Military Action Begins in Afghanistan

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dost-mittar #252: Thanks for the article. Actually, I had read it at internet addition of Dawn. I did not reply you earlier because, except for thanking you, I had nothing to add to this topic. I actually feel guilty of posting couple of lines saying formal words or ridiculing someone because I feel it would be a wastage of time for readers going through a useless post. It is not difficult for me and for everybody else to follow what a person with ten or more different usernames has been doing. Anyway here is a decent readable article which I copied from www.matteela.com courtesy of one of ``our own``-AnNy.

Searching for a Framework by Haider Ali

Language and separatism ideas are so intertwined in Pakistan’s history, both pre and post independence that in most people’s mind language has become a symbol of separatism. The secession of East Pakistan and language movements in West Pakistan added to this confusion. The truth is quite the contrary. Language, as the essential articulation of human history and culture, binds rather than separates mankind. All the non cultural dimensions of human history like property, economic class, gender or male domination, barbarism, vandalism and all forms of nationalism are the real separatist elements. It is the expropriation of language by the nationalism idea, that has created this distortion. The spiritual , linguistic and literary father of the Punjabi language , as we know it today is Baba Fareed , whom Maulvi Abdul Haque called the first writer of the Urdu language . I found all the verbs of the Bengali language common with Punjabi . Sindhi and Punjabi ,at one level are difficult to tell apart . And I could get away with some form of Urdu all over Pakistan and most parts of India . The problem is nobody cared to learn any language . Script rather than the language became the primary issue. Separatism has its roots elsewhere and is buttressed by the idea of nationalism , which is a very recent European aberration . The rulers in Pakistan as well as in India have continued to use this tool to maintain a false consciousness that suits the rulers better than peoples’ awakening, peoples’ rights, democracy, economic justice and other moot cultural issues like development of language and arts. The enemy of Pakistani culture is not the so called cultural invasion from India or other foreign channels but the imbecility of the PTV and puerility of our print media. Human language is a thing apart; language provides sustenance to people, keeps their memory alive, enriches their communication and makes them creative. The media uses the art of advertising that kills all these. The TV and the newspapers have become tools in the hands of repressive rulers. We listen to their babble over TV and the newspapers advertise their mindless policies. Pushkin identified these as the mimatic vis a vis the creative elements in human culture. Gunter Grass says that language is destroyed before a people are destroyed and he traces the changes in German language at the time of rise of Nazi Germany. The first germs of bad literature in Punjabi came not from denial of language rights to Punjabis but from bad writing . The bad writing in Punjabi came from the disempowerment of the people and a devastation of their consciousness by the media and by the illiterate rulers. All poetry in Punjabi now , like in Urdu, or Sindhi and Hindi for that matter, has a one word theme “lookwhatagreatpoetIam “ ! The rise of the left and youth movements world wide in the sixties and political movements in Pakistan provided a breath of life to the Punjabi language in Pakistan. Language is born among the people and nurtured there for thousands of years . Only pro people govenments and elements can understand this. Language ( the ability to name things ) according to Holy Koran , makes humans superior to angels ! The poetic tradition in Punjabi for nearly a thousand years had been pro people. All the Sufi poets as Maulvi Abdul Haq observes, wrote in the people’s language in Punjab. In fact, they were way ahead. Most of them used the feminine gender for themselves. This is not an issue of radical feminism as we understand it today. The oppression of women, like all forms of human oppression, is class and property based : woman is the most opressed creature because she is treated like a piece of husband’s / man’s property. The absence of female writers in Punjabi, may be only symptomatic, but is a real deficiency . The only sign of hope in Pakistan in many fields of education is the rise of the womenfolk. From tribal areas to the cities, the most serious students are girls. Unfortunately that is not the case in Punjabi writing. “Gabhroos” (young lads) and “daang” (the rod) and “Mirza” the “all male” hero of Mirza Sahiban rather than the feminish , lovable and gentle Ranjha, was mistakenly made the symbol of an imaginary Punjabi culture and Punjabi manhood. That would be a piece out of a British army recruiting mela anthem, enlisting the cannon fodder for the army of the British Empire. This has also been typified by the Punjabi movie hero. Bhartee ho Punjabi sher Dushman de bhumbiree pher ( Get enlisted you Punjabi lion Make the enemy spin like a top ) The typically Punjabi character would be difficult to define. This is where language comes in. The Punjabi language more than anything else defines the Punjabi culture and character. The nuances of the language express nuances of a culture. That is why all languages need to be kept alive. The process of imperialism from the medieval times onwards or even earlier in the Roman conquest of Europe brought in the idea of power - languages; the languages of the rulers and the ruling classes. From this the language movements borrowed the idea that transfer of power to the language group will enhance the language and culture of a people. Punjabis, despite having ruled as a majority province in Pakistan of today , destroyed the Punjabi culture and language. The idea of power- language and power- culture is destructive. Language is of a gentler specie. Imperialism more than feudalism killed the spirit of the Punjab. The Punjabis were more colorful and creative till the time of the advent of the British Empire. Look at the rich profusion of poetry in the eighteenth century Punjab, its decline in the nineteenth century and death and burial in the twentieth century. Most of the good writers of Punjabi in the latter half of the twentieth century came from the left. Both in Pakistan as well as in the Indian Punjab so far, they have been the bulwark of creative Punjabi writing. But the rise of BJP and the Khalistan movement in the East Punjab , like Gen Zia’s rule in Pakistan have caused great cultural confusion .Despite a quantum jump in the number of Punjabi books in Pakistan and , perhaps in India too , in quality there has been a great leap backwards . The next generation of writers, hopefully, would be a better read breed of writers. Majority of writers of Punjabi in Pakistan today are only there because they think anything goes on a vacant stage and most of those who write badly, as a rule , have read very little! Let us hope the next generation of writers in Punjabi in Pakistan would have read some Punjabi, would be independent minded yet a tolerant lot, and preferably be of a feminine gender ! Looking at the current lot of Punjabi writers , that will not be an unfair discrimination ! The pen may not supercede the sword , essentially a male weapon , in the foreseeable future But the biggest enemy of the culture is not the sword but the powerful media. We live in a media defined world. Backed by money and technology, it is becoming monstrously powerful. We today write and speak the language of the media . The print media in the hands of the barrons is bad enough, but the TV is sheer murder . And it is so much more powerful . Language will not be promoted by compromising with the idiot- box , but by transforming it , if not by boycotting it, and creating a more humane world , where people instead of dumbly looking at the TV screen , talk to each other. That is what language is all about !

From Dawn:

[Pakistan is suffering from its own trauma. The institution, which had shaped and nurtured the Afghan policy over the last 20 years, is paying a horrendous price for the failure of this policy with its credibility and its standing in the country`s power hierarchy.

Those belonging to the minuscule minority providing the political under-pinning to the institution`s Afghan policy all these years are paying their own price in the shape of the sudden collapse of their bigger than life political image very craftily crafted by the authors of the failed Afghan policy themselves.

The silent majority, which had acquiesced in this policy without a whimper all these years, is paying the price twice over. First because it sees itself, for a change, agreeing on an issue like the Taliban and Osama with the Americans whom this silent majority had always viewed as the world`s most oppressive of oppressors. And secondly, they see the institution, which had more than once led the country into blind alleyway, once again being pushed by the short-sighted world into a pre-eminent political position in the country.

Those very members of the ruling elite, who used to froth at the mouth protesting what they would call ``interference in the internal affairs`` of Pakistan when the Commonwealth secretary-general or the UK foreign minister would condemn the military takeover of October 12, 1999 and demand a quick return to democracy, were seen clapping unabashedly and thunderously the other day when the visiting British secretary of state for international development Claire Short, speaking at a well-attended dinner hosted by finance minister Shaukat Aziz condemned the Pakistani politicians for `plundering` their country when they were in power.

This maligning of Pakistani politicians by the new found friend of the regime not only was not seen as ``interference in the internal affairs`` of Pakistan but it went so well with the ruling elite that a couple of days later the finance minister who has an exaggerated self- image of his economic management abilities proudly recalled the British insult in the presence of a number of local editors, perhaps to win on the rebound the elusive domestic mandate for his policies at least. And he had the cheek to ask another editor who was present at the Claire Short dinner for corroboration.

It is certainly unjustified at this point in time to ask those who lost so much on September 11 to keep in mind the small little matter of democracy in Pakistan, their new found friend. But it would be equally wrong on the part of thinking Pakistanis if they did not point out to the US and the UK at this point in time in their war against international terrorism that Afghanistan has become what it is today because of lack of `genuine` democracy in Pakistan. The term `genuine` here is not being used in the same sense that the present military rulers are using it to define the kind of democracy which they have in mind for Pakistan following the promised October 2002 elections. The term has been used here for a democracy free of interference from the permanent establishment, no matter what the provocation.

