The Public Toilet

Does anyone remember what happened on 2^nd July 2007 (just two days ago)? If yes, then one must be sane enough to know what happened on the 3^rd of July (yesterday). Have you though that why it happened on the 3^rd? Why not on 1^st July?

General Pervez Musharraf is like a spark plug, like in a petrol engine. A spark plug produces a spark to combust the fuel in the piston cylinder. Musharraf works like a spark plug. He produces a spark every time the piston gets near enough, he sparks a debate until the next piston cycle because if he doesn’t, the engine will stop and so will he.

General Musharraf has just pulled his biggest Attention Diverting Maneuver (ADM) or fraud after his claim to fame. This time around, although he over did himself, the end was very anti climactic.

His latest ADM was the Jamia Hafsa attack. If anyone thinks that the whole Jamia Hafsa phenomenon was (as it’s over now) the prelude to Talibanistaion in Pakistan, he is dead wrong. It is nothing but another detour for the gullible Pakistani mind. A detour from what happened on 2^nd July, 2007, the day the official wizard of Pakistan, the man who can easily be dubbed as the father of almost all the governments of Pakistan, Mr. Shareef-ud-Deen Peerzada, who is the Governments Lawyer, took a beating from the Supreme Court Judges. The Supreme Court threw out the scandalous evidence presented by the Government lawyers against the Chief Justice and banned the entrance of the Intelligence officials into the court room.

The drop scene happened when one of the men in command of Jamia Hafsa, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was caught while escaping and that too clad in a Burqa effectively ending a bad joke no one understood except the spark plug.

Numerous incidents of similar nature have taken place during this agonizingly long regime. Kalabagh Dam, Wana, Damadola, Baluchistan uprising, Bugti and countless other incidents or rather dramas which took place just to make the minds wander. Is there a season for uprising in Baluchistan? Or are the Marri and the Bugti tribes on vacation these days somewhere in Europe? Isn’t there a need to finish the Kalabagh Dam debate once and for all instead of using it for ADMs?

The answer is that there is a season of uprising and there isn’t a need of finishing any debate because it is due to these issues that Musharraf and his government lives to die another day.

At first it was just Palestine which was in the line of fire, but now the whole of the Middle East a.k.a Nowhere Land joining the bandwagon. Initially, it used to be the good ol’ fashioned one-on-one Israel vs. Palestine bit; now things have gone to a triple threat match. To top it off, Palestine is taking on three at a time, even the US of A cannot do that without some significant help.

There is a proxy war going on in Palestine very similar to that which happened in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, there were rival factions fighting for power, one was backed the USSR and other by the USA.

This time around, the shareholders of this proxy war are many. In one corner there is the usual uninvited guest US of A along with Israel and flanked by Saudi Arabia. Their party in the ring is the organization ‘Fatah’ headed by Mahmoud Abbas, the so called Palestinian President. In the other corner, there is Hamas backed by Iran and Syria.

Although Hamas was the party elected by the Palestinians but the democratic countries of the world, some where in the West, did not agree to the results. Instead, they use the local bully and the fat side kick (Israel and Saudi Arabia) to get rid of the elected government.

If this wasn’t enough, there is another proxy war, on a smaller scale though, going on in Lebanon. The warring parties include the erstwhile dead Lebanese Army which is now, surprisingly, alive and kicking and some random Al-Qaeda wannabe faction settled in a refugee camp for Palestinians. Seeing the Lebanese Army alive again means that either the Lebanese Army is sponsored by Israel (and consequently Saudi Arabia) or it is made of some gutless wimps, or maybe both.

By Dr. Farrukh Saleem

Nelson Mandela ruled South Africa for five years. Mandela could have easily ruled for ten more but Mandela opted to walk away from all trappings of power. That’s magnanimity. Mandela shall live forever.

General George Washington wasn’t a member of any political party. Neither is General Pervez Musharraf. Washington ruled for eight years. So has Musharraf. Washington could have easily ruled for four more but Washington opted to walk away from all trappings of power (presidential term limit was passed in 1947). Washington thus lives on.

