Mush & Pinky – The New Dance Partners?

Benazir Bhutto is known for her survivalist instincts and pursuit of self-interest. As your Blogger has been suggesting in recent months, the PPP leader has been surreptitiously engaged in negotiations with Musharraf’s envoys to save her skin from the Swiss Courts, who have found her and Asif Zardari guilty of money laundering.

Having appealed the verdict of the Swiss lower court, she now finds herself facing an additional charge of aggravated money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail as well as a fine of about one million Swiss francs if found guilty. (See Blog: Dancing Peacocks & the Quaking Lady)

The killing of Akbar Bugti provided a unique opportunity to take down Musharraf’s democratic façade by a mass resignation of opposition members in the assemblies. Benazir’s decision not to confront the regime when it was momentarily at its weakest, clanged bells loudly for her newfound policy of appeasement.

For this ‘good’ behaviour she has now been apparently rewarded - the Swiss Court had suddenly adjourned its 26th September hearing at the request of the government of Pakistan. So far, quite interestingly, no new date has been set for a future hearing.

But that is not the end of her problems. Yesterday a UK High Court dismissed Asif Zardari’s application to set aside the Pakistan government’s action against him which accuses Zardari of having purchased Rockwood Estate in Surrey with money obtained by corruption.

The UK judge held, in his 49 page judgment, that “Zardari had concealed his ownership of Rockwood Surrey Palace and now it is time for him to show that the Surrey Palace was not purchased with corruption money” adding that there was a reasonable chance that the Pakistan government would be able to prove its case that the Rockwood Mansion was purchased by Asif Zardari and Benazir Bhutto using money obtained from corruption.

It goes without saying that the noose is fairly tight around her throat these days.

Now if Benazir Bhutto concedes to Musharraf on the vital issue of the uniform – which she is likely to do – then she will be jettisoning the much- hyped ‘Charter of Democracy’ to the toilet bowl of political history. By disavowing on her publicly stated commitment she runs the risk of being exposed as a politician devoid of any shred of principle or integrity.

But then what else is new?
_______________________________________________________

And now onto Musharraf.

After seven years of verbal abusing Benazir Bhutto at every turn, he will have to swallow his words.

It is an obvious sign of his political weakness.

Musharraf, like Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif before him, seems now to be purely motivated by the desire of clinging to power. Gone are his heady days of ‘Pakistan First’. Like all military dictators he has come to enjoy the trappings of power, so now it is all about ‘Musharraf First’.

While there has been criticism from the US and its allies for Musharraf's rejection of democratic practices and the marginalization of the mainstream forces in Pakistan, the military strongman has also reached the end of the track with his dependence on the religious right, which has helped prop his regime in power these past few years. The failure of the Hudood Amendment bill has widely exposed Musharraf’s political inability to ‘walk the walk’.

Another obvious reality that may finally dawned on the General is that he is no longer popular. Reality states that the 2007 general elections can be won by him only through massive and blatant pre-rigging (which is already underway (See Blog: The Coming Farce is Already Upon Us... ). But the consequence of winning this election dishonestly presents the great unknown.

As an Op-Ed commentator noted:

Given the Talibanisation of tribal areas, and extension of Taliban’s influence in the adjoining settled districts, continuing military operation and insurgency in the Baloch areas, deepening alienation of Sindhis, sustenance of jihadi and sectarian outfits, overall exclusion and sufferings of the general masses and increasing isolation of and resentment against the military rule, Pakistan presents a volcanic situation that can potentially burst out in many directions and at numerous levels.

Rigging of the 2007 elections could possibly set off a mass protest movement that could quickly get out of the control of the democratic forces and pass into the hands of organized extremists, ensuing nationwide mayhem and chaos.

Not only will such an event weaken the General in the eyes of his twin constituencies (the mentor in Washington and his own generals) but as night follows day, any errosion in Musharraf’s political power will also lead the famed turncoats that comprise tha PML (Q) to desert him without a second glance.

But all that is in the possible future. To prevent this from becoming a reality the move to bring PPP back in the political fold will ensure Musharraf’s prolonged stay in power, providing he keeps his uniform.

The unusual but not unexpected headline of the day is from The Daily Times: Coalition Government with PPP possible – Ch. Shujaat Hussain.

Indeed these are deperate times for some desperate people!

