Salman Taseer - Stopping the Hate Machine

Dictatorship is considered an undesirable form of government for any State mostly because dictators impose policies only to prolong their time in power. These policies are never people-centric because dictators don’t seek power from the people, that is why their policies are never in line with the will of the people. That was the case with General Zia ul Haq in the 1980’s, he empowered religious forces in the country which helped him gain support for the Afghan War, he paved way for the polarization and extremism in the society that we observe today. Gen. Zia sowed the seeds for total destruction of the Pakistani society and although he has been dead for 23 years he is still killing people and the damage he caused is irreversible in many ways.

Gov. Salman Taseer was assassinated by his security staff Mumtaz Qadri five days ago, who based on his initial statements believed that Gov. Taseer had made blasphemous comments. Gov. Taseer  was supporting and lobbying for an amendment in the anti-blasphemy law to curb its abuse. I have spent the past five days observing the reactions from different factions of the society trying to understand where we stand as a nation.

I was not a fan of Gov. Taseer because of his association with certain people but his assassination is a loss to Pakistan because of his liberal positions. Gov. Taseer had also been the target of a defamation campaign run by social conservatives on the web, pictures of his family were used to make a case against him. He was declared a non-Muslim by extremist clerics before and after his unfortunate death. It was disappointing to see the blatant sense of jubilation amongst those who disapproved of his position on the anti-blasphemy law and those who were perhaps envious of his lifestyle, none of this would have been possible in any other country and I find it extremely alarming.

The reaction we have seen from religious forces is simply wrong not only because they have failed to condemn this heinous crime but also because they have launched a well designed campaign to brand Mumtaz Qadri as a man of conviction. They have been wording their arguments to justify the crime instead of denouncing it. Two videos of Qadri have been uploaded on the web one shows him summarily confessing to his crime and in the next one he is reciting a Naat in police custody both of which are being used to drum up support for him.

Pakistani society stands at yet another (clichéd) cross road, the intolerance that prevails in the society has reached dangerous levels and people do not know how to deal with disagreements anymore. Even the religious leaders who refer to themselves as “scholars” have issued numerous “Fatwas” against each other.

Religious parties do not win elections in Pakistan, however, right wingers have always been loud but now they have resorted to measures which are designed to scare the opposition so that they would simply stop talking. They do not understand that their extremism is only hurting Islam and Muslims around the world and their protectionism is only making their arguments weaker. They have made it impossible for educated moderate Muslims to present a strong case for true Islam on a global scale.

All Muslims have the highest possible amount of respect and admiration for Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and that is not subject to any debate. This whole issue is being used by religious extremists to gain further control over political and social discourse because most of the conservative leaders lack education and awareness of global issues and they fear that if liberal thought is allowed to grow in the society they will lose their captive audience and become irrelevant. That is why right wingers love to explain every event with a conspiracy theory which is never backed by any facts.

Majority of Pakistani liberals are Muslims and obviously they cannot be against their own religion. Attempts are being made to play this as Conservatism versus Liberalism issue, if it is anything it is a Reason versus Extremism or Sanity versus Insanity issue. This is a matter of supremacy of law in plain simple terms.

Some drastic measures are required to restore the much needed stability in the society. We can even take some ideas from General Zia’s playbook, surprising I know but hear me out. General Zia’s administration heavily censored all available electronic and print media to restrict free thinkers and allow right wing extremism to grow in the country. Although I support freedom of expression but in these volatile times we might have to redefine what that freedom means. Should hate mongering be allowed in the name of freedom of expression? Limited censorship should be brought back, the government and the news media should align themselves to ensure that extremist clerics are not given any airtime, this would reduce their sphere of influence. At the same time moderate scholars focusing on the true spirit of Islam should be given more opportunities to spread their message. News media will have to start thinking beyond ratings and advertising revenues to ensure their programming is appropriate.

Similarly right wing columnists who have always served as propaganda machines should be banned completely. The government should look to block websites promoting extremist ideologies. Clerics who are well known divisive forces should not be allowed to hold public rallies. The hate machine must be stopped.

Liberals will have to ensure that they do not let right wing scare tactics work, they must speak up and take a stand for their beliefs. If this downward spiral is to be stopped supremacy of law will have to be ensured and reason will have to prevail.

Violence has no room in a civilized society and no individual or group can be allowed to decide anyone else’s fate and people who were issuing verdicts first calling for Gov. Taseer’s murder and then justifying it should be arrested and tried in a court of law for their role in this crime. Those who showered Qadri with flowers at his court appearance and those who made and uploaded his videos on the internet must also be stopped and investigated.

Mumtaz Qadri is a suspect at this stage and I hope he gets a fair trial in accordance with the law, he is not a hero. If there was a hero on January 4 it was certainly Salman Taseer.

Gen. Zia spent 11 years destroying the very fabric of our society and it might take us a lot longer to take our country back on the right track but the key is to keep trying. It is becoming increasingly difficult but I choose to remain optimistic.

WikiLeaks and The Conspiracy Theories

This has been an ‘outing’ of people who weren’t even ‘in’ anymore because they had been ‘out’ for a while, so perhaps we can call it a ‘re-outing’.

There has been plenty of discussion about the latest set of documents revealed by WikiLeaks and going by the current rate the issue may continue for a few months. There has been a controlled reaction in Pakistan which has been interesting to observe. It is understood that most of the revelations confirmed what most informed people already knew and so far very little value has been added by the bulk of the cables released. However, these leaks have brought focus back to some important issues from a Pakistani perspective, matters such as Predator Drone attacks on Pakistani soil and the military's role in the political situation of the country.
(http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/01/wikileaks.pakistan.drones/index.html)

We as a nation have a healthy appetite for conspiracy theories and political strategists have adopted a simplistic two part response to all questions asked of them which is that they have doubts over the authenticity of these documents and it is a conspiracy to ruin Pakistan’s relationships with ‘brother’ Muslim countries.

Considering the first part of their response - they seem to have lost sight of the fact that Secretary Clinton condemned the leaks as an “attack on international community” she did not disown any of the documents which she would have if they were forged. Somehow the Pakistani Government ministers and opposition leaders thought this would be a good defence – it was not.

Second part has a much wider appeal which deals with our relationships with some Arab countries, specifically dealing with the comments reported to have been made by the unelected ruler of KSA about President Zardari. Some people in Pakistan have made valiant efforts to defend King Abdullah without any clarification from his side. It is strange but somehow religious conservatives believe they must have an opinion on every matter that pertains to KSA although this matter is strictly diplomatic / political and has no religious implications whatsoever. A very senior right wing journalist whose views are frozen in the early 80’s in his column today outrightly denied all comments associated with the King on the grounds that he believes a man of the King’s stature will never make such comments. This is way beyond naïve it is either dishonest or really dishonest because he has no substantive basis to make such definitive conclusions. I believe this journalist should have stopped writing 20 years ago.

