The strength of Israel’s might comes not from the support extended by USA or the financial prowess exhibited by those currently controlling the global agenda, but from the lack of decisiveness amongst Middle Eastern nations.
The worst aspect of the onslaught by IDF against Palestinians is the impotence of the Arab "rulers" sitting all around Israel and not taking any stern actions to resolve the problem.
A few individuals dotted across the Muslim world, boycotting American or other companies perceived as sympathetic to Israel or owned by Jewish families might or might not help, since the global economy is heavily dependent on the financial institutions based on the western model which with all its flaws has been time tested and is likely to re-emerge alive and kicking with better governance and regulation, out of the prevailing economic crisis.
What could have solved this problem long time back would have been a simple ultimatum by oil-producing Muslim countries that the delivery of oil would be suspended unless the conflict was resolved? However, in non-democratic countries like Saudi, UAE and other Middle Eastern Arab nations, the voice of the ordinary public holds no value, perhaps other than outright street power. Had democracy been the system of governance in the Middle Eastern Arab world, perhaps the fear of reprisals by the electorates would have forced the respective governments to take stern actions to stop the bloodshed in Gaza.
Another problem compounding and prolonging this conflict is the very attitude of Arab nations (unfortunately that of the rulers and very much general public alike), who consider this ongoing conflict as one between "Arabs" and Israel and not an issue affecting the "Muslim" world as perceived by non-Arab Muslims across the world. For example the emotionally charged Muslims from Pakistan feel strongly about the plight of Palestinians, however, as has been my personal experience attending various meeting called by the British government, discussing this very issue and those closely related, Arab groups express their displeasure at non-Arab Muslims getting "involved" in discussions about Palestine. They do not feel that non-Arab Muslims should get involved, nor do they feel it is an Islamic or Muslim issue, rather a geographically-centric nationalistic issue affecting just Arabs.
It should also be remembered that when Iraq was invaded the entire Muslim world took to the streets including Muslims living in the West, however, when the Chechens were being massacred , or when Afghanistan was bombed in 2001, there weren’t any major protests from the Arab population living in Arab countries. Muslims esp. of South Asian origin feel strongly for the plight of all Muslim brothers and sisters whether belonging to the Arab or non-Arab world, however the sentiment is not reciprocated at the same level of intensity, actually nowhere near that felt by non-Arab Muslims, when Muslims of non-Arab origin are in distress.
Mahmood Abbas led a delegation of Arab League to diffuse the situation in Gaza, whereas OIC which includes several non-Arab nations was not mobilized other than few sentences uttered to protest against the destruction of Gaza, much to the dismay of the Muslim population across the world. Such is the level of disparity between the Arab and non-Arab world which has prevented this conflict from getting resolved.
We must pray for this distinction between Muslim Arabs and non-Arabs to become obscured so that many issues faced by the Muslim world could get resolved on the basis of unity alone, without having to resort to military interventions.
Middle Eastern nations also need to introduce democracy as a system of governance in order to ensure the best people capable of serving their nations get elected to run the country, however lame the system might be in the beginning but eventually political maturity shall prevail and their countries would become more independent of what they are now.
Above-all there is a dire need for investment in universities, colleges, and other venues of research and development in all fields, including science, arts and business without excluding one or the other on the basis of intolerant and narrow-minded religious doctrines.
Human intellectual development is what will make the Muslim world stronger, not nukes or oil or reciting Quran in Arabic without understanding the context... Nukes can be taken away and disabled, oil will eventually dry up and without understanding Islam or be allowed to practice as one deems appropriate, without intimidation or coercion, Muslims will have nothing else in the decades to come but internal strife, discontent and economic backwardness.
It is easy to take out street protest marches, donate a bit of money, crib and moan, but the situation has been brought upon by not investing in the development of the mindset, which would have manifested in the form of military, diplomatic and economic force to be reckoned with. Sadly this didn't happen because Muslims got bogged down between Arab-non-Arab, Shia-Sunni distinctions and whether or not the neighbour's beard should be long or short and how best to hide women away from the world, control their social development and curb related activities.... When mindset becomes entangled in such issues which only concern others on a personal basis, its intellectual capability becomes restricted and this is exactly what has happened to Muslims across the world.
There is a lot of investment in real estate in UAE, Qatar etc and even Saudi Arabia, but no investment in universities and other venues of innovation and research. Investment in human capital and intellectual development is what's needed most and which has given the edge to Western nations over the others.
Breaking out of the closed mindset that has engulfed us all, we need to expand our minds, indulge in research and innovation into all fields, whether its science or finance. There is an urgent need to promote arts and media and liberate the hearts and minds which have largely remained stagnant over a long period of time.
Bombing schools and forcing future mothers to give up education, as is the new trend in the areas controlled by militant pseudo-Islamists in North Western Pakistan, is simply not the way forward... it is simply forced regression and goes against every aspect of common sense. Funding thousands of Madressahs which produce tens of thousands of young men armed with no other skills but to serve the religious industry, or perhaps manual labour and low-skilled jobs is doing a disservice to the nation. The same institutions need to be reformed so that they equip the disadvantaged youth with skills which would allow them to compete against those from advantaged backgrounds and contribute to the human development.
Read more!
Saturday 7 February 2009
Monday 13 October 2008
Britain: The next battleground in the war on terror
After Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, the next battleground in the global war on terror will be fought on no other than the soil of United Kingdom. Ironically, it may not be anyone else but Britain's closest ally USA, fighthing the war, with or without Britain's consent, with British government perhaps feeling completely powerless to avert such a catastrophe, unless it is prepared to risk a civil war once again on the British Isles. Not anytime soon I suppose.
All of this may not happen within a few years, but indeed will happen within our lifetime. Maybe not at the time of 2012 Olympics, but most certainly at a time when the demograhics of UK will have changed to show a picture completely different from what we are still finding it hard getting accustomed to.
The British Muslim population is growing and so is its disillusionment with the democratic system and the politicians. This feeling of despair is not based on realistic evidence but that is fabricated and manipulatively instilled into their mindset, systematically and painstackingly over generatons, eroding any remote sense of patriotism or emotional bondage with the country that is afterall their true home.
Such sense of alienation and loss of belonging to the country is compounded by the inherent fashion statements so very often proudly used, more often by non-Muslim indigenous Brits, to degrade and put down any expressions of patriotism, as uncool, BNP-like and "oh please" whenever soul perhaps like myself would dare to utter the word country, nation or loyalty.
The symbols of patriostism and those which pump energy and vigour into a nation's heart, such as the Union Flag, have been allowed to get hijacked by the far right organisations and those who wish to retain the symbols as their personal property. Furthermore, there isn't any Britishness left on this piece of land which we call Great Britain. There is an English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish identity, but none that refers to United Kindgdom as a whole.
In such an environment, British Muslim youth have been led to believe that their loyalties should not lie with Britain, albeit with the Global Muslim Ummah, even though nowhere else is such spirit of brotherhood displayed. Be it the Kindgdom of Saudi Arabia or the booming economic castles of Dubai, Pakistani or Bangladeshi "Muslim" labour-classes are treated with contempt, kept in sub-human conditions, whilst the ruling Arab Muslims benefit from their sweat and blood on low wages, non-existent labour laws or human rights, without giving the relief that would otherwise be bestowed upon fellow Muslims by their own.
In another example, the Jinjaweed militia, of Muslim Arab origin raped, maimed and tortured fellow Muslim tribes from Darfur, not so long ago. Iraq and Iran fought a bitter war lasting over 8 years, resulting in the blood of Muslims being spilled by fellow Muslims regardless of count in terms of volume or pity.
Palastenian refugees continue to live the life of misery and without proper rights in the slums of neighbouring Syria and Jordan, ever since their eviction from their lands caused outrage amongst the Islamic world. Their plight is still used to invoke the feeling of helplessness and rage against the "West" and the State of Israel, week after week on any given Friday, be it Pakistan, Britain, or any other country where Mullahs seek to use politico-relogious sentiments as a means to seek continuance of their stranglehold on the lives of Muslims, esp the young, tender hearted and worth exploitation. Yet, there isn't any mention of how Muslim "Ummah" continue to be treated by their own fellow religion followers, whether its UAE or Sudan amongst all other examples.
British Muslims, mostly hail from a region, where Islam was said to have been the foundation for a newly independent state of Pakistan in 1947, and not simple a secular state primarily for Muslims of South Asia who sought not to live alongside the majority of Hindu population post independence. The tribal mentality that exists in the north of Pakistan prevails very much within most of British Muslim communities, coupled with the constant barrage of Friday seromons in Urdu and Punjabi, rhetoric against the west very much the same that one might expect to hear in Afghanistan or Saudi private conversations. With such hightened emotions and sense of belonging to the Ummah rather than the land, British Muslims are being led towards a phase where they would not be able to see anything in common with the rest of British society. Their increasing demographic power would allow them the leverage to aggresively seek yet more segregation and rights unheard of in Europe, and any resistance would lead to violent reprisals and eventually a state of civil war.
However, before all of this happens, the current alleged preparations being made to attack USA and other western nations in the remote mountains of Pakistan, will most certainly shift to the northern towns of England and neighourhoods within Greater London.
The Jihadi idelogy twinned with the sense of loyalty towards the Ummah will perpetrate such anger and manifest in the form of terrorist actions that American patient will be tested time and time again over years and perhaps decades, finally yeilding to domestic pressure with disastrous consequences for the Anglo-American relations.
The only way out of this quagmire rests in the hands of British government of today and the opposition parties, which may or may not be sitting on the same benches in the years to come. Time to act is most certainly now, if they wish to protect the British Isles from strife, despair and civil unrest to the proportions of civil war and total anarchy.
Tough decisions taken today might not fare well for the major political parties in certain constituencies, yet they will ensure the continuation and preservation of a democractic civic society for which many across the world and on these very Isles, have fought and shed their blood. Let it not go to waste.
Read more!
All of this may not happen within a few years, but indeed will happen within our lifetime. Maybe not at the time of 2012 Olympics, but most certainly at a time when the demograhics of UK will have changed to show a picture completely different from what we are still finding it hard getting accustomed to.
The British Muslim population is growing and so is its disillusionment with the democratic system and the politicians. This feeling of despair is not based on realistic evidence but that is fabricated and manipulatively instilled into their mindset, systematically and painstackingly over generatons, eroding any remote sense of patriotism or emotional bondage with the country that is afterall their true home.
Such sense of alienation and loss of belonging to the country is compounded by the inherent fashion statements so very often proudly used, more often by non-Muslim indigenous Brits, to degrade and put down any expressions of patriotism, as uncool, BNP-like and "oh please" whenever soul perhaps like myself would dare to utter the word country, nation or loyalty.
The symbols of patriostism and those which pump energy and vigour into a nation's heart, such as the Union Flag, have been allowed to get hijacked by the far right organisations and those who wish to retain the symbols as their personal property. Furthermore, there isn't any Britishness left on this piece of land which we call Great Britain. There is an English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish identity, but none that refers to United Kindgdom as a whole.
In such an environment, British Muslim youth have been led to believe that their loyalties should not lie with Britain, albeit with the Global Muslim Ummah, even though nowhere else is such spirit of brotherhood displayed. Be it the Kindgdom of Saudi Arabia or the booming economic castles of Dubai, Pakistani or Bangladeshi "Muslim" labour-classes are treated with contempt, kept in sub-human conditions, whilst the ruling Arab Muslims benefit from their sweat and blood on low wages, non-existent labour laws or human rights, without giving the relief that would otherwise be bestowed upon fellow Muslims by their own.
In another example, the Jinjaweed militia, of Muslim Arab origin raped, maimed and tortured fellow Muslim tribes from Darfur, not so long ago. Iraq and Iran fought a bitter war lasting over 8 years, resulting in the blood of Muslims being spilled by fellow Muslims regardless of count in terms of volume or pity.
Palastenian refugees continue to live the life of misery and without proper rights in the slums of neighbouring Syria and Jordan, ever since their eviction from their lands caused outrage amongst the Islamic world. Their plight is still used to invoke the feeling of helplessness and rage against the "West" and the State of Israel, week after week on any given Friday, be it Pakistan, Britain, or any other country where Mullahs seek to use politico-relogious sentiments as a means to seek continuance of their stranglehold on the lives of Muslims, esp the young, tender hearted and worth exploitation. Yet, there isn't any mention of how Muslim "Ummah" continue to be treated by their own fellow religion followers, whether its UAE or Sudan amongst all other examples.
British Muslims, mostly hail from a region, where Islam was said to have been the foundation for a newly independent state of Pakistan in 1947, and not simple a secular state primarily for Muslims of South Asia who sought not to live alongside the majority of Hindu population post independence. The tribal mentality that exists in the north of Pakistan prevails very much within most of British Muslim communities, coupled with the constant barrage of Friday seromons in Urdu and Punjabi, rhetoric against the west very much the same that one might expect to hear in Afghanistan or Saudi private conversations. With such hightened emotions and sense of belonging to the Ummah rather than the land, British Muslims are being led towards a phase where they would not be able to see anything in common with the rest of British society. Their increasing demographic power would allow them the leverage to aggresively seek yet more segregation and rights unheard of in Europe, and any resistance would lead to violent reprisals and eventually a state of civil war.
However, before all of this happens, the current alleged preparations being made to attack USA and other western nations in the remote mountains of Pakistan, will most certainly shift to the northern towns of England and neighourhoods within Greater London.
