ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani will be traveling to Abu Dhabi then to the US via a private airline. According to sources, Haqqani will be taken to the airport with a security escort provided by the Islamabad police.
On Monday, the Supreme Court lifted travel restrictions on Haqqani under the condition that he appear before the memo commission whenever summoned and should do so within four days of the notice.
Courtesy: The News
Via – News adopted from Facebook.
Pakistan’s ISI is a Terrorist Organization says Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani-American who is an influential link between American and Pakistani officials.
Courtesy: CNN » YouTube
By Adnan Farooq
‘I am sorely disappointed both with Nawaz Sharif himself going to court, and by the walk-out of the party from the National Assembly during the democracy vote on the 16th January’, says Kamran Shafi.
Pakistan’s leading columnist and a public debater frequently appearing at TV talk shows, Kamran Shafi, writes a regular column for the Express Tribune. He is a known critic of Pakistan military’s unconstitutional actions. In an interview with Viewpoint, he throws light on current political scenario in Pakistan. Read on:
What the present stand-off would lead to?
Hopefully to the realisation by all that it is best to stay within the confines of the Constitution as prescribed for all institutions.
What do you say about the role of judiciary. It was expected that the Advocates Movement would deliver the end of ‘Doctrine of Necessity’. But it seems, judiciary is once again ready to serve the Khaki interests?
I think judiciary is not serving ‘khaki interests’, only stressing it’s suzerainty over every other institution which can prove to be extremely dangerous.
Continue reading Judiciary stressing its suzerainty: Kamran Shafi
Mansoor Ijaz claims he has US support for Pakistan visit
By Murtaza Ali Shah
LONDON: Repeating his claims of receiving threats from Pakistani officials on a daily basis, US businessman Mansoor Ijaz, has said he had now been assured by the US government of its support during his forthcoming visit to Pakistan.
Ijaz, who claimed to have delivered a controversial memo against the army to US Admiral Mike Mullen in May last year and accused then ambassador Husain Haqqani of being involved in crafting it, also says he would travel to Pakistan but would not say when.
In an exclusive interview with Geo News, Ijaz said he offered Haqqani to stop “telling lies” about him (Ijaz) and he would stop telling “the truth” about him (Haqqani) but said the former ambassador did not “stop”.
“I had a conference call with the US State Department a couple of days ago. The US government will provide the support that they always do for US citizens,” Ijaz said in the interview in London.
“They (the US government) made their official position very clear and I made my reasons for going very clear. They understand it’s a high profile case and they understand I am a reasonably high-profile American citizen,” he added.
“And I think If, god forbid, anything goes wrong they will certainly be there to help my family make sure that things got sorted out. I am absolutely confident that the American government will do the right thing if something went wrong,” he said without elaborating what could possibly go wrong.
Ijaz has been summoned by a judicial commission in Islamabad on January 24 (Tuesday), which was set by the Supreme Court following petitions on the issue moved by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders and others.
The American national of Pakistani-origin was issued a one-year multiple-entry visa by the Pakistan High Commission on Thursday evening. Ijaz said he would travel to Islamabad but would not reveal his travel plans.
Ijaz appeared seriously distrusting of Pakistan government claims about his security. “Part of the problem is that you have government officials that are threatening me on a daily basis and I find that a little bit strange that from one corner of their mouth they are saying that I’m secure and at the same time they are threatening me too,” he said.
He said it was not just his personal protection that worried him but rather he was more concerned about the security of his family, businesses, the entire infrastructure around his life.
“I have to make sure that all of these things are attended to. I can’t just get up and recklessly go and do whatever I want to do,” he said but added that he did not want to “put an overburden on the system in terms of my personal security while I’m there”.
Ijaz explained he was a family man with a lot of personal, business and social commitments and wanted to make sure that “certain things had been addressed” to give everyone “peace of mind” when he travelled to Pakistan.
Ijaz praised the memo commission for addressing his concerns. He also appreciated the Pakistan army, which he said, had agreed to “do certain things that they have not agreed to do for anybody else and I very much appreciate that”. …
Read more » Geo Tv News
LAHORE: Former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Asma Jahangir condemned the judiciary on Wednesday, saying it has always approved military rules in the past.
