Adil Najam
For a while now we have been carrying links in our middle column to what was featured at ATP a year ago and two years ago. If you look at the headlines for today, you will note that exactly one year ago today the lead story at Pakistaniat.com was Uncertainty Rules Pakistan and two years ago it was a post about the then-recent sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and a video of the then-living poet Ahmad Faraz’s Mohassra. It seems that nothing much ever changes in Pakistan politics. Except, maybe, to get progressively worse.
I had started my post exactly a year ago, about Pakistan’s political uncertainty, with the following words:
Explaining what is happening in Pakistan, and why, is never easy. Never has it been more difficult than it is now.
I may have been wrong. It seems even more difficult today than it did a year ago.
The talk then was about Gen. Musharraf calling a session of the Assembly, the supposed agreement between Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif on Gen. Musharraf but the lingering questions about who would be Prime Minister and about what will happen to the deposed judges. Today, the question seem to be even more confounding:
- Would the ‘Long March’ of the lawyers movement be able to start, as it is supposed to, tomorrow? The Punjab government and some major PPP voices seems bent on not letting it happen. News suggests mass arrests as well as strong statements. Oddly, the questions that come to mind are: Would the lawyers’ movement actually be strengthened if it is somehow stopped from happening? And, if it did happen would the results be any different from the last ‘Long March’?
- Would the real - and really dangerous - battle now between the PPP and the PML(N), whose Punjab government was recently ousted, has this ‘Long March’ now really been co-opted by the Sharif brothers and is more about vindicating their cause than the original lawyer’s movement?
- Even if not, what is to become of the Punjab government fiasco? Everyone seems to be escalating the game with every move in what seems to be a rather silly game of ‘Chicken’ being played by our politicians as the nation sits and waits - knowing that no matter who blinks it is they who will be pushed over the ravine, especially if nobody blinks!
- What will happen to the very future of the PPP as Asif Ali Zardari takes one big gamble after the other? Another major leader of the PPP old-guard - Raza Rabbani - has resigned after being overlooked for the Senate Chairman’s position. The handling of the Punjab government has been obviously bungled. Even Prime Minister Gillani seems to be getting impatient. And so much more is going so very wrong in so many ways.
- One wonders, also, if Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani just made the speech of his life? Or was he merely conveying the deal already made? One refers, of course, to the speech he just made saying that he will advise the President to call a session of the Punjab Assembly to select a leader and also on ways to resolve the judicial crisis. Is he sending Asif Ali Zardari a message? Or is he conveying Asif Ali Zardari’s message to the rest of us?
- And what about the Pakistan military in all of this? This being Pakistan, they seem to be all over all of these stories, and yet no where to be found. Given our history, that is ominous in itself.
Too many questions. Each central to Pakistan’s political future. No answers in sight. Uncertainty can kill. And it may well do just that to Pakistan politics.
@yasmin
Thank you dear! You summed it up all wonder fully! What is needed now is to liberate PPP from its corruption and hijacking by the alien elements, like Zardari’s coterie and bring it back to the true leadership of people like Ehtazaz Ahsan, Raza Rabbani, Dr, Israr, etc.
I agree that the multiple “stakeholders” who have jumped on the lawyers bandwagon may not have the same objectives or even regard for due legal process (maybe I missed it but I haven’t heard Nawaz Sharif apologize to the legal community for his behavior and arrogance in years past)- the point however is that as long as all Pakistani’s who are supporting it for the right reasons are involved, then there is less danger of the movement being hijacked; also we can continue to hold the judiciary and the govt accountable because this will set a trend.
I hope, as is already happening that the PPP will reclaim the party as one of workers and intellectuals together, that it will force the PPP to have intra-party democracy. If Sherry Rahman, Gilani and hopefully others in Parliament follow Aitezaz and Raza Rabbani’s lead in speaking up then at least there will be one party who will have demonstrated that it is not disloyalty to question dictatorial tendencies of its top leadership- that will probably be the fruit of Benazir’s untimely death (especially if Bilawal refuses to be the Chairperson in waiting).
Come out for a peaceful Long March only for the cause of free judiciary in Pakistan. If we think that we can contribute in the restoration of free judiciary in Pakistan, then NOW is the time to come out and be a part of Long March. Its not just the restoration of Justice Iftekhar Chowdhury, its restoration of a system. We don’t need to be political its just to support lawyer’s movement for free judiciary.
