Archive for the 'Pakistan' Category

Pakistan: Can we change? by Freddie

Published on May 31, 2008 in Pakistan. 2 Comments

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’

Karachi’s Winter Days By Sehba Sarwar

Published on April 3, 2008 in Karachi and Pakistan. 1 Comment

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’

An Electrifying Address to the Nation by President Pervez Musharraf by Shaheryar Azhar

Published on March 22, 2008 in Pakistan and People. 0 Comments

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’

Where will the lawyers lead us? by Khaled Ahmed

Published on March 8, 2008 in Pakistan. 2 Comments

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’

Can You Hear the Alarm Bells Over the Trumpets? By Shaheryar Azhar

Published on February 24, 2008 in Pakistan. 1 Comment

Pakistan’s born-again democracy will fail. Musharraf will be proved right that Pakistan does, after all need ‘unity of command’. The worst of the skeptics will say “Pakistan is a failing state with or without Military rule but more slowly with than without”. Pakistan’s elite that consists of majority of Army’s brass, its bureaucracy, its multi-national technocrats and its feudals will once again be singing paeans to a smartly-uniformed general who speaks in clipped tones. And they will be spitting venom in their living rooms on Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari - those no-good politicians who are taking the country down the garbage chute.

This, of course, has not happened yet but is quite likely to happen.

Everything that has sustained 33-years of military rule remains in place: a powerful military, strong ubiquitous web of intelligence agencies, weak civilian institutions, rampant societal corruption, deeply-entrenched feudalism, a thoroughly disillussioned populace and faltering economy. Only two things are missing for the moment: masses who are angry with those about to come to power and the will of the army to rule. Masses as of this very second are hopeful and the military desperately needs time to regroup and re-energize by polishing its image and paying attention to building its badly eroded professionalism. How long will it be before these ingredients also get thrown in the pot?

That, of course, depends on what follows. Continue reading ‘Can You Hear the Alarm Bells Over the Trumpets? By Shaheryar Azhar’

Pakistan’s Forgotten Man by Aitzaz Ahsan, Newsweek

Published on February 8, 2008 in Pakistan. 0 Comments

In the past months, as the crisis in Pakistan has worsened, key figures in the Bush administration, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have spoken out about the need for free and fair elections and have condemned extremism. Yet they’ve continued through-out to support the man who poll after poll show to be the least popular public figure in Pakistan, less so even than Osama bin Laden: President Pervez Musharraf. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte went so far as to call Musharraf an “indispensable ally” just days after the general declared de facto martial law and suspended Pakistan’s Constitution. Continue reading ‘Pakistan’s Forgotten Man by Aitzaz Ahsan, Newsweek’

Junta versus Janata by Shekhar Gupta, The Indian Express

Published on January 21, 2008 in Pakistan. 0 Comments

The Indian politician bumbles, the Pakistani general strides purposefully in his natty suits. Guess who keeps his country stable. Pakistanis surely coin more colourful political slogan than us. They are also less subtle. So, the next time you see visuals of a PPP protest rally on your TV screens following Benazir’s assassination, strain your ears a bit to catch a most telling slogan: Amreeka ne kutta paala, vardi waala, vardi waala. It would lose much flavour in transliteration, but the meaning would not be lost on even a non-Hindi speaker. Now when was the last time you had the army called a dog, and that too an American poodle, on Pakistan’s streets? And this is a Pakistan under an almighty (lately, former) general who has the power to declare and suspend emergency in televised speeches, the power to make 36 (or thereabouts) amendments in his “constitution” at a press conference, and whose ability to take the biggest decisions on the spot is the envy, often, of the Indian politician, and has been a cause for admiration among India’s chattering classes.

How many times, since he came on his first visit for the Agra summit, have we heard fellow Indians, including serious, knowledgeable people, talk of him with a sense of awe? Continue reading ‘Junta versus Janata by Shekhar Gupta, The Indian Express’

Of the same genetic sequence, yet…..

Published on January 8, 2008 in Pakistan. 3 Comments

[This one was forwarded to me by email. The name of the writer is unknown.]

Here’s what is happening in India :

The two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and would still be left with $30 billion to spare. The four richest Indians can buy up all goods and services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still be left with $60 billion to spare. The four richest Indians are now richer than the forty richest Chinese.

In November, Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex flirted with 20,000 points. As a consequence, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries became a $100 billion company (the entire KSE is capitalized at $65 billion). Mukesh owns 48 percent of Reliance. Continue reading ‘Of the same genetic sequence, yet…..’

The Plan To Topple Pakistan Military by Ahmed Quraishi

Published on December 1, 2007 in Emergency, Musharraf and Pakistan. 8 Comments

[I am a bit unsure about what’s written here as it is almost a mini-thesis yet Ahmed Quraishi fails to address the most important issue for me. He doesn’t talk about the judiciary. There is no mention of what they did wrong, unless he is implying they were also part of the US campaign against the Pakistan army. Because at the end of the day Musharraf and his government, by imposing this emergency, took action against no one except for the judiciary. Our superior judiciary is jobless. The media is mostly back on and soon GEO should be up and running as well. I believe the Dubai authorities have allowed them to operate.

You see it seems like Mr Quraishi is blaming the entire world for what’s going wrong in our country, yet he fails to explain why action was only taken against the judiciary. Also, if the judiciary is part of this whole thing, just like the media, students, activists, lawyers, then something inside me questions why, if at all, all the good men are in the army?

Also, if this is there is a conspiracy against the army then what’s more important is how has the Musharraf government tackled it since November 3 or, in fact, prior to it? All I can see is an act that has visibly weakened the superior judiciary for many years to come.

Just for e.g. the man attacks Ayesha Siddiqa and mentions her Indian contacts. Yet he says nothing about the facts contained in her book. If the research is accurate then what difference does it make whom she meets or befriends?

Well, it’s an interesting read for the conspiracy factor, though completely unsubstantiated.]

WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

The Plan To Topple Pakistan Military

 

This is not about Musharraf anymore. This is about clipping the wings of a strong Pakistani military, denying space for China in Pakistan, squashing the ISI, stirring ethnic unrest, and neutralizing Pakistan’s nuclear program. The first shot in this plan was fired in Pakistan’s Balochistan province in 2004. The last bullet will be toppling Musharraf, sidelining the military and installing a pliant government in Islamabad. Musharraf shares the blame for letting things come this far. But he is also punching holes in Washington’s game plan. He needs to be supported.

Continue reading ‘The Plan To Topple Pakistan Military by Ahmed Quraishi’

Where We Went Wrong In Pakistan By Michael Gerson, Washington Post

Published on November 22, 2007 in Emergency and Pakistan. 0 Comments

President Bush’s democracy agenda, the argument goes, is radical, hopeless, failed, dangerous and destabilizing. And he is a hypocrite for not applying it vigorously enough in Pakistan; the administration, it seems, should be more principled and energetic in pursuing a discredited foreign policy. But perhaps the need for freedom is not so discredited after all.Pakistan has always been among the hardest of the hard cases when it comes to democracy — with its volatile combination of military rule, borderland terrorist havens and the Bomb. In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, few questioned the need for cooperation with President Pervez Musharraf in the Afghan campaign or the fight against al-Qaeda. And Pakistani cooperation was real, even though, as one administration official now recalls, “everyone knew they could have done more.” Continue reading ‘Where We Went Wrong In Pakistan By Michael Gerson, Washington Post’

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