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A right jolly mess, what
By Kamran Shafi
SO then, the Commando has got us into all sorts of trouble, what, by continuing to hang on to the President’s Lodge (née Army House) by his manicured fingernails! Well, what did you expect of someone who wrote (allegedly, for the authorship of that absurd farce seems to rest more on someone else’s shoulders according to Musharraf himself — stand up Humayun Gohar) In the Line of Fire!?
Throughout the debate that has raged between the transitionists and the transformationists (among the latter’s number I proudly count myself) I have begged people to please, please read the book. “Please read the book to really know the extent of the trouble we are in,” I begged everyone.
For in it you see an adolescent in a full general’s uniform — I detest this new Americanism of one-star, three-star and so on — still proud of once being a 12-year-old young thug leading a gang of other urchins and beating people up on the streets of Karachi.
Or, indeed, of doubling up with laughter (alongside his cousins and brothers) when his “Uncle Haider”, allegedly once-upon-a-time an Air Force Academy “sword-carrier” i.e. a cadet under officer, slapped a bald man on the head, not once but twice in Frere Gardens pretending it was someone else. As an Indian reader informed me this was one of the scenes in an Indian film of the day!
Or indeed, in later years being proud of not giving a damn about the rules of behaviour under which gentlemen cadets at the Pakistan Military Academy conducted themselves, the very first being the honour system under which you ensured you did the right thing by yourself.
The instances the man quotes are gob-smacking to say the least. He even congratulates himself for having got away with cheating and taking a shortcut on the infamous nine-mile endurance test in which you had to run/walk nine miles in light FSMO (Field Service Marching Order) in under 90 minutes.
It was a cardinal sin to cheat at PMA, yet he felicitates himself for having been spared relegation to the next lower term, or indeed, being dishonourably discharged from the PMA for the very great crime he committed.
I write this on the early morning of Monday and have already seen some very interesting stories in this same newspaper; exactly the kind of stories you would expect in matters Musharraf. The first is that Rashid Qureshi, his press secretary, has said he is not resigning; no way. Vintage Macho Musharraf!
On the same page there is a long story on how the Americans want him to stay in the country in an “honourable” way after he resigns/is thrown out of office. Now, whilst the Americans are much practised in protecting their stooges who do their bidding — Nuri Al-Maliki in Iraq and Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, both of whom rely on American security contractors, read under-cover CIA operatives, to provide them close security — why in God’s name should the Americans be concerned about where in the world Musharraf lives after he is made to relinquish his vice-like hold on Pakistan’s jugular?
Could it be possible that the request for “honourable” stay in Pakistan was made by Musharraf himself to his tight buddy Dubya and that the Americans were demanding of the Pakistanis to provide the man the same level of security comprising regular army troops, three diversionary motorcades and so on, as a price of his leaving office? So he can play ‘president, president’ with his buddies forever?
That is, to continue being ‘presidential’ without the responsibility?! Is this Dubya’s parting gift to his “tight” buddy whose “tightness” became ever tighter as more and more Pakistanis (and poor Afghans as reports HRW, one of them a farmer who had a dispute with his neighbour) were sold to the Americans for bounty money at $5000 per?
But why should we the people allow that? Have we forgotten how every single elected leader was seen out of office by the establishment with the active support of the Pakistan army? Have we forgotten that every single time the “bloody civilian” leaders went home they went home via jail, even the hangman’s noose? If they weren’t assassinated and the whole thing shoved under the rather humungous Pakistani carpet, that is?
Why should we forget Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan’s murder in Liaquat Bagh; then Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s judicial murder in Rawalpindi jail; then Nawaz Sharif’s incarceration in Attock Fort and trial in an anti-terrorism court and then exile under the pressure of those whose $s are so valuable to any Pakistani dictator; then Benazir Bhutto’s cruel murder in Liaquat Bagh again with the crime scene being so carefully sanitised within minutes of her killing?
Which reminds me. Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Ron Suskind’s just-published book The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism says President Musharraf phoned Benazir in Dubai and told her, “Your security is based on the state of our relationship.”
What sort of threat was that? And are we to read into it that Benazir was murdered precisely because she had become distanced from Musharraf in so many ways, even telling friends that she was a marked woman and had been “betrayed”, not only by Musharraf but by the Americans too?
Why then are they asking Musharraf be allowed to have an “honourable” stay in Pakistan? Shouldn’t the charges enumerated above not form part of the 100-page chargesheet the coalition is preparing against the man? Charges ranging from cheating as a so-called ‘gentleman cadet’ to threatening a murdered leader that she would be murdered if she strayed too far from the straight and narrow?
Stop press: on a TV programme called ‘Such to Yeh Hai’ on Monday one of the participants said that parliamentarians would vote according to their zameer on Musharraf’s impeachment motion, and another asked if they would not vote according to ‘General’ Zameer, referring to the infamous former director general of the ISI’s internal wing who was instrumental in manufacturing the PPP Patriots and other such dastardly stuff.
When it came my turn I asked a question of the present government that if it was serious about the impeachment why was it that the chief of the ISI, a man considered close to the general’s family, was still in his job. Especially when it was more than well known that the ISI buys/threatens people to change their political loyalties. The entire reference to the ISI was edited out of the programme.
So much for a free media.
P.S. What was the bounty on Dr Afia Siddqui’s head and who pocketed it please? Could someone tell us?
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
Showing posts with label Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Army. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Really, sirs!
By Kamran Shafi
I mean, really sirs! What is all this about the whole shebang being in imminent danger of collapse through another intervention by the men on horseback, some would say in our case, on donkey back? Several op-ed writers are going blue in the face reminding us of the ‘danger’ that lurks.
