Banana Republics Now we have at least three examples where Indian officers not only amiably acknowledged the valour of their enemy fighters [Pakistanis] who were out to kill/annihilate them, they also recommend them for higher military awards.

Capt. Sher
Major Akram
SSG Naib Subedar

It requires extreme honesty and a lot of graceful nature to admit the greatness of your rival even in normal daily life affairs. Much more to accept that your sworn enemy on the battlefield performed well.

My question is: has Pakistani side too had ever reciprocated by admiring feats of Indian military personnel? It is theoretically impossible that Indian Army is totally devoid of brave men.

A Pakistani.

Will Persecuting Hashmi Help? Pakistan Is ...
By BARRY BEARAK

Published: December 7, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/magazine/07PAKISTAN.html?pagewanted=all&position=

Though the British are long gone, the Pakistanis themselves remain colonized by privation. About two-thirds of the population survives on less than $2 a day. Nearly two of every five children are undernourished. Only 44 percent of all adults can read (only 29 percent of the women). The mosques, rather than the government, provide what frayed social safety net there is. Perhaps that is because Pakistan is habitually broke. Barely 1 percent of the population pays income tax. More than half of the central budget goes toward the military and repayment of the national debt.

Politically, Pakistan has been reliably unsteady, with democracy only a sporadic presence. The military has controlled the country for about half its 56 years. No elected government has ever completed a full term, and even when one is in place, it stays there only at the pleasure of the generals. The army -- some 500,000 strong -- is commonly thought to be Pakistan`s elite institution. The military doesn`t just dominate civilian affairs; its various ``welfare trusts`` are among the nation`s largest industrial conglomerates. The Fauji Foundation, linked to the army, has substantial ventures in gas fields, sugar mills, a fertilizer plant, an oil terminal and an overseas employment service. Its corn flakes and other breakfast cereals control 80 percent of the market. Profits supply ex-servicemen and their families the quality schools and health care that most Pakistanis so badly lack.

The great murkiness of Pakistan is largely the fault of this formidable army and the skulking I.S.I., which have pursued furtive alliances with many of the nation`s most violent Islamic extremists. For more than a decade, the military has trained and financed civilian jihadis who cross into the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir to create havoc. This guerrilla combat was once an entirely indigenous Kashmiri rebellion against New Delhi, but the Pakistanis quickly hijacked it. Radical groups supplied much of the manpower, often enlisting students eager to enter paradise through the golden door of a martyr`s death.

The main grievance was the Legal Framework Order -- the L.F.O. -- Musharraf`s unilateral redrawing of the Constitution. He has bestowed upon himself the power to appoint Supreme Court justices and military chiefs, dissolve the Parliament and fire the prime minister. In other words, officials -- whether elected or otherwise -- were free to perform their duties so long as the general did not disapprove of how they did it.

I spent time with Musharraf during these early days. He is a forceful man who expresses himself with such common sense and seeming candor that it is hard to imagine a word being untrue. He favors declarations like ``It`s high time we face facts!`` And yet for most Pakistanis, the general has been a disappointment. Anticorruption campaigns gave way, once again, to political vendettas. Farouk Adam Khan had been chief prosecutor during the initial period of crusading. One Sunday night, I found him in his law office, sitting under the dim light of a single desk lamp. ``Pervez Musharraf had a great opportunity,`` he said, ``but he lost it in the pursuit of power.``

Neither Benazir Bhutto nor Sharif could have run again anyway. Musharraf had installed new rules for public office. Some were laudable, like reserving a quota of seats in Parliament for women. Others were quirky, moralistic or simply cunning. A college degree was required, disqualifying all but perhaps 4 percent of the population. Accused bank defaulters also could not run, nor could their relatives or business associates.

Yet however unusual these rules, it was their selective application that was most disturbing. In a detailed criticism of the election, observers from the European Union said the inconsistency was the ``result of a government strategy, in certain cases through the enforcement of person-specific provisions.`` Politicians allying themselves with Musharraf were often given ways around legal obstacles, the report noted. A few of the more ambitiously recruited were then rewarded with posts in the cabinet.

Conspiracy theorists and others reacted to the M.M.A.`s election success with a frenzy of suspicion. They began to call the coalition the Military-Mullah Alliance, speculating that the wily Musharraf had backed the religious parties to scare the gullible Americans into meting out more aid. (``The mullahs are coming! The mullahs are coming!``) To them, it seemed the M.M.A. had received an unfair leg up. Degrees from madrasas (religious schools) had been accepted to fulfill the educational requirement for candidates. On the ballots themselves, where each party was denoted by an emblem, the M.M.A. was granted the symbol of a book. In a mostly illiterate country, some people were then easily persuaded that their choice was to vote for or against the Holy Koran.