While considering whether or not these comments were made, we have to acknowledge that the Saudi Kings along with other Middle Eastern leaders have been involved with most of the major political developments in Pakistan in the past 40 years. They have brokered political deals and have acted as guarantors and enforcers and hence, have had a lot of exposure to the Pakistani political and military leaderships. If anyone has to set the record straight it would be the KSA government and they can then demand an apology from the US Department of State if their Diplomats were misquoting the honorable King. KSA so far has taken a position similar to that of Pakistan, the following is an extract from Middle Eastern news media:

“Saudi Arabia has no connection with the documents published by WikiLeaks nor does it have anything to do with its formulations, said an official source at the Foreign Ministry. “We cannot confirm the authenticity or credibility of the documents released by the website. Saudi Arabia cannot comment on them,” the source said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday”

There is a second equally popular conspiracy theory that all of these documents have been leaked deliberately by the US and there are specific objectives to be achieved by this. I believe this has put US diplomats in such difficult positions around the world that these leaks could not have been orchestrated by the State Department but then there are other powerful elements within the US establishment, at this stage it is hard to rule out any other possibilities. However, we must notice that the leaked documents have only revealed one side of most stories and the snippets that have been widely discussed have been reported without context, based on the leaks we have not learned anything new about US policy positions so we can safely say that process has been controlled carefully by someone, that could have been done for a number of reasons, we just don’t know them yet.

The other interesting question is if there was more that should have been done to prevent the leaked documents from being made public and that would perhaps be the subject of some books to be published in the next few years. It was obviously not very hard for US government to take WikiLeaks out.

These leaks have put a lot of people in Pakistan in really embarrassing positions including Gen. Kiyani who had previously played himself as a non-political figure, he is being talked about on all public forums which would make it very difficult for him to act upon his political ambitions, if any. It would be interesting to see his reaction and if he would be able to maintain his stature within his organization. In a rather unfunny way President Zardari’s reputation is not affected by anything anyone says anymore. Revelations about Sharif brothers and Fazlur Rehman have put them all in damage control mode as well. People who have been discussed unfavorably in the cables are bound to gain in popularity in their respective constituencies thanks to all the anti American propaganda that goes on around the world.

For most these conspiracy theories are just ways to not face the reality and take responsibility, as George Costanza of Seinfeld once famously said “It is not a lie if you believe it”.

The power players in Islamabad should admit that they allowed the US government to have too much influence on internal functioning of the government and that they need to change their ways. I thought most of our political leaders could not properly pronounce the word ‘sovereignty’ unfortunately now we have realized they don’t know what it means either.

We must stop telling our public that the world is out to get us, because we have to understand and protect our own interests just like any other country and in the process we will have agreements with some and disagreements with others and that is all part of the game. We have to get out of this conspiratorial mindset which prevents us from thinking objectively.

There would be new documents leaked everyday for weeks to come and talking heads on TV will milk the issue for as long as possible but I am mostly interested in seeing if this would have an impact on how things are done in Islamabad. I have a feeling that I know the answer to that already but I choose to remain optimistic.

President Zardari and The Unreasonables

I disagree for the most part with President Zardari and the policies adopted by his party, I can elaborate on this statement and get into the specifics but that would take us away from the actual discussion, I just wanted to say this right in the beginning to avoid the usual suggestions that I am some undercover “jiala”.

I agree with the popular idea that President Zardari should have cancelled or postponed his trip to France and the UK due to floods in three provinces. I also agree that Pakistan government should have sent a much stronger message in response to the naïve statements made by the British PM David ‘The Gaffe Machine’ Cameron.

Having said all of that I could not disagree more with Imran Khan’s PTI for organizing a protest against President Zardari first in London and then in Birmingham, pictures similar to the one I have posted above were all over the British media. I believe President Zardari must do a much better job as president but no one can deny that he is the duly elected President. PTI supporters carried signs like “King of Corruption” and “Well Done Gen. Pasha” which clearly showed an anti-democracy mindset and I have reasons to doubt the actual motives of these protesters.

PTI has caused Pakistan a great embarrassment by their conduct because we never saw Democrats protesting George Bush in Islamabad, neither did we ever see Tories marching against Blair’s policies in Karachi. Why did PTI and Imran Khan think it was acceptable to embarrass a Pakistani President while he was in a foreign country further weakening his position to present Pakistan’s case? Do these people not understand that irrespective of how you feel, elected representatives of the people of Pakistan will now be representing Pakistan in all international forums, and by attacking them personally these PTI activists are actually hurting Pakistan.

Imran Khan’s PTI decided to demonstrate in London because that was the only way for the party to make its presence felt in the media, had it been Pakistan a group of 10 people would not have gotten any attention, unfortunately 10 people is the most Imran Khan can gather in one place at any given time.

It is unfortunate that most of PTI supporters in the UK are closeted Musharraf fans too, these people try to gain influence back home to obtain petty benefits, some of them dream of returning to Pakistan one day as a Moeen Qureshi or a Shaukat Azziz and that dream can never come true if there is democracy in Pakistan that is why they malign politicians and keep looking for insider deals. Imran Khan presents an interesting option to these people because if he ever cuts a deal with the establishment he will need people to fill in positions in the party and the government and these PTI supporters believe that their time might come then. It is a sad reality but I have based this analysis on many personal interactions with Pakistanis based in the US and UK over the past few years.

When an Iraqi journalist shoe-bombed President Bush it was condemned by all Americans because the President represents the country, however, when unconfirmed reports emerged of a person tossing his shoes in the air in Birmingham during President Zardari’s speech, the story was first twisted to make it sound as if shoes were thrown at President Zardari and then there was a wave of restrained jubilation in the teen-age internet communities most of whom are anti-democracy Musharraf supporters. The media used words like “pelted” and “hurled” to describe the incident making it sound sensational. It was unfortunate to observe this, but I think the President adopted the right strategy by taking the high road and not allowing the attacker to get any attention, because most of these lunatics are looking to gain personal benefits.

I believe domestic politics should be discussed and debated within the country, disagreements over policies should not be used to justify unpatriotic behavior. There shouldn’t be any international wings of Pakistani political parties, because they are only used by ambitious expatriates to have undue influence in Pakistan.

At the same time the government must do a better job at dealing with the crisis in the country and while it is very difficult to improve things in the short-term there must be a distinctly identifiable direction. They also need to communicate with the people more using direct methods such as one-on-one interviews and news paper articles, they should avoid using talk shows and public rallies where the messages are always misconstrued. Threat to Pakistani democracy is more real now then it has been in the past two years and our people must understand that their lives will only become worse if the democratic government gets removed using unconstitutional means. Pakistanis should try to get involved with the legitimate political process to improve its quality instead of supporting dictators who would destroy the country to prolong their time in power just like Gen. Musharraf did.

