Myopic, Malevolent, Megalomaniac

Ref Sangilikkaruppan #130

[Unkalji, Haha you do seem to have a sense of humor after all.]

How about if I call you Fakhr from now on instead of Sangilikkaruppan? You think you have enough sense of humor to handle that?

sameerjb -- just clear a factual error u made -- no one from noorani`s party won any seats from karachi as u said -- not even the provincial ones -- they are all JUI or JI --

dost-mittar #140: The answer to your question is provided by hari in reply #141. In our part of the world, coming to power of Taliban and BJP did not soften their stands and MMA is going to follow the same line. Taliban said many good things about women before controlling all of Afghanistan but went as conservative as possible. Whether it is Taliban or MMA and Qazi Saheb of JI, the traditions and examples of last 1400 years of conservative Muslim rulers dictate a certain conservative path for deobandis and wahabis. The MMA is motly deobandi with only couple of winners from Shah Ahmed Noorani`s barelvi group in Karachi. For deobandis and wahabis, the most pure and highly admired example of Islam in politics was provided by Syed Ahmed Shaheed Barelvi and Shah Ismail in the northwest frontier mountains around 1831. Even the barelvis look more towards sufis of Persia and Arabia than liberal and enlightened Punjabi, Sindhi and Pathan sufis like Baba Farid, BUlley Shah, Shah Hussain, Khawaja Ghulam Farid, Sacchal Sarmust, Shah Latif Bhattai, Shahbaz Qalander and Khushal Khan Khattack. Whenever they mention desi sufis, it is often conservatives like Data Ganj Bakhsh and Shah Rukn-e-Alam. The teachings of liberal sufis could become tremendously powerful bridge between liberal/ seculars and Muslims one one hand and powerful tool to improving relations with India, particularly of Punjabi and Sindhi origins on the other. Obviously this is not much useful for certain vested interests and agencies.
So Qazi and Fazloo are more equivalent to Advani, Moodi and Mullah Omar and women and minorities will not fair well under their rule.

Here is one of the best article thus far on post election scenario and problems. This one is from Nation daily. It was difficult to choose this one over another good analysis by Kuldip Natar in the same issue. I will just quote the last sentence of Kuldip Nayar`s article: ``The bst way to fight fundamentalism is to become more liberal``. Fellow Pakistanis: Think abot it seriously.

Living with the MMA
Sherry Rehman
Every election in Pakistan, no matter how managed or controlled, has produced a ripple of optimism and hope for the future. Election 2002, however, will have the dubious distinction of going down in history as one that has yielded a wave of anxiety about the fate of the new parliament, government, and chronically endangered democratic process. An unprecedented level of uncertainty in the fragility of emerging coalitions is one critical factor contributing to the atmosphere of pervasive gloom. ...

#139 Sameer:

When speaking of separate universities for women, this is exactly what Taliban promised when it debarred women from education and said they had planned to build separate schools but it never materialized; the outcome was thousands of girls/women were left without anything. In fact, there were stories where previous girls schools were emptied of students and given to madrassas for boys or schools for boys.

How about building schools first and then talking. As a guarantee, people ought to demand that guaranteed and compulsory primary/secondary/high school education be given as ``birth right`` to all people irrespective of gender. Then these mullahs have to abide by the constitution and not what they ``think``.

Heeeeeeeere comes finally Islam in Pakistan to fulfill Jinnah`s vision, at least so thinks Qazi. From News:

MMA to abolish co-education: Qazi

Says honour killing un-Islamic [thank god]; no job restriction
on women [on women?]; welcomes Vajpayee`s visit

PESHAWAR: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) would seek to ban co-education, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Vice President of the MMA, told thousands of burqa-clad female supporters of the alliance here on Sunday

He said women should not be forced to wear the all-enveloping Burqa but should have to follow Islamic sharia laws. ``There will be no restrictions on women but they have to live according to the teachings of Islam,`` Qazi said.

``We will abolish co-education and we will set up separate universities for girls,`` he said. He spoke to the women from behind a curtain. Qazi also promised that the Islamist parties would do away with the tradition of ``honour killings``, in which male relatives in feudal-dominated rural and tribal areas kill female relatives accused of immoral behaviour.

The MMA won 45 seats, up from just two in 1997. It also won a majority in the NWFP Assembly, and has become the largest party in the Balochistan Assembly. Qazi promised equal job opportunities for women, and new laws on violence against women. ``We will give women honour, respect and dignity, and bring laws to end discriminatory laws,`` Qazi said. ``We will abolish the un-Islamic practice of honour killings,`` he said.