General Ziaul Haq and the successive chiefs of Army staff, who followed him after his demise in 1988, had pursued an Afghan policy which could not have ended in any other way than what it has turned out to be in the post-September 11 international environment. Pakistan`s foreign office had nothing to do with this policy. In fact the FO was taken out of the Afghan loop soon after the signing of the Geneva accords which the permanent establishment in the country had thought to be an outright betrayal of Pakistan`s national interests. It was in order perhaps to keep this very scatterbrained policy on its course that after 1988 the permanent establishment had kept rigging election after election to bring in governments of its choice and throwing them out when the elected government tried to interfere with this policy.

Now in their desperation to distance themselves from this policy they are even seen seeking scapegoats for this policy in Benazir Bhutto and her interior minister Naseerullah Khan Baber. In fact, if you ask some of the responsible people in the regime for their opinion on Taliban today you would be shocked by their vehemence against the rulers in Kabul.

Tailpiece: In a city like Karachi where there was no significant presence of Jamaat-i-Islami for at least two decades, the permanent establishment had manoeuvred to bring in a Jamaat Mayor through what looked like a fair and free local government elections. Some ask: ``Was this a test run for the real thing to come?`` Well, it would sound too ridiculous today, more so because of the current crisis, but do not be shocked if after the October 2002 elections, if they are held at all, the Jamaat Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmed is elected the prime minister of Pakistan.-Chatterbox ]

Why should any person trust what they are saying now?

Ref Shitt Pitt #: 235

[The tragedy of Pakistan is that during its 54 years of existence it has been hijacked by its military rather than run by the representatives of its people.]

The tragedy of Pakistan is simply the fact that it exists.

[Each and every individual Pakistani must pledge to carry out his or her responsibility, diligently and conscientiously so that the nation as a whole becomes fully conscious of its covenant with Allah to turn Pakistan into an ideal Islamic State.]

An ideal Islamic State. Such as, Saudi Arabia? Afghanistan? Or, would it be the one run by the Second Caliph? Or the Fourth Caliph?

And the guy who wrote this crap is a professor in a university? In what? Quranic Studies?

AnNy: Thanks for the link. It is pretty good. I consider such precise information, a great reward, a sign of respect and appreciation, a time well spent in writing a post and interacting with fellow chowkwallahs. Thanks again.

Eklavya: Very well said. I personally feel that without Sikhism and Sikh activism, Punjabi would have survived as an accent of Hindi, Hindustani or Urdu-like in Haryana.

dost-mittar: Only thanks!

Stuka: I have seen that movie 3-4 times. Try watching Shaheed-e-Mohabbat and Shaheed Udham Singh also. They are really good movies. Just Juhi Chawla`s dance in Udham Singh is worth watching repeatedly. The song is a Pakistani Punjabi song sung again by Narula, just beautiful.

Dost-Mittar,

Sat Sri Akal!

Honestly, I have always been a bit ashamed of the behavior of Punjabi Hindus in identifying with Hindi more than with Punjabi. May be it is just my optimism but I have noticed an increasing willingness to accord Punjabi its rightful place, both among Punjabi Hindus and other Indians.

Semi,

My last post addressed to you should have read, ``I couldn`t help...``

Pray for me, if you can. I must be losing my mind with so much going on in my life :(

Why it is difficult for some people to understand where I stand on religion, religious fundamentalism and military becoming the most powerful institution in Pakistan? During my 2+ years of interaction at chowk, I have been sharply critical of the self-serving role of military as the defender of the an out-dated ideology and continous destabilization of Political institutions of Pakistan.

My opposition to Islamic fundamentalism is due to their obscurantism, craze for a medieval lifestyle and value system, delusions of grandeur, no respect for law and non-conformists to their ideology and disregard for ethnic and national boundries in favor of ummah. I can not believe in any theistic religion because I do not believe in the existence of god. Like all other creations of human beings there are good as well as bad sides to all their creations including science, god and religions. For this very reason and not having a bloody history, I have, on more than ocassion, written for my likeness of a non-theistic religion, Buddhism over fiercely theistic Islam or Christianity. For religious people, god exists everywhere and in the skies; for mw it only exists within human mind.

Now military: Warlord does not have a strict definition. It means a person or leader who leads hip people against others using ethnic, political or religious differences in order to gain power. In the history, warlords have become political leadrs and political leader have turned to warlordism. A warlord can be a tribal chief or supported by the rubber stamp representative of the elders. Some of the highly regarded religious figures could easily be branded as warlord before achieving their objectives.

Core commanders represent the power of military in Pakistan. Every institution in the world divides their region of influence into cores, zones, commands, regions, districts etc for effective management. The difference between Pakistani military and other institutions is that it consumes a very substantial amount of tax-payers money every year and does the quite opposite of what rest of institutions do for their funding agencies or share-holders. The return on your own investment (taxes by citizenry) is by running over the institutions that feed them and then deciding unilaterally the amount of money they will need in the next budget. There are already news about a possible rise in the defense spending next year in the wake of changing situation in the region. This loop is extremely self-serving. With roughly 30 percent of the budget going to military in return for providing livelihood for less than 5 percent of the work force is not exactly an example of efficiency. Federal and provincial bureaucracy support more than double (10 percent) of the work force with less money than military budget. Money spent on military is an insurance towards defending the nation in time of necessity. By the very definition, military is a war machine. The leaders of military are warriors and war leaders.

The core commanders of the leader of a war machine in their region. When there is no war, they are the highest authority od military in their sphere of influence-core. Everytime military has moved in to overthrow civilian government in Pakistan, they have always justified it as defending the country from corruption, destabilization, political infighting or economic collapse. It is a war according to their own definition of defending the country. In wartime, the leader of the zones or cores are leader of the war. Isn`t it make them warlords? Except for Musharraf`s overthrow, all other coups in Pakistan were followed by elevation core commanders of Quetta, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar to become martial law administrators or governors. All the coups were against the written law of the land. Isn`t Rashid Dostam want to become governor of Uzbek region of Afghanistan? Fuzair has provided one first hand example of the power and spoils of core commander, after winning the war (coup, defending ideological boundries), becoming governor. There are plenty of examples from the history of Pakistan. What else is warlordism? Although Romair used to vehemently oppose to my suggestion of ISI or military involvement in sectarian killing and a surge in sectarian killing leading to NS ouster. Now more and more articles are appearing about the role and complicity of ISI, Taliban, jehadis and sectarian violence as pieces of the same puzzle. Why on earth a DG ISI will deal with Umer Shaikh? In defending the country? Did not former DG ISI Hameed Gul orchestrated the victory of NS in the first election and DG ISI Javed Nasir doing the same thing seconf time around? What war they were fighting. They always call it defending the country, strategic depth etc. That makes them warlords. period.

Which law stipulated them to wage a war against corruption and lawfully but stupid decision of NS to replace COAS. Yes, they were the core commanders of Rawalpindi and Karachi who waged a war and in the process became warlords-leading to a coup on behalf of a dismissed person who was not even on ground in Pakistan.

To sum up, a war (according to their own definition) waged by the warriors themselves, without considering the law of the land, makes their leaders warlords and often they end up benefitting from it in civilian capacity.

Thanks Fuzair and sac. Sac, I do not come from military family and do not have close relatives serving in the military. Distant relatives? who knows? Having many sisters marrying in different families......

I apologise for a belated response.

re: sameerjb # 239

``an identity that is neither against India nor Pakistan.``

``National identity should be based on a compromise ...``

All of us stand at the meeting points of many many, dynamically changing, shifting, growing, diminishing circles of consciousness and interactions, both over time and in space. Each one of us, completely and totally, is a product of that continual compromise. When we deny compromise, we deny the fact that we are human beings.

It is only cults that cut off those circles. When they succeed, as David Koresh did, they lead people to ``heaven`` through mass suicide, or mass murder, depending upon how much power they are able to grab, when others, more decent people, dont resist them while they still can.

Sammerjb, thank you for pointing all that out so well using examples we can all understand. I consider both Edward Said and Hannan Ashrawi as glittering examples of that necessary marriage of cultures that is the only fount of all civilizational life.

Sameersaab you might be intersted in

www.matteela.com.

It focuses on punjabi music, literature and films and is making big waves in Karachi circles.

Sadna,

Have you read anything about the Taliban and bin laden building a network/underworld in some of the mountains in Afghanistan? Supposedly this underground is being financed by bin laden and other rich, evil, James Bond villain types, and it sounds a bit farfetched to me, but a friend said he read it in a local surburban paper. Whats your take on this?

re: definition of progressive; will answer it Sunday. Perhaps Dost Mittar, Sameer, Upman, and other self confessed left leaning wonks will chime in. Providing we have taken our weekly showers...

cheers!

