Reconcile the duo: Pakistan is at stake!

  Voice of passionate Pakistanis

 Niklo Pakistan kee khaathir 
 Niklo Pak Afwaaj kee khaathir
 Niklo Jurath Mand Khan kee khaathir
 Ik khudmukhthaar jamhoor kee khaathir
 Ik muthahid Qoam kee khaathir 
. 
.
 Ik naee orhaan kee khaathir 

 Niklo Pakistan kee khaathir 

        We are yet to become a nation in true spirit of the word. Ethnic and religious fractures exist and are often exploited. Geographical location and time in history has made us Berlin or Beirut of South Asia. The fragility of our economy has put us on the verge of bankruptcy. Two factors have kept united this ‘Land of the Pak’: Kalima and Pak Army (the institution not personality). 

          The relevant has to realize that the ‘jamhoor’ of the day is much more conscious of its rights; more patriotic and much more perturbed to break the shackles of modern colonization and the spirit of it.

          The politicians of the 80s and 90s frustrated the masses to the limit of alienation. The arrival of the Captain on the political arena assembled ‘the like-minded’ around him: to some extent because of his personality but the major contributor was the hate of ‘the old-guards’. One called this phenomenon as ‘Imranizm’. 

            The ouster of the Captain was backed by the establishment: an assumption (evident historically). No call was given; no leader was leading. Still ‘jamhoor’ came out in great numbers on streets to demonstrate their resentment. 

            The person specific laws to give clean chit to the plunderers and a ‘license-to-loot’ by the august House of the Parliament was the starting point of transformation of resentment into anger. An attempt to kill Imran was not taken by the like-minded as an attack on a person but was considered as an act of waging a war against the phenomenon of Imranizm. 

          A very clear article of the constitution (election in 90 days of the dissolution of an Assembly) was blatantly ignored. Higher Judiciary was ridiculed, not somewhere else but in the Parliament! The Parliament, the custodian of the constitution, mercilessly breached the constitution on so many occasions. One feel one is living in a country without constitution and law! Anger of the like-minded was changing to rage but Pak Army zindabaad , still. 

            The old-guards conspired to pitch the ‘jamhoor’ against the Army(they wished it historically ): one despise even to think of such a scenario materializing. That, unfortunately, has happened.

            One fear a very bleak scenario: the transformation of anger into hate for Pak Army! The dream of our enemies. Peaceful demonstration anywhere and anytime is our democratic right: destroying our national assets; going against our army is no way acceptable. Cut those hands who have destroyed our assets; break those legs who have trespassed for plunder and destruction,

 but

 Oh Pak Army! Reconcile yourself to the ‘jamhoor’ who desperately wants Imranizm.                          Oh Captain! Reconcile yourself to Pak Army(strong army is our national dream and necessity), in this way you will be treading on the path of Imranizm.

 I am Tahir Zaman

 I am Imran

 

 

The Phoenix(PTI) will rise

 So cho Pakistan kee khaathir

 Ik naee orhaan kee khaathir

 Niklo Pakistan kee khaathir

 

       “The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” (The German philosopher Georg Hegel)

 

         We, yet again, find ourselves in the midst of crises: political turmoil, near economic meltdown, critical and dangerous disrespect for both the judiciary and the constitution and terror attacks in parts of our country. We are used to such upheavals but this time the situation is worse than ever.

        The role of the army in deciding the political fate of the country has been decisive since its inception: the military establishment has either been the king or the king maker. We, as a nation, have miserably failed to learn the lesson of history. The most worrying is the failure of the elite- both political and military- to learn their lesson: the seesaw of power continues at the whim of the establishment. The result is that we find ourselves far behind in all aspects even from country like Bangladesh.

        The like-minded (safely more than 70% of the Jamhoor) have rallied around the Captain to some extent because of his personality but to a greater extent because of their hate for the old-guards. There seems to be a scuffle (orchestrated and fueled by the forces of status quo) between the military elite and the like-minded. The most worrying and detesting part of the scuffle for one is that the most potent uniting force, the military, may lose its prestige to both the Jamhoor and the enemy. The like-minded have been cornered and crushed for the past few months like an occupied nation. The military leaders and the leadership of the like-minded have to analyze the situation on ground.

