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?
Also let assume that all economic progress we have is due to 9/11 post boom.
Would NS had made same decision to side with West. I listened an interview of NS, in which he said that “If I were the PM, I would have told USA that I am sorry for WTC, but I can not provide our air space and logistic support”.
I think you live in USA. What was mode of Americans after WTC? They needed a country to take their revenge.
Yes this policy change has created reaction in northern parts but I think sooner is better then later. We were going in the direction of Iran and I dont like my country to be turn in another Iran.
Please watch this video
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2007/09/fl wrc58.html?&c=3wm
I am hugely impressed by the struggle of Mrs. Amna Janjua. I am absolutely convinced that her struggle caused the chains of these events in which we find our society getting up from a long sleep. This is so encouraging. I myself know how difficult it is to speak against ISI and I salute her courage to go a demonstrate in front of ISI headquarters, I know why the people standing at that time did not help her , it requires a courage of a lion to interfere in the affairs of ISI. But again she seems to me an iron lady.
I am convinced CJ Iftikhar would have got inspiration from her to stood up agains the inteligence chiefs on 9th of March, and I am also convinced that the biggest and unpordonable crime of CJ was to hear the case of missing persons.
I am somewhat passimistic today , I feel agencies in Pakistan are not going to forgive CJ and his fellow judges they will not be reinstated even if the mad general goes away.
But wait we as a nation need the courage of Amna Janjua , if one lady with 3 small kids can force the COAS to doff his uniform, can
Aqil Sajid, it is human nature that people want change and they are tired of Musharaf for same reason.
What I am afraid off that some people who dont like free market economy, dont want to compete and like ghost workforce in big corporation want to transform anti-Musharaf wave against his policies.
Other then economy, I also like his idea of city government.
I support small government model and local government concept.
Statement on U.S.-Pakistan Relations
R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs
Statement Before the Senate Committee On Foreign Relations
Washington, DC
July 25, 2007
Released on July 26, 2007
Dear Faraz:
The money being in the military budget does not make it irrelevant. Any part of this money spent within the country counts as part of the gdp regardless of the sector.
And then there is also the multiplier effect, which you can read about
here
or any standard introductory macro economics textbook.
Due to the multiplier effect, if you inject $1 into the economy, it increases the gdp by more than $1.
Now, Pakistan’s present gdp is officially around 120 billion. So 1 billion dollars of extra money come to slightly under 1 percent. Put this amount into the economy and you should expect a more than 1% increase in the gdp due to the multiplier.
The average growth rate during the 1990s was in the 4-5% range and it is now around 7-8%. So roughly 3% of extra growth. With all the extra foreign inflows, is it really an achievement of the Mush govt?
As another rough way to judge, you can compare the performance of the economy in the two pre-911 Mush years with the last two years of NS. You would still need to factor the impact of the nuclear tests, which made things hard for NS, but even then, you would see that Mush does not come out looking that extra-ordinary.
You are right that our growth rate has usually been higher under military govts, but then it is also a fact that foreign inflows have been substantially greater too, not to mention the fact that the military regimes had more time.
I do agree that govts come and go and we should not shout for discarding everything because we dislike a leader. We need to continue with the good policies and throw out the bad things. But here, the problem is that some people insist on hanging on to Mush just because they are impressed by the post-911 boom.
BTW, are you aware of the fact that our education spending as percentage of gdp under Mush has continued to linguer around the same level as NS despite all the inflows and the substantial easing of the debt burden after 911?