Credits for photos belong to Pervaiz Munir Alvi saheb. He took the photos on his recent trip to Pakistan and graciously shared them with me. The location is the Grand Trunk (now called highway N5) in Punjab.
While we have discussed Declaration of Emergency, Chronology of a Meltdown, mis-treatment of Imran Khan in recent past, one topic that got missed is what’s Benazir Bhutto up to these days? We would like to hear from our readers. Today, on my drive back from office, I was listening to Imran Khan‘s interview on National Public Radio (NPR). On a question of joining forces with Benazir, Imran Khan replied:
“We would love to join Benazir, except we don’t know whose side she is on today….There is a big mistrust of each other among opposition parties these days”.
I agree. What do you think? Above photos are in no way ATP’s endorsement to Benazir. They simply reflect a glimpse of our society. In addition to that, I personally enjoyed reading the slogan: “faisla zameer da….”
@AqilSajjad,
Good post. Fully agree except that why should there be constitutional protections for the misdeeds and corruption done between 1977-1988 for generals and politicians? Why should BB’s corruption be highlighted while that of NS and a range of the so-called PML leaders’ be accomodated?
The wealth that anti-Bhutto forces acquired is not all clean wealth but that wealth has been used to inflict crushing blows to PPP since 1977–and continues to be used and will continue to be used as far as I see because, despite all events, PPP remains anti-Establishment party. As ugly it will sound I think the ill-gotten moneys of BB is a ‘counter theft’ to wage politics in the mirky (and now suicidal!) waters of Pakistan.
The slate of politics in Pakistan was cleaned from 1947-1977 by General Zia ul Haq. After 1977 new-crooks came to power who plundered and murdered with impunity. Since 1977, barely 5 years have been given to the PPP and yet, somehow, the PPP gets the major blame and most hatred. That, to me, is unfair. I repeat call to either start clean from 2008 or to hold every Khaki and Shewani clad person accountable starting 1977.
There are apparently two extreme attitudes on Benazir.
One position is to want her out of politics regardless of whether its done legally and constitutionally. This group does not care for ‘petty’ issues like the need to convict someone in a proper court of law for a disqualification under article 62 of the constitution.
The other group is that of her supporters, who insist that all cases against her must be dropped. They are not in favour of letting the courts decide on the cases. These people tend to get upset at any criticism ofBB and see it as an insult to the masses.
A balanced position would be to recognize that the people have a right to elect BB, but at the same time, there should be an independent judiciary and NAB for investigating and trying corruption cases. Any politician who has not been convicted should be allowed to participate in elections and anyone who has been convicted should be barred, regardless of his/her vote bank. Yes, many corrupt people will still get through, but there will at least be a proper process.
In the present crisis, Benazir or for that matter, any other politician should be judged on whether they are standing up for this basic principle instead of going into tantrums about who supports or opposes who and why.
“That puts the onus on VM to make a case against BB
Meengla:
Thanks for clearing my position.
[VM=ViqarMinai; ARS=Ahmad R. Shahid]
The ‘Comments’ in this article started with VM extremely anti-Bhutto. And he has remained so–short of publicly denying BB power even if the people of Pakistan elect him. That puts the onus on VM to make a case against BB–a fair case in which he gives alternatives and and exclusive case wherein BB is worse than PML-Q, MQM, PML-N, or PTI to be the next ruler of Pakistan.
As far as ARS is concerned, he has not resorted to name-calling as far as I see in this thread and has called for ‘fair and free’ elections. Something I too echo. I am sure Pakistan can find a few dozen ‘honest’ people to form a truly ‘neutral’ interim govt. and hold fair elections under that govt. That is ALL the PPP is asking.
We held fair elections in 1970. Why can’t we do it again?!