Fight Against The Emergeny Continues

Kasim sahib,

(The collective struggle against the Emergency must continue, not only for the real judges to regain their positions and to break apart the shackles of the PEMRA Ordinance)

This is the easy part!

(establish a cohesive and progressive education system, an effective infrastructure of health care, sanitation, water, economic welfare and equal security to all citizens of Pakistan.)

Sadly this is not so easy. India has had a functioning democracy of sorts, judges and all that but India's record on this is as poor if not worse than Pak. In fact this part may have nothing to do with democracy and rule of law at all. Authoritarian states in Eastern Asia have done much better than democracies and semi-democracies of the Third World.

Regards

If the people are really serious this time, if the politicians and the ex-generals truly repentant, if the COAS really sincere about disengaging army from the country's politics - and all these are big IFs - then I agree that it is all worthwhile and there is indeed hope.

I guess the first real sign of how real all this is, is if the elections are held on February 18/08 and are indeed free and fair. Let us see.

Judges are refusing to bow in front of the omnipotent military authorities and members of civil society, whether they are doctors, lawyers, journalists, businessmen or students, all are fighting for a constitutional and democratic system of governance.

/////////////////

Faris mian. None of those will help. The most draconian of teh islamic laws were introduced by ZAB, democratically elected. He only declared the ahmadias as non muslims.

It was Nawaz shariff again democraticall elected who introduced the sharia law, defeated by a single vote in the pak senate.

Benazir by all accounts was the most corrupt. Elections will change nothing, change will come only through foreign intervention. That will come only after jihadis come to power.

SO if you are concerned about pakistan future, support the jihadis

ideally its all very correct but the fact is that the same political order is continuing.

the tragic part is that the majority province punjab is hopeless.its full of opportunists that are always ready to join any dictator.

the civil servants and he police of this province will join anyone for their advancement.

i dont see any fight .may be some committed guys are doing it.there is no party that is for radical reform.nawaz sharif represents the business classes and the PPP is no longer that revolutionary party that it had appeared to be in early 70s.

pakistan's fate is to be ruled by crooks and thugs.whether they are in the khaki or in mufti clothes.

all the protesting seems to have petered out....doesn't look like the pakis have the stomach to force change.

well..pakis were dancing in the streets when nawaz was overthrown..so they deserve what they get...made your bed and all that..

Re: # 5

bewakoof!,

.... pakis are not stupid like the horrible hindoos - we are pragmatic people

general kiyani zindabad !

its not fair to call any one bewakoof , as if you are a genius.

so we have relatives of general kiani here.

these hindus are better than murtads like many muslims.

Dear Faris Kasim,

It is after a long time that I have read something optimistic about Pakistan. You guys are doing a great job and are the true heroes of Pakistan, though unrecognized and unsung. You do not have the romantic charisma of the militants, but you have the steel required to fight the long fight. Your fight does not get reported in the media because yours is the true fight that sends a chill down the collective spine of the ruling oligarchy and its minions. You get ridiculed as an unrealistic lot by armchair generals and political pundits because they themselves lack your dedication, ability to make unappreciated sacrifices and genuinely strong beliefs. Simply stated, you are the heroes not only of Pakistan but our collective futures.

What's going on with the editing at Chowk? Even if you might have reviewed the article, at least you could have paid attention to the title. E m e r g e n c y.

I have not even read the article yet, the title threw me off. . . .

Re: # 8

GT,

.... you are a hopeless romantic ! .... come and visit pakistan and i will show you that 97% of civil society (that is people who take bathe daily) do not care as long as pizza hut doesn't get bombed and onions and tomatoes are available in the market .......... the unwashed masses who make up more than 90% of the total population don't count - they are busy worrying about finding atta, chini and dal ...... i am beginnig to think that these shortages were created by the government to keep these people busy so that they don't have to worry about silly things like the emergency .........

.... as the title shows, this was not a real emergency - it is an 'emergeny' and god knows what kind of genie will emerge out of it .........

hamid writes "general kiyani zindabad ! "

F general kiyani and the rest of the army thugs

#10 Posted by hamidm2:

Hamid,

You have offended me enough. For all these years you have been inviting urstruly for a drink .... never me. I talk Argentinian Merlot and you tell me you have given up red wine ... two weeks later you invite urstruly again. Invite me for a drink first and we can then plan our Pakistan trip together. Till then just recite the Urstruly's "toad poem".