Musharraf’s legacy is that of prosperity. More Pakistanis now own their homes than ever before. More Pakistanis own cars than ever before. Pakistan’s rate of economic growth has been second only to China. Pakistanis have been registering new companies at a rate that they have never done before.

Musharraf’s legacy is that of education. Funds provided to public sector universities went up from Rs3.8 billion in 2001-02 to Rs14.3 billion in 2004-05. Musharraf’s legacy is that of women empowerment. The Hudood Ordinance was amended and women participation in the political process increased manifold.

Musharraf’s legacy is also that of media. Geo, Aaj, ARY, Indus Vision, Prime, Musik, DM Islam, Style Duniya, Ujala, Healthline, Hum, Masala, Fashion TV, Haq, CNBC, AVT Khyber and QTV. Then there’s Mast FM103 Karachi, FM101 Hyderabad, City FM89 Faisalabad, FM101 Sialkot, FM100 Islamabad, FM101 Bannu and FM101 Quetta. Internet hosts have gone up from around 4,000 when Musharraf took over to 73,000 currently.

On May 17, the US Department of State said that General Musharraf has not yet reached the “end of his line.” That may indeed be so, but that line now forks out either to democracy or repression (no third choice). Democracy is all about compromises and power sharing. Repression means a military solution, unenlightened immoderation even more confrontation, black laws, censorships, violence, end of prosperity and everything else that Musharraf has built over the past nearly eight years; bringing down each and every feat one by one. Imagine, an architect ripping apart his own most treasured building brick by brick, window by window, floor by floor. Could there be anything more painful than that? A painter putting to light his most adored piece of art inch by inch. A sculptor fracturing his most beloved sculpture bone by bone, tissue by tissue, joint by joint. Repression entails all of that and more.

On August 11, Musharraf will turn 64 (the average life expectancy of a Pakistani male is 62.73 years). Will there be a Nelson Mandela moment in Musharraf’s life? Will there be a George Washington moment in Musharraf’s life? Only the luckiest among mortals get to live forever.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=57897

This insightful article is applicable on each and every Pakistani in general and on those Pakistanis in particular who become the apple of the Public’s eye. From sportsman to politicians, no one realizes that he is too old till he is too old to realize it.

“President Pervez Musharraf on Monday accused opponents of using his ouster of the chief justice to conspire against him and said he would weep if “lies and deception� prevail in the crisis threatening his grip on power.

In a defiant speech, Musharraf defended his government’s record and accused unidentified opponents of hijacking a purely legal issue, allegations that Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry abused his office, for their political ends. “They are conspiring against me and want to incite the people,� Musharraf told hundreds of supporters at a rally of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League in the earthquake-hit Mansehra, broadcast live on state TV.

“That will be a day of grief for me if these lies and deception triumph over truth and reality … That will be a very sad day for Pakistan and the point where I will cry,â€? he said. He insisted the party could still win year-end parliamentary elections.â€? http://thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=7998

Pervez Musharraf is in public campaigning overdrive these days yet the snake is not showing any signs of shedding his second skin. The General overdid himself by saying that “he’ll cry if the CJ wins�. Seeing Musharraf cry will be the sight that will give immense pleasure to many Pakistanis, besides, obviously the Indians.

Musharraf is making a banana republic out of Pakistan. He has perfected the art of making issues out of non issues like that of Jamia Hafsa’s just to divert the attention of the people from another issue: the Chief Justice fiasco, and then he has the audacity to say that he is trying to promote the softer image of Pakistan.

To take this promotion to the next level butchers from MQM are hired just to stop the Chief Justice from speaking at the cost of innocent lives. To top things off, the dapper Shaukat Aziz condoles with the Chicago-taxi-driver-turned-politician-turned-Godfather Altaf Hussain. But it is a relief to know that at least someone, the British media, has started pursuing the ‘Godfather’.

One of those 15 Brits: I was blindfolded; I was pushed to the wall with weapons cocked behind me, sniff.