Party officials said the convention was called to dispel worries that the MMA would clamp down Taliban-style on women if it came to power. Allaying the fears as propaganda, Qazi said the ``massive participation at the rally today is proof that both men and women want Islam in this country``. ``We will treat women with respect, provide them education and training and there will be no job restriction on women.``

``Islam is the only religion which gives shelter, protection and all political and other rights to women,`` the leader of the JI women`s wing Aisha Munnwar told the gathering. ``We will start a movement which will be a base for Islamic revolution and women`s welfare in Pakistan,`` she said. Another top JI women`s representative, Koasar Firdous, said, ``Our first priority is to give respect in Pakistani society to the women.``

Qazi said the MMA plans to set up educational institutions exclusively for women, including universities and vocational training centres. Women will receive both religious and secular education and female experts in teaching, medicine and other fields would be offered ``a conducive atmosphere to work with dignity.``

``Laws will be passed against sexual harassment of women`` and special centres will be established for widows and destitutes, he said as chants of `Allah-o-Akbar` and `Long Live MMA` punctuated his speech. ``Islam has given women more rights than any other religion,`` he said adding that ``it allows woman to marry a person of her choice.``

He also declared as ``wrong`` a ban tribesmen had clamped on women`s right to vote during the general elections, saying the MMA would abolish all unfair practices. Several provincial and central leaders of the MMA`s women`s wing also addressed the convention.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, while welcoming the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, said that his party has always advocated meaningful dialogue with India.

Talking to newsmen here at Tehmas Khan Football Stadium at Shahi Bagh after addressing the JI women`s convention on Sunday, Qazi said his party`s objection to Vajpayee`s visit to Pakistan in 1998 was in reaction to denouncing by him of geographical boundaries between Pakistan and India as artificial.

``We had never objected to the visit of late Rajiv Gandhi,`` he remarked. When asked about his position in the future government, Qazi Hussain Ahmad said he is not going to accept any office in the expected government of the alliance of religio-political parties either at the centre or in the provinces. ``I want to serve the masses while living among them and do not need any position in future government,`` he maintained.

Commenting on the reaction of the Hamid Karzai government to the victory of the MMA in polls, he said the Afghan government is the United States-backed puppet regime and its foreign ministry is being run by the Americans.

Regarding the formation of government at the Centre, Qazi reiterated that Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman is the unanimous parliamentary leader of the alliance of the six religio-political parties.

He said they will enter into coalition with only those political parties which accept their condition of backing Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman for the top slot. He maintained that they will accept only those foreign funded projects which do not affect Islamic norms of society. He said he is ready to fulfil his resolve of converting Governor`s House and Frontier House into educational institutions.

jay 132:

What happened to mr ylh ?

P Mishra, Omar et al:

I read that the women from Banu and other areas in NWFP, BALUCH etc were not allowed to vote(on the most part);

Wouldn`t that invalidate the election that MMA is so proud to announce?

pmishra2-- hahha surely u jest yaar -- no thanks but not interested in seeking asylum anywhere in the foreseeable future -- as for the `morass` we are in why dont u worry more about gujarat yaar -- and speaking of asylum are you sure your not in one ! hahah --

Sameer: Here is my tribute to the great Punjabi poet Ustad Daman in his istyle. I am sure if he were alive he would have said something similar.

saadi paalicy bass ayho.
Fissile dao, Missile lao.

Camp kholo, RiyaleaN badle,
band karo phir DaaleyaN badle,
paise nu apna Khuda kaho..
Fissile dao, Missile lao.

khabay gwanDi nu dewo unglaN,
sajjay gawandi nu wando raflaN,
puThi je paindi jaapay baazi,
Dhihla munh kar, bholay ban rahvo..

Osamay nu pakRo, te Laden lukao,
doweiN paasay,behja behja karao,
eho je veile nai murh murh aunday,
dowiN hathi laddo bhoro ji bhoro...

Wazarat te Sadar nu akhaN wikhao,
kare oon aan je, thallay chuk laho,
jado loRh jaapay, jadoN jee chahwe,
apnay hi mulakh nu ja sar karo..
Fissile dao, Missile lao.....

bhukhay awaam da karo na jhohra,
Europe America ch rakho phera tora,
kade New York, kade Tora Bora,
aidhar di suno, udhar jaa kaho...
Fissile lao, Missile dao.
saadi paalicy bass ayho....

