• Room for Optimism by MOHSIN HAMID
• The Obama Doctrine: Kill don’t Detain by ASIM QURESHI
• Questions, More Questions by KAMRAN SHAFI

Room for Optimism by Mohsin Hamid

Ever since returning to live in Pakistan a few months ago, I’ve been struck by the pervasive negativity of views here about our country. Whether in conversation, on television, or in the newspaper, what I hear and read often tends to boil down to the same message: our country is going down the drain.

But I’m not convinced that it is.

I don’t dispute for a second that these are hard times. Thousands of us died last year in terrorist attacks. Hundreds of thousands were displaced by military operations. Most of us don’t have access to decent schools. Inflation is squeezing our poor and middle class. Millions are, if not starving, hungry. Even those who can afford electricity don’t have it half the day.

Yet despite this desperate suffering, Pakistan is also something of a miracle. It’s worth pointing this out, because incessant pessimism robs us of an important resource: hope.

First, we are a vast nation. We are the sixth most populous country in the world. One in every 40 human beings is Pakistani. There are more people aged 14 and younger in Pakistan than there are in America. A nation is its people, and in our people we have a huge, and significantly untapped, sea of potential.

Second, we are spectacularly diverse. I have travelled to all six of the world’s inhabited continents, and I have seen few countries whose diversity comes close to matching ours. Linguistically, we are home to many major languages. And I mean major: Punjabi is spoken in Pakistan by more people than the entire population of France, Pushto by more than the population of Saudi Arabia, Sindhi by more than Australia, Seraiki by more than the Netherlands, Urdu by more than Cuba, and Balochi by more than Singapore.

Nor is our diversity limited to language. Religiously we are overwhelmingly Muslim, but still we have more non-Muslims than there are people in either Toronto or Miami. We have more Shias than any country besides Iran. Even our majority Sunnis include followers of the Barelvi, Deobandi and numerous other schools, as well as, in all likelihood, many millions who have no idea what school they belong to and don’t really care.

Culturally, too, we are incredibly diverse. We have transvestite talk-show hosts, advocates for “eunuch rights”, burka-wearers, turbaned men with beards, outstanding fast bowlers, mediocre opening batsmen, tribal chieftains, bhang-drinking farmers, semi-nomadic shepherds, and at least one champion female sprinter. We have the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party and we have Porsche dealerships. We are nobody’s stereotype.

This diversity is an enormous advantage. Not only is there brilliance and potential in our differences, a wealth of experience and ideas, but also our lack of sameness forces us to accommodate each other, to find ways to coexist.

Which brings me to our third great asset. ‘Tolerance’ seems a strange word to apply to a country where women are still buried alive and teenagers have started detonating themselves in busy shopping districts. Yet these acts shock us because they are aberrations, not the norm. Pakistan is characterised not by the outliers among its citizens who are willing to kill those unlike themselves, but by the millions of us who reject every opportunity to do so. Our different linguistic, religious and cultural groups mostly live side by side in relative peace. It usually takes state intervention (whether by our own state, our allies or our enemies) to get us to kill one another, and even then, those who do so are a tiny minority.

The ability to hold our noses and put up with fellow citizens we don’t much like is surely a modern Pakistani characteristic. It could be the result of geography and history, of millennia of invading, being invaded, and dealing with the aftermath. Europe learned the value of peace from World Wars One and Two. Maybe we learned our lesson from the violence of partition or ’71. Call it pragmatism or cosmopolitanism or whatever you want, but I think most Pakistanis have it. I’ll call it coexistence-ism, and it’s a blessing.

Over the past 60-some years, with many disastrous missteps along the way, our vastness, diversity and coexistence-ism have forced us to develop (or to begin to develop, for it is a work in progress) our fourth great asset: the many related components of our democracy. Between India and Europe, there is no country with a combination of diversity and democracy that comes close to ours. Other than Turkey, the rest are dictatorships, monarchies, apartheid states or under foreign occupation.

We, on the other hand, are evolving a system that allows our population to decide how they will be ruled. Many of our politicians may be corrupt and venal, but they are part of a lively and hotly contested multiparty democracy. Many in our media may be immature or serving vested interests, but collectively they engage in a no-holds-barred debate that exposes, criticises, entertains and informs — and through television they have given our country, for the first time in its history, a genuine public space. Our judges may have a rather unusual understanding of the correct relationship between legislature and judiciary, but they are undoubtedly expanding the rule of law — and hence the power of the average citizen — in a land where it has been almost absent.