The Jihadi idelogy twinned with the sense of loyalty towards the Ummah will perpetrate such anger and manifest in the form of terrorist actions that American patient will be tested time and time again over years and perhaps decades, finally yeilding to domestic pressure with disastrous consequences for the Anglo-American relations.
The only way out of this quagmire rests in the hands of British government of today and the opposition parties, which may or may not be sitting on the same benches in the years to come. Time to act is most certainly now, if they wish to protect the British Isles from strife, despair and civil unrest to the proportions of civil war and total anarchy.
Tough decisions taken today might not fare well for the major political parties in certain constituencies, yet they will ensure the continuation and preservation of a democractic civic society for which many across the world and on these very Isles, have fought and shed their blood. Let it not go to waste.
Read more!
Thursday 18 September 2008
Is Washington risking a war with Pakistan?
A recent article published in TIME magazine (Washington is risking war with Pakistan: Sept 17th) suggests that Washington is "risking" a war with Pakistan. It appears from recent incidents along the Pak-Afghan border that Washington doesn't want a war with Pakistan, since Pakistan is already on the brink of war; a civil war.
Washington does not need to wage a full scale war against Pakistan on a similar pattern to Afghanistan or Iraq, on the contrary the continuation of sustained low-level incursions and attacks by drones into the tribal regions, is already sufficient to trigger a cycle of violence, instability and disenfranchisement of the local population, which can eventually manifest itself into a full blown civil war within the country.
Non-militant restive Pashtuns would undoubtedly be made to feel they as a nation are under attack both by the US and the Pakistani forces at the same time, perhaps ignoring the fact that the instigators of such bloodshed are militants hailing from their own very regions, hoping to establish a brand of Islam that they deem is the true path to Allah. These Pashtuns would, for the sake of revenge or out of necessity to safeguard their national pride, culture and tradition will increasingly join in the fight against the Pakistani forces, seen to them as equal partners in crime with the US military, sitting across the border at the controls of their unmanned aircraft and satellite imagery screens. At the same time Pakistani forces will probably be forced to militarily engaging the US drones and Special Ops troops as well, with or without the consent of the PPP government.
It needs to be taken into account that Pakistan being a nuclear armed state is good enough to threaten India but does not bother USA since Pakistan does not have the capability yet to strike mainland USA or its key assets in the region without risking a nuclear fallout and ecological destruction of the region.
Any such attacks on US troops based in Afghanistan would definitely result in the nuclear cloud drift back towards Pakistan or to move onto countries such as Iran, Central Asian republics or China, all of whom are friendly towards Pakistan for the time being. Such an attack in addition to killing countless Afghans, is likely to prompt the UN Security Council to call for Pakistan to be stripped off its nuclear assets, something that has probably been rehearsed thousands of times by US, NATO and Israeli forces. Such an operation, without the active involvement of India could lead to the disabling of the armaments and nuclear infrastructure for good. Since India would skillfully choose not be a key player in such an adventure, there will be no justification to launch an attack on the neighbour without risking a full scale war on the Eastern front as well, possibly with a nuclear backlash on Pakistani soil.
The Pakistani armed forces sandwiched between the Jihadi fighters and the US incursions will be faced with a dilemma. Either they will have to abandon their fight against the militants and accept their terms paving the way for a wave of Talibanisation to move down south, or allow the US forces to continue with their operations, providing them with the intelligence required to minimise collateral damage, which in itself lands more willing recruits to the militant cause. In either scenario without the full patronage of the NRO-sponsored civilian government and the political fraternity, any decisions will be harmful for the integrity of the nation.
Any attempts by the militants to exert their influence outside of northern areas will undoubtedly be rigorously and violently resisted by the moderate and secular minded forces that exist largely in the southern regions of Pakistan such as the Mohajirs and deeply spiritual yet completely non-fundamentalist Sindhis alongside possibly the Baloch nationalists as well, whereas the cooperation with US forces would be met with disapproval by the combined masses across the country triggering a political chaos, further deepening the crises.
If one recalls the New map of Middle East (June 2006) from the US Armed Forces Journal, it seems that the pieces are neatly falling into place and a plan perhaps devised decades back by the real powers-to-be, is being realised, though not by occupation or brute force, but by exploiting the deep divisions that exist amongst Pakistani Muslims on the issue of religion, its interpretation and practice. The time tested doctrine of "divide and rule" is being implemented with full vigour once again and can result in the physical division of the country.
The only option left for Pakistanis is to bury their differences that exist in the name of religion, ethnicity and cultural customs and become united in order to protect the integrity of the state. Failing that, the time will come very soon when Pakistanis will be thinking about new names for the regions, emerging after Pakistan's break-up, as independent yet extremely weakened, dependable and pliable states.
Read more!
Washington does not need to wage a full scale war against Pakistan on a similar pattern to Afghanistan or Iraq, on the contrary the continuation of sustained low-level incursions and attacks by drones into the tribal regions, is already sufficient to trigger a cycle of violence, instability and disenfranchisement of the local population, which can eventually manifest itself into a full blown civil war within the country.
Non-militant restive Pashtuns would undoubtedly be made to feel they as a nation are under attack both by the US and the Pakistani forces at the same time, perhaps ignoring the fact that the instigators of such bloodshed are militants hailing from their own very regions, hoping to establish a brand of Islam that they deem is the true path to Allah. These Pashtuns would, for the sake of revenge or out of necessity to safeguard their national pride, culture and tradition will increasingly join in the fight against the Pakistani forces, seen to them as equal partners in crime with the US military, sitting across the border at the controls of their unmanned aircraft and satellite imagery screens. At the same time Pakistani forces will probably be forced to militarily engaging the US drones and Special Ops troops as well, with or without the consent of the PPP government.
It needs to be taken into account that Pakistan being a nuclear armed state is good enough to threaten India but does not bother USA since Pakistan does not have the capability yet to strike mainland USA or its key assets in the region without risking a nuclear fallout and ecological destruction of the region.
Any such attacks on US troops based in Afghanistan would definitely result in the nuclear cloud drift back towards Pakistan or to move onto countries such as Iran, Central Asian republics or China, all of whom are friendly towards Pakistan for the time being. Such an attack in addition to killing countless Afghans, is likely to prompt the UN Security Council to call for Pakistan to be stripped off its nuclear assets, something that has probably been rehearsed thousands of times by US, NATO and Israeli forces. Such an operation, without the active involvement of India could lead to the disabling of the armaments and nuclear infrastructure for good. Since India would skillfully choose not be a key player in such an adventure, there will be no justification to launch an attack on the neighbour without risking a full scale war on the Eastern front as well, possibly with a nuclear backlash on Pakistani soil.
The Pakistani armed forces sandwiched between the Jihadi fighters and the US incursions will be faced with a dilemma. Either they will have to abandon their fight against the militants and accept their terms paving the way for a wave of Talibanisation to move down south, or allow the US forces to continue with their operations, providing them with the intelligence required to minimise collateral damage, which in itself lands more willing recruits to the militant cause. In either scenario without the full patronage of the NRO-sponsored civilian government and the political fraternity, any decisions will be harmful for the integrity of the nation.
Any attempts by the militants to exert their influence outside of northern areas will undoubtedly be rigorously and violently resisted by the moderate and secular minded forces that exist largely in the southern regions of Pakistan such as the Mohajirs and deeply spiritual yet completely non-fundamentalist Sindhis alongside possibly the Baloch nationalists as well, whereas the cooperation with US forces would be met with disapproval by the combined masses across the country triggering a political chaos, further deepening the crises.
If one recalls the New map of Middle East (June 2006) from the US Armed Forces Journal, it seems that the pieces are neatly falling into place and a plan perhaps devised decades back by the real powers-to-be, is being realised, though not by occupation or brute force, but by exploiting the deep divisions that exist amongst Pakistani Muslims on the issue of religion, its interpretation and practice. The time tested doctrine of "divide and rule" is being implemented with full vigour once again and can result in the physical division of the country.
The only option left for Pakistanis is to bury their differences that exist in the name of religion, ethnicity and cultural customs and become united in order to protect the integrity of the state. Failing that, the time will come very soon when Pakistanis will be thinking about new names for the regions, emerging after Pakistan's break-up, as independent yet extremely weakened, dependable and pliable states.
Read more!
Tuesday 26 August 2008
Pakistan: Demise of the unholy alliance
Nawaz Sharif has been forced to pull his political party out of an unholy alliance with the ruling party run by Benazir Bhutto's shrewd widower, Asif Ali Zardari. Unfortunately for Pakistan, this political milestone is likely to set into motion a cycle of events which have the potential to result in the meltdown of the society as a whole, possibly ending with the country’s disintegration, and with repercussions being felt not only across the region but across the world.
One day or the other this was bound to happen.
A right-wing Islamist party such as Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) simply could not have remained in a coalition of left-wing progressive parties such as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the National Awami Party (ANP).
The most interesting and perhaps shameful aspect to all of this, is the fact that these silly individuals could not even wait a few months, after their arch-nemesis Retd. General Musharraf's resignation, even for the sake of face saving, to stick together. This has strengthened the concept that atleast Musharraf kept the democratic alliance intact whilst sitting at the sidelines, keeping a watchful eye over democracy, yet not interfering too much. His departure from the political arena and the power structure has left the politicians with ample reasons to bring back the bickering and slandering days as was the norm in the 1990s.
With an ex-judge siding with Nawaz Sharif to such an extent as to get nominated for the Presidency, whilst other Justices like Iftikhar Chaudhary and his band of pro-Taliban, pro-Lal Masjid Brigade lawyers, with the support of venom-spitting media outlets such as Geo TV (starring Hamid Mir), it is clear why PML-N and Jamat-e-Islami were so desperate to get the Musharraf ousted Judges restored. Their indication that a PPP President will be acceptable only when the claws of 58 (2b) clause were to be removed from the powers of the presidency, gives strength to the notion that PML-N and PPP never trusted each other. The insistence of restoring a Chief Justice, who for example released over 70 potential terrorists captured from Lal Masjid in 2007 after a pitched battle between holed up militants and the Special Services Group (SSG) commandos, during which more than a dozen highly trained professional soldiers lost their lives, is evident of the fact that elements within the top Judiciary had become too sympathetic to the Islamist cause, perhaps prompting Musharraf to remove them whilst he had the powers to do so.
The frustration at the lack of his favoured judges’ restoration has finally tipped the balance and sent the much hyped about alliance tumbling into political oblivion.
First round to Zardari
In this game of political maneuvering, Zardari seems to have won the first round. However with other progressive and politically strong parties such as ANP and MQM by his side, a deeply humiliating wound has been inflicted, not upon PML-N but none other than the right wing elite of Punjab. Apparently a Sindhi Wadera (landlord) with the support of mainly progressive and secular Pashtuns in the form of ANP and the Mohajir and Sindhi largely educated lower-to-middle classes, has succeeded in annoying and shaming Punjab into backing out of alliance with nothing at their hands but an ousted Musharraf - with an indemnity guaranteed by the powers that be, a weakened lawyers movement, and the mighty military - transformed by Musharraf into anti-Taliban, anti-Mullah defenders away from the anti-India, pro-Islamist force that another late General Zia-ul-Haq had turned them into.
A challenge to Punjabi nationalism
With a lot of tacit support for PML-N within the rank and file of the key opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), it remains to be seen whether Punjabi nationalism will rise once again, as it did during the two days of campaigning in the 1998 general elections after the National Assembly contest and prior to the Provincial Assembly polls, when Benazir Bhutto swept the National Assembly seats prompting Nawaz Sharif to take a helicopter riding out to all over Punjab with the slogan of “Jag Punjabi jag” (wake up Punjabis, wake up) shaming them for allowing a Sindh-led PPP to gain significant number of seats in the National Assembly. As a result the tide turned when the same voters turned against PPP and elected PML-N in the Province of Punjab, allowing the party to secure a majority government there.
Should this humiliation be felt across the fertile land of Punjab 20 years later, there will be a significant number of defections from PML-Q as well as some from the PPP, who would not have been happy seeing their last hopes for true Punjab-led domination of the political arena fade away, as opposed to the puppetry that is on exhibition with a feeble Multan-based Prime Minister taking the seat with his strings being pulled from down south rural Sindh. The result of provincial and ethnic rivalry may very well lead to a situation where another feeble and gentle PML-N nominated President gets elected with all the powers intact to dismiss the parliament and calling for fresh elections, which PML-N would hope to sweep in atleast Punjab and perhaps parts of Sindh, now that their expert on the province politics Ghaus Ali Shah has been brought back from self-exile to dent the popularity of PPP. PPP itself might break up into factions, one retained by Asif Zardari, whilst others led by the likes of Makhdoom Amin Fahim and perhaps even the Lawyers’ leader Aitzaz Ahsan, who happens to hail from Punjab is could be seen as the righteous one, with his unflinching loyalty towards the ousted Justices and his excellent relationship with Nawaz Sharif and his top leadership.
Revival of the Right-wing alliance
The Jamat-e-Islami and perhaps even Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman’s JUI-F (F - for sale?), might decide to relive the nostalgia of 1990’s Islami Jamhoori Itehad (IJI) which was created by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), with even the acronyms sickeningly similar, something admitted quite blatantly by the Retd. General Hamid Gul. Their support reinforced by the likes of confused and pro-Taliban Pashtun nationalist Imran Khan’s Tehrik-e-Insaaf (TI) will strengthen PML-N’s cause even further, capitalizing on Zardari, the former Mr 10%’s betrayal and his continuation of the policies against Taliban and Islamic extremism, will most definitely help them gain sufficient number of seats in the assemblies should elections be called anytime soon.