Pakistan

Islamabad Rockets – The Stratfor Version

Here is another take on the Islamabad rocket ‘attack’. This time it is from Strategic Forecasting Inc. (Stratfor), a leading US corporate think-tank that advises major government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.

Interestingly Stratfor suggests here that Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir - who died along with his wife and fourteen others in a mysterious crash of a PAF Fokker plane near Kohat on February 20, 2003 - was an Al Qaeda supporter.

Ummm….possible shades of Zia’s C130 in this crash?

Somehow I don’t think that we will never get to the bottom of these mysteries but suffice to say bumping irritants off has never posed a problem in Pakistan from the days of Liaquat Ali Khan onwards.

Anyway here is Stratfor's report:

_______________________________________________

STRATFOR :Pakistan: Rockets, Coup Rumors and Musharraf
October 13, 2006 23 30 GMT

Summary

Pakistani authorities announced Oct. 13 the arrest of eight militants with ties to al Qaeda, being held in connection with attempted rocket attacks in and near Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. The incident comes amid growing talk of discontent within the military with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and amid criticism from senior military intelligence officials -- signaling that Musharraf's support within the military could be waning. Though Musharraf is not faced with the prospect of losing power any time soon, opposition parties will try to take advantage of this situation, possibly creating political instability in Pakistan.

Summary

Police and intelligence agents apprehended eight al Qaeda-linked Pakistani militants in raids on undisclosed locations in Pakistan, seizing weapons, ammunition and explosives, Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told reporters Oct. 13. The same day, Asia Times Online reported that a coup plot against Musharraf had been uncovered soon after the Pakistani president's return from the United States. According to the article, more than 40 people have been arrested, most of them mid-ranking air force officers. Officials uncovered the conspirators when an air force officer used a cell phone to activate a rocket aimed at the president's residence in Rawalpindi. The rocket was recovered, and its activating mechanism, also a cell phone, revealed the officer's telephone number.

Although the reported coup attempt (which would require the involvement of senior army officials) is unlikely, it is possible that air force officials may have been arrested, some of whom might have been junior officers. Moreover, the rockets, which were all found, probably were more of a warning than anything else. Even so,these developments indicate Musharraf might be slowly losing support from his core constituency in the military establishment -- especially given the criticism of Musharraf from former heads of the country's premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Musharraf's political opponents will try to take advantage of this situation, which could lead to instability in the South Asian country.

Musharraf's recent statements show he is under a lot of strain. In comments during a dinner gathering with journalists, the day before the seventh anniversary of the coup in which he took power, he said that if moderates do not prevail over extremists in upcoming elections, then Pakistan as envisioned by its founder will be no more.

These remarks come as senior ex-ISI officials continue to express displeasure at Musharraf's accusations that former officials of the intelligence directorate continue to support the Taliban. In an Oct. 10 appearance on GEO TV's program Capital Talk, former ISI Director-General and retired Lt. Gen. Hameed Gul described Musharraf's statement as "shameful," and said it would have "harmful results" for the president, the country's intelligence services and the military. Another former ISI director-general, retired Lt. Gen. Asad Durrani, said Afghan government allegations the ISI was supporting the Taliban could only be halted if Pakistan honestly told Kabul that it was "not in a position to control the Taliban from its borders." And former ISI official and retired air force squadron leader Khalid Khawaja said Musharraf had "endorsed" foreign allegations by giving such a statement. (Khawaja is well known for his ties to the murky al Qaeda-Taliban network.)

The recent story about mid-ranking air force officers is only the latest in a series of interesting accounts of links between Pakistani air force officials and al Qaeda. Musharraf himself acknowledged that noncommissioned air force personnel took part in plots to kill him in 2003. Moreover, former al Qaeda military commander Abu Zubaydah told interrogators that one of his high-ranking contacts in the Pakistani military was former air force chief Mushaf Ali Mir. Shortly thereafter, Mir died in air accident. Stratfor also has learned that many former midlevel ISI officials with the rank of major and colonel have familial ties with Islamist militants who are veterans of the 1979-89 war against the Soviet army in Afghanistan.

