Adil Najam
Following the targeting to Aaj TV station during the May 12 riots in Karachi, Gen. Pervez Musharraf gave an exclusive long interview to Talat Hussain and Aaj, much like he had given an interview to Geo after the attack on Geo. Here is a how it went.
Thanks to Saad for putting this on YouTube and sharing.
Dear Readers,
While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP. While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
We hope you will continue to find ATP a useful venue to reflect upon and express your Pakistaniat. - Editors
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2007/05/0 70519_cj_malaysian_precedent.shtml
Daktar, musharraf makes us laugh untill we realise the joke is on us. He comes across as a megalomaniacal duffer. He is either completely out of touch with reality or he is more evil than we ever imagined.
His insinuation that armed attacks on political rallies are part of karachi politics and thus acceptable is disturbing beyond words.
Talaat did a great job in the interview. He was able to raise every issue in one interview. Sure there could have been follow-up questions but that might put the host in jeopardy. Still, Talaat has done a better job than anyone before him in uncovering the face of the dictator. I wish we could get Aaj in the US alongwith Geo.
Editorial, The News, May 20, 2007
Under attack, again
In yet another attack on the press and media, an Islamabad-based journalist was assaulted in broad daylight on Friday and beaten so badly that he had to be admitted to hospital. Recent days, starting from the brazen attack on the Islamabad offices of Geo TV and this newspaper (for which apparently only a police inspector has so far been held responsible), have seen harassment and intimidation of the print and electronic media rise manifold. The man, who works in a local news agency, according to the well-respected New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists had written a story a day earlier contesting the government’s claim that police personnel had manhandled the chief justice on the day he was made non-functional. In his story, he had, according to CPJ, written that intelligence agencies personnel were in fact involved. CPJ also reports the journalist’s statement given to his brother that as he was being beaten, he was asked by his assailants whether the chief justice was “his father”. Prior to this incident, TV channels have been taken off air twice, have been served with notices which are meant more as a form of harassment, and print media journalists have been routinely intimidated and pressured when reporting and writing on certain issues.
These days that issue seems to be coverage of the crisis arising out of the chief justice being made non-functional by the president, upon the filing of a reference against him with the Supreme Court on the advice of the prime minister. Now in an interview to a private TV channel, the president has again accused the media of being one-sided about the whole matter, particularly mentioning coverage of the chief justice which he said was being given minute-by-minute updates as if it were a “cricket match”. The president also pointed out that a helicopter was even offered to the chief justice upon his arrival in Karachi but the media did not give due importance to this and other aspects of the whole issue and gave a one-sided and biased view. He also implied that the media was playing a major role in the politicisation of the crisis, which has been a constant refrain ever since the crisis emerged.
With due respect, it needs to be pointed out that the politicisation started when the government dealt with what should have been a purely legal and administrative matter in a most ham-handed fashion. The chief justice of Pakistan was virtually made a prisoner in his own house, along with his family, and was not allowed communication or contact with the outside world for some time. On the day that he was made non-functional, he was physically stopped from entering his office and escorted to his official residence by police. Also, when the hearing of the reference began, in full view of television cameras, as he walked the short distance from his official residence to the Supreme Court building he was physically jostled by several law-enforcement personnel and forced to sit in a car. Before an inquiry into this most unfortunate instance by a Supreme Court bench, the law-enforcement officials in question, many of whom were shown on TV footage and front-page photographs published by several national newspapers, denied having done any such thing.
This was followed soon by the attack on the offices of Geo TV and this newspaper in Islamabad, which was also shown live on television, and then by the taking off air of three major television channels for their coverage of the crisis. It then culminated in the wanton attack (which lasted for several hours) on the offices of a Karachi-based TV channel on May 12, and which has now been dismissed by the Sindh home secretary as being an unfortunate instance of the offices getting caught in crossfire between two rival armed groups.
For the sake of argument, even if the home secretary’s version is to be believed, why did it take the provincial government so long to send police and Rangers to control the situation, especially given that the attack was being shown live as it was taking place. On May 12, the media did report that a helicopter was offered to the chief justice but the fact of the matter also is that he was confined to the airport and not allowed to leave its premises, even as hundreds of lawyers waited for him at the Sindh High Court bar. Also, at that time parts of the city were witnessed to full-blown gun-battles with armed men moving around freely on some of the city’s most prominent roads, firing at will. And to top this all, May 12 also saw mela-like scenes at a government rally in Islamabad, at around the same time dozens were dying in Karachi (something that has been roundly condemned by all shades of opinion). So in all of this, not just May 12 but going back to March 9 when the current judicial crisis began, what was the media supposed to do? If anything, it has tried not to take sides and only presented to its readers and viewers things as events as they have happened. Of course as far as commentary is concerned, it can go either way but it needs to be balanced, and by and large that has been the case. To imply that the media has moulded public opinion in a manner inimical to the government’s and hence national, interest, is to miss the point that the media’s primary job is to reflect reality, not manipulate it.