In the meanwhile, I choose to remain optimistic and Passionate About Pakistan and so should you !!

Pakistan Cricket Board and The Head-Butt

Supporting Pakistan cricket team has always been a roller coaster ride but it has become increasingly difficult over the past 5 years, there has been some good news coming mostly from the T20 version of the game and then there has been terrible news on every other front.

The biggest reason for Pakistan’s inconsistent performance has always been poor management and most of the time it is hard to fathom anything the cricket board does.

For the longest time Chairmanship of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been awarded to allies, friends, and relatives of the ruling party each one of whom experimented with domestic formats, selection committees, coaches, captains, batting orders, disciplinary actions, training facilities and even PCB’s constitution.

In the past 10 years the following have attempted to manage PCB:

- Mr. Tauqir Zia – A retired general disposed of by Gen. Musharraf. His achievements include pampering Shoaib Akhtar, ensuring his son played international cricket for Pakistan, an unnecessary indoor training facility and a TV rights controversy with a private channel.

- Mr. Shaheryar Khan – A retired diplomat who was friends with the dictator. His achievements include overseeing the Oval fiasco which resulted in Pakistan losing a Test match due to forfeiture and a moron called Darryl Hair.

- Mr. Naseem Ashraf – Some old guy who liked bowling in PCB’s training facility meant for the national team, he disappeared soon as Gen. Musharraf stepped down. He has the honor of travelling the most as Chairman at PCB’s expense. His achievements include pretending to know a little bit about cricket.

- Mr. Ijaz Butt – He played the last of his 8 test matches in 1962 and took over PCB when he was only 70 years young. Since he is currently in-charge of the chaos let us discuss his work in a bit more detail.

In all honesty on paper Mr. Butt is more qualified to be the head of PCB than any of the other gentlemen listed above. Following his playing career Mr. Butt was involved with cricket administration and served as Secretary of PCB and President of Lahore City Cricket Association. However, his appointment as Chairman was primarily due to his connection with a minister of the current government. That fact could have been over looked if he had proved himself a better administrator since he understood Pakistan’s cricketing culture much better than any of the imported Chairmen.

However, that wasn’t to be, Mr. Butt’s administration has failed PCB on many fronts causing a lot of distress to die-hard cricket fans like myself, just a few are listed below:

- Pakistan lost its position as co-host of the 2011 world cup, this alone was worth a few million dollars.

- Abruptly fired Jeff Lawson as coach and handed the team to the way over-the-hill Intikhab Alam.

- Failed to develop a management team and constantly had public differences with other prominent members such as Javed Miandad, Aamir Sohail and Abdul Qadir.

- England was awarded the undeserved victory once again for the Oval fiasco of 2006.

- Failed to form any alliances at the ICC governing body level and couldn’t earn the respect of the other members of ICC.

- Developed personal differences with players, currently Younis Khan arguably Pakistan’s best available batsman is out of the national squad because of Mr. Butt.

The biggest failure he has had is on the team management front, which should have been his strongest suit as a former player. Much like other Chairmen he did not deal with ‘player-power’ issue and could not maintain any discipline in the team and there were 3 groups at all times within the outfit.

Team leaders kept changing more frequently than any other major team, Mr. Butt’s tenure started in October 2008 with Shoaib Malik as captain, then Younis Khan took over, Mohammad Yusuf was then chosen to lead Pakistan to Australia, next Shahid Afridi became captain who stepped down after one test in England, and then puppy-faced Salman Butt was thrown into the fire. Each of the captains was removed because of non-cooperation from fellow players.

Younis Khan openly expressed that he had lost control over the team, and then after the disastrous tour of Australia Mohammad Yousuf had to disclose that Shoaib Malik’s group was making his life miserable. Finally, Mr. Butt decided to take action against the miscreants, Shoaib Malik, Rana Navaid, Younis khan, and Mohammad Yousuf were banned from playing for Pakistan and heavy fines were levied against Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi. The disciplinary actions were well supported by former players, but as expected within a short period of time all the actions were reversed under political pressures and the current Pakistan team has all of these players except for Younis and Rana.

All of this drama has turned Pakistan into laughingstock of the cricketing world. During this time Pakistan has only won matches due exceptional performances by individual players, just like the last test agains Australia in July 2010 where the bowlers bundled out the opposition for 88 runs, somehow once again this was hailed as the 'dawn of a new era'.

Currently Pakistan is playing a test series against England and the first match has already been lost quite badly. But the board seems reluctant in addressing the actual issue. The all powerful group in the team is going to ensure that Salman Butt fails as captain so that the leadership can either go to Shoaib Malik or Kamran Akmal.

The good thing for Mr. Butt is that he is still in office and has the chance to do a few things right. Besides doing everything else that he needs to, if Pakistan team has to get better in the short run Mr. Butt must do the following:

- Bring Younis (Ave. 50.09)  and Yousuf (Ave. 53.07) back unconditionally, because clearly Azhar Ali and Umar Amin are not ready for the job yet.

- Immediately remove Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal from the team, all three of them are out of form and are causing nothing but trouble for the captain.

- Provide Salman Butt the support that he needs to control this team.

- Danesh Kaneria is out of form but should be kept with the squad and it must be borne in mind that his figures over the past two years have been ruined by the dropped catches and missed stumpings by the wicket-keeper.

- Stop making erratic decisions.

According to recent news Yousuf is being sent to England it is not clear if he will play the second test or not. With the looks of things the team might do better if one of the players comes up with an exceptional performance with the bat or ball but we cannot expect any kind of consistency from this squad.

Second test starts on August 6, I will be prepared mentally for another disappointment but will watch the scores with as much optimism as I possibly can but that’s just me!!

People of Pakistan Need Your Help!!

As you must have heard by now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan was hit by severe flooding on July 29, 2010, hundreds of people have died and thousands have lost their homes. City of Nowshera and its surrounding villages have been affected severely, one of my close friends who is now based in the US lost his house in Nowshera.

Currently the water is receding and the tenacious locals are trying to return to their homes and salvage what is left of their properties. There is a severe shortage of food and drinking water, according to estimates 2 million people in the region are still in need of assistance.

There are quite a few organizations operating in the region providing food, shelter and healthcare services to the affected however, their resources are limited, as Pakistanis we must do whatever we can to help our brothers in need, use the links below to find out how you can help, sending a donation is the least we can do:

(I will be updating the links as I find out more, please check back in a few hours).

