Kashmir Diary All the stories I have heard point to the fact that the Army is doing a commendable job..the problem is one of leadership..in those initial critical few days and till sometime afterwards there was an absence of leadership from the top. Effective leadership at the top comes out in moments of crisis..sadly that was a failure..i suppose it is inevitable when the top Army leadership is so immersed in politics ..it would inevitably effect its ability to focus on a single task..now for some unknown reason Musharraf has decided to end the moment of national unity and focus on a divisive issue like kalabagh.

The Forgotten Economics of SAFTA It`s not hard to estimate the beenfits of free trade..if you include afghanistan in it Pakistan is naturally suited to be a trade hub. The old stat was $3b of indirect trade between Pakistan and India..and I am sure if you add in trade done through places like Malaysia and UAE it would be a lot higher..similarly Pak-Afghan trade if liberalsied would be in the billions as well..

Looking for a New Islamic Fiqh Mantolives: I velieve Parwezs work is banned in some provinces in Pakistan? I know very little about the mans work do you have any references to his work I could look around for?
The comment about period after marriage in which a birth is considered legitimate is interesting..I wonder what is the record for the longest birth.

I would like to point out some of the legislation that some of the religo political groups support is quite progressive..the restriction on triple talaq..the outlawing of vani and the guarantee of inheritance rights to women, opposition to dowry, morrocos recent reforms are also quite progressive and have been interpreted in an Islamic context..the outlawing of polygamy using Quranic verse ..the list goes on..there are many progressive reform movements going on in the Muslim world..the Islamophobes ignore them because it doesn`t fit in with their hate filled views..and the conservative Mullahs usually can outspend them because of state power or petro dollars.

Greasing Palms -- Surviving Through Corruption in India Corruption seems to be something endemic in South Asia as a whole..one would imagine that India with it`s large bloated public sector and socialist legacy it is surprising that it`s not at an even larger scale! I think the key differences between corruption in india and Pakistan or Bangladesh for that matter is the institutional view of it..because of weaker institutional strength in Pakistan and India there are greater discretionary powers in the hands of individuals..that is a recipe for disaster..

One would hope that with deregulation and a smaller public sector corruption avenues automaticallly decrease..but I don`t see that as happening till there are major increases in spending on the judicial and legal systems.

My own experiences have been a few..one in particular was having to sort out a property tax issue..and the endless running around to get the amount correctly reassessed ..when finally the man we were dealing with ..said..you see everyones in this office..they are all bribing the collectors..all you are doing is making things worse for yourself by trying to do things the right way..

Did Imran get the money? sadna: you left out one key component of fascism..it is usually the product of a democratic society..the Taliban don`t exactly fit the bill..people often forget that most people including the present President of Afghanistan supported the Taliban at the time..considering the war lords had gone wild at the time people would have supported any group which wielded some writ..so looking at the situation in such one dimensional terms does not really advance an argument.

Imran Khan is a flawed individual..more so then most..but he is better than quite a few as well.

Did Imran get the money? Regardless of what one thinks of Imran as a person or a politician..he has done a lot of positive work during the post quake period. Most of it was low key initially and I remember him appearing on Geo TV looking absolutely exhausted right after coming back..

Changing Radio Stations nicely written!

Here We Go Again Secularism in its pure form is in decline throughout the world..that is a reality..the presence of religion does not impede a nations progress. When any idealogy creates a strait jacket towards development that is inevitably going to stall development.

Here We Go Again Mantolives: Wali Khan and most of his colleagues were in jail in 1977...the PPP had very little room for leftists at that time...the NDPs joining the PNA was based on the principle of the enemy is my enemy..something which the PPP in time did the same by allying itself with the JUI-F subsequently.

The problem presently is MUsharrafs proxy friends would not allow progressive movements to get very far...since they themselves are not progressive and prefer the status quo or the mullahs. The Herald described it best...the two underlying approaches to Musharrafs game are a tolerance for opportunists and extremists.

Role of Judiciary in Constitution Making in Pakistan Re: # 21

EZ I agree..just one comment with regard to what you said:`` the common man, seeks survival, through an ineffective judicial system, in the wilderness of anarchy.``

My own experience has been slightly different..I find that in response to anarchy or near anarchy people prefer a blatantly unjust system over an ineffective system at anytime of the day..that is one of the reasons for the spread of the baloch jirga system into areas where it was previously unheard of...

Oh yes Ghazia unrelated..I also forgot to mention a stat i heard some time ago which speaks volumes for ineffective judiciaries..judicial backlog should be the hallmark of an ineffective judicial system, yet according to one report i have read judicial backlog in India (in the 1990`s) was higher than Pakistan..7 years compared to three years, simply put it is not the backlog of cases that is responsible for the Paks systems ineffectiveness. I am not a lawyer mind you..but I have always believed the separation between morality and legality in pakistan is the key problem..ultimately the lack of respect for the rule of law is a moral/ethical failure.