The News, May 20, 2007
Laugh or cry — or just die
By Omar R. Quraishi
One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at some of the things that have happened in the country in the past couple of weeks. What is worse: the mayhem and carnage of May 12 or the way in which the provincial and federal governments allowed it to happen?
The MQM has blamed the opposition and the chief justice’s visit for the violence (echoed the same day as the May 12 carnage by President Musharraf at that most inopportune rally held outside Parliament House in Islamabad) while the rest of the country has blamed the MQM, Sindh and federal governments for allowing its ally a free hand wreak havoc on its opponents. The party has also been accused of showing on May 12 that it had not changed its old ways. TV channels have been caught in the crossfire — literally — and the residents of the city are still unable to digest what has happened.
This is true particularly for those young enough to not have seen or have a lasting memory of what Karachi was like just 15 years ago. I remember in the early 1990s, on visits during the summer in between semesters, there came a time when you couldn’t drive around in some decent neighbourhoods without risking being shot at — so the trick was that your head only remained high enough (above the steering) to ensure that you could see the road ahead and no more.
One would have thought that such days would be a thing of the past, but one was proven wrong by what happened on May 12.
The following is quoted verbatim from Karachi Metblogs — sensibly the person who has written it has chosen not to reveal his/her identity:
“I am a doctor. I work at a government-run, large and well-known hospital in Karachi. I have been at work for more than 32 hours. I attended to people with multiple gunshot wounds but nothing struck my soul more than what nine fully armed workers of a political party along with two sector office-bearers did [on May 12]. They tried to drag out a wounded man who had been brought in an ambulance to the hospital saying, presumably to ‘finish’ him off. When my junior resident tried to prevent that from happening, he was slapped by these men. Me and my junior were both dragged by these men to an alley and left there. The men, armed with shotguns, pistols and AK-47s, then went in to the lobby, presumably to look for the wounded man. I ran out to the Rangers and a police ASI standing at some distance from my hospital’s main gate asking for their help. I was told: ‘Jaante ho in logoun ko, phir bhi kyun lartay ho. Hamain upar say order hai kay inn ko char bajay tak karnay do jo karna hai. Char bajay kay baad dekhainge’. I immediately called a friend in Bohrapir who is related to a senior member of this party. Five minutes later, the armed men received a call on their cell phones and they left. One of them was wearing a bandana and threatened me as he left saying: ‘Naam dekh liya hai tera. Koi shor sharaba karnay kee zururat nahi hai baad main — warna samajh ja kya hoga’. He also took my junior resident’s mobile phone saying ‘chikna set hai’. The man they had come looking for had been shot more than once in the head.”
Fast forward to May 16 (when this was being written) and the federal government through the ministry of information and broadcasting placed an advertisement in the national press with the pictures of the president and prime minister looking at you.
The advert had the following text (excerpts): ‘Let’s Give the City A Healing Touch! – Karachi belongs to all of us. On the 12th of May the unthinkable happened: So many valuable lives were lost at the hands of the (sic) merciless killers who are humans only in name. They are the common enemies of humanity and of Pakistan . Let us resolve to not fall prey to their machinations. Let us resolve to fight this common enemy: Not through violence, but through unity in or ranks and through complete rejection of violence (bold as in the ad).’
So where were you on May 12, Mr President and Mr Prime Minister? Oh yes, now we remember, you were both addressing a rally in Islamabad that evening, a rally that was more of a mela, with large sections of the apparent rent-a-crowd dancing. Normally one doesn’t have a problem in the least with people dancing but when surely it cannot reflect too well on you if you happen to be the head of state and head of government when this happens at the same time as your largest city is in flames?
The writer is Op-ed Pages Editor of The News.
Email: omarq@cyber.net.pk
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Dawn: Ardeshar Cowasjee
http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm
Pervez Musharraf: General of the army, Chief of Army Staff. He had no alternative on October 12, 1999, but to take over the country from a most foolish prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. He operated under the title ‘chief executive’ until June 20, 2001, when he declared himself president of the republic before setting off on a much heralded trip to India. On November 16, 2002, following the general elections, he took his second oath as president of the republic.
Under the circumstances, many of us considered him to be the best of the worst available to lead the country. He has failed to deliver on all his promises. Whatever good he has done will be ‘interred with his bones’.
He was in a position to avoid the killings and mayhem which engulfed Karachi on May 12 and the responsibility for death and injury must ultimately rest on him, the buck stopping where it stops.
The advertisement inserted by his InfoMin in the press on May 16, portraying him and his prime minister, subject ‘Karachi belongs to all of us’, mocks the people of this city.
His interview with Aaj TV, broadcast on the night of May 18, clearly conveyed that he considers himself the best man to head Pakistan, come hell or high water.
There is little to look forward to. Blighted?