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Anything is possible
Remember military dictator Oliver Cromwell telling the members of the Rump Parliament on 20 April 1653, “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God go!”, unquote. Just before the National Assembly (NA) completed its term, PM Raja Pervez Ashraf gave the nation a concentrated dose about “the magnificent performance” of the PPP-led Coalition. The plethora of mistruths included gems like “bettering of the lot” of the common man by “turning the economy around”. To influence the voters’ choice of their preference as rulers for next five years, a constant drumbeat of lies will be disseminated, mainly through paid agents in the electronic media. “A fool and his money are easily parted” should be para-phrased in the context of Pakistan as “a fool and his vote are easily parted”.
Politics of Expediency
The deliberate hash of local govt to reflect the diverse demographics of the ruling Coalition, PPP in the rural areas and MQM in the urban, Sindh Peoples Local Government Ordinance (SPLGO) was essentially a hybrid measure. The vertical integration of local govts with the Provincial level was never resolved. Condemned outright as a sell-out of ethnic Sindhi interests by Sindhi nationalists, there was reaction even among diehard PPP loyalists in interior Sindh.
The task before Fakhruddin Ebrahim
To quote my article, “Electoral Process in Bangladesh” of November 9, 2006, “It is very difficult in the third world to hold free and fair elections, the result is always contested by the loser. This has both political and economic repercussions for the State. Every regime in power uses its incumbency to tilt the elections in its favour, the normal modus operandi pre-elections is to put its own supporters to run the Local Administration and the Election Commission, making it that much easier to try any number of manipulations rigging the elections. For influencing the outcome of the vote there is nothing more potent in third world countries than using police functionaries at the street level. An honest election is only possible if supervised by a genuinely neutral administration looking after governance and affairs of the State for the period leading to elections as well as transition of authority to whoever is the winner”, unquote.
Crying Wolf?
The compulsions for survival has driven our leaders over the past decade to allow the US-Pakistan relationship to gradually degenerate into a master and slave status. Pakistan is now subjected to various insults across the board periodically, in the past year motivated vilification of the Pakistan Army and the ISI by key US public officials has become a regular affair. To add injury to the never-ending insults, 24 of our soldiers were brutally murdered by the strafing of four US helicopter gunships, most of them died in the first attack while asleep. While the borders may not be well marked, the map reference coordinates of our position at Salala 2 kms well inside Pakistan were well defined, US and NATO violated standard operating procedures (SOPs) governing coordination with Pakistan.
When “Friends” Fall Out
By all accounts Hussain Haqqani and Mansoor Ijaz were good friends, the tone and tenor of the BlackBerry exchanges clearly show they made for a lethal combination. The May 10 Memo was meant to be a specially crafted “neutron bomb” to (1) change the present national security parameters in Pakistan and bring it into line with long-term US policy imperatives and (2) enable the present rulers to exercise absolute control of the military. An inquiry would identify and punish the officials responsible for “harboring bin Laden”, replacing them with a new Pakistani national security leadership that would “(1) bring transparency and “discipline” to Pakistan’s nuclear program (2) eliminate Section S of the ISI, which is “charged with maintaining relations to the Taliban, Haqqani network” and other rogue elements and (3) work with the Indian government to punish the perpetrators of the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai”.
At the WEF’s ‘India Summit
Mumbai is a city of contrasts, which are never so apparent as when one comes in to land at the International Airport. High-rise developments are ubiquitous in shantytowns, ongoing construction of raised expressways snaking over slum areas to overcome the enormous traffic jams clogging the city. Dreams sometimes become reality in this sprawling metropolis, and […]
Political Game-Changer
The size of the crowd that gathered at the Minar-i-Pakistan in Lahore on Oct 30 clearly rattled Imran Khan’s opponents. Four hours before the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (TI) leader even started speaking, nearly 45000 chairs arranged in neat rows were filled to capacity. Independent observers estimated the overflowing audience to range between 100000 to 200000. A stream of PML (N) leaders sneered at the “small” size, their petty snide remarks undercutting their credibility as political leaders, the blatant falsehood only underscoring that the significance of the huge turnout was not lost on them. After years in the political wilderness, Imran Khan’s time has finally come.
The “American Fall”
From a ragged mob in downtown Manhattan, the “Occupy Wall Street“ (OWS) movement has swept across the length and breadth of the US, ranging from Miami to Seattle, in only a couple of weeks. Thousands have been converging daily on New York’s financial district, the original raucous group being increasingly joined by many unions and their workers. Unlike the early days when about 700 demonstrators trying to cross Brooklyn Bridge were arrested by New York’s “finest”, the police are reluctant to use excess of authority, prime TV would give even more impetus to the protest. “Fall”, as Autumn is known in the US, is a most beautiful season heralding an explosion of colours in the trees. Paraphrasing John Steinbeck’s, “The Winter of our Discontent”. the “American Fall” is the American version of the “Arab Spring”, No pun about the “Fall” intended!
The French Agosta subs and Karachi-Gate affair
On May 2002, eleven French submarine engineers and four Pakistanis were killed in a car bomb attack in Karachi next to the Sheraton Hotel, this was blamed on Al-Qaeda terrorists. Not many people remember that the entire New Zealand Cricket team, staying in the Pearl Continental opposite, was about to board a bus to the […]
Security Measures in Southwest Asia
As foreign forces plan their exit from Afghanistan, one can question whether they achieved what they had set out to do and if not, as is the case, how will the world cope with unresolved mode of political governance and bilateral conflicts, migration and energy security as well as the concerns of nuclear weapons proliferation? The challenges involve linking the diverse nations economically and geo-politically, collective and collaborative action being crucial to enhancing security.