Role of Judiciary in Constitution Making in Pakistan Re: # 19
your points are noted..I was writing solely of memory and any inaccuracies mentioned were not intentional..I would like to remind you of what i said in the end..the judiciary asserts itself usually when the ruling gov authority is perceived to be in a state of decline..

with regard to the Junejo dismissal ..I was citing Aslam Begs reported comments that the SC was told not to restore the gov. I also forgot to mention an element of racial bias that has been alleged against the SC, Stanley Wolpert cited one Chief Justice associated with the ZAB case as having spoken disparaginly of Sindhis, a similar allusion was made by Sajjad Ali Shah about how PM`s from Sind seemed to have their gov dimissal upheld while those from Punjab have their restored.

Role of Judiciary in Constitution Making in Pakistan Keep writing Ghazia..it is always interesting to read something researched about Pakistan. A few simple comments about Pakistans legal/political system:

1) Firstly in democracies there is usually a concept of separation of powers..for much of pakistans existence and to a lesser extent now..that separation has not existed practically..the now maligned District management Group wielded executive and judicial powers over districts ( as i would imagine their counterparts in India still do)..conversely there have been several occassions during martial laws that Chief Justice of the SC and HC have taken over executive positions in lieu of an absent executive

2)Administratively lower courts were in reality accountable to the Executive and not superior courts.

3) The writ of the court has not extended (for most of Pakistans existence) to FATA, the Northern Areas and much of Baluchistan..if you were to look at that in geographical terms those areas combined comprise almost half of Pakistans overall area.

4) Even when dealing with the Supreme Court and High Courts it is essentially the federal executive which exercises real power over them..with regard to the elevation of judges. and other matetrs..many of those curbs were introduced in the modern constitution by ZAB as a means of curbing challenges to his authority.

5) While the above comments sound harsh there have been a few cases where the courts have openly defied a sitting government ..surprisingly as the system is quite skewered in favour of a sitting federal gov..a few examples are:

a) the ruling against martial law in karachi and lahore in 1977 during the PNA PPP confrontation

b) the Sindh High Courts ruling against the dismissal of Khawaja Nazimuddins dismissal

c) If the Supreme Court had been allowed to fairly rule on ZABs execution it goes without saying they would have ruled against it..the government used its full power to remove judges who would have voted against the execution

d)Junejos gov would have been restored agai if the Army had not warned the SC against so

e) The Judges seniority case in the mid 1990`s while landmark and now ignored by the government it was unique in that it went against a sitting gov

f) The Sajjad Ali case has probably been discussed

g) Recently during Shahbaz Sharifs attempted return the courts reaffirmed his right to return..

To summarise..the legal system is especially twisted in a way where it has the pretende of a judiciary which in reality lacks much the authority of a real judiciary..despite this the courts have shown some backbone on occassion..yet the majority of the time it sides with the power that effectively wields executive authority (the more power the more it sides)...in the times when it has defied a sitting gov..there has been no respect for the rule of law..and as such its authority remained unenforceable..this reality is reflected by the general publics attitude towards legal cases. I am sure if research was done..it would show most people go to appeal ..because they doubt the impartiality of judges.

Why Democracy? Democracy as a whole seeks the collective welfare of it`s people..as such it can do so at the expense of other people. Consider the US...the only nation to rationalise the cost benefit ratio of using nuclear weapons ..it justified it in 1945 and considered it almost every other major war fought.Conversely the extreme example of populism in democracy without institutional checks is fascism or mobocracy (germany..or even India in Gujarat are examples of that)..that as an extreme form of nationalism was very successful in mobilising people..so on a cursory look one can say democracy is a flawed system..its strengths are in the consultative process, greater freedom of expression, greater innovation and stability. This is not unique to democracies..as mentioned monarchies can do the same..as can one party states (military dictatorships fare less well..usually suceeding in the short term and disintegrating in the long term).

NWFP Demonstrators Fury against No Response from Army There is a backlash..much the same has happened in India..and in the US with Katrina..simply put the sheer scale of the disaster has overwhelmed the initial response. Besides that there is a tunnel focus on the epicentre and other areas are getting aid very late.

Immigrants: Na Idhar ke, Na uddhar ke Interesting..there is a tinge of numbness and ..disappointment in this article..personally I`ve always believed that when one immigrates from one country to another..we are mentally left with a frozen condensed picture of what was once home. You see this on chowk like any other place..you have Indian and Pak expats who are still stuck in the old days of anti pak or anti India..it`s like they are frozen in the past ( you will probably see a few of those people responding as well and you might understand what I mean)..remembering slights and hurts of a bygone time which have no relevance to the present.

Readjusting to Pakistan is an achievement in itself, because you are not a cog in the wheel in that system..you basically have to create your own wheel and world to manage!

History Does Repeat Itself in Pakistan #1: Nawaz was famous for his lack of interest in details..it used to take him ages to deal with paperwork and even longer to understand complex issues..