Adnan Farooqui

In 2007 Condi Rice, Richard Boucher and British diplomat Mark Lyall Grant created a law called NRO to whitewash the illegal wealth of Benazir Bhutto, Asif Zardari and many other Pakistanis to help them come to power.  Two years later, in 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has indirectly declared the NRO as valid.  The excuse for this is to avoid ‘rocking the system’.  Musharraf is gone but his NRO will survive.  In a theatrical move, he was condemned but his illegal creation – and that of Condi, Boucher and Grant – was preserved.  This could prove to be the biggest deception carried out in Pakistan in the name of democracy.

It has been the usual practice of Pakistani politicians facing harassment or more intense persecution at home to look for safety and comfort in London. Following his ouster from the presidency in October 1958, Iskander Mirza lived there for the rest of his days.

The pension he received from Ayub Khan’s government did not go far and he worked in a middle management position in a hotel to supplement his income. He chose to remain silent on the affairs of Pakistan.Altaf Hussain, the MQM boss, has been living in London for a number of years now. He directs the affairs of his party in Pakistan from his offices in London. Other leaders, Benazir Bhutto among them, resided in London for periods of time. They commented on political developments in Pakistan and, while in London, tried to guide their followers back home.

Gen Pervez Musharraf has been residing in London, for some months and it is hard to say when he will return as doing so at present could be hazardous to his life and limb.

Revisiting recently the Nov 3 emergency the Supreme Court ‘invited’ (not summoned) Gen Musharraf to appear before court to explain his action. Considering that his Oct 12, 1999 coup and subsequent rule have led certain parties to call for his trial for treason under Article 6, it is easy to understand why he is inclined to stay on in London. He, accordingly, chose to ignore the Supreme Court’s invitation.

Had he returned to Pakistan and appeared in court, what could he have said? I imagine something along the following lines: ‘Yes, I executed a coup d’état on Oct 12, 1999 and I imposed emergency rule on November 3, 2007. Yes, in taking these actions I violated the constitution. But this honourable court validated my violations as extra-constitutional measures that had become necessary and, therefore, proper. So, what is there for me to explain? In validating my violations the court followed its own tradition: it had validated similar, if not worse, violations committed by Gen Ziaul Haq, and Gen Ayub Khan. The chief justice of this honourable court is judging an action of mine which entailed his own dismissal. He is acting as a judge in his own cause.’

This reasoning was not presented to the court which examined Gen Musharraf’s imposition of emergency and held that it had been contrary to the constitution and so were many of the actions that flowed from it. The court declared that Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar’s appointment as chief justice had been unconstitutional and illegal as was that of the other judges who had taken oath under the PCO.

Thus, Chief Justice Chaudhry and his colleagues cleaned up their own house. A distinguished lawyer from Pakistan mentioned to me the other day that so thoroughly sweeping had the operation been as to have left the Lahore High Court with only seven judges (instead of more than 50 that it normally has).

The court has not gone beyond judicial house-cleaning. It did not touch Musharraf’s remaking of the country’s political system. It did not void the ordinances he had issued following the emergency and left it to parliament to do with them as it might deem fit. It repudiated some of Musharraf’s actions but did not hold him guilty of a crime and did not award him any punishment.

It may now be appropriate to take note of the damage caused by Gen Musharraf’s violations. Apart from the fact that he overthrew an elected government, set up a dictatorship and militarised the country’s governance, he amended its constitution on a huge scale and, in the process, mutilated it. Second, he weakened the nation’s political institutions by dissolving, suspending or ignoring them.

Following the general elections of February 2008, political forces in parliament and civil society demanded President Musharraf’s impeachment. With an elected government in place, he had lost much of his former authority and power by this time. Weakened and harassed, he resigned as president in August 2008. He resided in the Army House in Rawalpindi for a time and then moved to London where he now lives.

One may wonder how the general is occupying himself in London. Reports have it that he has been delivering speeches at various places on extremism and militancy and Pakistan’s ongoing fight to eradicate them. The president of a public relations firm said that he could command between $150,000 and $200,000 for each appearance. If this is the case, it would seem he is doing well for himself. The likelihood is that speaking invitations coming his way will decline, for he has probably exhausted the subject of extremism and his expertise does not include much else.

During the months preceding his retirement he discounted speculation that at some point he might enter politics. In fact he did have a strong association with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and other leaders in PML-Q. He continues to have their support. He was recently reported to have met some and might have consulted them about his prospects in the politics of Pakistan a few years from now.

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Musharraf in London

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The events that have happened over the past few weeks need no explanation. Every child in this beloved country of ours has witnessed the lawyers getting out of hand and literally turning into brutes, frankly this is something one could not expect out of a highly educated and sensible fraternity.

Keeping the history aside, because we know of the scuffles that broke out during the lawyers movement, although it is known that it was the police who started harassing these custodians of law while they wished to lead their movement to a peaceful victory, now of course, both sides of the picture should be reviewed before jumping to any conclusions and pointing fingers at one another.