Another one of these: “Some of the Iranian sailors were becoming deliberately aggressive and unstable and scary and my pants got wet.”

Another said: “If we admitted we had strayed, we would be on a plane back to the UK soon and just in time for the Arsenal match. If we didn’t we faced up to seven years in prison”.

First one again: “We had a blindfold and plastic cuffs, hands behind our backs, heads against the wall. Basically there were weapons cocking. Someone, I’m not sure who, someone said, I quote ‘lads, lads I think we’re going to get executed’ and I leaked againâ€?

Just look at what those Iranians have done to these cute little kids who were vacationing in Iraq. What were the poor little things to do except to give in!?! Those treacherous Iranian monsters; they should be bombed for not following the oh-so-holy Geneva Convention.

After doing what they do best in Abu Gharaib and Guantanamo Bay, whining over pushing and plastic handcuffs is extremely childish on the part of these soldiers.

Britain is surely sending kids to Iraq. Apart from these fifteen, four British soldiers were killed on Thursday, three of whom were less than 22 years old; one being 19. As someone rightly said that this was not a gift to Britain from Ahmedinejad, rather, it was the other way around.

This crisis could have escalated into a war, just like the Israel-Lebanon war over the two kidnapped soldiers. The US even offered a score of options to Britain in retaliation to the capture. In the end the master stroke of Ahmedinejad saved the day.

To add insult to injury, the released sailors have now been allowed to sell their stories to the media. This action alone is enough to weaken the sailors’ side of the story. We can expect a movie in three years time; a Bond movie perhaps.

Global warming sure has a lot of by products. Researchers at Pentagon and Guantanamo Bay have just found a new one; a new season to be more precise, the season of confessions. The researchers believe say that in this season a person becomes a saint and speaks the truth and nothing but the truth. They have even provided the world with experimental results to further strengthen their claim.

The researchers performed experiments on two males. Both of them had histories of adventures, or misadventures, and were reluctant to discuss their exploits. Another important fact is that it is not just the arrival of this season that affects these individuals; rather the season affects the researches that in turn induce this effect into their test specimens. The induction is done with the help of methods and techniques learnt from the hit TV show ’24’.

The guinea pigs in this case are none other than Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the man who killed Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl, and Waleed bin Attash, USS Cole bomber. The transcript of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad’s confession can be found here(Adobe Acrobat pdf file).

What is interesting to note in this whole phenomenon is that timeline of the confessions by the two men. Many analysts and observers have questioned this whole process, and rightly so. There are numerous parallel plots which make these confessions seem dubious. It may just turn out to be a ploy just to help Bush and his crumbling policies.

Or maybe the interrogators were waiting for ‘24’ to end to learn some new techniques.

The US government only understands one language; the language of force. Force here doesn’t necessarily mean an armed confrontation; instead it means a definitive and a consistent response. This can be an economic one.

The US has always turned a blind eye to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Not that North Korea is not allowed to have a nuclear program, civil or military, every country has the right to do so, but why not Iran? As a matter of fact, North Korea was labeled as one of the “Axis of Evil� by Bush himself. They started off discussing North Koreas nuclear disarmament and now they are talking about financial matters: the unfreezing of North Koreas assets. Reason for this policy shift? North Korea refused to be bullied. The North Korean nuclear test did not raise many eyebrows because the North Koreans know which buttons to press and at what time; Iran does not.

Iran is content in defending its civil program when it can get away with a military one; just threaten the world with an oil blockade. It was the money that caused a war, and it is money that is going to stop one. Nuclear weapons are never desirable, but if one country has them, then everybody should have them. On one hand nukes act as deterrents and on the other they guarantee mutually assured destruction.

It was the money that caused a war, and it is money that is going to stop one.

The western governments in general and the US government in particular have lost touch with reality. They take all the Asian countries in a “stride�, till a country like North Korea comes along and gives them a reality check.