Parents want their kids in school. If there were teachers, there would be students. But Pakistan`s education budget as a percentage of gross domestic product is puny, according to a Unesco estimate, smaller than most of the Muslim world, smaller even than most of sub-Saharan Africa. And of those teachers who are paid, many simply fail to show up, relying on an inept bureaucracy to ignore their truancy. In a place called Masterano Kallai, I witnessed the reanimation of a ghost school. Some of the village`s few literate men had volunteered to teach. Rooms were swept free of fodder and dung. A small blackboard was hung from a nail to the cement wall. More than 100 children arrived in the afternoon, some of them barefoot, many coming after a morning of hard lifting at a nearby brick kiln.

A Gory Tale of Lies, Greed and Deception Na, Baba jee, Na, I merely tried to use a mathematical notation = took out a common factor. It didn’t mean to imply anything else because I am pretty sure that Romair and Fuzair definitely don’t represent one and the same person.
Rather, I would claim after this question of yours that while Romair is an ex-eng officer, you are non-eng specie. Right?

A Gory Tale of Lies, Greed and Deception NHK, (fuz + rom)air:
I beg to differ. Regardless of the futility of the exercise, we as a nation have yet to fade away because thankfully there are a handful of people like M M Alam around who still dare to raise their voice, at the cost of their careers. That is the best legacy we can leave to our children.

There is no excuse to passively follow stream. Fanon said long time ago that every spectator is a coward or a traitor. Aspiring nations nurture a culture where timidity is considered a curse nothing to brag about. Everyone must make a contribution in whatever way considered appropriate. We all must endeavour to make ours a civilised society. Therefore, we all who remain silent are guilty of sin, proportional to our positions.

PS.
Friends, the subject matter under discussion is absolutely not about Indo-Pak tussle. Interlocutors, who have as usual diverted the discussion to same very boring business of Indo-Pak bashing, really serve no cause.

Killing the Nation with Impunity 1.
Lawyers vow to continue anti-LFO struggle
By Rafaqat Ali
http://www.dawn.com/2003/10/15/top3.htm

ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: Lawyers on Tuesday vowed to continue their struggle against the ``uniformed president,`` and accused the judiciary of colluding with the military ruler.
They said the premise that the Supreme Court vested the military ruler with legislative power could not be accepted as the Constitution gave no such power to the judiciary itself. When the judiciary itself had no power to amend the Constitution, how could it allow such powers to any individual, they asked.
They said judges should also be tried on treason charges under Article 6 for cooperating with military rulers in subverting the Constitution.
Lawyers claimed that the judiciary was totally subjugated to the government and raising any matter of constitutional importance with its ``present composition`` was a futile exercise as it had validated all the actions taken by the military regime since October 12, 1999.

2.
Lawyers long march towards SC blocked
from Javed Rana
http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/Oct-2003/15/main/top5.asp

“We’ll get General Pervez Musharraf and the ‘guilty’ judges tried on high treason charges for their continued abrogation of the Constitution,” vowed Hamid Khan, the key leader of lawyers struggling against the constitutionality of Musharraf’s 31 amendments he pleads being part of the Constitution without two-thirds binding Parliamentary approval.
Hamid said judges, including Justice (Retd) Irshad, who was made Election Commissioner following their authoring of the validation of “extra-constitutional” apex court ruling on Musharraf’s legitimacy, would be tried as co-accused on high treason charges.
Hamid described honourable Chief Justice Riaz as “junior dictator” co-opting with his superior dictator General Pervez Musharraf to unleash an era of extra-constitutionality in Pakistan for the advancement of their personal political agenda. “He (Justice Riaz) is coward as he has run away to Peshawar after ordering to block our entry to the bar offices in the Supreme Court building,” said Hamid Khan.
Lawyers said General Musharraf is a retired General of grade-22 and enjoys no legal authority to declare himself as President of Pakistan through a last year’s extra-constitutional fraudulent referendum.

3.
Lawyers call for treason trial of Musharraf in parliament
By Mohammad Kamran
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_15-10-2003_pg1_8

ISLAMABAD: Lawyers and opposition parliamentarians on Tuesday called for General Pervez Musharraf to be tried for high treason in parliament under Article 6 for violating the 1973Constitution.
“Gen Pervez Musharraf is a usurper and the chief justice of Pakistan is his accomplice,” Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Hamid Khan declared at a lawyers’ convention at the culmination of three days of protest at the Legal Framework Order (LFO) and the fourth anniversary of the coup that brought Gen Musharraf to power.
He criticised the chief justice, saying he had “fled to Karachi after slamming the Supreme Court doors on lawyers. The day is not far when we will be inside and the usurper judges will be outside.”

Killing the Nation with Impunity
Exactly, dard u r rite, this budha man sells readymade remedy packets to the guns in advance. Moreover, I m very eager to know has this man ever won any constitutional case against the sitting government? No one has yet answer this interesting question.

