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The Filth of Pakistani Politics
by
Asif Nawaz
The face of Pakistani politics today became more deformed than ever. Musharraf’s resignation comes as a prime example of a country that has, in its ONLY recent history focused on more on the past than the present or the future, and that shows in the country’s economic status, political climate, and global alliances.
A country of many failures, the present government has once again shown that blaming the predecessor is the way to go; rather than making the most of an opportunity to repair a nation full of civil, political, financial, class and ethnic differences, the government of the Pakistan People’s Party, coupled with the childish attitude of Nawaz Sharif, has today shown how any good of one’s past can be overshadowed by policial enemity.
The Fall of Musharraf
Rasul Bakhsh Rais
President Pervez Musharraf has departed, having resigned to escape the humiliation of impeachment. Yet another painful chapter of Pakistan’s political history has been closed, ending the political uncertainty the country has been facing for the past five months.
Why painful? It may be considered a polite expression for an era when the General-President overthrew an elected government to save his position as the Chief of Army Staff. At least in previous military interventions there was a political crisis and some kind of government breakdown. That was not the case on October 12, 1999.
The ruling party had a comfortable two-thirds majority in the National Assembly and all political parties with remarkable consensus had passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Pakistan was on the road to democratic recovery but with the usual traits of autocracy that are embedded in the country’s political culture.
Musharraf came to power and ruled the country only as COAS, like his three predecessors. His uniform was his first line of defence and the army an instrument of self-empowerment and control. The day he doffed his uniform, he was no longer the master of his or the country’s fate.
Pakistan Politics on the Brink Again:
By Shuja Nawaz
August 19th, 2008
As Pakistan lurches into another paroxysm of power politics with the threatened impeachment and expected resignation of President Pervez Musharraf, the post-Musharraf picture is not as clear or rosy as the authors of this move may want it to be. The unelected leaders of the coalition government of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (N), Messrs. Asif Ali Zardari and M. Nawaz Sharif respectively may yet find themselves facing a political mess even after Musharraf is gone. There is much that may yet split their on-again, off-again alliance and bring the country to the edge of a new political crisis. In the meantime, the country is sliding into economic chaos and there is no sign that the government has a credible strategy to cope with the impending disaster.
After two weeks of travel and conversations with citizens, civil leaders, military officials, and journalists in Pakistan, a complex picture emerges: a country beset by serious economic woes, a growing insurgency, and a fractured polity. In the shadows sits the powerful Pakistan army, the historical arbiter of Pakistani politics, headed by a publicly inscrutable but privately engaged and engaging new chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
Welcome To PPP Democracy – Jiyala Jamhuriyat!
By COL. RIAZ JAFRI (RETD.)
Monday, 23 June 2008.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan—Liaqat Bagh to be renamed Benazir Bhutto Bagh, Murree Road to be renamed Benazir Bhutto Road, 27 December to be declared official holiday after Benazir Bhutto’s death anniversary, Lahore to be turned into Larkana, Presidency to be taken over by a PPP worker, the Prime Minister commutes all death sentences to life imprisonment as Benazir Bhutto’s birthday gift to the nation (read ‘gift to murderers’). All this, of course, without any authority.
The Co-Chairperson – not even an Member of National Assembly – being given full protocol and allowed the use of bullet proof SUV with tainted glasses (who says it violates the law?); the construction of Tarbela Dam abandoned at the whims of someone, anyone, without even being discussed in the Parliament, PM announcing publicly without any hesitation to restore the judges immediately on receipt of orders from Zardari (what a Prime Minister!), PM performing Umra with 80 plus guests and hangers-on, of course at your and my expense; and then BB death probe by U.N. – at what colossal costs and with what outcome – anybody’s guess, et al.
What is all this? Is it the democracy or the government of a person, for a person, by a person? Where is the Parliament, which unlike the previous ones is claimed not to be a rubber stamp? Are these acts democratic in nature and spirit? Or, is the present democracy yet another facet of the maadar pidar azaad Jiala jamhuriat? Jo jee mein aye karo, yahaan kaun poochhaney wala hai ?!!
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd) is based in Rawalpindi. His commentary is appears frequently in several national Pakistani dailies. He can be reached at jafri@rifiela.com
America: Dubious Ally Or Outright Enemy?
Have our political and military elites lost the will to fight? Where is the befitting response? Our government, and our military, has reduced us to a laughingstock – a joke of a nation that can be pushed around. The point is, if our military is unwilling or unable to fight those who violate our sovereignty and kill our people, then what is the purpose of continuing to beef up and support this expensive organization?
By Shireen M. Mazari
Wednesday, June 18, 2008.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—What have we been reduced to as a result of our successive leaderships’ kowtowing to the U.S. post-9/11? What many of us had feared and written about at the time seems to have come true — be it the
growing U.S. intrusions into our territory or the periodic diatribes from the U.S. against Dr A.Q. Khan whenever they feel Pakistan needs to be put under pressure. However, nothing reflects our state’s sovereign bankruptcy as much as the audacious threats issued by Afghanistan’s Karzai of sending in his Afghan Army into Pakistan to take out “militants” and “terrorists.”
Here is a man who barely has power in his own capital, Kabul, and has hundreds of occupation forces from the
U.S. and NATO — not to mention some Arab contingents from the Gulf states — and he is actually threatening Pakistan, a country with a massive conventional military, and nuclear capability to boot.
Herein lies the irony of Pakistan’s predicament post-9/11. Our military seems to have no stomach for fighting the violations of our sovereignty by the U.S. and its allies. That has emboldened the U.S. and they now feel they can target the Pakistani security forces directly — as they did in March 2008 in Bajaur, and more recently last week in
the Mohmand Agency which left 11 FC men dead, apart from the civilians that are a constant target of U.S. and NATO forces — especially as their frustration has grown over their lack of success in Afghanistan.
Since the war began in Afghanistan, one has seen only whimpers of protest from the Pakistani military and the government in response to brazen attacks on Pakistani soil by U.S./NATO forces in which many innocent Pakistani civilians have died. Sheltering behind these forces are the ragtag members of the “Afghan Army” — which Karzai now wants to send into Pakistan! Karzai, whose security forces stood helpless in the face of a massive prison break, actually thinks the Pakistani military is so weak that the same ineffectual security forces can simply march into our country and carry out military actions against our people.
Our government, and our military, has reduced us to a laughingstock – a joke of a nation that can be pushed around militarily by all and sundry. The point is, if our military is unwilling or unable to fight those who violate our sovereignty and kill our people, then what is the purpose of continuing to beef up and support this expensive
organization? Here we were thinking our investment in nuclear weapons and updating of conventional weapon systems would ensure that our borders were secure and any military threat from anywhere would be dealt with effectively by the Pakistan military. Yet nothing of the sort has happened. Instead, we continue to be subject to U.S. military attacks as and when they choose. From all accounts, they do not bother to inform us either until after the event. And all we do is whimper a few protests.
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