An Open Letter to Gen. Pervaiz Musharaff

ali1 #46 you write ``What I find ``quite funny`` is the way in which some middle aged Pakistani males become so affable when dealing with this person with the handle ``Sadna``.``

You`ll understand how it is possible for people to have a friendly discussion when you have grown up to be four or five years old. Meanwhile, have fun in the playpen with Jay, and try not to wet one another too much.

The writers` mindset is indicative of their Americanisation. May i ask them when was the last time they visited Pakistan? Having lived in USA for over two decades. i am quite familiar with their kind who gauge everything according to their newly found enlightment in the US. Alas, they remain ignorant of the ground realities that are foreign to US. Their statement that Gen Musharraf has destroyed the most sacred document i.e. the Constitution is proof of their naivete. It is also proof of their lack of understanding about the tragic state of national affairs at home (Pakistan). I humbly suggest they read up on the attack on Supreme Court in Nov,97 by the goons of Muslim League to save their despot leader Nawaz Sharif. The Constitution is nothing more than a piece of paper if it is not safeguarded by the Supreme Court. Pakistan had descended into a state of anarchy and lawlessness which the writers cannot fathom sitting in the US Capitol. While their sentiments are innocent, their understanding is flawed. They need to come and live in Pakistan for a year or two before passing judgement on Army action which has been welcomed, nay hailed as a blessing, by 99% Pakistanis. And we all know that the voice of the people is the voice of God!

WasSalaam.

I am surprised at the support some of us are giving to the military take over. The arguement is that our economy was too bad and our elected leaders too corrupt. What are we saying. Are we not humans, Are we donkeys that we need a danda to behave. If we arre donkeys no military will ever change us. A donkey will remain a donkey. Listen be a man, Be a good muslim. Believe in yourself. Oppose military. We are not donkeys we are temporarily behaving like one and the world is treating us like that.

If we think that parvez is so smart why does not he stand for elections and let us all see how does he fair. The elections have to be free. The military force will never dream of it on one excuse or the other. So my countrymen wake up and be humans

Hi Mueen Batlay and Rahal Saeed,

Please come down from the clouds of unrealistic existance. You probably have never lived in Pakistan so without knowing the facts, you are riding your high horse of impersonal criticizm. When basic things in life become unaffordable for the common people, food, clothing and shelter are taxed by corrupt politicians so that they can build palaces and Swiss bank accounts, democracy is the last thing on people`s mind. So please, do some research on things like the price of normal use items and goods in Pakistan and the taxes levied on hard working people by a corrupt and unjust `democratic` rulers and then tell everyone how many lives must be sacrificed to serve the demagoges of democracy. By the way your high horse called `impersonal criticizm` may need new shoes by the time you finish your research.

Hi

Pervaiz Musharif is a self proclaimed King.

Accusing the Ex Prime Minister of Hijacking and endangering the life of passengers is an attempt to save his own neck from the charges of treason.

Than following the same policies of the disposed Prime Minister confirms the accuracy of his policies.

The General is so attracted by the power that he wishes to stay as the ruler of Pakistan till either he is killed by his Master`s or removed by the public like Ayub Khan or Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

The cam conditions in Pakistan are being considered as acceptance of the Army Government is a false implication of the international media. God forbid if the public comes to the street it going to be civil war.

Than again the one sided views of the newspapers confirms that the media is either being used by the army or are on the pay role of the army.



Pervaiz Musharif is nether accepted by the public nor has been accepted by the Pakistani people.

A bold letter but will never be acted upon. No military ruler has ever retraced his steps unless made to run for life. People in Pakistan have never had the guts to stop military rules nor they have now.Today is not a cold war era and the west has no use for Pakistan as a base. Parvez has given a golden opportunity to India to mould the world opinion against Pakistan and in the process may even isolate them from important world bodies. Wonder how long it will take parvez to learn the ground realities of world politics.

I am in total agreement with what you wrote, I will love to paticipate in the struggle for restoration of democracy.

very `smooth` writeup..let us look inward as well..if you can help some one to return all the excise & incometax that has been evaded to this date for whom your ``illustrated father`` is working ..the country from this recovery will be able to pay most of its debts...NO JOKE..this is what the country is plauged with...sorry moeen not your fault..but just to bring the point home..our fabric has been corrupted to no end...