We know and we have seen the footage of the Chief Justice of Pakistan being manhandled by policemen, a person of his stature certainly has dignity and that certain incident is very sad indeed. We know that his counsel, Aitzaz Ahsan, also a prominent figure in the lawyers movement, was taken into custody from somewhere on the Motorway, and was exposed to literally freezing temperatures with no protection whatsoever by policemen.

Now if today, lawyers manhandle an ASI, of which I do not approve of, why does the media call for cancellation of their licenses, why don't they call for those policemen to be dismissed from their duties who handled the most senior man of the judiciary like an animal?

I have to say that yes, the lawyers who manhandled the ASI should be brought to justice, as no one should be allowed to take the law in their own hands. No matter what walk of life he belongs to or whatever might his profession be.

"Something's Amiss" as the famous detective Sherlock Holmes would have retorted would he have been presented the case of the peaceful community of lawyers turning into brutes.

While the movement for the restoration of judiciary was going on in the country, there were some reports from ;lawyers saying that they did not recognize some people in their gatherings who were dressed as lawyers and who were resorting to rioting while the whole movement was supposed to be peaceful. Senior analysts saw this as an attempt to sabotage the movement which was gradually getting much praise from the people of the country, and this was also seen as an attempt by the government to thwart the efforts of the lawyers for a free judiciary, and come to think of it, it actually feels like it was true.

Keeping the same scenario in mind, looking at the present situation where in one week, reports of manhandling of three men, one policeman and two reporters, have came forward, in all cases, the lawyers were seen carrying out these acts so the point of false accusations can be left out.

Has that same group of people returned to now tarnish the popular image of lawyers in front of the country? Or is it really that the lawyers are now considering themselves above the law?

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to issue a final notice to the management of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) against its repeated failure to improve performance.

Talking to reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy Crises here on Saturday, Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said the ministry was waiting for the KESC response to a Nepra show-cause notice and if there was an unsatisfactory reply and the company failed to improve its generation and distribution network the government would be compelled to take harsh measures

We cannot nationalise the KESC, but the government has majority stakes in it and can appoint a new management, he said.

Mr Ashraf said it was the responsibility of the utility to ensure regular supply of electricity to consumers.

Such prolonged outages are severely disturbing the civic life and losses to business and industrial activities have been enormous.

He said his scheduled visit to Karachi had been postponed because of a cabinet meeting on Monday and the new date would be finalised soon.

The meeting was informed that an energy efficiency fund was being set up with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank to enhance generation and distribution capacity of the energy sector.

A national energy strategy is also being formulated to utilise bio-mass and waste of energy resources and to increase the overall generation capacity.

The minister said that 1,200MW would be added to the national grid this month to ease the overstretched distribution system.

Sources said that power generation units had complained that PSO was not cooperating with them and supplies of furnace oil were not regular.

Pepco and Genco officials informed the meeting that under-repair plants were being brought online and 3,600MW would be available from newly-commissioned plants by the end of this year.

They said that Pepco was trying to enhance generation capacity through multi-dimensional generation strategy and conventional hydel and thermal sources.

Other alternative energy options were also being tapped to optimise electricity generation, they added.

The meeting was informed that many countries, including France and China, had shown interest in energy sector projects.

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | KESC warned of ‘harsh measures’

Every Pakistani is accustomed to the loadshedding phenomena, but i will keep Karachi, a mega metropolis bustling with industrial activities in context. People here have faced every hurdle that the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation has hurled out to the Karachiites. May it be the June 17th blackout or the current blackouts which occurred after the recent rainfalls in karachi. Apart from these black outs, people in karachi have gone through agonizing loadshedding sessions for upto 8 hours continuous. This ultimately provokes the people to start vandalizing government and private property, resulting in losses amounting upto milions of ruppees. The official statements that are issued by the KESC say that they are facing a shortfall of so and so megawatts and there is literally nothing that can be done to put an end to it. Now the question that irks me is that when elections were in progress, February 18th was the big day, and there was no loadshedding in karachi, not for a single minute. Then recently, during the final of the T20 worldcup, there was no loadshedding. The question that pops in my mind in that from where does electricity come from on those days? does it magically start generating in the turbines? I think that production is being kept slow, so as to save as much fuel possible to increase profits. It is acknowledged that since KESC went private, the power situation in the city has worsened. What might be good for the karachiites in the future is that the KESC is nationalized again and the government has full control over the functions of the said department. The workers have an excuse of saying that the KESC is now privatized and they cannot help it if the authorities fail to provide electricity or rectify cable faults in due time. I have heard KESC workers say that when people asked them why there was no electricity in our area for Four days straight.
Nationalization is the way to go for KESC and for providing relief to the people of karachi.