Plot thickens! From News daily for people interested in detailed political landscape of Pakistan.
The brewing deadly intrigue
By Nusrat Javeed
ISLAMABAD: Within the crowd of our intrigue-addicted notables with agricultural land that has assembled in the Q-faction of Pakistan Muslim League these days, a deadly intrigue is brewing. It`s immediate objective is to delay, if not scuttle for good, the nomination of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali as the prime ministerial candidate of the party, which had emerged as the single largest group after elections held on Oct 10.
The long-term objective, however, is to check the growth of Chaudhrys -Shujaat Hussain and Pervez Elahi- as the ultimate king makers and power brokers. The ongoing game also has the making of a proxy war, ganging some discreet political managers of the Musharraf government up against the most trusted principal secretary of his, Tariq Aziz.
It will be for the first time since holding of elections that Central Working Committee of the Q-faction of PML meets in Islamabad on Saturday. After expected postmortem of their failings at polls, the movers and shakers of the ``king`s party`` have to get down to the business of government formation. And you begin doing that by nominating a prime ministerial candidate. Putting the obvious two and two together, most Islamabad-based journalists had already narrowed their choice to Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali in this regard.
Jamali could also make it to Prime Minister`s office in 1985, when another military government was moving to put a civilian face on it after holding the non-party elections. Elahi Bux Soomro and late Muhammad Khan Junejo were the others. The ``path dependent`` observers were compelled to imagine that going through the similar motions in 2002, the military government of General Musharraf would either go for him or Soomro.
Speaker of the dismissed national assembbly of 1997, Soomro, had lost elections from the home constituency of Jacobabad. The wagging tongues of Islamabad insist that Elahi Bux lost because his own nephew, Mohammadmian -the incumbent governor of Sindh, was not very motivated to help his rise. The drawing room gossip also claims that those factions of Jamalis who are settled in Jacobabad were also ``worked upon``. So, Mir Zafarullah ends as the one and only candidate vying for the prime ministerial office from the PML-Q.
Whatever the truth, Jamali had certainly emerged as the most formidable candidate since compilation of the election result. The most solid point going in his favour is the fact that his elections would give Pakistan a Prime Minister for the first time, from a strategically placed province with abundance of tapped and untapped resources of energy. Islamabad has seldom acknowledged the worth of this province. That led to a lot of anger and resentment there, which the election of Jamali may help assuaging.
But only the dispassionate commentators, who are not in the game of grabbing power, could foresee the feel-good sides of the possible election of Jamali. The real players of the palatial intrigues see things differently. And to many of them, Chaudhrys of Gujrat had emerged as the most powerful family since the fall of Nawaz Sharif in Oct 1999. ``If not checked here and now, the family has all the potential of turning unmanageable in the end. As the House of Ittefaq proved to be after years of growing under the patronage of General Zia`s military government,`` they say.
Chaudhrys maintain the lifestyle and mindset of proud and rustic Jats from Gujrat. But the feudal families of Punjab, the English colonialists would mention in official gazetteers, consider them ``upstarts.`` The Sharifs of Lahore were placed in the same category. And after enduring them for over 20 years, ``the gentlemanly class`` of our rural notables is pretty weary of this type. They rather suspect the Chaudhrys taking the same path to upward mobility in power politics the Sharifs had traveled before.
Many from amongst the recently elected members of the national assembly on PML-Q tickets also belong to ``the gentlemanly class`` of Punjab. A good number of them had already reached Islamabad to smell and participate in brewing games. And the most popular is the one ``forewarning`` the-powers-that-be. ``Don`t give a free hand to Chaudhrys, when it comes to select a Prime Minister,`` is the desperate, one-line message. What has really hit the panic button is the quick act of Chaudhry Pervez Elahi in collecting numbers, which could smoothly take him to the Chief Minister House of the most powerful province, Punjab. Nawaz Sharif had also reached Islamabad after consolidating his position in that office.
Zia had alienated the mass of Sindhis by hanging Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As if to compensate he appointed Muhammad Khan Junejo as the Prime Minister after holding the non-party elections in 1985. Though a thoroughbred democrat, Junejo was a lie-low type who also was tight-fisted in doling out the state patronage. As the chief minister of Punjab, Nawaz Sharif was the other extreme. In no time he began outshining the PML President, Junejo, and start building the populist constituency of his own. After defying the first government of Ms Bhutto from 1988 to 1990, he doubly enhanced his stature and relevance.
The opponents of Chaudhrys allege that the Jats of Gujrat are planning the repeat of his tactics. ``They are propping Jamali to Prime Minister`s office.
For, he has no popular constituency. To survive, he would always be looking up to the chief minister of Punjab and his official and private resources for keeping the majority in the future assembly intact. And we don`t need elaborating the rest,`` begin the conspiratorial whispers in Islamabad these days.
Every journalist prefers the short and sweet of the intrigues coming his or her way. Don`t blame this correspondent, therefore, to instantly getting to the question: ``Who else, if not Jamali?`` None of anti-Jamali operators, one has been talking to since Thursday, provided any answer. Most of the time is still spent in drumming the ``disastrous consequences`` of giving Chaudhrys a free hand. Yet, the contours of the game-to-be are becoming clearer after hours of separate conversations with a score of PML-Q leaders, elected to the national assembly on Oct 10.
To delay or pre-empt the nomination of Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, some are definitely set to play the ``Punjab card`` at PML-Q meeting Saturday. It`s to be recalled and rubbed in that it was a ``dynamic Punjabi`` from Lahore, whom the military had removed on October 1999. Though candidates sticking to the Nawaz faction fared miserably during the recently held polls, the dispassionate analysis of them proves that the toppled prime minister continues savoring a deeper and vast constituency, at least in the urban areas of Punjab.
``The future Prime Minister must come from Punjab to make Nawaz history,`` many voices are set to demand at PML-Q meeting. It would also be better if the person looked for were associated with Lahore as well. Though the sluggish mien of Mian Azhar could hardly sell in the macho streets of the Punjab metropolis, the handlers of PML-Q had built many hopes about him. He had lost and we are only left with Humayun Akhtar returning to the national assembly from Lahore on PML-Q ticket.
Humayun had looks, which could kill. He can even hire the most deadly spin-doctor from the image building industry of New York. But the military elite will hesitate, at least at this stage, to launch him to the Prime Minister`s house. Just for the reason that he is the son of a former head of the ISI who led waging the jihad in Afghanistan. The ``negative`` sides of the family tree of Humayun can go in favor of another urbanite Punjabi, Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri. He also has funds to dispose off for building the image of a dynamic deliverer about his person. His launch can also help assuaging the alarmist concerns MMA had set amongst the liberals of this world after resurgent with a bang on Oct 10. Yet the question: How the propping of urbanites, the likes of Humayun and Khurshid, can satisfy the Mians, Ranas and Sardars of the rural Punjab who also feel uncomfortable with Chaudhrys for they are Jats. And not the ``valiant`` Rajputs or the ``assiduous`` Araeens, for example.
``The populists`` are often tempted to act on whims anywhere in the world. Nawaz Sharif was also prone to it, no doubt. But he had developed the authority of putting ``all-chiefs-no-Indians`` variety of ``Punjabi notables`` under his disciplinary thumb. All have now become equals in that faction of the PML that had ditched him after the fall of Oct 1999. Fasten your seat belts. We are about to board a fast train to highly engaging power games.