Hamidm #10 Your attitude towards fellow Pakistanis(i.e. that most are too poor to matter one way or another, anyone who has any desire to see things improve is a starry-eyed fool, and the only "heroes" are the sheikh rashids and musharrafs) is unfortunately all too common among the Pakistani "elite" (see pavocavalry below,e.g.), particularly the "oversmart" military-type.

Musharraf thought the same way - and has therefore been steadily pushed from the all-powerful dictator he was an year ago into the miserable irrelevance he has increasingly become (his last hope being being able to pull off a "deal" with one of the mainstream parties, barring that getting the hell out of Pakistan to live out his life on his stolen riches in the west). As the sacrifices of thousands of Pakistanis over the past year have shown, you and mr mush are on a different wave-length than the reality of Pakistan. Pakistanis are not arabs who tolerate kings and king-wannabes (as is true across the middle east from morocco thru libya, syra, jordan, saudi, egypt). Pakistanis have a large and growing middle class that is beholden to no one and dont tolerate fools and dictators for too long - as they have shown over and over again. You were wrong on musharraf a few months back, and you are wrong on kiyani today. Pakistanis will be free - no thanks to you and me - and many thanks to the thousands of brave Pakistanis who form the thin line of gray suits and bloodied heads that is holding firm in defense of Pakistan from the likes of the scoundrel musharraf.

Re: # 13

tahmed,

sigh ! ..... look, i have written as many posts against musharraf as anyone else on chowk .... remember, i coined the term "goons in khaki" which hasn't become as universal as 'horrible hindoos' but is still in fairly common usage on the chowk .......

........ but i am a realist and i know my people - i am one of them ........ i still have one foot in pakistan (my retirement home has passed the plinth level) and all (bar none) of my family lives there ........ so unlike you, i have a real vested interest in the well-being of the unwashed uncivil masses and the washed-up civil society .....

..... let us wait for the elections and see what happens ........ with a less than 20% turnout (plus another 20% stuffed ballots) we will have her own hosni mubarak in place .........

that is why i say "general kiyani zindabad !" ........ he is our only hope (other than baitullah mehsud)

... so forget about the droopy-eyed cj and the unemployable lawyers and join in me in calling it like it is :

general kiyani zindabad !

.........and just in case he doesn't come through:

baitullah mehsud zindabad !

tahmed,

.... in case you haven't been to egypt - it is a much nicer place to live than pakistan ....... and hosni has been around for ever .......

..... ummmmm ! ...... the more i think about it, the more i like it .... musharraf and mubarak - they sound kind of alike ... don't they ........ however i do wish they were more like the south korean generals or general pinochet, for that matter ...... even suharto (pbhuh) and his technocrats weren't all that bad ........ there is more than one way to skin a cat ...... unfortunately, there is only one way to skin a camel - the baitullah mehsud way ....

here is a scenario: - the elections will be rigged, however, they will be rigged cleverly........

....in a fair election, ppp gets the hightest votes, pml(n) gets the second highest, according to the polls, and pml(q) gets clobbered......

....however, ppp is allowed a fair poll, but the elections are rigged against pml(n) in favor of pml(q).....ppp gets 5% more vote that its normal 30%.....so it gets 35%....

lets say pml(n) was to get 25% and pml(q) was to get 10%....this gets swapped.....pml(q) gets 25% and pml(n) gets 10%......

ppp complains a bit but not much as it gets more votes than it normally does....pml(n) is the only one complaining, however it is ditched by the ppp......then ppp is offered the pmship and everything else....but they have to form an alliance.......they cannot form one with pml(n) and get more than 50%....

....the usa puts pressure on ppp and musharraf threatens pml(n) leaders to defect.......eventually ppp agrees to form an alliance with pml(q), with certain restrictions, i.e. chaudhries are out etc.....

so the americans get what they want......musharraf stays in power, as he is the only pakistani leader who will keep going on with the military actions in the usa's gwot.....hwowever, he now gets a civilian moderate face........

.....ppp gets power, which is what all politicians want.....and it gets its pm and most of the ministries......it runs sindh in a coalition with mqm.....punjab in a coalition with pml(q).....the reason used by ppp is that this is what benazir wanted and that they need to continue the gwot and rid pakistan of extremism.....

.americans open up the aid faucet to musharraf and ppp and life goes on....status quo continues.....pml(n) is totally down and out and realizes that it should have stuck with the apdm and boycotted the elections.......the judges are retired, and musharraf is given indemnity by a 2/3rd vote.....

......there is one joker in the pack......pakistani civilian society has now matured.....the lawyers movement and media would keep going at the above setup, and it will be very difficult for a non-military govt. to be as brutal with them as musharraf was.......