As I see it, the Pakistan project is a messy search for ways to improve the lives of 180 million very different citizens. False nationalism won’t work: we are too diverse to believe it. That is why our dictatorships inevitably end. Theocracy won’t work: we are too diverse to agree on the interpretation of religious laws. That is why the Taliban won’t win.

Can democracy deliver? In some ways it already is. The NFC award and, hopefully, the 18th Amendment, are powerful moves towards devolution of power to the provinces. Too much centralisation has been stifling in a country as diverse as ours. That is about to change. And the pressure of democracy seems likely to go further, moving power below the provinces to regions and districts. Cities like Karachi and Lahore have shown that good local governance is possible in Pakistan. That lesson can now start to spread.

Similarly, democracy is pushing us to raise revenue. Our taxes amount to a tiny 10 per cent of GDP. After spending on defence and interest on our debt, we are left with precious little for schools, hospitals, roads, electricity, water and social support. We, and especially our rich, must pay more. American economic aid comes to less than nine dollars per Pakistani per year. That isn’t much, and the secret is: we shouldn’t need it. New taxes, whether as VAT or in some other form, could give us far more.

Our free assemblies, powerful media and independent judiciary collectively contain within them both pressures to raise taxes and mechanisms to see that taxes actually get paid. This is new for Pakistan. Our number one war shouldn’t be a war on terrorists or a cold war with India or a war against fishing for the ball outside off-stump (although all of those matter): it should be a war on free riders, on people taking advantage of what Pakistan offers without paying their fair share in taxes to our society. Luckily this war looks like it is ready to escalate, and not a moment too soon.

I have no idea if things will work out for the best. The pessimists may be right. But it seems mistaken to write Pakistan off. We have reasons for optimism too.

Published in Dawn

WASIM VIEW- There is no doubt that the doom and gloom factory in Pakistan churn outs negativity about Pakistan day in and day out. Pakistan of course has many ills and many problems, in fact too many ills and too many problems. However the very same Pakistan also has endless scope for potential and progress as opined by Mohsin Hamid in his excellent article.

The facts speak for themselves and the most relevant fact is this;  that a respected author in his own right has left the calmer climes of the West to return to live in Pakistan.  Indeed it is a testament to a progressive and optimistic Pakistani future which Mohsin Hamid and others subscribe too even amidst the doom and gloom. Hamid is right in bemoaning that many a Pakistani has given up on the country and are actively seeking an exit, yet his return is akin to the return of a prodigal son, and a beacon of hope to Pakistanis inside and outside of the country that Pakistan can turn and is turning the corner.

Hamid’s article is a must read for all Pakistanis especially those who are ready to give up on Pakistan for it is full of hope and inspiration, for it envisions a better Pakistan, an ‘other’ Pakistan that Mohsin Hamid and I and 180 million Pakistani’s desperately desire.

The second article continues to drone on about the dreaded drones that grace Pakistan with their presence and brings to the fore the ignored till now, the Obama doctrine of state terrorism.

The Obama Doctrine: Kill don’t Detain by Asim Qureshi

In 2001, Charles Krauthammer first coined the phrase “Bush Doctrine”, which would later become associated most significantly with the legal anomaly known as pre-emptive strike. Understanding the doctrine with hindsight could lead to a further understanding of the legacy that the former administration left – the choice to place concerns of national security over even the most entrenched norms of due process and the rule of law. It is, indeed, this doctrine that united people across the world in their condemnation of Guantánamo Bay.

The ambitious desire to close Guantánamo hailed the coming of a new era, a feeling implicitly recognised by the Nobel peace prize that President Obama received. Unfortunately, what we witnessed was a false dawn. The lawyers for the Guantánamo detainees with whom I am in touch in the US speak of their dismay as they prepare for Obama to do the one thing they never expected – to send the detainees back to the military commissions – a decision that will lose Obama all support he once had within the human rights community.

Worse still, a completely new trend has emerged that, in many ways, is more dangerous than the trends under Bush. Extrajudicial killings and targeted assassinations will soon become the main point of contention that Obama’s administration will need to justify. Although Bush was known for his support for such policies, the extensive use of drones under Obama have taken the death count well beyond anything that has been seen before.

