Adil Najam
Speaking of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani’s upcoming trip to USA and meeting with President George Bush a politically astute and well-connected friend in Pakistan said, “Its going to be a meeting of two lame ducks. George Bush is a lame duck because his tenure is about to end, and Yousuf Raza Gillani is a lame duck because his tenure never really started!”
For those who wish to see real democracy in Pakistan such comments instill a certain sadness. Yet, as a recent The News editorial highlighted, there is an increasing, palpable, and disturbing concern amongst Pakistanis about exactly who, if anyone, in in control of the government in Pakistan.
We thought maybe we should put exactly that question to our readers in this ATP Poll: Who do you think calls the shots? Who is really in-charge of Pakistan’s government today?
Of course, one could make this broader and more abstract by adding the Allah, Umreeka or Army responses. But our interest right now is on the daily governance of the country and who is calling the shots there.We woudl appreciate if the responses and comments also focus on that.
the tendency of finding excuses by blaming outsiders is astounding. The USA has messed up Pakistan in many ways by our internal problems of power hungry generals and incompetent politicians are entirely of our own making.
Until we start owning up to our own problems we will never even begin solving them!
ALL OF THEM ARE PAWNS OF GAME. WITH EXCUSE LET ME TELL U PAKISTAN IS A COMPANY.. HEADED BY
CHAIRMAN PENTAGON…
VICE CHAIRMAN BOUCHER….
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER… PRESIDENT OF PAK.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
NEGRAPOUNTAY
US AMBASSODAR
DAVID MILLIBAND
UK AMBASSODAR
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER… ASIF ZARDARI
ASSIST CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER… BIG MOUTH REHMAN MALIK
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER… SHAMSHAD AKHTAR
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER… PM OF PAK
LED BY TOUTS OF DIRECTORS
WELCOME TO NEW TYPE OF IMPERIALISM…………..
It appears no one is responsible to any one,and there is total mess in our beloved pakistan,which has been achieved after great sacrifices.
It’s one thing to say the U.S. has a very significant influence on the govt, and it’s a whole another thing to say the U.S. is in charge of Pakistan. We can’t let our “leaders” off the hook by blaming everything on the U.S. U.S. or another powerful country will always affect other countries. It’s the job of these leaders to stand up to these foreign powers when necessary, and use diplomacy when necessary.
I do agree that there is total chaos in governance in Pakistan today and certainly YRG has no control or sense of direction at all.
But let us not be too quick to blame him or Zardari for this. This is partly because Musharraf so loves his job that he holds to his kursi even after it is clear from election as well as street protests that the people of the country want him to leave.
until he leaves or is made to leave we will continue to have this chaos.
I would rather ask, ‘Who is in charge OF Pakistan’..
@Kasim Mahmood says:
Maybe you’re too generous to call them intelligent.
“Pakistani Military Idiocy” or
“Pakistani Military Imbecility” would describe them better.
An amazing comment by Mr. Altaf who says ” swear to God a large majority in this 39% has done that only because you haven’t put the name of the real ground ruler of Pakistan in the poll”.
How can you SWEAR TO GOD, Sir, that the majority of this 39% would do this, that or the other? Unless you somehow rig the poll. You may well be right in what you say, I do not know, but you can SWEAR (Qasam) over that? How? There is no way that anyone can know for certain to take a Qasam like this. You coudl have said “I think”, but by “I swear” you have lost all credibility.
This, I think is part of the problem. We get so caught up in our belief of what we think SHOULD be the right answer that we start believing that everyone else in the world must think the same. This total lack of analytical ability leads to fanaticism for some and total naara-baazi for others.
By the way, I do not disagree with many who are saying that the US has tremendous and largely negative influenbce on a lot of our national decisions, but I am sad that no one ever reads teh posts or the questions carefully (last paragraphs). There are a LOT Of our national governance problems that have nothing to do with USA and that are entirely our own creation. Nepotism. Corruption. Incompetent appointments. Musharraf. Zardari. Lets at least start taking responsibility of our own mistakes and solving them and then maybe we will be better placed to respond to outside pressure than we are now!