She said if judges wanted a hand in politics, they should contest elections. Talking to reporters at the Lahore High Court, she said that Parliament, not judiciary, was the supreme body in the country.
The judiciary should not consider itself as all knowledgeable, Asma said, while expressing her reservations over many decisions of the Supreme Court.
The judiciary also disregards decisions of Parliament, she said, while pointing out the annulment of the parliamentary committee’s decisions on judges’ appointment.
She further expressed her inability to understand the SC’s January 10 judgment on the NRO non-implementation case. She said that while the NRO was a complicated issue, she never favoured it.
Asma regretted that state institutions were being politicised and added that no institution was clean.
Continue reading Judiciary always supports army rule, rues Asma
COMMENT: Nationalism, patriots and traitors – By Muhammad Ahsan Yatu
Those who differed with the rulers’ methods of running the state were declared traitors. No wonder within months after its inception Pakistan stood divided between the ‘patriots’ and the ‘traitors’. This divide still continues
Continue reading An eye -opener article on radicalized Pakistan
By Abdul Manan
Excerpt;
LAHORE: The Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, on Saturday was prepared to refute allegations that the incumbent Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led coalition government did not respect all institutions. What he did not expect was that his stage, the annual dinner of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA), would be usurped by anti-government slogans from a charged lawyers community. …
…. Shortly after the announcement, Gilani vacated the podium and proceeded to exit the building. When Governor Khosa took the rostrum, the lawyers intensified their chants against him. Khosa tried his level best to deliver his speech despite the ruckus, but slogans of “Chief Tere Jaan Nisar Beshumar, Beshumar” (Chief Justice you have innumerable loyalists) forced him to cut short his speech.
The Lahore Bar Association, LBA President Shehzad Hassan Sheikh and Peoples Lawyers Forum Punjab President, Khurram Latif Khan Khosa were also present at the event.
At the end lawyers danced along with a hired dancer to melodies of Sheela Ke Jawani.
Read more » The Express Tribune
via » Facebook
Fazl lashes out against establishment, PTI
By Owais Jafri
DERA GHAZI KHAN: Warning the army against ‘intervening’ in political affairs, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief said on Monday that all ‘power hands’ showing the way to the ballot, will, in turn, be shown their way back to the barracks.
Addressing a rally in Dera Ghazi Khan, Fazlur Rehman said that threats, in the name of the Haqqani network, to the government and the attack on the Salala check posts are outcomes of a ‘one man show’ and secret pacts of the past.
These pacts, he added, have cost the country’s economy $80 billion and killed 35,000 people, and urged that the perpetrators should be held accountable.
Dismissing PTI’s popularity
Regarding the rising popularity of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the JUI-F chief said that the party is “just a paper, which will disappear soon”.
“All those with the illusion of power are joining PTI. They have no conscience and no fixed place as they are nomads,” he said, adding, “Today they are in PTI but tomorrow they will be with any other power giant.”
Talking about the strength of the rally in Karachi on December 25, Fazl said that his party will gather more people in a single procession of a district than PTI gathered from all over the country. ….
Read more » The Express Tribune
http://tribune.com.pk/story/312557/fazl-lashes-out-against-establishment-pti/
MULTAN: Chairman Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman criticised Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) new entrants on Sunday calling them power hungry nomads.
Addressing the media in Madarsah Jamia Qasim ul Uloom the JUI-F leader said that only power hungry nomads were joining the PTI. He criticized the group of industrialists, politicians and people joining PTI, adding that they will destroy Pakistan because they had no sense of political stability, survival and sovereignty of Pakistan.
“They are all just following power and trying to save the future of their political career,” he said.
Rehman further said that people were aware of the nature of nomads who keep moving for their survival and betterment, so is the case of the politicians and industrialists joining PTI who will fail eventually. ….
Read more » ZemTv
http://www.zemnews.com/2011/12/25/those-joining-pti-are-power-hungry-nomads-fazlur-rehman/
The language of the talk show is urdu (Hindi).
Courtesy » SAMAA TV (Faisla Aapka with Asma Shirazi, 16th December 2011)
By Josh Rogin
Former National Security Advisor Jim Jones has submitted a confidential affidavit, obtained by The Cable, in which he swears that he has no reason to believe that former Pakistani Ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani had any role in the scandal known as “memogate.”
