A Sign of Things To Come?

Romair #72

{{I would like to request you to not portray false pictures of situations. Friendships can never be built on falsities. They can only be built on truth.}}

followed by:

{{Aisha Sarwari … did a very good interview with a gentleman named William Baker on Kashmir.

Mr. Baker is a former college Professor in the fields of Biblical History and Apologetics. His educational background includes: Cincinnati Bible Seminary, Ozark Bible College, Near East Institute of Archaeology, Jerusalem Israel.

His book called, ``Kashmir: Happy Valley, Valley of Death.``}}

Some truths that Romair dear Romair will never volunteer: William Baker’s ‘researches’ in Kashmir and the publication of his book were funded by Pakistani organizations in the US such as the Pakistani American Congress. Naturally, this in no way affected Baker’s scholarly impartiality; there’s no way he could be a paid hack for the likes of Romair.

Some digging into Baker’s background reveals some other interesting connections – with the neo-Nazi movement, for instance. Further, despite having passed himself off as ‘Dr. Baker’, he has never earned a graduate degree, let alone a doctorate. He seems to be a regular speaker on the MSA circuit on US campuses. A fitting mouthpiece indeed for the Pakistani establishment’s agitprop on Kashmir. A foundation of truth indeed.

Thanks buddy...!!
while i try to make my point on the history of pak, i dont quite agree with the policy adopted by pakistani stalwarts on Kashmir...but i disagree with the indian policy as well. While pakistan needs to look into the situation more carefully and comeup with a more coherent and rational policy, India too needs to recognise certain facts. One of them is the violation of human rights, at whatever scale it might be. I wont like to go into the details as what scale the violation of human right occurs or occurred in Indian Kashmir, but the mere fact that it happened should be enough for indian policy makers to look into the issue. No matter how incorrect and irrational Pakistan`s stand on Kashmir be, it does not provide for a valid justification for violation of human rights by indian forces.
So far as the HR orgs are concerned, i partly agree, they tend to publicize the occurances of their choice, but no country/state should let that reason be in the way of providing them a free and complete access to troubled areas. It just harms the reputation of such country and to win the moral support from the nations across the world, one cannot afford that.
I hope my comments would not taken in support of ``military solution`` to Kashmir, becoz i am in favour of any such solution.
Enough for now...!!!
bubyee

A QUESTION, for the author of this article, Mr.Qureshi, and for anyone else who would like to answer. But please, no mud-slinging and ``traitor`` type of language...!!


Actions taken by the Governments such as broad-casting the ``show in question`` sometimes prove counter productive as they raise suspicion and distrust among the people. How would a common man must be feeling, the one who has been fed with hatered of India continuously by the successive governments, including the present, when he all of the suddent see the things turning into a ``honey-bunny lovy-dovy`` affair.??

thoughts reflections???

P.S. for the background read # 45.

A QUESTION, for the author of this article, Mr.Qureshi, and for anyone else who would like to answer. But please, no mud-slinging and ``traitor`` type of language...!!


Actions taken by the Governments such as broad-casting the ``show in question`` sometimes prove counter productive as they raise suspicion and distrust among the people. How would a common man must be feeling, the one who has been fed with hatered of India continuously by the successive governments, including the present, when he all of the suddent see the things turning into a ``honey-bunny lovy-dovy`` affair.??

thoughts reflections???

P.S. for the background read # 45.

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veeresh sahib, the following is a column printed this sunday in The Nation -- please go through it and judge for yourself how cosy a relationship the writer has with the Pakistan government (based on what she has written)