        This is an era of Fifth-generation warfare (5GW). It is the war of perceptions and information. It aims to distort the perception of the masses to give a manipulated view of the world and politics. There is a build-up of 5GW on the streets and in the national media (both print and electronic): the planner is invisible(!)

         The military leadership has to be very prudent in using this weapon of ‘distortion’ with respect to the ‘Jamhoor’. The weapon may go counterproductive if misguided or misused. General Sir, field officers with acumen who can feel the pulse of the ‘Jamhoor’. Nobody is buying what is being portrayed in the national media: the ‘Jamhoor’ of the day has come of age.

          It seems that the 5GW guided missile has been misguided and misused. The old-guards cunningly planned to kill two birds-the military leadership and the like-minded- with one stone. They have been trying to distort the perception of the Jamhoor by projecting the scuffle as a personal vendetta of the military leadership, especially of General Asim Munir for reasons.

        Events leading to 9^th May had an evil method behind it: instigation, jeer(to pump up emotional youth), torture etc. The civil bureaucracy is in the hands of the PDM and they are using it mercilessly to build up their case and to wage 5GW against the Jamhoor and the military. The brutal handling of the ‘Azadi March I; the assassination attempt on Imran during Azadi Mach II.

          Higher Judiciary is being ridiculed, not somewhere else but in the Parliament! The Parliament, the custodian of the constitution, mercilessly breached the constitution on so many occasions. Superior Judiciary decisions were refused to be implemented. Constitutionally, all institutions have to come in aid of the Superior Judiciary but surprisingly none of them came.

              More than a century of FIRs were lodged against the Captain in a very peculiar way. The climax of the evil conspiracy hatched was that the Captain was arrested and crowds were lured towards unguarded military installations. No judicial or independent inquiry was conducted.

         The leadership of PTI is jailed and are only given bail when they are ready to hold a press conference to say bye-bye to PTI. A king’s party, rather, king’s parties are under ‘construction’: the spiritless faces of those joining the king’s parties say it all!

         The Punjab Police is acting like foreign occupying forces of the 19^th century. Their atrocities against the workers and leadership of PTI resembled the fascism of the Nazi Germany.

      The streets talk of a conspiracy. PDM would craftily hint that what has and still happening is beyond their power and that someone else is the planner and executor.  The leadership of the PDM are successful in pitching the ‘Jamhoor’ against the military: 5GW won for the time being!

       Chief, you and the other top brass are the most highly decorated, extensively and expensively trained officers of the country and vendetta, especially, against your own people is least expected  of you. Hazrat Ali(ra), was about to cut off the head of his victim, the desperate man spat on his face. Ali(ra) spared his life and released him, saying that if he had killed the man then, his motive will not remain purely for the cause of Allah but due to personal anger. One is sure that vendetta  in non-existent in the dictionary of the military leadership: please give a shut up call to the PDM. The alternative given in the shape of PDM is tested and proven rotten, corrupt, selfish and incapable: the ‘Jamhoor’  will never accept them.

            Captain, we, the like-minded, believe in you: you are a true leader and a fighter. We also believe in ourselves and are confident that soon the phoenix will rise from the ashes of the aromatic branches and spices to complete the agenda that we dreamt of. Three sentences for you. Learn from your mistake. Be prudent in selection of your companion. Consider the masses as your sons and daughters. Three words to ponder on: sacrifice, reconciliation and ‘thadreej’( the gradual way; the Islamic way)

             Some among us may have strayed but we believe in peace, not in war; we stand for construction rather than destruction. Treat us as patriotic and respectable citizen with human rights. Do not behave like an occupying force of the 19^th century.

 

 Ik naee orhaan kee khaathir

 

I am Tahir Zaman

I am Imran

 

 

Mind your language ‘ bharhay bhai’ : we intend to be a Pakistani nation.

