Pakistan's Ideology and Identity crisis

[ISI]

yusuf saab its not our policy its all coz of retarded indian media thts filling ur minds against Pakistan.
Visit Pakistan and i bet u will be amazed by the difference.
Yes we are having difficult economic situation but our infra structure is far better then indias.
Nobody is forced to wear niqab nor it Pakistan afghanistan with every 2nd man with a 8inch beard..
I see ur indian media and im amused how can u guys believe all tht B.S tht it shows.
Madrassas,mullahs,women raping men and everybody thinking how to divide india is what ur media shows all the tim.

 

[Yusuf]

Wrong mate. We are well aware of what the normal folks of pakistan think and say about india. But we also know who the culprits are. In indian forum world, the media is called DDM, dumb desi media. So no not everything they say is taken at face value.
As bitter rivals, yes there will be propaganda by both sides in the media and we take that with a pinch of salt.

 

[lodaxstax]

yusuf saab its not our policy its all coz of retarded indian media thts filling ur minds against Pakistan.
Visit Pakistan and i bet u will be amazed by the difference.
Yes we are having difficult economic situation but our infra structure is far better then indias.
Nobody is forced to wear niqab nor it Pakistan afghanistan with every 2nd man with a 8inch beard..
I see ur indian media and im amused how can u guys believe all tht B.S tht it shows.
Madrassas,mullahs,women raping men and everybody thinking how to divide india is what ur media shows all the tim.

ROFTLMAO
thanks for the rolls mate.

 

[Vinod2070]

^^ In some aspects, Pakistan's infrastructure is really better than India's. Of course that is true only in certain parts.

This generic statement (our infra structure is far better then indias) is something I would really avoid. Frankly Pakistan is not our benchmark for infrastructure. China in some respects could be a benchmark.

 

[johnee]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4rCNOC3-0g


This was shown on Geo's Capital Talk, by Hamid Mir, to show the hatred Bharatiyas have for Pakistan.


Incidentally, in this episode, Hamid Mir and others debate whether Pakistan's Kashmir policy has failed because in the recent Manmohan Singh Saudi joint statement, there was no mention either of Pakistan or of Kashmir. Pakistan feels totally let down by the Saudis.

PS: If Ganga flows through Lahore, that will solve the Pakistani water problem, no?

 

[peacecracker]

that kid seems taught to give speeches like that?.imho ,unlike pak country where people are always worried on our secular,democratic nation ,Indians not necessarily are violence orientated and heavily indoctrinated to hate as well as NOT into this believers vs non-believers Funda which Paks are almost 99% are oriented with

 

[ajtr]

Societal perspectives on terrorism —Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

At least one generation has been socialised into a favourable disposition towards Islamic conservatism and militancy. They have a natural sympathy towards the political discourse of the militants even if they do not support their violent methods

The terrorist attacks in Lahore on March 8 and 12 are a reminder of how terrorism continues to threaten internal order and stability in Pakistan. These attacks also show that the terrorists are not only present in the cities but they have also developed strong networking with each other to the detriment of the Pakistani government and the people.

The last major terrorist attack in Lahore was on December 7, 2009, when two bombs exploded in a marketplace, killing at least 70 people. The peace in Lahore over the last three months created the false impression that the worst was over. The latest incidents show that the dislodging of the terrorists from Swat and most of South Waziristan has weakened them but their threat is still formidable.

A combined security operation by the army, the air force and the paramilitary forces was successful in ending the territorial control of the Taliban in Swat/Malakand and most of South Waziristan. Most of the Taliban that survived the attack fled to the mountains, Afghanistan and other tribal agencies. As the security forces initiated operations in Bajaur, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram agencies, some of the Taliban moved to the settled areas of Pakistan, especially the major cities.

The recent Taliban activities have shown two noticeable trends. There are growing linkages between the Pakistani and the Afghan Taliban. They collaborate and cooperate with each other for pursuing their respective agendas against Pakistan and Afghanistan respectively. These linkages were exposed after the TTP leadership lost control of South Waziristan and some of its activists were accommodated by the Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan. Further, these linkages were also confirmed by the video showing the Jordanian double agent who killed several US intelligence officers in Afghanistan in December with the chief of the TTP, Hakimullah Mehsud.

The more significant linkages are between the TTP and the Punjab based Islamic hardline and sectarian groups, especially their splinter elements. These linkages came into the limelight in 2009 when the TTP engaged in suicide attacks and violent actions in different cities in the Punjab and NWFP. The suicide bombers and other militant activists from the tribal areas parked themselves with the militant and sectarian groups in and around the target city. Some terrorist operations in 2009 were undertaken jointly by the Taliban and the local Punjabi groups. The latter also launched their exclusive operations.

Some militant and sectarian groups were banned in 2001-2002 but these resurfaced under new names towards the end of 2002 or in 2003. Now, these militants are not merely confined to well-known militant and sectarian groups but they have also penetrated all kinds of Islamic groups and movements.

The religious-denominational identities are critical to building support for militancy. Most Deobandi, Wahabbi and Ahle-Hadees elements express varying degrees of support or sympathy for the Taliban and other militants. The other Islamic denominational groups like the Barelvis and the Shias or those subscribing to some Sufi traditions are generally critical of their violent methods but share their notion of an Islamic religious order and the dichotomised worldview characterised by the hostility of the powerful states of the West towards Islam and the Muslims.

The other major source of support to militancy is the political right that overlaps with religious-conservative and orthodox circles. This perspective enjoyed the patronage of the Pakistani state and especially the military and intelligence establishment for years when they used militant and hardline Islamic groups as the instruments of foreign and security policies in Afghanistan and Indian-administered Kashmir. These young individuals were socialised into this perspective through education in state institution and the state-controlled media from the mid-1980s to 2004-2005. At least one generation has been socialised into a favourable disposition towards Islamic conservatism and militancy that is now holding middle level jobs in government (civil and military) and the private sector. Their political discourse is laden with a strongly conservative Islamic worldview that invariably views international and local politics as a function of religion and religion-based conflict in the international system. They have a natural sympathy towards the political discourse of the militants even if they do not support their violent methods.

Though Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership have come to the unanimous conclusion that the Taliban and other militant elements are a threat to Pakistan’s internal harmony and stability, it is difficult to argue that such unanimity of views exists in the lower echelons of civilian and military institutions. The Islamist and political right perspective is noticeably conspicuous among the personnel in the state institutions.

Pakistan’s political class is ambiguous on dealing with the militants. Most of them condemn religious extremism, suicide attacks and bombings that cause death and chaos. Even a large number of Islamic clerics, including those sharing religious denomination with the Taliban condemn killings of innocent people. However, if you ask them to specifically condemn the Taliban movement, a large number of them would shy away. Some Islamic clerics argue that suicide bombing is justified under some circumstances.