Some of them, aghast at our stupidity, ask if we did not know that the Pakistan Army considers Pervez Musharraf the legitimately elected President of Pakistan! And that it would therefore do what it had to do to ensure that he stays president for all of his (so-called) term! They do not explain, of course, why the army should be in so exalted a position, and if indeed it is, why it should be allowed to maintain it so that it is the arbiter of what is constitutional or not, legitimate or not.
Others tell us that if there was any move at impeaching the man/hauling him up before a court of law, the army would consider it was being tried as an institution, and would therefore, ‘act’! They leave the rest to our imagination as Pakistanis who have seen army intervention all of our miserable lives. They do not explain how the army would have the gall to go against as clear a verdict as that delivered against Musharraf on Feb 18, 2008.
What utter tripe and nonsense! In so many ways, that it isn’t even funny. For, just look at the four army interventions and what state the country was left in after respective dictators left the scene. Ayub Khan laid the foundation stone of corruption and of the break-up of Pakistan; Yahya Khan saw the job through — boy did he! — in the process making it convenient for the army to be humiliated as few armed forces have been humiliated.
Then came the beauty Ziaul Haq who brought the country drugs and the Kalashnikov and obscurantism and sectarianism and hate and strife; followed by the general who drove a knife into the very heart of Pakistan by his macho and swaggering attitude towards the smaller provinces: “They won’t know what hit them”, when he engineered, say, the murder of Nawab Bugti and the tamasha in Fata.
And towards politics in general, speaking down to the main political parties and their leaders and putting in his lot with what he thought would be more pliable partners, the Chaudhrys. In view of the above, how many times should one have to say that the sooner the army acts and overthrows our emerging democracy the better for democracy and by extension, for the people of the country? For we shall then be rid of any last vestiges of respect some Pakistanis still have for the army.
For, quite apart from the fact that martial laws in Pakistan have always been dismal failures in every way and in every single department of governance, this last experiment takes the cake for being The Mother of Inept Governance. As our American friends would say, Gen (retd) Musharraf spectacularly failed, ‘every which way’, to provide the country even a semblance of governance.
Whether it is the food crisis with flour virtually unavailable, and when it is, at exorbitant prices; to the lies told to the nation re: its economic health by shamelessly massaging the figures; to not one new electricity generating plant set up in the nine very long years that he held the country by its throat; to delaying a hike in POL products and therefore in every consumer item just to help the King’s party in the elections, his rule was an unmitigated disaster.
Indeed, reflect upon the disastrous way in which Pakistan’s relations with America were/are going if only because of his thoughtless and self-serving subservience to American dictates in virtually every department of statecraft.
Indeed, many of us writing in the press cautioned Musharraf repeatedly that America would not stand as a silent spectator while he went about running with the hare and hunting with the hounds as re: the way he was handling Fata: now running hot, now running cold, and standing the whole political system there, on its head.
But wait. Did one of the ‘official sources’, read the President’s Lodge (once Army House), not say as recently as April 6, that Musharraf was only staying on in the President’s Lodge because if he were to leave office the Americans would attack Fata?! So what was this attack all about then? Could it have been a warning from Dubya that his buddy should be let alone, or else?
No sirs, no. If the English, under orders of parliament could dig the corpses of Oliver Cromwell who overthrew parliament in his coup as a warning to other wannabe dictators, why can we not try Musharraf in a court of law?
To the matter of the judges restoration now: how is it that Aitzaz Ahsan is now being vilified by op-ed writers mentioned above, and who side openly and subjectively with the dying (or is it?) dictatorship and its henchmen? I thought Aitzaz stood up for what is right and moral and constitutional when he opposed the acts of a uniformed general to sack the superior judiciary! A general, mark, who admits he acted illegally and unconstitutionally!
I have oft said, in these very pages, that Pakistan is indeed a ‘unique’ country, and we a very ‘unique’ people. I must be right!
As to the behaviour of the People’s Party, silly constitutional package and all, all one can say is that it is shameful beyond words; and that unless its downward spiral is halted immediately if not sooner the party will simply disintegrate.
Finally, even if you take Sherry Rehman’s assurances that the government of the Citadel of Islam had nothing in the world to do with the re-banning of two talk shows as the truth, shame on the federal government for allowing the Dubai authorities to do what they have done, and therefore giving the PPP a bad name.
What sort of government is it that, unbeknownst to it, any Tom, Dick or Harry can get up and telephone someone in Dubai and two popular shows go off the air?
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
I mean, really sirs! What is all this about the whole shebang being in imminent danger of collapse through another intervention by the men on horseback, some would say in our case, on donkey back? Several op-ed writers are going blue in the face reminding us of the ‘danger’ that lurks.
Some of them, aghast at our stupidity, ask if we did not know that the Pakistan Army considers Pervez Musharraf the legitimately elected President of Pakistan! And that it would therefore do what it had to do to ensure that he stays president for all of his (so-called) term! They do not explain, of course, why the army should be in so exalted a position, and if indeed it is, why it should be allowed to maintain it so that it is the arbiter of what is constitutional or not, legitimate or not.
Others tell us that if there was any move at impeaching the man/hauling him up before a court of law, the army would consider it was being tried as an institution, and would therefore, ‘act’! They leave the rest to our imagination as Pakistanis who have seen army intervention all of our miserable lives. They do not explain how the army would have the gall to go against as clear a verdict as that delivered against Musharraf on Feb 18, 2008.