Harold Koh, the legal adviser to the US state department, explained the justifications behind unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) when addressing the American Society of International Law’s annual meeting on 25 March 2010:

“[I]t is the considered view of this administration … that targeting practices, including lethal operations conducted with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), comply with all applicable law, including the laws of war … As recent events have shown, al-Qaida has not abandoned its intent to attack the United States, and indeed continues to attack us. Thus, in this ongoing armed conflict, the United States has the authority under international law, and the responsibility to its citizens, to use force, including lethal force, to defend itself, including by targeting persons such as high-level al Qaeda leaders who are planning attacks … [T]his administration has carefully reviewed the rules governing targeting operations to ensure that these operations are conducted consistently with law of war principles …

“[S]ome have argued that the use of lethal force against specific individuals fails to provide adequate process and thus constitutes unlawful extrajudicial killing. But a state that is engaged in armed conflict or in legitimate self-defense is not required to provide targets with legal process before the state may use lethal force. Our procedures and practices for identifying lawful targets are extremely robust, and advanced technologies have helped to make our targeting even more precise. In my experience, the principles of distinction and proportionality that the United States applies are not just recited at meeting. They are implemented rigorously throughout the planning and execution of lethal operations to ensure that such operations are conducted in accordance with all applicable law.”

The legal justifications put forward by Koh are reminiscent of the arguments that were used by John Yoo and others in their bid to lend legitimacy to unlawful practices such as rendition, arbitrary detention and torture. The main cause for concern from Koh’s statements is the implication that protective jurisdiction to which the US feels it is entitled in order to carry out operations anywhere in the world still continues under Obama. The laws of war do not allow for the targeting of individuals outside of the conflict zone, and yet we now find that extrajudicial killings are taking place in countries as far apart as Yemen, the Horn of Africa and Pakistan. From a legal and moral perspective, the rationale provided by the State Department is bankrupt and only reinforces the stereotype that the US has very little concern for its own principles.

Despite the legalities of what is being conducted, the actuality of extrajudicial killings, especially through UAVs is frightening. The recent revelations by WikiLeaks on the killing of civilians by US Apache helicopters in Iraq has strongly highlighted the opportunities for misuse surrounding targeting from the air. In the Iraq case, there were soldiers who were supposed to be using the equipment to identify so-called combatants, and yet they still managed to catastrophically target the wrong people. This situation is made even worse in the case of UAVs, where the operators are far removed from the reality of the conflict and rely on digital images to see what is taking place on the ground.

Conservative estimates from thinktanks such as the New American Foundation claim that civilian causalities from drone attacks are around one in three, although this figure is disputed by the Pakistani authorities. According to Pakistani official statistics, every month an average of 58 civilians were killed during 2009. Of the 44 Predator drone attacks that year, only five targets were correctly identified; the result was over 700 civilian casualties.

Regardless of the figures used, the case that extrajudicial killings are justified is extremely weak, and the number of civilian casualties is far too high to justify their continued use.

A further twist to the Obama Doctrine is the breaking of a taboo that the Bush administration balked at – the concept of treating US citizens outside of the US constitutional process. During the Bush era, the treatment of detainees such as John Walker Lindh, Yasser Hamdi and Jose Padilla showed reluctance by officials to treat their own nationals in the way it had all those of other nationalities (by, for instance, sending them to Guantánamo Bay and other secret prisons). The policy of discrimination reserved for US citizens showed that there was a line the US was not willing to cross.

At least, today, we can strike discrimination off the list of grievances against the current president. The National Security Council of the US has now given specific permission to the CIA to target certain US citizens as part of counter-terrorism operations. Specifically, Anwar al-Awlaki has been singled out for such treatment, as it has been claimed that he was directly involved in the planning of the Major Hasan Nidal killings and the Christmas Day bomber attacks. Indeed, it is claims such as this that bring the entire concept of targeted assassinations into question. The US would like us to believe that we should simply trust that they have the relevant evidence and information to justify such a killing, without bringing the individual to account before a court.

The assumption that trust should be extended to a government that has involved itself in innumerable unlawful and unconscionable practices since the start of the war on terror is too much to ask. Whatever goodwill the US government had after 9/11 was destroyed by the way in which it prosecuted its wars. Further, the hope that came with the election of Barack Obama has faded as his policies have indicated nothing more than a reconfiguration of the basic tenet of the Bush Doctrine – that the US’s national security interests supersede any consideration of due process or the rule of law. The only difference – witness the rising civilian body count from drone attacks – being that Obama’s doctrine is even more deadly.

Published in The Guardian

WASIM VIEW- The Qureshi article has nothing new in it for Pakistanis as the real Barack Obama is known to us thanks to his doctrine of state terrorism via the deadly drones that daily bombard Pakistan. Yet for the wider Guardian readership the Qureshi article and its contents will be new and newsworthy. Indeed readers will observe how so little has changed since under the Obama Administration since the good old days of Dubya Bush.