Islamic political parties like the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), all factions of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and most Islamic movements support the Taliban and oppose military action against them. The press periodically reports the derogatory remarks of the JI leaders about the military because in their view it is serving a US agenda rather than Pakistani national interests. Most of these parties and groups view the Taliban as friends of Pakistan and blame violence on the paid agents of the US, India and Israel. An advertisement published by a Lahore-based organisation called “Tanzeem-e-Islami Pakistan” in an Urdu newspaper on March 11 presents a highly skewed Islamic view of what is happening in and around Pakistan. It is highly pro-Taliban and anti-military, asking the rulers of Pakistan to “give up the slavery of the US and adopt the slavery of Allah, otherwise total destruction in this world and thereafter is going to be ‘our fate’”.

The provocative religious discourse is widely shared by the political right whose advocates write columns after columns in Urdu newspapers that regard Pakistan’s counter-terrorism policy as a blunder and think the civil and military rulers of Pakistan have sold out to the US. They often accuse Pakistan’s security forces of killing Muslim citizens of Pakistan. Interestingly, they do not blame the Pakistani Taliban for killing Muslim and non-Muslim citizens of Pakistan.

 

[ajtr]

Glory, piety and politics

Many young Pakistanis, who in their reactionary worldview cannot relate to the conventional make-up of the long-bearded and mullah-looking hawkers of intransigent ideas, have found their man in the dashing (Che Guevara-meets-Saladin) shape of Zaid Hamid. But this phenomenon does not begin or end with Mr Hamid.

Back in the early 1990s the army and the intelligence agencies of Pakistan were high on the way they — with the cosy help of US and Saudi money and weapons — assisted Afghan Islamists in defeating the Soviet Union. Consequently, not only were the victorious Islamists sure of turning each and every Muslim country into an Islamic state, this fantasy was also harboured by a host of their comrades in the Pakistani intelligence apparatus

The disastrous economic, political and social fall-outs of Pakistan’s involvement in the so-called Afghan jihad were conveniently blamed (by the agencies and their mouthpieces in certain sections of the media) on the return of civilian politicians. In other words, had Gen Ziaul Haq not been assassinated and democracy not returned to Pakistan, the country truly could have become the strongest bastion of Islam.

This was the message the military-establishment seemed to have been giving in the face of the struggle that Pakistan’s democratic parties such as the PML-N and the PPP were locked in during the 1990s. It was a struggle that was a combination of their own blunders and what was clearly an attempt by certain resourceful remnants of Zia’s Afghan jihad to keep both the parties constantly reaching for one another’s throats to stay in power.

On the social level, when a generation of young Pakistanis who had gallantly fought against the military dictatorship of Ziaul Haq in the 1980s came of age, this generation was replaced by a more inward looking batch of young Pakistanis who were successfully made to feel repulsed by the whole concept of populist democracy. With Pakistan’s two main political parties looking exhausted by being made to play a continuous game of cat and mouse with the establishment, the new generation of young Pakistanis began to look elsewhere.

Instead of finding a tad more rational and progressive avenues of expression and belonging, this generation, already brought up on the glorious myths of jihad and Pakistan’s frontline role as the ‘saviour of Islam’, eventually found itself venturing into spacious drawing-rooms buzzing with a new kind of Islamic preachers. These preachers were largely apolitical, perhaps disgusted by the populist mindsets of the country’s rural and working-classes, and they went straight for the emerging youth of the new middle class.

Their message has absolutely nothing to do with the kind of reformism contemporary Muslim thought is in a dire need of. On the contrary, what these preachers, ranging from the likes of Farhat Hashmi to Zakir Naik, do is to continue upholding traditionalist, frozen tracts of Islamic history and law; they dress them up with modern bourgeois symbolism. In other words, the message remains the same traditionalist, but the way this message is delivered has now changed.

The seeds of neo-religious traditionalism disguised as ‘modern Islam’ were thus sown, and a contemporary identification tool for a number of not-so-clear-minded middle-class youth was discovered. Hijab and beard became ‘cool’; so did the idea of trendy and hip looking folks sounding like 21st century versions of Abul Ala Mauddudi, or worse, yuppie adaptations of Mulla Omar! The tragic 9/11 episode, Bush’s diabolic invasion of Iraq, another military dictatorship in Pakistan, and the rise of the Taliban in the country, all this (and more), eventually began to politicise the otherwise apolitical wave of neo-traditionalist piety, attire and thought that had started sweeping across large sections of Pakistani middle-class.

TV personalities like Zaid Hamid and Aamir Liaquat, and politicians like Imran Khan and Munawar Hussan, are pegs of this new trend, mixing neo-traditionalist trappings of exhibitionistic piety, dress and claims with political discourses that may sound populist and radical, but in fact they are nothing more than the kind of reactionary and myopic mindset that sections of Pakistan’s military establishment started being plagued with during the Afghan jihad under Zia and after. Today society stands clearly polarised.

On the one side are those we call the masses and who play the most direct role in politics of democracy; whereas on the other side are large sections of the middle class whose youth it seems have completely fallen away onto the right, lapping up fanciful myths of glory and power and punchy reactionary oratory that is fed to them by the new set of preachers, private TV channels and fringe politicians. This class, believing in pious and patriotic proclamations expertly wrapped in delusions of grandeur and conspiracy theories, stands completely isolated from the ongoing masses-based democratic process that is underway.

This continues to fall inwards; it is a psychological introversion that may well be making a number of educated young men and women hold somewhat xenophobic, chauvinistic and at times completely irrational ideas about glory, piety and politics. And what’s even more worrying is that maybe very few of them are aware of the bundle of spiritual and ideological dichotomies that the emerging trend has turned into.

 

[ajtr]

Anti-Army Anger Remains Strong In Pakistan

The two suicide attacks against army vehicles in the Cantonment area of Lahore on March 12, 2010, which caused 45 fatalities, nine of them of military personnel, were followed by six low-intensity blasts in non-military areas which did not cause any fatalities. The Pashtun Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its Punjabi associate the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) are reported to have claimed responsibility for the two suicide blasts. No responsibility has been claimed for the subsequent low-intensity blasts.

The suicide blasts highlight the continuing capability of the TTP to operate in non-tribal areas with the help of its Punjabi associates despite the losses suffered by it in the Pashtun belt in recent weeks due to the effective missile strikes by US Drones (pilotless planes) against TTP hide-outs in North and South Waziristan.

The selection of the targets by the TTP and the LEJ for their three major strikes this week in Lahore reflects their continuing anger against the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which is the police agency for counter-terrorism coming under the Ministry of the Interior, the police of Punjab, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Army. This anger, which came to the fore after the Army's commando raid in the Lal Masjid of Islamabad in July 2007, has been kept alive by the USA's Drone strikes and by the Pakistani military operations in the Swat Valley of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and in South Waziristan and the Bajaur Agency of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). These military operations are seen by the TTP and its Punjabi associates as undertaken under US pressure. The anti-US and the anti-Army anger are fanning each other.

The focus of the retaliatory attacks have been in the NWFP and the FATA, from where many of the Pashtun recruits of the Frontier Corps, a para-military unit officered by the Army, come, and in Punjab from where the Punjabi soldiers of the Army come. By keeping up the attacks in Lahore and other places in Punjab, including Rawalpindi, and in the Pashtun belt, the TTP and its Punjabi associates are trying to create a divide between the Punjabi officer class and their Punjabi and Pashtun soldiers and thereby weaken their loyalty to the officers.