                 
               Nation: a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, or history, inhabiting a particular state or territory. We, Pakistanis, may have a common history and state: the other notions of nationhood are missing and need to be cultivated to qualify the definition. The electronic media, which has to be the torchbearer in the nation building, seems to be dislocating the epicenter, Urdu, of the nation building process.
              Pakistan , a federation of four provinces and FATA: all having their own language; distinct rich cultures and different ethnicity and descent. This diversity was bridged by the forefathers of the  state through the binding force of ‘ la ilaha illah’. Urdu, having Persian and Arabic as its bedrock, was declared as the national language for reasons: it has the colours  of almost all the languages of the Subcontinent and none of the constituent units has a sole claim over  it.
      ‘ La ilaha illah’: the first pillar of our nationhood has been tarnished by the ugly jinnee  of sectarianism .The menace is not only dividing the nation; it is corrupting the very face of the peace preacher and love giver religion: Islam.  Ullema, political leaders , intellectuals and the media cannot absolve themselves of their negligence and has to do something very special to put the jinnee back in its bottle.
     Dawn, Geo, Aaj, ARY, etc are national television channels because the state has given them license to air themselves as Urdu channels. They represent all the units of the state. One has noticed that a huge majority of the anchors are of Punjabi origin: which is a good thing and one is a big fan of most of them. What is alarming for one is the recent  tendency of increasing  use of Punjabi in their talk shows.
         Punjab was  criticized for one unit as a move of Punjabi dominance. Its say in the Parliament;  its share in the bureaucracy  and state revenue has been perceived by the other three provinces as Punjabi dominance. One feel – and feel  good- that it is their right, but slowly and gradually transforming state representative media into a Punjabi media is neither good nor acceptable.
    The current   federal government, for its choice of its cabinet,  is dubbed as the Lahore/Punjab government. This tendency is not good for the federation. If we want to be a nation, which is ultimate for the progress  of the  state and its people, then we have to  have a representative government  not Punjab government; a state media not a Punjabi media. One must emphasize that a perfect bouquet must have  all the colour those exists: some may have thorns with them. Big brother, behave like one.

If it were a Pakistan ship

    THIS is apropos of the picture on Dawn`s front page (Jan 9), showing a ship split into two and sinking.

       As a Pakistani I wondered what would be the scenario in our country if the ship were Pakistani.

The immediate question raised by the media and others will be: who sank it? Did President Zardari sink it or the ISI? Others will detect a Jewish connection. The shipowners` sister`s neighbour`s wife in Brazil was an exIsraeli citizen, and some `leading Pakistanis` (names withheld to add to drama and suspense) had a close relationship with her.


And there was evidence that a large sum of money was promised by the CIA and Mossad to the man or institution which would arrange to have the ship sunk, and part of the money had already beendeposited in a Swiss bank. There were eyewitnesses.


Then someone of Nawaz Sharif`s stature would go to the SupremeCourt to call for an investigation into the conspiracy leading to the ship`s sinking, and the National Assembly will set up a committee todetermine if the sinking was deliberate.


And there will be calls for the government`s resignation, demands that the army take over; others opposing an army takeover and pleading for an interim government; still others threatening a wheel-jam strike throughout the country if the conspiracy was not unearthed within 24 hours and the conspirator punished.


And then sermons in mosques: we have such rulers as are hand in gloves with Israel.


Meanwhile, traffic violations will continue, power outages will be there as before, there will be no gas at CNG pumps, prices will continue to shoot, but the issue before the media, politicians and courts will be the ship that sank in South Pacific

Way out of the current impasse

               PAKISTAN is in a state of turmoil as two of its fundamental pillars — the judiciary and the executive — seem to be involved in a confrontation. A constitution is a set of fundamental principles according to which a state is governed. The present impasse is regarding the constitution’s fundamental rights and the immunity of the president.



           No constitution can be called democratic without the provision of fundamental rights: a guarantee for the people’s liberty. The 1973 Constitution has a list of fundamental rights. It has been clarified that any law that negates these fundamental rights will be considered null and void.