Change of Topic:

Has anyone seen a Punjabi movie called ``Mahol Theek Hai`` by Jaspal Bhatti. I would totally recommend it. Its hilarious, and deals with Punjab Police. Lot of ironical takes on KPS Gill and his butt-grabbing incident with Rupam Deol, an IAS officer, as well as Punjab Police techniques of interrogation and interaction with common people.

A must see.

dost-mittar #238: Punjabi press in Pakistan is so insignificant that such literature is hardly read or effect the spoken Punjabi of people of Pakistan. The sentence you quoted is as Punjabi as Pakistani national anthem is in Urdu. There are plenty of places in Punjab where such books and literature must end up-they are called gutters or garbage cans. No impact on Punjabi literature, none whatso ever.

Having said that, it is not unexpected of many Punjabis to downplay their own heritage in the name of Islam or Pakistan, leading them to produce their work looking as Persian and Arabic as possibly can. However, Punjabi is here to stay and survive, thanks to Sikhism in the same way Arabic benefitted from Islam. I seriously doubt that Punjabi language and pride in Punjabi heritage would have survived if not for sikhism and sikhs. Just like Edward Said and others, being Christians as well as Arabs speak respectively of Islam, Punjabis whether Muslims and Hindus, must respect and credit Sikhism for firmly planting the roots of Punjabiat among Punjabis. Although I am not even one percent as intellectual as Edward Said is but I feel for Sikhism in the same way as he feels for Islam.

In this way, I disagree with Dawn article because it does not consider the changes that are slowly seeping among Punjabis about Punjabiat on a non-religious track. The music, art, poetry, diaspora Punjabis and relatively successful in India, Pakistan, Britain, US and Canada in addition to a Punjabi religion is fomenting slowly an identity that is neither against India nor Pakistan. Unfortunately the repeated military intervention in the political affairs of Pakistan hurt flowering of ethnic cultures due to their insistance of a self-serving nationalism that does do nothing to fortify a national identity. National identity of Pakistan should be based on a compromise, a give and take, among the distict ethnic groups living in Pakistan instead of the unity of Muslims of sub-continent that failed with the creation of Bangladesh. Islamic fundamentalism and Indira Gandhi`s handling of Punjab hurt Punjabiat but the reaction to both events created/ and creating a more stronger Punjabi and ouwardly visible identity.

Well, I can keep on writing on this topic but let me spend some time in responding to my comments about warlords and core commanders. Interstingly that post of mine also dealt primarily with making a distinction of Pakistani identity from that of Afghan and central Asian cultures but, not surprisingly, some can not take any unfavorable mention of the holy cows in Pakistan.

semi,

You couldn`t help grinning last week when Ayeda had India singing, top 1 to 10, - Mujh Ko Bhi Tau Lift Kara Dey!

In the remote possibility that someone hasn`t heard that song, enjoy -

http://www.netguruindia.com/entertain/audiomusic/audiohindi/songs1/LiftKaradey.ram

From the Friday times

TOP TEN NEW PROFESSIONS FOR TONY BLAIR

10. Cheerleader

9. Court jester

8. Shoe-shine boy

7. Messenger boy (with his own bike)

6. Chief gardener, White House

5. Head of janitorial staff, Pentagon

4. Voluntary foreign-substance taster, American Centre for Poison Control

3. Royal physician for White House pets

2. Chief supplier of White House toilet paper

1. Official pedicurist for Barbara Bush (maan ki dua, janat ki hawa)

Pakistan’s Leaders Are to Blame for Problems

Copyright: http://www.iviews.com

Published Friday October 05, 2001

By Siraj Islam Mufti



Pakistan came into being by virtue of the struggles by Muslims of the Indian subcontinent to maintain and strengthen their distinct Islamic identity. Muslims ruled India for nearly one thousand years and then lost their leadership position but were at the forefront of opposition and resistance against the British colonial rule that lasted for approximately 200 years. Their persistent confrontations with the colonial rulers resulted in the shift of power balance in favor of the Hindu majority. This made them realize that if they remained even after achieving political independence, they would remain deprived of their ideological goals.

The Pakistan movement was based not on color or race, but on Islamic faith. This was clearly stated by the leader of the independence movement, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the Quaid-e-Azam (the Great Leader) in several addresses. As for example, at the world- famous Muslim University, Aligarh on March 8, 1944 he announced:

_______

But Pakistan’s ideological foundations were endangered by secularists who...promoted their self-interest and looted the resources of the country to fill their coffers and benefit their cronies.

________



``Tawheed (i.e., the Principle of Unity of Allah) – neither country nor race – is the basis of Muslims’ nationality. When the first native of India became a Muslim, he no longer remained a member of the nation he belonged to but became a member of another distinct nation. Have you noted what was the motivation behind the demand for Pakistan? Neither Hindus’ narrow-mindedness nor the British scheme – it was a basic demand of Islam.``

Despite secularists claims to the contrary, the above-noted assertions constitute irrefutable facts of history. An independent Muslim state was finally realized on the 27th day of Ramadan, 1947.

But Pakistan’s ideological foundations were endangered by secularists who had no role in the Pakistan movement but soon came to hold its reins of power. They promoted their self-interest and looted the resources of the country to fill their coffers and benefit their cronies. These persons now have the audacity to assert that Iqbal and Jinnah wanted to establish a secular state, and it is the religious extremists who wish to turn Pakistan into a theocratic state and take it back to ``medieval times``.

But the 54-year old history of Pakistan is a witness to the fact that it is the secular leadership that has most harmed the country. It was, and continues to be the cause for its weaknesses and failures. These secular groups have imposed themselves on the country in the form of politicians, in the guise of bureaucrats and in the garb of military rulers. On the other hand, it is the genuine religious leaders who have reined them in and struggled for the rights of the people. It is the Islamists who worked for protection of basic human rights and freedoms, strengthening of national security and restoration of democracy.

Secularism by itself has no vision for the individual, society or humanity for a better world. Today, secularism serves as a tool for establishing global domination by the West. Globalization as advanced by the West has not only its economic-exploitative and political-hegemony goals but also their ideological agenda. In the Muslim world, it also undermines state institutions in the guise of non-government organizations (NGOs). The promotion of secularism in Muslim lands is meant to divide the people and cause conflicts among them, because even through much word play and trickery, it cannot replace Islam, which is deeply ingrained in the Muslim psyche. Indeed, advocates of secularism, consciously or unconsciously, play the role of agents of Western colonialism in the Muslim world.

Therefore, the secular class must desist from trying to make controversial what is already agreed upon as consensus of the Pakistani nation. Pursuing such a divisive course would create confusion among people at a time when what is needed is to organize and galvanize masses for the positive constructive purposes.

Consider as a prime example, the constitution that has been worked out over a long period of time and enjoys national consensus. But it has never been acted upon. Although successive governments took the oath to uphold it, yet each time they adopted a variety of evasive, hypocritical tactics to become disloyal to it.

The constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan is based on three major foundations. Islam is its fountainhead and its basic foundation is laid down in its Objectives Resolution and the Islamic provisions. The Objectives Resolution is not only a preamble to the constitution but also its operative clause. Articles 2 and 2A of the constitution determine the powers of the state and its ideological boundaries. Article 227 gives the principles and limits of law making. The articles pertaining to Council of Islamic Ideology and Federal Sharia Court establish a system of checks and balances. The chapter of guiding principles for policy provides guidance for governance in the light of Islam. The constitution sets separation of powers and independence of judiciary. It instructs that the entire legal system be brought into conformity with the Shariah, a destination that is not in sight even after 28 years of its provision. Articles 62 and 63 delineating the standards for leadership and oaths are like covenants with the Pakistani nation.

All this is part of the constitution and the Council of Islamic Ideology has provided instructions for every facet of life in more than 40 reports. If there has been a failure and obviously there is, it is because the political leadership - parliament, political parties and their leaders have ignored these provisions of the constitution.

As its second foundation, the constitution provides a system of parliamentary democracy and delineates the distribution of powers and the role and obligation of each and every institution. But neither the elections are held according to it nor the parliament plays its duly assigned role.

The constitution has as its third foundation - the federalism, with distribution of powers between the center and the provinces. Yet, neither the process of distribution of powers has taken place nor institutions established for strengthening its federalist provisions. Pakistani leadership is afflicted with a disease; concentration of powers at the top, and this has not only deprived the constituents of their due rights but also engendered and pro,moted separa,tist tendencies in the provinces. In the interest of progress and development of the country, it is imperative that these three essential foundations of the constitution are respected and enacted without any further delay.

