The General vs. the Judge

////There is an easy solution. The General should discard his uniform, the Judge should forego his wig and the two men should battle it out on the electoral terrain./////


This is too simplistic to work out, even for a person like Tariq Ali.

This article looks like a fake to me. Tariq Ali is capable of much better than just a run down of events.

Nothing wrong with the article - apart from a few errors - which the editors should have sorted out. for example

As Iftikhar Choudhry`s cavalcades through various became more and more popular,

the editors of chowk could have spruced this up - by adding the word cities somewhere in the middle.

Zeemax - he has a new new book in the works methinks

Nothing wrong with the article - apart from a few errors - which the editors should have sorted out. for example

As Iftikhar Choudhry`s cavalcades through various became more and more popular,

the editors of chowk could have spruced this up - by adding the word cities somewhere in the middle.

Zeemax - he has a new new book in the works methinks

Re: # 2

Totally agree with Zeemax, this article does not do justice to Tariq Ali style and substance of writing.

come on people, Tariq Ali is extremely over rated as a political analyst. All he has ever done is given examples after examples of Venezuela in general and Chavez in particular. If I didn`t know better, I would have thought that he has a `thing` for Mr. Chavez.

#6 by Tazeen,

Well he`s a committed lefty ... but he has a very good grasp of regional dynamics. This article is a major disappointment. Though it may be noted it was written for CounterPunch and perhaps just sort of a wrap-up and not an analysis.

Tazeen

There is a kahawat: Door ke dhol suhane. Venizwala (isn`t that how the name is spelled?), being pretty door for most people, is perfect for giving suhane examples.

tariq ali is really well respected amongst the left in UK, he even had a tv chat show, but it`s hard to believe that some of the new labour ministers were his comrades during his street fighting years.

[Were a Presidential election to be held today there is little doubt that the Judge would defeat the General.]

Some are born popular, some acquire popularity and in Pakistan, some have it thrust upon them by the Mushy.

It is amazing how Pakistani Punjaibis have discovered ``democracy`` and ``one-man, one-vote`` ever since 1971. :) Now it`s ``majority rules,`` before it was ``parity.``

Sorry sir, but it is hard for me to believe that this so called lawyers movement has anything to do with the nation en masse. A common man is still unconcerned with whatever happening down the street in the name of judiciary and politics. All he is concerned is that he is being affected badly by these howling lawyers and politicians. He is least interested in taking sides in this fight of stray dogs on the streets. Media may portray it as a popular movement just to make a point, and to add the number of viewers, but the truth is far somewhere.
Secondly, if a judicial issue is taken by the lawyers on the streets, for the justice to be decided there, ``to golian bhi chalein gi aur danday bhi parain ge`` and that would be justified. Chaudhry sahab is no angel. If a common man can be convicted, why not the CJ. And why the lawyers did not themselves pulled his hair when he took oath under military rule and justified it?

Re: # 11
you know why salim 100BC?

see muhajirs are gaadaars. they break hunoodstan. punjabi musalmaan never wanted pakistan they were majority lal jhanda lal topi lal chaddis. they scared muhajirs will backstab them and break pakistan like they did with bangladesh.

that is punjabis will win for they are true shers and backstabbing left to you moorkhajirs

I live in the UK. I am a Mohajir.

Most mohajirs are not ``poor`` as Mr Tariq Ali claims but middle-class

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the feudal class which gorges on Karachi`s taxes (Karachi generates 70% of Pakistan`s tax-revenue) and uses them to attack Karachi under different pretexts will acknowledge that Pakistan`s wealth that they plunder does not belong to wannabe Marxists such as Tariq Ali, fake human rights activists such as Asma Jehangir and their feudal masters such as Benazir and Nawaz Sharif .

I may not agree with everything MQM do but MQM have consistently won elections in Karachi since 1988 despite Karachi`s feudal occupation by the Army from 1990-99 in which persecution and propaganda was unleashed against MQM by feudal agents (such as Mr Tariq Ali the ``Life-long Activist`` who starred in the misleading feudal propagandist film ``Karachi Cops`` endorsing and excusing fake encounters and custodial killings by the Sind police in Karachi).

