Military, Musharraf and Magic

Saima, what a great article!!! Absolutely loved it!!! Agree one hundred percent. Thank you so much!!!

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.

Enjoyed this.

Good article, short and sweet and to the point.

Temporal

A must read for you. Your article was wishful thinking and castles in the air. This is down to earth reality.

Pakistanis don`t loose hope. Sooner of later, some other general will decide that he is smarter and more capable than Musharraf and Musharraf will end up in Saudi arabia or England if he is lucky.
Or who knows America may decide he has become too smart for his own good and he might be added to the list of evil empire. Then again we can`t rule out the possiblity, that Bin Laden or one of his chelas may decide the Musharraf has to be sent to hell and a PIA plane may change direction and head towards the presidential palace, The possibilities are infinite.

Does anybody have a link to Najam Sethi`s editorial? I couldn`t find it on the serach engines.

QuantumQuark

Pakistanis can not leave Islam and military is not going to leave Pakistanis on their own. Deal with it without introspection and this article is just that. We are glad to have Islam and military taking care of all the spending, all the problems with Kashmir on the top. We are one nation united under military, one dress, one language, one people, part dar-ul-harb, part dar-ul-amn and dying to be part of ummah. We were glad to have Mughals and except for an unfortunate period of 90 years (1857-1947) without Mughal empire we have reestablished the Islamic empire of subcontinent.
Any problem with eternally occupied? Those who were happy to be conquered by A-Z Turk, Persian and Afghan BCs must be pleased to be conquered already four times in 55 years. Islamabad, the capital of renewed kingdom is modeled after Panipat. Northside has natural defense, called Margala Hills, southside we have khandaq (trench) called Rawal Dam. The conqueror must enter from east or west. Since in the past all the invaders came from the west, through khyber pass, military has kept that tradition alive. Now the invaders rush through Murree road and appear with the lightening speed on the constitution avenue, very much like Ahmed Shah Abdali entering Panipat. On the average, these soldiers of god have never lost, every time eking out a victory from the jaws of defeat. Three defeats, three victories! Lose Kashmir, conquer Islamabad; lose Bangladesh, conquer Islamabad; lose Kargil, conquer Islamabad.

dear saima -- Pakistan is indeed a funny farm for easy critiques -- thanks to the Comedian-in-Chief..... Mirza Musharraf.

``...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

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

quantumquark

www.thefridaytimes.com

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.

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

Happy Selection Day Pakistan!

Ras Siddiqui

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

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.

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.

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.