A Nation Reborn

Isnt all this anarchist talk scaring you guys? I mean real-estate evaluations can drop by as much as 80% you know!

Re: # 1

urstruly,

...... does this mean that you and i are going to meet this friday at the local bar and chalk out a strategy for the liberation of our pakistani brethren ?............ i must warn you that i quickly loose interest after the third drink or the first blonde that walks in - whichever comes first ..............

..... look, mian urstruly, you have been getting yourself all worked up for many many years on chowk without anything to show for it ......... i think it is time to move on ......... personally, i am taking up square dancing - want to join ?

Look more than anything, more than ever...Pakistan needs some good bars, swanky ones, dive one, pick up joints etc... How about a vodka infused sharbat? People can relax, mingle with the opposte sex and just chill. At least for one day. If you can`t beat them join them. I think they should have ``Kafir Day`` and make it trendy and fun so the mullahs will loose their thunder. Kafir Day will be like Carnival. Before you know it ...Germans, Scandinavians will be choosing Pakistan over India. (Sorry but this Pakistani tourism schtick recently is a sad sorry imitation of India tourism dept ``Discover India``. Everyone I know has been or wants to visit India)

This is you chance Pakistan, imagaine all the attnand overnight it will ring true;
``Make Love Not War``.

Bet even Hamidm will hanker to rush back asap. :)

It is time for Musharraf to take another U turn -- reinstate CJ -- get rid of Shaukat Aziz, Pervaiz Illahi, and that stupid vulgar law minister -- retire the cowardly lion Shoojat Husain -- and promote himself to a figurehead President -- end the exile of Benazir and Nawaz Sharif -- let the two party system provide an activist prime minster.

Time for Musharraf to give total rest to his tired rundown jaundiced -- liver -- enough of one-man ``saaray jahaaN ka durd humaray jiggar mein hai`` stuff.

The staying the course right now does not look pretty infact it could get very ugly -- and there is no need for for that.

Re:eastmwest#4

[.People can relax, mingle with the opposte sex and just chill. At least for one day. If you can`t beat them join them. I think they should have ``Kafir Day`` and make it trendy and fun...]

Finally a Paki dude who has suggested a gem of an idea. Bravo!! Mashallah!! Subhanallah!!

{`` If we can’t be concerned enough to stand up for justice and liberty, than we deserve tyranny and servitude! Pressurize the government! Get students together and hold protests and rallies! Write in newspapers, write to ministers, and write to other citizens! Those in power base their power on the ignorance of the masses. Destroy the ignorance; you destroy the very foundations upon which those in power stand!``}

Akbar Sahib,
Well-written article, but a lot of brave words and plenty of cricket, nihari, and ammi jaan.

Nobody in his/her right mind would advocate dictatorship - especially a military one. Everyone wants democracy, but there is no quick fix, no cheap freedom, and no instant cure for insanity. Pakistan has NEVER experienced a sustained even limited democracy. Jinnah was basically a universally-accepted autocrat, a one-man show, who needed no ratification of his whimsical ideas. Muslims have an uncanny habit of elevating even the most mediocre of their leaders to positions approaching divinity.

Democracy means much more than mob rule. Majority rule does not mean that a vote can decide the life or death of any hated minorities, confiscation of their wealth, or designation of their community as non-Muslim, naPaak, or discrimination against them in employment, business, or education. There must be concrete, sacred, and inalienable rights assured to ALL citizens - such as in the Bill of Rights. There must be protection for smaller states/provinces, otherwise Delaware would have never joined the United States.

Pakistan has had only two orderly, legal, and fair transitions of power. The first was in the `50s when the Bengali-dominated Awami League and Suharwardy beat the incumbent Muslim League. The second was when an Urdu-speaking Mohajir COS, Mirza Aslam Beg, transferred power to a victorious Benazir Bhutto in 1989. Forget the fact that Gen Aslam Beg was an imbecile when it came to knowledge of military matters - he was the fool who considered helping the Bosnians achieve military success as a futile effort and bound for failure. But he did supervise fair elections and did not grab power for himself - unlike Ayub, Yahya, Zia, and Mushy.

The question to ask is what replaces Mushy in the future? Another two rounds of twiddle dee and twiddle dum will not do. The military must be there ONLY for the defense of the country against FOREIGN enemas - something it has NEVER succeeded in doing effectively. The military should not become a tool of a single province or ethnicity to lord over the rest of the country. The provinces should enjoy full local power - including taxation, police, education, and local legislation. The days of the One Unit and Basic Democracy crap are over. Will Pakis rise to the challenge or are we to expect more of the same? Throwing bricks, burning tires, and smashing windows are not the solution.

Excellent article!!!

Pakistan Zindabad.


[[[A nation is like a person. It must die to be resurrected. When President Musharraf “suspended” the Chief Justice, and in the process quite clearly violated his constitutional right and explicitly undermined the independence of the judiciary, I admitted that my nation had just been killed. Pakistan was dead. My people would so quickly bring it back to life, though, I had never imagined! Just when I thought my people would once again silently ignore this new form of oppression, and resign themselves to a fate written by politicians and generals, they responded! They awoke! They said in one voice, “enough is enough!” I have never been prouder to be a Pakistani! My people are alive, their hearts are pounding, their voices are rising, their dreams are soaring, and their cause is victorious! The political maturity that the people have shown has taken me by surprise.]]]

WoW! Wonderful.

Thank you so much for giving us readers an excellent read.
Thank you Chowk Staff for publishing such a great article.

Yes, I am so proud to be Pakistani. We are not dead, we are alive.



My salute for Pakistani nation. This is the second time after Earthquake that Pakistani nation showed solidarity as one proud nation with integrity and self esteem.

If events have galvanized Pakistani people into asserting their own will, then three cheers for Pakistani people and three cheers for Pakistani nation.

