Political Quandary in Pakistan

Maldives suspects 'in Pakistan'
Map of Maldives
Police in the Maldives say 10 suspects in a bomb attack on foreign tourists in September, which wounded 12, are on the run in Pakistan.

A police spokesman told Reuters they were seeking support from Interpol to arrest the fugitives.

Eleven suspects are already in custody for the 29 September attack near a mosque in the capital Male.

From bbc of today.

Where is the center of terror

We have heard that so many times on chowk, in pakistan children are sent to madrassas because there are no govt schools. The people of pakistan want their children to study science and other kafir subjects...blah blah

Here is the proof that the pakis really want theor children to be jihadis

rfrom jang of today


More teachers than students in school
Saturday, November 10, 2007
By our correspondent

Karachi

A government school in the city is running short of students with the result that the number of teachers is larger than the number of students admitted in the school.

Mehnaz Government Boys Lower Secondary School is situated at Keamari, near the shrine of Pir Haji Ghaib Shah. The school in question operates in the second shift.

The number of the total staff deputed here is seven. Out of seven, five are teachers, one is a peon and the other is a watchman/guard.

Interestingly, the number of students here is just four. Only two students are regular in their attendance while the other two remain absent sporadically. Sufiyan, Waqas and Azhar are students of class seven and Faisal is a student of class eight. Azhar is very punctual in his attendance and so is Waqas.

Loved the piece, Mr. Gill. Voice of rationality among the chaos. :)

"In the meanwhile, official quarters are trying very hard to brush aside the impression that the decision pertaining to the general elections without much delay was taken as the result of the US President George Bush’s ‘frantic’ telephone call on late Wednesday evening."

From jANG OF TODAY,
/////////////////////////////

I recall the the quote by YLH from teh speech by Jinnah on 13 august 1947,

...now you are free..you can have any govt of your choice as long as you obey the phone call.... The enemies of islam I have demolished from this land of teh pure...they can only make phone calls and obeying them will not diminish the freedom...

A good article which takes a middling view and does pose some questions...
However, I do think that our focus is often too much on corruption and individual politicians....
Democracy is not an electoral process only...
It should be viewed as a complete framework which has strong institutions dedicated to playing their role in the society...
The role of Judivciary, Parliament and President may be reviewed in this context....

Gill writes "Who will break this quandary or how can Pakistan escape from this quandary is not clear yet."

Nothing is clear to you because you have half baked, tape-recorderesque, summarizing without understanding type of "knowledge", and waste your time and ours in producing article after article when you could be doing something better to fill you time "THINKING!".

Solutions cannot be imposed like a magic spell to fix things over night such are the hypocritical claims of military dictators and thier rule shows how miserably they fail to fulfill their hypocritical promises; change at first needs to be mandated into law (the means to law cannot be unlawful) to make it habitual, institutions develop over time, but the mandate needs to be "people centric" and not ulterior motive centric to protect the turf of thugs, both the lower (army) and the higher (the US elite) and an insitutions (army) whose corruption easily eclipses the well advertised corruption of the civilian prime minister and presidents, ten times over I might add.

I agree. One such essay is, "Emergency:What Lies Ahead For Pakistan?" It only has 9 hits. Here is an excerpt:
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"Once again Pakistan is in a state of emergency, this time imposed by the Chief of Army Staff who also wears the hat of the President. A PCO has been declared by the Army Chief and the media gagged. The conclusion of this modes operandi is simple and needs no thesis. In Pakistan, political power flowsfrom the barrel of a gun. The politic body, already decimated, raped and largely turned into a mob of opportunist has yet again been put on the dissecting table for surgical procedure by butchers.......

Having divided itself in 1971, West Pakistan now faces its gravest challenges. Warlords and Islamic militants rule the FATA and PATA. Balochistan is beset with insurgency. Counter insurgency operations are not producing any results. Even routine movement of armed forces in settled areas is dangerous. Moderates and nationalists are isolated and excluded. Religious rightists are on the rise. Gun running continues with impunity. Supporters of some political parties are armed to the teeth. Civil society is left with no space to operate. The military is isolated. The entire landscape is grey patrolled by agencies.

