Surviving Musharraf's Exit?

#352 Posted by hamidm2

........ regardless of what his personal feelings might be, mqm cannot be ignored .....

So those who cannot be ignored must be appeased?

Baitullah Zinadabad. He should be made Deputy P.M because he seems to be the toughest to ignore!

ijaz gul #347 The fact that someone has worked for a US think tank does not mean that he is evil. I have heard Haqqani, and he makes perfectly good sense in what he says. He may say things you dont like to hear - but unless you can fault his facts or logic, you could probably get a broader picture of the world than the one you see sitting in Rawalpindi Cant.

zeemax #345 Thanks for explaining. Much as I would love to take credit for the concept of "individual responsibility before God", as the write-up you provide indicates, it is in fact a well understood concept among many people.

As for sharia - my objections to it are in two parts. First, the process through which sharia laws are formulated. Historically, these laws owe their origin to kingships (same thing as dictatorships). As such, they are designed not for the common good but for maintenance of kingships. Second, being issued under the cover of religion, in substance even the most absurd aspects are left unquestioned (e.g. the testimony of pious men who presumably stood by observing a rape that the woman is supposed to provide; inheritance laws that were progressive 1400 years ago but are now counter to the the spirit of fairness to women in which they were introduced).

Re: # 344

rf786,

... you are right, hashmi is a good man as is sheikh rashid - they are both politicians who understand the realities on the ground (even though sheikh sahib is a little slow sometimes!)

....... nawaz sharif is running a big risk by playing the punjab card - it is going to piss off everyone else ..... i think he will come around unless he is a bigger fool than we think ........ regardless of what his personal feelings might be, mqm cannot be ignored ..... besides, nobody in this circus has been washed with milk ........

No letters to the editors, no editorial, no comments...no nothing in pakistan about the stoning to death.

Good that I posted it on chowk so that the pakistanis could get to know their country.

It was a valient defense of the stoning to death to death by tahmed and zeemax. In that process one did not mention the general de-sensitisation of the people the process demands.

The victins are buried neck down in the ground and the croww comes around stoning the victims to death, that is the process. It is that visual imagery, and the insensitivity to human suffering is the hall mark of teh sharia and the jihadi mind set that spring from it.

One should not forget it was only a few months ago when one of the captured paki soldier was a shia, he was beheaded by a seven year old and posted on the web.

It is good to see that the democratically elected govt of pakistan, under the so called famous 1973 constitution will legitimise the stoning.

It is pathetic to see the educated so called freedom loving people of pakistan so exuberen6t about the new govt.

well he is certainly putting skeletons in his cup board. At this level he must know what is what.

#347 Posted by ijaz_gul,

Waht're you getting at? That Zardari is a CIA agent?

perhaps/
But there are other indicators that upset.
Mehmood Durrani, ex ambassador to USA is now a security advisor. He has no academic credentials other than the MSc from defence college.
For a long time he was associated with Barrosa Group, a US think tank headed by Shirin Tahir Kheli, working towards peace in South Asia on US Terms.In fact I briefed him when his group was visiting India for the first time in 1998-99 ie after the nuclear exlposions.He was most ill prepared.

Earlier when he was chairman of POF, I had attended his lecture on Armament and International Security at Qaid e Azam University. He was most clueless.

Interestingly he was also the Divisional Commander at Bahawalpur when Zia's C130 crashed.

As for Haqqani, he was used by the US Think Tanks to churn out papers that impacted on Pakistan's security. Just type his name on google and you will know.

#343 Posted by ijaz_gul,

Contrary to the theory which goes that this step by Zardari is to counter-balance PML-N's veto power in the center, I believe it is merely giving in to blackmail by MQM. If you have been following Altaf Hussain's speeches (not easy to figure out what he says), he has actually been threatening to create civil unrest in Karachi in the manner of the early 90s and shutting the city down. If you recall, just a while ago he had said in a speech that "MQM women should prepare to run the 90 HQ, while the male workers should be prepared to go underground". More recently, he brought out the same old inflammatory adage that "No power can throw the Mohajirs into the Arabian Sea". I don't see if anyone wants to do that in the first place. It is the old tactic on playing on people's emotions and creating a sense of deprivation where none exists.

Zardari obviously didn't think he could manage Urban Sind in that situation, so he decided to make it Bhai Bhai for the time being to get a major irritant out of the way.

#330 Posted by tahmed32

zeemax #240 ...so, did you have a point you were going to make?

Yes, in fact I did. These are regarding the following lines in that article:

...Islam teaches that every Muslim stands before God and is responsible for making his own moral choices

That sounds identical to your 'Individual responsibility towards God'. Is it?

Next is this paragraph:

Gallup's recent global poll showed "that 80 to 90 percent of Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia want democracy," he says, but similar majorities also want sharia to be a source, or the only source, of law in their countries.

Since the said Sudanese scholar advocates a complete separation between religion and state, it appears an overwhelming majority of Muslims do not see any conflict between a democratic state and rule of Sharia - both existing at the same time.

Re: # 335

hamidm2

A true politician in the Pakistani context understands and appreciates political space, discourse and tolerance. Mr. Hashmi started his political career in his student days and has always been affiliated with politics and in the process suffered many a time by going to jail. In contrast, we have the hijra Sharifs who run away to their godfathers in Washington (Clinton) or Jeddah (Saudis) whenever faced with difficult times.

As reported by Dawn dated 4th April 2008:

"PML-N won’t oppose MQM joining federal cabinet: Hashmi"
By Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD, April 2: The Pakistan Muslim League-N said on Wednesday that although it had some reservations about the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), it would have no objection to the party joining the federal cabinet.

Talking to Dawn by telephone from Multan, senior PML-N member Makhdoom Javed Hashmi said there was need for continuing the process of national reconciliation and there was no harm if political parties established contacts with each other.

Commenting on Wednesday night’s visit of the PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to the MQM’s head office Nine Zero in Karachi, Mr Hashmi said the PML-N had no objection to the PPP move for cooperation with the MQM, but it should be based on some principles.

my hunches seem to be coming true.

#335 Posted by hamidm2,

connect the dots! ... i think our friend nawaz sharif is being given the ultimatum(

Hamidm2, since when are you so dumb? Have you forgotten Nawaz League wasn't interested in the Center in the first place? Being restricted to Punjab goes in his favour, and no muttarwa movement can graze on the plains of Central Punjab which Nawaz rules.

I see cockroach_5 is now unable to post hyperlinks and images. Did someone plug it's code-cooleying butt?

#334 Hmidm2

[ic-814? ..... what the heck is that ???!!!]

MiaN, it is the Pakistani edition of the day that shall forever live in infamy!

I am sure there are at least a couple of Pakistanis out there somewhere (perhaps on Neptune) with some conscience who actually have at least SOME guilt about it – for supporting that atrocity through a complicity of silence!

IC-814 was the precursor to 9-11 and the hands of the Pakistani establishment (and of wishy-washy Pakistanis like yourself) remain forever soiled with blood because of it.

But what is a little bit of blood for the children of the…

…never mind whose children!