Islamic Relief USA   http://www.islamicreliefusa.org/Page.aspx?pid=463

Edhi Foundation  http://www.edhifoundation.com/contact.asp

Pakistan Red Crescent  http://www.prcs.org.pk/default.asp

Save the Children   http://www.savethechildren.org/newsroom/2010/help-families-pakistan-flooding.html?WT.mc_id=gg_e_np&gclid=CPPaxOHml6MCFQG3sgodyU0dow&WT.srch=1

Al-Khidmat  http://al-khidmatfoundation.org/donate-here.php

Please watch the video below and take a look at the images to understand the devastation these floods have caused.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o05Ka4AJx1M&feature=related

The Porn Debate

Recently Fox News an organization which claims to be a news outlet came out with a story about Pakistan’s interest in porn searches on the web. Personally I don’t take anything seriously that comes from Fox because over the years we have seen it has a bias towards ‘Lack of Intellect’ generally referred to as ‘Stupidity’.

However, the story was picked up by the media all over the world because it provided them with an entertaining opportunity to bash Pakistan, since these days it is very easy and popular to do so. The story was exaggerated and played completely out of context. From Pakistanis there were two usual reactions one stating that this is obviously a conspiracy and the other from our elitist friends who believe everything nasty about Pakistan must be true (that is why most of them try not to live there).

I felt the need to spend a little more time understanding if Pakistanis were actually that bad and decided to run a brief current report on some of the commonly known porn searches using the same source as Fox did. Here is what I found:

       

(Source: http://google.com/trends I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the table above neither does Google!! See below.)

This information could be very relevant to you if you are a Cat or a Chicken because you would certainly want to avoid travelling to certain countries and cities. Using this you can also figure out how popular you could be in the Czech Republic or Algeria and how to make friends in Egypt. Fascinating isn’t it?

Obviously the US porn industry is the largest in the world and most significant chunk of their revenues come from the internet, so if everything in the Fox story were to be believed then technically Pakistanis are playing their role in stimulating global and US economy. So they are fighting Terrorism AND stimulating the Economy? BRILLIANT.

One more interesting factor that appeared in this random study was Richardson, Texas. Who would have thought a city with only 101,400 people (Est. 2007) could top 4 categories? According to Wikipedia (the most reliable source of information on the web after Twitter) there are over 5000 businesses in Richardson including 5 of the world’s largest Communication/Networking companies. I wonder why so many geeks were caught by Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator? I have no idea!!

It is also important to understand how Google Trends work and how reliable are these statistics. Here is what I found on their website:

How does Google Trends work?

Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. We then show you a graph with the results – our Search Volume Index graph.

How accurate and up-to-date is the information provided by Google Trends?

The data Trends produces may contain inaccuracies for a number of reasons, including data-sampling issues and a variety of approximations that are used to compute results. We hope you find this service interesting and entertaining, but you probably wouldn’t want to write your Ph.D. dissertation based on the information provided by Trends.

(Source:http://www.google.com/intl/en/trends/about.html#7 )

Hmm so Google HOPES that we would find this SERVICE INTERESTING AND ENTERTAINING!! I sure did.

While until mid of this week Fox was promoting Tea Party ideology which believes that the unemployed were too lazy to work and hence unemployment benefits must not be extended, they didn’t realize what they could learn about unemployment from Google Trends:

Top 10 cities of the world searching ‘Unemployment’ are all US cities!!

Obviously this will not have an impact on Fox they will continue to work with the Tea Party. They fail to understand basic Economic Concepts and are unsure how the unemployment checks could help stimulate and sustain economic growth. Hmm… Bias for ‘Lack of Intellect’??

For those who thought Pakistanis were only searching for porn, well you are wrong again, see below:

We understand that in accordance with estimates only 10.4% of Pakistanis have access to the internet (Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/pk.htm), so by no means this is a representative sample of Pakistanis but this can indicate in a limited manner what is bothering Pakistanis the most and what possible solutions they might think of.

While US is an exciting country for people everywhere the following must also be looked at:

While Fox and the people who picked up the story around the world chose to use Google Trends to mislead and misinform, if someone decides to study these statistics with some level of positivity it might help them understand some very relevant issues, here are some additional results:

Isn't anyone interested in knowing why UAE tops the search for Camel Children?

With the analysis above I do not intend to defend my people or justify or criticize anyone else’s behavior, I am just adding some relevant facts to the argument.

Those who think hatemongering is acceptable in the name of Freedom of Speech should also explain why shouldn’t a person have Freedom to access whatever legal content he/she chooses to on the internet?

Although Google miserably failed to sell their smart phone this highlights the power Google has over the world with its virtually unlimited access to personal information.

In the end, while it wasn’t my intention to use so many popular search items in one blog but I have, and this might increase traffic on the page exponentially, too bad. I felt the need to have a more detailed discussion about this issue since some were being too judgmental and others were being too apologetic and I don’t think we need to be either, we should just put the issue in perspective and be aware.

Political Talk Shows – The 3 Tiers

Political talk shows are a relatively new phenomenon in Pakistani television, they gained popularity soon after their launch in 2004 and now it is the most watched genre of programming. These shows captured the nation’s imagination because they allowed them an opportunity to observe their political leaders engage in debates and present their views on a fresh platform. These shows have had significant impact on our politics since every issue no matter how small is now raised on a national stage.
A whole new breed of television journalists has been born, the term “pseudo – intellectual“ has been introduced and understood. At the same time political parties started focusing on politicians who could articulate party positions on live talk shows, the term “talking points” was introduced and understood in Pakistan for the first time.

The news channels are engaged in rating wars and the anchors push really hard to anger the participants and get them to snap at each other, they would rephrase questions to make them as offensive as they can, and we all know it is not very hard to get a loud reaction out of us Pakistanis. I wouldn’t blame the television anchors for doing so because a controversy on the show helps with the ratings and advertising revenues. The most watched videos of Pakistani talk shows on YouTube are the ones involving Wasi Zafar, Raza Qasuri, Firdaus Ashiq Awan, Kashmala Tariq and Maj. Rashid Qureshi. Our nation seems to enjoy quasi-political cock fights.

However, watching these shows lately it is hard not to notice that the initial wave of success and interest is over largely due to the monotony of participants and inconsequentiality of discussions. On any given day almost all of the talk shows are discussing exactly the same issue with the same panel and the same rhetoric is offered each time.

