Terror in Okara

jay #31:
Absolutely terrific post - especially comparing thieves to Ghaznavi. After all, what differentiates `conquerors` from street corner stick-up artists is scale. Both indulge in taking away the possessions of the weak.

There is certainly something very fishy going on in Okara.

And it appears to have been uncovered by a whole bunch of people

all of a sudden.

Maybe some change is in the offing?

Ras

It is sometimes shocking to see the strong support that exists for the Pakistani Army among large sections of Pakistani society despite the utter contempt with which they have always been treated. I, for one have observed that the only Pakistanis who have always held strong views against the Army are the ones educated and settled in the West, perhaps because it is safe to do so from a distance, or because they have been exposed to the workings of democratic societies they`re settled in, and a few brave crusaders like the author of this column, and Dr. Najam Sethi of the Friday Times, and Ayaz Amir, that respected ex-Fauji and columnist.

Ordinary Pakistanis have always seemed held in thrall by the Army`s outward display of discipline and order (a case in point being the overwhelming scenes of jubilation witnessed after Nawaz Sharif was deposed, and the looking upto the Army as some kind of a savior), notwithstanding the brutality and havoc it has played with their lives, the deliberate and systematic weakening of all major democractic and political institutions, and the consolidation of it`s hold on their day-to-day lives, just because they see the Army as perhaps the only institution in Pakistan that retains a modicum of discipline, and is seen as the last bulwark against an Indian invasion, which in turn, is a bogey that the Pakistani Army perpetuated to underline it`s ``importance`` to Pakistan`s destiny. The three lost wars against India (Kargil included) have been portrayed as grand victories that many Pakistanis believe to be true, so much so that the only war they believe they lost in 1971, was due to the ineptness of the generals commanding the forces in East Pakistan, and not because of some clever planning and deft moves by the Indian Army.

Unless there is a shift in the collective thinking of Pakistanis, which places the Army on a high pedestal, nothing substantiative is going to come about and things are bound to continue the way they are now. After all, those who do not learn from their mistakes, are condemned to repeat them.

nadeem akram:
What kind of logic is this? Spreading the guilt and diluting the immediate concern. It is like suggesting that god does not exist, so all wars in the name of religion are illegal and therefore we must deal with Islamic fundamentalism and Osama BL.

Feudalism must be abolished by making laws against it whereas Okara case is murder case to begin with and section 302 of constitution applies. Nobody, no feudal, has any right to kill according to the constitution. The chain of orders must be established in the court and culprits punished. At the same time the problem must be solved by abolishing feudalism.

Pardesi Ji:
Indian per capita income surpassed Pakistan around 1997-1998. How can this be linked to abolishing feudalism in India. The food self sufficiency or green revolution is credited to mechination and S. Subramaniam. Panjabi feudals were the first to accept Sir Syed Ahmed Khan`s call for liberal education and first class of Aligarh Muslim University was almost entirely made up of children of Muslims Panjabi feudals. I do not support feudalism but like communism, demonizing it for all the ills of the society is far from true. There is nothing in the budget year after year for feudals; it is refinnancing loans, military spending and running the governments. Despite dominating the assemblies, they can not even influence the government buying price for their biggest crops, wheat and cotton. There are no subsidies in Pakistan to offset bad crops due to drout or floods.

nadeemakr #32
Present day I-Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were part of Ranjeet Singh’s Punjab also, that was annexed by British. The Indian states abolished zamindari right after 1947. One of my colleagues (from Harayana) tells me that his family had 46,000 acres of land spread over 2-3 villages and he and his siblings were allowed to keep only 25-30 acres each. Now, he works his tail off as senior EDP manager here in USA and is glad that it happened when it did so that he never got used to the filthy feudal life.

The present day India and Bangladesh were fortunate to have been subjogated by the Brits in the early and mid 1800`s. They benefited in terms of getting rid of the Zamindars and Tawalkadars, a Mogul legacy, createdt to fill their coffers at the expense of a common land tiller, the mizarah... Pakistan was less fortunate as following the mutiny of 1857, Brits changed their minds and abandoned their policy of ``Christianizing`` India. The notion of ridding fiefs of their misfortunes was sheleved and tbe Brits annexed Punjab, Frontier, Balochistan and Sindh by awarding large tract of lands to individuals who helped assisted their northward expansion.

I disagree with the writer in principle; over the last fifty years of so we, the Pakistanis, have been blackmailed by a number of miniorities: kachi abadi wallahs (illegal occupants of government lands), traders ( who do not pay their taxes), religious miniroties who grab land in the name of religion; backward areas who after fifty years of existence still claim to be backward and therefore entitled to prefrential treatment, etc. etc.

It is time that we take the bull by the horn and call spade a spade; illegal occupation, even if it means a century old dwelling, is still illegal and therefore needs to be dealt accordingly.

PAK REALITY



``Pakistan`s peculiarity is that its private sector is not made up of entrepreneurs but mostly of rent seekers created and sustained from the good old PIDC days when the public sector used to set up industrial units of all kinds and then hand them over to people with contacts and influence and not necessarily with ability and experience.