The one time aspiration of Nawaz Sharif to gain the title of Amir-ul-Momineen (Leader of the faithful) which he came very close to accomplishing prior to getting ousted by Musharraf in 1999, might very well become an achievable reality this time. Should this happen, similar to what the Taliban did in Afghanistan, the Cabinet will probably be re-titled the Grand Shura (council) and general elections replaced by nominations to the Shura by local Mosques and community “Elders” with beards and sticks in their hands. For the time being, the far-fetched idea does seem more real than ever before.
The great divide
The worst possible scenario for Pakistan would be for a President coming into power with right-wing pro-Islamist support, with an extremely uneasy relationship with a left-wing anti-Mullah government, prompting the now transformed Military, bitterly engaged in a civil war in one and a near civil war like situation in another of the two out of only four remaining provinces of Pakistan, to be left pondering whether and when to intervene should the political wrangling continue to destabilise a nuclear armed nation with the economy sliding into a worse state than ever before, and the people being kept hostage by the hundreds of thousands of hate spewing Madressahs and other religious institutions that back in the 1980s its intelligence service itself helped prop up.
A great divide between the secular and progressive minded Southern Punjanbi, Sindhi, Pashtun and Mohajir population along with deeply nationalist yet not at all fundamentalist Balochi people, and the pro-Islamist orthodoxy of northern Punjab and Pashtun tribesmen along with pockets of fundamentalists across the country will fully evolve in the coming months. Such a weakened state of affairs will cause deep concern within the power corridors of Washington, London and other states whose hopes of regaining some sense of order in neighboring Afghanistan is fading fast with the progress of Taliban towards the capital Kabul once again. Whether it’s the tacit support from a largely Shiite Iran for the mainly extremist Sunni Taliban in Afghanistan or the Tribesmen of Pakistan’s Pashtun Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) aiding their brethren across the border, a destablised Pakistan will not serve anyone’s interest hoping to see a decline in religious extremism primarily coming from Muslim communities worldwide. Any external attempt to stabilise the situation, in all honestly, will not go down well with the Pakistani people, nor within the wider Islamic world, as it would be seen as yet another interference of the “West” infidels in matters pertaining their religion and region.
The Nuclear factor
With Pakistan being seen descending into chaos, the world’s attention would be focused not primarily on its politicians or the masses but the bunch of nuclear weapons which are being cared for by the ever-strong military, the only state institution that has maintained its reputation as a professional entity with a tendency to take matters into its hands should the need to retain the remaining Pakistan intact and surviving. The eastern arm now Bangladesh, has already been severed due to the political immaturity and arrogance of West Pakistan’s politicians towards their Bengali brethren in the 1970s. Should the military feel that the survival of its nuclear arsenal, the safeguard against a numerically and technically superior India on the East and a Shiite Iran on the West, and the security of the country is being put at stake due to the political quarrels and an emerging fundamentalism, it may see no other choice but to intervene once more.
Sadly, such a drastic yet not unheard of, step taken by the military this time will not reverse the disastrous cycle that has been set in motion by the wave of religious extremism and fundamentalism coupled with the humiliation of the country’s largest ethnic group at the hands of those ethnicities who have been looked down with contempt and disdain. It is most likely that the spread of Talibanisation will result not only with the cities of Pakistan being hit by Fidayeen (Suicide bombers) attacks, but with plenty of Lal Masjid Brigades coming out to impose their interpretation of Sharia onto the masses in every neighbourhood and marketplace. Any opposition to such heavy-handed tactics will result in further bloodshed and intimidation. Perhaps the only resistance initially such mad Mullahs will encounter will be at the hands of Mutahida Quami Movement, whose muscle-flexing on May 12th 2007 apparently was a show of force to the Taliban and other fundamentalists that their street power has been revived to the same state of preparation as it had been in the 1990s. Unfortunately, apart from southern cities of Sindh, the resistance to the spread of locality based Taliban brigades will be difficult to halt unless the advice of MQM’s chief Altaf Hussain and other like-minded leaders and analysts is taken on board and the general population is adequately trained and armed by either the local pro-democracy political forces or the military to tackle the menace that is bound to take the country in the grip of intimidation and violence at street level.
Chaos and disintegration
The drastic actions of the military might prevent an international force taking control of the nuclear assets and dismantling the infrastructure behind it, however the prevention of the country being taken over by the fundamentalists will only be achieved if and when the masses realise the gravity of the situation and how their religion is being hijacked to turn the nation with lots of potential to follow in the footsteps of Turkey and Malaysia, into one which is governed by laws meant for cavemen living in dark ages.
Time will now be the judge of how Pakistani people, take control of their own destiny with or without the help of friendly powers wishing to see it survive and emerge as a progressive nation and an example of the secular, democratic nation state that Mohammed Ali Jinnah espoused to and which is at the risk of crumbling under the pressure of religious bigotry, intolerance and irrationality.
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One day or the other this was bound to happen.
A right-wing Islamist party such as Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) simply could not have remained in a coalition of left-wing progressive parties such as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the National Awami Party (ANP).
The most interesting and perhaps shameful aspect to all of this, is the fact that these silly individuals could not even wait a few months, after their arch-nemesis Retd. General Musharraf's resignation, even for the sake of face saving, to stick together. This has strengthened the concept that atleast Musharraf kept the democratic alliance intact whilst sitting at the sidelines, keeping a watchful eye over democracy, yet not interfering too much. His departure from the political arena and the power structure has left the politicians with ample reasons to bring back the bickering and slandering days as was the norm in the 1990s.
With an ex-judge siding with Nawaz Sharif to such an extent as to get nominated for the Presidency, whilst other Justices like Iftikhar Chaudhary and his band of pro-Taliban, pro-Lal Masjid Brigade lawyers, with the support of venom-spitting media outlets such as Geo TV (starring Hamid Mir), it is clear why PML-N and Jamat-e-Islami were so desperate to get the Musharraf ousted Judges restored. Their indication that a PPP President will be acceptable only when the claws of 58 (2b) clause were to be removed from the powers of the presidency, gives strength to the notion that PML-N and PPP never trusted each other. The insistence of restoring a Chief Justice, who for example released over 70 potential terrorists captured from Lal Masjid in 2007 after a pitched battle between holed up militants and the Special Services Group (SSG) commandos, during which more than a dozen highly trained professional soldiers lost their lives, is evident of the fact that elements within the top Judiciary had become too sympathetic to the Islamist cause, perhaps prompting Musharraf to remove them whilst he had the powers to do so.
The frustration at the lack of his favoured judges’ restoration has finally tipped the balance and sent the much hyped about alliance tumbling into political oblivion.
First round to Zardari
In this game of political maneuvering, Zardari seems to have won the first round. However with other progressive and politically strong parties such as ANP and MQM by his side, a deeply humiliating wound has been inflicted, not upon PML-N but none other than the right wing elite of Punjab. Apparently a Sindhi Wadera (landlord) with the support of mainly progressive and secular Pashtuns in the form of ANP and the Mohajir and Sindhi largely educated lower-to-middle classes, has succeeded in annoying and shaming Punjab into backing out of alliance with nothing at their hands but an ousted Musharraf - with an indemnity guaranteed by the powers that be, a weakened lawyers movement, and the mighty military - transformed by Musharraf into anti-Taliban, anti-Mullah defenders away from the anti-India, pro-Islamist force that another late General Zia-ul-Haq had turned them into.
A challenge to Punjabi nationalism
With a lot of tacit support for PML-N within the rank and file of the key opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), it remains to be seen whether Punjabi nationalism will rise once again, as it did during the two days of campaigning in the 1998 general elections after the National Assembly contest and prior to the Provincial Assembly polls, when Benazir Bhutto swept the National Assembly seats prompting Nawaz Sharif to take a helicopter riding out to all over Punjab with the slogan of “Jag Punjabi jag” (wake up Punjabis, wake up) shaming them for allowing a Sindh-led PPP to gain significant number of seats in the National Assembly. As a result the tide turned when the same voters turned against PPP and elected PML-N in the Province of Punjab, allowing the party to secure a majority government there.
Should this humiliation be felt across the fertile land of Punjab 20 years later, there will be a significant number of defections from PML-Q as well as some from the PPP, who would not have been happy seeing their last hopes for true Punjab-led domination of the political arena fade away, as opposed to the puppetry that is on exhibition with a feeble Multan-based Prime Minister taking the seat with his strings being pulled from down south rural Sindh. The result of provincial and ethnic rivalry may very well lead to a situation where another feeble and gentle PML-N nominated President gets elected with all the powers intact to dismiss the parliament and calling for fresh elections, which PML-N would hope to sweep in atleast Punjab and perhaps parts of Sindh, now that their expert on the province politics Ghaus Ali Shah has been brought back from self-exile to dent the popularity of PPP. PPP itself might break up into factions, one retained by Asif Zardari, whilst others led by the likes of Makhdoom Amin Fahim and perhaps even the Lawyers’ leader Aitzaz Ahsan, who happens to hail from Punjab is could be seen as the righteous one, with his unflinching loyalty towards the ousted Justices and his excellent relationship with Nawaz Sharif and his top leadership.
Revival of the Right-wing alliance
The Jamat-e-Islami and perhaps even Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman’s JUI-F (F - for sale?), might decide to relive the nostalgia of 1990’s Islami Jamhoori Itehad (IJI) which was created by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), with even the acronyms sickeningly similar, something admitted quite blatantly by the Retd. General Hamid Gul. Their support reinforced by the likes of confused and pro-Taliban Pashtun nationalist Imran Khan’s Tehrik-e-Insaaf (TI) will strengthen PML-N’s cause even further, capitalizing on Zardari, the former Mr 10%’s betrayal and his continuation of the policies against Taliban and Islamic extremism, will most definitely help them gain sufficient number of seats in the assemblies should elections be called anytime soon.
The one time aspiration of Nawaz Sharif to gain the title of Amir-ul-Momineen (Leader of the faithful) which he came very close to accomplishing prior to getting ousted by Musharraf in 1999, might very well become an achievable reality this time. Should this happen, similar to what the Taliban did in Afghanistan, the Cabinet will probably be re-titled the Grand Shura (council) and general elections replaced by nominations to the Shura by local Mosques and community “Elders” with beards and sticks in their hands. For the time being, the far-fetched idea does seem more real than ever before.
The great divide
The worst possible scenario for Pakistan would be for a President coming into power with right-wing pro-Islamist support, with an extremely uneasy relationship with a left-wing anti-Mullah government, prompting the now transformed Military, bitterly engaged in a civil war in one and a near civil war like situation in another of the two out of only four remaining provinces of Pakistan, to be left pondering whether and when to intervene should the political wrangling continue to destabilise a nuclear armed nation with the economy sliding into a worse state than ever before, and the people being kept hostage by the hundreds of thousands of hate spewing Madressahs and other religious institutions that back in the 1980s its intelligence service itself helped prop up.
A great divide between the secular and progressive minded Southern Punjanbi, Sindhi, Pashtun and Mohajir population along with deeply nationalist yet not at all fundamentalist Balochi people, and the pro-Islamist orthodoxy of northern Punjab and Pashtun tribesmen along with pockets of fundamentalists across the country will fully evolve in the coming months. Such a weakened state of affairs will cause deep concern within the power corridors of Washington, London and other states whose hopes of regaining some sense of order in neighboring Afghanistan is fading fast with the progress of Taliban towards the capital Kabul once again. Whether it’s the tacit support from a largely Shiite Iran for the mainly extremist Sunni Taliban in Afghanistan or the Tribesmen of Pakistan’s Pashtun Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) aiding their brethren across the border, a destablised Pakistan will not serve anyone’s interest hoping to see a decline in religious extremism primarily coming from Muslim communities worldwide. Any external attempt to stabilise the situation, in all honestly, will not go down well with the Pakistani people, nor within the wider Islamic world, as it would be seen as yet another interference of the “West” infidels in matters pertaining their religion and region.
The Nuclear factor
With Pakistan being seen descending into chaos, the world’s attention would be focused not primarily on its politicians or the masses but the bunch of nuclear weapons which are being cared for by the ever-strong military, the only state institution that has maintained its reputation as a professional entity with a tendency to take matters into its hands should the need to retain the remaining Pakistan intact and surviving. The eastern arm now Bangladesh, has already been severed due to the political immaturity and arrogance of West Pakistan’s politicians towards their Bengali brethren in the 1970s. Should the military feel that the survival of its nuclear arsenal, the safeguard against a numerically and technically superior India on the East and a Shiite Iran on the West, and the security of the country is being put at stake due to the political quarrels and an emerging fundamentalism, it may see no other choice but to intervene once more.