Jones was the go-between in the transmission of a secret memo from Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz to then Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen in the days following the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad. The memo, purportedly from the Pakistani civilian leadership, asked for U.S. government help to avoid a pending military coup in Pakistan and pledged, in return, to reorient Pakistan’s foreign and national security policy to be more in line with U.S. interests. ….
Read more » Foreign Policy (FP)
Did our founding fathers have any idea of the kind of country they were creating? A country where conspiracies would never cease and stability would never come. Sixty-four years, going on sixty-five, and not one peaceful transition from one democratic government to another. Quite a record and we seem determined it should remain like this forever.
Continue reading Death wish of the Pakistani political class – By Ayaz Amir
PENTAGON: Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby has said that the memo sent by Pakistani origin US citizen Mansoor Ijaz was not credible and Mike Mullen was confident that it was not sent by President Zardari.
In a statement, Pentagon Spokesman Kirby said former US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen neither knew Mansoor Ijaz and nor did he ever communicate with him.
Kirby said Admiral Mullen knew intermediary who brought secret memo to him, adding that the memo was not signed and was not credible.
There was nothing in the memo that indicated that it was from President Zardari, he added.
Courtesy » The News
– Mansoor Ijaz says the real danger inside Pakistan is its powerful spy organization, Inter-Services Intelligence — and that an even more notorious outfit is an ISI-affiliate called S-Wing. …
Read more » THE DAILY BEAST
By News Desk
LONDON: Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan was recently introduced to Cameron Munter, American Ambassador to Pakistan, in the presence of General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the ISI chief, according to sources, The Sunday Times reported. Imran Khan is said to have gained the backing of the country’s powerful security establishment …
Read more » The News
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=10432&Cat=13
By Shaheen Sehbai & Mohammad Malick
ISLAMABAD/DUBAI: From a smoking gun to a smouldering fuse, the mysterious memo earned many sobriquets even before its precise contents were known to anyone but a handful of highly secretive power players involved in its drafting and communication. The (in)famous, rather possibly game-changing, Mike Mullen memo, ironically contains six mutinous articles and is now being revealed after Admiral Mike Mullen also confirmed its existence and ‘remembered’ having received it at the height of the OBL crisis.
After days of huddles between the troika and other major power players of the country resulted in a resignation offer by President Zardari’s closest foreign and domestic policy adviser and Ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, the memo has acquired the importance of a political nuclear bomb. …
Read more » The News
by Hakim Hazik
To, President Asif Ali Zardari
President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
And,
Field Martial Avatar P Kayani, The Supreme Leader, In-charge S Wing
Father of the Nation
Through the Good Offices of,
Mr Mansoor Ijaz,
Interlocutor to Admiral Mullen, President Obama and God.
Dear Sirs,
Please find enclosed my resignation from the post of the ambassador in Washington. I have submitted it simultaneously to the FO, the YouTube and the Twitter.
Your Excellencies,
Much has been made of my alleged memorandum to Admiral Mullen regarding the S-Wing. I want to make it clear that I have no recollection of ever sending it and as the world media now knows, the respected Admiral has no memory of receiving it. However, I realize that there are times in the life of nations when hard decisions have to be made for the greater good of the gentle souls in hobnailed boots which are only occasionally applied on the presidential posteriors.
The least I can do to save the posterior that I hold dear, more than any other in the world (my own) is to tender my resignation. This, I hope, will clear the air and will allow both nations to get on wholeheartedly with the most important task at hand, which may otherwise have been neglected, that of slaughtering the Afghans.
We need to realize that the administration of both countries are swimming against national tides. I know that the average American wants to eviscerate the average Pakistani and the average Pakistani wants to behead the average American. The people who hold the levers of power should do their best to facilitate this mutual enactment of national ideals whilst never losing sight of the ultimate goal of pulverizing Afghanistan, the policy objective that the both strategic allies strongly support.
At this juncture, I must pay tribute to Mr Mansoor Ijaz whose selfless devotion to international statecraft is unsurpassed in the modern history and matched only by the likes of Metternich, Kissinger and Raymond Davis.