There have already been indications of some dilution of discipline and loyalty among the Pashtuns of the FC, but there are as yet no indications of a similar dilution among the Punjabi soldiers of the Army. The military leadership would be worried that if the jihadis keep up the pressure it could over a period of time have a negative impact on the Punjabi soldiers and this could affect the Army's capability against India.

The Army's concern is how to keep up the seeming co-operation with the US against Al Qaeda and the Taliban without letting it weaken its capability against India. It cannot discontinue its co-operation with the US which has kept the Pakistani economy afloat. The Pakistani State badly needs the cash flow from the US.By expanding their operations in Punjab, the TTP and its Punjabi associates are seeking to convey a message to the military leadership that its continued support to the US operations in the FATA and Afghanistan could weaken the loyalty of its Punjabi and Pashtun soldiers and dilute its capability against India.

The TTP, despite the availability of a large number of Pashtun suicide bombers, would not be effective in Punjab without the co-operation of Punjabi terrorist organisations, which provide local sanctuaries, logistics and recruits. There are principally five Punjabi terrorist organisations -- the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and the anti- Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ). Of these, the LET has not been affected by the anti-Army anger. It continues to maintain its loyalty to the Army. It follows a dual policy of co-operating with Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban against the US and with the Pakistan Army against India. For reasons not clear, the HUM has not been very active in recent months.

The HUJI, the JEM and the LEJ have been whole-heartedly co-operating with the TTP in its anti-Army operations. Whereas the LET pays equal attention to the jihad against the US and India, the HUJI, the JEM, the LEJ and the TTP are for the moment paying greater attention to their jihad against the US and the Pakistani Army than to their jihad against India. They prefer to leave the responsibility for the jihad against India to the LET.

According to Amir Mir, the well-known Pakistani journalist who writes for the "News" (March 13, 2010), 1,217 persons were killed in 80 suicide bomber attacks during 2009. This was the higest figure of fatalities in a year since the Lal Masjid raid. Of the 1,217 fatalities, 863 were of civilians and the remaining 354 belonged to the security and law-enforcement agencies. Of them, 137 belonged to the police, 102 were Army officers and Jawans, 51 were FC personnel, 28 were staff members of the Inter-Services Intelligence, 22 belonged to the Khasadar Force, 12 belonged to the Pakistan Rangers and two others were employees of the Pakistan Navy. On an average, 72 civilians and 30 security and law-enforcement agencies - personnel lost their lives every month in 2009 due to suicide bombings.

According to him, there has been a steep rise in fatalities due to suicide bombings between January 1 and March 12 this year as compared to the corresponding period of last year. There have been 321 fatalities in 15 suicide bombings till March 12 this year as against only 105 during the corresponding period last year.

He writes: "Authorities investigating the unending spate of suicide bombings are of the view most of these attacks have been carried out by the Punjabi Taliban belonging to four sectarian-cum-Jihadi groups which are working in tandem with the Pashtun-dominated Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. They believe several South Punjab-based members of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, who had taken part in the Afghan war, have now tied up with the TTP to carry out suicide attacks across Pakistan, especially targeting key military installations. South Punjab has grabbed the attention of Pakistani authorities over the past few months because of the involvement of the Taliban in a spate of Fidayeen-style suicide bombings, including the one targeting the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi on October 10, 2009."

What would be the impact of these attacks and the resulting fatalities on the morale of the Punjabi soldiers? It is likely that many of the civilians killed were the relatives of soldiers. The Army could come to the conclusion that the only way it could maintain the morale of its Punjabi soldiers is by intensifying its proxy war against India while pretending to co-operate with the US against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. One of the tempting options for the Army will be to wean the HUJI and the JEM away from the TTP by persuading them to join with the LET against India. If it succeeds, it could reduce the pressure on the Army.

The increase in anti-Pakistan Army terrorism in Punjab has to be closely monitored by India in order to assess its impact on Pakistan's proxy war against India.

 

[ajtr]

The crazy Right and rump Pakistan

The crazy Right and rump Pakistan

I was to regale you with other stories to do with our security establishment’s tortured and seemingly futile hunt for the very elusive holy grail of strategic depth in Afghanistan (I ask you) this week, but the ever-increasing assault on our poor country and its innocent people by unlettered and brainwashed and murderous yahoos leads me elsewhere.

Who saw clips of the unintentional video shot by a shocked bystander who burst into uncontrolled moans as he filmed the Yahoo blow himself up and tens of others with him, limbs and blood and gore flying in all directions?

Well, I did, and while one has almost been inured to such scenes, the live images were shocking in the extreme and outraged me more and more every time they were repeated. Not for long though, because soon the scenes began to be censored, the more gory parts cut out of the film. Bad move by whoever for the people at large must be shown the extent of the bestiality and the brutishness of the yahoos who are lionised by some politicians for their own narrow political ends.

Lahore has been attacked twice inside of a week, the attacks killing scores of people and injuring and maiming many more. The intelligence agencies failed all ends up yet again, and as per usual, specially the premier agency aka the Mother of All Agencies which seems to have its finger in every matter — from disappearing people to formulating the country’s foreign policy to destabilising the government whenever it is perceived to be stepping ‘out of line’ — except in running the yahoos to the ground and nipping their evil in the bud.

You might well ask what I mean by the title of this piece. Simple: the Crazy Right are the successors of the Crush India Brigade of the late 1960s and early 1970s which gave us the Bangladesh tragedy (which of course had other reasons too); rump Pakistan is the country we are left with after the breakup of Pakistan as a result of the exertions of the crazy Right. They might well succeed yet again.

Here is the present high priest of the crazy Right, one Zaid (Zaman) Hamid, reportedly speaking on something called ‘Ummah Radio’: “Pakistan is in the headlines again! Oh people! Know that it is a combined action of RAW and Mossad to dismantle the divinely placed concrete foundations of the house of the pure, the feared fort of Islam. We are a nation which is like a glittering star of guidance for the crescent of the whole Muslim world, the pioneer of the creation of the green united states of Islam in the world that is drowning in the sea of ignorance.

“Oh Muslims! Always hold on to truth, and the truth is that it is yet again a Zionist-controlled western media’s conspiracy. Let’s rise up against the enemies of Islam; let’s nuke the ... Hindus and Jews, the nefarious dark forces of this planet. Insha’allah, the time for shahadat is near. My sons and daughters, get ready for the big day, the promised day when Allah will make the Muslims victorious and Jews will run here and there to find shelter. Even the trees will talk and will say: ‘these sons of apes and swines are hiding behind my trunk’.

“Rise up and get ready for the mass suicide. Great nations die for a noble cause. What is more nobler than wiping the enemies of Islam from the face of this earth? Remember, Islam is a peaceful religion. Allah commands us to take care of each other. All are equal in the eyes of Allah. Slay them with your daggers. ...Islam will rule the world....”. The transmission is interrupted. Announcer: “We are trying to re-establish the connection with our great leader, meanwhile we will ask Qari Bakir to recite ‘Surah Tauba’.”

