Pakistan Views

By M B Naqvi
Clearly none of bigger political parties cares a hoot for the deposed and purged judges of superior courts, still under detention, except Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan. PPP and even PML-N leaders have joined the US project to strengthen the hitherto Pakistan army chief’s cause. One directly and other through the Saudi king. The two buddies, Gen. Musharraf and US President George Bush, have shown they prefer the sword to be mightier than law, reason and pen. Most of the others have been overwhelmed or bought.

Yet most Pakistanis acknowledge the PCOed judges and the legal fraternity led by the shining galaxy of Justice Wajihuddin, Munir Malik, Aitzaz Ahsan, Ali Ahmed Kurd and so many famous or work-a-day lawyers as their heroes. These continue blazing a trail for the people to follow. They want respect for all human beings as equal and valuable for whom rule of law is a must. That requires judges and lawyers who value human freedom and who refuse to bow before autocratic rulers unendingly uttering deceptive falsehoods. The Judges led by Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and all 60 or more judges (who resigned in protest) constitute the true Supreme and High Courts in which legitimacy of law resides. They need to be saluted every day — and their lead followed.

This great betrayal of rule of law and human freedom — the heart of democracy – was spearheaded by the JUI chief and PPP chief, each wired to General Musharraf and the US administration respectively. They will legitimise the Army Chief’s actions of imposing the state of emergency (martial law really). Everyone knows that all the shots will continue to be called by the hitherto COAS behind the make-belief screen of caretakers and elections will be ‘managed’ through the agencies. Aware citizens expect these polls to produce Musharraf-desired results. Hitherto, the PML-N chief had refused any kind of deal with Musharraf and supported the old judiciary’s restoration. One fears that the US may have forced him to climb Musharraf’s bandwagon. He had been firm in demanding the withdrawal of emergency, the PCO and the restoration of the pre-Nov. 3 judiciary. One will wait for a few days before tarring him with the same brush as Benazir to know what exactly transpired at a putative meeting where the American ambassador was also present.

It is too late to remonstrate either with major parties about why they want to participate in an election held under emergency restrictions and in which agencies will do their mischief or to make futile appeals to Gen. Musharraf’s conscience. The former, in fact, had only minor differences with Musharraf and have composed them. The latter is likely to think his grand strategy has succeeded and he is home and dry for the next five years.

And yet Nov. 3’s emergency, PCO and media curbs will deepen all the fault-lines, indeed fissures, in the polity. All those who are participating in such an election are obliging the US and strengthening Musharraf so they can supposedly fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda better. But they should still think about what another five years of an unreformed Musharraf’s rule will do to Pakistan’s body politic. Have the methods employed by Islamabad under the COAS rule for seven years curbed the growth of the Taliban and assorted militants? Or they have led to an increase in their sway and influence?Or has Balochistan shown any normality after big Bugti’s murder. Are the rivers of milk and honey flowing in Sindh? How many Pakistanis are happy in this victory of brute power over the civil society and law?

What we Pakistanis have today is two contending causes, each claiming legitimacy. One side is led by the army chief, carrying with him platoons after platoons of rich sycophants, timeservers and turncoats. The other side comprises intelligentsia and common folks; they believe in human values, law and its majesty and the power of truth. These are irreconcilable. From the looks of it brute physical power prevails. Is this defeat of law, learning and values definitive?

Some victories can be picric. This one too is, if only the upholders of law’s cause shed their limitation of remaining non-political. It was popular support for the cause represented by Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and his lawyers that catapulted them — a political phenomenon. Chaudhry commanded no troops, yet the common people — that too of Punjab — showered their love and support on him and lawyers; the whole country supports them. They are the new and authentic heroes and icons. Their political potential is unmatchable.

It is a mistaken polarization in which the two causes, politics and lawyers, neither in conflict with rule of law and libertarian philosophy really, can usefully come together to reinforce what the bar and legitimate bench stand for. The other side is entrenched anti-democratic power(s). It is a line up of a civil war. However, a civil war is best avoided. Pakistan is externally vulnerable, perhaps for the first time. Pakistan has two reasons to invite the ire of many in the west, led by the US and NATO: the Taliban and assorted Islamic militants with their influence, on the one hand, and nuclear weapons, on the other. Look at the potential of a civil war(s) in view of these vulnerabilities. It is too scary to contemplate.