[HP has posited a cautionary thesis. But to agree or disagree with that thesis one has to have the insiders` extremely detailed knowledge of the nation`s ruling system. I am hoping he is wrong on this one.]

``GOOD GENERALS KNOW HOW AND WHEN TO RETREAT`` -- And it is one of those times -- ONCE AGAIN -- to take another U Turn and RETREAT -- like 9/11 or like Kargill -- you may like to call Nawaz Sharif to help you once again, General, and then you may exile him again thereafter.


Ardshir Cowasjee asks who are the stupidos who deliberately did Musharraf -- are they his friends or his enemies -- Cowasjee asks Musharraf to RETREAT:

``Who was it who masterminded the ‘suspension’ of the Chief Justice of Pakistan before the presidential reference against him was heard? Which bright spark was it who has added to the local legal lexicon the phrase ‘non-functional’ in this particular context? Those who may attribute this to my friend and lawyer, Jadoogar of Jeddah Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, are as wrong as wrong can be. The Jadoogar, while the preparation of the reference was underway, was actually in Jeddah overseeing the revision of the OIC charter.

To anyone conversant with the legal skills with which he is endowed it is evident that he was not consulted in the matter. Had he been, things would not have come to such a sorry pass. As astutely and correctly noted by a fellow columnist in a Lahore-based newspaper writing on the mess that has been made by inefficient, if not downright stupid, advice.

“Another disturbing aspect is how blindingly clear it is that the deft hand of Sharifuddin Pirzada is absent. Never before has a military ruler attempted to fiddle with the judiciary without Pirzada masterminding the operation. He is a lawyer of both tremendous ability and vast experience . . . . [he] also always ensured that a legal footing, no matter how tenuous, was provided, which is not the case here.”

And again : Which hamfisted nincompoop ordered that the Chief Justice of Pakistan be kept under virtual house arrest and incommunicado from even the lawyers who are defending him? Which dysfunctional functionary ordered that the Chief Justice (regardless of what he should or should not have done) be waylaid when he set out for the Supreme Court and the reference hearing on March 13, and thus ensured that a photograph of his being manhandled – grasped by the hair on his head – by members of the police force be printed on the front page of one of our press publications?

And worse, which ‘information’ genius advised the general to call into his camp office on March 9 the press and the electronic media? We and the world could well have done without shots of a military general sitting with the Chief Justice of his country.

We need to know the answers if we are to come anywhere near understanding the whys and wherefores of the ridicule to which this nation is being held because one man has been misadvised, has not calmly thought out the issue, and has acted in undue haste.

``Now, it is up to the general to try and retrieve the situation. An editorial in The Times (London) gives due praise to Musharraf “for his resolute opposition to fanaticism” and “for his efforts to modernise Pakistan, not least by improving the appalling legal status of women . . . .”.

It points out “a signal error of judgment on his part” which has resulted in an uproar – his suspension of “the outspoken Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry” on allegations of abuse of authority “whose substance has yet to be made public.”

It ends : “It is useless for the government to deny any political motive. Its action is almost universally seen as an attempt to tame the judiciary before elections this year under rules that are expected to come under legal challenge. President Musharraf must calm this storm . . . . Good Generals know when to retreat.”

Yes, they do, but then it is far more difficult to make the retreat than to advance. Few would have ‘gloriously’ retreated as Musharraf so wisely did on the day after 9/11.

This is a short column. Disgust and dismay prevents me from writing more. All we can do is murmur to ourselves “Let Good triumph over Evil.” (DAWN)

arfc@cyber.com.pk

Almost completely a rhetorical article. Without much substance. Many times the handwriting resembles that of someone like NS or BB in exile. Sometimes it looks like a school essay scribbled over the answer sheet by a 10th class student. Though a good one, 10 out of 10 type. Fine vocabulary, no grammatical mistakes and having a passionate opening and a forceful ending, spiced with a quotation from one of the greatest essayist of all time.

Unfortunately, words won`t serve any good to Pak. I see many planing parties after reading this one.

So...!

Samar

While the above essay is a bit maudlin,As an Indian, am amazed at the courage of the lawyers and common people to stand up to injustice.Maybe there is hope for Pakistan yet.

A salute ,too,to Pakistan`s brave and fearless journalists.

Go Pakistan.We are with you.

Re: Shaheryar Akbar

“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Et tu Shaheryar - you are also dropping foreign names and their words in your article? lol

Ciao

Re: # 9
ZEENA:

Could you tell me how in the world would you imbed a an animated object in Chowk`s post?
I am curious to know how this is technically done. Does one need to know any programming language for this.? I would appreciate your respondse.
Kamath

``Well if he’s going to take credit for all the good things, he should have the guts to take credit for the bad things too!``(author)

exactly -- of a One-man rule that is one of the biggest flip side, `unfortunately` -- when things go wrong all shoes from all over start falling on One Head -- there is no one else to share them -- not the PM -- not the cabinet -- not the parliament.

This is why even Cowasjee is asking Musharraf to retreat -- to reinstate the CJ -- share power with an activist PM not with a disorderly orderly -- get rid of the sycophants -- especially that cloak n dagger quisling pair -- the Chaudry brothers -- promulgate presidential rule in punjab -- disband the goonda Illahi police -- UNITE the country by bringing home the exiled leaders -- appoint a fiercely Independent Election Commission -- and retire as a figurehead president -- and let your country men, women sort out their chosen leaders -- for a change.

You need rest, General -- from undercutting Muslim League Q -- and from overccutting Christian League B. You have done enough harm and enough good -- now it is time for you get out of the line of fire -- if you can -- and lay back and enjoy your `glory`. Period.

ah the disadvantages of being the sole proprieter of a public domain company!