Bloodied waters

AMINA JILANI

The greatest living lie of the Republic of Pakistan is without any doubt its parliament. The President General has gone some way towards recognising this fact by his admittance that ‘environmental contradictions’ propelled a goodly number of undesirable corrupt people into the assemblies and upper house which form the Pakistani parliament. He forgot the constitutional contradictions.
As for the environmental contradictions, they are of his and his advisors’ making. By picking up the greatest clique of political crooks, the Gujrat clan and gang, merely because they were friends of a friend, guaranteed contradictions, as did the deals with highly corrupt turncoats and the militant mullahs with their fake graduate degrees - forgery is corruption as is moral turpitude.
If General Pervez Musharraf had honestly and sincerely wished to clean up the political scene, he would not merely have gone along with the friendly graduate scheme. All he and his men had to do (after disbanding the ISI) was to issue a blanket disqualification order disqualifying all those who had sat in the assemblies of Pakistan since 1988, regardless of whether they were corrupt, or inept, or illiterate, or whatever. With every single one shut out, the General would have had fewer environmental contradictions to fall back upon. He would not have had to make the excuse that he could do little about the corrupt parliamentarians as it was the ignorant illiterate awam who had voted them in, he could not have pleaded helplessness before the might and right of the people. Granted, that with the overall national mindset, the ingrained corrupt mentality and the dearth of good people willing to enter the political fray, an entirely new untried lot may have posed other types of problems. But it would have been worth a try.
His friends have not been too kind to him, in fact they have served him rather badly. Of course, this is entirely his fault. Being a soldier, he should have paid heed to an older and much shrewder soldier, Napoleon Bonaparte, who told his wife Josephine when he declared that he had to divorce her for reasons of state that ‘in politics there is no heart, only head.’ In similar vein, in his quest of statesmanship, he might have turned to the diaries of Alan Clark, politician of Great Britain, whose view was ‘There are no true friends in politics. We are all sharks circling and waiting for traces of blood to appear in the water.’ Before the waters become too bloodied, Musharraf should have a think and shed a little bit of loyalty.
Constitutional contradictions are rife, the main one being the hypocrisy adopted internally and externally that this country is functioning under a democratic parliamentary system. It is not. Zafarullah Jamali is no Tony Blair - far from it. Blair has a weekly audience with his head of state during which he briefs her on what her government is up to. Jamali has tri-weekly audiences with his head of state during which he is briefed on what he and his government should or should not be up to.
The nearest resemblance to our prime minister can be found in France, and France does not operate under a parliamentary system but under a definite presidential system. The French post of prime minister was created for the benefit of President General Charles de Gaulle, who wished to represent France on the international stage and to direct his country’s internal policy. But he did not wish to soil his hands with mundane menial matters, such as taxes or strikes, which he decided were issues to be dealt with by the underling he would appoint as head of government.
At all international summits where the heads of state and government pose in their glory, the president attends. But when teachers or farmers start to protest, the prime minister is in the firing line. French prime ministers are appointed by the president and have little democratic legitimacy in their own right. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the present incumbent, has compared the job to a giant grinder that chews up and spits out its occupants.
Jamali has much in common with former French prime minister, Eduard Balladur (1993-95) who complained: ‘The prime minister is not always informed. I would issue a denial on Monday and find out it was true on Tuesday.’
It is time to come out of the closet and acknowledge the fact that the government of Pakistan operates, de facto, under a presidential system. It is time to do away with the sham, with the pretence and hypocrisy, and at least try to establish some sort of truth at the pinnacle of power. Living a lie for too long can be dangerous, as can be contradictions. So, let the constitution and parliament officially be reformed. Like the Arabs, as said TE Lawrence about them way back in the 1920s, Pakistanis do not believe in institutions but in persons. Parliament has been but a rubber stamp for one man - either head of government with a dummy head of state, or head of state with a dummy head of government. There never has been, nor is there likely to be, ‘cohabitation’.
Different subject: The Swiss company, Cotecna, dearly beloved of Benazir and Asif Bhutto-Zardari, is in the news again. Notwithstanding that its chief executive, Robert Massey, had recently been indicted for the payment of kickbacks to Benazir’s intermediary and alleged money laundering, or that Cotecna had employed Kojo Annan, son of Kofi, in 1998 it was awarded a UN contract for border inspections under the Iraqi Oil-for-Food deal. Cotecna’s role in the scandal, the overvaluing of goods shipped into Iraq under the scheme and the paying of kickbacks (‘after-sale service fees’) to Iraq, is now under investigation.