So where do the latest events lead to? If past military interventions were a measure, my immediate reaction is nowhere! A PCO flowing out of the barrel of a gun cannot put the train of democracy back on the track. The ghost of 1935 has grown in power and the mindset behind it is at best self serving. In this gloomy picture, even ‘Nowhere’ implies a status quo.

Are we heading much beyond; towards a disaster?

http://www.chowk.com/articles/12888
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Though I did not comment, which I normally do not do, I found most of the heavy weights missing.

I agree to #14 by VRV

Re: # 26
How does this news mean that missing kids are in madrisah? Its not the only school in area. Most of the government schools face the problem that the number of students is too large. I have been teaching at a college and the strength of one section in 2006 in first year was 125 and there were a total of 16 sections. Everey year thousands of applications are rejected in our college and all of those kids come from schools.
I sometimes feel ashamed how our intellectuals manipulate situations or atleast try to manipulate for their vested interests

tango 33,

Give me a break, you mean to say that there are areas in karachi where there are no school going children with a birth rate of more than 3.

'US should back Musharraf to secure nuke weapons'

United Nations (PTI): Former American Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said the Bush administration's continued support to President Pervez Musharraf is necessary to prevent nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists and fundamentalists.

He blamed the present American government for "contributing to the instability in Pakistan by not strongly supporting Musharraf".

Promoting his new book, "Surrender Is Not An Option", Bolton wanted the US to focus less on election and more on ensuring that al-Qaeda terrorists do not lay hands on nuclear weapons.

Expressing doubt that a civilian government in Pakistan could keep military under control or nuclear weapons out of the reach of terrorists and fundamentalists, Bolton said he was not defending Musharraf.

"But I am here to say that an appreciation of Pakistani history doesn't give much reason for confidence that a civilian leader can keep the military under control and keep the nuclear weapons secure," he said.

Bolton resigned as the US Ambassador to United Nations following stiff opposition from the members in Senate which was unlikely to confirm him to the post. He now works at a Washington-based conservative think tank, American Enterprise Institute.

Bolton said the highest strategic interest of the United States should be to ensure that weapons of mass destruction remain secure. He wants the United States to learn from the experience of enforcing elections in Palestinian territories that resulted in the victory of Hamas.

Too wordy to read. Can anyone kindly tell what the article's central theme is? Thanks.

"Who will break this quandary or how can Pakistan escape from this quandary is not clear yet."

When non-political elitists such as Roedad Khan etc stop behaving like rulers and the PEOPLE of Pakistan are allowed to decide for themselves.

Dear Dr. Gill -- disappointing article -- there is a disconnect in your column with the present horror in Pakistan.

If this "military government is illegal" then why not talk about that -- instead of devoting the almost entire article on 'vices' of democracy -- is this the time to talk about "Benazir and Nawaz SHarif had their chance twice and failed" -- in a pre 9/11 Pakistan.

Well -- the military dictators had their chance 4 times and they failed every time -- as this blasted martial law in 2007 would attest to it -- broadcasting the soiled image of the country to each and every corner of the world -- on a daily basis.

Can you imagine a country like nuclear Pakistan -- with no functioning Court system right now -- with its judges under house arrest -- its lawyers bludgeoned and bloodied thrown in jail -- and its criminals bombing around free?

Sorry to say your article is rather off the mark Gill sahib. "Baith kay masjid meiN voh kurtay hai maikhaanay ki baat".

Okay, I read the last line:

Who will break this quandary or how can Pakistan escape from this quandary is not clear yet.

Thing is, Pakistan cannot technically reverse this action and restore the constitution and everything hunky dory back again even if it wants and even if elections are held as Musharraf says. Reasons are as follows:

1) The constitution allows for declaration of 'emergency' by the President and suspension of some human rights in Articles 232/233, but it certainly does not allow for the entire constitution to be suspended and replaced with a 'Provisional Constitution Order' written by the Chief of Army Staff, which in effect is a new constitution or simply - Martial-Law - though Government has not termed it as such because the Parliaments stand which have always been correctly dissolved during the previous Martial-Laws.