Civil war begets economic meltdowns. Not that Pakistan economy is in the pink of health. Its vulnerabilities have multiplied in recent years, official propaganda of achievements notwithstanding. Economic collapse can precede, accompany or follow a civil war. Economic progress requires stable politics — of a democratic kind. There is no way anyone can combine civil strife and economic progress.

What Pakistan needs urgently is national consensus over how and who to run the polity: Musharraf’s Islamabad is likely to remain under attack from many sides: assorted Islamic extremists, al-Qaeda and Taliban (who combine an extra-austere Islam with Pushtoon nationalism), secular nationalisms of the Pushtuns, Baloch and the Sindhis. There is also the potential threat from the dirt poor; should they be mobilized, they will pose a serious threat to the elitist politics.

But there can be a sane, democratic national consensus seeking to promote peace, law and democracy with an equity-based approach to economic matters. It can seek democratic solutions to not only NWFP’s problems but also to those arising in and from Afghanistan. Democrats can find a solution to Balochistan problems without too much difficulty. Pakistan needs a democracy that can control the military services and not the vice versa. People’s true representative will also know how to tackle foreign powers, big and small.

But where is such a democratic leadership? Major parties having disappointed so bitterly, there are only the judges and lawyers who sustained a six months long glorious agitation and are continuing to lead. They have now the additional task of mobilizing the people to establish rule of law, democracy and to uphold all human rights, including people’s right to social security. Would Wajihuddin Ahmed or Aitzaz Ahsan rise to the occasion?

The writer is a veteran journalist and freelance columnist. Email: mbnaqvi@ cyber.net.pk

President Pervez Musharraf took oath as civilian president of Pakistan for five years on Thursday. Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Justice Abdul Hameed Doggar administered the oath to the president under the 1973 constitution. 

Musharraf after serving as the Pak Army for 46 years with nine years as Army Chief, relinquished the top post on Nov. 28. 

Pervez Musharraf stepped down Wednesday from the Army Chief post handing over the Army command to Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, who took charge as 14th Chief of Pakistan Army. Musharraf to take oath as a civilian president on Thursday.

Musharraf addressed the change of command ceremony held in this garrison town at Hockey Stadium next to the military General Headquarters.

The ceremony was attended by the caretaker Prime Minister Muhammadmian Soomro, the services chiefs, members of the caretaker cabinet and high military and civil officials.

“I’m proud of this army and I was lucky to have commanded the world’s best army,” Musharraf said. “I will no longer command …but my heart and my mind will always be with you.” He said “I am leaving the Army in a best shape.” He said he knows Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani for last 20 years who is an excellent soldier and Army officer.

“After passing 46 years in the Army I am saying farewell to the institution,” President Musharraf said. “I am sad to leave the Army, which is like a family to me,” he further said.

He thanked Gen. Ashfaq Kayani and other officers and jawans of the armed forces for their assistance and cooperation.

He said the Army is the force to protect and unite the country. He said it is the military, which comes forward to face any internal or external threat. It is the military that always remains prepared to offer sacrifices in natural calamities, he further said.

He said Pakistan could not survive without the Army. He said some unscrupulous elements raise fingers at the army but they do not understand the role of military in development and solidarity of Pakistan.

Musharraf handed over the ceremonial command baton to his successor Gen. Ashfaq Kayani saying that he is handing over the Army to a person who is an excellent soldier.

President General Musharraf, who is quitting the Army Chief office tomorrow, Tuesday started his farewell visits.

His first stop Tuesday was at the Joint Staffs headquarters, where Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen. Tariq Majyd received him. He also takes the salute at a farewell parade

He discussed professional and matters of mutual interest with the Chairman JCSC.

He was later to visit the headquarters of the air force and navy.

President Gen. Musharraf will chair a corps commanders’ conference on Wednesday at GHQ before handing over the COAS charge to Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. Gen. Kayani was appointed as VCOAS last month and promoted to the rank of four-star general.

Gen. Musharraf took command of the Pakistan Army on October 7, 1998 after removal of the then COAS General Jehangir Karamat by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Musharraf seized power and overthrown the government of Nawaz Sharif on October 12, 1999. He assumed the office of Chief Executive and elected president by holding referendum in 2002.

He will take oath as civilian president on Thursday.

LAHORE: A special plane carrying the PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif and other family members arrived in Lahore from the holy city of Madina on Sunday evening.

However, thousands of PML-N workers succeeded in arriving airport by crossing the barricades put up by police. On this occasion, the workers raised slogans both in favour of Nawaz Sharif and against the government.