Who would’ve thought that the Europeans had good memory! Americans certainly don’t; which is evident by their misadventures worldwide. Now out of all the things to remember, what they remember is one dead soldier from, hold your breath, March 2003. That was four years ago. Great memory or what? Since the same people cannot remember the number of Iraqis killed in, well, Iraq. Here is an excerpt from the actual story

“An incident in which a British soldier was accidentally killed by American pilots would not have happened had the US air force followed the same rules for opening fire as the British, an inquest heard today.

A British Forward Air Controller who was in the area when Lance Corporal Matty Hull was accidentally killed in Basra, southern Iraq, four years ago, told the inquest into his death that British pilots must adhere to strict checks before firing.

Corporal Stuart Matthews told the court that under UK rules, pilots must listen to and read back to their air controllers the location and coordinates of their targets, their direction of attack and the distance of friendly forces from the target, before they can open fire.�

Read the complete story http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2032055,00.html

A reality check is needed at this point. Either the Orientals have to come to terms to the depreciating value of their lives or the Occidentals need to be shown the door.

Is this a déjà vu or did Spielberg really direct this one as well? Bad ending this time; the Private could not be saved.

There hasn’t been a united front against the government in Pakistan in recent times. But this fact is now a history as a result of the firing of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudry by General Musharraf.

There have been protests, demonstrations and rallies from time to time, but all of them had a specific composition; this time it is different. This time around, the emotions and the thinking of the people, the media and the lawyers are on the same wavelength. This may turn out to be a wind of change for Pakistan.

Things have taken another turn in Islamabad. The Supreme Judicial Council postponed the hearing of the case till 21^st of March. The turn, however, was not inside but outside the Supreme Court. Tear gas, rubber bullets, stone pelting, and all the ingredients for a perfect protest were there outside the Supreme Court.

The Media bashing has now gone to another level with the banning of a TV show on GEO TV and ransacking of the offices of the same channel. The fear has surely set in the government and its machinery about the opinion changing power of the media, especially the electronic media. Though the half-asleep Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani was quick to reach the GEO and Jang Group offices and forward Presidents regrets and condemnation, the damage has been done.

To top it off, the poor old ex President of Pakistan, Rafiq Tarrar, who was shown the door by the man of crisis, Pervez Musharraf, has been placed under house arrest. Why this has happened is anyone’s guess at the moment. An interesting thing about him is that the team which was sent to ask for his resignation after the arrival of the General included the fired Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudry.

As they say, what goes around comes around.

There is more to the Government or rather General Musharraf vs. Chief Justice Iftikhar episode than meets the eye. More specifically, some parallel developments in the last few days have complicated this case even further.

Firstly, Naeem Bokhari is now, fortunately or unfortunately, left out to dry. One of his main complaints against Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar was the CJ’s attitude towards lawyers, including some very senior ones. These included Fakhruddin G Ibrahim and Akram Sheikh; others such as Khalid Anwar (Former Law Minister), Dr. Babar Awan and Dr. Sher Aghan Niazi (Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs), were also mentioned in the letter. All of these people have refuted Naeem Bokhari’s claims partially or completely. It makes one wonder about Naeem Bokhari’s objective in the first place.

A second issue that has popped up out of the woodwork is the case against media channels, specifically GEO TV (property of Jang Group). Almost all the Pakistani news channels, except PTV of course, are being panned by the government and some sections of judiciary as well over the thorough coverage of this issue. There is an obvious feeling that the media in general and TV channels in particular will be targeted after the main issue is settled.

On a side note, GEO TV was involved in a case with the Lahore High Court (LHC) on showing some footage in the broadcaster’s program “GUMNAAM�. The footage involved some members of the judiciary which consequently raised the eyebrows of the LHC. As a result of the ruling by the LHC, GEO TV had to publish an apology as prescribed by the Court.

And then is there is the issue of the elusive Justice Rana Bhagwandas. The man is the senior most Judge in the Supreme Court after the fired Chief Justice. He went to India and forgot all about us back in Pakistan. The Government has been hiding his itinerary because it is widely speculated that the man is potentially a renegade from the Government’s perspective. Besides, he should be heading the Supreme Judicial Council and not the acting Chief Justice, Justice Javed Iqbal.