Adil Najam
The two videos attached below - one of a student speaking at a student convention presided over by Gen. Pervez Musharraf and the second of an MNA speaking in the National Assembly during the no-trust motion against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz - have recently been floating around over email on Pakistani lists.
[Thanks to Eidee Man for alerting us to this new version of the first video which includes Gen. Musharraf's Response to the student's speech. Even if you have seen the student's speech already, the response is worth listening to.]
While the remarks from Muslim League (N) MNA Khawaja Asif is less surprising (especially since it came right after Nawab Akbar Bugti’s death and during a no-confidence motion) the speech from the student (Syed Adnan Kakakhel) is much more of a surprise. Gen. Musharraf listens intently, takes notes, and seems engaged. Indeed, as you can now see from his response (later in the video) the speech certainly got to Gen. Musharraf. He responds at length - including on the military rule and Balochistan issues.
I should also add that this event was organized by the government itself and also note that Adnan Kakakhel was awarded the second prize in the speech contest and also that this was telecast over Pakistan Television.
Whether you are a government opponent (i.e., this shows the depth of people’s frustration with the current order), a cynic (i.e., such talk is tolerated because everyone knows it will make no difference), or a government supporter (i.e., this proves that this government has given people real democracy and freedom of speech), you should celebrate these videos for what they are: a demonstration that political thought is alive and well in Pakistan (irrespective of whether you believe its content to be righteous or misguided).
Coming from the bol ke lab aazad hain tairay school of democracy, to me the space for dissent is itself important to the democratic polity; for that reason alone I beleive that these are important articulations.
[quote post="362"]would you rather US only bombed a few madrassas or the whole nation? [/quote]
Other people’s lives are so cheap. Is anybody asking who was there in the Madrassahs as all except the government are mentioning that it were ordinary civillian casualties - mere students. Or do we want a public relations fiasco like last year where the first government denied US intrusion stating that a bomb went off in the hide out and when pieces of US missiles were found, meekly accepting it. Though its mentioned everywhere that Pakistan Air Force has been used to bomb Baluchistan, Mush can claim that the cave caved in over Bugti.
US has always been good at bombing. Napalming the vietnamese. Allowing Israel to destroy lebanon and massacring civillians. Almost twice every week the newspapers mention that NATO forces have killed 30-100 “alleged” taliban in Afghanistan. Does anybody care who are they killing? At this rate, Taliban would have been finished by now.
But freedom of press being lowest in the world as mentioned above, I am sure nobody is going to waste paper on them. For God’s sake, they were 80 lives.
PatExpat, everyone around that Madrassa said in their interviews that it is their duty to do Jihad and they will continue to do so(!).
Now turn around the argument. If Afghanis were sending Jihadis to our country and killing people how long should we tolerate it?
Despite what is happening in Afghanistan, we are not at war with either Afghanistan or US. In which case it is Pakistan’s responsibility to stop such activities. Also in response to Jihadis going across border, would you rather US only bombed a few madrassas or the whole nation?
Isn’t it ironic that the enlightened moderate educated elite are so blind with liberal agenda of Musharraf that they have taken to buying whatever Musharraf is selling them.
As if the extra judicial killing of Bugti was not enough, we have a massacre in Bajaur agency and Musharraf telling us that all 80 of them were terrorists. Good riddance you might say as Musharraf would tell you the same.
From Dawn today,
[quote post="362"]
some locals say the attack was carried out by US planes, and that the firing by some helicopters came later. The government’s military spokesman says that the missiles were fired by the army’s helicopter gunships, that the attack was aimed specifically at the madressah, which had been under watch, and that it was being used as a training camp for Al Qaeda terrorists. It is quite possible that the “American planes� which some locals saw were drones which provided information to Pakistani authorities, especially about the presence of one of the wanted men, Maulvi Liaquat Ali. In this scenario, the army then launched the missiles, proving � if proof were needed � that Pakistan need not be told to “do more� and that being “a frontline state� in the war on terror, it was fully cooperating with its Nato and American allies in rooting out terrorists.
AFTER seeing the bodies of the victims in Bajaur agency, I think President Musharraf ought to be awarded a medal on such a commendable operation. After all, it isn’t every day that a leader as powerful as Musharraf condones the killing of 80 innocent children. One can’t help but wonder if this is the way that our esteemed president intends on taking to bring about enlightened moderation and to establish a soft image of Pakistan?
[/quote]
But why should we care for all we know, the people killed in the attack all have beards like the binoria town student.
Here is a good background on Mullah/Military affair over years by Nazir Naji; (http://www.jang-group.com/jang/nov2006-daily/01-1 1-2006/col2.htm)
Thank you Sajjad, for translating the original speech of the student into English. A number of people had requested that. Readers, see Sajjad’s message above on how to get to the Engish translation.
Hello all,
For the benefit of those who don’t speak Urdu, I’ve translated the speech and posted it on my site here
May do the Musharraf part some other time.
Regards,
Sajjad
@Yahya: Agree with you totally. Musharraf has become an expert in media manipulation giving allusion to his loyalists of which there are many on this blog that there is complete freedom of press in Pakistan.
From various sources cited on
http://politicalpakistan.blogspot.com/2006/10/paki stan-hits-near-bottom-on-press.html
[quote post="362"]Pakistan came at 157 out of 168 countries in Reporters Sans Frontières Worldwide Press Freedom Index for 2006.
Pakistan remains attracted to control and censorship. Omnipresent military secret services continue to harass investigative journalists, while the Urdu-language press is closely watched.
“There is a democratic environment in the country and that the press is free. We believe in the freedom of the press.” But then inadvertently Shaukat Aziz came closer to the truth by adding, “We give permission for criticism….” [Key word: permission]
A former editor of The News Beena Sarwar has described the activities of these agencies:
Among the tactics of intimidation used are phone taps, surveillance, threatening or interrogating phone calls, or visits from intelligence agency personnel.[/quote]
And the thing we ended up discussing in this post was length of beard, binoria town etc
Governments let such people off to attain some credibility. Public situation however does not improve even with such speeches. Talk is cheap indeed.