As I sat through the night watching TV while the Mumbai attacks unfurled, the first of many things that struck me was the lack of emergency services, in particular ambulances, many hours after the first attack. People were carried out on hotel trolley carts and transported by private cars and taxis. At times several were stuffed into one vehicle. If timely paramedic services had been provided many more lives could have been saved.
This is in sharp contrast to our own country where ambulance services, such as Edhi and Chippa, are some of the first to reach the sight of an incident. We as a nation should be grateful and proud of such NGO’s and their administrators for 
running some of the most efficient and reliable medical emergency services, dare I say it, in the world. A special mention must also be made of the ambulance drivers who have time and again shown great courage and are driven by a supreme sense of purpose. Some, such as the Edhi driver Faiz-ur-Rehman who has killed on May 12, 2007 in Karachi, have even laid down their lives while protecting those they were carrying. Having a fleet of ambulances is of no use if there is no one brave enough to drive them.
One cannot praise too highly the work of these organisations or overstate the case for providing them with additional support.
A little over eleven months ago it would have been impossible to imagine Asif Ali Zardari assuming any position of importance in Pakistan People’s Party let alone becoming the elected President of Pakistan. The man’s rise to fame and p
ower has been meteoric. From obscurity to the cover of Time magazine. And although one is already witnessing criticism of his party and the government that it has formed, his rise to power is not just a work of destiny. The man has employed some of the most effective and time-tested laws of power to propel himself into annals of the history of power. No matter what his legacy, he will always be Pakistan’s 12th President.
I very much doubt that he is a student of history. However, he has used historically proven tactics, used by those who have gone before, for his purposes. To analyse those tactics is like tackling an economic problem; too many assumptions and too many variables. In Zardari’s equation of power there is a constant (his fortune) and many variables (his tactical moves) and a damn good net result (the presidency). Continue reading ‘Zardari’s Equation of Power’
[For all those who are not aware this is a satirical piece as part of a series called NEWSFLASH (click here)]
MicroPakistan has been fortunate enough to get an exclusive interview with one of the most important people in the present government, the man of the hour, the advisor to the advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs. For security reasons we are unable to disclose his name. Here is a transcript of the interview:
MicroPK: Mr. Advisor, the President has come under severe criticism for spending almost half his time in office on foreign trips. Do you not think that at such a critical time he should cut down on such trips?
Continue reading ‘NEWSFLASH: An interview with the advisor to the advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs’
Pakistan: Can we change?
The present author has in the past made his views clear on Pakistan’s broad model for success: the vision of Iqbal combined with the illustriousness of Jinnah. What is far less clear to all and sundry however, the present author included, is how exactly to go about this. It seems that Pakistan as a nation is stuck in a frustratingly perplex catch-22 case of the ‘chicken/egg’ dilemma. All the while, the question remains: can we change? Continue reading ‘Pakistan: Can we change? by Freddie’
Published on April 15, 2008
in Economy.
I am posting a press note that was issued a couple of weeks ago against the proposed sale of Saudi-Pak Commercial Bank. This note claimed that the proposed sale would be in violation of Pakistani laws and the Constitution. It does a good job of detailing all the possible violations. However, below you will find a response to this press note from a gentleman who has worked on the transaction and feels that the commercial and other benefits to the nation are much bigger than the legal violations.
In my opinion the legal violations are compliance issues and can simply be complied with to avoid any future problems. If the Government doesn’t want another Steel Mills case, they should make sure they comply with these requirements. Obviously, the argument that it would be greatly beneficial to the Government if this enterprise is sold for such a high price is also strong. But nobody is above the law, regardless of how beneficial or useful a transaction might be. Continue reading ‘Proposed Sale of Government Owned Saudi Pak Commercial Bank’
I’ve been living in Houston for some time, but I often return to Pakistan to visit my parents. In December, when I arrived in Karachi with my 3-year-old daughter, Minal, the city was spinning with more than the usual winter weddings, parties and reunions. President Musharraf had issued emergency rule to hold back a possible Supreme Court ruling against him, and Benazir Bhutto had returned to Pakistan at her own risk. There had been suicide bombings, the lawyers were battling for restoration of an independent judiciary and parliamentary elections were a few weeks away. My husband, René, wanted me to postpone our trip, but my father wasn’t well, and it was important to go. I assured René I’d do my best to stay away from the political action.