However, the Government Advocate General as well as Dr. Sher Afgan, the Parliamentary Secretary, have accepted the action taken as extra constitutional, on television, which is accurate.

2) The action has been reaffirmed by the Parliament in its session, but then the Parliament itself is a constitutional body deriving its power from the constitution, and stands suspended alongwith the constitution. It cannot be so that the constitution is suspended while the parliaments and senate stand. The status of the parliamentarians is now no better than audience in an auditorium, and no act by them is constitutional or of any lawful validity in any future restoration of constitution.

3) If after an election the constitution is restored, the suspended higher judiciary will have to be reinstated and all the judges having taken oath under the PCO will have to be dismissed.

4) If the constitution and superior judiciary is reinstated, Article 6 will apply for subverting the constitution, which carries a minimum penalty of life imprisonment and a maximum of death. This article will not only apply to Musharraf, but also on all the sitting parliament members including the Prime Minister who have reaffirmed it, as well as the judges who have taken an oath under the PCO.

5) To avoid the implication of above Article 6, any parliament which is elected will require a 2/3rd majority (of the entire parliament strength and not only amongst the voting members) to amend the constitution to legitimize the action and nullify Article 6.

6) If above cannot be done, Musharraf will be at risk of hanging, or at a minimum, a life sentence. To avoid that possibility, he will need to leave the country for asylum. But that again will leave hundreds of parliament members and dozens of judges under the mandatory punishments of Article 6.

How many here think the above risks will be taken for an election and restoration of constitution? Is a 2/3rd parliamentary majority possible by Musharraf's allies PML (Q) plus MQM? Going by the latest indicator, Musharraf got a 56% majority in his Pres election, and that was before the Martial-Law. He'll need 67% after this mess.

Without going into the dynamics of the current PML (Q) and PPP war, where's he going to come up with a 67% majority? And then, there's Nawaz Sharif who cannot be kept away for long. His return will change the entire power equation and mean an end to PML (Q).

This is why I have no doubt that no elections will be held. The present assemblies' tenures will be extended by another year or more. The PCO will remain and so will Musharraf.

I.e. till the entire applecart is overturned by either a mass civil uprising which cannot be crushed (not likely), or a counter coup from within the army (fairly likely) or the Jihadis just inching forward and making the working of the federation impossible, resulting in anarchy (Very likely).

Sirjee, masadi sahib....where are those hidden social structures you have been alluding to in some of your other posts? While us morons can't hope to see that which is obviously in front of our noses...maybe you can demonstrate the right way as you have so graciously reminded us repeatedly is your (and the members of this "social structure") sovereign domain.

Sirjee...what is the right way? Please elaborate practical steps which are likely to take place rather than speak of building castles in the sky as is the case of so many of the idealists who keep speaking about democracy and institutions. We all read in our own dimwitted way what democracy is and I am sure you could certainly give us a lecture on democracy and the institutions that go with it...but what is actually practical in Pakistan in this next year?

Although I don't belong to one of those hidden social structures of which you are obviously a member, I have a few predictions of my own: Considering that the trouble making judges are now gone and the threat of the amnesty deal being reversed is now gone, Bibi will likely go around loud mouthing as she usually does garnering support from the west and whichever Pakistani fools are willing to follow her. This will likely be done with a wink and a nod between the Americans, Mushy's boys, and Bibi's rats. With all the ducks lined up, Bibi will sell out all those poor idealistic fools who believed that crap about democracy and make a deal with Mushy publicly...of course...the deal will likely have already been executed privately. In the end, what was planned a few months ago will take place; Mushy will be Prez while the Witch (Bibi) will be the PM.

A prediction for a little longer term: Everything will blow up in their faces in less than 24 months. Its just not possible for someone like the Witch (Bibi) to work with others....she tends to complain that everybody didn't move out of the way and didn't give her enough of a chance. We'll all be here still having the same discussion about democracy and institutions and nothing will change.