The ‘shoey’ Side of Politics I think we are missing the point here.
Zardari can dilute the political process all he wants by including all and sundry into the fold..
The fact is that he wants to erase his corruption charges, which requirs currying favour with the establishment and ditching CJ Chaudhry....

Very soon everyone will read into him. ZARDARI cannot continue to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds....

The Naval War College Bomb Blasts I think the army needs to get away from these historic buildings and move into a purpose built garrsion away from civilians.

They cannot use these historic buildings on the Mall as shields...

Jinnah house on on Tufail Road should be made into museum.
The army guy inside should move to a purpose build accomodation in an exclusive cantt.

The ANP Challenge Yasser,
Agree, let the ANP make a coalition government with PPP (I think it will be good for the federation). But I think that the PML-N will be more effective in their agenda by sitting in the opposition at the national assembly level. They will galvansie more support and will be better able to force the hand of PPP to restore the deposed justices. I think it will be healthier.

I Thought I Heard You Laughing totally frivolous, something you would find in a cheap novelette, but I found it a bit funny... maybe that is what you were aiming for...


In any case , keep writing... this world is a tapestry and you will always find someone who has the inclination to read more of your epistles...

Musharraf’s Days are Numbered # 68, I think reading this article will do you some good.

http://www.dawn.com/2008/02/04/top11.htm

Who is destabalising who? Musharraf has f**ked the country. Half baked dimwit, telling the world that he is bigger than Pakistan and its institutions... He should be tried for treason.

Tea Anyone? # 10, one cannot deny that Yaya was an alcholic... I am not 100% sure about Musharraf but I have it on good authority that he is often drunk during his public "sermons" on being 'patriotic Pakistanis".

In any case, agree with you, drinking does not make you good vs bad, but it does cloud your judgement. Also contend that if we had a proper constitutional system, the biggest drunkard would not be abel to mess the country up.

also concede that if you are to buy your own wine and drink as a connesieur , I personally have no right to stop you, BUT there is a specific law in Pakistan against it (you and Jehanzeb obviously feel that the law is not moral , I disagree)...

Tea Anyone? Jehanzeb, I am gald you have come out clearly in your reply. I respect the way you have defended your points.



In reply to you, I support the prohibition in principle; but I DID NOT justify the way it is being adminstered by the Government.

The fact that Musharraf drinks.. I have a feeling that his "shooting from the hip" ideas on many national and international issues (inluding his fertile ideas on Kashmir ) have do with him being drunk at times... This is obviously NOT his major problem ... but research has been done that if you are an alcoholic your brain development stops... So a 65 year old alcholic may have a brain of an 18 year old.

To reply to your point on major incidents from alcholism : We have also lost half of our country beacuse the then dictator Yaya Khan was a drunkard and also experimented with drugs , which took away his faculties and alienated the Bengalis post elections.

Now, having said what I have said, I am not a preacher and do not want to impose my personal beliefs on you. But there is a code of morality in the Pakistani society ... I am a supporter of probibition in principle.

Tea Anyone? Jehanzeb, if you want the prohibition to be lifted, just say so. DO not beat about the bush. Your ending where you give a 'sigh'...shows that you are longing for a hard drink.. or maybe you were drunk when you were writing this.

I for one do not drink nor do I support an end to prohibition. We have enough societal problems, lets not encourage another one. I belive the average Paksitni has restraint.

The elite who drink do cause drunk driving accidents and Musharraf takes his own liqour cabinet when he is visiting truly 'dry' countries.

Musharraf’s Days are Numbered Lets build our institutions of democracy withOUT let or hinderance from the army.

Musharraf’s Days are Numbered # 5,
You say, "Asking the most powerful institution to submit to an audit is akin to asking a four-legged lion to donate his lunch to two-legged beasts."

Then why does it happen in all other civilised countries? why do we have tolerate a rouge army usurping our internal resources and trampling over our constitution?

I have enough respect in our civilians to hold the army accountable. Lets not sell ourselves short further by saying it is not in us. Democracy has to be revived in Pakistan.

We have had this army rule thrust upon again and again, raping our politics and intellectual thinking. We have had to come up with army's hard ceiling pressing aginst us. Nawaz Sharif and other politicians before him ,including a Z A Bhutto, had to also come up in this environemnt .

When you canot build tradition of democarcy , weird things do happen.. In Russain after the break up of the USSR , a mafioso class came about and is still prevalent in the political economy...