What utter tripe and nonsense! In so many ways, that it isn’t even funny. For, just look at the four army interventions and what state the country was left in after respective dictators left the scene. Ayub Khan laid the foundation stone of corruption and of the break-up of Pakistan; Yahya Khan saw the job through — boy did he! — in the process making it convenient for the army to be humiliated as few armed forces have been humiliated.
Then came the beauty Ziaul Haq who brought the country drugs and the Kalashnikov and obscurantism and sectarianism and hate and strife; followed by the general who drove a knife into the very heart of Pakistan by his macho and swaggering attitude towards the smaller provinces: “They won’t know what hit them”, when he engineered, say, the murder of Nawab Bugti and the tamasha in Fata.
And towards politics in general, speaking down to the main political parties and their leaders and putting in his lot with what he thought would be more pliable partners, the Chaudhrys. In view of the above, how many times should one have to say that the sooner the army acts and overthrows our emerging democracy the better for democracy and by extension, for the people of the country? For we shall then be rid of any last vestiges of respect some Pakistanis still have for the army.
For, quite apart from the fact that martial laws in Pakistan have always been dismal failures in every way and in every single department of governance, this last experiment takes the cake for being The Mother of Inept Governance. As our American friends would say, Gen (retd) Musharraf spectacularly failed, ‘every which way’, to provide the country even a semblance of governance.
Whether it is the food crisis with flour virtually unavailable, and when it is, at exorbitant prices; to the lies told to the nation re: its economic health by shamelessly massaging the figures; to not one new electricity generating plant set up in the nine very long years that he held the country by its throat; to delaying a hike in POL products and therefore in every consumer item just to help the King’s party in the elections, his rule was an unmitigated disaster.
Indeed, reflect upon the disastrous way in which Pakistan’s relations with America were/are going if only because of his thoughtless and self-serving subservience to American dictates in virtually every department of statecraft.
Indeed, many of us writing in the press cautioned Musharraf repeatedly that America would not stand as a silent spectator while he went about running with the hare and hunting with the hounds as re: the way he was handling Fata: now running hot, now running cold, and standing the whole political system there, on its head.
But wait. Did one of the ‘official sources’, read the President’s Lodge (once Army House), not say as recently as April 6, that Musharraf was only staying on in the President’s Lodge because if he were to leave office the Americans would attack Fata?! So what was this attack all about then? Could it have been a warning from Dubya that his buddy should be let alone, or else?
No sirs, no. If the English, under orders of parliament could dig the corpses of Oliver Cromwell who overthrew parliament in his coup as a warning to other wannabe dictators, why can we not try Musharraf in a court of law?
To the matter of the judges restoration now: how is it that Aitzaz Ahsan is now being vilified by op-ed writers mentioned above, and who side openly and subjectively with the dying (or is it?) dictatorship and its henchmen? I thought Aitzaz stood up for what is right and moral and constitutional when he opposed the acts of a uniformed general to sack the superior judiciary! A general, mark, who admits he acted illegally and unconstitutionally!
I have oft said, in these very pages, that Pakistan is indeed a ‘unique’ country, and we a very ‘unique’ people. I must be right!
As to the behaviour of the People’s Party, silly constitutional package and all, all one can say is that it is shameful beyond words; and that unless its downward spiral is halted immediately if not sooner the party will simply disintegrate.
Finally, even if you take Sherry Rehman’s assurances that the government of the Citadel of Islam had nothing in the world to do with the re-banning of two talk shows as the truth, shame on the federal government for allowing the Dubai authorities to do what they have done, and therefore giving the PPP a bad name.
What sort of government is it that, unbeknownst to it, any Tom, Dick or Harry can get up and telephone someone in Dubai and two popular shows go off the air?
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Now for the transformation
By Kamran Shafi
I HAVE to start this week’s piece by alluding to the reaction to last week’s article in which I had criticised the army’s indulging in the retail business. A correspondent writing in the letters’ section even accused me of ‘army-bashing’.
Not true, not even remotely. I have been writing in the national press for over 25 years now, and have always acknowledged the army as my second mother: I did join it as a very young boy of 19 after all, and spent some of the best years of my life in it, learning some great lessons that made officers and, hopefully, gentlemen of us.
I hasten to add that I was always in thrall to the Pakistan Army Act unlike the Commando; I always had the utmost respect for my commanding officers unlike the Commando; I was in no way as macho as the Commando. I was just a run-of-the-mill officer who tried to follow the dictates of good order and military discipline at all times. And when I failed I jolly well said sorry, again unlike the Commando.
That is why old soldiers like I get saddened and dismayed, indeed enraged when we see the army running real estate agencies and marriage halls, and bakeries and tikka and fast-food joints out of army officers’ messes. We are ashamed when we see officers’ messes renting out part of their premises to commercial organisations like banks, and when we see poultry and fish farms within unit lines.
We are astonished at the extent of the all-pervasive greed, for what else can one call it, and the free-for-all way in which the army high command has allowed it to grow. Go to the local flyblown bazaar at Marala Headworks near Sialkot and you will see a shop run by the local unit selling biscuits and toothpaste and what have you, a uniformed soldier standing behind the counter; go to Skardu and you will find a pastry and cake shop run by the Northern Light Infantry (once upon a time the Gilgit Scouts of legend, and the courageous Karakoram Scouts), a havaldar and two sepoys serving the customers.
As to the criticism that I wrote about the Mardan tragedy so close to its happening, the whole point was to bring into stark relief the fact that if the army was not into the retail business in such a big way that it was running its own marketplace where all comers were welcome and the more the merrier, mayhap the bombers would have found it slightly more difficult to do their dastardly act.