Word of links between the ISI and Islamist militants has generated a great deal of controversy -- to the extent that there was a media leak of report prepared by a think tank affiliated with the British Ministry of Defense calling for the ISI's dissolution. Clearly, the pressure is rising on Musharraf regarding the ISI controversy, but most significant is that he is being criticized from within. This is something his civilian political opponents will be looking to exploit. Should this situation lead to political unrest, his fellow generals may not be very keen to continue supporting him.

Pakistan

Islamabad Rockets – An Elvis Connection?

The discovery, last week, of rockets supposedly targeting Army House, the Presidency and the ISI Headquarters have caused much private debate.

Discussing it with a senior journalist or two, your Blogger noticed a strong vein of cynicism among them. Apparently the timing of this multiple attack so soon after Musharraf’s US visit, during which there was much self-propagating hype about him being heroically ‘in the line of fire’ from international terrorists, was too much of a coincidence for some to swallow.

And so it may possibly be as Elvis Presley once immortally crooned:
Well it's One for the Money, Two for the Show, Three to get Ready, Now Go, Man, Go!

_______________________________________________

Here is a piece by Amir Mir which highlights this particular point of view:

Rocket attempts on Musharraf’s life stage-managed?
Amir Mir

LAHORE: The sudden rash of attempts on President General Pervez Musharraf’s life since his return from the US has become a subject of intense speculation, with many detractors saying that recovery of live rocket launchers from three sensitive spots in Rawalpindi and Islamabad were stage-managed by the agencies.

Musharraf claimed on Wednesday at a gathering of journalists in Islamabad that the recovery of rocket launchers outside the Army House, the Presidency and the Inter Services Intelligence Headquarters was a crude attempt to assassinate him.

“The perpetrators were religious extremists, perhaps linked to a group having contacts with Al-Qaeda, but they were not fully trained in carrying out such a task,” said Musharraf, while adding that the devices were so crude that they were bound to fail.

The recovery of rockets connected to mobile phones and fitted with launchers created panic across Islamabad, giving credence to Musharraf’s recent claim that the threat to his life from Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists is far from over.

However, his critics smell a mischief saying every time there is an assassination attempt, the General missed the bullet or bomb by inches or minutes. They say the recovery of rockets was a crude attempt on his part to address increasing US concerns about the seriousness of his efforts in the war against terror, and to win back the American confidence.

Says Jahangir Badar, the secretary general of the Bhutto-led Pakistan Peoples Party, “By stage-managing recovery of live rockets from the federal capital, Musharraf actually wanted to rectify the mess created by his recent admission in Washington that he was not a willing US ally but was forced to join hands with the Bush administration post the 9/11 terror attacks. He was threatened that Pakistan could be bombed back to the Stone Age unless it cooperated with the US against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.”

Similar views were expressed by Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, a former federal minister and the central secretary general of the Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League.

“The recovery of live rockets from close to the ISI building was meant to convey a message to the West that on contrary to their oft-repeated allegations that the Pakistani ISI was aiding and abetting the Taliban and assisting the jehadi mafia, it was actually under threat from the same elements.”

However, Jhagra pointed out that Musharraf has elaborated on how he had first weighed the option of fighting the US before finally taking a foreign policy U-turn and dumping support for Taliban. “I war-gamed the US as an adversary to assess whether Pakistan could withstand the onslaught. The answer was no,” he quoted Musharraf from his book.

Pakistan

A Dose of Unenlightened Immoderation

LAHORE - October 12: Policemen beat supporters of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) during a demonstration held here on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the 1999 military takeover.—Dawn

_________________________________________________

Nothing like a good dose of Unenlightened Immoderation.

How dare ordinary civilians protest against the great Musharraf. Break their heads and then lock ‘em up I say.

Better still pack the lot off to Guantanamo, at least then some individuals from the Government of Pakistan can make an honest zillion from the deal.

Pakistan

Minister Nabbed Smuggling Diamonds

This is what the latest issue of The Friday Times (October 13-19 2006) has to say about Musharraf’s Minister for Defence Production:

A high-powered federal [minister] recently narrowly avoided a stint in the clink and huge embarrassment for the government of Pakistan. The [Minister for Defence Production] travelled to South Africa and was on his way back to the Land of the Pure when the machine went beep-beep-beep as he passed through it. Alerted, the special security squad at the airport took the minister aside to frisk him good and proper.