Good old Guantanamo of course remains open, whilst extrajudicial killings and rendition continue to replace universal human rights a la ‘change has come to America’. For Pakistan and Pakistanis, the state killing of civilians by way of drone attacks are extrajudicial killings and nothing less and clearly against all norms in international law. The Qureshi article serves in that sense to draw attention to this US war crime against Pakistan, whilst in the meantime the drones continue on their deadly path to Pakistan.

The final article focuses on the many questions that remain unanswered even after the Benazir Bhutto UN Report.

Questions, More Questions by Kamran Shafi

So then, the UN report is out, setting many cats on many dovecotes (or is it mongooses on snake pits?), even hitherto forbidden dovecotes. Good I say, and bully for the UN Commission to say out loud what needed to be said, particularly outing the term ‘the establishment’.

Felicitations to it too for so methodically laying out the quite glaring facts gleaned, no doubt, after months of painstaking work ferreting out the truth from a bureaucracy trained all its life to obfuscate matters if not lie outright to protect itself and its bosses.

So unnerved are the denizens of these snake pits that the ‘ghairat brigade’ is marching once again, this time to denounce the report as yet another Kerry-Lugar bill-like attempt (of the Israeli/Indian/American/Jewish/Hindu/Christian confederacy of course) to undermine Pakistan’s ‘sovereignty’.

Of course, in their blind (and deaf) zeal to protect the establishment, they completely overlook the fact that whilst the wording of the Kerry-Lugar bill is exactly as it always was, the establishment goes on unashamedly receiving US aid: weapons, equipment, cash, whatever. Its ‘fury’ was just for show, mere posturing.

What in God’s name was the ISI’s Rawalpindi detachment commander Col Jehangir Akhtar doing at the Rawalpindi General Hospital after the assassination of Ms Benazir Bhutto and while her body was lying in the hospital? Why did his superior, Maj-Gen Nusrat Naeem, first refuse to admit that he had spoken to Prof Mussadiq, the doctor handling Ms Bhutto’s case (to hear directly from the professor that Ms Bhutto was really, really dead!), and then upon being ‘pressed further’ admit it?

Why did Rawalpindi’s city police officer (another silly designation leftover from Gen Naqvi Sahib’s tinkering with a perfectly adequate system) sneeringly ask a respected person like Prof Mussadiq, who was medical superintendent of the hospital to boot, if an FIR had yet been registered in the case when the professor asked if he should go ahead with carrying out a post-mortem examination on Ms Bhutto? Post-mortems are not held before a FIR, so could the ex-CPO tell us why an FIR had not been registered and the post-mortem carried out? Why, indeed, was the scene of the crime hosed down within hours of the assassination, an assassination, mark, of a person of such exalted status as a twice-elected prime minister and the leader of the largest political party in the whole blessed country? It goes without saying that let alone someone of the rank of a CPO, even an inspector general of police would not by himself dare order the washing of a place where such an important person had been murdered. This is the Land of the Pure, do we not know all of this?

It is a damning report, this one, and flings several well-deserved brickbats at our establishment which I have often described as venal and self-serving and mindless and cruel. It says clearly that it was mystified “by the efforts of certain high-ranking Pakistani government authorities to obstruct access to military and intelligence sources … that the investigation was severely hampered by intelligence agencies and other government officials, which impeded an unfettered search for the truth”.

Far more importantly it says that the ISI “conducted parallel investigations, gathering evidence and detaining suspects”. And that “evidence gathered from such parallel investigations were selectively shared with the police”. The commission also “believes that the failure of the police to investigate effectively Ms Bhutto’s assassination was deliberate”.

The officials, “in part fearing intelligence agencies’ involvement, were unsure of how vigorously they ought to pursue actions, which they knew, as professionals, they should have taken”. Whilst this is absolutely scandalous, as a citizen of this hapless and luckless country I have to once again thank the commission for so clearly saying that our agencies of state are a law unto themselves.

Last but not least, the speeding away of the back-up vehicle with VIP passengers aboard has not been adequately explained. What possessed Babar Awan, Rehman Malik, Tauqeer Zia and far more than all of them put together, Farhatullah Babar to drive hotfoot to Zardari House after they had heard the explosion?

Or is it that they did not hear anything; simply did not know what the devil was going on because while the leader was driving slowly through the crowd, they were rushing pell-mell to Islamabad to prepare for Benazir’s next engagement? We must hear in detail from these four, and soon.

Before we go elsewhere let us close this with a quote from the commission itself: “It remains the responsibility of the Pakistani authorities to carry out a serious, credible criminal investigation that determines who conceived, ordered and executed this heinous crime of historic proportions, and brings those responsible to justice. Doing so would constitute a major step towards ending impunity for political crimes in this country.” How well put, gentlemen.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we hear disconcerting stories from Swat and North Waziristan. Are the Taliban on the march again we ask ourselves amid reports that beheadings are once again the flavour of the times, and that attacks on our forces are once again being carried out with impunity? Where are Muslim Khan and his other cohorts said to be under arrest? Have they been charged with the crimes against humanity they have clearly committed as we saw them admit on TV? There are so many questions and no answers.

