Adil Najam
Former Prime Minister and PML(N) leader Nawaz Sharif is back in Pakistan.
Reportedly he landed in Lahore to a large reception by his supporters and was escorted to a special bullet proof car that had been brought for him. According to The News:
A special plane carrying the PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif, his brother Shahbaz Sharif and other family members arrived in Lahore from the holy city of Madina on Sunday evening. The convoys of PML-N workers arrived in Lahore to accord rousing welcome to Sharifs. Large welcome banners and pictures of Sharif brothers have been displayed at several places in Lahore. The special plane Boeing777 carried Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif along with 26 members of their family from the holy city of Madina.
The central and provincial leaders of PML-N, lawyers and members of civil society have arrived to receive Sharifs at Lahore Airport. Nawaz Sharif is expected to first visit Data Darbar in a procession and address a public meeting. Security had been tightened in Lahore especially on the airport ahead of arrival of the PML-N leader. Provincial home department has allowed only hundred party leaders to receive Sharifs at the airport, party sources claimed.
According to sources, bullet-proof cars for Sharifs reached in Lahore last night from Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the home department said that the authorities have decided to give free hand to Nawaz Sharif but he has not been permitted for holding a public meeting and rally.
Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and other family members will be transported to home from the airport, a home department statement said. However, thousands of PML-N workers succeeded in arriving airport by crossing the barricades put up by police. On this occasion, the workers raised slogans both in favour of Nawaz Sharif and against the government.
Readers would remember from our prior posts that in August the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ruled that he could, in fact, return to Pakistan despite whatever ‘deal’ he had made with Gen. Musharraf at teh time of his original flight to Saudi Arabia. However, when he did return to the country in September, he was unceremoniously and dramatically deported back to Saudi Arabia with theatrics which rivaled his own attempts not to let Gen. Musharraf land in Pakistan many moons ago.
Now it turns out that he has made yet another ‘deal’ with Gen. Musharraf which has enabled his return.
It is not fully clear what the ‘terms’ of this deal are. Nor what the Musharraf-Nawaz Sharif deal mean
s for the earlier Musharraf-Benazir deal that had enabled her return some weeks back. Nor, in fact, is it clear what what his return (and the fact that now both Benazir and Nawaz Sharif are back in Pakistan) will mean for the future of Pakistan’s politics and the (supposed) forthcoming elections.
In despair, one even wonders if it means anything at all? Or is this just one more drama in the string of topi dramas that have come to define our distraught and fractured polity?
I just hope Kiani doesn’t prove that idiot as his boss is or we would be in for some more trouble.
Aqil,
“On the extremism front, I think NS is in a better position to take the right wing part of the population along because he enjoys their trust much more than Benazir”.
Very frankly NS, or anyone else, can’t do anything to resolve the extremism problem unless Pakistan completely disengages from the West’s WOT and changes its policy.
This is not to say that we do not need to combat extremism; however, as long as we insists on fighting it with gunships and tanks, it can only keep on growing. You can’t fight fanatics willing to lay down their lives with weapons.
All the talk attributing the roots of extremism to poverty, socio-economic backwardness, and madressah influence alone is grossly exaggerated at best, and unadulterated BS at worst.
To have any prayer of success, we need rock solid support of the entirety of the rest of Pakistan, in particular the religious moderates . This last segment will never come on board wholeheartedly, NS or no NS, as long as they perceive the jihadists to be only ones standing up to the West’s unholy alliance. And without the full support of those whom we routinely and contemptuously dismiss as “mullahs” there is no one who can remonstrate with the militants.
The strategy of the taliban and al-Qaeda is to broaden the chaos as much as possible, in particular into the more urbanized areas of NWFP. Already, a report I saw today is suggesting that barbers are now being threatened in Peshawar itself. This is exactly what can be expected when we insist on bombing out the lot everywhere and, in the process, keep on pushing more and more radicalized refugees, full of hatred for the establishment, into the settled areas of NWFP.
Tragically, all analysts, policy makers, even academics, (both in and out of Pakistan) are little better than mules loaded with sacks full of books. There is none more blind than those who have eyes, yet cannot see.
How could Pakistani politics be run without a Punjabi making any headway? BB may have played her cards a bit too soon but PPP was never trusted by the army. This is a new game with Nawaz as an alternative to BB and his brother as the front runner. His tantrums against the elections are just that. The smell of power will soon sooth his nerves.
It is also interesting to see how low key are the people who used to indulge in tutological hubris of a soverign nation on this forum. We have indeed proved soverign (?)
Something else going on in the Civil Society :
http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/2007/11/27/hall-of-fa me-sindh-high-court-non-pco-judges/
http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/2007/11/27/citizens-d elegation-meets-non-pco-judges-of-the-sindh-high-c ourt/#more-1264
Some of you make my stomach go sick. Even Allah will judge humans based on their intentions not on their deeds.
Now Mushraf has said for him Pakistan is first and he will do everything for the interest of Pakistan. People this guy used his brain after 9-11. Millions of thanks are not enough for him doing that.
I am sure bhutto made mistakes so did Mushraf and Nawaz, Now difference is making mistakes with bad intentions and making mistakes with good intentions,. Jinah is crying in his grave on the jahiliat of some of Pakistani educated people.
Allah Bless Pakistan.