Sadly, such a drastic yet not unheard of, step taken by the military this time will not reverse the disastrous cycle that has been set in motion by the wave of religious extremism and fundamentalism coupled with the humiliation of the country’s largest ethnic group at the hands of those ethnicities who have been looked down with contempt and disdain. It is most likely that the spread of Talibanisation will result not only with the cities of Pakistan being hit by Fidayeen (Suicide bombers) attacks, but with plenty of Lal Masjid Brigades coming out to impose their interpretation of Sharia onto the masses in every neighbourhood and marketplace. Any opposition to such heavy-handed tactics will result in further bloodshed and intimidation. Perhaps the only resistance initially such mad Mullahs will encounter will be at the hands of Mutahida Quami Movement, whose muscle-flexing on May 12th 2007 apparently was a show of force to the Taliban and other fundamentalists that their street power has been revived to the same state of preparation as it had been in the 1990s. Unfortunately, apart from southern cities of Sindh, the resistance to the spread of locality based Taliban brigades will be difficult to halt unless the advice of MQM’s chief Altaf Hussain and other like-minded leaders and analysts is taken on board and the general population is adequately trained and armed by either the local pro-democracy political forces or the military to tackle the menace that is bound to take the country in the grip of intimidation and violence at street level.
Chaos and disintegration
The drastic actions of the military might prevent an international force taking control of the nuclear assets and dismantling the infrastructure behind it, however the prevention of the country being taken over by the fundamentalists will only be achieved if and when the masses realise the gravity of the situation and how their religion is being hijacked to turn the nation with lots of potential to follow in the footsteps of Turkey and Malaysia, into one which is governed by laws meant for cavemen living in dark ages.
Time will now be the judge of how Pakistani people, take control of their own destiny with or without the help of friendly powers wishing to see it survive and emerge as a progressive nation and an example of the secular, democratic nation state that Mohammed Ali Jinnah espoused to and which is at the risk of crumbling under the pressure of religious bigotry, intolerance and irrationality.
Read more!
Tuesday 15 April 2008
Pakistan’s steady drift towards civil war
The greatest threat to Pakistan’s integrity, since its creation in 1947 is steadily increasing and becoming a vulgar reality than has ever been envisaged.
Setting the scene for chaos…
The deliberate misguiding of President General Pervaiz Musharraf in early 2007 by members of his own establishment, leading to the fiasco of sacking, reinstatement and the subsequent removal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary and the ensuing “judicial crisis” is leading the country towards utter chaos and potential disintegration. The crisis has been kept alive and kicking in the public memory by the fiery right-leaning print and electronic media outlets, and the so called “civil society” comprising not of the downtrodden ordinary folk of Pakistan, but of NGO leaders and lawyers belonging to the elite classes backed by an enormous and unabated source of mysterious funding. It is indeed ironic that the same Chief Justice Chaudhary did not flinch over the illegal detentions by the security services in partnership with CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies battling the extremist elements hell-bent on destroying world peace in the name of Islam, nor did he find working alongside a President-cum-Army chief an inconvenience till an ill advised reference was logged against his activities and misuse of office earlier last year. The same Supreme Court duly provided legal legitimacy to the actions of an Army Chief when he assumed the control of government and ousted a Prime Minister who was soon to amend the constitutions to suit his right-wing Islamist agenda, and to assume the title of “Ameer-ul-Momineen” (Leader of the faithful in Urdu) similar to the very title that militant Taliban and extremists across the world use for Mullah Omar of Afghanistan.
Certain points to ponder…
Neither can it be completely ruled out that the reference produced against the Chief Justice was flawed and ill timed, nor can the intentions and loyalty of elements within the Musharraf “Administration” be fully exonerated without doubt before and during this debacle. The refusal to use a secure vehicle by the non-functional Chief Justice the day after his reference was made public and his insistence to walk down to the Supreme Court, the subsequent pushing and shoving by Police officers and the repeat telecast of the clips showing the alleged manhandling over several weeks by the “independent” media put together helped ingrain into the minds of many Pakistanis how brutal and undemocratic President Musharraf was along with this Cabinet and allied parties.
The same media cried foul when Lal-Masjid (the Red Mosque) was stormed by crack troops of the Pakistani military’s SSG Commandos, yet it took the troops a good 24 hours to fight the way through the barricades, booby traps and militants entrenched inside the mosque and the adjacent religious school (Jama-e-Hafza) before assuming full control of the institutions. The media somehow failed to highlight the fact that despite the claims by right-wing and Islamist sympathising parties such as Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N and the Jamat-e-Islami, that innocent women and youngsters were brutally unlawfully butchered inside the mosque and school, the students and their leadership managed to defend their fortress and held back the commandos for such a long time using modern arms and ammunition. Neither was this important question addressed by the media or the Islamist parties, nor did the Chief Justice ask the students the reasons for them being armed and holed up in the first instance as if on the slopes of Kargil Valley, when he ordered the release of over 70 captured militants and reordered the repairs and refurbishment of the Mosque and religious school, along with the reinstatement of the captured leader of the school, shamefully caught by the authorities running away hiding under a full body veil in the full glare of the media.
The right-wingers’ game…
Similarly an interesting factor leading the nuclear armed nation towards anarchy is the single point election agenda of Nawaz Sharif’s party that the Judges be reinstated who had either not been invited to take oath under the new Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) of November 2007 issued by President and General Musharraf, or had refused to take oath under this new PCO, whilst previously having had no inhibitions to assume their seats on the Supreme Court bench under a previous PCO issued by the same General-cum-President. By default a sub-section of PML-N’s single point agenda is the removal of Musharraf from power. This seems to be linked to the humiliation that Sharif and his colleagues had to face when they tried to replace the then General Musharraf whilst he was airborne returning from Sri Lanka. The high altitude and high impact drama that included a near crash of the aircraft he was travelling in, along with a scores of school children, with its conclusion at Karachi airport and in the garrison city of Rawalpindi where troops loyal to Musharraf smelt a rat and united in his absence, failing to acknowledge the instatement of a new Army Chief, instead arrested Sharif, his family and his party men, thereby initiating a coup and new era of governance in Pakistan still continuing under the Presidency of Musharraf, even though he has shunned his uniform, once deemed his second skin. Had Pakistan Muslim League – N came up with a multi-faceted agenda to bring economic stability to the country along with a sustainable plan to progress the nation, their credibility would have trebled, however their single-point anti-Musharraf agenda and vendetta against pro-Musharraf parties reeks of political immaturity and incompetence to lead the nation as they did prior to Musharraf’s take over, when the country was on the brink of bankruptcy.
The British community and Labour support to conservative Islamists…
The support of Nawaz Sharif by deeply conservative clan-based ethnic Pakistani communities as well as Labour parliamentarians in Britain hailing from the same ethnicity as Sharif, is indeed disturbing. Apparently one of the community members in spite of being a Labour peer proudly accompanied Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan late 2007 during his first attempt to return to Pakistan, when Nawaz was turned back from the airport and returned to Saudi Arabia where he was in exile under a 10 year deal brokered by the Kingdom’s rulers. However, Nawaz’s second attempt to return proved fruitful although he and his brother were not allowed to contest the elections due to their previous convictions and for other reasons. The support of Nawaz Sharif and other key leader of PML-N’s amongst the Pakistani ethnic Punjabi and Kashmiri diasporas in Britain along with their conservative clan-based inclinations or rather inhibitions towards handling community issues such as forced marriages, self-imposed segregation from the rest of the society and women rights issues, tell a tale worth paying attention to. The domination of Punjabi and Kashmir communities in the UK forming blocks of electoral votes, their strong links to north Pakistan, and hence their influence over the government policy not only suggests how much support by default Nawaz’s Islamist party and his likeminded allies such as Jamat-e-Islami, get in the form of British government’s perspective on the Pakistani political situation, but it effectively sidelines many progressive, liberal and secular viewpoints on Pakistan and global politics which are interlinked due to Pakistan’s strategic geo-political importance.
Martyrs…
Simultaneously, the return of Benazir Bhutto to Pakistan under an alleged British and American brokered power-sharing agreement between her party and those allied to Musharraf, was scuttled to a certain extent as a result of the first unsuccessful attempt on her life on the 18th October and the subsequent fatal attack on the 27th December and has also contributed extensively towards the brewing crisis in Pakistan. Mrs Bhutto’s firm stance on how to tackle the issue of radicalisation and extremism, clearly opposing the viewpoint of Nawaz Sharif, the underlying willingness to form alliances with like-minded parties such as the extremely pro-Musharraf and his own creation Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), secular and nationalistic Awami National Party (ANP) and the educated urban yet poor and middle class led Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), won her no favours with the ring-wing parties nor did she gain any sympathies by the militants in the unruly North Western regions of the country, home to staunch sympathisers of Al Qaeda, Taliban, hopeful to enforce a strict and intolerant brand of Islam akin to the ones that Afghan Taliban had managed to enforce with the help of Pakistani Inter-Services-Intelligence in the 1990s. Ironically as fate would have it, it was during the period when Mrs Bhutto was the Prime Minister that Taliban rose to power with the help of ISI. Her widower Asif Ali Zardari once known by the infamous title of Mr 10% owing to his standard fees to turn a blind eye to any business malpractice within the country, seems keen to keep the party intact, whilst at the same time retaining the power-base in the rural Sindh province and keep the largely Urdu speaking MQM as good friends, who hold absolute power in the urban Sindh esp. in Karachi the economic power house of the country. Since the elections on the 18th February, the trade-off that Zardari has come to accept i.e. allowing Punjabi PPP leaders to take key prominent seats in the Federal Cabinet over Sindhi ones seems to have sidelined many Sindhi-speaking leaders of PPP, thereby exposing a deep rift within the party. One of Benazir’s key confidants Naheed Khan seems to have disappeared off the radar, along with Sindhi Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a major premiership hopeful and PPP parliamentary party president, who was shunned in favour of Yousuf Raza Gilani hailing from a moderate yet spiritual political Sufi Punjabi family.
Zardari’s woes and options…
For the time being in the Federal government, Zardari sees no other choice but to work alongside right-wing Islamist PML-N in a power-sharing deal based on the solemn promise to PML-N that the judges ousted on the 3rd November 2007 are to be restored. The PPP which according to Benazir Bhutto’s will, inherited Zardari’s joint-chairmanship along with her son’s, failed to clinch enough seats in the centre to form a comfortable majority without relying on the support of either the Sharif’s party and nationalist yet secular Awami National Part. Although sticking to the ANP and at the same time embracing MQM and PML-Q being more ideologically closer to PPP than Sharif’s right-wing agenda would have been the ideal solution.
So far, the PPP, ANP have allowed PML-N to become part of the government in an uneasy alliance where the doubts about PPP’s intentions about restoration of the judges through a simple Parliamentary resolution or even an executive order by the Law Ministry often causes friction between the two parties fencing on opposite poles when it comes to their left or right, or to be blunt secular and Islamist leanings. PPP is following the opinion that deadlines and threats of long marches are unacceptable pressure tactics and that the Parliament being the supreme most body should decide the fate of the judges involving a parliamentary committee, which as history goes, could take months with of course no desired results guaranteed. PML-N on the other hand is adamant that the judges be restored as a result of an executive order or a parliamentary resolution requiring a simple majority to go through, without any further delay and definitely not beyond the 30 days timescale as declared jointly by Nawaz and Zardari at the Bhurban resort only recently, prior to getting PML-N to join the coalition government. It has to be noted that the declaration is in violation of a similar Charter of Democracy that was signed by the late Benazir Bhutto and Sharif in London in 2007, according to which they pledged never to appoint a judge who would have taken oath under a PCO issued by Musharraf. The most recent Bhurban declaration on the contrary insists that all the PCO sworn and subsequently ousted judges including Justice Chaudhary be restored.
A movement and its effects…
The movement for the restoration of judiciary with its injected abundant cash flow spearheaded by several lawyers and support from Nawaz Sharif and hardline Islamist parties such as Jamat-e-Islami, seems to have come to a stage where their trust in PPP’s promises seem to be taking a bashing with each passing day. Being hopeful that PML-N would be able to pressurise PPP to reinstate the judges, they are keeping up the momentum in pursuance of their objectives. It may be noted that that judges in their final days in office had clearly became partisan and would offer a lot of support to the Islamist parties and the hardliners, such as they did in the case of the Lal Masjid brigade, whilst at the same time quite likely to cause difficulties for PPP and ANP in their pursuit of liberal and secular agendas. The one time loyal supporter of Benazir’s PPP, the chief of lawyers Aitzaz Ahsan seems more comfortable with the Sharif brothers and Jamat-e-Islami and is frequently seen surrounded by their activists rather than the PPP flag bearers. This goes on to substantiate the claim that PPP’s break-up into various factions is not only inevitable but also imminent. With Zardari being able to continue to command a certain following owing to the Bhutto brand name having added Bhutto to his son’s name against normal tradition, Amin Fahim might choose to create his own forward block. Similarly, Aitzaz Ahsan seems to be a prime candidate hoping to break away several key leaders from PPP and form his own new party with any judges within its ranks, who might not get reinstated including the ousted Chief Justice Chaudhary, already seen delivering speeches and issuing statements like a seasoned politician. At the same time, the PPP in Punjab might very well choose to take sides with their ethnic counterparts belonging to PML-N, rather than tag along with the Sindhi speaking PPP traditionalists and old guard. This would only strengthen PML-N’s hold but only in the populous province of Punjab, their failure to bag seats in the rest of the four provinces is evidence that their success has been reliant on the boycott of 18th February elections by the harline Islamists Jamat-e-Islami, whose supporters were instructed by local leadership to ensure that PML-N was supported at all costs. In spiritual Sindh, nationalist yet progressive minded Balochistan and staunchly nationalist yet deeply conservative NWFP where Jamat-e-Islami did not have strongholds, PML-N also failed to win seats.