The third generation of these rent seekers are now the captains of industry and commerce and to expect them to behave like the entrepreneurs of the US or South Korea is like expecting a tribal society to turn into democratic one overnight. ``

Above is from the editorial of dawn of today, and that is in tune with my views of pak mindset. Only topic that pakistan talks about is the piupe line through to india, collection of geographic rent. No talk of value adding to create employment, convert to electricity, plastics fertilizers. No, not even the so called educated of pakistan, the tahmeds never can think of it.
Of course the first thing that mushy asked after lifing US sanction was F16s. In the trip to Russia, it was antimissile systems, and of course second hand textile machinery.

In pak govt circlrs the emphasis is on revenue collection, import is favoured because there is control at the point of import, secure revenue. Domestic production is complicated to secure govt revenue. Import is favoured.
All this can be traced to the systemic change in pak mindset introduced in the last 50 years. Gaznavi is the hero, plunderring of the neighbours is the catch cry. Jihadic invasion of neighbouring countries is the plans of these modern gaznavis.
Every day more than a hundred vehicles are stolen. According to ehdi foundation, more than 50 dead bodies are disposed of by them every day in karachi, the unclaimed bodies, and here in is the another cornerstone of modern pak society, the notion of un-countables.

Even the tahmeds are refusing to count them. In afghanistan more than 30,000 pakistanis have vanished and no one cares. Every day pakistanis are getting killed in kashmir and no one cares. Now it is happening in the cities of pakistan, and only ehdi clears them, a kind of garbage disposal system

These are fundamnetally different from muslims any where else, it is uniquely pakistani, the un-countable muslims.

Now pervez, in this backdrop, what the pak army is doing is very very pakistani. Look around and learn pervez, the vlues that drive the pak society is all around you.
As a physist, you now the fundamentals of science, now start talking about fundamantals, the system of uncountables.

Hi Malang #23 . . . I fully agree with and sympathise with the plight of all Pakistanis on this forum against the tyranny of the Pakistani Army against its own people . . . therefore if the Pakistani Army guys don`t reply, then please mark a copy with request for intervention and action to their senior Field Marshal Sam J Maneckshaw, c/o COAS, Indian Army, New Delhi 110002 since he has a track record of coming to the aid of the Pakistani people in the past also like in 1971 . . . if you want I can hand-deliver a copy . . . there is no question of ego here, as you all know, Field Marshall maneckshaw could have as easily been part of the Pakistani Army after 1947 but his wife did not like Frontier food so they settled for Dum Pukht . . . all those in favour of making this a public plea, say ``Aye``. (Come on temp . . .)

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Cowasjee of Dawn on the Okara situation and other Pakistan Army land grabs:

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/cowas.htm

reply # 25 arjun_m

You missed out the Askari water.

About 58% of the national budget has been going on into defence in past years. Recently, the huge army pension account was take out and placed into the Government account to make figures look good.

Productivity: 4 wars lost with India.
Succesfully conquered Pakistan 4 times.

parvez,

May be you should invite that despicable mob protesting against KFC, how about the amnesty card carrying member, the die hard humanist tahmed. None of them will say anything against the military simply because the mullahs are not against the fauji.
Here in is the collution and unity with the mullahs and the fauji, the fauji provides 5he opportunity for the jihadists, and in return the mullah supprots the army.
The fools of india who talk of peace with pakistan cannot see that kashmir is a must for the pak religion. The incident is not a blot on the pak concience as you allege, it only exposes yet another instance of the working of TNT, one seeking the other to kill.

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Multinational Corporations are agressively acquiring agriculture land in Pakistan and they are stting up coopertaive farming, especially in Sindh. GOP last year gave in to the neo-colonial demands and allowed Genetically Modified seeds and all the necessary evils (especially designed hebicides, pesticides, and fertilizers) in the country officially. MNCs already have extraordinary clout and power to interfere in the prices of agri-produce.

Since our good prof. belongs to the social class which looks after the Western neo-colonial interests in our society, I am not sure about the worth of this article. I wish there were someone who could verify this information and tell us what really is cooking down there.

Dear readers, something must be done for these poor people. It would be a total moral bankruptcy to sit idly.

What can we do? At the least, write a letter to

Chief of Army Staff
General Pervez Musharraf
President Office
Islamabad

and/or

General Mohammad Yusuf Khan
Vice Chief of Army Staff
GHQ
Rawalpindi

and/or

Lt. General Shahid Siddiq Tirmizey
Commander II Corps
Corps Headquarters
Multan

preferably to all, condemning the state of affairs, demanding a prompt release of all incarcerated, withdrawal of false cases, decent compensation to them, strict disciplinary action against these disgusting much-feared officials.

Few lines, an envelope and postal stamps from your side can make a huge difference for one-million oppressed.

Thanks a lot.

PS. Apart well being of a poor family I have ABSOLUTELY NO MORE interest with this appeal.

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