If this doesn’t make your blood run cold and infuriate you all at once, dear reader, I don’t know what will. Can you and I ask why this person is allowed to go on with his increasingly violent rants aimed at the huge numbers of unemployed, half-educated youths who have nothing to do in a country that is essentially a security state and which, instead of creating job opportunities for these vulnerable targets for the spreaders of poison, spends most of its money on toys and more toys for the boys, and more and more luxurious perks for its generals?

Surely spreading hate against other religions is against the law? Surely calling for mass suicide is against the law? Surely advocating nuking the hell out of another country is a crime against humanity itself? Why, then, is this man not prosecuted?

Why does the federal government not get the Federal Bureau of Revenue to investigate the sources of this person’s income, which must be huge judging from the campaigns he mounts, to see who exactly keeps him in big money? Why does the judiciary, which seems to be hell-bent on just pursuing the federal government’s leaders, not take suo motu notice of this man’s dangerous spoutings?

We must recall immediately too that some days ago this person was hosted in Peshawar by Governor Owais Ghani and sent amidst official protocol to speak at Islamia College University where he was not allowed to speak by the Pakhtun Students Union and the Amn Tehrik and was sent scurrying back to the comfort of the governor’s bosom.

Why, pray, is the federal government’s representative in Peshawar trying to smooth the way for this purveyor of hatred? Why is he mollycoddling this man who is attempting to lead the country’s disaffected young astray?

Our country is at great risk, my friends, for no one seems to have learnt any lessons at all. I fear it will face even more grief in the coming days while our politicians leap off the cliff like lemmings.

 

[nitesh]

good article:

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=229877

 

[ajtr]

ANALYSIS: Dilemmas of counter-terrorism —Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi

The perspective of Islamic parties and the political right that expresses varying degrees of sympathy for the Taliban has seeped into other sections of society that either do not blame the Taliban for the violence or attempt to rationalise their behaviour

There is good and bad news from Pakistan. The threat of the Pakistani Taliban entrenched in the tribal areas has been significantly neutralised in Swat and South Waziristan by the security operation launched by the army, the air force and the paramilitary forces. If Pakistan’s security forces continue to challenge them in the tribal areas, this threat will further decline. Other positive signs are the recent arrests of some key leaders of the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan because the army/intelligence was perturbed by the support of the Afghan Taliban to their Pakistani counterparts. There is greater coordination between the army top brass and the federal government on countering terrorism.

The weakening of the Pakistani Taliban does not necessarily mean that Pakistan will get rid of religious extremism, sectarianism and militancy. These problems have strong roots in mainland Pakistan.

It will be an uphill task to effectively control religious extremism, sectarianism and militancy in mainland Pakistan. The consensus in the military top command, the federal government and the political class on countering terrorism is significant, but it is fragile. There is a broad-based consensus that terrorism and civic violence threaten internal stability. However, if one asks the question as to the source of terrorism and how far the Taliban and their affiliates are responsible for this, the consensus becomes thin and we find a lot of confusion and contradictions in the responses. Another problem is that consensus at the highest level in the civilian and military establishment is not fully shared by the personnel at all levels in these institutions.

The perspective of Islamic parties and the political right that expresses varying degrees of sympathy for the Taliban has seeped into other sections of society that either do not blame the Taliban for the violence or attempt to rationalise their behaviour. Some of them describe the Taliban as friends of Islam and Pakistan and that the present spate of violence is not carried out by the ‘genuine’ Taliban, but by criminals and paid agents of foreign adversaries of Pakistan. Others explain suicide bombings as a reaction to the killings in the tribal areas by Pakistan’s security forces or by US drone attacks. Still others think that the US, India and Israel are sponsoring terrorism to destabilise Pakistan in order to create an excuse to attack Pakistan and capture its nuclear weapons. There are those who hold Pakistan’s pro-US policies responsible for alienating the Taliban. Pakistan should stop cooperation with the US and work with the Taliban, which are fighting against foreign military presence in the region, they believe.

The Islamic denominational groups like the Barelvis and the Shias condemn the Taliban for violent activities and want the government to take tough action against them. However, a good number of followers of these denominational groups share the perspectives of the Deobandis and Wahabis that terrorism is a part of an international conspiracy by the enemies of Islam and Pakistan.

These dilemmas can be traced back to the military government of General Pervez Musharraf that pursued a dual-track policy of joining the US-sponsored war on terrorism and giving ample political space to the pro-Taliban Islamic parties and groups to continue supporting the Taliban and opposing the US policies in and around Pakistan.

Pakistan’s security establishment continued with the dual-track policy after the exit of General Musharraf. The army-dominated intelligence agency used its linkages in the media to play up the anti-US sentiments as a reaction to the US demand to Pakistan to ‘do more’ and the military/intelligence-related provisions of the Kerry-Lugar Law. The military changed its disposition in April 2009 when the military establishment and the federal government opted for a major military operation in Swat. By the time, this policy had seeped to the lower echelons of civilian and military establishment.

A good number of former military and intelligence officers who retired in the last four-five years — not to speak of those military/intelligence personnel who were involved in building up resistance to Soviet troops in Afghanistan — publicly question Pakistan’s pro-US counter-terrorism policies. Invariably they blame the government of Pakistan and a number of foreign powers, rather than the Taliban, for Pakistan’s current predicament. As they have retired not so long ago, one would assume that they reflect some thinking within the military. There were reports of a small number of army, air force and paramilitary personnel expressing reluctance to participate in security operations in the tribal areas during the last couple of years.

The sympathy for Islamic militancy (Taliban and others) appears to be more pronounced in Punjab than other provinces. As anti-India sentiments are strong in Punjab, the militants play on these sentiments to win over popular sympathy. Many civilian groups engage in sharp criticism of the US role in the region and India’s tough approach towards Pakistan in order to shift the focus away from the Taliban and Punjab-based militant groups.

The PML-N, the leading political party in Punjab, has an ambiguous policy on terrorism. Some of their key leaders have described the war on terrorism as an American war that does not serve Pakistan’s interests. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif pleaded earlier this month with the Taliban to spare Punjab from suicide attacks because his government, like the Taliban, was opposed to General Musharraf’s policy on terrorism and that his party (PML-N) was not subservient to foreign (i.e. the US) dictates. The party also cultivated a Punjab-based banned sectarian group to secure votes in a by-election in Jhang. The PPP also attempted to win the support of the same banned sectarian group in Bahawalnagar for a by-election there earlier this month.

The PML-N leadership refuses to acknowledge that Punjab-based militant and sectarian groups are a direct threat to peace and stability in the province. There is little realisation that several militant organisations like the Sipaha-e-Sahaba, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-i-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Harkatul Jihad-ul-Islami and other splinter groups have become quite active in Punjab. They also serve as facilitators for Taliban bombers in Punjab.

The Taliban are just one dimension of the increasingly complex terrorism problem. Even if the Taliban were weakened in the tribal areas, the settled areas-based militancy, especially the Punjab-based militant groups, would continue to challenge the state. They will find new recruits for their causes and pursue their narrow, bigoted and uni-focal religious and political agendas.

Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi is a political and defence analyst

 

[ajtr]

Smokers’ Corner: Mice

NFP asks if minorities will ever be treated well enough to not feel like misfits. — File photo

Some days ago, while waiting in my car for a traffic signal to turn green, a young kid nonchalantly stuck a flyer under one of the car’s wipers. Usually I throw away such pieces of paper, but this time I decided to take a look at it. It was a flyer advertising a Montessori school called ‘Model Islamic Montessori.’

Once home, I decided to call the school and asked to be connected to the principal.

“Hello, Asalamwualaikum,” I said.
“Walaikumasslam,” came the reply. It was a lady.
“Is this the principal of Model Islamic Montessori?” I asked.
“Yes, how can I help you?”
“I have a three-year-old son whom I wanted admitted in your school,” I said.
“Okay, he’s most welcome,” she replied.
“But I have some questions,” I said.
“Sure, you can ask us anything,” she offered.
“How is your school different from the non-Islamic Montessori schools?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” She responded.
“Yours is an Islamic Montessori, right?” I said.
“Well, yes…” she hesitated a bit.
“So how is an Islamic Montessori different from a non-Islamic Montessori?” I asked again.
“Well… we teach children about their Islamic heritage and the basic principles of Islam, like roza (fasting), salat …”
“You mean namaaz?” I interrupted.
“Yes, namaaz, it’s the same thing” she explained.
“Fair enough,” I said. “What else do you guys teach the children?” I asked.
“Well, we teach them good manners and…”
“Islamic manners?” I interrupted.
“Well… yes,” she hesitated again.
“That’s good,” I said. “Islamic manners are so much better and civilised than non-Islamic manners.”
“Err, sir… may I ask you a question?” She asked, politely.
“Sure, madam."
“Why are you going on and on about Muslim and non-Muslim?” She protested.

“Well, I want my son to be in an Islamic school. And since yours says ‘Model Islamic Montessori’, I am just trying to make sure it is not like all these other non-Islamic Montessori schools out there.”

“How old is your son?” She asked.
“He’s three.”
“Why don’t you come over and we’ll take you around the school," she said.
“Do you teach them how to recite naats?” I asked.
“Yes, we do,” she replied, proudly.

“And you don’t teach them those stupid old English nursery rhymes that have sinister hidden Zionist messages in them, right?” I said.

She snickered: “Don’t know about that, sir, but yes, we do discourage teachers from teaching children nursery rhymes.”

“That good to know,” I said. “What about qawalli? Are the children taught any qawalli? I love qawalli.” I started to hum one, “Bhar do jholi meri…”

“Err… no, sir,” she interrupted. “Just naats and basic Islamiat.”

“But doesn’t a kid usually study and learn all this in a non-Islamic school as well? How is your school Islamic?” I asked.

“Sir, why don’t you come over and see for yourself,” she insisted. “No other montessori has young girls in hijab and boys in traditional Islamic dress. Come and see for yourself. You’ll be impressed,” she explained.

“Young girls in Hijab!” I sounded delighted. “Wonderful. What about the young boys?”

“They are only allowed to wear shalwar-kameez and praying caps,” she said.

“But shalwar-kameez is a national dress, not an Islamic dress,” I said. “You should have the boys wear Arabic choghas! I will make sure my son wears one.”

“What’s his name?” She asked.
“Paul Neil Fernandes Jr.,” I said.
Silence.
“Hello? Madam Principal. You there?”
“Is this a joke?” She responded, somewhat sternly.
“No, madam. Not at all. I am very serious,” I replied.
“You are Christian. Why would you want your son in an Islamic school?” She asked.

“That’s simple. Because I am Christian in an Islamic Republic. Do you know how it feels like being a religious minority in an Islamic Republic, madam?”

Silence.

“Well, I want my son to learn all the mannerisms of a good Muslim so he does not feel like a misfit!” I continued.
“Why don’t you convert then?” She replied, in a matter-of-fact manner.
“Why should I?” I said.
“Because of the way you feel,” she said.
“Why don’t you change?” I replied.
“Change?” She asked.
“Yes, change the way we are sometimes treated here.” I said.

“Sir, I don’t want to get into all this,” she announced. “And anyway, I don’t think we can accommodate your child in our school.”

“Just because he’s Christian?” I asked.
“I’m afraid so,” she said.

“But a lot of Pakistani Muslims are accommodated in Christian schools,” I protested. “Why not treat my kid as a Pakistani and more so, a human being?”

“Sir, I am sorry, but we can’t help you,” she lamented.
“What if I give you double the usual fee of your school?” I offered.
“Sir, that would be seen as a bribe,” she said.
“Not really,” I replied. “Take it as jaziah!”

 

[Vinod2070]

^^ These kind of things are so ingrained in this society that they are incapable of even seeing what is wrong with this.

The same people are so vociferous when they face a fraction of this discrimination anywhere else!

 

[nandu]

Army, judiciary grab PCB lands: Ijaz Butt
ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board Ijaz Butt made a shocking disclosure in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) here on Monday that he was being threatened by a particular group in Karachi to hand over acres of PCB land worth Rs 5 billion.

These disclosures were made during the course of scrutiny of the audit of a PCB report. The committee members were shocked when the chairman, without mincing his words, brought to their notice that he was now under serious pressure to hand over the PCB land worth billons of rupees to a particular group of Karachi.

“First I was threatened and then offered money in exchange for this favour but I refused,” Butt said. The meeting was presided over by Ch Nisar Ali Khan and attended by Riaz Hussain Pirzada, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Rukhsana Bangash, Yasmin Rehman, Zahid Hamid and others.

However, Chairman Butt refused to give details about those persons and groups who were now threatening him with dire consequences in case he did not hand over the Board land to them which actually belonged to the PCB. Butt said the information was of a classified nature and he would send a report to the committee instead of giving their names before the media, and it would contain all the details.

The chairman also disclosed that the Army and judges of the superior courts had also occupied PCB land. “They just came and started constructing their houses without any formal transfer of land and payment,” he said. No official record of land transfer was available with the revenue department.

This disclosure shocked the members of the committee as they could not believe as to how the Army or the judges developed their separate housing societies on the land which officially belonged to the PCB. But it was understood that both these land grabbings were done during General Musharraf’s tenure when the Army generals had a free hand and the judiciary was hand in glove with the Army.

The PAC members said it was a strange phenomenon to observe that those who were supposed to watch interests of the state, its institutions and public against such illegal occupation of the property, were found busy in grabbing these lands.

Nisar Ali Khan told Chairman Butt that he and his committee would extend all support to him to help recover this grabbed land from the two powerful institutions of the country. He appreciated the defiance shown by Ijaz Butt and said the committee would not let him down. Nisar said he would write a letter to the chief of Army staff to take note of such kind of land grabbing by the Army to construct their housing society on land which did not belong to them.

Secondly, Nisar said the Supreme Court should also be involved and told about this act. Nisar was so shocked that when he heard the whole story of how the Army and then the judiciary occupied the PCB land, he simply said: “Let me absorb this”.

