Surviving Musharraf's Exit?

"It is high time that they move beyond Musharraf-bashing to reflect on the economic challenges at hand. A collapsing Musharraf, as long as he is around and visible, is doing a great service to politicians by providing media and the people with a punching bag. They should dread the day when he will be suddenly unavailable to absorb the public wrath; leaving them to deal with the difficult questions about their own agenda."

Thanks Moeed, the lone ( except Ferozk) pakistani voice supporting the essential indian voice on chowk.

As long as mushy is there nothing will be done, as they will be busy punching him. Once he leaves, the coalition will fall apart.

There have been a few policies, despite your comments, increasing teh wheat support price is one, but there is no money to pay for, thsi years collection will be only 5 million instead of planned 7 million because no money to pay for. Talking to the jihadis is another one, no plan or idea why this new talks will work when earlier peace deals have failed.

Mushy has pulled another kargill on the politicians, he could not control the jihadis, now the new peace deal will be with the politicians, and they will face the wrath of the US and go back on the deal.

This is classic loose loose situation for pakistan. Only jihadis win in this, and I wish them well, that is what jinnah would have liked, TNT is essentially the political operationalisation of the kafir concept. From the land of teh pure founded by jinnah, the pakistanis are about to take on in a more transparent manner the kafirs of teh world.

I do hope that if this demand is not met, the taliban would send in the suicide bombers to islamabad. There is something serious for the Gilani to negotiate.

from dawn of today


Local Taliban ask govt to sever ties with US



By Anwarullah Khan


KHAR, March 30: Local Taliban militants have asked the new government to end relations with the US and enforce Sharia in tribal areas and have warned tribal elders against meeting US officials.

The warning was issued at a public meeting held in Enayet Kalli near Khar on Sunday which was attended by thousands of tribesmen chanting anti-US slogans.

Addressing the meeting, local Taliban commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, Maulvi Sher Behadur and Dr Muhammad Ismail welcomed the coalition government’s move to repeal the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

“We hail Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s announcement to repeal the FCR,” Maulvi Faqir said, adding that the government should implement Sharia in the tribal region and sever diplomatic relations with United States.

Reality of pakistan. No comments

KARACHI: Govt help sought in Manora temple’s renovation



By Faiza Ilyas


KARACHI, March 30: Sitting on the edge of Manora beach, the temple dedicated to the god Varuna has endured the test of time. Its grandeur stands immaculate amid visible signs of vandalism, official neglect and utter disregard that have been shown to the religious place for over 60 years. Unfortunately, the situation today hasn’t changed much.

The temple was being used as a storeroom by a restaurant owner, who has allegedly occupied a portion of the temple, before members of the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) intervened and took up the issue with the cantonment board officials. During these decades of neglect, many idols have either been stolen or broken while a garbage dump lies in front of the mandir.

The question is not whether Pakistan will survive Musharraf's exit. Rather, it is whether Musharraf will manage to run away like shaukat aziz, or whether he will be brought to court to face his multiple crimes against the nation.


As for the rest of this article, in denying that the politicians have any new ideas, the writer obviously choses to ignore (or perhaps has been unable to understand) the sea-change in Pakistan politics that has already happened.

The mqm ghoondas and the pmlq lotas are the only politicians who continue to think that politics is about being clever and deceiptful.

Jay Thakeray: another piece of bad news for you - "that which does not destroy me, makes me stronger". Pakistan has survived Musharraf's attacks on its pillars of state. And it is emerging stronger as a result.

It seems there are many ill-wishers who keep hoping Parliament rule will collapse and army rule will come back, and ask the question 'Surviving Musharraf's Exit?' rather than asking 'How the Hell Pakistan Survived musharraf's Stay?'

This is a typical layman skeptic view, laced with kanJaRR type venom against the Pakistani common man, which are a dime a dozen - with little or no insight into what the problems are, who created them, or how these are to be fixed.

Could this then explain why politicians are without an original work sheet of their own?

Who said politicians are without a work sheet of their own? The parties are agreed that musharraf's entire economic policy regime needs to be reversed back to the pre-shaukat aziz era. The nominated FM Ishaq Dar,even announced that in so many words in a joint PPP/PML-N press conference a couple of days ago, will release an 'opening balance' within 10 days, and make major policy adjustments.