E-mail queries and comments to: aminajilani@nation.com.pk

and here is another one -- i presume you must have heard of him or perhaps met him or know him -- he has quite a following india -- ayaz amir -- here is his column of April 6, 2004 for Dawn -- not what you would have to write to form a cosy relationship with the government -- and, veeresh sahib, to pre-empt you this time -- these two columns are not exceptions from the english language press -- and this particular columnist has quite bluntly criticized the Pakistan government for its Kashmir policy -- heck I have in some of the editorials I have written, and gotten flak from people -- but you know what, you are absolutely, we are all hypocrites who write something but at the end of the day we have a `cosy relationship` with the military, the politicians and the bureuacrats --


Anyone surprised?


By Ayaz Amir

The Patriots - the PPP renegades who discovered a messiah in Gen Pervez Musharraf and on account of that revelation bolted from their party - were, after all, not whistling in the dark.

When in the national interest they asked of the general not to take off his uniform, innocent Pakistanis wondered whether they were doing this on their own or there was more to this trick than met the eye.

With Gen Musharraf`s statement to the BBC that he`s yet to make up his mind about leaving his army post by the end of the year, innocence stands disabused. Students of Pakistani history, on the other hand, would not be surprised.

For the president`s turnaround, casting doubts on a public pledge he`d made only a few months ago, is in full accord with the pattern of Pakistani governance these past 50 years.

The surprising thing would have been just the opposite: Musharraf knocking the Patriots on the head, upbraiding them for talking nonsense, and saying that as promised, he would take off his uniform before the year was out.

The truly shocking thing would have been that, sending shock waves across the country and running counter to everything we know of our past, not this theoretical about-turn which flint-hearted cynics and serious students of history fully expected.

When was the last time a Pakistani ruler said something and the national interest did not make him change his mind? Of Gen Musharraf his acolytes said that here at last was a man totally without ambition. Of course, he is still without ambition. It`s only the national interest compelling him to cling to power.

Still, he is miles behind General Ziaul Haq who remains the supreme exemplar of the national interest. Zia promised to hold elections in ninety days: the longest ninety days in history because elections promised for the autumn of 1977 were held eventually in the spring of 1985.

Gen Musharraf can take heart from that example. Zia ruled for eleven and a half years. Musharraf has been at the top for only four and a half, which makes him a relative greenhorn by Ziaul Haq standards or indeed those set by another illustrious predecessor, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who was great helmsman for eleven years.

In the BBC interview Musharraf said he`s ``cheesed off`` with the MMA, the Mullah-Mullah Alliance, for going back on its promises. Who`s the pot, who the kettle? In any event, instead of being cheesed off, the president should be grateful. The Mullahs, willy-nilly, are furnishing him with an excuse to rethink the national interest.

Both sides deserve each other, the generals and the Mullahs. The standards of morality guiding the MMA are beyond the grasp of mere mortals. The Mullahs were first against the Legal Framework Order, Gen Musharraf`s hatchet job on the Constitution. Then for it, helping sanctify it through the 17th constitutional amendment.

Their justification was that they were helping break a national impasse. Who`s playing games with whom? GHQ`s war games against the people of Pakistan have been the staple of our politics. Now we must contend with clerical games as well.

Only the very naive will take the democratic protestations of the Mullahs seriously. Their concern is not so much with the Constitution, or generally accepted notions of democracy, as with long-term prospects of coming to power.

Most of them, especially those from the Jamaat-i-Islami, have been adept at dancing to military tunes. Following the 2002 elections they have tasted real power for the first time, something they are not about to forgo in a hurry.

Their long-term dream is to be the Tayyip Erdogans of Pakistani politics: Islamist parties coming to power through the ballot box. If to achieve that goal they must cross a sea of false promises, it`s a small price to pay.

In the same BBC interview the president was asked about the possibility of becoming a field marshal. He said he was not a person who liked doing things for himself, a proclamation of self-denial which almost pushes the president into saintly company.

His modesty forbids him to become field marshal. In his concern for the country, however, he doesn`t mind being president through procedures unknown to the Constitution.

Musharraf`s first promise was stability. The politicians had ruined the country. He would heal old wounds and gift the nation something called ``real democracy``. Four and a half years into the new Jerusalem, the promised kingdom of his first endeavours, we learn that stability is the function of not any institution but a single article of clothing, the army chief`s uniform.