Likewise, the PBC chairman disclosed that Karachi was not the only city where the land mafia was now threatening him to hand over the acres of land but the same thing was happening in Islamabad.

He disclosed that even some acres of land allotted to the PBC for construction of a cricket stadium was now under the illegal possession of the land mafia who were not allowing the authorities to take over possession. He said the Abu Dhabi rulers had promised to develop the sports ground in Islamabad and now they were asking about the provision of land so that they could develop the stadium.

Ch Nisar also clarified his past comments about the staff of the PAC in recent meetings, as reported in The News. He said it was wrong to assume that he was trying to belittle the role of those officials working with the PAC. Nisar said he was just making comments against those officials of the National Assembly who were not cooperating with the PAC. Nisar said he always appreciated the PAC staff and he was not properly understood by the reporters.

PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt who appeared before the PAC disclosed that the Army and the judiciary had forcibly grabbed 24 acres of costly land around the National Stadium during the course of time.

“Almost 18 acres of expensive land is in the use of the Army and another 6 has recently been grabbed by the judiciary. The land belongs to the PCB and as such we want it back. I would soon be sending a request of meeting to the Army chief and the chief justice and want to apprise them of the issue,” Ijaz Butt said.

Ijaz Butt also disclosed that efforts were being made by a political party to seize another five acres of land adjacent to the National Stadium Karachi worth Rs5 billion. The PAC also discussed the audited report presented by Auditor General of Pakistan Tanveer Ali Agha for the years 2008-09. After looking into the report, the PAC decided to form a committee headed by Khawaja Asif to look into the details of the audit objection. The PAC also suggested that the name of former PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf should be added on the Exit Control List (ECL).

“The sub-committee, headed by Khawaja Asif, will go into the details of all the audit objections. Meanwhile, we would suggest that former PCB chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf’s name should be included on the ECL.”

The PAC was also told that Rs5 million had also been paid for the construction of a cricket stadium in Islamabad. The PCB chairman disclosed that during Dr Nasim’s tenure misappropriation of funds was reported. “During Dr Nasim Ashraf tenure the then COO Shafqat Naghmi, Mudasar Nazar and Ali Zia went to Australia for the purchase of bio-mechanical system. All these officials have nothing to do with the purchase of this complicated and technical gears. The machinery is still lying unused costing the PCB worth Rs50 million. Worth Rs250 million of funds were also used on such like practices in Dr Nasim Ashraf tenure,” Ijaz Butt said.

Ch Nisar Ali asked the sub committee, headed by Khawaja Asif, to monitor the PCB financial issues and to submit the report on Dr Nasim Ashraf tenure spending with the PAC within one month.

The PAC chairman called on the PCB to ensure that every penny of the PCB accounts is being spent in an honest way. “When we took over there were more than 1,180 employees working with the Board. Now the strength has been reduced to 650,” the PCB chairman said.

Later, talking to the media, Ijaz Butt said the PCB would soon announce the captain of Pakistan team for the T20 World Cup. “Those players who failed to get central contracts could do so after putting in performance for the national side while those who are on list could lose it if they failed to perform.” Ijaz Butt said though Pakistan’s security situation did not allow the PCB to invite any foreign team, efforts were on to lure South Africa and the UAE in winters.

http://www.thenews.com.pk

 

[ajtr]

Hate speech III

Zaid Hamid, the self-proclaimed 'defence analyst' and a 'scholar' with innumerable other self-bestowed platitudes, has suffered from a number of humiliating setbacks recently. I wrote about this purveyor of hate speech, militarism and spontaneous fiction (conspiracy theories) nearly a year and a half ago, criticising him for hate-mongering and half-truths.

In retaliation, he sent out a mass email claiming that I was critiquing him at the behest of international Zionists and bankers, getting me threats from his acolytes and followers. No longer the darling of TV evangelism, today he has been put down several pegs, rendering him temporarily ineffective.

He was run out of Islamia College in Peshawar by a peace group, his conventions in Islamabad were disrupted by angry students, he's been named in an FIR for murder and his most ambitious project, creating a new Pakistan resolution at Minar-e-Pakistan in front of millions of his followers, as he had boasted, fizzled in front of far less than a hundred people at a hastily concluded event at Alhamra in Lahore on the 23rd of this month.

So, was it people like me, and many other columnists who did a far better job of addressing this demagogue, who won out with arguments of rationalism, trying to reclaim public discourse from charlatans? No. Factual argument had very little to do with it. And that is problematic as I shall explain further on.

What happened? Two things: first the overconfidence of his relentless ego that believed its own hype, and second a past that caught up with him. Let's look at each in turn, eventually coming to the point I mentioned before, that his misfortunes are not a cause for celebration.

First, ego. In his speeches, he rails for the reintroduction of the Khilafat system but is short on all specifics. Simultaneously, he will present himself as the saviour, using the royal "we". He is not one for modesty, quickly one sees through the ruse. He launches into huge spiels of how the CIA, RAW and Mossad are afraid of him. In one TV programme he claimed that the FBI was watching him and he had found a loophole on its website, that it didn't mention Osama bin Laden's wanted status in reference to 9/11. Zaid was sure that after the programme had been aired the FBI would change it.

Well, as usual with Zaid, the facts were wrong. Osama never claimed involvement with 9/11, only his appreciation for it, and the reason for it is tactical. If Osama was caught, any admission would bring a quick close to the trial, he would like to prolong it to give him an opportunity to critique the US for as long as possible within earshot of the US media. As it is, the website has not changed to this day, more than a year after Zaid claimed it would after his revelation. So much for being an "analyst". It's been more than a year since he definitely "proved" that Israel would attack Pakistan in March of 2009.

Regarding his total failure in getting a hundred, let alone lakhs of, people to hear him pass a new 'Pakistan Resolution', he has a new excuse that he has sent out to his followers. Apparently, he thinks it's just like the situation of the Prophet (PBUH) at Hudaiybia! Talk about narcissism.

A charismatic and well-spoken man, he got too used to followers who lapped all his "prophetic" words about politics without counterargument, and the summersaults and changing of position he regularly did were ignored by them on account of the force of his personality. Unfortunately, for him the problem with the media is that it creates repositories online, so in one programme where he tries and puts up a peaceful façade by saying he isn't against Hindus, it's easily contradicted by another programme where he calls them a "paleed" nation.

He says he hates the US, but will happily accept dollars for small reports he authors. It was almost as if he believed he was immune to the rules of logic, and that others wouldn't notice. Anyone who did was a CIA/Mossad/RAW agent, like Hamid Mir who he once accused of being just that.

He has been railing against democracy for the longest time because of Pakistan's cooperation with the US and his desire for his caliphate, but will never criticise Musharraf who set the current relationship in place. If it suited Zaid the rules were flexible. And hence the backlash.

Falling in love with celebrity circles was another problem. While pushing a hardliner Islamic agenda, he would also hobnob with rock stars and fashion designers who treated him with a cult-like awe. Increasing the personal realm of influence was more important than ideological consistency. Others saw through that.

