Moral Bankruptcy of Political Leadership in Pakistan

#125 Posted by tahmed32,

The NS Government placed the economy on track towards global integration with 'Protection of Economic Reforms Act, 1992' promulgated in his first tenure. That was the lead followed by Man Mohan Singh, the then FM of India.

Re privatizations, he was the one who replaced the bureaucrats heading banks etc with skilled professionals (e.g Shaukat Tareen) to turn them around and clean out the balance sheets in preparation for privatizations.

Re elections, of-course you know that the 'public' has little say in who comes to power. It is only and has always been a contest between 'political personalities' - CJ or no CJ. The only difference is that this time these may indeed be 'free and fair'. But only one of the existing political players can come to power. You will not see any new 'farishta' emerge.

It took a considerable time for the indian middle class to emerge and that happened only because of the democratic institutions that survived despite its shortcomings.

Actually Pakistan threw the baby away with water when its awaam started looking for "root" causes of its political mess. They threw away democracy by calling it a 'failure', 'unIslamic' and a 'western' concept.

India stuck with the democracy and multiculturalism and did not seek religious 'purity' in political process. Whether it happened consciously or naturally is irrelevant. It is now a historical fact that indian democratic polity is one of the reasons why india could survive and now emerge economically strong despite multi cultural states.
Pakistan should have struck with democracy and should have insisted upon the rule of civilian authority.
Un fortunately this obsession with individuals, prophet like personalities and nizams only made the rise of dictators easier than any one could think in the indian context.

zeemax: Thanks for the confirmation of what I had heard, and the specific bill through which they fixed some of the economic mess Bhutto had made with his nationalizations.

1. On the sharif braaderaan no doubt had a sound economic vision for Pakistan - in addition to what you have already mentioned, they initiated the highway system (motorways, ring roads envisaged) which will no doubt serve Pakistan well in the long run in terms of benefitting from its strategic location to promote the flow of goods from central asia to sea-ports, in addition to the immediate benefits to the internal economy. They also had a broad view of a post-Indo-Pakistan hostility period that would promoted greater linkage between East and West Panjab.

Compared to incompetent BB, the dysfunctional maulvis and the fauji-foundation musharraf, there is no doubt of the economic vision and capabilities of the sharif brothers. I dont know if I would vote for them, but will grant you this.

2. ON elections: You say that "the 'public' has little say in who comes to power". But that is exactly my point. There is a legitimate struggle in Pakistan today to restore to the 'public' its right to determine via elections on who comes to power, and to be able to replace the incumbent if he/she does not perform. This is not a pie-in-the-sky concept, but something for which Pakistanis were killed on May 12 in their legitimate and peaceful struggle, and something which is within the grasp of the Pakistani public now that musharraf has been forced to back off from trying to destroy the Supreme Court of Pakistan. That is why BB's breaking ranks with the political parties as she seeks to cut private deals with Musharraf could well go down as a historic betrayal of the Pakistani people.

While one can only hope for a peaceful and proper resolution, if we do end up with a proper political framework - it would not require a 'farishta' to rule Pakistan. Like I pointed out earlier, a proper political framework would be robust enough to not permit a Nawaz Sharif from trying to overstay his term in office or to bully other branches of government, it would be robust enough to allow even a proven incompetent like BB or even a maulvi to come to power.

Sorry for the lengthy post. But I think this point (that is, it is the system, not personalities, that is important - and the CJ struggle is fundamentally about the system, not personalities) is important enough to keep in mind particularly in the months ahead in Pakistan.

# 128

Pakistanis have to evolve much more. They are still below
Indians in evolutionary ladder. Still crude.
If they had not hounded out their Hindus and Sikhs, they
would have been much better and further ahead.
But hate got them. Till they are ready to not declare
Ahmadias as non-Muslims, they would not arrive.

Re: # 131

bhai mere, what I mean is that the junta accepted the army propaganda and justification about the 'failure' of democratic process , on the other hand it celeberated the coup and thanked the dictator.

laddu: it was not the Pakistani awaam that overthrew elected governments, but military generals. Just count your blessings as an Indian that you got lucky. The average Pakistani has as much common sense as any Indian or anyone else on earth.

shishapa #130 you write They (Pakistanis) are still below
Indians in evolutionary ladder.

Dil kay behlaanay ko Ghalib yeh khiyaaL achaa hai :-)

#131 Posted by tahmed32 on August 2, 2007 8:46:20 am



Just count your blessings as an Indian that you got lucky.


luck had nothing to do with India having a democracy after independence just as luck had nothing to do with pakis dancing in the streets when an elected government was overthrown..