Why has the Swat flogging video been challenged two years and more after the flogging happened, by nameless people writing in certain newspapers: articles that have no by-line, no date? Why is their and more than them the newspaper’s memory so selective?

Do they not remember the selfsame Muslim Khan say on live TV the day after the video was shown that the woman was lucky she was only flogged, for her crime deserved being stoned to death? Who is orchestrating this new attempt to paint the Taliban in better colours than those they deserve? The establishment has learnt no lessons from this country’s sad history, my friends — we are in for very great trouble unless the political parties continue to face down the establishment jointly.

PS: I continue to believe that Benazir was killed by a bullet — the professional stance of the shooter, his close proximity to his target, the flying dupatta, and the fact that she fell down before the bomb exploded all point to this theory. Indeed, is the dupatta missing because it has a bullet hole in it? Questions, questions.

Published in Dawn

WASIM VIEW- Kamran Shafi is a sane Pakistani voice and a leading commentator on all things Pakistan and Pakistani. Shafi is right to praise the Benazir Bhutto report that in essence stated the obvious and right too in asking the many questions he has put in his article concerning the role of the military and the ISI in particular.

Given that the stench arising from past military acts of commission and omission remain in the air today, Shafi is right to ask what ISI officers like Jehangir Akhtar and Nusrat Naeem were doing and ordering possibly when dealing with the hospital administration at Rawalpindi General Hospital.

The hoo-haa over the post-mortem and the lack therof is a key question too as is the deliberate destroying of evidence by the police on orders from a dark force no doubt. The PPP do not escape attention with Messrs Malik and Awan in the dock too for their acts of omission a la a Mercedes drive to Zardari House whilst Bhutto lay dying in her car. The missing dupatta of Benazir Bhutto and the gunshot theory too has many takers at least one in Kamran Shafi and is worth investigating too.

On matters non-Benazir Bhutto, Shafi is too right in highlighting the about face of the Pakistan military especially vis a vis the Kerry-Lugar bill. To end, Shafi is also right to ask when will the Muslim Khans of the vile Taliban face justice, I hope it is soon and it is by a public hanging and nothing less.

On the 9th of March 2007 Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry stood tall against a military dictator. Two years on from that day I feel somewhat nostalgic and want to state what has been achieved since that fateful day.

The stand taken by ‘The Chief’ as I fondly call him and the principled lawyers movement have brought about wholesale changes even if the PPP lie factory continues to say otherwise. The following set of truths list the milestones achieved by the lawyers movement and show how far we have come since March 9, 2007. The text below says it all:

• General Musharraf falls in popularity and cuts a ‘deal’ with Benazir Bhutto to save his first and second skin and how both went!

• The exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan as Musharraf is reduced to a shadow of the strongman he was and is forced to allow her return as per the US-UK scripted NRO deal.

• The Chief Justice accepts Benazir Bhutto’s petition regarding 28 million missing voters and orders the Election Commission to register the missing voters and prepare a new electoral register.

• The Chief Justice orders the release of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi.

• The Chief Justice orders the Musharraf regime to allow the return of Mian Nawaz Sharif, however he is deported back to London.

• An eleven-member Supreme Court full bench headed by Justice Javed Iqbal is on the verge of deciding against General Musharraf’s claim for presidential office. The judgement is pre-empted by Gen Musharraf as he imposes martial law.

• General Musharraf imposes martial law on 2 November which is struck down by the Chief Justice heading a 7-member bench declaring the PCO illegal, the first time in the history of Pakistan.

• The Chief Justice and his brother judges are arrested and put under house arrest as are leaders of the lawyers movement and political leaders.

• Mian Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan as General Musharraf is forced to allow his return under Saudi pressure.

• Story So Far- Political leaders returning to Pakistan are a slap in the face on Musharraf’s mug and are a direct consequence of a weakened Musharraf hanging on for power due to his fall since 9 March 2007.

• Chief of Army Pervez Musharraf is forced to shed his second skin and hand over to Pervez Kayani.

• Benazir Bhutto is assasinated in Rawalpindi as Mr 10% takes over.

• Elections are held on February 18 that bring about the rejection of Musharraf’s Q League and coalition governments are formed in the Centre and the Provinces with Yousef Raza Gillani as Prime Minister.