And what did they find on his person but diamonds worth a fortune. The gems were in loose form, divided into neat packets, stored all over the minister’s person. Airport security told the minister that he was committing a crime in smuggling gems out of the [sic] South Africa and that and that they would have to report the matter to the authorities. The minister, frantic, called the Pakistan mission in Johannesburg which tried to intercede with the airport security staff wielding lame excuses like ‘diplomatic immunity’ etc.

The security staff then passed the matter on to their superiors and the South African authorities were having none of it. The mission then made contact with the highest and mightiest in Islamabad who pulled some hefty strings and got the minister off the hook…

_______________________________________________________

The Minister for Defence Production is one Major (retired) Habibullah Waraich (pictured above).

To be honest I have never even heard of his name before (considering there are some 50 plus ministers that is not at all surprising).

Perhaps some reader could help us out with some background on Waraich and perhaps even offer us some explanation as to how a retired major cum noveau minister can afford to purchase diamonds ‘worth a fortune’?

Pakistan

The Glasshouse nominated for Award

Much to your Blogger’s astonishment, he has belatedly learnt that ‘The Glasshouse” has been nominated as a contender for best the South Asia Blog (ex-India, ex-Bangladesh) for 2006.

The official nominees are:

Chapati Mystery (Pakistan)
The Glasshouse (Pakistan)
Metroblogging Lahore (Pakistan)
KO (Pakistan)
United we Blog! (Nepal)
Democracy for Nepal (Nepal)
Deepak’s Diary (Nepal)

Hopefully without sounding too churlish, your Blogger would request his regular readers to visit the Asian Blog Awards website and vote. How you vote is of course entirely up to you.

The award nominating site requests that readers “review all the above sites before proceeding to vote, as you will be required to rank all of the nominated sites in order of preference.”

The site also informs its readers that:
E-mail registration is required to participate. Your address will not be sold, given away or used for spamming. All collected addresses will be destroyed within one month after the close of polling.

The poll remains active until 17 October.

Sold for a Glass (or two) of Blue

Prior to departing Pakistan for his international book tour, Musharraf had a tête á tête with an English-language newspaper editor. Much to this journalist’s professed astonishment Mush made him a Blue label special with his own fair hands.

Now the editor, having swooned with pleasure at having received such personalized hospitality from the Khaki-emperor, is finding it somewhat confusing to criticize his cocktail-mixing benefactor.

Curses!

Your blogger once actually praised this editor for introducing some backbone into his long supine newspaper. Imagine the disappointment.

Some Pakistani journalists have been known to sell their objectivity for a piece of property or a briefcase full of ready cash - but to do so for simply for a glass (or two) of expensive but eminently quenchable liquid?

I just don’t know editors like this fellow are up to… but a display of childish excitement at a glass of uisge beatha proffered by a military dictator is - in your Blogger's view - quite pathetic.


Pakistan

No Thanks For The Memories

(I’d like to apologize to my regular readers for my prolonged absence. The truth is that after coping with my daily responsibilities I find fasting during Ramazan seems to sap my ability to perform additional tasks such as blogging.

I promise things will be back to normal after Eid!)

_______________________________________________________

The great bard Shakespeare told us:
‘There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune’ (Julius Caesar)

How apt in Musharraf’s case.

From an ignominious start where a US President (Clinton) refused to be photographed seen shaking hands with him and a US president-elect (Bush) who had no clue as to his name, Musharraf has come a long way.

The tide came his way with 9/11. For the past five years he has basked in it, and used it to fortify himself at the cost of all else. To my mind this tide peaked during his US publicity tour for the ‘In the Line of Fire’

And now the tide has begun to recede.

Thanks to the headiness which comes with fasting your blogger is feeling rash enough to make a forecast. I give Musharraf 15 more months at the most. The road to the 2007 elections will in all probability politically finish him and his chumchas in PML (Q).

What follows I can only hazard a guess but whatever it is, it will be bound to have a khaki-tint of sorts. Reality states that our generals will resist all moves to be herded back to the barracks.

In the meantime I leave you with an op-ed piece that I wish I had written myself:

Op-Ed from The News : Flying high

President General Pervez Musharraf is at his peak. Regardless of huge controversies generated by his best selling memoirs, in fact a thriller combined with his quite provocative and controversial account of recent history, he is at the centre of everything around us. In a typical sense he has entered a stage where he now thinks he can make things work to his advantage, come what way. He perceives himself infallible, omnipotent, indispensable and fated with delivering the nation whatever he thinks is good for it. Enlarging himself bigger than the size of a mortal life, he in his perception is synonymous with, and even larger than, the state. Under him everything else is lost in the oblivion of the overarching shadow of his personality. Will the king really last the challenges he faces?

