Adil Najam
The stream of disturbing images from Islamabad continues. It has left one dumbfounded. But one must never be silent in the face of injustice. Of the many disturbing reports and images that have been floating in, there is probably none more poignantly disturbing than this one from ARY:
Violence, of course, can only beget violence, and one saw this too in the manhandling of the State Minister for Information, Tariq Azeem. Yet more evidence that violence is replacing discourse as the mode of disagreement in Pakistani society.
This is not a question of which side you are on. Ultimately you have to be against violence. We have written about shameful violence and police brutality before – tearing down the shalwar of a young man in a ‘missing persons’ protest and then also against the lawyers during the CJ movement. But this is not just shameful; it is needless. Now there are also reports of muzzling the media; another tactic we have seen before. It demonstrates the government’s slipping grip on power, but it also demonstrates a society that is so torn that every issues – may it be religious, social or political – has to end in violence.
The government, after all, has already gotten the verdict it wanted. At least let the people vent out their anger. There is nothing to be gained from this violence. For a nation that has already lost so much, this is merely also losing whatever little dignity that might have remained. As I have written already in a comment elsewhere, history shall judge the merit of the decision that was given by the Supreme Court on the 28th of September, but the violence of the 29th of September was shameful and needless and will remain (yet another) blot of our national political psyche.
Very shameful indeed. Can we extrapolate and draw a picture of where these crisis are heading?
During ZAB the was operation wheeljam – are the religious parties weighing in to grab this opportunity as well and turn this soon to spread popular revolt into a new jihad?
Trajetory of events is disturbing.
God help us all.
Why are the lawyers and journalists alone? Where are the other people?
Classof71, lets assume for a moment that you are right. I don’t actaully think you are right in saying that the external threats are bigger (Pakistanis are being killed and hurt on a dail basis not by Indians, Afghans or Americans… they are being killed and hurt by Musharraf’s men). But lets not debate that. I will assume for the moment that you are right and the external threats are greater. Even if it is so, we will NEVER be able to do anything about any external threat unless and until we have national unity and have tackled teh internal crisis. Given just how unpopular Musharraf and his regime is right now, the single biggest hurdle to dealing with the issues you mention is the fact that someone as unpopular and with such an obvious loss of support is in power. So, if you were right, then to address those threats you talk about we will have to see tehback of Musharraf.
Also, let me also assuem that, as you say, all teh others are as bad as Musharraf (on this I do agree). Even if it is so, as long as they are not as unpopular as him (and right now no one is as unpopular and as devoid of support as he is) they will do a better job of dealing with external threats.
While I do beleiev that the internal crisis is deeper, even if it was not we will need internal stability to deal with the external threats. And Musharraf is now totally incapable of delivering stability. he is not the single most destabilizing figure in the country, as recent events have shown.
Musharraf is not the biggest Current Threat.
India is a threat on the East.
The Mayor of Kabul, that clown Karzai who was once a penniless refugee living in Pakistan is a threat in the West.
The US Navy in the Indian Ocean is threatening to oppose Chinese presence in Gwadar.
There are threats in the Northern Areas and Balochistan.
Feudalism itself is the biggest threat to Pakistan and will become the cause of its breakup unless the feudals are purged India’s Naxalbari Movement style—- by simple elimination .
But all that the anti-Musharraf lobby does is harp about democracy when in the past Feudal forces have murdered and plundered the tax-paying middle-class of karachi and nobody from the rest of the feudal country lifted a finger.
Where was Democracy then?
Where was Democracy when the Punjabi feudal lobby, its Generals and its illegitimate off-spring the Bhutto party managed to truncate majority half of the country than give democracy a chance by allowing Awami League to form the government in 1971?
At least Pervez Musharraf allows criticism and tolerates dissent unlike Mian Sahib and the foul-smelling “Mohtarma”?
All I am saying is that the threats from outside are bigger than the threats from the inside. But feudal champions of democracy do not seem to be bothered about them at all focusing instead on Pervez Musharraf?
Classof71, interesting list.
Musharraf may not be the ‘biggest’ threat ever, but in your list he is the ONLY CURRENT threat!