• A spirit of reconcilation and mature politics sweeps the nation bringing about hope of a new dawn as Mr 10% and Nawaz Sharif agree to work together and restore the judges not once or twice but three times (each time due to Mr 10% never ending u-turns)

• ‘President’ Musharraf is threatened with impeachment and is forced to resign! whilst Mr 10% deceives Nawaz Sharif again and  refuses to restore the Chief Justice and his brother judges.

• Mr 10% is elected President and smiles! (but I wonder who will have the last laugh!)

I trust Farzana Raja and her ilk will concur entirely!

Let me finish with a note that the second long march with dharna or a sit-in is just around the corner. Like millions, I too will be in that long march in blood, sweat and tears,. Let us pray that neither of the three are not needed.

- WRITTEN UNDER MARTIAL LAW (My thanks to cowards Tariq Pervez. Sabihuddin, Sardar Raza & Co for selling out)

Today Pakistan remains uneasy and restless no thanks to the retired general and his actions to destabilise democracy. That said the Gillani’s PPP government’s constant dilly-dalling over the restoration of the judges within 30 days has created even more unease given Sherry ‘Sunglasses’ Rehman has mouthed off a new deadline yet again. This must stop and now.

Hence this post is an appeal for calm to the entire nation. The level of vitroil displayed on both sides on TV programmes, on blogs and on the streets show the way the wind is blowing hence my appeal for calm. I am not saying that one should ever stop speakig the truth as this our primary duty but we must be guided by the principles of honest and respectful debate.

Thus I appeal to all friends and foes here and elsewhere to take a pause and reflect on where we are going?

Please remember that Pakistan is still bleeding and that the fire is still burning and needs to be extinguished. My posts written at the death of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto are still as valid for today’s situation. Also please remember that many of these posts came from a passionate political opponent of BB in her life yet they show a decency and respect for opponents that we all need to aspire to. See any one of my posts via the  Archive section of the blog and see the difference.

Pakistan is Bleeding

My Farewell and Fatima Bhutto’s Farewell to Another Martyred Bhutto

Welcome Home Benazir Zardari

Will the Real Pakistan People’s Party Please Stand Up?

So I conclude with an appeal to all Pakistanis to do likewise with their opponents however savage they are. The war of words soon becomes the war of weapons and serves no purpose for the forces of darkness are out again to steal the democratic process from the nation via their evil designs. We must resist them by ensuring calm in all of her actions and adhering to the Quaid’s eternal motto – FAITH, UNITY AND DISCIPLINE.

Feimanallah Pakistan

- Originally posted on 13th April 2008, 15:27 PK Time, written under MARTIAL LAW

The following verses echo my sentiments and are my farewell to the legend that is Benazir Bhutto. I also dedicate the words to fallen Bhuttos and living Bhuttos especially her children Bilawal, Bakthwar, Asifa, her nephew Zulfiqar and above all her neice Fatima Bhutto who like me has been a principled opponent and has suffered a similar fate of mixed emotions coupled with a grief that resonates with one and all.

 I have also chosen to post the final farewell to Benazir Bhutto by the brilliant Fatima Bhutto. The article is a must read and will resonate will all who have suffered pain and grief, love and hate. The article was published in the News on 29 December and is shown below:

Farewell to Wadi Bua by Fatima Bhutto

My aunt and I had a complicated relationship. That is the truth, the sad truth. The last fifteen years were not one we spent as friends or as relatives, that is also the truth. But this week, I too want to remember her differently. I want to remember her differently because I must. I can’t lose faith in this country, my home. I can’t believe that it was for nothing, that violence in its purest form is so cruel and so unforgiving. I can’t accept that this is what we have come to. So, I must offer a farewell. One that is written in tears and anger but one that comes from a place far away, from the realm of memory and forgiving — a place where at another time, we might have all been safe. As a child, I used to call my aunt Wadi Bua, Sindhi for father’s older sister.

When I got the news, I was told that something had happened to Wadi Bua. It was an expression I hadn’t heard or used in a very long time, when I heard it said to me over the phone I remembered someone different.

We used to read children’s books together. We used to like exactly the same sweets — sugared chestnuts and candied apples. We used to get the same ear infections, ear infections that tortured us and plagued us throughout the years.

I have never before written an article that seemed so impossible. We were very different. Though people liked to compare us, almost instinctively, because well, they could. It is difficult for me to write about two people, one in the present tense and one in the past, at the same time.

Especially when one person’s passing makes the other one wonder whether there is a cusp to things and whether or not there really is a past and present to life.

I never agreed with her politics. I never did. I never agreed with those she kept around her, the political opportunists, hanger-ons, them. They repulse me.

