Street Campaign begins….

Today was quite an interesting and thought provoking day, and I hope to encounter more days like this…days with activity. I had already been introduced to the key members of the Karachi chapter of the Party in Lahore but since my return we had not been able to have a meaningful reunion.

As some of you may know Tareek-i-insaaf today started their street campaign, encouraged by the public, against the undemocratic rule of Pakistan. The agenda is simple and clear….free and fair elections need to be held in Pakistan. The current government has no legitimate right to stay in power, it is a military dictatorship which is only stifling the common man and international interest of our nation. It needs to be replaced with a democratic voice. I don’t mean democracy like the Iraqi democracy. We mean elections…not selections.

That is the agenda, and the street campaign started out today in Sahiwal – a small city (or perhaps a town) in Punjab. The good news is that it was strongly opposed by the government, and banners and posters were torn down and party workers jailed. Good news?….yes…because it only goes to prove that freedom and dissent – however peaceful is not to be tolerated against the government….and that the government is concerned. A law or clause 144 was imposed on Sahiwal. What is clause 144? Basically it states that a public gathering of more than 5 people is illegal, and this clause can be imposed on an area for a given period, if the government so wishes. Unbelievable. Sounds like a police state to me. Anyway…..the fact that there was resistance by the government to quell the activites of the Party in a small town like Sahiwal I personally think should be taken as an encouraging sign.

So given this backdrop of activity, a press conference was held today in Karachi which I was also able to attend. The objective was to denounce the government action against the peaceful campaign in Sahiwal and to inform that such actions would not disrupt the agenda and time line for the continued campaign. Additionally it would be in the benefit of all, if the opposition parties also joined in this one point agenda, but in the absence of such a coalition Terek-e-insaaf would go it alone…the public sentiment demands it.

If the government felt the heat from such a small spark of public sentiment, it should be interesting to see what happens when the campaign is taken to larger cities. I have to say though, that this campaign and associated government obstacles were given due media coverage, without which a lot of these issues would not have come to the attention of many people. My only hope is that our media is not also manhandled into compliance, as is the case in the US. With an unbiased and fair media, and coverage….the field is somewhat leveled.

Anyway, that was the jist of the activities and the messages. Personally I do agree with this one point agenda approach. It is a pre-requisite to any further progress. In the absence of free and fair elections, we are all held at the mercy of the General and his foreign commanders. We must reclaim our country, and once we have the opportunity to do that can the discussion and discourse progress onto what each party will do with that opportunity….therefore it is in everyone’s interest to support this essential pre-requisite…all other points and differences till then are irrelevant.

After the press conference I went to the Karachi office of the party. Here I was able to meet even more people and newer faces, from a variety of backgrounds…again something that is appealing to me personally. Variety is the spice of life…as corny as that sounds…I personally do enjoy varied interactions. It was interesting to hear the opinions and thoughts of “hardened” party supporter and “workers”. Workers is a term I use loosely…we are all workers…workers for the party …but more accurately for the people….but there is a section of the party membership which is more directly involved in the day to day activities of organization and management….and has experience/scars of elections and the like….they are the ones I am categorizing as “workers”….I agree, a better term needs to be found.

The discussions seemed to primarily revolve around the activities in Sahiwal and also the Passing of the Women’s right bill and subsequent threats of resignation from Parlimement by some opposition ministers.

Regarding the women’s rights bill…like many of you I too am new to all of this, so let me explain what I understand so far. Hudood Ordinance was set up by General Zia under the guise of Islamic shariah. The Ordinance covered a number of points, including prohibition, theft and the like and their associated punishments. There was one aspect of the Ordinance related to zina (sex between two unmarried people), which also for some reason included rape. Therefore in order for a rape case to be proved the same burden of proof was required i.e. specified number of witnesses. Regardless, the case of rape is different (and should have been treated differently) …here when the victim would demand justice against her perpetrators, if no witnesses could be found…….the case of rape would be dropped and she would be charged with zina! (since she already admitted to the sexual “encounter”). Obviously this was totally wrong and had to be changed. I must point out that I do not disagree with the Islamic laws….what I do disagree with is their abuse, and this was a clear case of abuse or misuse. Obviously in almost all zina cases no witnesses can be provided, and in Islamic history any punishment related to zina that have been carried out have been as a result of willful confessions.

So….a revision of the clause was understandably proposed. There were some disagreements with respect to the phrasing of the new clause. As a result some members of parliament said that they would give their resignation if the new clause was passed and was proved to be against the Quran and Sunnah. Now so far so good…but what I do not understand is this…the clause has passed, and the threat of those resignations has not materialized…but the whole debate continues on if and when these resignations will occur. Not once have I seen any evaluation of the clause itself and if it is in fact against the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah…I mean if there is to be a debate, should that not be the first point…subsequent to which the issue of resignations becomes important? I would think so. The point being that so many debates are raging in the media today with respect to these resignations, but they seem to be totally based on emotions and pre-determined alliances….the debate on the clause itself is silent….i still do not know if it is against the Quran and sunnah…..

Why not resign over the issue of American occupation by proxy? ….now that is an issue that doesn’t even require debate!

Carrying on with my day….i had a number of discussions with the various people and was assigned the duty to organize the party for the Defence Area (where I live). A challenge that seems quite enticing. I agreed….like I said…whatever I can do… I managed to get a list of the key party members in my area and decided to call them when I got home.

The list was not long and I managed to get through to almost all of them, I have a couple of meetings set up for day after tomorrow. I was able to meet one key member of the party this evening. He was a gentleman who had previously ran in elections on behalf of the party from Defence, let’s call him Mr.exD(efense) – as I said in the beginning, I do not want to disclose any names – those who can/want….deduce what you like like. He was now not that involved due to his personal commitments, but still felt strongly about the party and their objectives. Meeting him was quite interesting. His conversation was full of realistic and practical advice and information and as a result could have been taken to be discouraging at times by someone with less optimism than me! Regardless, it was invaluable. I prefer to be uncomfortable in reality than blissful in delusion. It wasn’t all discouraging by any means anyway….but obviously there are obstacles to what needs to be done to change the state of affairs in Pakistan. We all know that, we cannot ignore that…only if we are fully aware of the rude reality can we deal with it. The support of Mr.exD was also open ended…he said he would help introduce me to his contact base in Defense and offered to help in anyway he could. I thanked him and hope to meet him later this week…….

You know what…. I still hear a lot of negative (albeit realistic) points of views generally, but it only makes this all the more exciting to be honest. I mean ….anti (current) establishmentarian ….shake the status quo….this sounds like fun!

It is interesting to note of politics of Pakistan, and probably the overriding factor in the Pakistani gene as a whole …emotions. That seems to be one aspect of our people that rules over all others, broadly speaking. Little or no thought into what they think and why is usually given. If you ask someone why they support a given party the answer is usually nothing to do with the policies or the aims of that party – most wouldn’t even know – but everything to do with the perceived leadership (or in some cases the leadership of their deceased founders!) or their traditional alliances with that party – even if that party for all intents and purposes is totally new. New Labour….we learnt that trick a long time ago!

Speak of the devil….Phony Tony arrived in Paksitan this evening…