News Coming That Two Blasts In Rawalpindi In The Most Secured Area Near GHQ (Generals Head Quarter) Have Killed Many Poeple.

This News make me to think that if our armed forces are not safe then how Government Claims To Make Ordinary People safe n Sound.

Here Is What Geo TV said About This News …

“RAWALPINDI: Fifteen people have been killed and more than 30 injured in Rawalpindi suicide attacks on Saturday.  “One was at a check post near GHQ through explosive laden car and the other was on a bus of sensitive institution carrying security officials near Faizabad,” Director General ISPR Major General Waheed Arshad told Geo News.  ISPR spokesman said that 15 people were killed and several injured in an attack on the bus of sensitive institution.  Another suicide attack occured at army check post near GHQ in which suicide bomber has been killed and three security officials sustained injuries.  The injured were shifted to Rawalpindi General Hospital and other hospitals. Following the incident, security forces cordoned off the area. 

Meanwhile, US news agency has reported 35 deaths in suicide attack in Rawalpindi.”

There are rumors everywhere that General Pervaiz Musharaf went To Saudi Arabia to make the way back for the former Prime Minister Of Pakistan Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.

Latest Stories About This I have seen is at Jang News Paper….

“LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif is expected to arrive in Pakistan by November 26.

PML-N sources said that he is expected to be accompanied by his son and son-in-law.

Moreover, it has been reported that Nawaz Sharif has left for Jeddah from Riyadh, where he is expected to meet King Abdullah today (Thursday). His son Hasan and son-in-law Captain Safdar are also with him. There are reports that he was invited by Saudi King Abdullah.

King Abdullah provided the plane, which flew Mian Nawaz Sharif in Riyadh.

According to the latest reports, Nawaz Sharif has had a meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister in Riyadh.

According to PML (N) Leader Ishaq Dar, Nawaz Sharif will have a meeting with King Abdullah tomorrow (Friday).

Ishaq Dar himself is leaving for Riyadh today as asked by Nawaz Sharif. ”

Now What does this means. I think Nawaz is going to attempt again to enter in Pakistan. Or This time Government will allow him to come and stay. Let See What Will Happened Next.

ISLAMABAD  - Pakistani authorities have released hunger-striking former cricket star Imran Khan from jail just few Minutes Ago, senior government officials told Agence France-Presse.

Imran Khan was arrested on Nov 14. He Was Arrested at a students rally, he had said he was trying to start a student movement against emergency rule. But The Jamiet At the Univeristy Campus called up the police and he was arrested after that.

Imran Khan also began a hunger strike on Monday.

‘All political prisoners in Punjab province, including Imran Khan, are being released in Punjab in the next few hours,’ a top provincial government official said.

A senior federal government official confirmed the decision to release Imran Khan.

Martial law in Pakistan

Time’s up, Mr Musharraf

AS MILITARY dictators go, Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf has always seemed rather a decent sort. An affable man who gives the appearance of speaking his soldierly mind, he prompted quiet cheers from many of his countrymen when he usurped power from a corrupt civilian government in 1999. After September 11th 2001, he won the backing of America and its allies, risking popular anger by swiftly enlisting his country in the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Proclaiming himself an apostle of “enlightened moderation”, he seemed, despite his embarrassing lack of democratic credentials, a relatively safe pair of hands to be in charge of a 165m-strong moderate Islamic nation—one that possesses nuclear weapons and is prey to a frightening extremist fringe.

Over the years, however, General Musharraf has squandered the goodwill he enjoyed at home and abroad. Many at home were angered by his alliance with America in a war they saw as directed at both Islam and their ethnic-Pushtun kin in Afghanistan. His persistent refusal to take off his army uniform and allow unrigged elections alienated liberal opinion.

So most of his support had evaporated even before he staged his second coup. That came on November 3rd, when he dismantled the constitutional facade built to prettify his rule and imposed, in effect, martial law. Hundreds of secular and Islamist politicians, lawyers and human-rights activists were locked up. Private television-news channels were taken off the air. For a decent seeming man, it was an act of political indecency. He may have been surprised by the vehemence of the condemnation he has faced, especially from America. But, like a borrower whose insolvency would bring down a bank, he may calculate that much of his former backers’ anger is bluster, covering a fear of their own impotence. Many want him gone; America itself is demanding that he introduce some semblance of democracy. But it is not obvious how to force his hand without endangering the stability of Pakistan itself.
General emergency

A way must be found, however. General Musharraf has built his international alliances on the fear that whoever replaces him will be worse. If that were ever true, it is not now. He himself is now a central part of Pakistan’s instability.

