The Silent Majority

The new voter lists are out, and I implore anyone who is in Pakistan (or able to vote overseas) to go and check if they are on the electoral register to ensure that they can participate in the up coming elections.  If you look at the voting statistics – only 30% of our population votes! That means that political parties are all trying to serenade a handful of voters (many of whom have to vote under duress due to the feudal system and other anomolies).  If people take thier voting responsibility seriously – there is an opportunity to mobilize the silent majority and make a difference.  We need to reclaim our country, and the first step to doing that is making your voice heard on election day. 

Please go to www.ecp.gov.pk to find out where and how to check if you are on the list – if not – you just need to submit a form and you will be registered.  You only have till July 3rd 2007, so go today and take your friends and family!

The Rushdie Bait….

All I want to say is that Muslims have to stop taking the bait – we get controversial issues dangled in our face, with the sole intention of obtaining video “gems” of the proverbial angry Muslims behaving illogically and in an intolerant manner.  The whole situation is choreographed to demonstrate this point to the rest of the world.  I mean really – salman Rushdie is hardly a literary giant – can anyone name any other book he has written apart from the Satanic verses? i am sure he has -but i don’t even remember him getting a Pulitzer or anything worthy of notice - yet he leapfrogs to a knighthood! Is this to show that freedom of speech and expression are so highly regarded in the west? yeah, as long as the speech is acceptable by the prevailing government position (ask David Irving!).  Rushdie is an idiot – a puppet – a wanna be whiteman, ….who thinks that by offending Muslims he will be given sanctuary – which on the face of it he has…but i am sure they still call him a paki!!

It is a total farce…but worse than that – I wish we did not take the bait.  We must focus on energies on regaining our own nations and then we can protest against such issues in a more effective and dignified manner – but as long as our governments are in the pockets of the western powers – a few people chanting and burning effigies only plays into the hands of the puppet masters.  I mean it achieves nothing from our perspective and everything from those who want to show Muslims as irrational thugs.  Don’t bite!  

Catch up

yes..it’s been long… a bit too long since i wrote an entry – but that doesn’t mean that nothing has been going on.  Quite the opposite really, the political landscape of Pakistan has been taking unpredictable twists and turns, with people still glued to their seats for the eventual outcome.  The General has allegedly squeezed the Chief Justice into considering resignation – with the assistance of the top brass (including “the real heavies”), based on charges of alleged misuse of office – yeah..like standing in his way! Apart from the alleged misappropriation of government privileges (a norm), coincidentally the judge was a thorn in the Steel Mill Privatization issue – can’t imagine Shaukat Aziz took much of a fancy to him.  Additionally, he was making uncomfortable noises about various missing persons cases (linked to the so called “war on terror”).  Would he also have stood in the way of a change in the constitution should the General demand so ? - most likely. 

It could have all been tidied up nicely had the Chief Justice (CJ) not stood his ground and caved into the good ole carrot and stick routine.  Luckily – at least for the integrity of the Justice system – the CJ didn’t.  He stood his ground, and encountered various tactics to make him comply, including house arrest (for all intents and purposes) and having his communication barred.  The media then came into play…highlighting the events made people take notice and all of a sudden this was a serious issue.  A scenario that probably transpires many times within a day – with mutual cooperation. 

This also prompted police lead attacks on Geo’s tv station, and the government tired to distance itself by just blaming the proverbial lone gunman – the clichés are eerie. The general hastily addresses the nation on the same show that was previously attacked..to promise investigations and once again chanted the mantra of “enlightened moderation” – and blamed the boogie man. 

Obviously all of this has implications for the political movement.  It gives the us (pro democracy movement) an appropriate opportunity to highlight the a core issues with this country by way of an identifiable and public incident – lack of  institutionalization and therefore independence.  Dictators (or anyone) should not be able to throw their weight around without institutional checks and balances – in fact the issue of the dictator is probably most problematic! 

Now, as we all know the politics of Pakistan is not about issues – it is about positioning for power and emotions.  The government coalition parties automatically took a negative stance against the CJ, lawyers and opposition parties – they never seemed to examine the merits of the situation.  This set the mood for the tragic event that transpired on May 12th where over 40 people died and numerous others hurt – without any subsequent investigation.  Like i have said before…life is cheap here.  Just to shed a bit of light on what actually happened that day – the CJ announced his trip to Karachi (he was making appearances at the invitation of various bar councils around the country) – this was followed by a statement by MQM – one of the key coalition partners of the current government - that they would not allow this to happen, and staged a rally of their own on the same day at the same place.  Despite the large numbers of rangers and police presence, they were impotent – told to stand down for all intents and purposes.  There was a predictably confrontation, instigated by MQM gunmen between the government stooges and opposition parties resulting in the mayhem.  During these unfortunate incidents, a number of our party members were also injured – which prompted a strong stance against the MQM’s tactics of violence aimed at subduing the public into compliance.  Our position is that terrorism is terrorism – in whatever form is comes – state sponsored or not.  This is the same game played by the west in their definition of terrorism – Israeli war planes killing innocent civilians is not termed terrorism, nor is carpet bombing of Afghanis, but fiery sermons by Shiekh Hamza are sufficient to land him behind bars.  Now the double standard is becoming even more obvious when the UK government is giving shelter to Altaf Hussain, who has a number of outstanding cases for murder and terrorism against him, and is regularly enticing the people of his party by telephonic broadcasts from the comfort of his UK offices.  The stance taken by PTI was one based on principle – a person should not be subjected to violence regardless of their political (or other) views.  The filing of the case against Altaf Hussain has already commenced in the UK, and should no doubt raise a number of uncomfortable questions for the government of both UK and Pakistan. It is high time that the politics of Pakistan were de-weaponized so the mothers, daughters and wives of the nation do not loose sleep over the safety of their family member due to views that do not sit well with the establishment.

There were other fiascos as well, that followed the events of May 12.  Journalists were sent bullets in envelopes as a warning from MQM - to again persuade them from reporting in an unbiased manner….a move that again backfired on the government.Now it seems that elections are imminent.  The government is running from pillar to post to safeguard their positions of power – at whatever cost.  They have started the predictable saber rattling of “the threat of terrorism”…no doubt trying to tell us that only they (with the help of the west ofcourse) can save Pakistan from this impending tragedy.   They want us to think that the real problem of our country is what the west wants it to be – or rather what the west wants us to think – religious extremism.  This is not the case.  Our country’s problems are more basic: people are only concerned about food (slowly becoming unattainable due to rising inflation), shelter, medical services, education, water, electricity – and of course safety. Meanwhile the government is too busy selling off national assets (steel mill, Pakistan State Oil, Banks etc) to fill up their coffers enabling them to manipulate statistics and say that the country is experiencing economic growth – something the common man would vehemently dispute.  The government is busy building new islands, while they cannot manage the existing (lack of ) infrastructure – no reliable water or electricity supply and they talk about prosperity.  Dispute this, and they will tell you how mobile phone penetration as grown – i mean what kind of indicator is that?! someone needs to tell these statsiticans that you can’t eat a phone. 

Times are interesting in Pakistan today.  We are at a critical juncture – how the people react will set the scene for the future of our land.  We are quick running out of chances, and I only hope that Pakistan is able to navigate these turbulent times for the betterment of our nation – and we must remember our nation is not the elite (as they would like to believe)- it is the masses – the poor, and unless they tell us that things are better – no amount of statistical gymnastics can convince me otherwise.