Adil Najam
News is that GEO Network is closing down. I hope the news is a false alarm, but I am told that this has been announced on Geo TV itself. An email making the rounds from someone at GEO itself reads:
At this moment we here at Geo are extremely SAD as Geo network is forced to shut down due to Govt pressure on UAE our base country.
Insha Allah we will fight. We are proud that the management of Jang Group never made compromise and prefer to fight till death.
I would rather wait to hear more details and to see reaction to this from the government, from the people of Pakistan and also the rest of the world before I comment in detail. But my first reaction is, yet again, one of disgust. The things that we coudl have been most proud of in recent years and months – an assertive judiciary, a free media – are being snatched away one by one. I hope it turns out not to be so. But if so, then who next?
Original Post (Nov. 4, 2007):
The emergency declared by Gen. Pervez Musharraf yesterday was not surprising. But that does not make it any less disturbing. Amongst the many unspeakable actions that have resulted from this is a clampdown on the media, especially the electronic news media. In response, GEO News has made the audio stream of its transmissions available on line.
You can listen to GEO News by clicking on image below.
Windows Media Player or VLC is required to play this live audio.
Editorial, The News, Nov. 6, 2007
US role & reaction
The United States is in a real soup after the second Musharraf coup against his own self. Statements of top US leaders betray a sense of helplessness in the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has come out strongly demanding that Musharraf should quit his army post and Pakistan should move towards elections under the constitution. She also said America would review its aid package to Pakistan and implicitly, but belatedly, also admitted to a serious US policy flaw in relying too much on Musharraf which Washington has been doing for the past six years. Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Monday asked Musharraf to return his country to a law-based, constitutional and democratic rule as soon as possible saying that the state of emergency and suspension of the constitution was a disturbing development. A White House spokesman chipped in, saying that the move was unfortunate. The defence secretary further said that the US was reviewing all assistance programmes and the Pentagon also later said that it was suspending its annual defence talks in Islamabad scheduled to begin today. Influential US senators have been talking even tougher. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Senator Joe Biden, has been severely critical of the Bush administration’s “Musharraf policy” saying that this is why Washington’s options are now limited. He also said that he would be pushing the US president for a review of the relationship to make it focus on channelling aid to help moderates in Pakistan.
Another influential member of the US Senate, Republican Senator Arlen Specter said he would not support American aid to Pakistan with the new development since these were against the cause of democracy. The senator said that America needed to get “very tough with the dictator”. It should be remembered that these are not empty words, because those who have spoken them do have the power to influence policymaking in America. Many US think-tanks and analysts had been for days cautioning the Bush administration of the consequences of a policy that relied too much on a dictator who was fast losing popularity and his grip on power — and their warnings have now become reality. A change in US policy is thus very much on the cards, especially when one considers that both houses of Congress are controlled by the Democrats, who have been at odds with President Bush over his handling of the war on terror and specifically Pakistan. Besides, many Americans will question the sending of billions of taxpayer dollars to prop a military dictator who has ravaged the constitution and trampled on human rights and the press in his own country. It would be fair to say that Washington’s continued display of support for General Musharraf is crucial to his survival. The nature of the emergency — which is nothing more nor less than a severe martial law — is such that this support may well be coming to an end.
The US is only worried about the war on terror and the 24,000 US troops next to the troubled Pakistani tribal areas. If Washington gets assurances from Pakistani power brokers and stakeholders that its interests will be watched, personalities may no longer be of interest to it. Right or wrong, the US has acquired a balancing role in Pakistan’s domestic power games. It is time now that it stood on the side of democracy and stopped working with an autocrat whose only objective seems to be to preserve his own rule at any cost, regardless of what happens to his country and its people.
Editorial, The News, Nov 6, 2007
Filling the jails
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
The country’s jails are fast filling up as ever greater numbers of miscreants and extremists, dangerous men and women all, arrive at their gates. They come by the van-load, bumped and bruised, battered and beaten, having been detained after being caught red-handed in the act of committing a felony — a felony usually taking the form of standing in the road and waving a banner or, at the more serious end of the spectrum, shouting a slogan. This includes hundreds of lawyers who have been brutally beaten and arrested nationwide as well as members of civil society voicing their protest against the whims of one man bent on pushing the country to ruin. Some of those newly sampling life in jail have clearly crossed the boundary into out-and-out terrorism — they have declared themselves to be politicians, no less, and have been duly carried off to await an uncertain fate.
Curiously, none of these dangers to the security of the nation appear to have been — at the time of their arrest or detention — in possession of anything more lethal than a fine legal mind, a couple of ball-pens and some hastily scribbled notes. Some of them come equipped with the kind of intellect that can stop a man dead in his tracks at a hundred meters. Others possess yet more dangerous weaponry — they have the ability to string half-a-dozen words together coherently whilst at the same time holding several conflicting ideas in their head at the same time — self-evidently, they are all individuals likely to shake the pillars of society to their foundations. Which is why they are being locked up
I remember the time when Musharaf entered the fray as the saviour of our nation in 1999, all of us were impressed and supported him wholeheartedly, we all thought finally a man has come to set things right, how wrong all of us were. What I fail to understand is why do people get so desperate, why cant our leaders fade into history respectfully with atleast some of their honour intact. We could have just said, yes he tried but he couldnt, but why does he have to bring the house down? why cant they judge the right time for exit? how long will Pakistan be ruled by egos and whims of some people?
Problem lies with the people of Pakistan, we have brought all of this upon us, we continued to ruled like this. Our protests are confined to our TV lounges, where we listen to the talk shows and condemn the government and its policies. This will continue to be our fate unless we leave the comforts of our homes and come out on the streets for protest, until then we have no right to say anything.
well done GEO for online streaming………be a unstoppable GEO…..setup more links as quick as possible.
NO COMPROMISE ON FREEDOM.
From the Guardian, without comment:
Although Gen Musharraf says the emergency is needed to fight growing Islamist militancy including a spate of suicide bombings, a senior Musharraf aide told the Guardian the crisis was actually triggered by fears that the supreme court was about to rule his re-election illegal.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, said a friendly supreme court judge leaked the information to the government last Wednesday.
“He said the verdict may be unanimous, so we had no choice,” said Mr Hussain. “The debate was whether to impose emergency before or after [the court ruling].”
Mr Aziz, who had previously assured the public that Gen Musharraf would “always respect the constitution”, admitted on Sunday that the government had initially detained between 400 and 500 people as a “preventative measure”.
An editorial in Dawn newspaper said that future denials from Mr Aziz or Gen Musharraf would be a “waste of newspaper space”.