Adil Najam
UPDATE: The picture on the left, published in Daily Times, comes with the caption:
“Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, PML-Q President Shujaat Hussain and MNAs react to an announcement by the Election Commissioner (unseen), at Parliament on Saturday. President Pervez Musharraf won a landslide victory in the election but the official results will be declared after the Supreme Court verdict on his eligibility.“
Maybe our readers can suggest what some of the people here are thinking as they clap. Suggestively, some, you will note, are making too much of an effort to clap, and others too little! The picture is also a good compliment to an earlier one we had posted here.
ORIGINAL POST: It is neither a surprise nor really news that Gen. Musharraf just got himself elected. It was always clear that he would get himself elected by hook or crook; eventually it took a bit of both. The way it had to be done is sad - pathetic really - and no one has come out of this mess looking good. Gen. Musharraf got the votes he needed, but neither he nor anyone else is a winner.
Gen. Musharraf lost whatever little credibility he might have had as someone interested in Pakistan’s development or people’s aspirations. He also lost the ability to make the claim that he was any different or any less p
ower-hungry than his political predecessors. He is now, clearly, one of them and has lost the one thing that had given him a support base. Benazir Bhutto lost the principles her party and father might once have stood for. PML(Q) had little to loose and yet lost big, they may even loose the government. Nawaz Sharif had already lost out some weeks ago. Maulana Fazlur Rehman had already lost all credibility but now they can’t even pretend to have any left. The Supreme Court lost at least some of the public goodwill they had gained as an institution with last minute shenanigans. America lost too because instead of backing one bad bet (Musharraf) they are now backing two (Musharraf + Benazir Bhutto).
But the biggest loser here may be the people of Pakistan who - once again - lost big time. But, then, I guess we are used to it.
Frankly, there is little need or point in commenting on the sham elections today. This was not a news event, this was a scripted stage drama. The real question remains what will happen next. There, it seems, that all of the losers - including Gen. Musharraf - may be confronted with some unexpected turn of events. There, one continues to hope, the people of Pakistan may yet emerge as winners eventually. Whenever ‘eventually’ comes!
every one should follow MUSH & his cronies they are better than sharif,bb,mullah period end of discussion………… no other solution in sight none,0,nada…..
MQ:
Sorry for the belated response - I could only saw your comment now.
Ayub Khan declared himself as “Field Marshal” and remained in charge of civilian and military power until he relinquished his post for Yahya Khan -
this is different from the likely scenario of November 2007-
I think this deal is a really good development since it has exposed the true face of both PPP and the military leadership. Our problem is not with the military alone; it is with the entire ruling elite, of which the military is only one part. For the last few years, our analysts have focussed mainly on the military and lost sight of this bigger picture. Hopefully, the discourse can now move away from the myopic focus on the military and address this bigger picture too.
I am really sick of being pakistani of being so powerless. Who should we follow, why should we come out and under whose leadership? Who is honest enough who we can trust?
Adil,
I don’t have the time to come up with what everyone in the picture is thinking. There is one murderer in the picture though, Shahid, who escaped prison for a day to vote for Musharraf.
Social Mistri,
I have no interest in getting into pointless name calling with you. I had made the comment, that you refer to, in passing to make you at least think, if not realize, that it could happen to anyone of us - including yourself. I do have cousins and uncles who have paid the price that I also referred to - some more than once.
As for me, I do relax else where. And hundreds from Pakistan risk their lives every day, illegally, in suffocating tankers and leaky boats in oceans , hoping to make it to a better life. Many never do, but this seems not to deter anyone from trying to make the statement that they would rather be elsewhere if they can.
This is my last post to you.
The following two excerpts from a couple of more credible social engineers, lend credence to the true state of affairs - rather than the mumbo-jumbo from the Mush Potatoes:
Excerpts from Dr Ayesha Siddiqa’s article “Misplaced liberalism”
Is it that liberalism is just an elite issue or is it an existential issue, which must bind people across the social-class divide? There is a huge distance between these people who have wealth and “contacts” and the man on the street who has to find alternative sources to challenge the law made by the elite.
Is it possible for these people to appreciate the concept of political liberalism at all? Or to realise that extremism is not just one single category in which religious zealots challenge the way people dress up and conduct themselves? How about other kinds of extremism such as kidnapping and killing of people or denying them what is their right in the form of food, clothing and shelter? How many times did the [Pakistani elite] protest in support of the people in Balochistan where malnourishment is a huge problem and where people have died as a result of the battle between the nationalists and the government of Pakistan? Or how about Thar where poor people die of drought and malnourishment? I suppose the majority of the elite are liberal in style and not in spirit. The elite has failed to hear the cry of the common man …The poor and the dispossessed of this country do not see any method to negotiate power within the existing political system.
Aasim Sajjad of PRM underlined that this government’s claims to have revived the economy were also identical to those of Ayub and Zia before it. He said that if there was growth it was based on massive amounts of aid from the US and IFIs, as well as large remittances. He asserted that most experts have now acknowledged that this growth is anti-poor and inherently unstable as it is based on investment in unproductive sectors such as real estate and the stock market.
This sad news from Karachi has a message in itself.
KARACHI, Oct 6: At least 15 people, including four children, were injured on Saturday when a truck loaded with firecrackers exploded after a live cracker fired by jubilant political workers in Korangi area set off a fire, police and witnesses said.
They said the explosion occurred as workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement escorted the truck in Korangi 4 area after President Gen Pervez Musharraf was unofficially declared re-elected on Saturday.
“One of the crackers landed on the truck and triggered a blast,” said SP Landhi, Asif Ejaz. “The number of injured is more than a dozen. Some of them are seriously burnt.”
He said the victims were taken to the Civil Hospital. He said the truck had been seized.
Hospital sources said most of the victims suffered serious burns.
The injured included two 10-year-olds Hasan and Humayun, Umer, Sabir, Javed, Noman, 13, Wasim, Mansoor, Naeem, Salim and Taufeeq. Some of the victims could not be identified.
- DAWN