Therefore this description of MQM written with the flowery flair of a villager trying to understand a big city ....

``MQM, an unsavoury outfit created during a previous dictatorship, addicted to violence and protection rackets and insensitive to moral and human realities. It consisted largely of poor muhajir families (Muslim refugees who fled to Pakistan at the time of Partition in 1947), who felt abandoned by the State. Musharraf too, hails from a middle-class refugee background...``

...is less than fair especially when everyone in Karachi knows that when one is not paying protection money to MQM, one is paying much more to the feudal police who get transferred from their villages to Karachi to extort money from hapless middle-class law-abiding Karachiites as part of the culture of corruption in Pakistan`s feudal establishment and these words are not acceptable from a Marxist feudal hypocrite like Tariq Ali.

Having said the above what Pervez Musharraf did to Justice Choudhry was wrong.

I also feel that although we Karachiites owe it to Pervez Musharraf for sending the Army back to the barracks from Karachi ( where Nawaz Sharif had stationed them once again in 1997 after the Hakim Saeed assassination for which Nawaz Sharif and Abbaji should have been convicted ) , Pervez Musharraf`s actions are giving MQM and Karachi unwanted attention and bad press

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which we as patriotic Pakistanis do not deserve.

Pervez Musharraf`s actions against Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry were unconstitutional and the best option will be for Pervez Musharraf to quit when he honourably can

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now that is especially when the ethnic dimension of this tussle has been exposed because at the end of the day we Mohajirs still are a minority in Pakistan.

But blaming MQM for the blood-shed in Karachi on 12 May 2007 is like blaming Karachiites for the ethnic rioting that was sponsored by General Ayub Khan in Karachi of the `60`s between the same two groups Mohajirs and Pathans to further HIS dictatorial ends at a time when MQM did not exist .
What in effect Pervez Musharraf is doing is wrong and as a divide and rule tactic has happened before MQM existed

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does that make things simple for you Mr Fake Marxist Feudalist Fraud Tariq Ali aka Dole-Scrounger of Her Majesty`s Social Service?

May be you should give your fake pretences up and go join Osama Bin Mohammed Bin Laden like Comrade Jam Saqi of Hyderabad.

That is the course for wannabe Communists in the post-Yeltsin era...

What do you think?

#12 by Akbarhussain

... A common man is still unconcerned with whatever happening down the street in the name of judiciary and politics....

Was it the urban elite whose throngs resulted in a 5 hour journey by the CJ from Pindi to Lahore being completed in 27 hours?

#14 by binyamin,

This is a masterpiece of strange logic:

... Karachi generates 70% of Pakistan`s tax-revenue ...

False. Karachi does not generate 70% or any other figure. It merely collects revenue on behalf of the rest of the country due to the major port/airport/corporate/banking head offices located there.

...is less than fair especially when everyone in Karachi knows that when one is not paying protection money to MQM, one is paying much more to the feudal police ...

So you`re saying that MQM is an extortion ring just as the corrupt police. So why not pay MQM instead who give a discount. That`s a good one :)

Pervez Musharraf`s actions are giving MQM and Karachi unwanted attention and bad press ...

Pervez Musharraf quite on the contrary is the ONLY one still defending MQM. He is the one who has said the bloodshed was CJs fault because he went to Karachi in the first place and not that of MQM. I think he might even join MQM formally after losing the uniform because Pir Sahib`s political future looks uncertain.

But blaming MQM for the blood-shed in Karachi on 12 May 2007 is like blaming Karachiites for the ethnic rioting that was sponsored by General Ayub Khan ...

There was no ethnic rioting. All the video footage clearly shows gunmen firing from flyovers on the processions below trying to make their way to the airport which was blocked with hijacked tankers by MQM. However there does appear a very high likelihood of an ethnic conflict happening now because it is clear MQM has declared Karachi as `Our City`, while the four million plus ANP Pushtoons or the PPP Sindhis or the PML (N) Punjabis do not agree.

Imran Khan was right on the dot yesterday when he said Altaf Hussain is a psychopathic killer whose demonic hold by remote control over a party claiming to represent Mohajirs must be broken, for the Mohajirs own sake.

Regards.