The point has to be made that all over the world, the armed forces stay within their own barracks and forts and, in the case of the subcontinent, cantonments. The United States; the United Kingdom; China; Russia; India; you name it, and units of the armed forces live and work within a secure environment. They do not sell merchandise in open markets and expose themselves to easy attack.
Just outside Washington DC is Fort Myers, among hundreds of other defence installations across the country, which you enter after only the most stringent checks. In the UK, there is the area of Salisbury Plain with its no-go areas for non-military persons. Even the Chelsea Barracks in the heart of London are off-limits to all except defence personnel, as are the Horse Guards and Household Cavalry. I must add here too that none of the above lend their premises for wedding receptions; none of their messes serve burgers and fries and fish and chips to the general public.
No army in the world sells state-owned land to its officers at throwaway prices, who then make a killing selling it to civilians in so-called Defence Housing and ‘General’ colonies. No army in the world runs banks (with the sole exception of the Thai Army which too is a state within a state) and travel agencies and security companies either.
It simply is not enough that the army withdraw some of its senior officers from high-profile civilian jobs. It must disengage itself from all commercial activities, particularly at this dangerous time when it is in the vanguard of the so-called war on terror, and is consequently the target of those that feel wronged by America’s not-so-sensitive attitude towards collateral damage.
A word about the leak in the papers about the possible sacking of Ashfaq Kayani. No one takes it as merely ‘malicious gossip’ please, for it comes from a ‘renowned defence analyst’, my old friend Ikram Sehgal. Ikram does not write carelessly, especially about such high-profile matters. There simply has to be some fire there somewhere. Perhaps set by an increasingly beleaguered Commando, thinking there was no harm in testing the wind by indulging in a little kite-flying.
For we are in the middle of sorting ourselves out: the political forces are trying to chart their way through the maze put into place by the Commando, a maze that has his own agents hidden within it. There are implied threats being made by the Commando and said agents, and so on. Why can the Americans not leave us in peace at this time so we can try and salvage whatever we can of this blessed country in our own way?
As to the threats, I am one of those that want the Commando to act NOW, not tomorrow. Let him dismiss the assemblies for all I care; let him sack the army chief and appoint his own relative (as ‘maliciously’ rumoured) for all I care: let the Commando do whatever he wants. For therein lies our salvation. For it is only then that the true and very ugly face of the state of Pakistan will really stare the people in the eye. And it is only then that we shall truly transform this country from a dictatorship to a true democracy.
Some weeks ago, I had counselled the Pakistan People’s Party to keep it simple and to do what it had promised to do, not once, but twice, both times going back on its word: restore the judges wrongly removed by a chief of army staff. It is imperative that this be done in accord with advice from the best legal brains in the country, through a simple executive order. The party will hurt itself very deeply if it continues to obfuscate matters.
Bushism of the week: “The folks who conducted to act on our country on Sept 11 made a big mistake. They underestimated America. They underestimated our resolve, our determination, our love for freedom. The misunderestimated the fact that we love a neighbour in need. They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander-in-chief, too.” — President George W Bush, Langley, Virginia, Sept 26, 2001.
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
I HAVE to start this week’s piece by alluding to the reaction to last week’s article in which I had criticised the army’s indulging in the retail business. A correspondent writing in the letters’ section even accused me of ‘army-bashing’.
Not true, not even remotely. I have been writing in the national press for over 25 years now, and have always acknowledged the army as my second mother: I did join it as a very young boy of 19 after all, and spent some of the best years of my life in it, learning some great lessons that made officers and, hopefully, gentlemen of us.
I hasten to add that I was always in thrall to the Pakistan Army Act unlike the Commando; I always had the utmost respect for my commanding officers unlike the Commando; I was in no way as macho as the Commando. I was just a run-of-the-mill officer who tried to follow the dictates of good order and military discipline at all times. And when I failed I jolly well said sorry, again unlike the Commando.
That is why old soldiers like I get saddened and dismayed, indeed enraged when we see the army running real estate agencies and marriage halls, and bakeries and tikka and fast-food joints out of army officers’ messes. We are ashamed when we see officers’ messes renting out part of their premises to commercial organisations like banks, and when we see poultry and fish farms within unit lines.
We are astonished at the extent of the all-pervasive greed, for what else can one call it, and the free-for-all way in which the army high command has allowed it to grow. Go to the local flyblown bazaar at Marala Headworks near Sialkot and you will see a shop run by the local unit selling biscuits and toothpaste and what have you, a uniformed soldier standing behind the counter; go to Skardu and you will find a pastry and cake shop run by the Northern Light Infantry (once upon a time the Gilgit Scouts of legend, and the courageous Karakoram Scouts), a havaldar and two sepoys serving the customers.
As to the criticism that I wrote about the Mardan tragedy so close to its happening, the whole point was to bring into stark relief the fact that if the army was not into the retail business in such a big way that it was running its own marketplace where all comers were welcome and the more the merrier, mayhap the bombers would have found it slightly more difficult to do their dastardly act.
The point has to be made that all over the world, the armed forces stay within their own barracks and forts and, in the case of the subcontinent, cantonments. The United States; the United Kingdom; China; Russia; India; you name it, and units of the armed forces live and work within a secure environment. They do not sell merchandise in open markets and expose themselves to easy attack.
Just outside Washington DC is Fort Myers, among hundreds of other defence installations across the country, which you enter after only the most stringent checks. In the UK, there is the area of Salisbury Plain with its no-go areas for non-military persons. Even the Chelsea Barracks in the heart of London are off-limits to all except defence personnel, as are the Horse Guards and Household Cavalry. I must add here too that none of the above lend their premises for wedding receptions; none of their messes serve burgers and fries and fish and chips to the general public.