Armed with a clear sense of destiny and a BlackBerry Bold 9900TM, he has served both the great nations and changed the course of world history. When the future historian (Yours Truly) writes an account of these momentous events, in the fullness of time (next week), he will not fail to note the sagacity, perspicacity and strength of character, that drove this intrepid servant of soft strategic depth to undertake amazing acts of valour at great personal risk.
Dear Field Marshall,
I owe you a personal debt of gratitude that you have been gracious in sparing my gonads, the attention of your forthright and patriotic hobnailed boots. I will never forget this act of kindness and am very grateful for not having to join the misguided and foolish cohort of petty pen-pushers such as Hayat Ullah Khan and Syed Salim Shehzad. I will try and repay this benevolence as soon as I have sold the 1st millionth copy of my memoirs.
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
Husain Haqqani, Embassy of Pakistan,
Washington, DC 20008
Courtesy » ViewPoint
http://www.viewpointonline.net/husain-haqqani-shaheed-nishan-e-haider.html
The language of the analysis is urdu (Hindi).
Courtesy » Geo Tv (Khabarnaak with Aftab Iqbal – 19th november 2011, part 2)
‘Memogate’ scandal reveals civil-military splits
By AP
ISLAMABAD: Publication of a secret memo asking Washington for help reining in the Pakistani military further ignited a scandal Friday threatening Pakistan’s US ambassador and exposing the rift between its shaky government and the country’s powerful generals.
The ambassador, Husain Haqqani, has denied having anything to do with a memo delivered to the US military chief asking for help with the military because of the domestic turmoil triggered by the US raid that killed al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
The ”memogate” scandal is adding to pressures on the already deeply unpopular government.
Some analysts have speculated that President Asif Ali Zardari himself could be in danger if charges that he signed off on the memo gain traction.
”The target is not me, the target is President Zardari and Pakistani democracy,” Haqqani said.
Though Pakistan has a civilian president, the military retains vast political and economic power.
It has ruled Pakistan, directly or indirectly, for most of its six-decade existence, and fiercely resisted attempts by civilian leaders to curb its role. …
Read more » DAWN.COM
Pakistan: A Personal History
By Imran Khan
Bantam Press; Pp 390; Rs 995
Read this quote to a young Pakistani, and it would almost instinctively be identified as coming from the country’s Islamising military dictator, General Ziaul Haq: “Pakistan came into existence as a country because of Islam and the Islamic beliefs of its founders and citizens.” Ziaul Haq expressed the same thought but somewhat differently: “The ideology of Pakistan is Islam and only Islam. There should be no misunderstanding on this score. We should in all sincerity accept Islam as Pakistan’s basic ideology…otherwise…this country (will) be exposed to secular ideologies.” The first quote, however, comes from Pakistan’s latest media icon of ‘change’, Oxford-educated cricket legend Imran Khan who is finally gaining some traction in Pakistan’s treacherous political world after a fringe role for over 15 years.
Imran Khan’s personal memoir is replete with examples of how he represents a continuum in Pakistan’s non-secular establishment worldview while talking of change. Ziaul Haq’s fervent anti-secular admonishment quoted above was itself just an attempt to revive the religion-based nationalism introduced by an earlier military ruler, Field Marshal Ayub Khan. Ziaul Haq felt the secularists had gained ground in the aftermath of Pakistan’s division in 1971. His idiom of ‘change’, ‘accountability’ and disapproval for traditional politicians is uncannily similar to what Ayub Khan voiced in the 1960s and Imran Khan is articulating now.
Not to belabour the point, just compare the above quotes from Imran Khan and Ziaul Haq with this gem from Ayub Khan: “Such an ideology with us is obviously that of Islam. It was on that basis that we fought for and got Pakistan, but having got it, we failed to order our lives in accordance with it…The time has now come when we must…define this ideology in simple but modern terms and put it to the people, so that they can use it as a code of guidance.”
Imran Khan’s political views have obviously been shaped by the narrative of the military dictators under whom he grew up. He betrays an unusual tendency to believe popular conspiracy theories of the variety popularised by Pakistan’s hyper-nationalists, such as some groups of newspapers and the religious political parties, notably the Jamaat-e-Islami. He blames the Americans for most of what has gone wrong with Pakistan. The references to conspiracies starts almost at the beginning of the book with the mention of the assassination of the country’s first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, on page 23 and the ‘mysterious’ air crash that killed Ziaul Haq on pages 124-125. At a time when an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis believes that 9/11 was part of an American conspiracy to justify attacking Muslim lands, Imran Khan’s predilection for conspiracy theories, though dangerous, might reflect the populist mood of the country.
