The details emerging out of Pakistan are still somewhat sketchy but some facts are clear; more than 30 people are dead and over 115 injured. The Chief Justice of Pakistan was unable to address the Sindh Bar Association and was forced to go back to Islamabad and the private television station Aaj TV, which has been in the forefront of covering pro-judiciary and anti-Musharraf protests, was attacked by armed gunmen. This is indeed another dark day in the checkered political history of Pakistan.
It is now well past time for the Musharraf regime to go. This government has now lost the last shreds of moral authority required to govern. I salute the men and women of the civil society of Pakistan and the courageous independent media who are leading this struggle for the supremacy of the law and freedom of expression at grave risk to their life and limb.
As tragic and sad as events in Karachi are, this political moment is of historic import for the people of Pakistan and even on this day of darkness I see some hope for a better future. Since the sacking of the CJP on March 9th, the heroic struggle of the lawyers has germinated greater democratic desire and decisively strengthened Pakistan’s civil society and its beleagured independent media.
In the face of relentless governmental coercion there have been heartwarming displays of peaceful resistance, none more evident than in the historic journey of Justice Chaudhry through the heart of Punjab. Those in Pakistan and abroad who desire an eventual constitutional democratic polity rooted in a rule of law have to be encouraged by these developments. The conclusion of this episode, however, remains highly uncertain because no political sagacity can be expected from those who have brought us to this pass.
This grassroots peoples’ movement has also forced the politicians of all hues to make a choice; they either stand on the side of the rule of law or for the perpetuation of a dangerously unstable, one-man military banana republic. Mainstream politicians (despite all their historical shortcomings) clearly seem to grasp the national mood and the King’s men who are standing up for the present dispensation to save their personal fiefdoms will hopefully pay a steep price whenever they face the electorate in a fair election.
MQM more clearly exposed itself today than it ever has in its sordid history (thanks to private TV channels). The party that started with great hopes, rooted in the educated middle classes has over the years just become a collection of vicious thugs. It is wielding its fascistic tactics on behalf of people who seem to believe they have a divine right to perpetual power and who originally nurtured this party as a counterweight to PPP. MQM has shown itself the mirror image of the worst of MMA; both groups want people to acquiesce to their ideologies by force. Neither believes in nor has any fundamental respect for a constitutional rule of law.
Pakistan stands at a critical juncture as it has so many times in its unfortunate 60 year independent history. I would urge all Pakistanis and their well wishers to lend thier support to the struggle of Pakistan’s revitalized civil society. Let’s hope that the forces of peaceful democratic activism led by the country’s courageous lawyers ultimately emerge victorious and we can close this latest chapter of the military’s recurring era of authoritarian and unconstitutional misrule without further human suffering.
Fawad is a California-based literati-at-large and writes the blog ‘Moments of Tranquility,’ where a version of this was first posted.
Omar R Qureshi,
You say,
[quote]”let me clarify i didn’t call you an idiot sabahat, i called your remarks idiotic â€
sabahat wrote: “. If I had been a young graduate begging for a job outside your office I may have been forced to stand such language from you but you know what….”
what gives sabahat — do you suffer from some severe complex or what — i am not the one who launched in a personal attack for no reason here — stop insinuating about my professional work ethic, or lack thereof, please —
the problem with people like you is that they see everything in black or white — you thrive on generalisations — the media is all bad — everything they say is a lie — good grief! you need to get out of your protected blog-existence
This whole thread has turned into something that has nothing to do with the topic or is even important. Blogs are blogs. Newspapers are newspapers. Let it be guys. What are we trying to prove and for whom?
But whatever we say, please please let us keep this forum clean so that it does not turn into the gali galoch and personal attacks you see in other places. Please, lets not mess up this good site.
fawad — welcome to living in a dream world as well — let me clarify i didnt call you an idiot sabahat, i called your remarks idiotic — the number of people who read english newspapers is far more than the number of people who read blogs — and the audience of the english press is quite different from the urdu press — smaller but far more influential as well —
and for the record, open your eyes ‘ms’ sabahat — i never said anywhere that the print media is high and mighty but yes do say that those who think that it is not doing its duty are telling lies themselves — and on this i proved it by posting several links from my own newspaper to refute two other interactors — i think people can say a lot in blogs because the medium and anonymity allows it — if you have a mob outside your house which is there to seek revenge after finding out you are writing against them on a blog then I will see your reaction — or i will ask you to be a reporter in a newspaper and see your reaction to threats — till then your posts are immature and idiotic — you have heard of the phrase ‘put up or shut up’ i hope
fawad — open your eyes and learn to read — no one is denying the limitations but there is a difference between saying that the media works under a lot of censorship and tries to do its job and saying that it is a sell-out (because of the govt pressure)
— i edit the editorial pages of one of the country’s largest english newspapers and have yet to receive any call from any minister or govt official or the publisher for that matter telling me what to do — like i said you guys have no idea of what you are talking about or of how journalists go about carrying out their duties in real life
Dear Moderator. Could you maybe intervene to put a stop to this thread somehow. It is serving no purpose except making people seem more and more silly and stubborn. The points keep getting repeated again and again and again and again and again… And to no avail. Interesting how people keep threatening not to continue responding but then do so again and again. People, whoever had to make up their minds whichever way have already done so. So, lets move on and not waste everyone else’s bandwidth.