Says something for the potency of our republic: teetering forever on the brink of ruin and destruction and saved from perdition by just one man and his miraculous armour.

The government`s accredited megaphone, Info Minister Rashid Ahmed, says that the president will abide by the 17th Amendment which forbids the holding of two offices after Dec 31. He`s said this authoritatively.

Only problem is one of credibility. In a nation of 140 million people, can one individual be found who`ll put faith in what this particular info minister says? Lips meant to be disbelieved: that`s the problem we face here.

Throughout recorded history Punjab has come into its own only twice: first under the great Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and, since 1947, as the main pillar and strength of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Otherwise it has been the stamping ground of invading armies, ruled either from Kabul or Delhi.

A common thread unites these two epochs of Punjab`s ascendancy: the primacy of the army in national life. The Khalsa army was the life and soul of Ranjit Singh`s kingdom. Our modern army is the central facet of our republic, casting a shadow over everything else and the moving force behind national decisions.

So why blame Musharraf for being a realist? He is what he is because of his army position. Deprive him of that and whatever else happens, much of his authority dissipates.

Bangladesh, our offspring, the child of Pakistani folly, has managed to move from outright militarism to a form of democracy, Khalida Zia and Hasina Wajid alternating in power through the mediation of the ballot box. Bangladesh may have other sorrows but at least in this instance it has moved ahead of us. We remain stuck with Ranjit Singh`s legacy, unable to break the gridlock of military domination.

For now this gridlock is only strengthened by our American connection. The Bush White House has forged a powerful relationship with Gen Musharraf personally. Each needs the other but for different reasons.

The Pakistan army is doing important service for the Americans on the Afghan border while support from the Bush administration bolsters Musharraf`s standing and self-confidence.

Nothing is likely to affect this equation between now and November 2 when the US presidential election takes place. If the American people prove their dumbness once again and re-elect Bush, that`s another matter.

But if showing some sense, and punishing Bush for hubris and the mess made in Iraq, they boot him out and choose John Kerry instead, then it`s not too far-fetched to expect a slight shift in emphasis.

Until the US is finished with its business in Afghanistan, Pakistan will remain an important staging post in US calculations. But whereas the Bush administration equates Pakistan with Musharraf and a handful of generals, a Kerry White House could be tempted to look at broader options. That`s when Pakistan`s exiles should be planning their return to the country.

Until November then, Pakistani politics is likely to be on hold. After that, who knows?

Tailpiece: Javed Hashmi`s trial in Adiala Jail and sentencing on charges of `sedition`, another blot on our face.

veeresh#80
``-why do the people wanting separation only muslims?
That is not true. Many Muslims do not want separation. ``

I never said that all muslims want separation; only that those who do are muslims.

``why did the movement ethnically cleansed kafirs from the valley?
Because of property and geo-narco-politics issues. Not religion. ``

Could you explain this please? How did ethnic cleansing helped geo-narcotics trade?

``what economic gains can they expect from leaving kashmir?
For that you have to understand more on geo-politics and narco-business.``

...this one is also not clear to me!

Veeresh, Omar:
May I add my ``ignorance`` on this topic?
-I think that a significant part of the cost-differential has to be the advertising; at leat HT and TOI devote 60-70% of their space to advertisisng; I also believe, and Veeresh can correct me if I am wrong, that even some of the ``news`` items in these newspapers are paid for.
-A fellow NRI I know quite well did a feasibility study and then started a Hindi language newspaper in Himachal Pradesh about 5 years ago. The last time I met him, I asked him how well he was doing? His answer: both good and bad...good because his circulation exceeds his projection..bad because his advertising revenue is barely following the projection, so the more papers he sells, the more money he loses.
-at a personal level, Veeresh, you have picked the wrong guy. I remember Omar writing a column after returning from his trip in India in which, if I remember correctly, he lamented the fact that the Pakistani newspaper costs so much more than their Indian counterpart.