Like others before him Imran tries to create a pseudo-intellectual justification for his anti-Americanism. He draws a parallel between the British rule in the subcontinent and the lack of sovereignty of British India’s princely states with the current relationship between Pakistan and the US. Ironically, Ayub Khan, towards the end of his decade-long regime had called on the Americans to be Pakistan’s “friends, not masters” and Ziaul Haq had complained days before his death about the US not allowing him space to reap the benefits of the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan as part of the same national narrative.
On page 48 after criticising Pakistan’s English-medium schooling — of which he was a recipient for decades — and tying it to a form of neo-colonialism, Imran Khan states that in other post-colonial countries like India the government imposed one core syllabus on the entire country. A little research would have told Khan that this assertion is not true — there are two federal level systems (ICSE and CBSE) and every state in India has its own state board of education. Also, instead of doing away with English education or English schooling, India has helped deepen it further in the last six decades and benefitted from it. In a country with many languages, the English language has proved to be a unifying, not divisive, element. But such factual quibbles have little value for the ideological paradigm Khan embraces. Narratives get votes, facts do not.
Continuing with what he perceives as the long-term adverse impact of colonialism, Imran Khan also asserts that this has prevented people from wearing their traditional dress (shalwar kameez) and they continue to wear western dress (pg 51). There is no effort at determining what percentage of Pakistanis actually wore shalwar kameez before the advent of colonial rule or after independence. Had it been undertaken, Imran Khan would have discovered that in most of what is Pakistan today, various forms of dress, including dhoti or lungi (loose loincloth), may have been more common than shalwar kameez.
Imran Khan does not even attempt an anthropological or sociological inquiry while making sweeping claims. Culture for him is skin deep and depends on outward displays — what we wear or the language we speak — and not on core values and traditions. There is also no attempt to answer an obvious question: If Imran Khan is really so against the English language and education why has he published his book in English using a British publisher in London and not in Urdu through a Pakistani one?
While talking about the anti-Soviet Afghan jihad Mr Khan’s views resonate the views of Pakistan’s foreign and security establishments — that the mujahideen were created and funded by the Americans for their foreign policy goals and Pakistan was an unwilling victim (pg 70). That Mr Khan sympathised with the mujahideen and their views is apparent from his referring to them as “idealists” fighting for a “romantic” reason and stating that “jihad is a noble cause (pg 70).” His admiration for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Osama bin Laden too is evident when he refers to them as people “fighting foreign occupiers” and “sacrificing a life of luxury” (pg 72). Like the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment, Mr Khan preferred the 1980s arrangement between the ISI and the CIA to the post-9/11 arrangement. “However, unlike Musharraf after 9/11, Zia never allowed the CIA to spread its network within Pakistan. It was the ISI who trained the militant groups, funded by the CIA.” Pakistan’s sovereignty, he seems to be arguing, was protected by Zia but sacrificed by Musharraf though how the country could retain complete independence by allowing a foreign intelligence agency’s massive covert operation on its soil remains unexplained.
After declaring Islam as the basis of Pakistani nationhood, Imran Khan ventures into some discussion of the faith. But the only two Muslim scholars mentioned in his book are Shah Waliullah and Muhammad Iqbal, one with violent sectarian revivalist views and the other a modern-educated Muslim exhorting Muslims to find a new path in an era of western domination. Imran Khan does not seem to know how Shah Waliullah contributed to sectarian division in South Asian Islam by his opposition to heresies and his calls for war against the Shias. For the Oxford-educated cricketer, Shah Waliullah’s views enable him to claim that just as the Mughal dynasty declined because it was “degenerative and bound to decay” all the democracies in the Muslim world today are “sham democracies” and are bound to fall (pg 79).