Lets build our institutions of democracy with let or hinderance from the army.

Musharraf’s Days are Numbered # 4, for a fact they were not.
One of the reasons Mushrraf (with a non conscience army) desecrated the Supreme Court was because the Chief Justice was going to take up cases of farm houses being illegally built by officer on non-designated land (this also included Musharraf's plot).

Musharraf has amassed over USD 10mio in land allotments for himself (research done ny Ayshea Sideqa). He has land in phase 8 Lahore and he has a agricultural acreage in Bhawalpur.

The reason that his core commanders have stayed quite over his clowning around with Country is because Musharraf fed enough candy/ land to keep them quite (the anlogy is between a corrupt board that losses it indpendece to keep a check on the CEO) Each core commanded is multi-millionaire too.

This is unprecedented and blatant and institutionalized corruption.

The guy who dresses himself up in the Pakistan Flag and calls his passion to be Pakistan, is anything but selfless.

Musharraf’s Days are Numbered Musharraf made the army officers so fatish, vulgar, power hungry, criminally rich, overnight land barrons, etc., but I am glad to see that a certain segment in the army is using its intellect and looking beyond plum posting and dogma and army indoctrination, and raising its voice for Pakistan .

I want to see the army totakky shed its mercenary tendancies .... but this change will come from the outside, not withing ..(there are too many intelectually corrupt within). Nawaz Sharif's call to make the army's budget accountable to parliment is very necessary..

Overseas Pakistanis and Right of Franchise I think there are at least 7mio Pakistani expats... but they repatriate about USD 5bio per annum. This is the same USD number that the Bangaldeshis expats presently repatriate. Phillipines is an exception, they too have about 7mio overseas workers but they repatriate about USD 12bio.

Unfortunately, we are not creating a country where the best brains and matached with capital. Our benchmark should not be to increase the the remittances; it should be to retain the best and the brightest at home. Look at the way Ireland has trasformed, from a "remittance economy" they have become a real economy.

I think Pakistanis would love to come back but contract law is too poor in the country. People like Mushrraf talk about the the real economy, spin doctoring ad nauseum .. but they have done nothing to address brain drain in Pakitan.

Pakistanis abraod would come back with their talent and capital if there was rule of law in the country.

As far as this article goes, yes, we expats should be able cast the vote in an free and fair manner.

It sad that after so many years we are still a remittance economy. There is no harm having high remittances but if it too high a potion of you currenct account , it is troubling and shows the hollowness of the home country.

I pray things very quickly change for the better in Pakistan. Long live Paksitan. It is that country that owes us a living, not any other country... and we owe the country honesty and sincerelty (and no double talk on national interest, Mush style ).

US Conspiracy to Destablize Pakistan?
It is a bit lame to be coming up with these conspiracy theories... Note that the journalists coming up with these theories are the most pro-government and spineless individuals, eg. Ahmad Qureshi.

Our problem lies with our internal checks and balances (or lack thereof). If you want to dismantle the judiciary, terrorize the press, install Musharaf's covering candidate (soomoro) and other Q leaguers in the so called "neutral' caretaker government , then you have NO right to float 'international" conspiracy theories.

As the Radiohead song goes: "You do it to yourself, and that is what really hurts."

Yes, Paksitan with a dictator is most vulnerable to outside influence (because Musharraf lacks internal electoral credibility)... BUT as civil society we have to address the real issue, i.e. we have to insist on independence of institutions. You have to differentiate the core disease from the symptoms.

The best thing that Pakitan can do at this stage is to sentence Musharraf for desecrating the constitution. I know it is far fetched at this stage (because Musharraf has given a great blow to the independence of the judiciary)... but he must be brought to book by Pakistanis for his crimes and lies against Pakistan (I do not think he should ever be given a safe passage to Turkey).

Eight years of Four M\'s: Musharraf, MQM, Muslim League and Mullah Good succinct article but could even be more succinct. One M(Musharraf) is the root cause of our problems, the others are merely tools.

Pakistan\'s Moment of Democracy? # 6
Glad that you got a chance to get this published in the Friday Times. Najam Sethi in my opnion is an over-rated jounralist/ editor. He has been towing the Musharraf line for years ... I think he has realised that his career will be dead if he does not take a U-turn from Musharraf. Najam Sethi is a half baked intellect, if ever there was one.