There is no doubt that from Brussels to New York, and from Washington to London wherever he went he remained in the headlines, preceded or followed by controversies and doubts about whatever he is doing. Yet he remained firm in his resolve, questioning one report or the other, responding to one critique or the other and defending his record on one score or the other. The most daunting task was to defend the Wana accord with the pro-Taliban tribal elders in North Waziristan and woo the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh back on the India-Pakistan peace track. And of course he could not miss the opportunity to promote his book.

The massive coverage he got wherever he went should be enough to intoxicate even a most balanced person. Back home he is now unequivocally asking votes in his name, even though the elections are to be held more than a year from now, that is if they are to be held at all under him with all the powers of the state in his possession.

And look at the fantastic façade he has put together: there is a cabinet and a prime minister, representative institutions at all levels and the whole paraphernalia of the state and government. So far, no scandal or instance of corruption is attributed to his person or his family. On the other hand, the opposition and its alliances remain divided both within and among themselves, accusing each other of not being steadfast against the 'common enemy'. A backchannel contact by the government with this or that faction of the opposition, even if it is quite clear that it is nothing more than a tactical manoeuvre, is enough to throw a spanner in the works of a grand alliance.

Consider how, in the wake of the gruesome killing of Akbar Bugti and the massive backlash against it in Balochistan, the so-called women protection bill distracted the whole opposition from that burning issue, and how Maulana Fazalur Rehman and the government salvaged the situation by raising a storm over Sharia in the hapless parliament. The dust settled down with the JUI still in the Balochistan government and the sword of the Hudood laws hanging as menacingly as ever. And before the opposition could overcome its stupidity and close its ranks, the stories of backchannel contacts between the government and Benazir Bhutto proved enough to keep the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and the Muttahida Majlis-i- Amal (MMA) in doldrums.

At the dizzy heights of fame abroad and with his opponents in disarray at home, would Musharraf get a bit more ambitious and bring forward the date of elections while he is still in uniform? But the situation is not as rosy as our Bonaparte and his entourage may think. There are brewing problems that may get out of hand in the months to come and on many counts. How could the situation be so satisfactory as Musharraf makes it out to be? No one should know more than him how bad it is when he has to travel through the capital in a helicopter?

If the situation is well in control at our borders, how come all these rockets are being discovered every other day in Islamabad--one day in Rawalpindi, the other day close to the presidency and the next day in the vicinity of the ISI's headquarters? If the accord in North Waziristan is working well, why are the NATO commanders crying wolf? After the commander of US Central Command General Abizaid, General David Richards, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is coming with 'evidence' of the ISI's alleged backing and training of the Taliban, at a time when the Wana accord is being looked at with great suspicion.

Despite our repeated pleas that the Dr A Q Khan chapter be closed, new quarries are being made and will be made more vigorously in the days to come, as North Korea announces its plan to explode a nuclear device and the Iran nuclear proliferation imbroglio worsens. To make matters worse, the Taliban are now estimated to be emerging once again as a resistant force backed by many Pakhtuns with very serious ramifications and spillover in our tribal areas and beyond. Not all is well on the Indo-Pak peace front even if dates are being fixed for the resumption of the composite dialogue process. New Delhi has put Islamabad on the most crucial test of proving its innocence and extending cooperation in nabbing culprits from this side of the border allegedly involved in the Mumbai rail bombing.

The post-earthquake rehabilitation work has run into serious snags. Investors are now shying away from the only mega project in the country, i.e., the Gwadar port, on account of the law and order problem in Balochistan. With the trouble in Balochistan, the grand jirgas of the Baloch demanding review of their accession to Pakistan, their alienation running too deep, the tribal areas gradually slipping into the Taliban's hands and the simmering nationalist resentment across Sindh, what would happen if all this converged into a political storm. Yet those in power actually believe that everything is hunky-dory. They are extremely confident that they will get even greater popular endorsement not only in Punjab but also in Balochistan in the general elections which they say will be free for all except two former prime ministers.