No army in the world sells state-owned land to its officers at throwaway prices, who then make a killing selling it to civilians in so-called Defence Housing and ‘General’ colonies. No army in the world runs banks (with the sole exception of the Thai Army which too is a state within a state) and travel agencies and security companies either.
It simply is not enough that the army withdraw some of its senior officers from high-profile civilian jobs. It must disengage itself from all commercial activities, particularly at this dangerous time when it is in the vanguard of the so-called war on terror, and is consequently the target of those that feel wronged by America’s not-so-sensitive attitude towards collateral damage.
A word about the leak in the papers about the possible sacking of Ashfaq Kayani. No one takes it as merely ‘malicious gossip’ please, for it comes from a ‘renowned defence analyst’, my old friend Ikram Sehgal. Ikram does not write carelessly, especially about such high-profile matters. There simply has to be some fire there somewhere. Perhaps set by an increasingly beleaguered Commando, thinking there was no harm in testing the wind by indulging in a little kite-flying.
For we are in the middle of sorting ourselves out: the political forces are trying to chart their way through the maze put into place by the Commando, a maze that has his own agents hidden within it. There are implied threats being made by the Commando and said agents, and so on. Why can the Americans not leave us in peace at this time so we can try and salvage whatever we can of this blessed country in our own way?
As to the threats, I am one of those that want the Commando to act NOW, not tomorrow. Let him dismiss the assemblies for all I care; let him sack the army chief and appoint his own relative (as ‘maliciously’ rumoured) for all I care: let the Commando do whatever he wants. For therein lies our salvation. For it is only then that the true and very ugly face of the state of Pakistan will really stare the people in the eye. And it is only then that we shall truly transform this country from a dictatorship to a true democracy.
Some weeks ago, I had counselled the Pakistan People’s Party to keep it simple and to do what it had promised to do, not once, but twice, both times going back on its word: restore the judges wrongly removed by a chief of army staff. It is imperative that this be done in accord with advice from the best legal brains in the country, through a simple executive order. The party will hurt itself very deeply if it continues to obfuscate matters.
Bushism of the week: “The folks who conducted to act on our country on Sept 11 made a big mistake. They underestimated America. They underestimated our resolve, our determination, our love for freedom. The misunderestimated the fact that we love a neighbour in need. They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander-in-chief, too.” — President George W Bush, Langley, Virginia, Sept 26, 2001.
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Shame, all around
By Kamran Shafi
Sadly, a suicide bombing targeted the Punjab Regimental Centre bakery in the PRC market in Mardan, killing upwards of 14 people, most of them soldiers, and leaving many injured seriously, some maimed for life.
How many reams have been written about the complete inappropriateness of the army indulging in the retail business? What in heaven’s name have we made of this army? Rather than making political statements might one ask Ashfaq Kayani to please shake it awake, pull it out of the shops and the bakeries and the tikka joints and the real-estate agencies, and train it to do the job the nation pays it for? And while he is at it, to please initiate the shelving of the grand plans to build a new GHQ in Islamabad, an utter and huge waste of the country’s very meagre resources?
While we are on the subject of the army, may one ask the Punjab government to reclaim Birdwood Barracks in Lahore, which are up for auction by the Military Estates Officer for a reserve price of Rs500m being of no further use to the army, and turn it into a park for the citizens of the congested city of Lahore?
And may one ask the cabinet division to immediately issue a notification to the effect that no ministry can do as it pleases with lands under its present use. That all lands in the use of the various ministries are lands belonging to the GOVERNMENT of the country/of the province concerned, merely lent to the particular ministry for use. When that use is over it is the government that must decide what to do with the land, e.g., sell it for providing clean drinking water to, say, Karachi city.
It is preposterous that such lands are considered the ownership of the service concerned particularly of the all-powerful army. As an aside, when pressure built up on the Commando not to go ahead with the new GHQ, he had the gall to say the army would finance the costs by selling ‘land of the army’ (such as Birdwood Barracks)! He even had the effrontery to say that the army would give 25 per cent of the sale price to the government! I ask you! Is the Pakistan Army a department of the GOP or is the GOP a department of the Pakistan Army?
Let’s go elsewhere and spread the shame about. Shame, too, on those who have been advocating for some time, even before the coalition was formed at the centre, that the PPP make a compact with the PML-Q — or ‘Qatil’ League, as it was named by Asif Zardari after Benazir’s horrific murder — and such other independents and odds and you-know-whats who are amenable to pressure, and cobble together a government in the Punjab to the exclusion of the majority PML-N.
And on those that advocate the forming of a coalition between the PML-Q, the MQM, the ANP and the JUI-F at the centre too, to the exclusion of the PML-N which is the second-largest party in the National Assembly. In both enterprises, the dirty hands of the former Army House, now the President’s Lodge, and of the Mother of All Agencies are more than visible.
Well, much shame on them, and if the People’s Party is even thinking of such an arrangement, on it, too. For, does it not remember how it and its workers felt when its majority in the 2002 Sindh Assembly was stolen by the Commando and his sidekicks and a government of odds and you-know-whats was imposed on the people of Sindh?
Has the People’s Party forgotten so soon the travails visited upon its workers by the criminal enterprise that was rudely cobbled together, and which ruled Sindh for well on five years, ignoring the mandate of the people? Does it so easily forget its own democratic roots just because the Commando and his underwriters want it to travel on the undemocratic course?