Terrorism, Sectarianism and the Military
Romair Jee,

There is, of course, no logic in the ``Pakistan is not ready for democracy`` argument, which raises more questions than it answers. Pakistan emerged out of British India in 1947 and included Bangladesh until 1971. India was ready for democracy from the day it became independent and Bangladesh, too, is a functioning democracy with alternation of power and full civilian control.

India`s economy is growing, its middle class is expanding, the number of its people living in poverty is declining and its literacy level is rising slowly but surely despite its chaotic democracy or maybe because of it. Bangladesh has also managed to contain its population explosion, expand literacy and transform from an economic basket case into a growing economy. If the country out of which Pakistan emerged, and the nation that was born out of Pakistan, can both be democracies why is Pakistan alone not ready for democracy?

All the traditional answers given by apologists of military rule can be rationally refuted. If religion is cited as the reason for Pakistan`s inability to sustain democracy, Bangladesh is overwhelmingly Muslim and India has more Muslims than Pakistan in numerical terms. The ``Pakistan has just been unlucky with the kind of politicians it has`` approach also has its answer. The bickering Bangladeshi rivals, Begum Khaleda Zia and Begum Hasina Wajed are no better or worse than Pakistan`s politicians. India has its own share of Laloo Prasad Yadavs and Jayalalithas. The ``Pakistan`s feudal system obstructs democracy`` view is losing relevance with increasing urbanization and declining share of agriculture in national wealth.

The truth is that it is not Pakistan but its military leadership and its hangers-on that are not ready for democracy. Since 1958, the generals have refused to let politics take its course for better or for worse. Training at the Pakistan Military Academy, the Military Staff College and the National Defence College drills the simplistic notion in army officers` head that they alone are Pakistan`s saviours.

Successive generations growing up in military cantonments and in civil service residential estates have been brought up to think that the English-educated `Sahib loag` are superior and better equipped to run the country than the earthly politicians representing the poor uneducated masses. It is no coincidence that most of the technocrats and even columnists supporting the military over the last three decades are themselves the children of former military officers or of Ayub-era civil servants.

In the twenty-first century, democracy and rule of law are considered important elements of legitimacy and viability of a political system. General Musharraf`s assertion that Pakistan is not ready for democracy might lead the world to ask how a nation unprepared for democratic governance can be prepared to maturely deploy its nuclear weapons or to absorb large amounts of foreign direct investment. Either Pakistan is a modern nation and should be able to be part of the modern world in every sense or it should accept to be treated as a backward people. If Pakistan is ready for most modern ideas, including the most destructive weapons technology available to mankind, why is democracy the only contemporary system its ruler feels it cannot sustain?

Soon after taking over, General Musharraf claimed that he planned to lay the foundations of a self-sustaining democracy in Pakistan with some changes in the legal and political system. But now he is suggesting that the changes worked out by his National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), headed by his handpicked retired general, have not solved the country`s problems.

The one thing he and his fellow generals do not seem prepared to consider is that it is their identification of Pakistan`s core problem where the mistake is consistently being made since 1958. The military`s attitude towards governance, and the assumption that generals alone know Pakistan`s national interest, needs a more drastic revision than the one proposed by the NRB in the constitution and election rules.

PS: Not my own words, quoting a well-known commentator, but as I could have not expressed it better -- didnt try.

Terror in Okara 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.

Air Cdre Rizwanullah Khan Shaheed Memorial Trust Editorial
Dawn
May 9, 2003

An extraordinary recent incident involving a group of army personnel and the owner of a shop in Multan reflects an alarming trend that must be checked before it becomes a running sore. Outside a shop in the city`s cantonment is a highly unusual sign warning that the outlet is ``out of bounds for all ranks.`` Two jawans of the military police stand guard at the door to ensure that this order is obeyed.

The reason for this forced boycott of the fabric shop by the military is truly bizarre. Some three weeks earlier, a traffic policeman stopped two army officers in civvies for riding their motorbike on the wrong side of a one-way street. In the altercation that followed, one officer reportedly slapped the constable.

A group of policemen arrived on the scene and dragged the man to the police station. Eventually, a group of army personnel, including some senior officers, intervened and took the man away. While none of the local shopkeepers dared testify against the army officers, the owner of the shop currently being `boycotted` was brave enough to tell the true story.

Weeks later, the gentleman found that an FIR had been lodged against him for allegedly manhandling the officer and inciting a mob against the army personnel. Because the owner had left for Canada after the incident, his brother was hauled up by the police and the shop was made a no-go area for military personnel. This incident, unfortunately, is only the tip of the iceberg. A number of similar incidents have been reported from Multan and elsewhere in the country from time to time.

Some army personnel, like their civilian counterparts, have become convinced that they are above the law and react furiously if they are questioned for breaking the law. Such behaviour is unacceptable and can only bring a bad name to the armed forces. No one should be above the law, however powerful the organization they represent.