Pakistan is, perhaps, moving towards yet another round of turmoil. The Musharraf era has passed its zenith and it is now on the decline. Yet he wants to perpetuate its control beyond what it was during the 2002 elections. That was the time for the regime to open up for compromises and accommodations at home and engage the main political stakeholders. But this was not to be. The regime is running high on self-glorifying assumptions and is totally cut off from the ground realities. If the regime makes more such mistakes there is a possibility that the pent up anger and frustration borne silently by the people will show its visage either before the elections or immediately after if they are held under the present framework and design.

Pakistan

A View from Modern Gedrosia

There are an estimated 100 million blogs plus currently in cyber space. While Pakistan has a minuscule share, a few hundred at a guess, not many are written from a Baloch perspective.

Hence my interest in a newly reactivated blog Blogging Balochistan by Gedroshian (Gedrosia being the ancient Greek name for Balochistan).

Anyhow, this is his latest take on the Balochistan scene:
__________________________________________________

"Is ISI dumb or are we just getting smarter?"

Allow me to give some coverage to some recent ISI untruths.

Balaach Killed Bugti

Here is the newCentralAsia coming up with another classic investigative report, telling us that it actually was a Baloch killing Baloch. Faujis of Pakistan totally innocent. “Our story is built on a narrow but dependable base of sources.” Yeah, we sure know of your dependable sources.

Some gems from the article:

• The Army team was trying to negotiate with Bugti in order to evacuate him for medical treatment.
• Akbar Bugti was a prisoner of Balaach Marri
• The support for BLA had eroded considerably during the past few months
• The explosion in the cave was caused by a remote controlled device

Got any better conspiracy theory?

My bet is our dear friend Tariq Saeedi at newsCentralAsia edited the draft of the story many times before he came up with the final edition.

Bugti’s sons are fighting for his property.

This little rubbish story was put forth in Urdu press, showing the sons of Bugti as greedy sardarzadas, who started fighting among themselves for money, soon after their father died.

Bugti’s Cave Palace

So, Bugti was getting some R & R at a 5 star cave at Kohlu, when the brave, noble and valiant faujis of Pak got him. Then there was electricity short circuit, and then the cave fell down. They did nothing. Really. Totally innocent. The Kohlu cave must have been built by a government contractor. (Thanks Adil Najam, and Onlooker for the pictures)

In short, some pictures of a hotel/palace were circulated, chain-mailed (hint: by Paki agencies) at Paki cyber space, revealing to the naïve pakis how truly bad, and evil Bugti was.

Sasha/Misha

The Russian spies are back. Yeah, those KGB spies who told the world how BLA, and Baloch struggle for freedom is actually all a façade. Last week, Daily Jang decided to let a columnist translate that piece of rubbish into Urdu, and bring it to a broader audience in Pakistan, almost TWO Years after it was originally published, by our friends at newCentralAsia. Was it a coincidence? Did the columnist recently went through some old papers, and thought this article would be of interest to his readers. Naah, He was told/ordered to write this.

Aren’t these ISI guys supposed to be professionals? Shouldn’t they be good at maligning the Baloch, by now?

_______________________________________

I have a funny feeling that this blog site is soon going to blocked for Pakistani readers. So read it while you can.

Pakistan

Dancing Peacocks & the Quaking Lady

Shortly after Bugti’s killing if all the opposition parties had resigned in masse from the national and provincial assemblies, the ‘democratic’ façade would have toppled. This would have led to the political demise of PML(Q) and Musharraf, in that order.

But this has not happened and it is pertinent to ask why?

I believe it is because of the action and inaction of two political parties.

The Dancing Peacocks of the MMA.
Never have Maulana Fazlur Rahman and his Jamiat-ul-Ulama-i-Islam (JUI) had it so good. As the official leader of the opposition in parliament Fazlur Rehman has relished the weight the post has given him in the public eye. And his party men continue to enjoy the power and perks of MMA ministries in two provinces which were provided to them by the rigged 2002 election.

Having announced their intention resign from the assemblies as a protest against the Bugti’s killing, the MMA quickly backtracked. Then they pegged their resignations on the Hudood Amendment Bill and milked the issue for what its worth.