And now to the past. Islamic groups turned against Zaid Hamid when an old case against Yousuf Ali (better known since as Yousuf Kazzab) gained prominence. Yousuf believed he had the soul of the Prophet (PBUH) within him, and was eventually sentenced to death for blaspheming. Documentary evidence has since surfaced that alleges close links between Zaid Hamid and Yousuf. Zaid denied any association for the longest time, but now admits to a link and has not outright distanced himself from the beliefs of Yousuf. This has galvanised the ulema against him. The FIR against Zaid Hamid for murder is for the gunning down of Maluana Jalalpuri who authored a fatwa against Zaid and was killed soon after. His family claim Zaid Hamid had threatened him before his murder.

Whenever Yousaf Kazzab is brought up before Zaid, he insists that the Quranic rules of evidence should be used and false allegations shall take accusers to hellfire. Funny, it never occurs to him to use the same Quranic principles when he randomly labels anyone who inconveniences him in his thirst for followers as a traitor and an agent.

Now, why do I say the downfall of Zaid should not be celebrated? Well, because the very issues of hate speech, militarism and false conspiracy theories remain unaddressed. If Zaid's past was clean, if his ego had not got the better of him, would he have been kosher for Pakistan? In their charge against Zaid, why are the ulema not also talking about how our religion is being misused to fan hate and not tolerance? Even if Zaid magically became irrelevant, what about the persistence of these arguments by others? What is to be done about the erosion of rational discourse in our country?

Is it no less a blasphemy that the ulema who are happy to put their attention to Zaid remain quiet when innocent Christian villages are razed by angry mobs? Or that the Prophet's (PBUH) instructions on education are routinely ignored in a nation that suffers from unforgivable illiteracy? What about the boy murdered in the UET for listening to music by the Islami Jamiat-e-Talba, why are the ulema silent? The ulema have said nothing about Zaid's other pronouncements and beliefs; their love affair with him is only over because of his alleged past, not his dubious present.

The truth of the matter is that Pakistan is in no danger of not believing in the finality of the Prophet (PBUH), with the exception of some small groups. The ulema have a role to play that they have woefully neglected, rather becoming instruments in reactionary behaviour, being anti-progress and sidelining education. Of course, there are some who are an exception to this, but the large majority has failed to provide for the people, preferring instead power over the illiterate.

There is a section celebrating Zaid's setbacks. That's myopic. One man is not responsible for the madness in a country where some, for example, in the middle class, cannot bring themselves to condemn the Taliban. A victory would have been if the triumph was for reclaiming sense, rationality and Islam in our national dialogue from those who subdue it for self-aggrandisement.

 

[ajtr]

A soft corner for militancy

AS militancy steadily spreads its tentacles further south into the country, the weak resolve in political circles to curb the menace is becoming increasingly evident.

The PML-N appears to lack a clear policy on how to handle terror, which is evident in the irresponsible statements made by Punjab’s ruling elites. Apart from sowing confusion, such statements make a mockery of the idea of the country being united against militancy.

After the recent Lahore bombings, PML-N stalwart Saad Rafiq demanded a change in the policy on terror. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif went further by imploring the militants to spare Punjab since his party had once shared common cause with the Taliban. Subsequent clarifications notwithstanding, a soft corner for militants continues to pollute the official resolve to fight militancy in the southern areas of the province.

In some ways the PML-N approach is reminiscent of the erstwhile Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) policy in the NWFP, which nurtured militancy in its formative phase between 2002 and 2007. By delaying action, the seven-party religious alliance provided militancy the breathing space to turn into a monster. The MMA support for religious extremism held true to its ideological agenda, but that a supposedly secular political party in power is being soft on jihadi outfits in Punjab is a misfortune of considerable proportions.

How close the jihadi and jamhoori forces have come in Punjab was observed in the recent by-polls during which both the PML-N and the PPP came under fire for eliciting the support of banned outfits. This is, of course, in blatant disregard of popular mandates and a betrayal of the national cause for short-term parochial gains.

In fact, no secular political party can afford to synchronise its interests with jihadi outfits. There is a lesson to be learnt in the election returns in the Frontier: the devil got his due when the MMA was sent packing in the 2008 elections. The secular Awami National Party (ANP) won in a seemingly conservative milieu simply because voters said ‘no’ to militancy in the province most vulnerable to it.

The writing is on the wall for the PML-N: a wishy-washy approach in Punjab might cost the party its national clout — and loss of public support for the PML-N would mean a loss for democracy in Pakistan. After the death of Benazir Bhutto, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif is the only charismatic leader who enjoys pockets of popular support in the country.

The defeat of militancy in Pakistan depends mainly on the political will of the PML-N leadership in Punjab. The party leadership must announce a clear policy on this critical national issue. The litmus test for such official resolve is no less than curbing militancy on both the ideological and geographical fronts in the province. The state cannot afford any demand for policy change at this stage.

To return to Shahbaz Sharif’s plea, could militants so easily understand their compatriots’ worries, there would have been no violence in the Frontier and Fata. Swat is example enough that the militants cannot be wooed through requests or the fulfilment of demands. Requests for mercy weaken the national resolve by strengthening the militants who are otherwise on the retreat. More trouble is in store if Punjab’s ruling elites fail to understand the current patterns of terror.

Unfortunately, militancy in Pakistan works in institutions; it does not originate in any single factor such as dictatorship, war or bad governance. These factors only create a reactionary culture which provides oxygen to strengthen militancy. Therefore, the menace will not end with, say, the end of the war in Afghanistan. Neither will the militants stop attacking Punjab simply because they have been requested to do so. The phenomenon of militancy has evolved into a system geared towards ideological and political gains. Punjab’s political elite remains in denial despite being in close proximity to the nerve-centres of militancy.

The intelligentsia in the Frontier has for a long time been trying to sensitise rulers to the militant networks in the province. However, reading the country’s death warrant out to the very powers that continue to believe in the Taliban as a strategic asset was never going to be an easy job. This led many cynics to believe that militancy would never be taken seriously as long as Punjab remained safe. Shahbaz Sharif proved these observations when he pleaded that Punjab be spared, for in doing so he delivered the rest of the country to the militants’ conscience.

Because of confusion at the top, the lower political cadre in Punjab has developed dangerous misperceptions. After the terror spree in Lahore, the provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah and many others blamed ‘Pakhtuns’ and ‘tribesmen’. Not only does such stereotyping upset people in the Frontier, it generates in Punjab biased public discourse that may ignite ethnic confrontation.

After the Lahore bombings a senior police officer defined militants in this manner: “Taliban is every such person who belongs neither to Lahore nor Pakistan — he is from the tribal belt.” Similarly, when a student was asked about the suicide bomber’s identity, she said “he was somehow like a Pathan”.

In the first example, tribesmen were proclaimed terrorists and excluded from Pakistan; in the second case the student jumped to a rash, generic conclusion. When such hateful messages are decoded in other provinces, they carry seeds of confrontation that are capable of denting the national resolve against a common enemy.

In May 2008, a media group from Peshawar visited South Waziristan at the invitation of the dreaded Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. Before meeting that patron of terror in an abandoned school, many journalists were shocked to see a militant state operating within democratic Pakistan. A suffocating culture prevailed.