        Article 25 (one of the fundamental rights) of the constitution states that all citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of law. Article 248 of the constitution has made an exception to article 25.


       Article 248 (2) states that no criminal proceedings whatsoever shall be instituted or continued against the president or a governor in any court during his term of office; 248(3) no process for the arrest or imprisonment of the president or a governor shall issue from any court during his term of office; 248 (4) no civil proceedings in which relief is claimed   against the president or a governor shall be instituted during his term of office in respect of anything done by or not done by him …The exception made to article 25 is a blatant negation of the fundamental rights. The Supreme Court cannot strike down the presidential immunity as laid down in article 248 because the apex court has the right to interpret and not amend the constitution.


         If the Supreme Court declared the presidential immunity null and void , it would then be alleged that since the present government opposed the restoration of some members of the Supreme Court , it is waging a vendetta against the current government.


         No Sharia law, no citizen and no modern constitution would uphold such an exception as made in the fundamental rights through article 248 of the constitution.


      It is one’s innocent and patriotic wish that the Supreme Court bring to light the anomalies of the constitution regarding the presidential immunity and the fundamental rights and then send it to parliament to consider amendments

Obama’s gesture

                IN October 2009 President Barack Obama became the third sitting US president to win the Nobel Peace. He has pledged to give away the cash prize of $1.4 million to charity.
               One got green with envy when one heard the news that Obama has donated $100,000 to the Central Asia Institute that promotes and supports community-based education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. That kind of approach and that kind of attitude are non-existent in Pakistan’s nobility and ruling elite.
                Education is the backbone of any nation and to have an enlightened and educated nation the woman of that nation must be educated. The Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, once said:” Give me an educated mother, I will give you an educated nation”.
               Wisdom, history and Islam all emphasise the importance of women’s education. But our khans, waderas, maliks and the sardars are collectively averse to women’s education. They would do everything to discourage education among women, and if some enlightened official or international NGO succeeds in establishing girls school, they would swiftly transform it into their ‘autaaq’, ‘hujra’ and ‘baitak’(sort of rural guestroom).
                The West has moved away from the Dark Age toward progress and prosperity, while the Islamic world has sunk deep into darkness. This transformation may be due to the stark contrast in the attitude of the leadership of the two worlds.
                 While some Pakistanis miss no opportunity to abuse America, Americans and its president, few bother to take note of the noble deeds by the American people and leadership. Obama’s decision to spend part of the money on girls’ education in Pakistan and Afghanistan deserves commendation.

We need a political Einstein

                              EITHER a fool or a political Einstein would have opted to govern Pakistan at this critical juncture.
                            The country is facing the monumental task of building a nation battered by war on the state by internal enemies. Terrorism has traumatised Pakistani state and society.
                           The web of international conspiracies has exacerbated the institutional decay and the economic meltdown. The task is of the magnitude of 1947, if not greater. On the one hand, international and political and economic wolves have gathered in and outside Pakistan to hunt in packs.
                          This wicked assembly has the objective to break the only Islamic nuclear power into submission.
                         The country is facing leadership bankruptcy, besides economic mismanagement, corruption and inflation — all combining to suck the people’s blood.
                        The political and social fibre of the country is about to break as it faces extremism: both religious and ethnic.
                       The leadership in both government and opposition camps lacks vision and the political acumen to pull the country out of its quagmire.
                     The current set of leaders knows that they lack the capacity to guide Pakistan out of its current impasse.
                    They seem to have agreed that the PPP would remain in power for five years and then it would facilitate the PML(N) to rule for the next five.
                   No Pakistani politician wants a powerful and independent judiciary and media. So whenever the judiciary and the media assert their power and independence by forcing the government to obey the dictates of rule of law, both the government and the opposition jointly create an issue (for example, the rumpus over the appointment of judges).
                  The purpose usually seems to be to divert public attention from real issues. May God give us another Mohammad Ali Jinnah or Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Of two pictures in Dawn