Their struggle against Musharraf was more in the nature of fixing last minute nails in his political coffins ...

True, and thankfully so.

... which they, by the way, did nicely by focusing on rising prices of wheat and oil, electricity failures and the doom and gloom of the war against terrorism.

... because all the above are solely of musharraf's making.

They probably never got much time or opportunity to reflect on what will they offer once he is finally gone?

Not true as in first para. They know they have to reverse musharraf's policy direction to the pre-musharraf one. No rocket science required for that.

And this lack of reflection may also apply to the sky-rocketing oil and wheat prices in international markets.

Firstly, the recent oil price shock has still not impacted headline inflation. The price rises during the past year were partly due to administrative blunders and partly the wrong policies of monetary expansion.

Secondly the international wheat prices have nothing to do with the price of wheat in Pakistan.

No political party made an issue of oil prices for obvious reasons but their criticism of inflation and wheat was justified since that is solely attributable to economic/administrative policy.

Re Oil, musharraf made a mess by increasing oil demand manifold in the country through trashing urban mass transit schemes in favour of private cars and motorcycles. The Lahore Subway project of Nawaz Govt and the Karachi Mass Transit Overhead Rail System of Benazir Govt were both scrapped by musharraf.

Nothing can be done about it immediately but the same projects will now be revived. In the meantime, favourable terms with Saudia such as hefty discounts plus a deferred payment facility (which Saudia has allowed many times) will be likely negotiated. musharraf's proliferation of private transport at the cost of Public Transport was nothing less than criminal knowing very well that oil price direction is only one-way which is up.

Re wheat, the shortage occurred solely due to allowing private export of fictitiously vast excess quantities at higher international prices than domestic. Pakistan is not only self-sufficient in wheat and has been for decades, but even meets Afghanistan's demand.

Even if it was an administrative error,it was unpardonable considering the crisis it created. The same thing happened in case of Sugar too in 2006, so it's difficult to believe it wasn't a scam. Shaukat Aziz should be extradited to answer how this happened.

Regards

tahmed, you're right. 99% of these people are the ghaddar MQM types.

Congrats to our democratic friends in pakistan, the people of pakistan, the lawyers and the media, who have all worked together to enable change..and, yes, also the politicians..truly a historic step forward..

Good luck ! This is really a great basant/holi gift to all of south asia.

Somehow this Peerzada never impresses me. Is he looking for a role as a talk show anchor, advisor or what?

The essay is full of contradictions and out of sync with reality.

Nawaz has laid out his hand and made everyone else's moves predictable. He gives political impetus to what the Civil Society wants. Lets see what Zardari, MQM and Fazal have up their sleeves? The three would have played their cards in the next 30 days or so and I hope they read the wind.

100 day agenda

..... since everyone is putting forward their demands, here is my list of things that i want the new government to get done in the first 100 days:

1. liberate kashmir
2. fire masadi and make sure he is not employed by any educational institution
3. add 2000 mw of electricity
4. clean up nalla leh
5. end prohibition
6. remove the blasphemy and hadood laws
7. stop cross-border footsie until kashmir is liberated
8. find osama
9. find imran khan
10. provide washing soap to the citizens of pakistan
11. pass a law that requires people in queue to stand at least 5 feet apart
12. prohibit men holding hands in public (unless they are gay)
13. fire masadi
14. stop the unnecessay slaughter of animals on religious holidays and circumcisions
15. appoint sheikh rashid as chairman of the kashmir committee
16. impose a tax on beards
17. prohibit men from shaving their pubic hair
20. provide universal health care and free education
21. find urstruly
22. send masadi into exile in saudi arabia
23. ban altaph bhai from making telephonic speeches
24. let altaph bhai come home
25. repatriate the stranded pakistanis in bangladesh
25. grant full citizenship rights to ahmedis
26. install a street light in front of my brother's house
27. find and sterlize the jamia hafsa women
28. ban roadside peeing and watwani
29. reduce the price of petrol to 10 rupees a liter
30. recover all the missing manhole covers

#9 Posted by ijaz_gul
Ijaz,
I was watching a show with Naveed Qamar and Javed Hasmi discussing the future course. While Hashmi was blunt about 58 2b and other subjects, Naved was looking for words to make his point. On that Hashmi said some thing very important and I hope you will appreciate that too.