But after I got to Karachi, it didn’t take long for me to change my mind. I simply felt that too much was at stake. I joined my journalist sister, Beena, who is based there temporarily, and other friends at several marches in support of a free press and the lawyers’ movement. Continue reading ‘Karachi’s Winter Days By Sehba Sarwar’
My Dear Countrymen, Assalaam-o-Alaikum!
Today we - you & I - are, by the grace of Almighty God, making history. For the very first time a sitting government has been voted out and a new government voted in. For the very first time all political parties, but most significantly the losing party, have accepted the results of the elections. For the very first time a peaceful democratic transfer of power took place when I administered the oath to the incoming free and fairly elected government. For the very first time a grand coalition between the two largest political parties, that is, PPP and PMLN has taken place and for that I congratulate Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif. There were other firsts too. Pakistan does not only have the distinction of being the first Muslim country to have elected a woman Prime MInister, Mohtrama Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, in 1988 but now the first Muslim country to have elected a woman Speaker of the house and for that I congratulate Pakistan’s National Assembly and its new Speaker. Continue reading ‘An Electrifying Address to the Nation by President Pervez Musharraf by Shaheryar Azhar’
Published on March 18, 2008
in People.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending a small dinner with Shaukat Aziz, the former Prime Minister. In a wide-ranging two hour conversation, he gave his thoughts and perspectives on a whole host of issues facing the country and offered some insights into the past eight years that I found fascinating.
Aziz, as most readers are aware, was a prominent figure in Citibank in New York in 1999 when he was asked by Musharraf to be the Finance Minister in the new regime. The decision to work with a military government was criticized by some, but on the other hand, Aziz had an opportunity to tackle some fundamental problems that plagued Pakistan, and his expertise made him one of few who could do the job. He accepted and served as Finance Minister for several years, then became Prime Minister in 2004. Although ultimately Musharraf was in charge, the main domestic and economic policies were designed and implemented by Aziz, and so he was the architect of the reforms that occurred. He left office in November 2007, and is now on a global speaking tour, for which he has declined remuneration. Continue reading ‘Dinner With Shaukat Aziz by Nayyer Ali’
Justice delayed is justice denied
WITH those words, 19th century British statesman William Gladstone coined a phrase that has echoed in political and legal discourse ever since. Indeed, he could have been speaking about Pakistan today. A miscarriage of justice took place in Islamabad exactly one year and one day ago. It has not been rectified.
The defining moment for the incoming, popularly elected government will come when it tackles the issue. It should think of the constitutional legacy of Quaid-i-Azam M.A. Jinnah, who was also one of the subcontinent’s finest attorneys. The Quaid would have been proud of the role played by Iftikhar Chaudhry, Aitzaz Ahsan, Munir Malik and their cohorts in last year’s movement for judicial independence. Continue reading ‘Restoring the judges by Ahmad Faruqui’
The lawyers’ movement in Pakistan will go down in history as an effort by the legal profession to set the judiciary right and prevent military rulers from using the higher judiciary to supersede the Constitution and make themselves legal. The solidarity within the community was significant and it created some stunning impressions on civil society in general and the political parties in particular.
Sensing that their street protest and district-level mobilisation was creating a new awareness, the lawyers became chary of politicising their movement. But with the passage of time, political parties were forced to look at the movement and the dividends it could yield. The first bait they threw to the lawyers was boycott of the elections. Lawyers responded to it positively since a boycott would have added to the punch they were already packing. Continue reading ‘Where will the lawyers lead us? by Khaled Ahmed’