Desired options…
In the aftermath of Musharraf’s promise to deliver free and fair elections, the death of Benazir Bhutto and the reluctance to take head on the militant problem posing threats to both Pakistan and NATO forces in Afghanistan, the only solution left for Pakistan to prevent the repeat of 1971 when East Pakistan broke away after a bitter civil war, is for PPP to work alongside the only truly secular and representative of downtrodden poor and middle-class masses MQM and to allow PML-Q to tag along, taking in a new coalition the parties such as ever-so-willing-to-toe-government-line Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman’s Jamiat-Ulmae-Islam (JUI-F), the independents as well as ANP.
Options… #1
The situation could become highly inflammable near to the passing of the 30-day deadline given by the lawyers and Nawaz Sharif for the restoration of the deposed judges, if there would be no sign of their restoration on the horizon. This might prompt some firebrand lawyers, similar to those who recently beat up the ex-minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs and have in the past pulled similar antics with other pro-Musharraf lawyers and lawmakers, to carry the ousted judges on their shoulders to the Supreme Court building and attempt to install them by force. Nawaz’s party seems quite capable of pulling off such a stunt having had the experience of storming the Supreme Court in the past. This is likely to be resisted by the PPP run administration since Islamabad, where the Supreme Court building is situated, comes under Federal jurisdiction and not under the government of Punjab which is governed by Sharif’s party. Any ensuing clashes will provide the very justification by PML-N to resign from government and take sides with the warring legal fraternity. The resulting civil disobedience, long marches and violent protests might even result in the declaration of another national emergency or atleast in the province of Punjab, the dissolution of the provincial assembly headed by PML-N. This might bring PPP, MQM and PML-Q into a close partnership along with JUI-F and ANP, yet this marriage of convenience may come with the added reservations and grudges on the part of each partner against the other making it an unholy alliance for the sake of national interest.
Options… #2
Coming under increasing pressure and as a result of failure to draw the support of MQM in the province of Sindh and in the centre owing to traditional rivalries, PPP might decide to reinstate the judges hoping that an amicable solution to the judicial crisis could be reached without having to lose face, credibility or having to oust the judges sworn in by Musharraf since November 3rd when emergency was declared in the country leading to the deposition of a large number of judges headed by Justice Chaudhary. Should this happen, it is most likely that a number of cases or suo-moto notices be initiated against Musharraf and his allied parties especially the MQM over the May 12th 2007 clashes which resulted in the deaths of over 50 people on the streets of Karachi when the Justice Chaudhary was due to visit the port city and heavily armed groups fought pitched battles, televised on various news channels. Although there are various news clips and videos posted on the internet showing members of PPP, ANP and Jamat-e-Islami roaming the streets armed to the teeth, yet the blame has largely been put on MQM for all those deaths. Similarly on April 9th 2008, riots in Karachi left several people dead including MQM activists burned to death by a mysterious mob who within a short period of time torched and locked a building and dozens of cars in the city, yet again the carnage is being blamed on the very MQM pushing them against the wall as done in the past with disastrous results for the oppressors.
Similar to late 2007, Justice Chaudhary’s reinstatement might also see the restoration of Lal Masjid, the release of several suspected Islamic militants and a phase where instability might reach unparalleled proportions. Any reaction to such biased injunctions could push the President up the wall leaving no other choice but to declare another Emergency or even the dissolution of the Parliament. A resolution passed in the parliament without implementation by the executive will be meaningless, therefore putting words into action will also be a big test for the PPP led government and could offer another delay in the process of restoration of judiciary leading to deepening of the ongoing crisis.
The MQM and Karachi factor …
There is an increasing likelihood that the city of Karachi being the economic hub of the country could descend into chaos with MQM prepared to fight it to the end should another crackdown on MQM be launched. It has been suggested by many sources that May 12th incidents were a display of power that MQM has regained since the days when countless military and police actions carried out by successive PML-N and PPP governments thousands of its workers get killed or virtually disappeared without trace. It should be noted that the charge sheet against the second Benazir government presented at the time when it was brought down had the extra-judicial killings at the very top. Yet, the vote bank of MQM has remained steady and this time their mandate reached around 90% mark. MQM’s support from grassroots downtrodden and poor masses and its call for the abolition of the feudal system in the country has earned them a great deal of enemies from within each of the parties whether the PPP, PML-N or even the ANP and JI. PPP and PML-N being parties deriving its powerbase from feudal or industrialist classes or those supporting such structures have always found MQM as their arch nemesis for instigating dissent amongst their poor subjugates, who could one day follow the example of MQM and get organised enough to send their own representatives into the assembly as MQM has done since the 1987 elections on a consistent basis. Similarly the February 18th elections showed MQM’s vote bank creep into the other three provinces other than Sindh, ringing alarm bells within the corridors of feudal power. Being the descendants of those folk who migrated from newly independent India into Pakistan having voted for the creation of Pakistan, Mohajirs or Urdu Speakers form the bulk of MQM support along with urban and some rural Sindhi speakers and for the past couple of years or so, from other provinces as well where poor folk have started to get organised under the MQM banner. It is to be remembered that President Musharraf hails from the same ethnic background, another source of friction between him and the ethnic Punjabi, Sindhi and other ethnicities of Pakistan who deem the largely educated immigrant community as undesired especially since they were forced to inhabit the city of Karachi whom they transformed into a business and economic hub of the nation and since 1987 and have proved itself an electoral and streetwise stronghold of Mohajir and other non-Mohajir MQM supporters. The spiritual yet secular and progressive party with the highest literacy rate amongst all the voters of any political party, MQM hails from the same genes as those belonging to Indians who have progresses their country turning into a rising economic power. It can be safely assumed that the true allies of the West in terms of their anti-extremist mindset could only be found in the form of MQM within Pakistan. This time round, the do or die preparation by MQM to counter any moves to implement large scale para-military or police operations are likely to lead Pakistan into an economic crisis as well as a civil war which could have disastrous consequences for the region.
Future looks bleak yet not inevitable…
At a crucial time like this, all the global influential forces who have a stake in nuclear-armed Pakistan’s integrity and the stability of the region, and those who wish for the experiment in democracy to succeed, must recognise the risk from Pakistan turning into a truly failed and civil-war-marred state. The main objective therefore needs be the formation of a new coalition of the willing, those political parties, who did not win on anti-US or religious sentiments, but those which are based on solid liberal, secular and sane ideologies. These are the political forces who are expected to become good allies of the western free world, in the fight against religious extremism, intolerance and the ensuing terrorism.
Any chaotic situation in Pakistan will provide the golden opportunity for those entrenched in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan to inflict heavy damage to the NATO forces fighting the local Taliban and any drain on resources in that region could have a knock-on effect on operations in Iraq. On the other hand, any break-up of Pakistan Peoples Party and its failure to join hands with other liberal parties are likely to hand over access of the nuclear arsenal to an Islamist government such as Nawaz’s PML-N, the effects of which are unthinkable and should remain far from ever becoming a reality.
It will be important especially for the British government to take into account the traditional support base of Islamist and conservative groups of Pakistan within the resident population in the UK whilst formulating opinions and perspectives about the situation of Pakistan and whilst extending support to any political groups. Any decisions and policies about Pakistan ideally need to be validated against a range of sources and viewpoints belonging to both conservative and liberal ends of the political spectrum as opposed to basing them entirely on the most vocal sentiments issued by a certain segment of the society whose historic links to their ancestral lands dictate them to present a distorted picture of the ground realities and which may very well go against the interest of the free democratic world.
The moral of the story is it is always better to take sides with those taking part in a political process than reluctantly having to side with parties embroiled in a bitter abd bloody civil war. It’s perhaps a necessity that those who have any influence over Pakistani politics need to exercise that influence with as much seriousness and urgency as can practically be possible.
Setting the scene for chaos…
The deliberate misguiding of President General Pervaiz Musharraf in early 2007 by members of his own establishment, leading to the fiasco of sacking, reinstatement and the subsequent removal of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary and the ensuing “judicial crisis” is leading the country towards utter chaos and potential disintegration. The crisis has been kept alive and kicking in the public memory by the fiery right-leaning print and electronic media outlets, and the so called “civil society” comprising not of the downtrodden ordinary folk of Pakistan, but of NGO leaders and lawyers belonging to the elite classes backed by an enormous and unabated source of mysterious funding. It is indeed ironic that the same Chief Justice Chaudhary did not flinch over the illegal detentions by the security services in partnership with CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies battling the extremist elements hell-bent on destroying world peace in the name of Islam, nor did he find working alongside a President-cum-Army chief an inconvenience till an ill advised reference was logged against his activities and misuse of office earlier last year. The same Supreme Court duly provided legal legitimacy to the actions of an Army Chief when he assumed the control of government and ousted a Prime Minister who was soon to amend the constitutions to suit his right-wing Islamist agenda, and to assume the title of “Ameer-ul-Momineen” (Leader of the faithful in Urdu) similar to the very title that militant Taliban and extremists across the world use for Mullah Omar of Afghanistan.
Certain points to ponder…
Neither can it be completely ruled out that the reference produced against the Chief Justice was flawed and ill timed, nor can the intentions and loyalty of elements within the Musharraf “Administration” be fully exonerated without doubt before and during this debacle. The refusal to use a secure vehicle by the non-functional Chief Justice the day after his reference was made public and his insistence to walk down to the Supreme Court, the subsequent pushing and shoving by Police officers and the repeat telecast of the clips showing the alleged manhandling over several weeks by the “independent” media put together helped ingrain into the minds of many Pakistanis how brutal and undemocratic President Musharraf was along with this Cabinet and allied parties.
The same media cried foul when Lal-Masjid (the Red Mosque) was stormed by crack troops of the Pakistani military’s SSG Commandos, yet it took the troops a good 24 hours to fight the way through the barricades, booby traps and militants entrenched inside the mosque and the adjacent religious school (Jama-e-Hafza) before assuming full control of the institutions. The media somehow failed to highlight the fact that despite the claims by right-wing and Islamist sympathising parties such as Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N and the Jamat-e-Islami, that innocent women and youngsters were brutally unlawfully butchered inside the mosque and school, the students and their leadership managed to defend their fortress and held back the commandos for such a long time using modern arms and ammunition. Neither was this important question addressed by the media or the Islamist parties, nor did the Chief Justice ask the students the reasons for them being armed and holed up in the first instance as if on the slopes of Kargil Valley, when he ordered the release of over 70 captured militants and reordered the repairs and refurbishment of the Mosque and religious school, along with the reinstatement of the captured leader of the school, shamefully caught by the authorities running away hiding under a full body veil in the full glare of the media.
The right-wingers’ game…
Similarly an interesting factor leading the nuclear armed nation towards anarchy is the single point election agenda of Nawaz Sharif’s party that the Judges be reinstated who had either not been invited to take oath under the new Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) of November 2007 issued by President and General Musharraf, or had refused to take oath under this new PCO, whilst previously having had no inhibitions to assume their seats on the Supreme Court bench under a previous PCO issued by the same General-cum-President. By default a sub-section of PML-N’s single point agenda is the removal of Musharraf from power. This seems to be linked to the humiliation that Sharif and his colleagues had to face when they tried to replace the then General Musharraf whilst he was airborne returning from Sri Lanka. The high altitude and high impact drama that included a near crash of the aircraft he was travelling in, along with a scores of school children, with its conclusion at Karachi airport and in the garrison city of Rawalpindi where troops loyal to Musharraf smelt a rat and united in his absence, failing to acknowledge the instatement of a new Army Chief, instead arrested Sharif, his family and his party men, thereby initiating a coup and new era of governance in Pakistan still continuing under the Presidency of Musharraf, even though he has shunned his uniform, once deemed his second skin. Had Pakistan Muslim League – N came up with a multi-faceted agenda to bring economic stability to the country along with a sustainable plan to progress the nation, their credibility would have trebled, however their single-point anti-Musharraf agenda and vendetta against pro-Musharraf parties reeks of political immaturity and incompetence to lead the nation as they did prior to Musharraf’s take over, when the country was on the brink of bankruptcy.
The British community and Labour support to conservative Islamists…
The support of Nawaz Sharif by deeply conservative clan-based ethnic Pakistani communities as well as Labour parliamentarians in Britain hailing from the same ethnicity as Sharif, is indeed disturbing. Apparently one of the community members in spite of being a Labour peer proudly accompanied Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan late 2007 during his first attempt to return to Pakistan, when Nawaz was turned back from the airport and returned to Saudi Arabia where he was in exile under a 10 year deal brokered by the Kingdom’s rulers. However, Nawaz’s second attempt to return proved fruitful although he and his brother were not allowed to contest the elections due to their previous convictions and for other reasons. The support of Nawaz Sharif and other key leader of PML-N’s amongst the Pakistani ethnic Punjabi and Kashmiri diasporas in Britain along with their conservative clan-based inclinations or rather inhibitions towards handling community issues such as forced marriages, self-imposed segregation from the rest of the society and women rights issues, tell a tale worth paying attention to. The domination of Punjabi and Kashmir communities in the UK forming blocks of electoral votes, their strong links to north Pakistan, and hence their influence over the government policy not only suggests how much support by default Nawaz’s Islamist party and his likeminded allies such as Jamat-e-Islami, get in the form of British government’s perspective on the Pakistani political situation, but it effectively sidelines many progressive, liberal and secular viewpoints on Pakistan and global politics which are interlinked due to Pakistan’s strategic geo-political importance.