Currently the JUI crowd see themselves to be in a win-win position. If they prevent the modification of the monstrous Hudood laws against women, they will project themselves as champions of religion. If they fail in their mission and then resign, they will then portray themselves as political martyrs to the insidious forces of secularism.

In the meantime their provincial ministers, particularly in Balochistan, are raking it in. Money, apparently, has no religion.

The Quaking Lady
Don’t believe the PPP when they say that the Swiss case against Benazir Bhutto (and Asif Zardari) is political eyewash. It isn’t and the lady knows it.

The evidence against Benazir Bhutto and her spouse was strong enough to convict her in July 2003 of money laundering (the charge of corruption was not included as the funds had been placed in Geneva banks prior to the recent enactment of Swiss anti-corruption legislation) by Swiss Magistrate, Daniel Devaud.

Benazir Bhutto appealed the case. Unfortunately for her now there is an additional charge of aggravated money laundering which carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail as well as a fine of about one million Swiss francs if Bhutto is found guilty.

While she is trying to drag out the hearing as long as possible, time is, nevertheless, against her.

Under pressure – despite the so-called Charter of Democracy – it is widely believed she is in secret contact with Musharraf’s emissaries.

Musharraf is obviously keeping his options open. If the plans for the heavily rigged 2007 elections come awry, then he can do a deal with Benazir Bhutto and prolong his stint in power.

Previously Interpol had issued Red Corner notices on the two at the instance of Pakistan government some months ago. That, however, was more of an advisory than a warrant for arrest.

Last week the District and Sessions Court in Islamabad ordered officials to issue the warrants to the couple through Interpol The latest court ruling may help the government to issue arrest warrants through Interpol, in which case Benazir, who lives in Dubai and London in self-exile, may face arrest and extradition.

_________________________________________________

To prevent the MMA and the PPP from resigning from the Assemblies it is a case of desperately offered carrots for the MMA and the brandishing of a stout stick at Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistan

Completely Half-witted Propaganda

There appears to be a new and rather sordid effort to denigrate Akbar Bugti, the slain Baloch leader. It comes in the guise of an email, currently doing the rounds in Pakistan, titled “House of Akbar Bugti.”

The email, which contains photos of luxurious ‘cave’ rooms (one of the fake pics depicted above), seeks to convey the impression that Nawab Bugti was living in complete luxury when Musharraf’s commando’s came to eliminate him.

Well, it took a vigilant blogger, Adil Najam, less than 15 minutes to track the pictures of the luxury cave rooms to the Cappadocia Cave Hotel in Turkey.

In his blog ‘Spreading Lies’, Adil Najam had this to say:

I do not know who came up with this idea. If it was some zealot intelligence agency wallah, then it is particularly un-intelligent, even for our intelligence agencies. Or, maybe, it was just another super-patriot thinking that this will somehow help Pakistan; think again, you just made us all look not just needlessly violent, but abjectly dumb. Well done!

Quite interestingly, I have just discovered that the above link to the Cappadocia Cave Hotel is currently inaccessible in Pakistan. Not surely blocked I hope?

So for Pakistani readers unable to get to the source of some of these bogus pictures I suggest you click the following link: Cappadocia Cave Hotel.

Pakistan

The Mean Little Pakistani

One of the failings of the Pakistani culture, which I have noticed over the years, is the depressing preponderance of the ‘mean little man’ syndrome in our society.

And yes (before readers start jumping on me) I do agree these people exist in every society, but in Pakistan, to our misfortune, we have somehow ended up with a much larger share compared to the international norm.

These petty egotists can be found in every spectrum of Pakistani society – military, bureaucracy, politicians, businessmen and multinational executives.

One example, whom I shall call SFA (for “short fat …umm… aalu?”), comes to mind. SFA came from a well-heeled Punjabi family and was educated at Cambridge, albeit in some obscure subject like widget demography.

He crept up the greasy corporate ladder of a well-known multinational until one day, much to his joy, he was made chairman. The first thing SFA did as the new boss was to indecorously insist that his predecessor return his company car that very same day. For the next few years he ran the company like a spoilt feudal despot; shouting, abusing and bullying his colleagues (even during board room meetings) and throwing nasty little tantrums when things didn’t quite go his way.