The average Pakistani has as much common sense as any Indian or anyone else on earth.


I beg to differ...the average indian doesn't support the use of islamic jihad as a strategic tool..

it's the islamic terrorism, stupid(peace be unto your self-righteous rear..)...

Moral bankruptsy..hahahahaha...

the fault lies with the people, people!! Pakistanis do not have the stomach for pains that democracy and self governance brings. They want a messiah..Mohammed, Jinnah, Musharraf, and now...hopefully some other Messiah in the wings.

arjun: dont waste your time and my time twisting facts. In any case, I realize you are higher up on the evolutionary ladder because of that prehensile tail that allows you to swing from one rung to another while we poor Pakis have only two legs with which to climb.

chaltahai#134 dont you have a day job? but i guess three shishapa, laddu, arjun do need your able assistance. :-)

#129 Posted by tahmed32 & #127 Posted by zeemax

Mashallah, Punjabi chauvinism at its best.

Motorway: Linking with Central Asia, strategic. priceless piece of crap just like the total waste motorway.

Economic reforms: what reforms? Changing Banking Chiefs with their cronies apppointed by Abba jee.

And please this CJ feel good factor is another farce, we all know Transperancy Intl had ranked the Judiciary as the Third most corrupt institution right behind Police and Customs. Are we expected to belive everything has become hunky dorey?

Institutions, yes but then again institutions are composed of ppl with their varied cultures, educational backgrounds and work ethics. Not that easy dear Punjabi compatriots, societies evolve over time with positive experiences that process has yet to be verified.

#129 Posted by tahmed32

... it is the system, not personalities, that is important - and the CJ struggle is fundamentally about the system, not personalities ...

By my saying "the 'public' has little say in who comes to power" I meant that it is the Biradari system in Punjab, the Feudal/Malik System in settled and tribal NWFP respectively, the Wadera System in Sindh, and the Sardari system in Baluchistan which determines who comes to power, and not the public. The wheeling dealing is done by these biradari leaders and waderas etc with the political personalities in return for 'rent' in the new dispensation.

No CJ can change that, can he?

Hope it is clearer now :)

Re: # 139

Musharraf for all his dictatorial drawbacks remains a better statesman when compared to imbeciles such as NS of Tinda sharif. You remember what u wish to remember because NS is a Punjabi. lets do a quick histroy check of this idiot:

1. Handpicked by the army (Zia lul phuck)and groomed as Punjabi finance minister

2. Ittefaq Foundaries grew 30x in value

3. Part of the JAAG PUNJABI JAAG mantra that was used against BB (PPP) in 1988 courtesy Gen Hameed Gul

4. Part of the ISI conspiracy to upset PPP electoral support

5. Issuance of countless SRO's for their personal benefits

6. You mentioned motorway, RS35.5BN spent to link Lahore and Islamabad, for what?

7. Appointment of Punjabi cronies in major institutions

8. Ballooning fiscal debt because of uncontrolled expenditures and corruption

9. Declining Forex reserves

10. Rising foreign debt

11. Forging State economic statistics for foreign debtors

12. Freezing of NRP Dollar accounts while NS and family moved their own money out of Pakistan

13. Pandering to the Taliban

14. Storming the Supreme Court

15. Cooperative scandal

16. Stock market peaked in their first tenure and remained in a bear trend for the next 8 years.

If you wish, we could add many more inept and corrupt decisions of this paindoo, but then again he is from lahore and everything can be forgiven.

rf#137 sure. blame it on the panjabis while supporting a military dictator whose claim to your support is that he is ethnicity!!
that wont change the reality which you know as well as anyone else.

#138 zeemax: no doubt political institutions are work in progress. It has taken UK centuries of slow but steady progress to transfer power from one man (the king) to noblemen and then to the people. Even the US has taken two centuries, a bloody civil war, major legislations (notably the Civil Rights act) and government actions (e.g. against Tammany Hall corruption in New York city government), and the struggle goes on even today not just to keep moving forward but to keep from slipping backward.

Thus, I am not saying that the CJ is a man on the white horse who will magically switch Pakistan into a totally rational society, dedicated to the common good. What I am saying is that conditions are better today (thanks to the CJ, lawyers, political parties, the people) than they have ever been for a historical step forward.

Hope this clarifies too. :-)