Also don’t let any one damage any Government property since violence any kind is not in favor our beloved country Pakistan.
Lets make the 16th march Long March “The Final March” Long Live Pakistan.
Long March In Pakistan - Is Asif Ali Zardari A Democrat Or A Fascist?
‘Long March’ in Pakistan? What is all the fuss about? Why are people shouting ‘insaaf’ on the streets of Balochistan, Sindh, Pakhtunkhwa, Northern Areas, Punjab & Azad Kashmir. I now know what it is all about.
I was just an observer until yesterday. It was yesterday when my father Mr Khizer Hayat Sandhu was arrested in Lahore while he was leading a contingent of Pakistan Muslim League workers for a ‘Long March’ towards Islamabad. His crime was to ask for reinstatement of chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ( who was sacked by the dictator Pervez Musharraf for being too good at his job).
My father (who contested elections on behalf of Pakistan Muslim League for the Punjab provincial assembly) is not the only one incarcerated as there are many who are facing state brutality and persecution just because they want to restore rule of law in the republic of Pakistan.
Mr Asif Ali Zardari, with your actions against the same people who helped elect you as president, you have put dictators to shame. Even Mr Musharraf did not have the audacity to do what you have done. Your Pakistan Peoples Party has nothing to do with the people of Pakistan anymore. I ask the reader to decide if Mr Asif Ali Zardari is democrat or just a new Musharraf in civilian clothes.
Does a democrat infringes upon the people’s right to assembly?
Does a democrat put thousands of opposition party workers in jail?
Does a democrat put hundreds of lawyers behind bars?
Does a democrat fill a country’s judiciary with his party cronies?
Does a democrat run a presidential form of government in a country whose constitution only allows for the parliamentary rule?
Does a democrat set out to conquer a province of his own country and in doing so tramples on will of the people?
Does a democrat act like a fascist?
Mr Zardari has not only done all this but has gone beyond and has turned into an autocrat trying to extinguish the flame of Lawyers Movement but he has forgot that Mr Musharraf with all his might was not able to achieve what he is trying to do.
The only way Zardari can restore some of his respect is if judiciary is reinstated as it was when Musharraf sacked it or this movement will go on until it achieves its goals with or without Zardari that is.
To read more about Pakistan related stories, please visit
http://real-politique.blogspot.com
Who will bring the political system in pakistan on track when our politician mostly under pressure due to our country’s economy which is shattered by wrong policies,also our politician try to be in power not by the strength of people whom they say real power in their speeches,otherwise they privately think them as cattles as the majority are illetrate.so they always can live in power with conspiracies,as is now happening.If any musalman make promise even with nonblivers and break he is no more muslim.
we are now in a real mess. Since everybody is only interested in thief own selfish interest we are in a no win situation
I want the CJ to be restored
But then what? What happens the next morning? Will Pakistan be less stable or more ? seems to me that will land us in whole new crisis
The problem us what if he us not restored? That prolongs current crisis and creates new ones
So whatever happens we as a country are in touble
What we need is a way out of ytjus that leaves Pakistan more stable. And no one except maybe Adil Najam is interested in that!
The fact is this ‘Inshaallah, Mashaallah’ society of Pakiland is rotten to the core. Just see what happened to me, an old citizen of Islamabad, residing in Khanna East. The other day, I went to the Expressway to board a public transport for going to Polyclinic. I however found the road empty, as what the policemen said, “‘Route’ laga hua he sadar sahib ke lie”. I stood their to wait for the wagon but the police won’t allow me even to stand there and asked me to go and stand about 200 yds away from the road. I refused to budge as I was feeling very unwell and was arguing with the police man about my condition and reason to stay there when a police officer came and without questioning me lifted me with the help of the police man to dump me at a place about 100 yards away from the road.
It is almost a matter of almost daily occurrence on the Expressway, called VIP road. I often see people including women and children standing in the scorching heat for hours to let a VIP pass away. What surprises me they don’t even protest against this torture.
So what can you expect from such people who deserve to be treated like cattle.
No one has commented on the point about the Prime Mimister
I do think that Gillsni is also getting tired and may pull a Junejo ok Zardari, or worse
This time army seems to be more with the PM than President