The top leaders of all parties stay away from these shows because these are volatile environments and they prefer stable one on one interviews. I have noticed that the political parties have developed three tiers of spokespersons to represent them in these talk shows. It appears that the producers try to have at least one show with each of the three tiers every week to maintain revenues. Based on my personal experience of watching these talk shows the following are the arbitrary definitions of the three tiers:

Tier 1

This consists of relatively senior politicians and they participate in shows with new or important issues, they look to maintain composure and debate issues with dignity. Panelist from this tier look to avoid personal attacks on other participants. Anchors maintain a professional and controlled tone on these shows. This tier is generally seen discussing economic policy, foreign policy or national security, ratings for these shows are not very high. The following are the constituents of this tier:

Tier 2

This consists of newer politicians who tend to discuss issues of lesser significance and maintain a reasonable level of aggression. They look to be flexible with their positions and sometimes try to reconcile differences on live television. Anchors appear more relaxed on these shows as most of these discussions run smoothly. This tier is generally seen discussing governance issues and terrorism related matters, these shows have moderate ratings. The following are the constituents of this tier:

Tier 3

These are the pit bulls with no lipstick. This tier consists of people who are labeled as politicians because of their participation in these shows, these are individuals with very little credibility or track record. They try to do verbally to their opponents what Punjab police does physically  to their suspects. Their knowledge is generally limited to the talking points provided to them and on some occasions they fail to explain their own opinions. Some of these individuals are so incoherent that they make Sarah Palin look articulate. A show with tier 3 participants is most likely to have an unpleasant incident and the anchors make every effort to make it happen. Participants launch personal attacks at will and voices are raised to prevent opponents from explaining their positions. These shows have the highest ratings and are also watched internationally over the internet. This panel is generally seen discussing corruption or party issues. The following are the constituents of this tier:

There are two names, Imran Khan and Shiekh Rasheed, which appear in more than one tier largely because they are the sole representatives of their parties and have the ability to perform in different tiers.

Sometimes the producers look to mix the three tiers up and have fun with the product, especially when a tier 1 participant is confronted by a tier 3 panelist. Based on the anchor’s skills and tendencies some talk shows are more suited to tier 1 participants, and others to tier 2 and then there are shows that thrive purely on tier 3 participants, following is an arbitrary breakdown of the popular talk shows and their tier favourability:

Our newly liberated news media is evolving rapidly and while much of it is far from perfect it has been a positive influence on our national politics. Our news media can only get better with time, and when it does the following shall happen:

- the number of talk shows will reduce to a watchable level because at the moment there are way too many.

- better quality journalists will moderate these discussions.

- participants will learn to present and defend their views without getting all worked up.

- viewers will learn to draw intelligent conclusions from these discussion which will eventually have an impact on voting patterns and WWE style debates will completely lose appeal.

In the mean while I choose to remain optimistic and Passionate About Pakistan.

End of the Beginning for Imran Khan and PTI

Bye-elections in Rawalpindi’s NA 55 held a lot more significance than any such elections in the past, since this turned out to be a contest between Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PMLN) and the Rest of Pakistan which consisted of Shiekh Rasheed’s Awami Muslim League (AML), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PMLQ). Most observers were convinced that AML was also well supported by the Establishment.

Since the bye-elections in NA 21 Mansehra it was widely speculated that if PMLN fails to win NA 55 with a considerable margin it will be the end of PMLN’s presumed position as the government-in-waiting. A Shiekh Rasheed victory would have also helped PPP, PMLQ and the Establishment regain some of the ground lost in the past couple of years. However, none of that were to be and PMLN’s candidate managed to beat Mr. Rasheed and friends by over 20,000 votes according to the unofficial results announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan staff.

There were two slightly less interesting side shows - Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and Jamat-e-Islami (JI). Since both of these parties decided to boycott the elections in February 2008 and had spent most of the last 24 months criticizing the government and the opposition equally this was going to be a test for their message. Challenge for JI were to prove that they are politically alive but unfortunately for them it isn’t the 80’s anymore and General Zia has been dead for 22 years, they managed only 3,109 votes.

Challenge for Imran Khan was to prove that he can be competitive in the mainstream with the big guys. Based on the unofficial results PTI’s Ijaaz Khan managed to bag 3,105 votes in a constituency with 333,928 registered voters - 0.93% only, which was very consistent with PTI’s performance in the past 14 years since their formation in 1996.

                                                No. of seats

General Elections 1997                         0

General Elections 2002                         1

General Elections 2008                  Boycotted

Concessions were made in 1997 general elections for their performance since the party was formed just a few months before the elections and there was hardly any time to organize a proper election campaign.

For the engineered general elections of 2002 organized by the dictator General Musharraf it is interesting to note that PTI had nominated its candidates for almost all seats in the National Assembly and they managed to win only one which was contested by Imran Khan.

They boycotted the general elections in 2008 and there were speculations that PTI will now do much better compared with the 2002 general elections since they have had an opportunity to promote their message through the electronic media. PTI’s performance in 2010 bye-elections so far is as follows:

Bye Elections 2010            Winning Votes   PTI Votes

NA 21 Mansehra                 36,622               4,582

NA 55 Rawalpindi                63,888               3,105

PF 83 Swat                        7,505                3,821

Winning a seat would have been great but they weren’t even close to winning, in none of the cases were they even on the second position, in larger constituencies there impact was minimal where they bagged less than 1% of registered votes and had it not been for the celebrity party chairman they would not have been covered by the media. After observing their performance over the past 14 years it is fair to conclude that the political “beginning” for PTI and Imran Khan has “ended” and their future in popular politics has been placed in a box marked “Loud but Insignificant” and fairly soon even the urban youth will embrace this reality.

Our nation has always been interested in having one leader who would fix everything for them, we have never been fans of having a system and allowing it to function. Imran Khan when he first launched himself as a political figure was very close to what some people had in mind but having been around for a long time now he has failed to make any impact, which makes us think what happened to him and PTI? Here are some thoughts:

- Imran Khan has been the biggest problem for Imran Khan and PTI since he is so madly in love with himself that he has never allowed any strong political personalities to get involved with PTI. Mairaj Mohammad Khan a seasoned and well respected politician was forced to withdraw from PTI because of Imran Khan’s erratic behavior. All the office bearers listed on the party website are complete unknowns with the exception of Hamid Khan who became relatively famous during the lawyer’s movement in 2007.

- He displayed lack of commitment with the democratic political system when he supported General Musharraf after the coup in October 1999. According to Mr. Khan he also interviewed with the GHQ for an employment opportunity as the Prime Minister of Pakistan a job which was later taken by Zafarullah Jamali, Ch. Shujaat and then one Mr. Shaukat Azziz.

- He has failed to understand the mechanics of the election system in Pakistan and all his campaigns to date have been weak and idealistic. He has not been able to connect with the rural political culture where voting patterns are heavily influenced by families, communities and land ownerships.

- Mr. Khan has been mindlessly criticizing all political forces and hence has failed to form any political alliances which could have been the way forward for PTI since the party itself has no structure, his only partner so far has been Jamat-e-Islami whose student wing treated him with very little respect in November 2007 at Punjab University.