The tragedy of Pakistan is that during its 54 years of existence it has been hijacked by its military rather than run by the representatives of its people. And even when civilian politicians got themselves elected, they imposed their personal decisions rather than working in consultation with the people. The real tragedy of the Muslim world is that persons at the helm consider themselves as embodying the ultimate wisdom, instead of depending on the people to run their country’s affairs and safeguard their national interests. Thus, these leaders have adopted the path of dictatorship with abrogation of people’s rights. The result is the nonexistence of any viable democratic and Islamic institution in the Muslim countries. To break this vicious cycle in Pakistan, it is imperative that a completely autonomous election commission constituted in the framework of articles 62 and 63 is instituted and fully empowered to carry out free and fair elections on scheduled time.

Pakistan’s economic woes are not due to any lack of resources but the wrong economic policies, subservience to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which are both rife with corruption, misplaced priorities and economic mismanagement. The shortsighted, short-term strategy of borrowing and giving false assurances to the nation (and the current Musharraf regime is no exception) while going further down the debt burden must be abandoned. It needs to be substituted by farsighted, long-term radically new initiatives, which to start with must involve the often-promised cessation of loans, revamping the policy and setting nation-oriented realistic goals and include building self-confidence and self-dependence measures. National priorities should be set up with such vital areas as education and social development topping the list.

The urgent need of Pakistan is to transfer power through free and fair elections to a new, honest and capable leadership that is fully accountable to its people. This leadership should be made to abide by and work according to the demands of constitution. The need of the hour is to mobilize the Pakistani nation so that it is placed in charge of its own destiny and plays its due role in building the country according to its aspirations. Each and every individual Pakistani must pledge to carry out his or her responsibility, diligently and conscientiously so that the nation as a whole becomes fully conscious of its covenant with Allah to turn Pakistan into an ideal Islamic State.

_______________________________________

Dr. Siraj Mufti currently serves as an Islamic consultant for the Correctional Corporation of America in Arizona. Previously he worked as a research professor at the University of Arizona and a chaplain with the U.S. Department of Justice.

re tAhmed321 #232:

Thanks for your reply. I concur completely. None of Pakistan`s Messiahs in khaki were bad men, simply prisoners of compulsions and forces beyond their puny intellects. What never ceases to amaze me is the continuos gullibility of the `thinking` patriots who bring out bugles of joy whenever a despot takes over to rid the masses of democratic tyrants in the guise of protecting the idealogical and geographical frontiers of Pakistan. Whether they promise a turnover to civilian rule in 90 days or proclaim, ``who pushed me into the water?``-they all bite the dust in due course of time.

Come on tAhmed sahib-its not different-not even this time. A Porsche is driven for pleasure. Don`t expect it to provide you with milk also.

later

-sac

- Friday, Jumah

RANDOM BOMBINGS AND INHUMAN KILLINGS NOT THE ANSWER

After almost two weeks of continuing bombardment of Afghanistan by

American and British war machines, the people of these countries are being

prepared for a celebration of the might and glory of their governments; a

celebration of security and of power, a celebration of surreptitious

information retrieval, a celebration of victory in battle, and perhaps of

assassination or capture of a notorious enemy. All these will be described

as virtuous goals and achievements. They will be touted as if the terror

victims have been honored rather than defiled by actions that have

entombed still more innocent people in a country already ravaged by thirty

years of civil conflict.

But normal, honest, compassionate and good-hearted Americans who wept in

sorrow and sadness on September 11, will weep now for the suffering that

today`s events are exacting and hope to create a world in which such hate

and callousness disappears. But, unfortunately, the administration leaders

will cynically bulk up their ammo belts again while seeking to make

ubiquitous their presence world wide, and try to relegate other people`s

rights and freedoms to an incinerator.

In this environment, people of good will throughout the world have

unanimously declared that terrorism is horrific and insane and must be

eradicated. But irrespective of the pain and suffering of the American

people over the hijackings, they cannot comprehend the purpose of their

government in chastisement of innocent men, women and children who had no

role in the carnage and are being, and will continue to be, punished

ruthlessly and indiscriminately.

The prolongation of the heavy attacks and bombardments against Afghanistan

which, so far, has had no positive result in capturing Bin Laden and his

clique will ultimately bring dissent and opposition in many countries of

the world and will probably make even the American people themselves

question the justification and purpose of the actions and ultimate aims of

their government. Public demonstrations and civil disobedience will most

certainly be the expected reaction of the people. For the American

government, the answer to terrorism seems to be reciprocal terrorism -

whether by bombing or by starving civilians. The American Administration`s

response to one man`s misguided fundamentalism has been a declaration of

an all-out war and the mounting of a military crusade abroad. At the same

time, the so called war against terrorism has become an excuse for curbing

civil liberties at home. The answer to hypocritical inhumanity shouldn`t

be to opportunistically exploiting fear. The government is using the

events of September 11 as an excuse to turn its battered economy in order

to enrich the rich and empower the powerful at the cost of gutting social

programs at home and creating recession, economic turmoil and poverty in

many countries of the world. Already some six million Afghans are living

under famine and in abject poverty.

If the attacks on Afghanistan and threats of military action against other

countries that the U.S. Administration is threatening, are natural

consequences of its globalization policy, they are doomed to failure.

Globalization has, so far, made a small rich group richer to the detriment

of the majority of world population. Military belligerency as a complement

to economic dominance is not conducive to creation of peace and

tranquility in the world.

The American Administration must realize that it is directly responsible

for creating dissent and opposition throughout the developing and

underdeveloped world. The people of these regions whilst vociferously

condemning any act of terrorism, cannot remain passive onlookers at the

atrocities committed under the pretext of what the American government is

euphemistically calling war against terrorism.

Mounting a terror war, organizing starvation tactics, inflicting economic

embargo, rejecting Palestinian`s irrefutable demand on their homeland,

etc., are not correct answers to the plights and woes of today`s world.

People demand rights, justice, equality and institutional organizations to

safeguard their interests. No one country can assume just title and legal

claim to inflict its hegemony on the rest of the world. Complete adherence

to international law and binding UN General Assembly adjudication of

disputes among nations are the only way to reach a consensus for remedial

actions to be taken for solving the problems that are besetting the world

today and ensuring peace and tranquility for the future.

sac #228 ``: Would you kindly enlighten us as to whom PM`s erstwhile predecessors owed their allegiance to? ``

To Pakistan (I say this based on personal knowledge for two of them, and based on general reputation). Do you have reason to believe it would be to anything else??? Why do you ask this strange question?

saminashah #221

PS: ``Now shall we compare the attributes of the boys in NYC to the ones in your city, as our colleagues have taken to on other boards?``

Reverse-objectification? Poor things, I think not :)

saminashah #221
``Once the jihadi factor is added...it seems like an unending cycle.``

You bet. And you get adversaries who believe its their religious duty to wipe out their dissenters and that compromise with adversaries translates into compromising their religious beliefs and forgoing heaven.

Thats not the best way to solve political conflicts on Earth, where the underlying assumption is that one is fighting for eventual compromise(on Earth) with ones adversaries.

`` Re: Mr. Rose; is he featuring progressive guests? not quite sure of your meaning. I feel that so many of my views are validated on Chowk ;)``

Its just that a few times, guests on the show have made some points which have made me think, Samina will like that. I see some evidence of self-realization (for reasons of self-preservation, no doubt) in the media discourse, I think thats what I mean.

btw, I know I am risking excommunication here, but I`m not sure what the defination of a progressive is :). Yesterday I found Charlie Rose had Thomas Friedman and Bernard Lewis on. I said uhoh :). Though I donot follow him closely, I generally disagree with Friedman. But he was OK yesterday. The previous day there was Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert who spoke of how delay in Afghanistan will result in a large number of deaths, many more than in WTC.

Just reminder to those who already remember Sabra & Shatilla

Return of the Terrorist

The Crimes of Ariel Sharon



Some incorrigible optimists have suggested that only a right-wing extremist of the notoriety of Likud leader Ariel Sharon will have the credentials to broker any sort of lasting settlement with the Palestinians. Maybe so. History is not devoid of such examples. But Sharon?

Sharon`s history offers a monochromatic record of moral corruption, with a documented record of war crimes going back to the early 1950s. He was born in 1928 and as a young man joined the Haganah, the underground military organization of Israel in its pre-state days. In 1953 hewas given command of Unit 101, whose mission is often described as that of retaliation against Arab attacks on Jewish villages. In fact, as can be seen from two terrible onslaughts, one of them very well known, Unit 101`s purpose was that of instilling terror by the infliction of discriminate, murderous violence not only on able bodied fighters but on the young, the old, the helpless.

Sharon`s first documented sortie in this role was in August of 1953 on the refugee camp of El-Bureig, south of Gaza. An Israeli history of the 101 unit records 50 refugees as having been killed; other sources allege 15 or 20. Major-General Vagn Bennike, the UN commander, reported that ``bombs were thrown`` by Sharon`s men ``through the windows of huts in which the refugees were sleeping and, as they fled, they were attacked by small arms and automatic weapons``.