Omar:
editorial versus news..
I remember that a few years ago in a general election, Canada`s premier newspaper, Globe and Mail, supported the governing party in its editorials but its news coverage was heavily biased against the govt. When asked to comment on this, the not-so-bemused Prime Minister remarked that he would any day trade editorial space for favourable news. I would say the same thing about the Pakistani newspapers, including your own, as far as coverage of India and Kashmir is concerned. For example, how much coverage did your newspaper give to the overwhelming positive emotions generated in India when Baby Noor went there for treatment? You have said how the Indian newspapers support the BJP. You can say this only using my criteria, the editorials of most English language newspapers do not support the BJP, but the news bias is definitely pro-govt.

Omar ji, I thank you for your honest efforts and time. So once again:-

a) My inputs on Dawn are impeccable, and I would be betraying trusts if I said more here. However, when you are next in Delhi, do let me know and I shall introduce you to my sources?

b) My inputs on landed costs of newsprint as well as average age on machinery at Dawn are also impeccable. These are inputs from North America, courtesy my commercial shippie background.

c) The advertisement tariff card for Dawn versus Times of India, worked out on a matrix of similar editions and print runs, brings Dawn to about three times the realisation for TOI. These were done for me by friends in the ad business.

d) A 5/- commission on a newspaper is terrible by any standards. I do not want to compare, but the constant hawking of newspapers at traffic lights, railway statons, bus stops and pavements, in India, survives on high volume/low margins for the vendor. It has to be the publisher in Pakistan who takes the first step in this reducing of commissions. If they want to be true media, which, in my opinion, is all about mind-bending. If they just want to remain prima donna news for the baba-baby log, then it is a different question, no?

e) Sorry about being personal, but if your visits to India are the typical Pakistani media visits to India, and your analysis of Indo-Pak ground realities are based on going walkabout only in Delhi, then Sir, you are doing a dis-service to your Nation, not mine. If an Urdu journalist from Multan with way lower resources than yours can go walkabout all over India, then what is your excuse, Sir? I am not even a journalist, and I can go walk about in Pakistan as easily, too.

At the end of the day, sirji, you decide what you want to be in your country. I am just placing my observations on record here. At 10-15 rupees a newspaper, there has to be a market for pasting daily newspapers on public reading boards. Or 3 day old 2nd hand newspapers. The fact that this does not happen can not be attributed to a dismissive airy wave of the patronising hand of an Editor as ``other numbers I`m afraid I can`t give . . .`` the one big thing I learnt in my years as a freelancer was NEVER EVER LOOK DOWN ON YOUR CONSTITUENCY.

In other words, Sir, you want your Indo-Pak articles to be credible, then you please help us all find out why newspapers cost so much in Pakistan. Otherwise it is just so much burger/club kind of reportage.

by the way, you are seriously misinformed about the english media -- unfortunately, in typical south asian mould (and i don`t actually exclude myself either), you have already made up your mind on what the English media in Pakistan is and isn`t -- that being the case there really is no scope for debate -- to quote you: ``Of course the English language media in Pakistan is in a comfortable cosy relationship. Otherwise, please tell me, where are the serious debates and follow-up actions on women`s rights, minority rights, rights of Muslim sects, local issues?`` -- well, they are in the pages, sir -- get hold of a print edition of Dawn, Daily Times or The News and you will see them -- even Nation, which takes a hardline on Kashmir, will have stories on local issues and articles/comment and opinion on human rights/women`s rights etc

veeresh sahib -- plz read carefully, i said three cities were offered but i got only one delhi and was told i couldnt go to agra either -- second -- it is not an unanswered question -- since you came to pakistan recently i would presume you would have seen the print editions of the english papers -- you can judge for yourself what the advertisement/editorial ratio is and whether it matches that for indian newspapers -- also hawkers get around 30 per cent in commission -- which for a newspaper worth rs 15 comes to around Rs 4.50 or three times the price of an indian paper -- other numbers im afraid i cant give but i assume an assistant editor`s word is probably better than your friend in the old dawn office in daryaganj --
the serious debates, veeresh sahib, are on the news pages (to some extent) and on the op-ed and letters pages (to a great extent) at least in my newspapers (and the daily times and to some extent the news) and also to a huge extent in the weekly magazines that these newspapers print -- and of course there are the english monthlies which are heavily critical -- my friend, editor of one of them, is persona non grata at the dinners/lunches the prez throws for national editors -- not quite the `cosy relationship` one would expect, veeresh sahib ? -- as far as age of machinery goes veeresh sahib -- i am amazed at your refusal to accept a mistake if you have made one -- you are telling someone who has been working in a newspaper for 10 years that the age of the machinery of his newspaper which he has told you is wrong -- and this u get sitting, i presume, in delhi -- well i suppose in that case i will have to accept your word -- pity me, my information must stink, considering that i am on the newspaper`s editorial board and my room is two rooms away from the editor`s room -- i suppose your sources are impeccable -- we should all get the inside scoop on dawn from you veeresh sahib then --

