Time for not a Pakistani Putin, but Khomeini
Mr. Ahmed Quraishi, you have beautifully portrait a dismal picture of Pakistani politics�I agree with you to a certain extent but you have not presented a lasting solution to it. If you mean by borrowing of disciplined persons from the Armed forces, then this Country has always been ruled by persons in the Uniform either directly or by controlling other persons from behind and have had a pivotal role in the politics. The only ray of hope was General Musharraf but he also darkened the future of this unlucky nation by brightening his own future in shape of compromising his original right stand that �he would not allow Benazir and Nawaz to come to this Country to loot the treasury which he had filled over the years�. How we can trust another military minded person for the remedial actions of the present chaotic conditions. We can safely deduce from the past two years� political expediencies that if Nawaz was the product of Ziaul Haq Martial Law, the present PPP Government is the result of the compromise of General Musharraf. General Musharraf felt no hesitation recently, in disclosing the hidden consultation in the appointment of Salman Taseer with Asif Zardari, which implies the significance of Asif Zardari for him in the decision-making of the Government. The whole Country is waiting for the results of the agreement between Government and Tehrik Nefaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi 17-point understanding for implementing Nizam-i- Adl regulation in Malakand. (Now the NWFP Chief Minister has signed the Regulation for onward action to the Governor NWFP and the President of Pakistan). The 17 points are: 1) crackdown on drug traffickers; 2) anti-obscenity and vulgarity campaign; 3) ending corrupt practices; 4) ban on music and CD centres; 5) closer of shops, markets and offices during prayer timings; 6) expelling of prostitutes and their pimps from the region; 7) creating awareness among people about drawbacks of crimes; 8) action against profiteers and hoarders; 9) addressing people�s complaints on urgent basis; 10) rehabilitation centres for drug addicts; 11) imparting Islamic education and reforms in all jails in Malakand; 12) pursuing ulema for ummah�s unity and curbing sectarianism; 13) practical steps to restore public trust on police stations; 14) protection of rights of employees and employers; 15) transfer of corrupt and bad characters police officials; 16) installing complaint boxes in front of each administrative officer�s office; and 17) provision of inheritance right to women.
If TNSM succeeded in Swat in the NWFP, then the people of Pakistan in general and the downtrodden of this Country in particular will demand from their Government in the Country for the redressal of their grievances because the people demands peace in the Country and if TNSM succeeded in the fulfillment of the expectations of the people, it will be a great setback for the political parties to heighten the desire of the people to give them political power. If TNSM can succeed in a small area then they have the capability to remove all the filths of the elites in the politics which you have indicated. They are more nation-loving than any others and can assist the people of Pakistan in bringing real peace and tranquility by free access to Justice. I have declared Asif Zardari, the consensus candidate of PML-N and PML-Q because neither party objected the candidature of Asif Zardari in the Election Commission and thus sent a message to the nation by their conduct that Asif Zardari is their desired person. He has not only been elected by PPP and other allied parties but also by those who have now created much hue and cry against him and are not waiting for the next election. Some months ago, Qazi Hussain Ahmad put the matter of mid-term election but he faced failure badly. Now, Sharif Brothers are playing their role in creating such atmosphere in the Country to compel those in the Uniform to come and control the situations but this time if the Government failed in bringing normalcy, the military should not interfere but should ask Maulana Sufi Mohmmad to come to Islamabad and control the situation and should fully assist him in curbing those who insist on the disruption of the normal system of Administration. He should be assisted in such a way as the Iranians backed Khomeini in purging the Iranian society from every evil and now within a short span of thirty years is capable to say �No� even to America. Once the people got the taste of the blessings of the real Islamic Government, then they would automatically forget the exhaustive lessons on the Westminster way of democracy in which every kind of person is admitted to be elected and every kind of person can get post by dint of use of his ill-gotten wealth.
At present, whatever the Political Pundits may opine, it is a fact that both the major political parties of the Country have dubious intentions towards each other. Their merry-makings and honeymoon lasted until the existence of the General Musharraf and once he sagaciously decided to quit the post, the age-old differences between the two emerged. Both the political parties are not respecting the mandate of the people but wish to play something more out of turn which is really disturbing to the people of Pakistan. The people is watching the conduct both of Zardari and Nawaz but prudent people advice to Nawaz to slow in his opposition so that to keep control the situation according to his wishes.
You have rightly said that the permanent solution is that the whole Country should be divided in uniform units for the purpose of administration. Each unit should have its own legislature, Governor, Chief Minister etc. but the President should be elected popularly one because indirectly elected is imposed on the people without their wishes and moreover, the people should know who shall be the President of the Country and to whom they are voting in the election. In this way no-one in the future would raise any objection against Punjab or usurping the rights of the other Provinces and do politics on such issues. In this way, solidarity, fraternity and fellow-feeling would promote among the people of the Country. At present those who cannot win the election of Local Bodies in their villages become Senators by dint of their influence in their parties. Who will do so? If TNSM succeeded in Swat then Maulana Sufi Mohammad would be requested to think also about the people of other areas. Once the Civil Administration is put in his charge and the Armed Forces fully backed him, then no one would dare to harm Pakistan either internally or externally. Let us first to see the results of the Islamic Regulation in Swat.
Dated: Monday, March 09, 2009.