In October of 1953 came the attack by Sharon`s unit 101 on the Jordanian village of Qibya, whose ``stain`` Israel`s foreign minister at the time, Moshe Sharett, confided to his diary ``would stick to us and not be washed away for many years``. He was wrong. Though even strongly pro-Israel commentators in the West compared it to Lidice, Qibya and Sharon`s role are scarcely evoked in the West today, least of all by journalists such as Deborah Sontag of the New York Times who recently wrote a whitewash of Sharon, describing him as ``feisty``, or theWashington Post`s man in Jerusalem who fondly invoked him after his fateful excursion to the Holy Places in Jerusalem as ``the portly old warrior``.

Israeli historian Avi Shlaim describes the massacre thus: ``Sharon`s order was to penetrate Qibya, blow up houses and inflict heavy casualties on its inhabitants. His success in carrying out the order surpassed all expectations. The full and macabre story of what happened at Qibya wasrevealed only during the morning after the attack. The village had been reduced to rubble: forty-five houses had been blown up, and sixty-nine civilians, two thirds of them women and children, had been killed. Sharon and his men claimed that they believed that all the inhabitants had run away and that they had no idea that anyone was hiding inside the houses.`` The UN observer on the scene reached a different conclusion: ``One story was repeated time after time: the bullet splintered door, the body sprawled across the threshhold, indicating that the inhabitants had been forced by heavy fire to stay inside until their homes were blown up over them.`` The slaughter in Qibya was described contemporaneously in a letter to the president of the United Nations Security Council dated 16 October 1953 (S/3113) from the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Jordan to the United States. On 14 October 1953 at 9:30 at night, he wrote, Israeli troops launched a battalion-scale attack on the village of Qibya in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (at the time the West Bank was annexed to Jordan).

According to the diplomat`s account, Israeli forces had entered the village and systematically murdered all occupants of houses, using automatic weapons, grenades and incendiaries. On 14 October, the bodies of 42 Arab civilians had been recovered; several more bodies were still under the wreckage. Forty houses, the village school and a reservoir had been destroyed. Quantities of unused explosives, bearing Israel army markings in Hebrew, had been found in the village. At about 3 a.m., to cover their withdrawal, Israeli support troops had begun shelling theneighbouring villages of Budrus and Shuqba from positions in Israel. And what of Sharon`s conduct when he was head of the Southern Command of Israel`s Defense Forces in the early 1970s? The Gaza ``clearances`` were vividly described by Phil Reeves in a piece in The London Independent on January 21 of this year.

``Thirty years have elapsed since Ariel Sharon, favourite to win Israel`s forthcoming election, was the head of the Israel Defence Forces` southern command, charged with the task of `pacifying` the recalcitrant Gaza Strip after the 1967 war. But the old men still remember it well. Especially the old men on Wreckage Street. Until late 1970, Wreckage, or Had`d, Street wasn`t a street, just one of scores of narrow, nameless alleys weaving through Gaza City`s Beach Camp, a shantytown cluttered with low, two-roomed houses, built with UN aid for refugees from the 1948 war who then, as now, were waiting for the international community to settle their future. The street acquired its name after an unusually prolonged visit from Mr Sharon`s soldiers. Their orders were to bulldoze hundreds of homes to carve a wide, straight street. This would allow Israeli troops and their heavy armored vehicles to move easily through the camp, to exert control and hunt down men from the Palestinian Liberation Army. ```They came at night and began marking the houses they wanted to demolish with red paint,` said Ibrahim Ghanim, 70, a retired labourer. `In the morning they came back, and ordered everyone to leave. I remember all the soldiers shouting at people, Yalla, yalla, yalla, yalla! They threw everyone`s belongings into the street. Then Sharon brought in bulldozers and started flattening the street. He did the whole lot, almost in one day. And the soldiers would beat people, can you imagine? Soldiers with guns, beating little kids!` By the time the Israeli army`s work was done, hundreds of homes were destroyed, not only on Wreckage Street but throughout the camp, as Sharon ploughed out a grid of wide security roads. Many of the refugees took shelter in schools, or squeezed into the already badly over-crowded homes of relatives. Other families, usually those with a Palestinian political activist, were loaded into trucks and taken to exile in a town in the heart of the Sinai Desert, then controlled by Israel.``

As Reeves reported, the devastation of Beach Camp was far from the exception. ``In August 1971 alone, troops under Mr Sharon`s command destroyed some 2,000 homes in the Gaza Strip, uprooting 16,000 people for the second time in their lives. Hundreds of young Palestinian men were arrested and deported to Jordan and Lebanon. Six hundred relatives of suspected guerrillas were exiled to Sinai. In the second half of 1971, 104 guerrillas were assassinated. `The policy at that time was not to arrest suspects, but to assassinate them`, said Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza City``.

Israeli complacency leading to their initial defeat by the Egyptians in the 1973 war was in part nurtured by the supposed impregnability of the ``Bar Lev line`` constructed by Sharon on the east bank of the Suez canal. The Egyptians pierced the line without undue difficulty.

In 1981 Sharon, then minister of defense, paid a visit to Israel`s good friend, President Mobutu of Zaire. Lunching on Mobutu`s yacht the Israeli party was asked by their host to use their good offices to get the US Congress to be more forthcoming with aid. This the Israelis managed to accomplish. As a quid pro quo Mobutu reestablished diplomatic relations with Israel. This was not Sharon`s only contact with Africa. Among friends he relays fond memories of trips to Angola to observe and advise the South African forces then fighting in support of the murderous CIA stooge Jonas Savimbi.

As defense minister in Menachem Begin`s second government, Sharon was the commander who led the full dress 1982 assault on Lebanon, with the express design of destroying the PLO, driving as many Palestinians as possible to Jordan and making Lebanon a client state of Israel. It was a war plan that cost untold suffering, around 20,000 Palestinian and Lebanese lives, and also the deaths of over one thousand Israeli soldiers. The Israelis bombed civilian populations at will. Sharon also oversaw the infamous massacres at Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. The Lebanese government counted 762 bodies recovered and a further 1,200 buried privately by relatives.

However, the Middle East may have been spared worse, thanks to Menachem Begin. Just as the `82 war was getting under way, Sharon approached Begin, then Prime Minister, and suggested that Begin cede control over Israel`s nuclear trigger to him. Begin had just enough sense to refuse.

The slaughter in the two contiguous camps at Sabra and Shatilla took place from 6:00 at night on September 16, 1982 until 8:00 in the morning on September 18, 1982, in an area under the control of the Israel Defense Forces. The perpetrators were members of the Phalange militia, the Lebanese force that was armed by and closely allied with Israel since the onset of Lebanon`s civil war in 1975. The victims during the 62-hour rampage included infants, children, women (including pregnant women), and the elderly, some of whom were mutilated or disemboweled before or after they were killed.

An official Israeli commission of inquiry - chaired by Yitzhak Kahan, president of Israel`s Supreme Court - investigated the massacre, and in February 1983 publicly released its findings (without Appendix B, which remains secret until now).

Amid desperate attempts to cover up the evidence of direct knowledge of what was going on by Israeli military personnel, the Kahan Commission found itself compelled to find that Ariel Sharon, among other Israelis, had responsibility for the massacre. The commission`s report stated: ``It is our view that responsibility is to be imputed to the Minister of Defense for having disregarded [``entirely cognizant of`` would have been a better choice of words] the danger of acts of vengeance and bloodshed by the Phalangists against the population of the refugee camps, and having failed [i.e.``eagerly taken this into consideration``] to take this danger into account when he decided to have the Phalangists enter the camps. In addition, responsibility is to be imputed to the Minister of Defense for not ordering appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre as a condition for the Phalangists` entry into the camps. These blunders constitute thenon-fulfillment of a duty with which the Defense Minister was charged``. (For those who want to refresh their memories of Operation Peace for Galilee, of the massacres and the Kahan coverup we recommend Noam Chomsky`s The Fateful Triangle.)

Sharon refused to resign. Finally, on February 14, 1983, he was relieved of his duties as defense minister, though he remained in the cabinet as minister without portfolio.

Sharon`s career was in eclipse, but he continued to burnish his credentials as a Likud ultra. Sharon has always been against any sort of peace deal, unless on terms entirely impossible for Palestinians to accept. As Nehemia Strasler outlined in Ha`aretz on January 18 of this year, in 1979, as a member of Begin`s cabinet, he voted against a peace treaty with Egypt. In 1985 he voted against the withdrawal of Israeli troops to theso-called security zone in Southern Lebanon. In 1991 he opposed Israel`s participation in the Madrid peace conference. In 1993 he voted No in the Knesset on the Oslo agreement. The following year he abstained in the Knesset on a vote over a peace treaty with Jordan. He voted against the Hebron agreement in 1997 and objected to the way in which the withdrawal from southern Lebanon was conducted.