Martyrs…
Simultaneously, the return of Benazir Bhutto to Pakistan under an alleged British and American brokered power-sharing agreement between her party and those allied to Musharraf, was scuttled to a certain extent as a result of the first unsuccessful attempt on her life on the 18th October and the subsequent fatal attack on the 27th December and has also contributed extensively towards the brewing crisis in Pakistan. Mrs Bhutto’s firm stance on how to tackle the issue of radicalisation and extremism, clearly opposing the viewpoint of Nawaz Sharif, the underlying willingness to form alliances with like-minded parties such as the extremely pro-Musharraf and his own creation Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), secular and nationalistic Awami National Party (ANP) and the educated urban yet poor and middle class led Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), won her no favours with the ring-wing parties nor did she gain any sympathies by the militants in the unruly North Western regions of the country, home to staunch sympathisers of Al Qaeda, Taliban, hopeful to enforce a strict and intolerant brand of Islam akin to the ones that Afghan Taliban had managed to enforce with the help of Pakistani Inter-Services-Intelligence in the 1990s. Ironically as fate would have it, it was during the period when Mrs Bhutto was the Prime Minister that Taliban rose to power with the help of ISI. Her widower Asif Ali Zardari once known by the infamous title of Mr 10% owing to his standard fees to turn a blind eye to any business malpractice within the country, seems keen to keep the party intact, whilst at the same time retaining the power-base in the rural Sindh province and keep the largely Urdu speaking MQM as good friends, who hold absolute power in the urban Sindh esp. in Karachi the economic power house of the country. Since the elections on the 18th February, the trade-off that Zardari has come to accept i.e. allowing Punjabi PPP leaders to take key prominent seats in the Federal Cabinet over Sindhi ones seems to have sidelined many Sindhi-speaking leaders of PPP, thereby exposing a deep rift within the party. One of Benazir’s key confidants Naheed Khan seems to have disappeared off the radar, along with Sindhi Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a major premiership hopeful and PPP parliamentary party president, who was shunned in favour of Yousuf Raza Gilani hailing from a moderate yet spiritual political Sufi Punjabi family.
Zardari’s woes and options…
For the time being in the Federal government, Zardari sees no other choice but to work alongside right-wing Islamist PML-N in a power-sharing deal based on the solemn promise to PML-N that the judges ousted on the 3rd November 2007 are to be restored. The PPP which according to Benazir Bhutto’s will, inherited Zardari’s joint-chairmanship along with her son’s, failed to clinch enough seats in the centre to form a comfortable majority without relying on the support of either the Sharif’s party and nationalist yet secular Awami National Part. Although sticking to the ANP and at the same time embracing MQM and PML-Q being more ideologically closer to PPP than Sharif’s right-wing agenda would have been the ideal solution.
So far, the PPP, ANP have allowed PML-N to become part of the government in an uneasy alliance where the doubts about PPP’s intentions about restoration of the judges through a simple Parliamentary resolution or even an executive order by the Law Ministry often causes friction between the two parties fencing on opposite poles when it comes to their left or right, or to be blunt secular and Islamist leanings. PPP is following the opinion that deadlines and threats of long marches are unacceptable pressure tactics and that the Parliament being the supreme most body should decide the fate of the judges involving a parliamentary committee, which as history goes, could take months with of course no desired results guaranteed. PML-N on the other hand is adamant that the judges be restored as a result of an executive order or a parliamentary resolution requiring a simple majority to go through, without any further delay and definitely not beyond the 30 days timescale as declared jointly by Nawaz and Zardari at the Bhurban resort only recently, prior to getting PML-N to join the coalition government. It has to be noted that the declaration is in violation of a similar Charter of Democracy that was signed by the late Benazir Bhutto and Sharif in London in 2007, according to which they pledged never to appoint a judge who would have taken oath under a PCO issued by Musharraf. The most recent Bhurban declaration on the contrary insists that all the PCO sworn and subsequently ousted judges including Justice Chaudhary be restored.
A movement and its effects…
The movement for the restoration of judiciary with its injected abundant cash flow spearheaded by several lawyers and support from Nawaz Sharif and hardline Islamist parties such as Jamat-e-Islami, seems to have come to a stage where their trust in PPP’s promises seem to be taking a bashing with each passing day. Being hopeful that PML-N would be able to pressurise PPP to reinstate the judges, they are keeping up the momentum in pursuance of their objectives. It may be noted that that judges in their final days in office had clearly became partisan and would offer a lot of support to the Islamist parties and the hardliners, such as they did in the case of the Lal Masjid brigade, whilst at the same time quite likely to cause difficulties for PPP and ANP in their pursuit of liberal and secular agendas. The one time loyal supporter of Benazir’s PPP, the chief of lawyers Aitzaz Ahsan seems more comfortable with the Sharif brothers and Jamat-e-Islami and is frequently seen surrounded by their activists rather than the PPP flag bearers. This goes on to substantiate the claim that PPP’s break-up into various factions is not only inevitable but also imminent. With Zardari being able to continue to command a certain following owing to the Bhutto brand name having added Bhutto to his son’s name against normal tradition, Amin Fahim might choose to create his own forward block. Similarly, Aitzaz Ahsan seems to be a prime candidate hoping to break away several key leaders from PPP and form his own new party with any judges within its ranks, who might not get reinstated including the ousted Chief Justice Chaudhary, already seen delivering speeches and issuing statements like a seasoned politician. At the same time, the PPP in Punjab might very well choose to take sides with their ethnic counterparts belonging to PML-N, rather than tag along with the Sindhi speaking PPP traditionalists and old guard. This would only strengthen PML-N’s hold but only in the populous province of Punjab, their failure to bag seats in the rest of the four provinces is evidence that their success has been reliant on the boycott of 18th February elections by the harline Islamists Jamat-e-Islami, whose supporters were instructed by local leadership to ensure that PML-N was supported at all costs. In spiritual Sindh, nationalist yet progressive minded Balochistan and staunchly nationalist yet deeply conservative NWFP where Jamat-e-Islami did not have strongholds, PML-N also failed to win seats.
Desired options…
In the aftermath of Musharraf’s promise to deliver free and fair elections, the death of Benazir Bhutto and the reluctance to take head on the militant problem posing threats to both Pakistan and NATO forces in Afghanistan, the only solution left for Pakistan to prevent the repeat of 1971 when East Pakistan broke away after a bitter civil war, is for PPP to work alongside the only truly secular and representative of downtrodden poor and middle-class masses MQM and to allow PML-Q to tag along, taking in a new coalition the parties such as ever-so-willing-to-toe-government-line Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman’s Jamiat-Ulmae-Islam (JUI-F), the independents as well as ANP.
Options… #1
The situation could become highly inflammable near to the passing of the 30-day deadline given by the lawyers and Nawaz Sharif for the restoration of the deposed judges, if there would be no sign of their restoration on the horizon. This might prompt some firebrand lawyers, similar to those who recently beat up the ex-minister of Law and Parliamentary Affairs and have in the past pulled similar antics with other pro-Musharraf lawyers and lawmakers, to carry the ousted judges on their shoulders to the Supreme Court building and attempt to install them by force. Nawaz’s party seems quite capable of pulling off such a stunt having had the experience of storming the Supreme Court in the past. This is likely to be resisted by the PPP run administration since Islamabad, where the Supreme Court building is situated, comes under Federal jurisdiction and not under the government of Punjab which is governed by Sharif’s party. Any ensuing clashes will provide the very justification by PML-N to resign from government and take sides with the warring legal fraternity. The resulting civil disobedience, long marches and violent protests might even result in the declaration of another national emergency or atleast in the province of Punjab, the dissolution of the provincial assembly headed by PML-N. This might bring PPP, MQM and PML-Q into a close partnership along with JUI-F and ANP, yet this marriage of convenience may come with the added reservations and grudges on the part of each partner against the other making it an unholy alliance for the sake of national interest.
Options… #2
Coming under increasing pressure and as a result of failure to draw the support of MQM in the province of Sindh and in the centre owing to traditional rivalries, PPP might decide to reinstate the judges hoping that an amicable solution to the judicial crisis could be reached without having to lose face, credibility or having to oust the judges sworn in by Musharraf since November 3rd when emergency was declared in the country leading to the deposition of a large number of judges headed by Justice Chaudhary. Should this happen, it is most likely that a number of cases or suo-moto notices be initiated against Musharraf and his allied parties especially the MQM over the May 12th 2007 clashes which resulted in the deaths of over 50 people on the streets of Karachi when the Justice Chaudhary was due to visit the port city and heavily armed groups fought pitched battles, televised on various news channels. Although there are various news clips and videos posted on the internet showing members of PPP, ANP and Jamat-e-Islami roaming the streets armed to the teeth, yet the blame has largely been put on MQM for all those deaths. Similarly on April 9th 2008, riots in Karachi left several people dead including MQM activists burned to death by a mysterious mob who within a short period of time torched and locked a building and dozens of cars in the city, yet again the carnage is being blamed on the very MQM pushing them against the wall as done in the past with disastrous results for the oppressors.
Similar to late 2007, Justice Chaudhary’s reinstatement might also see the restoration of Lal Masjid, the release of several suspected Islamic militants and a phase where instability might reach unparalleled proportions. Any reaction to such biased injunctions could push the President up the wall leaving no other choice but to declare another Emergency or even the dissolution of the Parliament. A resolution passed in the parliament without implementation by the executive will be meaningless, therefore putting words into action will also be a big test for the PPP led government and could offer another delay in the process of restoration of judiciary leading to deepening of the ongoing crisis.
The MQM and Karachi factor …
There is an increasing likelihood that the city of Karachi being the economic hub of the country could descend into chaos with MQM prepared to fight it to the end should another crackdown on MQM be launched. It has been suggested by many sources that May 12th incidents were a display of power that MQM has regained since the days when countless military and police actions carried out by successive PML-N and PPP governments thousands of its workers get killed or virtually disappeared without trace. It should be noted that the charge sheet against the second Benazir government presented at the time when it was brought down had the extra-judicial killings at the very top. Yet, the vote bank of MQM has remained steady and this time their mandate reached around 90% mark. MQM’s support from grassroots downtrodden and poor masses and its call for the abolition of the feudal system in the country has earned them a great deal of enemies from within each of the parties whether the PPP, PML-N or even the ANP and JI. PPP and PML-N being parties deriving its powerbase from feudal or industrialist classes or those supporting such structures have always found MQM as their arch nemesis for instigating dissent amongst their poor subjugates, who could one day follow the example of MQM and get organised enough to send their own representatives into the assembly as MQM has done since the 1987 elections on a consistent basis. Similarly the February 18th elections showed MQM’s vote bank creep into the other three provinces other than Sindh, ringing alarm bells within the corridors of feudal power. Being the descendants of those folk who migrated from newly independent India into Pakistan having voted for the creation of Pakistan, Mohajirs or Urdu Speakers form the bulk of MQM support along with urban and some rural Sindhi speakers and for the past couple of years or so, from other provinces as well where poor folk have started to get organised under the MQM banner. It is to be remembered that President Musharraf hails from the same ethnic background, another source of friction between him and the ethnic Punjabi, Sindhi and other ethnicities of Pakistan who deem the largely educated immigrant community as undesired especially since they were forced to inhabit the city of Karachi whom they transformed into a business and economic hub of the nation and since 1987 and have proved itself an electoral and streetwise stronghold of Mohajir and other non-Mohajir MQM supporters. The spiritual yet secular and progressive party with the highest literacy rate amongst all the voters of any political party, MQM hails from the same genes as those belonging to Indians who have progresses their country turning into a rising economic power. It can be safely assumed that the true allies of the West in terms of their anti-extremist mindset could only be found in the form of MQM within Pakistan. This time round, the do or die preparation by MQM to counter any moves to implement large scale para-military or police operations are likely to lead Pakistan into an economic crisis as well as a civil war which could have disastrous consequences for the region.
Future looks bleak yet not inevitable…
At a crucial time like this, all the global influential forces who have a stake in nuclear-armed Pakistan’s integrity and the stability of the region, and those who wish for the experiment in democracy to succeed, must recognise the risk from Pakistan turning into a truly failed and civil-war-marred state. The main objective therefore needs be the formation of a new coalition of the willing, those political parties, who did not win on anti-US or religious sentiments, but those which are based on solid liberal, secular and sane ideologies. These are the political forces who are expected to become good allies of the western free world, in the fight against religious extremism, intolerance and the ensuing terrorism.
Any chaotic situation in Pakistan will provide the golden opportunity for those entrenched in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan to inflict heavy damage to the NATO forces fighting the local Taliban and any drain on resources in that region could have a knock-on effect on operations in Iraq. On the other hand, any break-up of Pakistan Peoples Party and its failure to join hands with other liberal parties are likely to hand over access of the nuclear arsenal to an Islamist government such as Nawaz’s PML-N, the effects of which are unthinkable and should remain far from ever becoming a reality.
It will be important especially for the British government to take into account the traditional support base of Islamist and conservative groups of Pakistan within the resident population in the UK whilst formulating opinions and perspectives about the situation of Pakistan and whilst extending support to any political groups. Any decisions and policies about Pakistan ideally need to be validated against a range of sources and viewpoints belonging to both conservative and liberal ends of the political spectrum as opposed to basing them entirely on the most vocal sentiments issued by a certain segment of the society whose historic links to their ancestral lands dictate them to present a distorted picture of the ground realities and which may very well go against the interest of the free democratic world.