As so often happens to dictators, however decent they seem to start with, General Musharraf has come to see himself as “indispensable”. In declaring what he euphemistically termed “a state of emergency”, he cited two threats to Pakistan’s future that required his firm hand: the spread of violent extremism and the pesky interference of the judiciary in his efforts to deal with it. The first of these is a real and growing menace. The cancer of extremist violence (see article) has spread from the lawless tribal areas where Pakistan blurs into Afghanistan to the neighbouring parts of Pakistan proper, and beyond. The bizarre stand-off and bloody dénouement in July at the Red Mosque showed it can touch the administrative heart of Islamabad. Last month’s carnage in Karachi at a procession celebrating the return from exile of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, emphasised that nowhere in Pakistan is free of the threat. Nor, such is the involvement of Pakistan-trained terrorists in attacks in the West, is anywhere else. The radical mullahs of the border areas people the West’s worst nightmares: a “Talibanised”, nuclear-armed Pakistan.

General Musharraf is gambling that, so terrifying are these nightmares, the West will give his authoritarian streak the benefit of the doubt. Freed from the pettifogging concerns of quibbling lawyers and self-serving politicians, goes the argument, he can concentrate on eradicating extremism. If only. It is true that Western diplomats have been frustrated in recent months by his preoccupation with political intrigue. But martial law has so clearly pitted him and the army against the rest of the country that, rather than gain a sharper focus, he is now likely to be even more distracted. Supporters of the prime minister he deposed, Nawaz Sharif, were already angered by General Musharraf’s apparently illegal deportation of Mr Sharif when he tried to return from exile in September. After a lag Miss Bhutto’s party was not spared this week’s round-up of democrats. She will find it hard to resume the power-sharing talks that General Musharraf and America hoped might give his regime a credible civilian cloak. Already the legal profession, turned into anti-government street fighters by General Musharraf’s clumsy attempt this year to sack a stubbornly independent chief justice, is manning the barricades again.
Looking for a lever

America and Britain are loth to do anything that might jeopardise their links with Pakistan’s army and its intelligence services. Pakistan still smarts from what it sees as America’s fickleness in ditching it in the 1990s after Pakistan had, through Afghanistan, helped topple the Soviet Union. Logistical support for the Afghan war, undermining the Taliban’s rear base in the tribal areas, and intelligence on planned terrorist attacks in the West: all demand Pakistani co-operation.

For this reason, the most obvious stick with which the West can beat General Musharraf—the threat to withdraw American aid, of which nearly $11 billion has poured in since 2001—is difficult to use. But it should be used. After some tough talk from America, General Musharraf has apparently promised to hold elections by mid-February, overturning the suggestion by Shaukat Aziz, his prime minister, that elections due by January might be delayed a year. If this pressure is maintained, Pakistan can still be dragged back from the brink.

The top brass of the Pakistan army are protégés of their chief, General Musharraf. They have done well out of his rule both personally and institutionally from all that American largesse. But their loyalty to their boss can be assumed to be finite. It will end at the point where it becomes obvious he can no longer deliver the goods: either in terms of popular support for the army at home, or in terms of American backing. It must be made plain that such backing is dependent on restoring democracy, through a free election open to all. Otherwise, as military dictators go, so should General Musharraf.

Journalists arrested in Pakistan 
 
A journalist recovers after the confrontation with police
More than 100 journalists protesting against media restrictions and emergency rule have been arrested in Pakistan, eyewitnesses say.
Most were held in Karachi and several detained in Hyderabad.

Police baton-charged the Karachi journalists after they tried to stage a protest march. Some of them were hurt.

When President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule on 3 November, radio and TV news was banned, as was criticism of the government.

Country-wide

Heavy contingents of police were deployed on roads to the Karachi Press Club to stop the rally there.

Police stopped the marchers going to a TV station

It was part of a country-wide protest organised by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) against the media curbs.

The journalists were planning to hold a demonstration outside the Karachi offices of the ARY TV channel, one of half a dozen news channels that cable operators stopped airing after the emergency was imposed.

The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says police beat up a number of journalists in front of the press club entrance.

The arrests came shortly after the government said it released some 3,400 people jailed under emergency rule.

The release of political opponents has been a key demand of opposition parties who are threatening to boycott parliamentary elections in January.