As Begin`s minister of agriculture in the late 1970s he established many of the West Bank settlements that are now a major obstruction to any peace deal. His present position? Not another square inch of land for Palestinians on the West Bank. He will agree to a Palestinian state on the existing areas presently under either total or partial Palestinian control, amounting to merely 42 per cent of the West Bank. Israel will retain control of the highways across the West Bank and the water sources. All settlements will stay in place with access by the IDF to them. Jerusalem will remain under Israeli sovereignty and he plans to continue building around the city. The Golan heights would remain under Israel`s control.

It can be strongly argued that Sharon represents the long-term policy of all Israeli governments, without any obscuring fluff or verbal embroidery. For example: Ben-Gurion approved the terror missions of Unit 101. Every Israeli government has condoned settlements and building around Jerusalem. It was Labor`s Ehud Barak who okayed the military escort for Sharon on his provocative sortie that sparked the second Intifada and Barak who has overseen the lethal military repression of recent months. But that doesn`t diminish Sharon`s sinister shadow across the past half century. That shadow is better evoked by Palestinians and Lebanese grieving for the dead, the maimed, the displaced, or bya young Israeli woman, Ilil Komey, 16, who confronted Sharon recently when he visited her agricultural high school outside Beersheva. ``I think you sent my father into Lebanon``, Ilil said. ``Ariel Sharon, I accuse you of having made me suffer for 16 some odd years. I accuse you of having made my father suffer for over 16 years. I accuse you of a lot of things that made a lot of people suffer in this country. I don`t think that you can now be elected as prime minister``.

Ilil was wrong. He`s there. And now the bloodbath will begin.

Courtesy: Counterpunch

re ROmair #222:

``These people constitute 66% of Pakistan. So anything discussed by Pakistanis on Chowk (people from perhaps 1% of Pakistan) really is irrelevant, if it is not acceptable to this 66%. That is why I disapprove of the Ata-turk and Western styled idealistic democracy scenarios for Pakistan.``

Anyone who can count more than 4 contradictions in these 3 lines gets a GI Joe.

later

-sac

P.S: tAhmed Sahib: Would you kindly enlighten us as to whom PM`s erstwhile predecessors owed their allegiance to? Kindly discount the usual suspects(CIA,Zionists,Mullahs etc.).

Nuggets from the Urdu press

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Nasibo Lal in trouble

According to Khabrain, folk singer Nasibo Lal, while singing at Gujranwala Arts Council, allowed fuhush (obscene) dancers like Alisha, Khushboo and Lashana, to perform lasciviously in front of a local audience. People responded with great enthusiasm although the event was against the rules of decency. They repeatedly performed bhangra while ignoring ideology of Pakistan.

Milosevic and Osama

Historian of Afghan jehad Raja Anwar, writing in Khabrain, said that if Milosevic could be brought under trial in an international court why couldn`t Pakistan or any other state ensure that Osama bin Laden is brought before an impartial court? He could be punished only if found guilty. Raja Anwar wrote that Afghanistan had given nothing to Pakistan but kalashnikov culture and was not willing to make any concession, not even on the Durand Line.

Mufti Shamzai`s fatwa

According to Nawa-e-Waqt, Mufti Shamzai of Karachi`s Banuri Mosque issued the fatwa that when the Americans land in Pakistan his followers should immediately take over the country`s airports. Fifty thousand followers did bayat-e-jehad (pledge of war) on his hand. He said anyone fighting on the side of Christians against Islam would go to hell.

Sharif brothers part ways

According to daily Din, Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif fell apart in their hideaway in Saudi Arabia and that Shehbaz Sharif had bought a residence of his own separately from the family still led by Abbaji. The paper opined that since Shehbaz had decided to part ways with the family he may lose Saudi financial help.

Pakistan`s paradox

Renowned columnist Nazeer Naji wrote in Jang that Pakistan had a strange history of upheavals. Bhutto, a liberal, chose a fundamentalist officer General Zia for promotion to army chief, who overthrew him and converted Pakistan into a fundamentalist state. Bhutto was a secularist but spent more time banning alcohol in Pakistan and apostatising the Ahmedis to please the mullahs. The initial paradox was that Jinnah was a secular leader who was opposed by the mullahs, but later Pakistan was to be moulded in the vision of not Jinnah but mullahs. Then General Zia chose Nawaz Sharif as his heir but in 1997 he was elected for his economic policies; instead he chose to enforce shariat after coming to power. But for a man devoted to shariat he chose General Musharraf, a non-Islamist, to head the army. General Musharraf who toured the cantonments to defend Nawaz Sharif for sacking an earlier chief, was later to remove Nawaz Sharif. And an Islamist army was now ready to get rid of the jehadi mullahs and rid the state of fundamentalism. Nawaz Sharif was opposing his anti-Taliban policy from Saudi Arabia although his brother chief minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif had clearly said during his tenure that the Taliban were training the terrorists targeting Pakistani leaders.

What will Pakistan give?

Famous columnist Irshad Haqqani wrote in Jang that Pakistan and the US had discussed the matter of Pakistan`s offering landing facilities during the invasion of Afghanistan but there was no discussion on territorial rights. But General Hameed Gul, through a letter, said that he had trimmed his anti-Musharraf position when assured by him that neither land nor landing facilities would be granted to the American troops.

US to take intelligence help

Famous columnist Hussain Haqqani wrote in Jang that during the Afghan war the Americans used Pakistani intelligence to fight the Soviet Union but this cooperation was not really beneficial; but this time, he hoped, it would be more fruitful. This was a crucial point of time in the Pak-US relations.

Osama wanted me killed!

Leader of the PPP Ms Benazir Bhutto said in daily Din that Osama bin Laden paid Nawaz Sharif of the PML ten million dollars to topple her from government through the device of a no confidence vote. She said that Osama also planned to get her killed, but his plans failed twice.

Present land holding against Islam

According to daily Din, Council of Islamic Ideology came to the conclusion that the present land holdings in Pakistan were against Islam and must be undone because the child born in the house of a feudal lived in luxury while the one born in the house of a poor man was deprived. In the past, land reforms were undone by the Federal Shariat Court on the question of annexation of land without payment of market price.

Beaten up for singing `mahiya`

According to daily Pakistan a police officer ASI Shameem Gondal of Malka Hans had the habit of following a lady school teacher singing the mahiya songs of Mansoor Malangi loudly to seduce her into thinking of love. But the school teacher suddenly took off her burqa and started beating him up with her shoe. Other school girls accompanying her joined in and also beat him up with their shoes. After the beating it was discovered that one tooth of the thanedar ASI was broken but he was allowed to go only after he swore on a copy of the Quran and made the school teacher his sister.

It is not aunt`s home!

According to Nawa-e-Waqt, ex-ISI chief General Hameed Gul said that after the Taliban shot down two unmanned spy planes of the United States, the Americans were bound to run away from the battle field. He said all would soon be well because defeating the Taliban was not khala ji ka ghar (easy as being in one`s aunt`s home).

Zia wanted Afghanistan

Quoting a journalist once close to General Zia, Maqbul Sharif, daily Pakistan wrote that General Zia did not want the Russians to leave Pakistan at the end of the Afghan war. He wanted the question of a new government in Kabul resolved before their exit. In fact he wanted to send Pakistani troops to Kabul in the same manner that India had sent its troops to East Pakistan.

Jehadi organisations are fake

Quoted in Jang, ex-ISI chief General Javed Ashraf Qazi said that 90 percent of the organisations engaged in jehad in Kashmir were fake. Hew said leaders like Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maulana Samiul Haq were interested only in amassing funds and advancing their political ends. If they were sent to Afghanistan to fight they would jump out of the bus and run away. He said in the past the Taliban were warned many times that because of them Pakistan was being labelled a terrorist state but they did not listen.

Israel did it!

Talking to daily Pakistan, Sipah Sahaba chief Maulana Azam Tariq said that those who attacked New York and Washington should be sought in Israel and India because Osama bin Laden was blameless. He said if Afghanistan was attacked he would issue fatwa for the murder of Americans and Israelis. He said America wanted to attack Pakistan`s nuclear installations while pretending to attack Afghanistan. He added that there would be civil war in Pakistan if Islamabad continued to support the Americans.

Hekmatyar will join Taliban!

Editor Ausaf Hamid Mir wrote that if Pakistan were to sever relations with the Taliban in the wake of similar action by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, it will force two offended Afghan leaders, Hekmatyar and Sayyaf, to join the Taliban and make an anti-Pakistan alliance. This new alliance will stop the advance of the Northern Alliance but Pakistan would be forever deprived of the friendship of its precious Afghan brethren.