- PTI’s focus could have been the urban youth which has some patience for his rhetoric, but Mr. Khan’s decision to take on popular leaders like MQM’s Altaf Hussain and PPP’s late Benazir Bhutto deprived PTI of any opportunity to develop party bases in large cities.

- Mr. Khan’s rampaging self love was fully on display in his address to the Pakistani community in the UK in January 2010, which became a YouTube hit due to his insensitive and callous comments where he criticized everyone he could think of including the person who drove him to the venue. In his speech which sounded more like a poor stand up act he claimed that all dark skinned people are from Africa and they all look alike this was intended to be an attack on Mr. Babar Ghauri of MQM however, it displayed why he is not qualified to be a leader or a politician.

Clearly status quo is not option for PTI or Imran Khan and a different political strategy is needed since PTI is already on the list of endangered species. One of the options for Mr. Khan could be to have his own talk-show where he can be as self-righteous as he likes to be and continue with his condescending behavior.

If Mr. Khan were to carry on as a political leader he will have to either join a larger political entity (PMLN is already working on this) or allow PTI to grow naturally so that the party can gain strength at the union counsel level, they can then consolidate and be competitive at higher levels, a top-down approach which worked for Z.A. Bhutto is not working for Mr. Khan. The PTI experiment has failed the sooner they accept it the better it will be for Imran Khan.

In the meanwhile I choose to remain optimistic and passionate about Pakistan.

Why Should President Zardari Resign?

In the past 3 years Pakistan has seen two wonderful developments in its national culture, first the transition from ‘state controlled’ media to ‘anti-state media’ was completed and then some substantial amount of activism led to revival of judiciary in the country.

The third change that we now expect to make is establishment of a stable democracy as a system of government. A democracy which is not defined as “the best or worst revenge” but a democracy which is sustainable and self cleansing.

The key to sustaining democracy is to ensure that the elected government gets the opportunity to complete its term and is allowed to function during its term, and effectiveness of the system improves with each completed cycle. However, somehow soon as an elected government takes office a strong campaign is launched which revolves around the themes of incompetence, corruption and abuse of power. We saw this happen during 1987 – 1999 when each of the four elected governments were ousted on corruption charges – charges which were not proved by the successors.

However, General Musharraf’s dictatorial administration was hardly challenged during the first eight years on any grounds although:

- Former Prime Minister Shaukat “The Shortcut” Azziz was linked to many corruption scandals Steel Mills and Karachi Stock Exchange just to name a couple, then he was allowed to leave the country at the end of his term. ‘Senior Employees’ of a certain organization were also involved with numerous cases of financial corruption but I guess we aren’t supposed to talk about that.

- To gain international recognition Gen. Musharraf turned Pakistan’s foreign policy upside down putting Pakistan at the forefront of the ‘war on terror’ leading to the current terrorism situation in the country where thousands of civilians have been killed in terrorist attack and the military is engaged in a war against militants on the western border while eastern border remains vulnerable.

- Hundreds of Pakistanis went missing since 2001 most of whom are still missing, no charges were leveled against these individuals and none of them have ever been presented in a court of law.

- Political opponents such as Sardar Bugti of Baluchistan were eliminated using force leading to unrest in the province.

- General Musharraf got himself elected as President while still holding the office of the Army Chief.

- Pakistan’s constitution was blatantly violated by General Musharraf on multiple occasions.

- The Supreme Court was reconstituted by the dictator under the second PCO while the non-PCO judges were imprisoned with their families.

The list is not all inclusive by any means. Despite of the above facts no one is talking about holding General Musharraf and his team accountable for their actions and the debate around Article 6 has also been drowned in the noise. Somehow the current government is being played out as “pure evil” which needs to be eliminated to save ‘the system’. Haven’t we seen this campaign before in the 90’s? Don’t we remember what happened at the end of that decade?

It must be noted that President Zardari’s time in power including the period when Late Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister adds to less than 7 years while General Musharraf had 9 years of unhindered control and General Ziaul Haq enjoyed power for 11 years. While President Zardari has only been part of elected governments, Generals Musharraf and Haq had 20 years of unconstitutional rule…..accountability …..anyone….??

While I understand and support the idea of accountability it has to be “all inclusive” to be effective. If it is to continue as a ‘witch hunt’ against elected representatives it would only be another unfortunate chapter in our political history leading up to another ‘uniformed disaster’. While I have no reason to doubt the motives of the Supreme Court I do struggle to understand our free media’s wild obsession with bashing the elected government. It is perfectly fine to raise legitimate questions but why should the elected government (specially the President) be attacked so viciously based on allegations that it swings the public opinion in favor of a potential imposed change? Because practically there is no real possibility of a Presidential impeachment primarily due to the number’s game in the Parliament.

The government must be given a fair opportunity to prove its worth in due course of time, while there have been governance mistakes, I don’t think going back to Musharraf or ‘yet-another-Musharraf’ will solve anything. For the government to have a realistic chance a certain self-righteous group of media personnel needs to calm down considerably because lately it is hard not to wonder if they are towing someone else’s agenda. I don’t think President Zardari will or should step down in the face of mounting pressure against him since he is the democratically elected President.

Political scenario over the next couple of months like always promises to be intriguing as the democratic government makes an effort to keep its head above water, in the meanwhile I choose to remain optimistic and passionate about Pakistan.

Pakistan’s War

Pakistan’s democratically elected government has deployed its army to the South Waziristan region to carry out yet another hopefully conclusive round of military operation against extremist elements generally identified as ‘Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban’. Even before the military operation started there have been terrorist attacks in major cities of the country and highly protected locations have been targeted. Civilian death toll is increasing everyday both as a result of terrorist attacks and ‘collateral damage’ being caused by the armed forces. 

Yet there is an unfinished debate in the country about the ownership of the war against terrorist elements in Pakistan, the quasi right wingers are arguing that this is a US war that Musharraf imported to Pakistan to gain international legitimacy as a leader and Pakistan should distance itself from the US and negotiate with the militants. Then we always hear a story which involves the USSR, Pakistan, Warm Waters, Communism, Mujahideen, ISI, CIA, abandonment; it continues to the creation of Taliban, and mentions Bin Laden. The parts which lead on to 9/11 and its aftermath are often excluded.

The story has been told so many times that it is almost politically incorrect to challenge its facts because a whole generation has been brought up on it, but it is about time that we set our records straight and snap out of a national generic delusion. I am not a religious scholar and I will not pretend to be one, I do not know what the definition of ‘Jihad’ is to a lot of people and I will not attempt to define it, however, we need to be clear on whatever happened in Afghanistan during the 80’s was not a ‘Jihad’ and irrespective of commonly stated beliefs of those involved with the Afghan war, the war did not have a religious premise. Religion was only used initially as a regional marketing gimmick which later on became an effective recruitment tool.