In the case of the Multan shop, senior officers must order the removal of the offending sign and the guards from outside the premises. They must also ensure that their proud institution is kept above such petty personal rows, squabbles and unsavoury vendettas.

http://www.dawn.com/2003/05/09/ed.htm#2

No further comments.

Timothy McVeigh & …
Neither Islam creates ObL nor Christianity produces McVeigh. It is ObL & Brothers who create versions of Islam as per their perceptions, interpretations and requirements. The exactly same is true for McVeigh & Co or for that matter RSS, BJP ...

In fact, this modus operandi is typical for all sorts and colours of self-styled “defenders”, may it be a political or religious issue.

Doctors or the Disease An interactor asked about jihad. Here comes a reply.

It is hard to say who spawned whom. The power of the clergy and the paramountcy of the military were established almost simultaneously when the Pakistani politician decided that the new republic had to be Islamic and that India had to be taken on as the country’s eternal enemy. Both were opposed to the fundamental spirit of democracy but the army got its chance of ruling Pakistan first. In fact, when it was time for General Zia to rule Pakistan, he united the army and the clergy under the banner of “shariat”. The political party he fathered, the PML, doffed its secular vestments and became semi-ecclesiastical. The PPP was persecuted for being an ideological “security risk” and the nation was subjected to massive indoctrination. More clearly, the army spawned the jihadi militias to fight its deniable wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The militias in turn empowered the religious parties who then threatened the army itself when General Musharraf came on the scene. Tragically, however, after the war in Iraq, the nation seems to be thinking more on the lines dictated by the clergy than ever before in the past.

The army is now witnessing the whirlwind it sowed. The battle between Islam and “kufr” in Pakistan is manifest in many areas. A bad law and order situation and insipient sectarianism are two aspects of it. The madrasa culture is daily increasing the number of those who make intolerance a way of life. The minorities are under threat and there are terrorist actions that an indoctrinated state machinery is unable to cope with. In Karachi today, two entities created by the army are at each other’s throat. After an unprecedented outbreak of violence between the students wings of the Jama’at-e-Islami and the MQM, almost all the colleges and universities of the city have closed down.

Therefore General Musharraf is right when he bemoans the environment of religious intolerance in Pakistan and the violence that takes place in it. Indeed, no one can deny that Pakistan needs to improve its secular and pluralist credentials and climb out of poverty by shunning aggression of all variety. But General Musharraf must see it all in perspective.

General Musharraf behaved tentatively when he had the nation fully behind him. He did not disarm the militias and he gave up half way after beginning a drive against the Kalashnikov culture of the religious leaders. He also shrank from the madrasas after beginning a drive to register and monitor them for sectarianism and illegal funding. He allowed the loud-mouthed leaders of the defunct jihadi militias to fulminate in public for too long. They undermined his credibility and lured the public opinion away from his “reforms”. Today, we have the spectacle of a small PML-N leader bad-mouthing General Musharraf and getting mysteriously roughed up while the banned jihadi leaders are on the rampage saying unprintable things about General Musharraf with impunity. He willy-nilly continues to be a part of the theory in sections of the army that wants to boost religion in order to postpone democracy and fight wars that no longer suit the people. Now the army is on the verge of being upstaged. And all General Musharraf can do is wail about the misplaced battle between Islam and “kufr” and continue to remain aloof from the liberal and secular elements that should have been his proper constituency. *

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-4-2003_pg3_1

My Beautiful Rizwan Well, it would be hard to disagree that it is not a very appropriate place to trade arguments on the overall role of the military in Pakistan, I am nevertheless greatly disturbed to observe the growing distrust towards the garrison at least among those who have access to the Internet and possess ability to express themselves.

Not a nice omen for Pakistan, its armed forces and consequently for the defence of the country. As M A Jinnah put it, “A country without a strong air force is at the mercy of any aggressor…” No one can deny that a county where army lacks wholehearted support of the populace is an easy prey for internal and external threats.

Therefore, it is extremely important that the concerned authorities must take cognisance of the emerging trends at the earliest and do their best to contain them. If that happens, AC Rizwan & AVM Razzaq will definitely become even happier in the Heavens.

Best wishes for the families of the shaheeds. From NCOs to CAS.
Baba Jee.

Rightsizing of the Armed Forces Please, listen to it, in particular the first five minutes, to have an idea what respect our militarymen have for the people and their will.

BBC`s Report with Musharraf`s Interview at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/rams/zafarye.ram

you will be appalled, to say the least.

Some Burning Questions I am literally weeping today after having read the cover story of the monthly Newsline, Karachi. Please read it and tell me where these swine are taking us to. To which depths they will push us down. Read this article to have an idea.

http://www.newsline.com.pk/ cover1jan2003.htm