Military, Musharraf and Magic

......sameerjb is right as usual ..........and let me say yet again. `` didn`t i tell you, bb and ns were not all that bad``................ old mush is going to have a hard time explaining to bush why he is has to hand over power to al-qaeda ........ maulana sami-ul-haq as PM ! ............ his pupil mullah omar and his murshid osama bin laanat must be doing cartwheels in a dusty cave somwhere north of nowshera .......... qazi hussain as minister of finance! .......... good bye, you lovely lovely ladies at citibank ........maybe, just maybe we can have that special whipped coffee one more time - one more visit to the gold members club upstairs .... maybe ............ oh my god, i am hyper ventilating !

........... and how did a mullah get elected from islamabad ? ..... who are these closet jamaatis ? ........ are they going to shut down the arizona grille and pizza hut....... what will my kid`s eat this winter? ....... i tell you, it is those damn afghanis in G-8 and G-9 and the katchi abadis ....... does this mean i will not be able to get black label this winter - surely, the world is coming to an end!............good bye, islamabad - you were once a great city .............in the margalla hills, there are hundreds of bottles of london lager dating from the the early 70`s which will show archaeologists that once upon a time islamabad was a great city ............ we had joy, we had fun and, boy, did we have some seasons in the sun ............ oh lord, why.... why ..... what am i going to do .? .........

............. someone, anyone, ursruly, sameer bhai, temporal, please tell me all is not lost .......... i must call rafiq the bootlegger on his cell to make sure everthing is okay in aabpara .......... mary, mother of god, help us ! .... vishnu, mohammad, zoroaster, musharraf help us!.......... ya alah, we are doomed!

Whups, and there goes the Herald increasing their predicted seats for the MMA. Tsk, tsk..

Tidbit: I am going to write a short article tonight about Musharraf`s Myopic Vision. The two party system achieved as a result of 10 years of corrupt democracy went out the window due to the myopic vision of Musharraf et. al. People are winning with a total of 16,000 votes in a constituency of 250,000 voters. We are back to 1985 and partyless elections. Islamists have thus far won 28 out of 35 seats in NWFP. This is where USA/ Pakistani forces are searching for Al-Qaeda members.

Good Lord, Sameer, I’ve been following your near continuous output of emotionalism from here to that virtual-rag South Asia Tribune. I’m not sure if you noticed, but the MMA so far has NOT outdone what was projected for it by any margin. Lets see if they do get beyond 10% of the seats in the Assembly. And since the PPPP, PML-N and everyone else had the same amount of time to mobilize voters, how exactly are you crowing about this being yetanotherexampleofthatdamnmuhajir fouling the waters? All the accusations have been of government machinery siding with the PML-Q. So if the MMA was able to overcome that hurdle, in pretty much the places it was expected to, then why couldn’t the veterans of the PPPP and the PML-N??
Not expecting miracle, I hardly expect you to ever, ever say that just maaaaaaaybe ‘The combined forces of PPPP, PML( N) and MMA have scored big enough to join hands in the center, Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan’ because the damned elections were reasonably fair. Anyhoo, time will tell, and there are hundreds of results yet to come in.
Oh, dear God, I’ve posted on chowk again..

#1 by adnan_rafiq on October 9, 2002 4:16pm PT
``And while we`re at it, let`s not forget about the critics who never miss an opportunity to blast Pakistan from the comfort of their American/Canadian homes. ``

its funny u shud mention that because i really gave it to a friend this morning who had the audacity to say that i was being unfair by not voting (hadnt decided till that point if i wanted to vote or not) and that even though he was sick of the leaders he still hadnt lost hope and it was because of this attitude that no decent ruler has ever come into power etc etc etc...and i said just that...easy for u to philosophize and hypothesize...u dont live here and are probably not going to...that shut him up :)

Saima: I couldnt agree with u more...u know im so sick of people complaining and criticizing...im all for optimism....i think as desis we have been brought up with this inherent pessimism..a paranoia of sorts that sooner or later something is bound to go wrong...acha sochna tu seekha hi nai hum nay....burai karnay and dhoondnay ki aadat ho gaee hai hum ko...u are so right...perhaps a balance is in order...coupled with a good butt kicking :D

rgds,
samina

sameerJB: u know never in a gazillion bazillion years would i have expected the MMA to outdo some of the major parties in the country...why??...how...???...who???

sorry for missing s in heralelections. The right address is www.heraldelections.com
Imran Khan wins in Mianwali by a wide margin but loses in Lahore to PML (N). MQM is in trouble too at the hands of MMA component JI. Well, well we have our own BJP, MMA victory in Pakistan.