Does the People’s Party forget that, again in 2002, when the Commando and his handmaiden, the corrupt and venal state of Pakistan, conspired to steal the slot of leader of the opposition from it and gift it to the then mullah-military alliance, a whole lot of us protested repeatedly, that the dictator and the ISI should stay out of the National Assembly such as it was?
Does it not recall that at the time, it was fully supported by most of us who write on politics in the national press, and that the Commando was criticised for the ill-intentioned dictator that he was, keeping the people he could not abide out, by hook or by crook, and bringing in his buddies in their place?
The PPP should remember its own travails, and always do the right, not the expedient, thing, if it is to survive — and be respected — as the national asset that it is. It must set an example for others to follow, not do things that have been done by autocrats and which have failed those that did them. Witness the 2008 referendum against the Commando and buddies please.
To end I have to say that to explain a matter in the simplest terms is to understand it in a flash. A reader who calls himself simply Ali explains the judicial tamasha (for what else can one call it?) thus:
“The dismissal of judges is like a dacoit occupying a house on gunpoint which has no legal or constitutional status. The PPP’s formula of restoring the genuine judges and keeping PCO judges is like the government saying that while it wants to give the house back to the real owner, it doesn’t want to disturb the dacoit and that the real owner should show flexibility and share the house with the dacoit.”
Are you listening Asif Zardari and Farooq Naek?
Bushism of the week: “I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office” — President George W. Bush; Washington, DC, May 12, 2008
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
Sadly, a suicide bombing targeted the Punjab Regimental Centre bakery in the PRC market in Mardan, killing upwards of 14 people, most of them soldiers, and leaving many injured seriously, some maimed for life.
How many reams have been written about the complete inappropriateness of the army indulging in the retail business? What in heaven’s name have we made of this army? Rather than making political statements might one ask Ashfaq Kayani to please shake it awake, pull it out of the shops and the bakeries and the tikka joints and the real-estate agencies, and train it to do the job the nation pays it for? And while he is at it, to please initiate the shelving of the grand plans to build a new GHQ in Islamabad, an utter and huge waste of the country’s very meagre resources?
While we are on the subject of the army, may one ask the Punjab government to reclaim Birdwood Barracks in Lahore, which are up for auction by the Military Estates Officer for a reserve price of Rs500m being of no further use to the army, and turn it into a park for the citizens of the congested city of Lahore?
And may one ask the cabinet division to immediately issue a notification to the effect that no ministry can do as it pleases with lands under its present use. That all lands in the use of the various ministries are lands belonging to the GOVERNMENT of the country/of the province concerned, merely lent to the particular ministry for use. When that use is over it is the government that must decide what to do with the land, e.g., sell it for providing clean drinking water to, say, Karachi city.
It is preposterous that such lands are considered the ownership of the service concerned particularly of the all-powerful army. As an aside, when pressure built up on the Commando not to go ahead with the new GHQ, he had the gall to say the army would finance the costs by selling ‘land of the army’ (such as Birdwood Barracks)! He even had the effrontery to say that the army would give 25 per cent of the sale price to the government! I ask you! Is the Pakistan Army a department of the GOP or is the GOP a department of the Pakistan Army?
Let’s go elsewhere and spread the shame about. Shame, too, on those who have been advocating for some time, even before the coalition was formed at the centre, that the PPP make a compact with the PML-Q — or ‘Qatil’ League, as it was named by Asif Zardari after Benazir’s horrific murder — and such other independents and odds and you-know-whats who are amenable to pressure, and cobble together a government in the Punjab to the exclusion of the majority PML-N.
And on those that advocate the forming of a coalition between the PML-Q, the MQM, the ANP and the JUI-F at the centre too, to the exclusion of the PML-N which is the second-largest party in the National Assembly. In both enterprises, the dirty hands of the former Army House, now the President’s Lodge, and of the Mother of All Agencies are more than visible.
Well, much shame on them, and if the People’s Party is even thinking of such an arrangement, on it, too. For, does it not remember how it and its workers felt when its majority in the 2002 Sindh Assembly was stolen by the Commando and his sidekicks and a government of odds and you-know-whats was imposed on the people of Sindh?
Has the People’s Party forgotten so soon the travails visited upon its workers by the criminal enterprise that was rudely cobbled together, and which ruled Sindh for well on five years, ignoring the mandate of the people? Does it so easily forget its own democratic roots just because the Commando and his underwriters want it to travel on the undemocratic course?
Does the People’s Party forget that, again in 2002, when the Commando and his handmaiden, the corrupt and venal state of Pakistan, conspired to steal the slot of leader of the opposition from it and gift it to the then mullah-military alliance, a whole lot of us protested repeatedly, that the dictator and the ISI should stay out of the National Assembly such as it was?
Does it not recall that at the time, it was fully supported by most of us who write on politics in the national press, and that the Commando was criticised for the ill-intentioned dictator that he was, keeping the people he could not abide out, by hook or by crook, and bringing in his buddies in their place?
The PPP should remember its own travails, and always do the right, not the expedient, thing, if it is to survive — and be respected — as the national asset that it is. It must set an example for others to follow, not do things that have been done by autocrats and which have failed those that did them. Witness the 2008 referendum against the Commando and buddies please.
To end I have to say that to explain a matter in the simplest terms is to understand it in a flash. A reader who calls himself simply Ali explains the judicial tamasha (for what else can one call it?) thus:
“The dismissal of judges is like a dacoit occupying a house on gunpoint which has no legal or constitutional status. The PPP’s formula of restoring the genuine judges and keeping PCO judges is like the government saying that while it wants to give the house back to the real owner, it doesn’t want to disturb the dacoit and that the real owner should show flexibility and share the house with the dacoit.”
