The Battle for Pakistan

What Imran Khan had done, i.e. go to the students, shook more than just the dictator. It shook two despotic political parties. His arrest will, hopefully, give students a symbol to rally around. Symbolic gestures are valuable. On 23rd October, 1956, some Hungarians brought down a statue of Stalin and dragged it on the streets. 200,000 people came out in support. The police resorted to firing and several people died. Next day Russian tanks rolled in to "finish" off a movement ...... Actually the movement did not die ... It simply continued. Things take time and it requires all kinds to further a progressive movement. Imran Khan has done his job ... It is time for the Pakistani youth to carry the movement further.

hamidm: better a naked charlatan than a wardi-flaunting charlatan.

and i dont recall gandhi making statements only a charlatan like musharraf could make (e.g. "the blunt-speaking advisers around me told me that Pakistan needs me to stay on as president")!!

GT: Not just the youth. All Pakistanis need to shed their differences at this time and join hands to get rid of dictatorship. There will be time enough later for politics as usual.

GT: Not just the youth. All Pakistanis need to shed their differences at this time and join hands to get rid of dictatorship. There will be time enough later for politics as usual.

Re: # 50

tahmed mian,

..... i don't like the dictator any more than you, but i just don't have any faith in the 'opposition' or the public either ...... it would be nice if we could get rid of the clown in uniform and replace him with a few clowns in civies, but i don't see it happening unless negroponte can get kiani to 'talk' to mushy ........

.... as for imran khan, the less said the better - the man is an embarassment to his children and fans ...... for months he has been ranting and raving like a halwa-crazed mullah, playing footsie with mardoodites, defending the barbarians of waziristan and swat, blaming america for everything including his thinning hair ... and then he goes out and gets 'kidnapped' by the jamiat-i-harami ! ...... even the policemen sent out to 'arrest' him are the laughing stock of their collegues at the thana ..........

tahmed writes "All Pakistanis need to shed their differences at this time and join hands to get rid of dictatorship"

To get rid of "dictatorship", we need to get rid of what perpetuates dictatorship in our country, the US occupation force and the US elite that feed and direct it. Are you, tahmed willing to join hands with me to totally revamp Pakistan's foreign policy to date and completely cut out the Americans from any and every interference, and cut off our priorities from America first to Pakistan and the Third World. If "NO", then you are a mere bullshitter and you and I can never "forget our differences".

Re: # 49

GT,

..... you obviously don't understand pakistan's student politics ...... the islami jamiat-i-harami is the single largest student group - it is well armed, highly organized, motivated and ruthless ...... the other students from places like lums and fast are a bunch of pansies who are more worried about their gpa than politics (as they should be) ....... imran khan leading these students in revolt would be like asghar khan leading a procession of hijras from abbotabad to islamabad - half of them would run off with their boyfriends before they reached havelian .......

........ the only party that can face the jamiat is the mqm - unfortunately, they do not have much of a presence outside karachi ......

Dear hamid,

You say "..... i don't like the dictator any more than you, but i just don't have any faith in the 'opposition' or the public either ...... it would be nice if we could get rid of the clown in uniform and replace him with a few clowns in civies,"

I hope you have faith in the intelligence of your fellow Pakistanis. They too realise what you say above; and are hopefully fighting for the right to get rid of clowns, whenever they want too, in a consistent and orderly manner.

hamid is wrong, the student protest against the Jamiat yesterday revealed that the strength of numbers at PU is not with them, if anything Imran has fragmented their membership. Their leadership, on the run after their offices were ransacked, was seen as appasing the dictator because of what they did, and that didn't go down too well with the rank and file

Pak. students protest Imran's detention

Lahore (PTI): Hundreds of Pakistan's Punjab University students on Friday protested against the role played by the students' wing of the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami in the arrest of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.

The protest on the campus here was unprecedented in the province of Punjab, where all educational institutions have for decades been a stronghold of the Islami Jamiat Tulaba (IJT), the Jamaat's student wing that came to prominence during the tenure of late military dictator Gen Zia-ul-Haq.

Hundreds of students, including girls, chanted slogans against the IJT during protests on Thursday and Friday. A large number of students have quit their IJT membership to join protesters shouting "Go Jamiat go".

Imran Khan, the chief of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party, was detained by IJT members and handed over to police when he came to the university on Wednesday to join a student protest. He has been charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act and is being held in the Dera Ghazi Khan Jail in Punjab province.

During the protests, students cheered the former cricket captain by chanting "Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, Imran Khan".

"This is unprecedented. Thousands of students have united against the IJT," a university teacher said. The IJT has suspended 17 members involved in manhandling Khan but the Tehreek-e-Insaf has accused the Jamaat of "betraying" its chief.

Law student Rai Kashif, who quit his IJT membership, said: "A large number of law students have quit IJT. The Jamiat has cheated us."

Women students said they were tired of being "harassed" by the IJT. "We support the lifting of emergency and Imran Khan is the leader of progressive and modern Pakistan," one of them said.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200711161612.htm

hamidm #53 I agree with GT #56 here. We are talking "situational competence". Imran Khan would I agree be way beyond his depth as prime minister or even as political comentator. But no one is talking of electing Imran Khan, nor does he stand a chance given his that his "situational competence" does not extend into either developing grass-roots organization that PPP has excelled in e.g., or in making a ZAB-like pitch that appeals to the true "silent majority" of Pakistan (the poor whom you joke about as Abdul Paki).

But Imran Khan has the image of being socially conscious, and popular sports star, and as such is useful for Job 1 - putting an end to dictatorship. He is yet another effective demonstration in exposing Musharraf's fraudulent claims of being the Great Modernizer. The cops may be laughing at the arrest which not only made headlines around the world and also no doubt gave points to ponder to many at the seemingly odd sight of religious fanatics coming to musharraf's aid. Rest assured their big boss Musharraf was not.

Tahmed doesn't like Imran because Imran has been able to point to the source of all our troubles, the US elite and its occupation force, and its neo imperialist policies. Khan is as much capable as ZAB of developing grass roots support, he just needs a start getting past the political muck hole, that describes the matrix that envelopes the Pakistani public. Once he gets that start, that the ZAB did under Ayub for example, he will fluorish as a people supporter. How to deceive the deceivers is that task he has to figure out how to achieve first, more important than any student protest, at the current time. Tahmed wants to use him to get rid of Musharraf and then would spit him out, much like the Americans spit out Pakistan after using and abusing it and destroying our political institutions using their occupation force. An immoral person like tahmed should be recognized by all as public enemy. He is stabbing our people and those that sacrifice for them (like Imran) in the back....

I can’t believe some people are advising imran khan to quit politics, we don’t want him to quit what we want is dozens more like imran khan. To break the stranglehold of mullahs and feudals, we need educated middle class men and women to enter politics if we are to have a thriving democracy.

Some fool has red flagged my post #54 and #57, might I ask why? Or is it just some moronic tendency? They want to get me banned from here, following in the footsteps of the dictator. Go right ahead, I don't give a damn, nothing so out of the ordinary that I am stating, its all out now, banning me wont do a damn thing to mask the facts....

Re: # 56

GT,

you said, " hope you have faith in the intelligence of your fellow Pakistanis" .......

.....i know hundreds, maybe thousands, of them - all my frieds and family are pakistanis ....... so no, i do not have faith in the intelligence of my fellow pakistanis ....... masadi is a prime example

In no particluar context i just have to say HamidM is the best thing thats ever happened to Pakistani politics.

I hope you dont just waste your breath on chowk, in all seriousness you should write your own book. All Pakis could use a good laugh in these sad times.

Maybe Masadi sahab could write the intro :)