It is agreed by all stakeholders to the region that mistakes were made by both US and Pakistan in the post-war phase. The mercenaries should have been properly disposed of and Afghanistan should have been provided appropriate support to establish a stable government and investment should have been made in human development. To be honest all of these are foregone conclusions and plenty of books have been written on the subject.

We skip a few chapters forward and we hear about a famous phone call that was received by General (Retired) Pervez Musharraf. This part of the story involves references to terms like stone age, with us or against us and bending over backwards. Then the Afghan war again.

While it is perfectly fine to have political and ideological differences, Pakistan’s current situation requires unanimity of public opinion and at this point in our national history the majority understands the sequence of events which led us to the war. We can agree that we may not have been responsible for initiating the war and that this situation could have been averted if some horrific foreign policy mistakes were not made by the Gen. (Retired) Musharraf’s dictatorial administration.

However, we have to agree on the fact that now it is Pakistan’s war because despite the instigators it is the people of Pakistan who are suffering, it is the prosperity of our children which is at stake. Those who believe otherwise should review the incidents of the past couple of months and analyze for themselves who has been hurt the most? Innocent civilians, security personnel, college students, forcing the administration to shut down schools. Hundreds of Pakistanis who were injured during these terrorist attacks are currently suffering in hospitals across the country, men, women and children who may live to tell their stories but their lives will never be the same again. Numerous families have lost their bread earners placing further burden on an already weak economy. Under these circumstances what choices do we have?

Suggesting that somehow the ‘extremists‘ are unhappy citizens and we should negotiate with them is ludicrous at this stage. It was sad and painful to watch a little girl from the Swat Valley talking about bombings and explosions, children who should be protected and provided for are forced to climb overcrowded vehicles to flee to safe camps and stand in line for hours to obtain food supplies.

While it is important to understand the motives of the militants to effectively counter them, there is no doubt that they are attacking Pakistan and Pakistanis indiscriminately which leaves no option for the State but to use available force against them. As Pakistanis we need to support the Democratic Government and own this war; we must not allow our enemies to use this opportunity to weaken our country further.

There have been talks about comprehensive solutions to deal with the issue of militancy to provide sustainable economic growth and development opportunities to the regions affected the most in order to to terminate recruitment mechanisms. However, it is unfortunate to see that there has not been any progress in that direction and heavy reliance is being placed on the military. I am hoping that the Government would be working on this aspect as well since this is going to be a long process.

It is crucial that the nation supports the Democratic Government’s initiative against the militants, although there are plenty of distractions like always including the Kerry – Lugar fiasco and the National Reconciliation Ordinance (and apparently the Minus-One Formula fourth edition). Appropriate attention also needs to be paid to the foreign elements blatantly making the job for the Pakistani Government very difficult.  These foreign elements should be named, confronted and exposed.

We need to give up the ‘Silent Majority’ mentality and be clear that even though we did not start this war,  it is 'our' war now. The extremists have killed thousands of innocent Pakistanis and they need to be stopped by all means possible. We must also be clear that although we may or may not like some or all of the individuals running the current administration we must not allow anyone to use the current situation to derail democracy in Pakistan. If Pakistan is to gain strength and make progress, the will of the people must prevail and only a Democratic Government can ensure that.

I have always believed that Pakistan with all its difficulties is fundamentally strong as a country, because of its people, some 175 million hard working nationalistic Pakistanis. For instance, the recent debate over a foreign policy matter has shown that it is not going to be easy for anyone to not be held accountable for their wrongdoings and the increasing awareness in the people of Pakistan is the actual hope for democracy. The fact that Pakistan’s top judiciary and media are now seen as strong and independent shows that the country is moving in the right direction.

The situation may not be easy but we must continue to be optimistic and passionate about Pakistan.

Once a Brig. Imtiaz Always a Brig. Imtiaz

Brig. Imtiaz former DG IB has done a great job adding another interesting yet annoying episode to the Pakistani political drama.

Brig. Imtiaz was an army intelligence operative who was forced to retire after being held responsible for the infamous “Operation Midnight Jackals” designed to destabilize the first Benazir Bhutto administration. He was put in charge of the Intelligence Bureau by the first Nawaz Shareef administration in 1990. He has allegedly been involved with numerous high profile scandals of the 80’s and 90’s most of which are well documented. He was convicted on corruption charges in 2001 and was sent to jail.

On August 23 he went on a live talk show joined on the phone by Lt. Gen. (Rtd.) Naseer Akhtar who was the Corps Commander Karachi overseeing the 1992 military operation against MQM. The two made several confessions and retracted past claims and eventually closed their double act by concluding that MQM never had any separatist designs and maps of the alleged independent state Jinnahpur were fake and were never found from MQM headquarters in Karachi. The MQM representative then put in a weak melodramatic performance and the show ended.

Since then Brig Imtiaz has been on every talk show on Pakistan's news media. The matter has been spiced up by another former DG of ISI Lt. Gen. (Rtd.) Asad Durrani who has re-launched his story about bribing politicians.

This has taken over most of the air time on Pakistani news media, the little time remaining has been dedicated to sugar, flour, electricity and other ongoing crisis.

MQM’s response so far has been off the mark by miles, since they chose to launch a political attack on Nawaz Shareef who was the Prime Minister at the time of this Operation and have completely ignored the Military establishment for its role. They have also decided not to talk about the much more vicious operation led by Lt. Gen. (Rtd.) Naseerullah Babar during the second Benazir Bhutto administration.

As a Karachiite I understand that there are reasons to believe that MQM did not have separatist designs, as a Pakistani who believes in Democracy as the way forward for Pakistan I cannot think of a reason to believe in anything that Brig. Imtiaz has to say.

Then on August 29 Brig. Imtiaz squared off against former Governor of Punjab Ghulam Mustafa Khar on another live talk show to debate him on his alleged involvement with the “London Plan” of 1983, Brig. Imtiaz re-launched this controversy during his August 23 interview. The debate was almost 90 minutes long during which both men aggressively stuck to their previously stated positions and former Gov. Khar managed to fit in some insulting comments about Brig. Imtiaz. We as a nation don’t really know how to debate, we just get angry and raise our voices, so I don’t blame former Gov. Khar for his foul mouthed aggression. During the whole time the flustered moderator kept turning from side to side struggling to pronounce the word “conspiracy”. All in all a complete waste of time.