On the final day, having lived for a couple of days with militants affiliated with different jihadi outfits, I asked a hooded ideologue about his ethnic identity. He replied in a mixed Urdu-Punjabi dialect: “We don’t believe in such things here.”

Perhaps the militants currently constitute such a serious challenge because they believe in unity of purpose, the very thing that is missing on the other side of the divide. Politicians in Punjab must immediately cease chopping away at the very branch that supports us all — otherwise the militants are prepared to send us back to the Stone Ages.

The writer is a freelance journalist and teaches at the Department of Journalism, University of Peshawar.

 

[ajtr]

The phoenix flops

For months the Zaid Hamid brigade had been congesting cyber space and the two TV channels that the haughty ideological quack is a regular fixture on, with promises of holding a ‘massive gathering of youth’ at the Minar-e-Pakistan on this year’s Pakistan Day (23rd March).

However, the no-show by Zaid and his fans at the Minar-e-Pakistan suggests the long honeymoon Mr. Hamid had been enjoying may be as good as over.

He simply failed to reach the Minar-e-Pakistan, not because he had a massive body of passionate young men with him chanting for his caliphate, but mainly due to him chickening out in the face of an announcement made by a radical Islamist group that recently named him in a police FIR for murder.

Perturbed the articulate (but not very accurate) TV ideologue decided to hold his ‘historic’ rally at Lahore’s spacious Alhamra amphitheatre.

A man who likes posing in (passé) revolutionary attire and who it seems is always ready to pick up a Stinger missile and boldly cross into India and take-over Delhi, decided to quietly escape being at a venue where presence of a fringe group was expected.

So, the following message was fired by the man on the 23rd March: “Alhamdulillah, for tactical reasons, the venue for Takmeel e Pakistan has now been shifted to Alhamra Open Air Theatre adjacent to Gaddafi Stadium. Insha’Allah it is going to be an emotionally charged ideological, historical, earth-shaking event. Spread the message to your friends. Each one of you please do bring along a sabz hilali parcham. Be there by 3:30 p.m. Insha’Allah. PAKISTAN ZINDABAD! ONWARDS TO TAKMEEL E PAKISTAN! See you there Insha’Allah!”

Now that we know what the ‘tactical reason’ was for the sudden change of venue, what happened next was even more ‘earth shaking.’ No-one turned up.

Reports coming in from those who did decide to go, suggest that there were hardly a hundred Hamid fans present there. Funnier still was the fact that the Alhamra Hall was booked on urgent basis (by Hamid and co.) not as a venue for a rally, but for an ‘urgent marriage ceremony’!

So what happened? A figurative divorce of sorts.

Hamid has finally arrived at that downward trajectory every cult leader reaches after experiencing a burst of following.

A simple study of cults would suggest that a cult reaches this stage when its leaders actually begin to believe in their own hype and fibs; when they get embroiled so much in the various delusions that they had been peddling that they get entirely cut-off from reality and as a consequence getting entangled in some truly awkward controversies which eventually see their carefully puffed halos burst into flames.

Zaid Hamid had nothing to do with the masses. In spite of the space that he gets on TV, his target audience remained to be large segments of today’s urban, middle-class youth that grew up under the shadow of a military dictator (Musharraf) and a Muslim polity gone crazy due to the confusion that set in after the tragic 9/11 episode.

This is the generation that became an ‘educated’ culmination of the paranoid history (taught at schools and through the media) that was enacted by the ‘establishment’ to justify constant military interventions in matters of the government, and the acts of dragging demagogic versions of Islam into the matters of the state and society.

Bulk of the current generation have failed to engage with the democratic process. Instead they have grappled in desperation to hang on to anyone who would tell them that democracy is useless (and not suited to Pakistan); or that politicians are nothing but looters; or that much of what is wrong with this country is actually due to the nefarious designs of sinister anti-Pakistan/anti-Islam forces.

This is a disastrous example of educated folks undermining the importance of what is called common wisdom. A wisdom associated to common men and women who one can see thronging polling stations during an election.

In other words, the middle-classes can become dedicated viewers of channels and the main consumers of the brands and products that are advertised on these channels; they can also join websites in huge numbers of men like Zaid Hamid, but it is common wisdom that is in majority and almost completely at odds with what is being preached in the name of patriotism and faith in the electronic media.

The silliest in this respect is the whole concept of some kind of an enlightened (Islamic) revolution that its advocates and their supposedly educated fans insist is different from the madness unleashed by those who were once our pet warriors (the Taliban).

Well, the only difference, really, between the two is that one batch can speak better English and is more media savvy.

But the latter ‘quality’ amounts to nothing, because the influence of the media pales in comparison to the role that common wisdom plays.

Take for example the many TV channels’ constant onslaught against the current PPP-led coalition government. Not only is the coalition still very much intact, the PPP has won two out of the three by-elections that it recently took part in.

One can also take the example of the United State’s FOX-News – an overtly right-wing and pro-Republican Party news channel and whose (knee-jerk reactionary) model most Pakistani news channels have followed.

FOX went into an overdrive almost a year before the 2008 US Presidential Elections, convinced that since it had the highest ratings, it might be able to persuade Americans to return yet another Republican to the White House.

As it turned out, high ratings meant Jack on Election Day. Not only was the country’s most viewed TV channel unable to stop a Democratic Party victory, but it was a victory of almost everything that FOX had stood against: i.e. classical social-democratic American liberalism, and that too led by an African-American!

I have heard many young folks talking about the ‘coming revolution.’

As a student politician in the mid and late 1980s, interacting with students at state-owned colleges and universities taught me a vital lesson: There can never be a revolution in Pakistan. Not because we are a quiet, obedient and subdued nation, but simply because we, like a majority of countries brimming with various distinct ethnicities and religions, are not the kind of a single, cohesive nation that a revolution requires.

So common wisdom dictates that a country that has a number of diverse nationalities, multiple Islamic sects, and various religious minorities, the best way to keeping it functioning as one country is not through a single, homogenous version of nationalism and religion; but with a political respect for diversity and plurality; and this can only come about through a robust democratic system.

Bigger demagogues than Zaid Hamid have risen in this country claiming to unite its people under the pretension of a single national ideology and faith. They’ve all failed, and in their failure, they have done more harm to the state and society of Pakistan than their (largely imagined) ‘enemies.’

These single ‘united’ versions of nationhood and religion have only alienated large numbers of Pakistanis, creating dangerous ethnic and sectarian cleavages.

It is democracy, with all of its trials and tribulations that we need to be celebrating, and not loud men spouting hatred, fibs and utopian delusions in the name of patriotism and religion.

 

[Daredevil]

Najam Sethi, former editor of DailyTimes & Editor of Friday Times talks about the history of Pakistan. Nice videos.





EDIT: Other parts can be viewed in the links provided by Ajtr in the below post.

 

[ajtr]

Najam Sethi- story of Pakistan

Pakistan ki Kahani Najam sethi ki zubani.(watch part 1 and 5 here)

Part 6:


Part 7:


Part 8: [/B]