Re. Shaheen_V

Post #111



It is quite apparent that posts #s 98&100 haven`t caught your attention. Do see them if you have not yet.

How dare you make a death threat to individuals who express their opinion? How dare you?

And how did the Chowk editors/managers/ moderators/webmasters let your criminally allusive death threat be posted?

Not only that. I have gone through the entirety of posts and found not one word of condemnation against that threat anywhere, in any of them. What a shame.

Listen mister/(Ms.), if you ever utter such words again I shall be the first to report you to the police. I know where your post originated. So be kind to yourself and do not repeat such veiled or open death threats again. Ever! For all I know, you maybe writing such dross to me next. Only, I will not be as charitable as Moen and Rahal; or the rest of the participants in the discussion. I am a person of cool thought.

I almost never get angry (mad), but you have riled me up so much with your idiocy that I shall never forgive you for it.

Your khair`khawah and dua`go,

Sohni_Dharti_

Well first of all u are talking about the constitution of pakistan,tel me what was necessary

the constitution or the country if there is no pakistan what will the constitution do??.Had that palne crashed u just think what would have happened???? the army would have replicated and might have killed all the ``PEOPLE`` invovled in

this act.What will be the position of Pakistan under that position?Who would have been the next

leader?? ahhh this would have created another dispute and these circumustances kead to civil war

I personally think that u are a big and BLIND supporter of nawaz sharif.

THe second thing u r suitting in america enjoying life and u r talking about pakistan just come her live for a few days and then only u wil know whwta shouldbe dona nad what was right and what the people of pakistan wanted.

WHy the people in karachi ,lahore,peshawar distributed sweets and weer happy on this act

bcoz the majority wated this and the makority support and believe in army.

The most important thing!! which democracy are u talking about han only 30% votes were casted this means that 70% people of pakistan dont at all want any of these(NAWAZ & BAYNAZIR etc etc) to be the ruler!!! so just answer this question if u can

and i will accept all rubbish what u have said

Hello, & Good day,

Mueen & Batlay,

I`m an American by Birth - a muslim by virtue of my DAD`s religion - Living in Pakistan since 1989. Been travelling in Pakistan every now & then. Have seen the Lowest form of life and been among the elites of the Power corridors for apporx a decade.

The more powerful they are the most Dirt they become. The democracy for which you two seems to be most sympathetic is not democracy its show of Power from a lowest eb of humanity - Greed, Lust and revenge is the form of Govt. which the Inept politicians practice. Basic Govt. In Pakistan is run by the Beaurucrates - The Secratries and the Ministries. A Cabinet member of the ruling Govt is helpless if the Secratary running his Ministry is adamant for - NOT File Goes ahead - sort of attitude.

When was last you two tasted the system of Pakistan - when did you two really travelled in PIA`s economy class and suffered the humiliation of disgusting crew members -

You Two seems to have been enjoying the pure US life having least idea what was going on in Pakistan. Nawaz Shareef was conspiring for a GREATER Punjab togetherwith Khalistan People in Canada - For Him Pakistan would be from Shimla to Hasan Abdal, - He humiliated Pakistan Defence forces over number of times in past 30 months, thereby creating a crack in the integrity and the unity of the whole Army.

What he was to achieve, by ordering the plane not to land in Pakistan - was a different story.. will be narrated - next week... stay tuned

I have read your `open` letter and all the responses to it so far (Oct. 26, 00:1:50). I couldn`t with you more. You deserve qudos for it.

However, it appears to me that your letter may have been too erudite for the understanding of the grass-root, dirt-level person. Their responses are mostly venomous, inane, asanine and mostly insanely dismissive.

Next time if you write a letter of this nature keep it at the `left-right, left-right` level so that at least the tin soldier understands it.

Greetings from Sohny Dharty

Sohny Dharty

i ll ask these traitors, moin and rahal, how much money did u take from india? thats why u are so staunchly criticiZING THE most respected person in pakistan right now and his institution, which is the best of all organizations in the country.

do think before you speak or your death will come much more quickly than u expect.

