I had been planning for days now to write a post on how proud I was to be a Pakistani. In the post I planned to pay tribute to our heroes in this new Pakistan. Heroes including the lawyers movement, civil society, students, bloggers,  the media, political parties and of course the passionate Pakistani people. However as the great Munir Niazi said ‘hamaisha dair kar daita houn mein’ as Dr Farrukh Saleem has beaten me to it via his brilliant article in The News.

Dr Farrukh Saleem’s article charts the history of heroes and revolutions over centuries and last but not least pinpoints exactly why Pakistanis today are feeling so proud. I can truly say that his words are my words too and hence I have decided to post the article below:

Proud to be Pakistani by Dr Farrukh Saleem

Dateline: Karbala, Muharram 10, 61 AH — Hussain ibne Ali ibne Abi Talib (RA) refused to pledge allegiance to Dictator Yazid ibne Mu’awiyah ibne Abi Sufyan. Sayyid al-Shuhada (RA) “gave his head but not his hand of allegiance in the hand of Yazid (this according to Shah Moinuddin Chishty Ajmeri).” The Sayyid of the youth of Paradise was beheaded by Shimr Ibne Thil-Jawshan (a soldier in the Ummayad army that was led by Umar ibne Sa’ad).

Dateline: Kufa, 148 AH — Imam Al-azam Abu Hanifa refused to become Dictator Abu Ja’far al-Mansur’s Qazi Al-Qazat (chief judge). Al-Mansur imprisoned Abu Hanifa and tortured him to death (when al-Mansur invited Abu Hanifa to become his chief judge, Abu Hanifa sent a message back to the monarch that he did not consider himself capable for the post. Al-Mansur told Abu Hanifa that he was lying and Abu Hanifa shot back: “I rest my case. If I am a liar then how can I become the chief judge?” Al-Mansur was furious at Abu Hanifa’s reply).

Dateline: Islamabad, Safar 20, 1428 AH – Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry refused to resign on orders of Dictator President General Pervez Musharraf. The chief justice was suspended, his family imprisoned within the four walls of his house.

Dateline: Islamabad, Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1430 — Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani announced the restoration of all the deposed judges including Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

There are 1.5 billion Muslims and 57 Muslim-majority nation-states. Imagine; in the past 1,430 years of Islamic history the first Muslim who refused to bow down to a dictator was Sayyid al-Shuhada Hussain ibne Ali ibne Abi Talib (RA). Eighty-seven years later, the second Muslim to bow down to a dictator was Imam Al-azam Abu Hanifa. One thousand two hundred and eighty years later came a Pakistani named Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

In 1986, peoples’ power — absolutely peaceful, non-violent and prayerful — brought down a stubbornly corrupt Filipino system of governance. In 1989, peoples’ power proved its muscle in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania (all peaceful except for in Romania where the military unexpectedly changed sides and allowed Nicolae Ceausescu’s summary execution). People’s power in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Serbia and Ukraine used a colour or a flower as a symbol but never ever has a chief justice been used as the rallying cry.

On March 24, Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry shall sit in Court Room No 1 and begin dispensing justice. To be certain, on March 25, there aren’t going to be canals of milk and honey all over 778,720 square kilometres of land area we call Pakistan. Justice Chaudhry shall be dispensing justice; neither electricity nor atta or pani. And that is so because any tripodal government rests on the executive, parliament and the judiciary. The judiciary merely dispenses justice and keeps the executive and parliament within the bounds of the constitution. Bijli, atta and pani — plus law and order — are part of the social contract between the elected politicians and the 172 million Pakistanis.

For the chief justice, he would have to hold the executive and parliament accountable (both consider themselves above accountability). The Lord Chief Justice of Pakistan would have to protect fundamental rights plus steer clear of all purely political quarrels.

Proud to be a Pakistani because we produced the third Muslim in the history of Islam who said ‘no’ to a dictator. Proud to be a Pakistani because ours has been the very first absolutely non-violent mass movement within the world of Islam that successfully met its objective. Proud to be a Pakistani now that we can export our chattels of judicial independence to our brethren in other 57 Muslim-majority states. Proud that we can be the source of glitter to Muslims in other countries. Proud that our civil society has reinvented hope. Proud at the tenacity of our lawyers. Proud at the strength of our journalists. Proud at the resolve of our media.

The writer is the executive director of the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

Published in The News

Proud of you President Asif Ali Zardari is a sentence missing from the article and are seven words I would love to write. Regular readers will notice the respect I have afforded the President given I have normally reduced him to a man of percentages alone. Today I put all that to one side as per my very deliberate and unilateral gesture of reconciliation as detailed in the previous post.

I am willing to let bygones be bygones so long as the President learns from his past mistakes and works to unite Pakistan on the basis of provincial autonomy, justice and constitutionalism, good governance and fair play. This is no lovefest or a story of not summer but spring love, and no I have not been bought by the PPP or worse been Farooq Naeked!

Moreover this  a plea from one Pakistani to another Pakistani to unite for the nation and I say this with all my heart that I do hope that President Zardari’s address to Parliament tomorrow brings to the nation more good news. Let me say it here that if the much maligned President decides in actions to empower Parliament, ensure real provincial autonomy in all provinces and begins to implement the Charter of Democracy, this foe will salute him.

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)

My views on the so-called ineligibilty of the Sharif brothers is  captured above, need I say more?

That said I will say at least this, that it is a wicked verdict coming from the canine Dog(gar) court. The judgement was authored by Mr 10% though it does bear the pawprint of the dog sorry Dog(gar) court (pun intended of course!)

I vociferously condemn the disgraceful decision by the Dog(gar) court and the Zardari government in proclaiming governer rule in the Punjab. Such a decision is Mr 10%’s equivalent of November 2 and like Musharraf he too will suffer ignomy for it.

Zardari’s decision will be the nail in the coffin of this vile regime, but his decision is a  national tragedy as he has trampled upon the hopes and aspirations of a nation starved of democracy.

Worse he has single-handedly destroyed a national treasure that was the Pakistan People’s Party, is this zombie of a party now extinct or will the spineloss sops including luminaries like Prime Minister Gillani and others stand  tall against the man of percentages and save this party?

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