Adil Najam
Rumors of a ‘deal’ between PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and Gen. Pervez Musharraf have been rife for a long time. All indications now suggest that a deal of some sort has, in fact, been reached.
The ferocity with which the rumors are being denied - with obvious insincerity - suggests that something is afoot. The question is, exactly what.
There is little utility, it seems to us, to indulge any further in the speculation than people already are. The much more important question is what - if anything - will such a deal mean for Pakistan and for democracy in Pakistan.
Will it make things better? Will it make things worse? Will things remain as they have always been and this will simply be one more round in the ‘great game’ of musical chairs that has always been Pakistan politics?
That is the question for our new ATP Poll (see top of middle column). Let us know what you think, and why? With your vote in the poll and with your comments below.
@ Mushy, BB deal done ,
Fazlurtaliban is a leftist kebab mein haddi,
left is soldout Marxists/seculars/liberals marchandise
to be auctioned.
i really like these pictures. they are a lot cooler than the other websites..
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this is the col picture.aisa lagta hai jaise in dono ki shaddi ho gai hai.in dono ne kursi ke liye mar jana hai
just as george bush attacking iraq made things worse for america this can only help pakistan. this will show how bad musharraf and benazir bhutto really are. i think this will open the eyes of the public and hopefully the good forces can now come out. i think all the people who care abt in parties such as the ppp, pml n, mqm, jamaat, and pti shud form an alliance. they shud stand up against benazir bhutto, musharraf, nawaz sharif, and altaf hussain. these people are a big part of the failing of our country. they have platforms and bogus visions to take the dignity out of our people and the nation. people shud resent forces not because they are liberal or they are religious, they shud stand up for whats right. maybe its not out there right now but thats how things change. people are usually scared of the word revolution, and they shud be, we have seen bloody revolutions. The CJ of pakistan in my view is now the most powerful person in Pakistan, it will be up to him, was the fight for the independence of the judiciary worth it or not? If he fails this task Pakistan will have gone back 50 years and the credibility he and the judiciary had earned will be short lived.
Actually, what is required is free and fair elections but that is too much to expect given past experience. No elections were as close to being fair as the 1970 elections but then the PPP who signed the Legal Framework Order and participated in the elections on that basis did not attend the National Assembly session called in March 1971, which eventually led to the break up of Pakistan, as per the movement “yahan hum and wahan tum,� and the other causes being the stupidity of Yahya Khan, a history of the mistreatment of the East Pakistanis, the military intervention of India, and the machinations of the West. But Pakistan could still have been saved from breaking up if the waderas, who were controlling the People’s Party and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, would have agreed to sit in the National Assembly and agreed to the majority government of the Awami League. But they were power hungry and were not to behave democratically and were skeptical of ever getting the reigns of government in their hands and at the worst feared that Mujib would bring about true land reforms thus ending the feudal lord’s grip and stranglehold of the masses of Pakistan.
Even now the proper course if free and fair elections but corrupt politicians abound and cases against them, though real, are only used for political bargaining and Musharraf has done precisely that and has even gone to the extent of meeting Altaf Hussein in London while cases against him are pending in the court. He also has soft pedaled cases against Asif Ali Zardari and Benazir Zardari to pave the way for a shady deal with the People’s Party and that is a shame. So to be fair, the case against all politicians should be first decided without government’s interference whatsoever! And, if the honourable Chaudhry Mohammed Iftikhar is restored to his rightful place, we can expect the courts to hopefully do more justice than has been hitherto the norm of Pakistan’s judicial system.
But to a great and a grave extent the expectation of fairness on the part of the government or of Benazir or for that matter of the others accused of corruption, incompetence and maladministration, is naïve and the poor people of Pakistan are likely to be fooled once again and they would never have a truly representative government unless they can somehow tame the political, the economic, the military, and the religious elites that have had them in their clutches for too long and who have exploited them endlessly, and often mercilessly. So May Allah have Mercy on the people and deliver them from the yoke of the insincere and the corrupt and the enemies of the great people of Pakistan and guide them so as to help them achieve a truly representative government, ameen!
A helpless lover of the people of Pakistan!
Let Peace Regein