Allah will answer Mulla Umar`s call!

According to Khabrain Mulla Umar of Afghanistan had prayed to Allah for special intervention against the American attack, as a result of which Allah had sent down a storm off the coast of Karachi as a sign. Before this, Salahuddin Ayubi had also prayed like Mulla Umar and his prayer was heard and a Christians army was caused to be gharq (sunk) by Allah.

A Lahori heir to Afghan throne speaks out!

According to daily Din, Ashraf Durrani of Lahore was discovered to be in the line of descent of Ahmad Shah Abdali Durrani who established the first Afghan empire. Ashraf Durrani formally laid claim to the throne of Afghanistan and stated that the Afghan people were not satisfied with the government of the Taliban. He also laid claim to the diamonds presently owned by the Queen of England and said that the diamond had belonged to his ancestor Shah Shuja.

Allama Iqbal`s joy

Famous historian Dr Safdar Mehmood wrote in Nawa-e-Waqt that Allama Iqbal would have been overjoyed to see that the civilisation of the West was no longer obsessed by women but by a bearded man called Osama bin Laden.

Ms Mazari is anti-America

According to Ausaf, former chairman of the state-run Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad, Mr Niaz A. Naik, wrote to the Foreign Office saying that the present chairman of the institute, Dr Shireen Mazari, was anti-American and was harming the interests of Pakistan by writing against the United States. The paper said that upon an inquiry made by the Foreign Office, ex-foreign minister Agha Shahi stated that she had criticised the United States while defending the interests of Pakistan.

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EVEN THOUGH LOUIS FARAKHAN IS NOT MAINSTREAMOF ANYTHING ISLAM,OR AMERICAN OR BLACK ,HE IS MORE LEGIT THAN ARAB OR ASIAN MUSLIM TO PIN BUSH ON HIS TOTAL IRREFUTABLE & MOST IMPORTANT LEGALLY ACCEPTABLE PROOF OF OSAMAS INVOLVEMENT.

Nation: Nation of Islam leader urges Bush to reveal proof of bin Laden`s involvement in attacks



CHICAGO (October 17, 2001 2:58 p.m. EDT) - Urging President Bush not to ``hide behind national security,`` Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said Bush should make public the evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

``The nation would be more secure if you give the American people a reason to fight,`` Farrakhan said Tuesday night in a speech marking the sixth anniversary of the Million Man March.

Farrakhan said it`s not enough for America and its allies to say they have proof that bin Laden and his al-Qaida network were responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

``They have lied before and there`s no guarantee they are not lying now,`` he said of the government. ``There`s nothing wrong with asking the American government to show us the proof.``

The British government has released a dossier of evidence connecting bin Laden to the attacks, but the United States has refused to make its own display of evidence on the grounds that it could compromise its intelligence sources.

Farrakhan has previously condemned the ``wild beasts`` who carried out the terrorist attacks and agreed with government leaders that a strong response was warranted.

But he has also said that some of the hatred overseas of the United States is the result of the nation`s foreign policy, and he called for a re-evaluation.

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Hobbyty:

I do not think this is a complete list. ?

Stuka #216/217: I am still trying to figure out how women will be successfully inducted into flying in the PAF. If Pakistan can do this successfully, then I will have to say that anything that Pakistan puts its mind into is possible.

I spent half my military career trying to get postings on compassionate grounds, without succeeding. My cases were never considered compassionate enough. However, this did give me an opportunity to spend over a decade in the remotest parts of Pakistan. Infact, I never got to spend a day in any of Pakistan`s mid-sized cities, what to talk of large cities.

In one of the small towns in Central Punjab, I had a civilian batman, in his 40s, who had never even been to Lahore. In another place in NWFP, I had another batman, who had worked for 35 years in the same job, polishing people`s shoes. Another young guy there, had gone onto get an F.A. degree but ended up in the same shoe-polishing position as his uneducated dad.

These people constitute 66% of Pakistan. So anything discussed by Pakistanis on Chowk (people from perhaps 1% of Pakistan) really is irrelevant, if it is not acceptable to this 66%. That is why I disapprove of the Ata-turk and Western styled idealistic democracy scenarios for Pakistan.

Most of the marraiges between officers, in the Pakistan military, take place between male officers of all branches and female military doctors. Infact, I think it is taken as a given that the husband of a female military doctor will be in the military. I believe they are always assigned to the same city, when they are in service. This gives them a pretty big advantage, since there are very few places which can accomodate both of them. So they don`t have to move around much.

It will be interesting to see Pakistani female military pilots. Imagine a female Pakistan F-16 pilot. Now that would be interesting.

sac #218 ``he owes his allegiance to that very institution ``

he has so far demonstrated allegiance to Pakistan. As long as he does that, he will have more than enough support to stay in power. This allegiance includes gradually introducing democracy, as he as started to do at the grass-roots level.

May Allah hold them to His heart and may he shower their families with patience and peace:

``List of Pakistanis killed in NY attack

NEW YORK : The New York-based National Unity Council of Pakistanis has issued names of 53 Pakistanis who died in the terrorist attack at World Trade Centre here on Sept. 11, 2001.

The deceased are: Tariq Amanullah, Taimoor Khan, Muhammad Salman Hamdani, Ehtesham U Raja, Muhammad S Chaudhry, Raza Mujtaba, Yousuf Saad, Samad Afridi, Badruddin Lakhani, Naveed Rahman, Qamar Malik, Umar Namoos, Assad Samir, Arsalan Khan Khakwani, Ayub Khan, Qasim Ali Khan, Talat Hussain, Shahzad Hussain Khan, Ataullah Khan, Mian Muhammad, Asim Khan, Ahmad Ali, Umar Ahmed, Jameel Hussain, Jameel Swati, Azam Ahsan, W Waheed, Mujeeb Qazi, Saleemullah Farooqui, Shabi Ahmed, Muhammad Abbas, Ahmad Ahsan, Amjad, Muhammad Haleem, Jumma Al Haque, Sultan Khan, Ahmed Noor, Kazi Ahmed, Shamsuddin Ahmed, Mubarak Ahmed, Syed Haq, Qazi Ahmed, Muhammad Shahjehan and Khalid Shahid.

The deceased women are: Taranum Rahim, Humayra Rahim, Amena Rasool, Sanoober Syed, Sarah Khan, Yasmeen Jamal, Zahida Khan, Yasmin Khan, and Amena Aziz.-PPI`` Business Recorder

Nasah,

Thanks for the kind words. I remember you and Kirin kicking around some poetry a few monthes ago (which seems almost an immeasurable time in light of recent events)...iradha hai in beginning something like that again?

regards

Sadna,

You do bring up some interesting points...I actually had not thought about increased jihadi terrorism in Kashmir during this time...but then I am so easily distracted by other issues.:) My reason for bringing up Kashmir is that because Pakistan can`t fight at least two wars simultaneously, perhaps this time period may force Pakistan to think about a less involved role in Kashmir.

In terms of Central Asia, I think some really difficult questions have been developing viz Muslim Central Asian independence movements. You know that I find the option of automatic Islamization troublesome; however we can`t condone violent and repressive tactics as a suitable response. Once the jihadi factor is added...it seems like an unending cycle.

Re: Mr. Rose; is he featuring progressive guests? not quite sure of your meaning. I feel that so many of my views are validated on Chowk ;)

Now shall we compare the attributes of the boys in NYC to the ones in your city, as our colleagues have taken to on other boards? Or as Urstruly suggested in a previous post, discuss the charms of various terrorist leaders? (rolling eyes upwards).

regards

Fuzair

My opinion of the analysis and comparison that Mr. SameerJB makes, is clear. If others should feel that equating a corp commander with a war lord is an apt and correct comparison, they are welcome to such a point of view, however; suggestions that misrepresentations make for interesting or illuminating reading, will remain unconvincing.

re fuzair #212:

SameerJB may seem biased against the army to those who have been in the army (FM(Hon.) ROmair) or have had a close association with it(Fuzair I presume) due to family or professional ties. SameerJB criticizes the role of the army as an institution. I suspect that Sameer has no personal ties to the army(Sameer please correct me if I am wrong). Every institution has good and bad people and so does the army. The critical factor is how does the institution as a whole affected a praticular outcome. Just as there were Nazis who would be horrified by what Hitler did, there are/were generals who are morally as well as professionally upright. Unfortunately as an institution the army has brought nothing but ruin to Pakistan.