Manzoor Ahmad YousafzaiB.Sc; L.L.B. M.A. Political Science
Email: manzoorahmadjalalmallb@hotmail.com
Web:http://manzooryousafzai.multiply.com/
Time For A Pakistani Putin
U.S. and U.K.-backed democracy is destroying Pakistan the same way it almost brought Russia to collapse in the 1990s. Pakistan needs a creative and unorthodox solution. This includes curtailing some of the chaotic aspects of democracy in order to help Pakistan heal and stabilize. The current system has a government installed by Washington pursuing the Anglo-American agenda of wiping out Pakistan to pave the way for an Indian role in Afghanistan and Central-West Asia and neutralize China, Russia and Iran. The way to counter this strategy is to extricate Pakistan from the American grip.
 
By Ahmed Quraishi
Tuesday, 3 March 2009.
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan"”Independent judiciary is a noble cause. But as the latest political mess shows, Pakistan's existential crisis lies in the failure of its elitist politicians and in a flawed political system unable to match the creativity and aspirations of middle and lower class Pakistanis.
The growth of music, fashion, IT, media and other creative industries in Pakistan over the past fifteen years happened with almost no help from a stagnant political class unable to regenerate itself or allow new leaderships to emerge. Without breaking the stranglehold of this monopoly, Pakistan will not be in a position to stop this ruling elite from continuing to use divisive and destructive ethnic, linguistic, sectarian and confrontational politics as diversions from their failure to provide statesmanship.
It is bad enough that the present government in Pakistan is the result of a "˜deal' hatched at the U.S. Department of State in 2006 and early 2007. The deal allowed the President and some of his key confidants to be brought back from exile to rule the country. What is equally bad is that now we have a senior politician, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, inciting civil disobedience and "˜ethnicizing' his political problems, portraying them as a battle between a Sindhi President and Punjab, giving himself the right to represent the province. This has evoked retaliatory salvos from politicians in Sindh. Pakistanis are being further divided to suit the interests of expedient politicians.
While this leadership failure spreads, the government appears to have given up even the pretense of protecting the interests of the nation. Now America's failed and disastrous war in Afghanistan is being shifted into Punjab with the decision to shift NATO's transport terminals to the Pakistani heartland. No one knows who took this decision or whether Pakistani citizens were asked for their consent before further endangering their lives for someone else's war. Reports are also pouring in warning that Gwadar is about to lose any advantage that Pakistan could have extracted from this port as a trade conduit to China and Central Asia as the Indian-built Iranian port of Chah Bahar not only gets operational but its land routes to Afghanistan have been completed. U.S. and India have been bitter about Gwadar from the start and wanted to see it scuttled. Now this is being done at the hands of the Singapore government authority that was assigned to run the port and which brought it down to a standstill. Another capitulation to foreign diktat occurred on Feb. 18. The media didn't even notice when President Zardari fired deputy attorney general Sardar Mohammad Ghazi, his own special prosecutor, because Mr. Ghazi had the audacity to say that Pakistan wanted the extradition of Ajmal Kassab in order to force India to answer some of the mysterious details of the Mumbai attacks that New Delhi are avoiding to address despite a formal request from Pakistan. This is where any educated observer can tell you that we have hit rock bottom.
[Update: Sources in the government confirm that the ruling PPP has given instructions to its political appointees in the police and the federal investigations agency, the FIA, not to reveal the results of the probe into the attack on the Sri Lankan team and instead play up the link to "˜local extremists'. Apparently, the PPP is keen again to link the incident to anti-India Kashmiri groups. Although these groups have been dormant and non-operational since 2004, the U.S. and the Indian government have teamed up with the PPP government in Islamabad to tighten the noose around Pakistani intelligence agencies and the Kashmiri groups that have given the Indian army a bloody nose in Kashmir.]
Today's Pakistan resembles Russia eight years ago: a nation under pressure from United States and Britain, ruling elites subservient to Washington and London, ethnic and sectarian insurgencies being encouraged from the outside, and foreign-inspired intrigues underway to weaken and neutralize the security establishment from within. The most important resemblance between a crumbling Russia in the 1990s and today's Pakistan is that a chaotic and messy version of democracy with full backing from Washington and London that brought Russia close to collapse is in progress in Pakistan. This version of democracy is controlled through American and British assets within the Pakistani political elite, which itself is increasingly shifting its wealth abroad, pretty much like the pro-Western Russian oligarchs did before the arrival of Vladimir Putin on the scene.
To be fair, any outside meddling in Pakistan is only exploiting flaws in our political system where powerful families perpetuate control over political parties and provinces carved on ethnic basis ensure that even the smallest administrative or political issues turn into ethnic conflict.
Pakistan has reached a stage where it needs a creative, unorthodox, homegrown solution. Pakistan needs a period of stability and healing. Some of the chaotic aspects of democracy need to be curtailed for the said period where a government led by civilian technocrats can run the country, borrowing from the disciplined and organizational powers of the military in a hybrid civil-military arrangement. The first task of this arrangement would be to implement law without exception. Other remedial, long term steps could include disqualifying those politicians whom the nation has tried and tested. This would clean the field for more capable to emerge. Parties can be forcibly democratized by law and lingo-ethnic and sectarian politics should be outlawed. The biggest service this new setup can do to the nation is to reorganize politics through a series of smaller, administrative provinces with a local parliament and a directly elected president. This would build on the existing local government system and localize all politics in Pakistan.
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