              TWO pictures (one of savagery and the other of progress) that appeared on back page the same day in Dawn’s issue of Nov 22 would make every sane Pakistani hang his head in shame and ponder.
             One captured the devastation of a Pakistani school bombed to rubble; the other showed scientists clapping at the successful restart at Geneva of the Large Hadron Collider at the control centre of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern).
                 The scientists were clapping at the success of their experiment aimed at replicating the Big Bang
                 The Big Bang experiment is an effort to explain what happened at the very beginning of our Universe and how it came into being. Prior to the beginning of the Universe there was nothing; during and after that moment there was something — our Universe, which has billions of galaxies, each having billions of stars and suns.
          The name of the Cern spokesman, Steve Meyers, shows how the talented Jewish people are leaders in science and technology. (Let us not confuse Jewish with Israeli. Throughout history Muslims and Jews have enjoyed excellent relations.)
          Muslim scientists at Baghdad and in Spain were pioneers of most modern scientific disciplines. The Muslims were then the masters of the world. Then the world turned upside down. Masters (both in science and in polity) became slaves and slaves became masters. The Muslims receded deep into darkness.
        Pakistan came into existence in 1947, and the Muslim world looked to it as the harbinger of a new era. We had all the prerequisites — land, people, history and culture and scientific manpower — to assume the role of a leader of the Muslim world.
           Initially, we, as a nation, took positive steps towards that goal but then strayed from the path of progress, enlightenment and democracy. Look what we have made of the dream of Allama Iqbal and the vision of the Quaid.
          The land, where peace reigned, now echoes with terror. Here schools and universities are being bombed; culture is being shackled; sports are being targeted.
          The US threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the stone age”, unless it joined the war on terror and helped it prosecute the war on Afghanistan and punish the Taliban government for harbouring the hijackers who flew their planes into the twin towers.
           General Musharraf said that the warning was delivered by former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to Pakistan’s ISI Director Ahmad Mahmood. Whether or not the United States would have done so is a matter of opinion, but the enemy within is threatening to show us the glimpses of the stone age.
          Most regretfully, some leading ‘religious’ parties and ulema are keeping quiet at Pakistan’s descent into darkness and looking the other way while the Taliban kill innocent men, women and children.

A deal with the people

                                                      

                

                     A NATION is free when it is able to govern itself and the best mechanism for a people to govern itself is democracy. If democracy is the body of freedom, then the free and independent judiciary and the media are its soul and blood.
                  An independent judiciary assures that decisions will be based on laws and the constitution, not on the pressures of a temporary majority. Thus an independent judicial system in a democracy serves as a safeguard of the people’s rights and freedoms.
                  Democracy thrives on freedom of speech. It depends upon a literate, knowledgeable citizenry whose access to information enables it to participate in the public life of their society and to criticise unwise government policies.
                   The recent movement of judicial activism was nurtured by the media. It was the media which brought to light the political maturity of the nation and showed the world that it has awakened from the deep slumber and would support those who would go for the movement.
                   The mood of the public forced the political parties to support the movement initially, but most transgressed later. Political parties aspiring to come to power would not like to have an independent and strong judiciary and media. They supported the movement then because they were not able to muster any support from the public on issues other than the judiciary.
                  The U-turns of the three pundits (Musharraf, Benazir and Nawaz) about each other, the judiciary and the media reminds one of the story of three friends who wanted to cheat a man of his hide.
                  The first one came to his prey and asked him if he wanted to sell its hide. On an affirmative reply, he asked the man as how he tanned the skin.
                  He replied that he tanned it under the sun. The cheat exclaimed that he had destroyed a perfect skin by tanning it under the sun instead of a shade.
                  His reply to the second friend was that he had tanned it under a shade. The man was told that he had committed a mistake as skin is tanned under the sun.
                  The disappointed man’s reply to the third friend was that he tanned the skin half under a shade and half under the sun. He was dismayed when he was told that skin is either tanned under the sun or under a shade.
                  The way the three big are dealing among themselves and with the international players suggests that Pakistan was a deal between the ruling class and the masters: the ruler would enjoy ruling the masses and the masters would get unhindered cooperation.
                   The Muslim of South Asia voted for one thing: government of the people, by the people and for the people. Would there be anyone who has the acumen, the aspiration, and the will-power to make a deal with the masses: the owners of Pakistan?
                   One would dare remind those who matter of a saying: “You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