Are you listening Asif Zardari and Farooq Naek?
Bushism of the week: “I’ll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office” — President George W. Bush; Washington, DC, May 12, 2008
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The last whimper
By Kamran Shafi
SO then, the Pakistan Day Parade was held after all, within the confines of the Sports Complex, Islamabad the Beautiful.
Never mind that athletics and sports camps set up there for several upcoming international games including the Olympics had to be closed down, never mind that the Tennis Academy admirably run by Mushaf and where my Zainab and tens of other children go was displaced.
The last whimper of a dying dictatorship simply had to be sounded, and what a last whimper it was! There were, as predicted, something like two thousand spectators, mostly officers, JCOs and their families trucked in from Rawalpindi and of course the caretaker ‘prime minister’, he reminding us all of the iniquity of appointing the sitting chairman of the Senate and a member of the (now deceased) King’s Party to this post.
The funniest was the sight of the hugely truncated mechanised columns, hiding behind the curve of the main stadium waiting for their turn to roll past the dais. Parades are noisy, colourful, hugely (and widely) attended affairs held in the open; not, as I wrote in this same space last week, held cowering in fear, behind fences and barbed wire.
The Commando too was a much-subdued commando: just going through the paces of what his advisers must have told him was a most essential part of telling all and sundry who is boss. Gone was the swagger and the jaunty flick of the shoulders; gone was the petulant, stern glare.For the days of swagger are long gone, indeed. With everyone and Charlie’s aunt including please note, Mushahid ‘Mandela’ Hussain, ready to axe 58-2(b), what else? And this is only the beginning of the end. What if the government only extends the Commando the security and protocol laid down in the Blue Book, no more no less?
There is news too that, as suspected by everyone AND Charlie’s aunt, the barricades (much shame on you, sirs, the lot of you — even those who acquiesced to the illegal, shameful orders) around the judges’ colony will be lifted. What then, especially after My Lord Iftikhar Chaudhry starts to tour the Bars around the country, and the expected fallout of those visits?
There is still time. Yes there is. But is there no one who has made use of Musharraf’s stay in absolute power to his/her own benefit who will now talk some little sense to him? Is there no one to tell him that there is still time to say sorry for his government’s heavy-handed and completely shameless and highly stupid actions against the superior judiciary?
And to reinstate it with honour, the Commando saying he did not want the confrontation to go on any longer; that he wanted Pakistan to embark upon its democratic journey unfettered with his baggage, and that he would always wish the country and its people well.
So saying he could resign his so-called ‘office’ and drive his Humvee to Chak Shehzad and his upcoming villa. We are a highly emotional lot; I can bet people will come out onto the streets in joy and wish him well (and good riddance!). Even now.
However, the Commando is a great big commando and the epitome of machismo. I do not think he will listen, but can his friends at least give it a try?
And now to the future. First, a big welcome to the newly elected members of the National Assembly; and to Madam Speaker for being elected by a thumping majority of votes which should have sent several shivers down the spines of those that inhabit the house next door.
It was great to see this woman politician who has been in successful electoral politics for many years take the Speaker’s chair in the National Assembly. It was as if a breath of fresh air had blown through that glittering chamber. More strength to her.
It was good to see too that the one or two times that she spoke, she spoke strongly and with conviction, and in no uncertain terms. It seems that Madam Speaker will not mince her words; will not shilly-shally and utter inanities such as those we are used to hearing. And will always do the right thing.
Because of which I address her first in this my first piece after her election.
Madam, first off please require members of the National Assembly to not carry plates announcing ‘MNA’ on their cars and SUVs. These plates not only look cheap, they add nothing to the fact that the owner of the vehicle has been elected by the people, a very great honour in itself.
Announce that, leave alone slapping policemen, you will immediately suspend any member who is reported for having been rude to the police, any committee’s investigations notwithstanding.
Require that all members use the normal check-in and arrival procedures, and departure and arrival lounges, whenever they are travelling. And ask PIA to remove the check-in counters that are solely for the use of parliamentarians and say so too. (I have seen one at Karachi airport.)
For the coming prime minister and chief ministers I have the following to say:
If you MUST have flags on your cars — not flying flags takes nothing away from the British prime minister and those of European countries, or indeed from members of the US cabinet — please ban their use on motor cars for all but the president, prime minister, the governors and the chief ministers.
Voluntarily give up the executive jets that are in the use of all the provincial chief ministers and governors and take commercial flights instead. It may be essential to use helicopters to get to remote areas now and again, so the money that will come from selling the jets could well be used by the Cabinet Division in beefing up their helicopter fleet.
It was great reading just yesterday that Shahbaz Sharif has announced that the Chief Minister’s House, extended hugely and tarted up in bad taste by Pervaiz Elahi at great public expense, will be given over to an IT university.
This is excellent, but may one request Mr Sharif to please also order the opening of Club Road where it meets Golf Road, and which was closed off and included in the grounds of the CM’s House, before the House is handed over? Where in the world would anyone close off existing roads by fiat but in the Land of the Pure?
While one is on the subject, there is another property in Rawalpindi known as the DCO’s House abutting Fatima Jinnah Women’s University which too could be handed over to the university with the DCO finding alternative accommodation elsewhere. It will give the university another hostel.
We will have a new prime minister today. Here’s wishing him well. I pray that the Almighty keep him on the right path and to guide him to always do the right thing.
