General / Prosecutor General and the Provincial Law Secretaries. The Federal Board will be chaired by a retired judge of the Supreme Court and will have Attorney General and Federal Law Secretary as its member, while both of these Boards would be appointed by federal and provincial governments as the case may be.
It is noteworthy here that NRO does not bind the federal and provincial governments to act upon the recommendations of the Review Boards. So, if any of the government doesn’t want to withdraw any of the cases, there’s no binding on them to comply with the Boards’ recommendations. In other words, the status of the Boards is recommendatory, not obligatory. It should also be noted here that this particular clause was included on the insistence of MQM, who was part of discussions made on such legislation. The dates mentioned in this section provide cover to the criminal cases made on MQM during the period from 1986 to 1999.
Source: http://marvisirmed.com/?p=193
Before I write something about my own personal take on NRO and its legitimacy, I would like to analyze what it actually is and what it is about. While we hear a lot about in the media (generally biased against one party or the other), it is all the more necessary to look into what this word NRO means, what document it is and what it means to the politics in Pakistan. Since the writing could take many pages, and I’m doing it in detail clause by clause, I think we should make it easier for the reader to grasp the information in easiest possible way.
I would apologize from my lawyer friends for not writing this piece in a way they are used to read legislations in. And it is mainly because this piece is intended to serve lay people instead of technical professionals in the field of law. I would try my best to refrain from the legal jargon as far as it is possible. Even then, if there’s something beyond the understanding of a common person (me included), I would request the reader to kindly bring it in the comments so that we could collectively try to understand it. For the purpose of making the continuity easy, I’m calling these pieces “Instalments of Truth”, and this is the first instalment!
I often hear and read comments by lay-persons, saying that NRO was “signed” by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Now, here’s where the folly lies! NRO is an abbreviated form of National Reconciliation Ordinance 2007, which is a piece of legislation. Legislation, as we all know, is a forte of the parliament in a parliamentary democracy like Pakistan. Pakistan, like many other nation satates, follows West Minster style of parliamentary system (UK, India, Australia, Canada to name few of the parliaments that follow West Minster). There is a corresponding system of government, commonly called Jeffersonian Parliaments, commonly called Presidential form of government (mainly USA). In a West Minster style parliamentary system like the one followed by Pakistan, President is the ceremonial head of the state, who has limited role in legislation.
According to the powers conferred upon the president, by the Constitution of Pakistan 1973, the President can issue an Ordinance as a piece of legislation when the Parliament is not sitting. Exercising the same power, General (now retired) Pervaiz Musharraf issued an ordinance called National Reconciliation Ordinance 2007, commonly known as NRO. Since it was an Ordinance, it was signed by the President of Pakistan, not by any political party sitting outside the government at that point in time. It is however, debatable, how this ordinance came into being. Without getting into the details of its origin for the time being, we’d go to what it says. The readers can refer to the original text of the NRO wherever s/he deems necessary, which I’ve already put on one of my blogs under the link: http://marvi-sirmed.blogspot.com/2009/10/national-reconciliation-ordinance-2007.html
The Ordinance has seven distinct Sections. Section I deals with the title of the Ordinance as is the usual practice of drafting a legislation.
Section II deals with an amendment in the Criminal Procedures Code (CrPC), which has been there since 1898. This Section of NRO amends section 494 of the CrPC, which empowered only the Prosecutor Generals to withdraw pending Criminal cases. After the amendment introduced by NRO, the Boards at Federal and Provincial Levels could be constituted to review the cases pending from 1st January 1986 to 12 October 1999. These Boards will see if the accused persons in these cases have been falsely involved in these cases on politically motivated reasons. In this case, the Review Boards thus created, can recommend withdrawal of cases to the respected governments.
These Review Boards would be of two types: Provincial and Federal. The Provincial Boards will be chaired by respectable retired Judges of High Courts and will comprise Advocate General / Prosecutor General and the Provincial Law Secretaries. The Federal Board will be chaired by a retired judge of the Supreme Court and will have Attorney General and Federal Law Secretary as its member, while both of these Boards would be appointed by federal and provincial governments as the case may be.
It is noteworthy here that NRO does not bind the federal and provincial governments to act upon the recommendations of the Review Boards. So, if any of the government doesn’t want to withdraw any of the cases, there’s no binding on them to comply with the Boards’ recommendations. In other words, the status of the Boards is recommendatory, not obligatory. It should also be noted here that this particular clause was included on the insistence of MQM, who was part of discussions made on such legislation. The dates mentioned in this section provide cover to the criminal cases made on MQM during the period from 1986 to 1999.
Source: http://marvisirmed.com/?p=193
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