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.
Dear ATP people, please save your page from being highjacked by these sectarian discussions and people trying to dump their ongoing fights on the rest of us.
[quote comment=”4486″]Yahya: Thief/terrorist? How did you reach this conclusion? esp about the student? If his dress made you reach that conclusion, then I can only find that reaction pitiful. If you had more information than that, then please elaborate for the rest of us.[/quote]
Nothing too literal like that and neither anything to do with the person of that ‘student’ (I did not even think of him when I wrote – you give very little credit to others I see). I meant broadly the idealogy/acts/insituitions that they represent and again not in terms of only one or two dictators or madrassas. There is a long history of political/religious bigots who when no longer in power try to appear whiter than white after they have done everything they could otherwise in their time. (Jamia banoria is one example of that – I hope you are familiar with their history, not as peaceful and humane as this person appears). And what better way than to blame another (possibly criminal of sort) to take away attention from self. This keeps repeating in front of us, years after years, decade after decade.
But in this case military and Mullah (represented by Musharraf and that person in my mind – again not literally in person) are putting another show in front of us and some of us have obviously fallen for it. Both of them represent bigotry, and neither is a friend of general public.
To all those people, who think i m spreading hatred….
I have my reservations about Binori Town Masjid and I do have the right to express them. I am not anti sunni, and the fact that I have more sunni friends should be proof enough… not that i need to. just to clearify there are no greetings but there is neither any violence now.
Moreover, I respect all the Mullahs but cannot stand Mullahs with their double standards be it a Shia Mullah or Sunni Mullah….
Fact of the matter is how many Mullahs have openly condemned suicide bombings even so if they took place in Israel which killed innocent defenseless civilians?
The above mentioned fact is just one of the exmaples…
Can Mush give similar kind of freedom to Pakistanis to lead honourable life? if Not then this isn’t democracy.
Good point Ali. I to was struck by how his early argument about this slogan showed an ignorance of history and a willingness to accept the ‘constructed’ history propagated by later rulers. This slogan may have been used in 1947 but the myth of its being central to Pakistan is a creation of the Zia years. More importantly, the students argument about the founding generation being better equipped to define teh meaning of Pakistan is (a) misplaced because each generation does and should have an equal right to do so and (b) could have been challenged on the grounds that the founding fathers did in fact have a much broader view of Pakistan than the religious parties who mostly opposed Pakistan.
That said, I would not have expected Musharraf to take on either point. Both require a deeper intellectual engagement than he is used to employing and both could be politically difficult for him in a Pakistan this is still more “Zia’s Pakistan” than “Jinnah’s Pakistan”. Also, I think in teh second half of the speech the student had far more clear and strong points and those really are the defining thing here.
I am surprised also that in the comments here no one has really commented much on Musharraf’s response to the students. That there is a response was good. That he took credit for allowing the response was in really bad taste and after that I think that much of what he said was canned stuff. Although it was interesting hearing first-hand his defense of the Balochistan operation. I did not find it convincing.
P.S. To PatExpat’s comment. It is sad becasue I do NOT think we were or are incapable of reasoned and intellectually sound conversation. In fact, we have a great history of elegance in dialogue and a language that facilitates great conversation. Most Pakistanis I know (I do not know too many in the Middle East who may well have picked up other aggressive influences) are great conversationalists and are perfectly capable of engaging in dialogue where they can disagree without insulting others or getting emotionally worked up. So, no matter what your teachers in the ‘west’ told you, I am not ready to beleive that we Pakistanis are incapable of civil and engaging dialogue. I have too much personal experience of the contrary (including this blog, where the conversation is so much more engaging than many of the discussion boards which become shouting matches rather than discussions).