I never agreed with her version of events. Never. But in death, in death perhaps there is a moment to call for calm. To say, enough. We have had enough. We cannot, and we will not, take anymore madness.

I mourn because my family has had enough. I mourn for Bilawal, Bakhtawar, and Asifa. I mourn for them because I too lost a parent. I know what it feels like to be lost and left at sea, unanchored and afraid.

I mourn for the workers of the party, those who have been bereaved of their own loved ones in this tragedy.

When congregants gather in a church, temple, or mosque they offer prayers for those that reside beyond. The congregants sing to the heavens and they offer the divine their hymns of sadness and hope. There are no hymns consisting of frustration or anger — this too shall pass, they say, remember that. What hymns do we sing now?

In those hymns, there is hope encapsulated in the sadness. There is a lingering sense that after darkness a dawn will rise. What then do we have to be hopeful for? And how do we proceed to wake the dawn?

I have always been honest with you, I promised that to you at the beginning. Honestly, I am at a loss. I am compounded in a state of shock.

I am in shock because I have yet to bury a loved one who has died from natural causes. Four. That’s the number of family members, immediate family members, whom we have laid to rest, all victims of senseless, senseless killing.

I was born five years after my grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s assassination. I was born into the void of his absence and for my father, Murtaza, I was a new chance at life. I grew up hearing my grandfather’s speeches, watching him on old black and white video cassettes, enamoured at his every word. My father was a young man when his father was killed and it was something he carried with him every second, every minute for the rest of his life.

I was three when my uncle Shahnawaz was murdered. I remember Wadi Bua sitting with me and telling me stories while the rest of the family was with the police.

When I was fourteen, my life was ended. I lost my heart and soul, my father Murtaza. I am and have been since then a shell of the person I was. I suppose there are cusps in life, and thank god for that because that way we can stay in between.

And now at twenty five, Wadi. But this isn’t about me, it’s about those whom we have lost. It’s about the graveyard at Garhi Khuda Bux that is just too full.

I pray that this is the last, that from this moment onwards we will no longer have to bid farewell too quickly. . Wadi, farewell.

I have nothing to add other than – Jeeyo Bhutto. 

 - Originally posted on 31st December 2007, 05:47 PK Time, written under MARTIAL LAW

Pakistan is the loser today.

The politics of fire and vengance must die and die today. This fire must be extinguished, we must unite for the sake of Pakistan and her sanctity. We must put aside our party politics, our personal differences and everything else.

So I make this heartfelt plea to all Pakistanis, we must stand tall and stand as one, let us all unite to save Pakistan.

Pakistan Zindabad.

- Originally written on 27th December 2007, 23:16 PK Time, written under MARTIAL LAW and in MOURNING

BB or Bibi, Benazir or Mohtarma, Daughter of the East or even of the West, whatever you choose to call her, one and all await her return to Pakistan with bated breath. Political commentators are in agreement that the ‘BB Brand’ has taken an almighty whack thanks to her deal making with General Musharraf. However her political party paint a pretty picture reassuring us all that this iron lady is still worshipped by the masses across Pakistan. Only time will tell who is right, these are exciting times indeed.

As a proud Pakistani I welcome the return of Benazir Zardari to Pakistan with open arms. However the more discerning of my readership will have duly noted the absence of the ‘Bhutto’ after the Benazir; some of you will be slightly troubled by it and others possibly will be angry at moi for committing such a heinous blasphemy. Yet I have no problem in admitting to this crime for I have made such a distinction deliberately since I believe that the incomparable daughter has forfeited her right to claim the Bhutto name as a result of her actions and inactions.

Love him or loathe him Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto made heads turn; his passionate oratory via his speeches sent shivers down the spines of millions of Pakistanis. Yet Bhutto not only talked the talk, he also walked the walk by making Pakistan a nuclear power, by passing land reform legislation to liberate the masses from the tyranny of feudalism and single handedly brought back pride to a battered and torn country. Yet it Bhutto’s  passion to govern for the poor in life and in death through his Pakistan’s Peoples Party that has forever altered the political, social and moral compass of Pakistan. For millions of Pakistanis Bhutto is much more than a name, it is a living and breathing ideology that sings the song of the poor providing them with a hope of a better tomorrow.