The present love affair of the `thinking` Pakistanis with Pervez Musharraf will not last for long. He is trying reform an institution that has brought Pakistan to its present day ruin forgetting that in the end he owes his allegiance to that very institution for his good fortune. Do I hear someone say Gorbachev?

later

-sac

nasah #203 ``I sometimes wonder as to why and how Pakistan has ended up being such an irrational Indophobe -- despite people like you, tahmed, krashid, Samina Shah and so many others.``

So kind of you sir to include me on the side of the angels.

More seriously, you raise an important issue: I think the problem is this - first, the government to government relations are no indication of the people to peoople relations (when people meet in real life, as opposed to the one-dimensional interactions on chowk). Person to person, we understand each other`s language, share the same history, and have no problem getting along. I have met a number of Indians of all religions who have visited Pakistan - not one of them has reported being received in anything other than in a friendly manner, and many have expressed surprise at the warmth extended to them by people on the street. So the basic answer to your question is: there is no problem among the people. Governments are driven by all sorts of political agendas and posturing and so forth. Our pathetic India-Pakistan fighters on chowk simply take their cue from the posturing of their respective governments and their press releases. We need to think for ourselves. Then the People Will Triumph!!

I wonder where krashid is though, havent seen a post from him in ages.

Romair:

``However, it is good to know the same occurs in the IAF :-)``

Oye, tussi jinna marzi alag kai lo, khoon tey ikko hee hai.

Ironically, when Jay calls all you guys Arabs, it is Kerala which actually had more interaction with the Arabs than the Punjabis. Interesting thought. Will come back to it.

All Pakistanis happy at having women being inducted in Armed Forces should have another think.

I have seen it first hand in India. First they join service, then after 2-3 years they get married to another fauji. The Mian-Biwi spend the next 20 years of their career bitching about field postings, and requesting P Staff at Army/Air HQ for transfer on compassionate grounds to wherever the spouse is posted. What a fraud on the Armed Forces and the tax payer.

Are the Armed Forces constituted to fight wars or be breeding grounds of social experiments. If women are to be taken in armed forces, then the rules should forbid fellow officers from marrying each other. You can`t treat the Armed Forces like a dating club.

Re: Shima

Thank you -- now I will have to try even harder to remain `objective and balanced`.

Zafar Al-Talib #209

``SHHHHHHHHHH! They aren?t supposed to know about the ZHCTITWMFTSPODP till the Magen David flies above the Minar e Pakistan.``

Oops! Theek kahthe hain aap, main ek measly acronym ka bhi raaz nahin rakkh saki..? Lead me to some chullu bhar paani.. And here I was looking forward to my Diwali/Hannukkah bonus...

Re: SameerJB and Hobbyty on Corp Commanders and War Lords

To the best of my knowledge, this metaphor about the Corp Commanders being the warlords which rule Pakistan was first made by Lt. Gen. Fazle Haq in 1978 or 1979 when he was both Corp Commander (Peshawar) and Governor of the NWFP. My father was present on the occasion that he described himself as one of the eight (seven commanders and the COAS, I think that was the correct number of corps then) warlords that ruled Pakistan. For all his faults, and he had no shortage of them, Fazle Haq could be brutally honest at times, especially if he had had a chotta peg or three.

While I agree that Sameer has a bias against the Army, it doesn`t mean that he is not worth reading or taking seriously. I`d rather read his stuff than that of most other posters on Chowk, present company excepted, of course ;-).

Regards.

saminashah #210

This was in todays newspaper:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/18/international/asia/18NOTE.html
In Quiet Corners, the Roots of Afghan Rebellion

``could this not be an auspicious moment for some of the thornier Kashmir issues be addressed? ``

I think its an auspicious time for jihadi organisations to seek glory or shahadat in the conflict in Afghanistan. I think we need to maintain a respectful silence and hold our thoughts till after :).

In my view, the stupidest thing India can do at this time is ``validate`` Pakistan`s jihadi paradigm of the last many years in Kashmir, at the same time that Pakistan is trying to handle the fallout of the same thing in Afghanistan.

Re Chechyna : Well, there is not only Chechyna, there are a half a dozen Central Asian Republics in which there are `Islamic` rebels on one side and elected/unelected leaders and regimes on another. There has to be a better way to do these things than have religious warriors claim to be fighting for `human rights`. I just hope all the facts are put out without bias when these other countries too fall prey to the same violence(I happen to believe they will, eventually).

Re US policies, samina, you should, if you can, watch Charlie Rose(11pmE PBS). Quite often in the recent days, many points have made there which perhaps you would like to hear being made.

Sadna

re: 193

Not only is winter coming and Afghanistan days away from an all out humanitarian crisis, but other considerations are brewing. I have heard that Col. Powell has indicated to Afghanistan and Pakistan that the new coalition govt. will be allowed to incorporate ``moderate Taliban members``...quite an interesting phrase...Chowkies, I throw this question out to y`all; Is there such a thing as a ``moderate Taliban politician``? What are the implications of their inclusion into Powell`s vision of a coalition?

Also, as Dost-Mittar pointed out, could this not be an auspicious moment for some of the thornier Kashmir issues be addressed? If so, hopefully Pakistan and India will be given the courage and wisdom to follow through...

Finally, how thrilled is Russia to have the US help them deal with Afghanistan? I`d say our Insanely Happy Barometer has broken it`s red needle in gauging just how happy... What with the 50,000+ Chechnyans murdered in the civil war in Chechyna-is there any indication that,if given independence before the terrible human rights abuses there courtesy of the Russia govt., Chechnya might have walked the moderate line of Tajikistan?

regards

P.s. I think my post responding to your al J one was lost. Quickly, I am troubled by the distinction that the al J journalist made in labelling Palestinian bombers as ``martyrs`` and the WTC monsters as ``terrorists``...also, you can bet your last dollar that the IRA is looked at in completely different terms by mainstream media-in fact that situation was handled by the US govt. in a completely different manner; by US mediated negotiations if memory serves...

Reply Sadna # 178

“Its proof of the Zionist-Hindu conspiracy to infiltrate the Western media for the sole purpose of defaming Pakistan.”

SHHHHHHHHHH! They aren’t supposed to know about the ZHCTITWMFTSPODP till the Magen David flies above the Minar e Pakistan. Sadnaji, kabhi kabhi aap tho sab ko sab highly classified secrets batha dethe hain…

Reply Hobbyty # 179

HT (anybody?)

Is women in the Pakistani military a new thing? Surely not.

Two of my grand aunts were doctors in the Pakistani army. Were women only allowed in the medical service?

re: nasah # 203

``aur ek hee sa kum nehana mangtey ho.``

ha ha..well, my dear nasah, I object. Main tau roz subah subah nehata hoon, thand mein bhi. On the other hand, if you met a couple of my friends... :)

SameerJB #197: After reading many of your replies, I have come to the conclusion you hate anyone or anything relating to religion attempting to get power, through any means. And you hate anyone having to do anything with the military, in Pakistan. And you blame the above two for not only all the past and present problems, but the future problems also.

I am assuming that you are currently be caught in a dilemma because it is the military which has finally taken on the responsibility of taking on the extremist religious parties in Pakistan. Something none of the political govts. attempted. Infact, it was Bhutto (even before Zia) who started this religious ball rolling. It was infact Benazir under whose leadership the Taliban came into power.

The solution to any problem is not to just criticize anyone and everyone. That is easy to do, and may make one popular. But it rarely solves the problem. The solution is to point out right and wrong, without any in-built biases. Otherwise, one can never see any good in the acts of people one is prejudiced against, and one can never see any wrong in the people one supports. This is actually the biggest cause of the problems in Pakistan. Everyone blames the, ``other group`` for all the problems.

``Fortunately their brand of tribalism helped by Islam remained cutaneous for majority of desi converts-less beardos, less homo, less vulgar with respect to women and less barbaric. ``

If I understand this remark correctly, you seem to consider Afghans to be homos, beardos, vulgar etc. Does this amount to racism?

``Why don`t they go and join their fellow ummah in Afghanistan and leave Pakistan to Pakstanis. A true Pakistani will be less hostile to India and a true Indian would be less hostile to Pakistan.``

It is quite unfortunate to blame every problem between India and Pakistan on religion. This is a very simplistic view. Pakistanis and Indians have been hostile to each other under all kinds of govts. Relgious parties have just come into power in India. And they have never come into power in Pakistan. Every war fought between India and Pakistan occured when both countries were under relatively secular and liberal regimes. Jinnah was running Pakistan and Nehru was running India when the 47 war occured, etc.

The problems between India and Pakistan are overwhelmingly based on Kashmir. Just look at the replies on Chowk. People need to accept this, and work towards some sort of a solution. If they keep blaming Pakistan`s fishing policies, India`s cricketing policies, the BJP, the JI, and whatever else for these problems, the problems will never get solved. The later are only a by-product of the core problems. And if Indians and Pakistanis really want peace, they have to have the courage to accept their respective faults, on the core issue of Kashmir.