The stories from Brig. Imtiaz and his former (or current?) colleagues further enforce the following points I made on December 20, 2008:
“- Pakistan has never had a real run of democracy, those who use the 90's as evidence of incompetence of the political forces overlook the fact that just like now the elected governments back then were not free to make decisions they did not have the powers to run the country and the decision making process was blatantly influenced by a certain organization which should be working for the government.
- Elected representatives of the people were arrested, exiled, deported and disgraced in every possible manner, the dictators in all cases got safe passages or glorious funerals with no accountability.
- There is a well defined system in place to derail every democratic government within the first year of its formation.”

Brig. Imtiaz and his kind are the system that derails democracy.

We can further analyze all of this and try to understand all that is being disclosed but one has to stop and wonder why are these being discussed now, a failed plan from 1983, a military operation from 1992, and formation of IJI from 1990?

We have also got to think what is not being discussed? Trial of Gen. (Rtd.) Pervez Musharraf.

I have no doubt in my mind that all of these controversies are being created or re-launched to distract the media and the general public from the issue of holding Gen. (Rtd.) Musharraf liable under Article 6. Brig. Imtiaz is not doing the nation any favors, he should remove himself from public eye and may be write a book or consider gardening.

Once a Brig. Imtiaz always a Brig. Imtiaz - a mere distraction. I believe Pakistanis are smart enough to see through all of this and bring the focus back on the real issues.

In the meanwhile I choose to remain optimistic and passionate about Pakistan.

High Treason

In the past few weeks there has been a lot of discussion about Article 6 of the much amended barely surviving Constitution of Pakistan. Article 6 reads as follows:

“High treason.- (1) Any person who abrogates or attempts or conspires to abrogate, subverts or attempts or conspires to subvert the Constitution by use of force or show of force or by other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason.

(2) Any person aiding or abetting the acts mentioned in clause (1) shall likewise be guilty of high treason.

(3) Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) shall by law provide for the punishment of persons found guilty of high treason.”

There has been general consensus in the country that General Musharraf violated the Constitution not once but twice (general consensus means all Pakistanis excluding Sharifuddin Pirzada, and Malik Qayyum), first on October 12, 1999 and again on November 3, 2007. This view was further vindicated by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Constitutional Petition No.9 of 2009 ( Sind High Court Bar Association versus The Federation of Pakistan) issued on July 31, 2009. In which the court has declared:

“i)that the purported acts done by General Pervez Musharraf, (Rtd) between 3.11.2007 to 16.12.2007 aimed at to suspend and amend the Constitution through several instruments are unconstitutional, invalid and without any legal consequence;

ii) that on account of his acts taken during 3.11.2007 to 15.12.2007 relating to superior judiciary, General Pervez Musharraf (Rtd) became a usurper;

(Reference: http://www.supremecourt.gov.pk/pr/press_release/pr-31-07-2009.pdf)

Although acts of October 12, 1999 were not discussed the ruling leaves absolutely no room for confusion far as the Constitutional status of Gen. Musharraf is concerned, yet a political debate has been going on about applicability and practical implications of Article 6. With the facts established so distinctly there is no real need for a debate and the back and forth between the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) has had more soap opera style moments then actual developments.

It is very often ignored but the actual hurdle in the process has been clause 2 of Article 6. Clause 2 implicates aiders and abettors in the crime and requires an equal punishment. Far as Gen. Musharraf’s regime is concerned this would mean that Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PMLQ), Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUIF) can all be held accountable for their contributions during the nine years of Musharraf administration.

PMLN has championed this issue for some time now, however the ruling PPP has made it clear that the government is not interested in invoking Article 6 and it is speculated that it was an understanding between Gen. Musharraf and Late Benazir Bhutto that Gen. Musharraf will be indemnified for his extra-constitutional measures in exchange for an infamous National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and of course there were foreign guarantors involved.

When Prime Minister Gillani stated in the National Assembly that Article 6 will be invoked if a unanimous resolution is passed to support Musharraf’s trial he very obviously knew that a unanimous resolution is not required under the Constitution and it is impossible since PMLQ, MQM and JUIF have a significant presence in the legislative assembly, which demonstrated that government was unwilling to proceed with the matter. Prime Minister Gillani’s poorly delivered speech (as usual) was simply a wrong step in the right direction.

It has also been speculated that if under the unlikely situation Gen. Musharraf and his allies were tried and convicted it would make way for similar proceedings against usurpers of the past and it would be a possibility that the Supreme Court may then declare their acts as unconstitutional and subsequent acts of Parliament ratifying those acts as void ab initio.

In which case champions of democracy PMLN will have to face consequences for supporting Gen. Zia ul Haq and PPP will also have to face embarrassment since their founder leader Late Zulfiqar Bhutto was a member of Gen. Ayub’s cabinet. That is exactly why PMLN will continue to talk about it but no actions will be taken.

Even if we do not bring into discussion foreign influences and GHQ’s input it is very clear that Article 6 will not be invoked because it could potentially wipe out almost all political parties. Gen. Musharraf will not be tried in a court of law despite his criminal violations.

All these facts are well known and fully understood by all stakeholders yet we see a heated debate going on in the country where the political forces are daring each other to introduce a resolution in the National Assembly to invoke Article 6.

Most Pakistanis are also well aware of the implications of the current political scenario and understand that political forces are clearly using this issue to position themselves for the next general elections, at which point you have to stop and wonder how stupid do they think people of Pakistan are?

First a dictator violates the Constitution in every possible way for nine years, and is allowed to exit the Presidency with honour, and then the political parties play with the issue much to their own amusement using every opportunity to launch verbal assaults on the former dictator but not taking any actual measures to prosecute him, while the former dictator is travelling the world mocking the poor people and the Government of Pakistan.

This is yet another crucial stage in the history of Pakistan and will determine if the country will have a sustainable democratic system or not. And if the people of Pakistan want democracy they will have to make their voices heard on all possible venues because let us all be clear that Gen. Musharraf was not the first dictator and if he is not held accountable for his actions he will not be the last one either. It is refreshing to note that people of Pakistan and some of the media outlets have kept the discussion alive, however, to actually make it happen it will have to be a much bigger and organized effort to ensure that political forces show respect to the people’s opinion. A movement similar to that of the restoration of judiciary can do it for Pakistan.

It is crucial that influence from foreign governments the so-called guarantors must be resisted, it is an embarrassment for any sovereign nation that foreign officials intervene in almost all internal matters. However, it looks unlikely in the near future.

Even if Gen. Musharraf remains out of Pakistan a trial must be held and if he is convicted a strong precedent will be set for potential usurpers. Political parties should come together on the issue and negotiate the matter and even if it involves somehow focusing on Clause 1 and not Clause 2 of Article 6 for now it would still be a huge step towards a sustainable democratic system in the country otherwise it will not be very long before ‘they’ do it again.

In the meanwhile I choose to remain optimistic and Passionate About Pakistan.