romair,

[...Friendships can never be built on falsities. They can only be built on truth.
you cannot and should not be afraid of the truth coming out to the forefront.
Don`t be afraid of it. Embrace it. I am not afraid of being proven wrong...]

truth as in...a part of kashmir was gifted to china by pakistan without asking kashmiris?
you haven`t embraced this truth for five years now, and no doubt you will ignore
this post one more time.

[...I have looked hard to find Muslim Kashmiris from India, in my profession,
but have been unable to locate any. Yet I have had the opportunity to rise to
the top ranks of the military, had I wanted to. To join the civil service,
had I wanted to...]

yes, and if sindh was a nation, only sindhis would be pm, cm, ce, coas, etc...
if all the tribal region was independent, only the tribals would be pm, cm, ce, coas, etc.
but `pakistan must gain control of all the tribal regions at any cost`, isn`t that what you
said?

I have some Kashmiri friends and relatives too . . . so let me try to answer on their behalf?

1) -why do the people wanting separation only muslims?
That is not true. Many Muslims do not want separation.

2) -why did the movement ethnically cleansed kafirs from the valley?
Because of property and geo-narco-politics issues. Not religion.

3) -why are people coming from outside in religiously trained madrassas to support the movement in the name of jihad?
Because the history of the Valley has swung across different people for centuries now.

4) -what economic gains can they expect from leaving kashmir?
For that you have to understand more on geo-politics and narco-business.

...and please dont give me the example of Indians fighting the British again as I have already answered that before.

5) -have the kashmiris in POK better protected their language and culture than on this side of the LOC?
What Kashmiris left in POK now?

And once again, you might say they don`t care, but as a secular humanist, I do.

6) -will they get more religious freedom in Pakistan/independent Kashmir than in India, considering what happened to the extinct species, also known as Hindus/Sikhs in POK?
As much as Bangladeshis, Ahmediyyas, Ismalis, Jews, Buddhists.

7) -will they get more provincial autonomy than in India?
Is there any autonomy anywhere in Pakistan?

8) -any other tangible benefits of separation?
Does that matter to a dog in the manger?

AhmadBilal:
``Why don`t you put these questions in front of the Kashmiri people, and let them give the answers through their decision in a plebiscite?``
Because I know the answer. It is quite succinct. Allahu Akbar! Simple!

Omar ji # 78 . . . good to hear from you.

a) Unanswered question . . . why do newspapers in Pakistan cost so much, please back up your response with numbers if you can, otherwise please let us try to do a joint article for Dawn? No, I am not an MEA spokesman, either.

b) I am glad you got three cities on your visa from India. I went on a standard issue cricket visa from Pakistan, and got only one city on my visa, Islamabad. However, in the spirit of true curiosity, I went walkabout in half a dozen, and stayed within the letter of my visa. As did, by the way, in India, a couple of Urdu language journos from Pakistan that I met. Think about it, Omar, sirji, what would be the worst thing to happen to you if you got a visa for Delhi and Mumbai, and chose to go by bus or slow train between these cities? Try it, no?

c) Of course the English language media in Pakistan is in a comfortable cosy relationship. Otherwise, please tell me, where are the serious debates and follow-up actions on women`s rights, minority rights, rights of Muslim sects, local issues?

d) Age of machinery, average age of machinery, 14 years Sir . . . from date of manufacture, not date of installation in Pakistan. I get my numbers from the same place I get my numbers on newsprint . . . where the factor is three times.