MUSHARRAF IN DEEP TROUBLE
The bad policies of divide and rule by Musharraf has led to the unexpected surge in fundamentalists and they are winning big. They have even won the Islamabad urban seat, winning two in Karachi and routing everybody in NWFP and Balochistan. The Sarkari party is in toruble. The combined forces of PPPP, PML( N) and MMA have scored big enough to join hands in the center, Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan. The Sarkari party will fall short of making government everywhere despite support from independents and smaller parties. Lahore has routed Musharraf`s party, Ch. Shujaat loses in Gujrat, Mian Azhar is also losing to JI. Haha, damn feudals??? Check out latest results at www. heraldelection.com
Now we can never be able to claim that Pakistanis do nto vote for fundamentalists and Islamaists, thanks to Musharraf.

Pakistan is one of the largest and strongest of nations on earth, with an educated elite that is second to none.

Therefore, I never understood this silly hopelessness. Yes, Pakistan has gotten stuck with national structures and systems that are simply incapable of endogenous change. But to do the impossible, you have to first believe you can.

It is the duty of every single educated, well-off Pakistani (in the case of Pakistan) to aim high, to develop a broad vision, to be inspired - not get caught in the eternally limiting quicksand of religion.

Aim to beat the world, not just those not-very-bright arabs, and there is no way you will be any less than any gora.

When wise men say you can`t, be foolish; just do it. That is the mindset Pakistanis (in fact, all of us who aim to change things- not just cry about them) must have.

I agree with the premise of this article. The stagnant state of affairs in the people`s psyche in Pakistan is a clear indication of the absence of hope and a dream. The means to achieve that dream always come later and they are always there. What people need at this time is a hope and a dream - and there is no one to show them that.

Happy Selection Day Pakistan!

Ras Siddiqui

(Very well written piece. Maybe Rushdie or Hamid have it right?)

sac: Hamid must be Mohsin Hamid of mothsmoke fame and Garcia is Marquez whose middle name is Garcia.

A former Pakistani Navy Chief has said he resigned from his post a week before the coup because he came to know Musharraf will be engineering a coup to protect himself from courtmartial for Kargil.

For some it may be just a happy accident, but its hard to believe that the 70-million strong Pakistani electorate thinks itself so morally and physically helpless that it feels it has to depend on the manipulations of such a person for whatever crumbs of representative govt. or good governance or role in policymaking he may throw down.

Someone used to say during the British days that if every Indian spits, the British Isles can be submerged, so what to say of a 70-million electorate vs a few thousand robber barons(even if added to a halfmillion Army)

The reluctance of Pakistani elite and public to insist on honest and regular electoral process as a prime principle of governance may stem from a widespread belief that in public life the upholding of a principle is way more important than its wide acceptability. That taking the trouble of seeking wide acceptability will only distort the perfection of the said principle.

Hence a few people are able to seize power simply by claiming to uphold principle. Whether the principle is what constitutes a real Pakistani(West or East) or Pakistani ideology or national interest or Kashmir or good governance or Islam, upholding of each one of these `principles` has been made the excuse to hold at bay public/electoral accountabilty, because the principle is more important that seeking its wide accepability, see.

The catches/pitfalls are twofold, firstly those who claim to be upholding some given principle are violating many others principles. (Musharraf says he took power to fight corruption and bad governance and defend national interest but he actually took power to prevent his own court martial and continues to maintain his and others immunity. So he claims to be upholding one set of principles but is violating a host of others including accountability of military objective to national objectives)

The second pitfall is, and thats why bouts of military rule are followed by a civilian backlash almost, is that , no principle however perfect can really be upheld nor can positive change be brought about by a few without wide acceptability and involvement of large numbers of people. That happens only through regular electoral process.

quantumquark

www.thefridaytimes.com

Interesting thoughts, Saima. I do think the expats tend to sell Pakistan and Pakistanis short and fail to see the redeeming values within its society. There is so much of truth to the adage that `believing is seeing`, is there not?
regards,
PM

``...What is usually missing is optimism and a balanced view.``

Are the two supposed to be one and the same? Maybe some examples would have helped.

Rushdie and Hamid???

Lets not get carried away here.......Hopkins and Stamos?

More later.
-sac