Bushism of the Week: “And so, General, I want to thank you for your service. And I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq” — President George W. Bush, meeting with Army Gen Ray Odierno; Washington, DC, March 3, 2008.
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
SO then, the Pakistan Day Parade was held after all, within the confines of the Sports Complex, Islamabad the Beautiful.
Never mind that athletics and sports camps set up there for several upcoming international games including the Olympics had to be closed down, never mind that the Tennis Academy admirably run by Mushaf and where my Zainab and tens of other children go was displaced.
The last whimper of a dying dictatorship simply had to be sounded, and what a last whimper it was! There were, as predicted, something like two thousand spectators, mostly officers, JCOs and their families trucked in from Rawalpindi and of course the caretaker ‘prime minister’, he reminding us all of the iniquity of appointing the sitting chairman of the Senate and a member of the (now deceased) King’s Party to this post.
The funniest was the sight of the hugely truncated mechanised columns, hiding behind the curve of the main stadium waiting for their turn to roll past the dais. Parades are noisy, colourful, hugely (and widely) attended affairs held in the open; not, as I wrote in this same space last week, held cowering in fear, behind fences and barbed wire.
The Commando too was a much-subdued commando: just going through the paces of what his advisers must have told him was a most essential part of telling all and sundry who is boss. Gone was the swagger and the jaunty flick of the shoulders; gone was the petulant, stern glare.For the days of swagger are long gone, indeed. With everyone and Charlie’s aunt including please note, Mushahid ‘Mandela’ Hussain, ready to axe 58-2(b), what else? And this is only the beginning of the end. What if the government only extends the Commando the security and protocol laid down in the Blue Book, no more no less?
There is news too that, as suspected by everyone AND Charlie’s aunt, the barricades (much shame on you, sirs, the lot of you — even those who acquiesced to the illegal, shameful orders) around the judges’ colony will be lifted. What then, especially after My Lord Iftikhar Chaudhry starts to tour the Bars around the country, and the expected fallout of those visits?
There is still time. Yes there is. But is there no one who has made use of Musharraf’s stay in absolute power to his/her own benefit who will now talk some little sense to him? Is there no one to tell him that there is still time to say sorry for his government’s heavy-handed and completely shameless and highly stupid actions against the superior judiciary?
And to reinstate it with honour, the Commando saying he did not want the confrontation to go on any longer; that he wanted Pakistan to embark upon its democratic journey unfettered with his baggage, and that he would always wish the country and its people well.
So saying he could resign his so-called ‘office’ and drive his Humvee to Chak Shehzad and his upcoming villa. We are a highly emotional lot; I can bet people will come out onto the streets in joy and wish him well (and good riddance!). Even now.
However, the Commando is a great big commando and the epitome of machismo. I do not think he will listen, but can his friends at least give it a try?
And now to the future. First, a big welcome to the newly elected members of the National Assembly; and to Madam Speaker for being elected by a thumping majority of votes which should have sent several shivers down the spines of those that inhabit the house next door.
It was great to see this woman politician who has been in successful electoral politics for many years take the Speaker’s chair in the National Assembly. It was as if a breath of fresh air had blown through that glittering chamber. More strength to her.
It was good to see too that the one or two times that she spoke, she spoke strongly and with conviction, and in no uncertain terms. It seems that Madam Speaker will not mince her words; will not shilly-shally and utter inanities such as those we are used to hearing. And will always do the right thing.
Because of which I address her first in this my first piece after her election.
Madam, first off please require members of the National Assembly to not carry plates announcing ‘MNA’ on their cars and SUVs. These plates not only look cheap, they add nothing to the fact that the owner of the vehicle has been elected by the people, a very great honour in itself.
Announce that, leave alone slapping policemen, you will immediately suspend any member who is reported for having been rude to the police, any committee’s investigations notwithstanding.
Require that all members use the normal check-in and arrival procedures, and departure and arrival lounges, whenever they are travelling. And ask PIA to remove the check-in counters that are solely for the use of parliamentarians and say so too. (I have seen one at Karachi airport.)
For the coming prime minister and chief ministers I have the following to say:
If you MUST have flags on your cars — not flying flags takes nothing away from the British prime minister and those of European countries, or indeed from members of the US cabinet — please ban their use on motor cars for all but the president, prime minister, the governors and the chief ministers.
Voluntarily give up the executive jets that are in the use of all the provincial chief ministers and governors and take commercial flights instead. It may be essential to use helicopters to get to remote areas now and again, so the money that will come from selling the jets could well be used by the Cabinet Division in beefing up their helicopter fleet.
It was great reading just yesterday that Shahbaz Sharif has announced that the Chief Minister’s House, extended hugely and tarted up in bad taste by Pervaiz Elahi at great public expense, will be given over to an IT university.
This is excellent, but may one request Mr Sharif to please also order the opening of Club Road where it meets Golf Road, and which was closed off and included in the grounds of the CM’s House, before the House is handed over? Where in the world would anyone close off existing roads by fiat but in the Land of the Pure?
While one is on the subject, there is another property in Rawalpindi known as the DCO’s House abutting Fatima Jinnah Women’s University which too could be handed over to the university with the DCO finding alternative accommodation elsewhere. It will give the university another hostel.
We will have a new prime minister today. Here’s wishing him well. I pray that the Almighty keep him on the right path and to guide him to always do the right thing.
Bushism of the Week: “And so, General, I want to thank you for your service. And I appreciate the fact that you really snatched defeat out of the jaws of those who are trying to defeat us in Iraq” — President George W. Bush, meeting with Army Gen Ray Odierno; Washington, DC, March 3, 2008.
kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk
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