Playing to the Islamist-nationalist gallery in Pakistan, Imran Khan goes on to argue for an Islamic state and implementation of shariah as that is bound to ensure a just democratic welfare state (pp 80-81). A cursory reading of the 1953 report by the Justice Munir Commission would have enlightened Khan on the problems of defining Islam for purposes of governance — a point that Ziaul Haq also occasionally cited as reason for his inability to complete Pakistan’s Islamisation. “Keeping in view the several definitions given by the ulema [people of knowledge],” the Munir Commission pointed out, “need we make any comment except that no two learned divines are agreed on this fundamental. If we attempt our own definition as each learned divine has done and that definition differs from that given by all others, we unanimously go out of the fold of Islam. And if we adopt the definition given by any one of the ulema, we remain Muslims according to the view of that aalim [learned scholar] but kafirs [infidels] according to the definition of everyone else.”
Although Imran Khan does not like him, his book is remarkably similar to the one by General Pervez Musharraf. Both books have a surfeit of self-praise. Musharraf attempted to portray himself as the school bully turned army commando turned self-proclaimed saviour of Pakistan. Imran Khan comes out as someone who lived a hedonistic lifestyle all his life but is now trying to make up for it. His love for his mother, pride in family roots, love for cricket and constant quotations from Iqbal seem all too contrived. His attempt to show how he may not have been an observant Muslim in his youth but has become one in later years is too self-serving.
Throughout the book Imran Khan is not only disparaging about Pakistan’s politicians but also about the field of politics (pg 82). One wonders how he plans to do well in a field that he hates so much. One of his many criticisms of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif is that these individuals did not have enough political and administrative experience before they entered office and hence they were bound to fail. But then he acknowledges that he does not have any experience in politics but it would be akin to swimming where after jumping in he learnt on the job (pg 186). If that is the case then why could not others too learn on the job and do equally well, if not better? And if it is not possible to learn on the job and prior experience is a must, how would Imran Khan do better?
The reviewer is a Research Fellow at Hudson Institute, Washington DC. Her book, Explaining Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: Escaping India, was published in April 2011
Courtesy: Daily Times
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\11\14\story_14-11-2011_pg3_4
Soothsayers’ nightmare
By Abbas Nasir
POLITICIANS are akin to bravado but, with scheduled elections in Pakistan still some 15 months away, can commentators predict the results with certainty?
Imran Khan`s Lahore rally forced many of us to acknowledge that he needed to be taken seriously. For, till he assembled that huge, and more significantly, diverse crowd, he was seen as no more than a joke, even if couched in all seriousness. It can also be said that many of us crave change but also carry within us the fear of ending up `out of the pan into the fire` as our desire hinges on the negative, on what we think we don`t want, rather than an embrace of a well-founded promise.
Regardless, some have already started to hail Imran Khan as the man destined next to rule our land.
Frankly, personally one doesn`t care who wins at the hustings as long as the exercise is free and fair with the national security establishment not striving for a `positive` outcome. All such efforts in the past have resulted in disaster.
But our establishment`s planners and handlers have often given the impression they`d like to be certified insane by Einstein because they keep repeating their follies in the hope of a different result all the time. …
Read more » DAWN.COM
Excerpt;
Manufacturing this urgency to ‘change’ seems to be the result of an anxiety shared by not only a predominantly Punjabi establishment but also the lions of Punjab and Generation X Khan
… While the PTI’s Khan is understandably impatient to play his innings, the PML-N joining the bandwagon is the most foolish thing the time-hardened Mians of Lahore should opt for. The establishment would not like them in power, but would love to use them to get the incumbents out of power. One hopes for both the bigger parties, who have fought hard for democracy, to play their shots sensibly.
Read more » Daily Times
Lead singer of Beygairat Brigade, Ali Aftab, asks some tough questions about Imran Khan and the sinister role of Pakistani establishment behind his PTI. …
Read more » LUBP
by Ayaz Amir
I am feeling small and humbled and almost kicking myself for being such a fool. Imran the man, always larger than life, no one could ignore. But Khan the politician, the would-be national saviour, I found hard to take seriously.
He said the right things but he just wasn’t clicking. The strings which set hearts on fire weren’t being touched. Or so at least it seemed to a jaded observer of the pantomime passing for Pakistani politics. Khan was promising a miracle when the age of miracles was long over. ….
