The ‘shoey’ Side of Politics

To keep things in perspective six workers were burnt to death, when a factory was burned down during riots on the 28th of December.

rf#285 and now does "complete breakdown of law and order" translate into calling for the military in case of a "difference of opinion"??!! What i am saying here is what any democratic government in the world would do. because the alternative is "might is right".

if this is the best you can do, then clearly i was right first time in saying that you are wasting your time and my time trying to make up convenient "facts".

Re: # 289

IB,

Ada HP comes out with great posts on Pakistan, but when it comes to thalyar Mojos something snaps leading to a Jeckyl and Hyde transformation.

Re: # 277

{Media's role is also to point out and criticize shortcomings of Government. Remember, it is 'media', not just a Reuter ticker of news}

Role of opposition for media that is what is being debated, not their function as reporting and critic role. Remember, media like the judiciary have to be the balancing act between executive and opposition, if they take sides then there will be no objectivity and trust will be compromised.

Re: # 288 - I back arif mian'
Ada HP is Ada when hes thinking without a Sindhi Cap On!

Re: # 286

HP Saeen,

Absolutely right, well said.

Ada Saeen, such insight without any provocation coming from the same person who can dive into racial slurs, what gives?

#274 Posted by zeemax

What's that about?

The new CM of Balochistan (Dawn, April 10)

“...Gwadar is a .... mega problem for the Baloch because settlement of outsiders will deprive the natives of their right to sit in this house. The settlement of outsiders will be conditional and they will have no right to vote or contest elections,”

#240 Posted by ferozk

“You may be right, but in the foreseeable future, the army has no interest in meddling in politics because it has serious professional-institutional issues, which need to be addressed on an urgent basis.”

I am not sure the army has even stepped back. The army may not have a face in the President House but its soul is very much there. Not figuring out what the Pakistan army is and how it operates leads to making false assumptions about the army. I have said it before and I will say this again that currently Pakistan’s politics is army’s politics. The civilians, this time around, have made some headway and are able to present a better and a formidable alliance than their previous attempts. They may get a slightly better reward for that but there is really no real or fundamental swing in Pakistani politics. The structural changes required for keeping the army out of the loop are just not there. The struggle in Pakistan will continue to be between the army and the civilians and this battle will go on until the civilians have the balls-which they get from the people and developed political institutions in the country-to finally end the army intervention in civilian affairs.

Pakistan has never had any established political institutions such as the parliament, strong political parties with mature politicians, a strong judicial system, and the educational institutions that develop social conscientiousness in the middle class. These weaknesses make it harder for the civilians to thwart army interference in the political and in the state affairs. We may gloat over the current successes but it is still dependent on the army’s goodwill and the politicians’ ability to work with the army. The army will cut this off as and when they see the game getting out of hand.

Analysts and political operatives both in Pakistan and outside know that this political alliance still cannot get the Baloch leaders out, it still cannot get Dr. Qadeer out, and it is still dilly-dallying on the judges’ issue. These issues are strongly linked with the army. This is just a partial list of the visible issues. The invisible issues are the US influence in the Pak army, the army’s financial concerns, the arms supplies that it gets from the US, and the jihadist set up that works entirely under the army diktat. There is a long list of to do things in Pakistan and all items have a distinct army stamp on them.

“The Pakistani army's threat preception is under going a paradigmic shift from a conventional external threat assessment based on India specific orientation to an internal threat assessment based on non-state actors specific to an internal insurgency. “

Yes, I have read that in the papers too. But do you really believe that? Is the army equipped to make these fundamental changes or is it a convenient excuse for not doing anything? It takes years to change the orientations from the external threat to internal threats. The Pak army has no tools to implement this neither would it change the existing orientation for the simple reason that any change would require it to drop its current arsenal and reduce the army size for swift actions that are required for dealing with the internal threats. There is nothing that suggests that the Pak army has the intellectual capital and the tools to make these changes. Armies don’t change their orientations in a matter of days. It is a process that requires meticulous planning, resources and the political will. The US army is still struggling with the orientation changes that are still going on after ten or more years. Cheney presented his plan when he was SecDef in the Bush sr. cabinet.

So give up these false hopes and ideas that are presented to bring in more US military advisers in the country. See the game instead of believing in the rhetoric.

“The military will leave the matters in the hands of the civilians while it concentrates on revamping its fighting doctrines based on fighting on the plains of Punjab and deserts of Sindh and making them tuned to needs of fighting in the mountains of FATA and the urban environments of the Pakistani cities. “

Yeah, if wishes were horses!


“Hence, my reasons why it would be hestitant to re-enter politics any time soon.”

It never left. The separation of the Chief of the army staff and the President functions shouldn’t fool anyone in believing that the army will leave things in the civilian’s hands. The army has access to 70% of the assembly members, whether they are from the PPP or the MLn. The leash is not really long. That’s why I said watch the game as it is being played out.

Re: # 272

tahmed32

Enclosed please find your post #96 on the same forum:

{#96 Posted by tahmed32 on April 12, 2008 4:21:50 am
#87 agreed that mqm and its followers have an inflated sense of their own strength and cleverness. and agreed that even in urban karachi they would be no match if the other ethnic groups they routinely target chose to give them a taste of their own medicine.

but there would have to be complete break-down of law and order in karachi for that to happen. and i dont see the rest of pakistan standing idly by in that case - the military would simply be brought in and they would have a curfew of something.}

Facts speak for themselves.

Re: # 283 ohoo that i know but haven't seen it - yaara i think youtube is blocked by my isp or something - everytime i type youtube - google comes !!!!

#282 Posted by IB,

Arrey bhai search for musharraf drunk or something on YouTube and you'll find it.

Re: # 280 kay-ree vedio pa-jee?

T-Ahmed ,Bhai jab 'ehtasab' kerna hain tu across the board kejeyay - bila tafreeq, without discrimination with neutrality instead of targeting one community, ethnic group or a political party – target everyone and I will be the first person to lend my life for such a cause.

#269 Posted by IB,

Haven't you seen the video on YouTube?

#273 IB bhai: that is what i mean in #257 on the need for Pakistanis to join hands to protect democracy with even PPP not being given a free reign to do as it pleases. As the americans have been saying for decades - eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Human beings are not angels - and unless you have democratic checks and balances, those who claim to represent us today will be the ones bullying us tomorrow!

#276 Posted by tahmed32,

Absolutely.