The moral of the story is it is always better to take sides with those taking part in a political process than reluctantly having to side with parties embroiled in a bitter abd bloody civil war. It’s perhaps a necessity that those who have any influence over Pakistani politics need to exercise that influence with as much seriousness and urgency as can practically be possible.
Read more!
Thursday 28 February 2008
Kosovo: Creation of a Muslim state in the heart of Europe
The independence of Kosovo in the very heart of European continent has been met with jubilation across the world primarily by those who believe that justice has finally been served for those Muslims in the Balkans who have had to suffer immensely under the brutal regime of Slobodan Milosevic. On the contrary the vast majority of Europeans as well as those who reside elsewhere view the creation of a Muslim state in the very heart of Europe with deep suspicion. They see Kosovo not as a sovereign state but simply an outpost of British and American military apparatus similar to the installation of the US missile shield systems in Czech Republic and Poland. Furthermore, ethnic Albanians, who also largely inhabit present day Kosovo, have been rightfully blamed for a large chunk of organised crime across Europe, which adds to the reservations of Europeans who have even labelled the state of Kosovo as the world’s first Mafia state.
It is generally accepted in the West that the revival of Cold-war era tension between a resurgent Russia and the old players such as UK, USA and other western European nations has played a key role in the independence of Kosovo and the preceding dismantling of Yugoslavia was as attempt at diplomatically and militarily undermining the support base that Russia has enjoyed within the Eastern European region.
In reminiscence of the Battle of Kosovo on a fateful day in June 1389, when the Ottoman forces under Sultan Murad I marched into Serbia as victors, the creation of a Muslim majority state is being seen as both a symbolic and a tangible victory handed out to Muslims across the world as a moral bribe by USA and UK aimed at appeasing them. Naturally this has alarmed many quarters in Europe who believe that both these countries are wooing moderate and westernised Muslims such as those in the Balkans into forming an alliance against Russia similar to the one which resulted in the defeat of the Soviet might in Afghanistan. The only apparent difference this time round is that the Muslims that are being supported do not hold such radical and rigid beliefs as those who partnered with the West in the 1980s and therefore are likely to become instrumental in halting the spread of radical Islam and extremism which threatens the community cohesion and security within many western nations.
It is now up to the Kosovars how they respond to the challenge thrown at them by becoming the latest people to gain independence under extremely complex circumstances. Being a newly formed Muslim state, they are also expected by everyone to uphold the Islamic virtues of tolerance and kindness towards the non-Muslim citizens and to promote a moderate, liberal and progressive face of Islam as a working model for the future of this beautiful religion.
Read more!
It is generally accepted in the West that the revival of Cold-war era tension between a resurgent Russia and the old players such as UK, USA and other western European nations has played a key role in the independence of Kosovo and the preceding dismantling of Yugoslavia was as attempt at diplomatically and militarily undermining the support base that Russia has enjoyed within the Eastern European region.
In reminiscence of the Battle of Kosovo on a fateful day in June 1389, when the Ottoman forces under Sultan Murad I marched into Serbia as victors, the creation of a Muslim majority state is being seen as both a symbolic and a tangible victory handed out to Muslims across the world as a moral bribe by USA and UK aimed at appeasing them. Naturally this has alarmed many quarters in Europe who believe that both these countries are wooing moderate and westernised Muslims such as those in the Balkans into forming an alliance against Russia similar to the one which resulted in the defeat of the Soviet might in Afghanistan. The only apparent difference this time round is that the Muslims that are being supported do not hold such radical and rigid beliefs as those who partnered with the West in the 1980s and therefore are likely to become instrumental in halting the spread of radical Islam and extremism which threatens the community cohesion and security within many western nations.
It is now up to the Kosovars how they respond to the challenge thrown at them by becoming the latest people to gain independence under extremely complex circumstances. Being a newly formed Muslim state, they are also expected by everyone to uphold the Islamic virtues of tolerance and kindness towards the non-Muslim citizens and to promote a moderate, liberal and progressive face of Islam as a working model for the future of this beautiful religion.
Read more!
Monday 11 February 2008
Britain: The Archbishop of Canterbury's disastrous experiment with Sharia in Britain
The Archbishop of Canterbury, senior most cleric from the Church of England made steaming headlines last week when he suggested that due to inevitablility some elements of the Islamic Sharia Law will have to be incoprorated into the British legal system for the sake of community cohesion and to help Muslims aviod a choice between state loyalties and those towards their culutre and religion.
He is utterly naive or extremely clever.
Either he surreptitiously wishes to use the Muslim community as a test case in order to gradually reintroduce the influence of religion, particularly that of the Church of England, over the affairs of the State; or he believes that allowing certain aspects of Sharia as self-governance for British Muslims would achieve the greater objective of lasting community cohesion.In either case, his presumption that the majority of British Muslims would opt for Sharia courts as opposed to the British legal system will almost certainly turn out to be inaccurate and without any solid facutal grounds. Any sane-minded Muslim living in Britain under the liberal, secular, democratic system and having the faintest knowledge about Sharia and its implications would prefer the Royal Courts of Justice over the Sharia courts any day.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, while advocating Sharia in Britain, perhaps conveniently overlooked the fact that British Muslims are not a homogeneous community. Instead they are divided up along numerous lines and unstable variables, such as ethnicity, cultural practices, geographical origins and, most importantly, their interpretation of basic Islamic principles, often manifested in the form of stark differences over Sharia and its practical implications on the lives of Muslims. To presume that Sharia derived from any single school of thought in Islam could ever be deemed acceptable to all the Muslim communities in Britain is utterly nonsensical.
"Above: Various differing manifestations of the interpretation of Islamic values in Britain"
The introduction of self governance for British Muslim communities in the form of Sharia, even though under the pretence of bridging the deep fissures in existence between certain Muslim and non-Muslim communities, as proclaimed by the Archbishop as the basis of his comments, will in effect prove disastrous for the future of very social cohesion he so espouse to strengthen, and will do away for good the concept of rule of a single law for all citizens of this country and replace it with multiple laws applicable to individual communities based on their own religious or cultural beliefs. The application of dual or multiple laws in the United Kingdom would only enhance the self-imposed segregation that exists amongst the Muslim communities and further fuel the idea of incompatibility of Muslim communities with the rest of the western society.
The Sharia as we see today, has been presented to us since its inception circa 8th century by hardline Muslim clergymen as set in stone, beyond scrutiny or discussion. The latter day similar minded clerics have continued in their footsteps, sternly and often brutally resisting every single move by moderates and reformists, to re-examine its various principles for the sake of applying them in the context of the modern ages we live in. These hardliners from the olden days found Quran and Sunnat to be too liberal and progressive for their taste, which in fact, were aimed at lifting the oppressed women and other ordinary individuals out of their pitiful state during the barbaric Arabian dark ages. This was something these hardliners were simply not prepared to render redundant so easily. Thus based on their own interpretation of Quranic verses (Ayaats) and the sayings (Ahadees) and life examples (Sunnah) of Prophet Mohammed PBUH, they managed to devise what see today as the Sharia Law, which is portrayed as the final word of ALLAH and His last messenger Prophet Mohammed PBUH, and has various components upon which even the great scholars of all times never managed to reach complete mutual agreement, hence the evolution of various Schools of Thought in Islam that exist to this day and age.
Going back to the context of Britain incorporating elements of Sharia Law, many aspects of this Sharia also openly contradict the civil liberties and basic human rights that are enjoyed by British Muslims under the Western secular and liberal democratic system. Any introduction of Sharia would almost certainly lead to the curtailment of women's rights in cases such as inheritance, reducing their share to considerably less than half of what a male heir would expect to be awarded.Similarly, the testimony of a woman would be rendered half of that of a man in a sharia court. The use of modern forensic evidence, DNA technology and CCTV footage would be deemed inadmissible as evidence, should a case of alleged adultery under trial, the court, instead, have to rely solely on the testimony of four credible male witnesses for judgment purposes in such cases.
Although there are plenty of Muslim countries where Sharia is being practised in one form or the other such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan, and there are plenty more one way tickets for Muslims to utilise who wish to live their lives according to the instructions of local Mullahs and under the watchful eyes of religious police squads, turning Britain into a battleground over Sharia would not be a wise move.
What is most heartening out of this fiasco, was to see even the conservative British Muslim groups such as Muslim Council of Britain and the progressive and reformist ones such as British Muslims for Secular Democracy, along with the majority of others, stand together in defiance and condemnation of such absurd ideas projected unnecessarily to stoke hostility against the Muslim communities of Britain, by a Mullah from the Church of England.
Read more!
He is utterly naive or extremely clever.
Either he surreptitiously wishes to use the Muslim community as a test case in order to gradually reintroduce the influence of religion, particularly that of the Church of England, over the affairs of the State; or he believes that allowing certain aspects of Sharia as self-governance for British Muslims would achieve the greater objective of lasting community cohesion.In either case, his presumption that the majority of British Muslims would opt for Sharia courts as opposed to the British legal system will almost certainly turn out to be inaccurate and without any solid facutal grounds. Any sane-minded Muslim living in Britain under the liberal, secular, democratic system and having the faintest knowledge about Sharia and its implications would prefer the Royal Courts of Justice over the Sharia courts any day.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, while advocating Sharia in Britain, perhaps conveniently overlooked the fact that British Muslims are not a homogeneous community. Instead they are divided up along numerous lines and unstable variables, such as ethnicity, cultural practices, geographical origins and, most importantly, their interpretation of basic Islamic principles, often manifested in the form of stark differences over Sharia and its practical implications on the lives of Muslims. To presume that Sharia derived from any single school of thought in Islam could ever be deemed acceptable to all the Muslim communities in Britain is utterly nonsensical.
"Above: Various differing manifestations of the interpretation of Islamic values in Britain"
The introduction of self governance for British Muslim communities in the form of Sharia, even though under the pretence of bridging the deep fissures in existence between certain Muslim and non-Muslim communities, as proclaimed by the Archbishop as the basis of his comments, will in effect prove disastrous for the future of very social cohesion he so espouse to strengthen, and will do away for good the concept of rule of a single law for all citizens of this country and replace it with multiple laws applicable to individual communities based on their own religious or cultural beliefs. The application of dual or multiple laws in the United Kingdom would only enhance the self-imposed segregation that exists amongst the Muslim communities and further fuel the idea of incompatibility of Muslim communities with the rest of the western society.
The Sharia as we see today, has been presented to us since its inception circa 8th century by hardline Muslim clergymen as set in stone, beyond scrutiny or discussion. The latter day similar minded clerics have continued in their footsteps, sternly and often brutally resisting every single move by moderates and reformists, to re-examine its various principles for the sake of applying them in the context of the modern ages we live in. These hardliners from the olden days found Quran and Sunnat to be too liberal and progressive for their taste, which in fact, were aimed at lifting the oppressed women and other ordinary individuals out of their pitiful state during the barbaric Arabian dark ages. This was something these hardliners were simply not prepared to render redundant so easily. Thus based on their own interpretation of Quranic verses (Ayaats) and the sayings (Ahadees) and life examples (Sunnah) of Prophet Mohammed PBUH, they managed to devise what see today as the Sharia Law, which is portrayed as the final word of ALLAH and His last messenger Prophet Mohammed PBUH, and has various components upon which even the great scholars of all times never managed to reach complete mutual agreement, hence the evolution of various Schools of Thought in Islam that exist to this day and age.
Going back to the context of Britain incorporating elements of Sharia Law, many aspects of this Sharia also openly contradict the civil liberties and basic human rights that are enjoyed by British Muslims under the Western secular and liberal democratic system. Any introduction of Sharia would almost certainly lead to the curtailment of women's rights in cases such as inheritance, reducing their share to considerably less than half of what a male heir would expect to be awarded.Similarly, the testimony of a woman would be rendered half of that of a man in a sharia court. The use of modern forensic evidence, DNA technology and CCTV footage would be deemed inadmissible as evidence, should a case of alleged adultery under trial, the court, instead, have to rely solely on the testimony of four credible male witnesses for judgment purposes in such cases.
Although there are plenty of Muslim countries where Sharia is being practised in one form or the other such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan, and there are plenty more one way tickets for Muslims to utilise who wish to live their lives according to the instructions of local Mullahs and under the watchful eyes of religious police squads, turning Britain into a battleground over Sharia would not be a wise move.
What is most heartening out of this fiasco, was to see even the conservative British Muslim groups such as Muslim Council of Britain and the progressive and reformist ones such as British Muslims for Secular Democracy, along with the majority of others, stand together in defiance and condemnation of such absurd ideas projected unnecessarily to stoke hostility against the Muslim communities of Britain, by a Mullah from the Church of England.
Read more!
Saturday 2 February 2008
Pakistan: Myth of free and fair elections
The belief that any elections held in Pakistan could ever be held in an entirely free and fair manner, according to the Western standards of democracy, is not only an utterly naïve notion but it also discards the harsh ground realities that form the basis of the political process in Pakistan.