Farooqu|

i remember it was late night and i had switched on the tv only to find, shockingly though that a parliamentarian had been charged for stealing a credit card and using it. Though i had not heard of the said parliamentarian before, i was utterly shocked when i saw this. What compels someone to do an act of this sort is out of my mind. We know that these parliamentarians get paid way too much, but still you had to go and conduct this low level act of stealing. Let us see how much good this act has brought to MPA Shumaila Rana.

1. First and foremost, disgrace. How would you like to go down a street while a dozen people behind you whisper that they are in the presence of a thief?

2. OMG did we just hear you resigned? Oh come on, see what you got yourself into and also see what you got yourself out of! The Assembly!

3. Does that belong to you? Naah she probably might have stolen that too.. Its a typical Pakistani comment, when somebody compliments you on something nice that you might be wearing, other people might just retort as it being stolen.

4. Did we hear you were going to loose the party ticket? Now that is something many people would die for! Look at the bright side, atleast now you have free time!

5. Are you going to be tried in court? Really....?

Leaving all the sarcasm aside, this was a very shameful act and yes it has tampered with the already tarnished image of the country. People out side the country will think that the elected representatives of the people are thieves rather than officials. I hope that whatever image of Pakistan has been left, it survives because if our representatives keep messing up, we might not be able show are faces in the world..!


Farooqu|

Doesn't the headline to this topic remind you of one word often used by politicians in our beloved country to woo voters just before the elections? yes the headline is the meaning to the word "Democracy" which has been derived from a greek word "Demos-Kratein" which literally means what you see in the headline of this post. This is a known fact though, that before every election in the country, when campaigning is rigorous among the different political parties contesting for the elections, often do we hear our favorite politicians chanting these words at the top of their voices and making all sorts of promises to put the country on the track of democracy". Little do the voters then know is that this so called track turns out to be something they had not imagined when they have to face the usual crisis as they did while the previous regime was in power. People are stopped from raising their voice, whether it be publicly, on tv, on radio, via blogs or online journals because they think it is a part of democracy when they are stopping people from complaining about their rights not being provided to them. People are quite familiar with the events that happened over history when time came for the people to be shown the power of the government. We have seen journalists being lashed in jails, we have seen columnists being arrested, we have seen editors taken into custody for reporting the truth. What kind of a democracy is this? When outsiders term it as "Sham Democracy" i think they have a pretty clear picture and they know what they are talking about. Our country is The Islamic Republic Of Pakistan. Our constitution is based on Islamic fundamentals, our society is purely an Islamic society. Islam and Democracy go hand in hand, we have great examples of democracy set by great Islamic rulers one such was Hazrat Umer (R.A.)
Once he was addressing a crowd in Masjid-e-Nabawi and he tried to advise and instruct women that they should keep the amount of dower low. Suddenly a woman stood up and asked him in a loud voice “Who are you to bind us? You should be afraid of Allah”. Her objection was quite right therefore Hazrat Umar (RA) immediately realised and uttered these words “thanks Allah that a woman of Madina knows better than Umar”. In fact this was the atmosphere and spirit of freedom and equality that made his Khilafat successful to such an extent that the world admitted and confessed that If Umar (RA) had lived for ten more years then there would have been only one religion on earth - that is Islam.
Now just keep this picture in mind and try to picture yourself retorting to some ridiculous policy, i am sure that it will take you all your life before you actually get a sit down with the premiers of the country and get to argue about something you think might be wrong for the country.
In my perspective, what we need is transparency, in every form of ruling, may it be legislative, may it be constitutional, may it be judicial. Our premiers need to understand the fact that they should take the say of the people in consideration if they want the public to support them continuously. We should have freedom to comment and criticize any policy, any judgment, any lawmaking with the fear of being arrested and transferred to an unknown location. That would literally turn around the fate of our country.

Farooqu|

Federal Ministers Qamar Zaman Kaira and Nazir Gondal accompanied President Asif Ali Zardari on his party cum begging tour of the world. While a military action initiated in Swat and Malakand, hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes and the country was going through its worst humanitarian crisis, the ministers, paid by the public to protect their interests, were partying in New york.

According to Pakpoint, the Ministers visited an Indian night club called Ghunghroo Night Club in New York city. They spent about 16,000 USD on Indian Dance Girls in the night club.



The Nation reported a federal minister of Pakistan was in New York on Saturday night on a private trip, where he went to a club at 40 Second Street, a famous tourist resort of Manhattan. Some “goras” misbehaved with the minister which enraged him too. However, the matter was checked in time and minister’s friends took him out of the club.

People of Pakistan should be the judge. See how democracy prevails. You have voted for these scumbags who flush public money on personal luxuries. What a shame.

Image Source: Pakpoint

Topic Source: http://www.chowrangi.com/pakistan-ministers-party-in-new-york-while-people-are-displaced-from-swat.html

Posted By Kashif Aziz @ Chowrangi

Farooqu|