America's Bad Deal With Musharraf, Going Down in Flames by Ahmed Rashid

Boucher, for one, has largely limited his remarks on the crisis to expressions of support for Musharraf. Current and retired U.S. diplomats tell me that throughout the previous year, Boucher refused to let the State Department even consider alternative policies if Musharraf were threatened with being ousted, even though 2007 is an election year in Pakistan. Last winter, Boucher reportedly limited the scope of a U.S. government seminar on Pakistan for fear that it might send a signal that U.S. support for Musharraf was declining. Likewise, I'm told, he has refused to meet with leading opposition figures such as former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf has exiled. (Boucher says he has met with "people across the full political spectrum of Pakistan" during his nine visits there, from government parties to Islamic radicals to Chaudhry's lawyer.) Meanwhile, Boucher's boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, demands democracy and media freedom in Venezuela but apparently deems such niceties irrelevant to Pakistan.

On the opposing side stand Musharraf's remaining allies. The most important is the powerful, brooding army. On June 1, its top brass issued a strong statement of support for Musharraf that dismissed the protests as a "malicious campaign against institutions of the state, launched by vested interests and opportunists." But on live TV talk shows, pundits are lambasting the army for the first time, shocking many viewers. Such withering criticism has forced younger officers to question whether the entire military establishment should risk the public's wrath to keep one man in power. Read Complete Article

Lust for power by Andleeb Abbas

Pakistani politics has regularly seen power-obsessed leaders who do not know the meaning of ‘graceful exit’ from office. History proves that all leaders had to leave office in a disgraceful manner. From Ayub Khan to Bhutto to Ziaul Haq, the story of blind faith in power has always caused the undoing of our leaders. Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif had short tenures that ended with the same result. Despite all that, it seems that our current president has not learned his lesson and is still hell-bent on using his position to prove history wrong.

The difference between a developed and underdeveloped country’s dealing with such violation of ethics is that in the former there is an accountability system in place. But in countries like Pakistan the lack of a proper accountability system leads to the deterioration of values, and damages the very foundation of society. The damage of this kind can only be fixed by a revolution. This value deficit has already created fragility in our socio-economic base. Sustainability and solidarity of a culture and country are based on strong principles and values which remain unshaken in times of crises. This of course means that punishing those who commit unethical crimes and rewarding those who behave ethically is a simple solution to the rather complex problem. Read Complete Article

The maintenance of public disorder by Cowasjee

On May 26, Imran Khan was sent an Order emanating from the Government of Punjab, Home Department, under the name of Khusro Pervaiz Khan, Secretary of the Home Department, but without his signature.

What they were concerned with is their helplessness in the face of the coalition partner in the Sindh government whose leader, Altaf Hussain, a proud Briton, sits at the end of a telephone line in a building on Edgware High Street in the Borough of Barnet in far away London Town.

It should be a matter of shame to us all that we now find ourselves as citizens of a country in which the federal government and the head of state are so in thrall to a political party of highly dubious credentials which harbours known practioners of violence that they are unable to protect individuals from being killed or maimed and cities from descending into uncontrollable mayhem.

As for President General Pervez Musharraf, the kindest one can say about him is that having been ordered by the Supreme Court to hold elections, he did so and then found himself with no alternatives but to appoint criminals, crooks, incompetents and yahoos into positions of power and to align himself with political parties and political individuals who should have either been behind bars or banished from our shores.

Another brave man, Nasirullah Babar, former general of our gallant army and former federal minister for interior, has provided Imran with all the ammunition he needs. Good luck to them both. Read Complete Article

Eyewitness : Karachi, May 12, 2007 by Beena Sarwar

At 5:00am on Saturday morning, Shahrah-e-Faisal (Drigh Road), the main airport route normally trafficked at all hours, was deserted as a journalist friend in Karachi found who was out and about early. He emailed me: “I saw something which gave me the chills — no police or Rangers on the roads, just kids with guns guiding trucks, tankers to block the intersections, entry and exit points on the main artery of city. I saw an NLC truck also being used to block the road (picture attached). We all know NLC is Pakistan’s largest trucking company, owned and managed by the army. Tie-rods were being removed from front tires so the vehicles could not be moved even by a tow truck. I thought, ‘What if ambulances are required to move on Sharah-e-Faisal?’ My thought was immediately answered when I saw two KKF ambulances moving freely (Khidmat-Khalq Foundation, MQM’s social service wing) and MQM activists among those supervising the blockade.”

Getting to office took him two hours, a journey that even during rush hour takes only 45 minutes. “I told my colleagues about my fear and almost all of them told me to relax as MQM is not that stupid they will not repeat the 1992 & 94 stupidity. By 12 noon Karachi was bleeding.”
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Aik dhakka aur, one push more by Ayaz Amir

THE army is worried that it is being maligned in the current agitation. It should be worried. Slogans raised against it have never been heard in Punjab, the army’s heartland, before. Gen Musharraf addressed the officers of the Jhelum garrison on Wednesday. From the newspaper pictures available, the assembled officers, especially the senior-most in the front row, looked pretty glum. What was on their minds?

But who is bringing the army into disrepute? Lawyers, columnists, street riff-raff or the army itself? When the army involves itself in politics, when its chief wants to stick to power regardless of the consequences, when he patronises an organisation such as the MQM, the army, willy-nilly, comes into the firing line of public opinion.

This movement is like no other in our history. The anti-Ayub agitation of 1968-69 and the anti-Bhutto agitation of 1977 were both vague about their aims and thus easily hijacked by military adventurism. This movement has clear aims: constitutional supremacy and an end to military hegemony.

Imran’s is a lone voice in the wilderness, still a shepherd without much of a flock. But he should be grateful to the MQM for giving him the kind of publicity that money can’t buy. The ban on his entering Sindh has done him good as has the MQM’s poster and placard campaign (since hastily called off) calling him names and lambasting him for ‘promiscuity’. Since when did a charge of promiscuity hurt a man? Whom the gods would destroy they first make ridiculous. The MQM has been painting itself in the colours of ridicule. Read Complete Article

A dismal record by Irfan Hussain

AS General Musharraf surveys the debris of the political structure he has cobbled together, general elections must be the last thing he needs. And yet, they are just around the corner, waiting to mug him as he goes past.

A London-based friend who puts deals together in different parts of the world says that he has never encountered the degree of greed in Pakistan as he does now. When he was looking at the possibility of setting up an energy-related project recently, he received a call from somebody who claimed to represent various generals, offering to facilitate the deal. When my friend asked to meet the principals involved, he was told the upfront fees, to be paid prior to the meeting, was a million dollars. Added to this demand was the implied threat: “If you try to push the project through without us, we will see to it that you are blocked at every turn.”

So when Musharraf claims he has raised the image of Pakistan in the world, I’m afraid he is being somewhat economical with the truth. The reality is that in the West, there is a growing concern over the rapid decline of the writ of the state in the country. Islamabad’s inability to control its tribal areas as well as the troubled districts of Balochistan is being increasingly highlighted in the media around the world. Read Complete Article