omar_r_quraishi #128

In spite of your ``sophistication`` you are unable to distinguish between an indian nationalist and a BJP follower with Sarvarkar-Jinnah TNT ideology. Oh well, the loss is yours...

One final comment on your elected mullahs. Overall, this is a good thing. They are a real part of Pakistan and represent a small but significant sections thinking. By bringing them into the democratic process, there is hope that in 20-30 years time you may move out the morass you are in. Sticking with military rule means that you will never leave the morass. Excluding them against the peoples will will lead you straight to Algeria.

Again, if you need asylum in india sometime soon, drop me a line..

TEARS FOR PAKISTANIS,

There was a time following the islamic revolution in Iran, the educated were welcomed in the west, as poor sould could not take the yoke of islam. Today the situation is very different, every pakistani has been tarnished with the jihadic brush. For the least of reasons, they are being deported, student visas are rarer than moderate muslims in pakistan. It is a pathetic stuation for the likes of ylh who have tasted the freedoms of the west, now has to grow a beard just to survive. The situation is far worse for women, the likes of anNy who happen to have a mind of her own.

At last the educated have been forced to pay the price for their silence, for their support for jihadists disguised as freedom struggle or great low cost military strategy. All of the ones who refused to say aloud or even accept that killing of kafirs is not jihad have to grow beards to cover their emberassment or be under burkha to show their insignificance.

At last the monster from the TNT embriyo is emerging.

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Unkalji,
Haha you do seem to have a sense of humor after all.
I have heard of Parkarvarkar (raise the petticoat).

sameerjb-- thanks v much for the reference -- ill check it up -- and the reference to the nation article -- well there r lots of theories going around and no one really thinks -- at least not in the press -- that the results and the MMA win was completely manipulated --

pmishra2 -- hahah your funny dude -- the extrapolations that you infer show you have a very fertile imagination -- no i didnt think everyone here is ``really, really stupid`` -- just you ! hahah -- and that too im saying for a reason coz most of your posts on chowk seem to be thoroughly reactionary and quite devoid of either reason or good taste -- and pmishra2 at least the BJP did not need any rigging to win ! or the shiv sena for that matter, probably your party of first choice, or is it the RSS or the VHP ---

arjun -- be my guest and go and check that thing on google -- u wont find any letter like that -- quite the opposite actually -- but anyway go ahead and be my guest --