Pu LI,

I liked your observation, western education obtained by the children of pak landlords deny them of social awareness, and leads to the continuance of fuedal mentality. That probably explains a lot of the pak postings. I also realise that most pakistanis go to US paying their way. while most from india go with some financial aid from the US. Of course the integrity of the indian education still ensures that the rich duds cannot make it in the IITs and other prestiges institutions.

How will you explain the nehrus and the gandhis, sam pitroda of modern times, and several of my own class mates who have left the US to do some thing in india. Of course, not out of great patriotism, but didnt want to bring the children up in that society, or wanted positions `seniour` to what they had in the US.

Re jay #108:

The large landholders would have been primarily in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, UP, Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc. The southern states had different problems than these.

Travancore-Cochin (later merged into Kerala), Mysore (merged into Karnataka), Hyderabad (marged into Andhra) and Pudukkottai (meged into Tamil Nadu) were the princely states in the south. Here land was never titled to the tiller, primarily the ownership of land was supposed to rest with the princes/ruling families. With the abolition of princely states, the land settlement acts in these states took away the ``state lands`` and distributed them to the tillers. The exceptions were the Poligars (palayakkarans) of southern Tamil Nadu who had surrendered all their rights to the British in the late 1700s and who were treated as zamindars by the British, not princes, though these Poligars styled themselves Rajas, such as the Raja of Ettayapuram or Ramanathapuram. Of these, the latter had very substantial holdings of land in excess of 100 square miles which was taken away in the land reforms.

Portions Bengal, Bihar, etc., were given away to jagirdars and zamindars by the British so as to reduce the burden of collecting agricultiral taxes and to establish an aristocracy with a vested interest in supporting the British. These zamindars virtually were kings over their lands because of their immense wealth. While the Zamidari Abolition Act took away those lands that could be clearly identified through land records as leased land, there were also large landholders who owned the land and Vinoba Bhave was targetting these people in his Bhoo-dhan (Gift of Land) movement.

To this day you will find landlords holding a hundred acres or more in the fertile deltas of Godavari and Krishna in Andhra and Kaveri in Tamil Nadu. These large landholders in Tamil Nadu were primarily Brahmins (who used to call themselves zamindars and mirasdars but not really so in the legal sense) and khammas in Andhra. In Tamil Nadu, the children of such landholders took to Western-style education in the professions and stayed in the city, forcing their elders to sell off their lands just as in Kerala. In Andhra, the fact that land is very valuable is keenly appreciated by the younger generation and so you do not see land changing hands from the formerly privileged classes to the tillers. Hence the continued Naxalite insurrection in Andhra.

The problem Pakistan faces is that of zamindars who hold tens of thousands of acres. These owners have the money to buy off the politicians and keep land reforms at bay. You will find that their children are educated in the UK and the USA (as opposed to the Namboodris of Kerala who went off to get their education in Trivandrum) but a Western education does not necessarily inculcate any sense of social justice. To them, a Western education is equivalent to shopping at Nieman-Marcus or Harrods and that lifestyle can be maintained only by holding on to their lands.

Unless Pakistan breaks up these large landholdings, Pakistan has no hope of enfranchising the peasants.

The other interesting thing is that the law in India requires the crops to be divided 60:40, with 60% going to the tiller and 40% to the landlord. (I believe this was later raised to 80:20 but I may be wrong on this point). Even though the peasantry in Kerala and Tamil Nadu were uneducated in the 1950s, the Communists and fellow leftists in Kerala and Tamil Nadu raised the awareness of the peasants as to their rights. Hence, more money flowed to the tillers and their children were able to afford education, thus giving rise to higher literacy rates in these two southern states compared to Andhra and Karnataka which stayed longer under Congress rule with more conservative governments. True land reform can thus be seen to open up the route to a more literate society.

If Pakistan were to enact such a law and the peasants are able to hold on to 60% of the crop yields, there may be some hope for them even if the waderas keep their large landholdings. But the waderas with their money can buy off any attempt at land reform. Thus, the first step should be to take away the land from the waderas and the like and distribute it to the tillers.