There are numerous conspiracy theories that abound the internet, none weirder than the conspiracy that the former Beatle Paul McCartney is dead and that he has been replaced by a crude double. One can say much the same of the Mrs Zardari PPP, now serving only as a fan club of a party full of spineless sops who bow to every whim of her royal highness the Queen of Surrey Palace. Dr Mubashir Hasan, a founding father of the PPP recently remarked that Z A Bhutto was killed because of his reluctance to share power with the military or usurpers as Bhutto calls them yet compare and contrast this with his daughter ‘Pinky’ who happily makes deals with dying military regimes. Such actions are not befitting the Bhutto name, moreover a news report on Geo yesterday caught my eye that said that the party of the poor; the PPP had spent many crore rupees alone in welcoming Mrs Zardari back to the land of the pure, this at a time when the price of tomatoes has reached 140 rupees a kilo for the wretched of this land. Mrs Zardari’s PPP is a poor double, I rest my case.

The good news for the poor of Pakistan is that the PPP is not and nor can it ever be the party of any Bhutto. It cannot be the personal fiefdom of any Benazir or Pinky for it is and will always be the party of the people. The three P’s represent its covenant with the people namely it is owned by Pakistan only. Secondly it is the party of the People and lastly it is a Party and not a one lady show. So rejoice Pakistan as we welcome home the one and only Benazir Zardari.

 - Originally posted on 18th October 2007, 00.54 PK Time

That said I wonder if the ghost of Z A Bhutto still haunts her at night and it is this linkage that she seeks to find escape from. Irrespective of the consequences from the Lady of Larkana I will commit this heinous blasphemy and call her Benazir Bhutto and expect payback forthwith. Like scrooge who sought escape from ghosts of Christmases past it seems the daughter of the east is seeking a similar escape from ghosts of the military past via her impending deal with the living ghost of General Musharraf.

The deal comes as no surprise thanks to expert ball by ball running commentary given by the Sheikh of Pindi nonetheless its ramifications will reverberate for a long time in Pakistan and beyond. The deal must and will make or break the PPP as such a deal stinks off the stench of the most unholy of alliances and flies in the face of Benazir Bhutto’s own promise in her interview to The Sunday Times that General Musharraf has “lost his moral authority. His popularity rates are down and it would be very unpopular if we saved him. We would lose votes by being associated with him”. So why save him and purposefully sail together on the Titanic? Could it be that like Mick Jagger perhaps Mohtarma has developed some sympathy for the devil too. 

Even before the deal has become public forget the ink going dry yet; the effervescent Sher of Mianwali has rushed to reassure us all unashamedly saying that ‘the constitution may be amended for BB’. So let us all rejoice for this Aunty Shamim of a constitution is to have yet more bedfellows. John Ciardi once said that ‘the constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself’, however such a prize has yet to bear fruit in luckless Pakistan. Instead Pakistan has her own desi molotav cocktail of a constitution; a petrol bomb of sorts taking aim not at enemy positions as was the case for our Russian friends but at Pakistan itself. Instead of our constitution allowing Pakistanis the freedom to be fools as Ciardi championed instead it is our own constitution that has been made the fool time and time again by military and civilian governments alike.

The 1973 constitution of Z A Bhutto is clearly now defunct and dead and the one on show is certainly a poor double bringing to the nations joy LFO after LFO and amendments galore. That said the 1973 constitution has at least been one fertile mother giving birth to many bastards in the shape of constitutional amendments forever acting as the mother of many and the father of none. For decades now the Pakistani masses have endured this ignominy until the 9th of March when the nation rose in all her glory from her comatose state to say enough was enough. The lawyers movement has been the one hope for the Pakistani masses amidst the promise of a new dawn after the Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate the Chief Justice.

The bazaars and chowks are awash with hope at the promise of a better tomorrow as they see the judiciary is now free to do its work and hope that it will act as a counterweight to the lust of power of our military generals. The masses believe rightly in my opinion that if all the political parties were to work together to get rid of the current military rule we will usher in a golden era for our jinxed nation. That is not to say it will all be hunky-dory the day after or even years after, but in truth it can’t get much worse. So I beg to ask the question why then is the nation’s largest political party selling out to the military under the guise of some kind of mushy Musharraf version of guided democracy.

True supporters of the PPP must be thinking of jumping ship, what will become of promises given by Aitzaz Ahsan, Raza Rabbani, Pervez Ashraf and the like to fight military rule or have they sold their souls to the devil too? Will they do us a great deed and stand up to the Lady or Larkana and remind her that the PPP is not the party of Bhutto nor her personal fiefdom; it is and should always be the party of the people. The three P’s represent its covenant with the people namely it is owned by Pakistan only. Secondly it is the party of the People and lastly it is a Party not a one lady show. So in Eminem-style will the real Pakistan People’s Party please stand up and save this endangered species before it is too late.

-  Originally posted on 29 July 2007, 21.44 PK Time