Historically, people from the smaller provinces have difficulty in going all out against the army and the president in public forums such as TV because in the past, the army and Punjab have jumped on them for saying things against the army and most were dubbed as unpatriotic.

The PPP suffers from this “holding back” phenomenon too. Right now the PPP is basically from a smaller province and don’t feel that they should confront the army and be dubbed unpatriotic by the media in Punjab and by some Punjab politicians.

The winds have changed now in Punjab and the army is no more a taboo for Punjabi politicians still, for a Sindhi to come out strongly against the army rule could possibly have some problems in the Punjab media.

Hashmi showed that he understands that clearly and said that we (Punjabis) can take a strong stand against the army rule and we understand the hesitancy a Sindhi leader would have in articulating the PPP stand.

NS and the PMLN are pushing an agenda that has been agreed to by both Parties. The sentiments against the army in Sindh are much stronger and the PPP believes that if it takes the lead against the army, there might be some repercussions and they are attempting to protect Sindh from the bum rap and the military action that is still a possibility if the army is regularly mauled in the media and by the politicians.

So what NS is doing is an agreed upon policy and PPP is supportive of his stand.

One more thing Asif Zardari still suffers from his inability to confront issues head on. His approach has always been to find a way out where there is none. I have heard stories that Benazir was often mad at him when she was the PM and Asif tried to pull some deals with the opposition and even with the Generals that Benazir was not willing to go for.

Good try, Hamidm. But Mush is still funnier than you -

Watch the Great Comedian..er..Commando.. administer the oath to office to a government that has vowed to put back the Chief Justice who will then slap the law on him. The government that has vowed to impeach him if it has the 2/3. ha! ha!

Watch Lota-in-a-Uniform..er..Hosni Mubarak..sulk in his room refusing to come out to administer the oath unless those taking the oath take off their black armbands..and then come out anyway when told "he had no choice". ha! ha!

Maybe you and mush should form a travelling team of comedians (if he manages to scoot before the CJ er..NABs..him. You could be the lota, he could be the "great washed..up". ha! ha!

Re: # 12

tahmed,

..... you senile old fool! ..... i raised the slogan of 'musharraf murdabad' long before you jumped on the tonga and i think he will be gone sooner than later ...... but what are you going to do with your life when you don't have musharraf to kick around ?

HP#11 I think that Zardari and NS in particular, and also AK, complement each other and thus provide Pakistan exactly the "management team" it needs at this time to go back from the brink of disaster that Musharraf had brought things to.

Zardari has set a tone of friendliness and humility towards all and without (at least open display) of anger at the way he was imprisoned for political purposes and the way he and Benazir were tarnished by musharraf's goons.

NS (supported by AWK) on the other hand has made sure that the people's mandate is not hijacked - the mandate key things being restoration of the judiciary and musharraf being removed from the position he has illegally occupied. People within PPP (including the PM-nominee for Sind whom I heard) are also making sure that Zardari sticks to the mandate.

The great credit that I give to Zardari is that he has set the right tone that Pakistan needed at this time - that is, in being humble and reaching out to all, he is brought the country together. And most important, he brings to the table the most important aspect - namely, the over-all goal of making Pakistan a peaceful and progressive place for future generations. Just repeating this aspect helps keeps things in perspective and the goals clear for all.

hamidm: what will i do with my life when i dont have mush to kick around? I'll be kicking his lota on chowk around. :-)

PS: and dont try to change facts. you were applauding hosni mubarak and berating the Pakistani awam while Pakistanis were struggling for survival.

Re: # 11

hp mian,

.... i think you are right about zardari ...... every time i see him on tv i get the feeling that he is a weasel who is trying to hedge his bets - that is why a lot of people think he might be working on plan b in case the foreplay with pml-n does not result in real sex ......... as for nawaz sharif, he comes across as an angry man who is so driven by hatred for musharraf (i don't blame him for that) that he just might cut off his nose to spite his face ...... he also needs to loose some weight so that he doesn't keel over before the elections next year ......

....... but, so far so good - there is still a long way to go and we cannot forget the fact that all these people are pakis and a paki by definition is just an indian with a bad attitude ........