Read more » The News
– The Ghost of Imran Khan
by Zafar Imam
He has emerged as a tea partier of Pakistan
The Ghost of Imran Khan, the Pakistan Tehrek – e- Insaaf leader, is haunting many his critics, political opponents, liberal secular democrats and even many leftists after his successful rally at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on October 30, 2011. International and national media gave this rally an overwhelming coverage, which facilitated the break out of shock waves across political circles in Pakistan. The rally was named ‘Azaadi’ (Freedom) and was held at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore, a symbol of conservative rightist Pakistani nationalism. ….
Read more » Zafar Imam » The Biased Blog
Politicians have a collective challenge right now that they must face collectively. Before the organised propaganda of ‘democracy cannot deliver in Pakistan’ starts infusing deep in people’s minds, they must proceed to political maturity ….
Read more » Daily Times
Pakistani middle class gets really excited about Imran Khan..
By omar
In my opinion, he has no coherent message and no coherent ideology (both terms obviously depend on my definition of “coherent”). He is getting support in the middle class because the middle class in every developing country seems to pass through a phase of disappointment in actually existing democracy (and the “ignorant masses” who keep electing bums the middle class does not like). Witness the middle class excitement around Anna Hazare in India. And in Pakistan in particular, he gets even more support (some of it now outside the internet burger-jihadi class too… I dont mean to imply that ONLY the middle class likes him, or Anna Hazare for that matter) because the existing parties and leaders are so bad;, but even though he has genuine popularity in some sections of the population, he has insufficient grass-roots organization. I still think he cannot come to power without ISI support, and will not last long unless he is a completely pliant puppet in their hands. If he does act as their pliant puppet, he may last longer in office, but people will get tired of him rather quickly because many fundamental problems will not change one bit and some will get worse.
IF he actually tries to make his “policies” work, then we are in ever more serious trouble since he has no workable policy prescription for many serious issues. For example, his solution to the Pakistani Taliban is “stop military operations, stop supporting the US, stop drone attacks, and our brothers will come to the table in peace and brotherhood”. Apart from the obvious problem of how he expects NATO to leave this safe haven alone, what does this tell you about his understanding of the Pakistani Jihadis and their agenda? (not talking about the burger-jihadis who dream of 72 virgins and a job in microsoft in the course of the same lonely night). What happens when they want to enforce their will in the Islamic emirate? and what happens when they want to expand the emirate to Islamabad?
In a smoothly working western-style democracy, he might even do good work because he is relatively honest and well-intentioned and the system and its basis is already set, so his shallow understanding of history and political evolution is of no consequence. In Pakistan, where fundamental problems of identity and political direction are not yet settled, this 6th grade “Pak studies” version of history, sociology and political science is not going to get far. In short, he is a confused man, with very superficial and shallow notions about politics and religion. Many of his everyday opinions are relatively liberal, but he has no idea where those liberal notions came from and how they are (or are not) compatible with other 6th grade Islamiat and Pakistan Studies BS he also holds dear.
ALL politicians repeat simplistic 6th grade bullshit in speeches because of practical exigencies of modern mass politics, but he (Imran Khan) repeats them because he doesnt know any better, THAT is a problem.
Courtesy » Brown Pundits
Abid sher Ali showed documents on “off the Record with Kashif Abbasi” 13/10/2011 that MQM transfered Rs20 Billion to the UK stolen from the funds. He said he is going to register a case in NAB as soon as NAB Chairman is appointed and NAB start to function again.
He also accused MQM to provide accountability of Rs 3 trillion Musharraf gave to MQM during his period for the uplift and development of Karachi. This is a serious amount of money. No wonder the first two conditions MQM placed to the Government when the re-join are:
1- Implementation of Nazim system in Karachi and Hyderabad.
2- No Audit of the Funds given in the past. ….
Courtesy: ARY News Tv (Off The Record with Kashif Abbasi, 13th October 2011)
Source → http://www.siasat.pk/forum/showthread.php?84020-MQM-moved-Rs.-20-Billion-to-UK-Abid-Ali-Sher
The language of the discussion is urdu (Hindi).
Courtesy: → Rawal Tv (Current Affairs with Arshad Bhatti & Latafat Siddique, Ep29 Part-2)
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