May God save this country

http://www.dawn.com/2008/06/29/letted.htm#3

                        A MISS did not know how to dance but she claimed otherwise. When tested, she failed miserably, her excuse being that the ground was uneven. The current leadership has no idea how to dance to the thundering music of inflation, the economic crisis and the breakdown of law and order.
                        The leadership is novice compared with Gen Zia and Gen Musharraf in resisting US pressure. They are crying foul and have unleashed the floodgates of confusion: these judges or those judges, constitutional amendments, the impeachment threat, etc. They are striving to divert the attention of the masses from the real throbbing issues.
                         Leaders are born, not produced. The Pakistani nation has not given genuine leaders to itself with the exception of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto: Benazir had the traces of greatness. Mr Musharraf, a dictator, seems ‘gold’ in comparison with the so-called democratic leaders of the day.
                           One does not support Mr Musharraf clinging to power. He must go, but what has the current leadership, on offer? Confusion and chaos. They are visionless and good governance is beyond their scope.
                        Nobody seems to rule the country; confusion reigns. The PML (N) actively participated in the long march and Mr Zardari offered meals to the marchers: they are partners in the coalition government! The minister for information has no clue as to who asked the UAE authorities to force a Pakistani TV channel to either restrain or pack up!
                        The Lahore High Court decreed that Nawaz Sharif cannot contest the by-election and the prime minister has ordered filing an appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court! The cabinet declares all the above developments as conspiracies against the government.
                         People on the streets are fearful of the continuation of the crisis. If the leadership does not stand up and remove the dark ugly clouds of uncertainty and confusion, then there is a real danger to Pakistan’s security. May God save this country.

Lal Masjid

            FOR six months, it was a laboratory in the making.The black clouds of confusion, maladministration, lawlessness and terror that covered the capital forthe past six months have given rise to many conspiracy theories.
            There are people who think that the imams of the mosque were initially the accomplices of the government and the drama was staged for two types of audience: international and domestic.
              There are analysts who think that the Musharraf government got what it wanted-continuation as president in uniform and economic and military aid from America.
              The Taliban phenomena in Afghanistan and its spill-over into Pakistan are perceived in the West (particularly in the US) as a big threat to their interests in the region.
              Whenever the government sees the West getting weary of the current setup in Pakistan they would stage a real drama: be it in the shape of Taliban in the tribal belt or the MMA factor in the settled area.
              The Lal Masjid drama was staged right in the middle of the capital, they say, to make the West believe that the threat of an extremist takeover of nuclear Pakistan is real and that the current setup is their only choice.
              On the domestic front: it is election year (both for the president and parliament).There are constitutional issues relating to the presidential election which would require a tame CJ, who turned out not to be so. So he was referred to the Supreme Judicial Council.
               The popular support for the CJ and the independence of judiciary gave a platform to the fractured opposition to initiate a movement against the government. As a result a multi-party conference was called in London.
               The MPC had the potential to forge an effective alliance against the government. The climax of the Lal Masjid drama coincided with the MPC. As a result: all the cameras were focused on Lal Masjid and the MPC got little or no attention. Thus the MPC was a total failure.
                There has been continuous debate in the West, particularly in the US, as to whether the Musharraf government has the capacity to prevent the extremists from taking over nuclear Pakistan. A practical demonstration of their abilities would satisfy the West. For six months the imams and students were allowed to grow big and transform the mosque and the madressah into a fortress. Then came the time to test and show the world the abilities of Pakistan's SSG (Special Services Group).
                The lab was ready, the experiment was conducted and the weapon was tested successfully for the benefit of the international audience. Time will tell what the domestic audience will think of it.
                Whether it was a stage-managed drama or a miscalculated drive by the imams one thing is sure, the event would have grave future consequences for the nation.