The top leadership of the main political parties in concert with their partners in civil society, which ironically ignores the rural population when it comes to exclusively granting its membership to those belonging to the foreign funded NGOs, legal fraternity, private media outlets and students from elite universities, have all collectively fostered an obsession with transparent elections, a feat simply not achievable unless the literacy rate rises and the political awareness on the basis of party policies becomes the mainstream thought process of the nation.
The majority of population in Pakistan lives in the rural areas, where the local feudal powers with their affiliates within the local bureaucracy, judiciary and the police, retain a deep stranglehold on their livelihoods as well as their civil liberties. Here, the concept of freedom to choose a representative of their own, amounts to nothing but making a mockery of the democractic process.
The basic democratic human right of a person is his or her ability and the freedom to choose a candidate deemed to be the best representative in Parliament, someone who would be able to address the everyday issues. Such a right has sadly been taken away by the majority of the political parties whose candidates have nothing in common with the poor or the lower middle-class masses they claim to represent. Instead they happen to represent the elite ruling class of Pakistan and their interests, which almost always contradict the welfare of the ordinary citizens.
Similarly, the choice of voters is decided on the basis of factors beyond any political or sometimes sensible reasoning. There are several parts of the country where religious credentials of not the political parties but their election symbol becomes a factor in swaying the voters’ choice, or where votes are cast for the sake of a particular family name and quite often purely in favour of the candidates’ tribal or “biradari” trademark.
For those in the Western world, who wish to see the forthcoming elections conducted in a transparent and fair manner, it is vital to understand that unlike a one-day cricket match, the election is not a day and a half event where simply monitoring the polling and counting process is a measure of success or failure of the democratic process.
The elections should be viewed as a major milestone as part of a much wider and deeper political process, during which both the political parties and the establishment have an equal responsibility ensuring its success and the basis of democracy by creating a political climate of tolerance and awareness prior to the elections, where true representation is provided for the people of Pakistan, from within the urban and rural masses and bearing in mind the ground realities which we all tend to forget now and very often.
Read more!
The top leadership of the main political parties in concert with their partners in civil society, which ironically ignores the rural population when it comes to exclusively granting its membership to those belonging to the foreign funded NGOs, legal fraternity, private media outlets and students from elite universities, have all collectively fostered an obsession with transparent elections, a feat simply not achievable unless the literacy rate rises and the political awareness on the basis of party policies becomes the mainstream thought process of the nation.
The majority of population in Pakistan lives in the rural areas, where the local feudal powers with their affiliates within the local bureaucracy, judiciary and the police, retain a deep stranglehold on their livelihoods as well as their civil liberties. Here, the concept of freedom to choose a representative of their own, amounts to nothing but making a mockery of the democractic process.
The basic democratic human right of a person is his or her ability and the freedom to choose a candidate deemed to be the best representative in Parliament, someone who would be able to address the everyday issues. Such a right has sadly been taken away by the majority of the political parties whose candidates have nothing in common with the poor or the lower middle-class masses they claim to represent. Instead they happen to represent the elite ruling class of Pakistan and their interests, which almost always contradict the welfare of the ordinary citizens.
Similarly, the choice of voters is decided on the basis of factors beyond any political or sometimes sensible reasoning. There are several parts of the country where religious credentials of not the political parties but their election symbol becomes a factor in swaying the voters’ choice, or where votes are cast for the sake of a particular family name and quite often purely in favour of the candidates’ tribal or “biradari” trademark.
For those in the Western world, who wish to see the forthcoming elections conducted in a transparent and fair manner, it is vital to understand that unlike a one-day cricket match, the election is not a day and a half event where simply monitoring the polling and counting process is a measure of success or failure of the democratic process.
The elections should be viewed as a major milestone as part of a much wider and deeper political process, during which both the political parties and the establishment have an equal responsibility ensuring its success and the basis of democracy by creating a political climate of tolerance and awareness prior to the elections, where true representation is provided for the people of Pakistan, from within the urban and rural masses and bearing in mind the ground realities which we all tend to forget now and very often.
Read more!
Wednesday 5 December 2007
Pakistan: Implications of US report on Iran
The US report based on its intelligence agencies’ estimate on Iran nuclear programme, which has suddenly tried to play down the threat posed by Iran in this context, comes at a crucial juncture and is not only extremely pertinent to Pakistan but is also deeply worrisome.
Recent statements issued by President Bush and many of his close companions, including the stance taken by the Democratic party candidates, each focusing sharply on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, expressing serious concerns over its security, is strongly indicative of the fact that setting Iran aside, perhaps for the time being, all the energies within the US intelligence, military and political circles are being devoted to solving the problem of the "existing Islamic bomb” as opposed to a future possibility in the case of Iran. The US report on Iran is indeed an interesting revelation about the US intelligence apparatus, consusting of various well-funded agencies, who till a few days back, were quite admant that Iran's nuclear programme wasn't entirely peaceful and there was an aspiration on part of the Iranians to seek the status as the second Muslim nuclear power.
Bearing in mind Iran's existing relationship with Russia and China, based on the power of economics and regional trade, it will undoubtedly prove extremely difficult for US to tackle the Iranian issue, just as yet. Similiarly, its own admission of failure to reveal weapons of mass destruction in Iraq will give the benefit of doubt to Iran and allow some degree of protection from acts of aggression by the US.
The current political climate in Pakistan since early this year, including the issue of the ousted judiciary with the ensuing unabated civic unrest as well as the alleged controversial role of media, collectively somehow does not seem to be merely coincidental to the attention recently being paid to the Pakistan esp. the talk about launching military operations to flush out militants from the tribal regions, or to extract Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal for safekeeping, with or without the consent of the Pakistani military.
It all seems part of a game plan, being masterminded by those with vested interests in redefining the strategic relevance of Pakistan in global politics and its place in history.
It is vital for the politicians, military and the general Pakistani public to engage into serious introspection, to establish whether to persist with their trivial wrangling and thereby risk loosing perhaps the only symbol of pride in Pakistan, and amongst all Muslim nations across the globe, i.e. nuclear capabilities. Alternatively they might wish to dare, for once atleast , to set aside their petty and significant differences irrespective of their personal egos, political persuasions and religious beliefs, thereby allowing the democratic process to continue, no matter how flawed or disputable it may seem, all for the sake of Pakistan’s integrity and stability, which are both at stake.
Read more!
Recent statements issued by President Bush and many of his close companions, including the stance taken by the Democratic party candidates, each focusing sharply on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, expressing serious concerns over its security, is strongly indicative of the fact that setting Iran aside, perhaps for the time being, all the energies within the US intelligence, military and political circles are being devoted to solving the problem of the "existing Islamic bomb” as opposed to a future possibility in the case of Iran. The US report on Iran is indeed an interesting revelation about the US intelligence apparatus, consusting of various well-funded agencies, who till a few days back, were quite admant that Iran's nuclear programme wasn't entirely peaceful and there was an aspiration on part of the Iranians to seek the status as the second Muslim nuclear power.
Bearing in mind Iran's existing relationship with Russia and China, based on the power of economics and regional trade, it will undoubtedly prove extremely difficult for US to tackle the Iranian issue, just as yet. Similiarly, its own admission of failure to reveal weapons of mass destruction in Iraq will give the benefit of doubt to Iran and allow some degree of protection from acts of aggression by the US.
The current political climate in Pakistan since early this year, including the issue of the ousted judiciary with the ensuing unabated civic unrest as well as the alleged controversial role of media, collectively somehow does not seem to be merely coincidental to the attention recently being paid to the Pakistan esp. the talk about launching military operations to flush out militants from the tribal regions, or to extract Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal for safekeeping, with or without the consent of the Pakistani military.
It all seems part of a game plan, being masterminded by those with vested interests in redefining the strategic relevance of Pakistan in global politics and its place in history.
It is vital for the politicians, military and the general Pakistani public to engage into serious introspection, to establish whether to persist with their trivial wrangling and thereby risk loosing perhaps the only symbol of pride in Pakistan, and amongst all Muslim nations across the globe, i.e. nuclear capabilities. Alternatively they might wish to dare, for once atleast , to set aside their petty and significant differences irrespective of their personal egos, political persuasions and religious beliefs, thereby allowing the democratic process to continue, no matter how flawed or disputable it may seem, all for the sake of Pakistan’s integrity and stability, which are both at stake.
Read more!
Monday 26 November 2007
Religion and scientific progress
There are many within us, especially those following rather rigid religious doctrines, who question the general good that mankind has achieved during the past 500 years and comment on various negative aspects which emerged as a by-product of the scientific progress made by the human race. This they do whilst arguing the case of adherence to inflexible interpretation of religious teachings which inadvertently opposes enlightenment of the human mind and seeks to impose curbs on imagination and discovery.
Every discovery or invention by mankind provides us with an equal opportunity to either use it for the benefit or the destruction of others. The discovery of allopathic medicines has resulted in the development of a new industry focusing solely on reaping profits for large multinational pharmaceutical firms, but on the other hand it has also resulted in saving millions of lives. Nuclear technology has resulted in the annihilation of millions when atomic bombs were unleashed on Japan, but the very same technology has also been harnessed to produce electricity and other useful utilities.
It is a known fact that adhering to hard-line religious values suppresses entrepreneurship, innovative ideas and lateral thinking. Had the western nations remained under the influence of the Church, the planet Earth would still be considered flat and the centre of the universe. Even today the leaders of the Catholic Church and many Islamic organisations oppose the concept of cloning and genetic engineering, which will undoubtedly provide vital and much needed options for the sufferers such as transplantation during the treatment of some life-threatening illnesses.
Countries and nations that have managed to achieve a reasonable separation between religion and the affairs of the state have progressed both in terms of scientific discoveries as well as gaining political, economic and social awareness within the masses. Their scientific minds are not bound by centuries old values and stagnant traditions and therefore free to explore and utilise the vast untapped potential of the human mind. The head of the state in the UK also happens to be the head of the Church of England and Italy is the home of the Catholic Church. However both nations have managed to progress significantly in the fields of science and technology. India and China are fine examples of emerging economic powers that have declared their states secular and communist, respectively, in spite of significant influence of religion and ideology on their social and political structures.
The quest for knowledge is embedded in Islamic values and teachings. But even to this day schools are regularly blown up in areas such as Afghanistan and semi-autonomous tribal regions of Pakistan and vacciations against deadly diseases rejected, where there is excessive influence of orthodox religious values and hard-line clergy claiming to be the followers of Islam in its purest form. The slow or near-stagnant progress of any kind within these parts of the world is evidence enough how religion has unjustifiably been used to keep the common folk from achieving economic progress and political awareness.
Every religion encourages human beings to delve into the mysteries of the universe and to seek out further knowledge from everything that is around us. It is also a fact that a vast majority of religious leaders try to desperately hold back their followers from such attainments, fearing the loss of power over them as a result of such enlightenment.
Complete separation of religion and state might never be achievable. However it is the shared responsibility of the state, the clergy and individuals to determine how they should work together in achieving a fine balance where scientific progress can be made within the confines of certain moral and ethical boundaries, resulting in the overall benefit of society and the human race as a whole.
Read more!
Every discovery or invention by mankind provides us with an equal opportunity to either use it for the benefit or the destruction of others. The discovery of allopathic medicines has resulted in the development of a new industry focusing solely on reaping profits for large multinational pharmaceutical firms, but on the other hand it has also resulted in saving millions of lives. Nuclear technology has resulted in the annihilation of millions when atomic bombs were unleashed on Japan, but the very same technology has also been harnessed to produce electricity and other useful utilities.
It is a known fact that adhering to hard-line religious values suppresses entrepreneurship, innovative ideas and lateral thinking. Had the western nations remained under the influence of the Church, the planet Earth would still be considered flat and the centre of the universe. Even today the leaders of the Catholic Church and many Islamic organisations oppose the concept of cloning and genetic engineering, which will undoubtedly provide vital and much needed options for the sufferers such as transplantation during the treatment of some life-threatening illnesses.
Countries and nations that have managed to achieve a reasonable separation between religion and the affairs of the state have progressed both in terms of scientific discoveries as well as gaining political, economic and social awareness within the masses. Their scientific minds are not bound by centuries old values and stagnant traditions and therefore free to explore and utilise the vast untapped potential of the human mind. The head of the state in the UK also happens to be the head of the Church of England and Italy is the home of the Catholic Church. However both nations have managed to progress significantly in the fields of science and technology. India and China are fine examples of emerging economic powers that have declared their states secular and communist, respectively, in spite of significant influence of religion and ideology on their social and political structures.
The quest for knowledge is embedded in Islamic values and teachings. But even to this day schools are regularly blown up in areas such as Afghanistan and semi-autonomous tribal regions of Pakistan and vacciations against deadly diseases rejected, where there is excessive influence of orthodox religious values and hard-line clergy claiming to be the followers of Islam in its purest form. The slow or near-stagnant progress of any kind within these parts of the world is evidence enough how religion has unjustifiably been used to keep the common folk from achieving economic progress and political awareness.
Every religion encourages human beings to delve into the mysteries of the universe and to seek out further knowledge from everything that is around us. It is also a fact that a vast majority of religious leaders try to desperately hold back their followers from such attainments, fearing the loss of power over them as a result of such enlightenment.
Complete separation of religion and state might never be achievable. However it is the shared responsibility of the state, the clergy and individuals to determine how they should work together in achieving a fine balance where scientific progress can be made within the confines of certain moral and ethical boundaries, resulting in the overall benefit of society and the human race as a whole.
Read more!
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