Eventually he miscalculated by throwing one tantrum to many by threatening to resign if his overseas superiors didn’t give him another pay rise. Much to SFA’s amazement his resignation was accepted. I am told the mood at the company was joyous and ‘ladoos’ were openly dished out to all and sundry.
________________________________________

My recollections of mean little men (and SFA in particular) were triggered off by the following article which appeared in today’s The News.

Little Men By Shakir Husain

We all come across them in our daily lives, and they seem to crawl up from under their rocks whenever they are least needed. They come in all shapes, colours, and sizes; and just when you think your life is insulated from them, 'they' make an appearance. There is no logic as to why they are the way they are, because education and exposure does not seem to alter their genetic DNA. These little men, or a literal translation of chotay adm, exist in all facets of life, and to be fair they exist everywhere; however, Pakistan has been blessed with more of them than we deserve.

Actually more than anything else, these little men are the root cause of most of what is wrong in our country. With their huge egos, and the insecure little fiefdoms that they have managed to carve out of the system they hold forth for decades without much substance. And while I am going to risk sounding sexist you do not find many women indulging in these sins of the ego. I have and still maintain that women make better administrators, CEOs, leaders, and politicians because somewhere in there it's programmed in their DNA. Oh well, it's enough to contend with half the population and a real blessing not to have to deal with the other half in this particular arena of the chota.

You will find them at immigration, at most government offices, and pretty much the entire private sector. While I'd love to perpetuate the myth that these little men are only found at government offices, they've managed to infiltrate the bastion of capitalism in Pakistan as well. It seems that the 'lateral move' is not just reserved from the army to the bureaucracy anymore. You know we are screwed when the little men start putting their little egos before profit or the good of the 'company'.

The little man comes in many guises. He can be educated at Oxford, Harvard, Columbia, Karachi University, or LUMS -- but none of these institutions will have taken the little man DNA out of him. Like a Pavlovian experiment gone bad, he will always return to his roots despite the opportunities he's had in life. His sole job in life is to make life difficult for everyone around him, and to ensure that at each step of the way everyone knows that he is the 'boss' of his little fiefdom. Without this there is no validation of his life, and he'll go out of his way to ensure that homage is paid to his 'greatness'. So if you're one of those who can't pay homage and feed his ego, you can forget about getting whatever it is you need done.

The 'little man' syndrome can be attributed with causing the largest impediment to the development of Pakistani society, and really should be treated as a disease. The amount of time wasted on feeding little egos and sycophancy, if ever calculated, would run into billions of dollars. This figure would represent bad decisions made unopposed, professional advice unheeded because the 'little man' had a cunning plan, or the inability of the advisors to tell the man that he's wrong. And this cycle has been continuously perpetuated for six decades now.

With their fragile egos and a complete lack of confidence these little men are threatened by anyone and everyone at all times. Completely paranoid they will go out of their way to claim credit for other peoples' work, discredit other people, and generally form a wall that covers up for their inadequacies. Their favourite prey is junior staff or newbies, and this is unfortunate as this is the time when young people are most vulnerable. This also explains the high level of mediocrity that exists in the government and corporate sector today. It's simple --mediocre people cannot have really smart people working for them because that would shows how incompetent they (the mediocre ones) are; hence, they choose to surround themselves with even worse specimens than themselves.

While I'm definitely not a shrink, my wife is a certified one and she explained the whole 'little man' syndrome to me, it all came together. The root causes can range from low self-esteem, to whether the individual wasn't hugged enough, to low body image, to having an overpowering father or home environment. But in my book there's absolutely no excuse for putting these people in positions where they can perpetuate their insecurities and lower the bar. The little man syndrome develops into the 'playing God' syndrome and that's a dangerous thing.

Generally the rule of thumb is that when you encounter such people treat them like the bullies they are and don't try to feed whatever trip they're on. I'm not from the new age school of thought so I don't subscribe to the new fangled theories on touchy feely stuff. Call out the 'little men' and move on is what I say. If you're confused about whether someone has 'little man' syndrome and how to identify it, there are a few common sense rules, which you can use. If a person dyes their hair, there's some insecurity they're having a hard time dealing with.

If a middle-aged man is being a lecher there's some weird stuff going on there. If a balding man suddenly shows up at work with hair plugs, there's definitely something wrong. Look for the people who have the constant need to be noticed, recognised, and for the whole world to know how important they are. Those are the ones who one needs to beware of. In the meanwhile, good luck navigating life in the land of the pure with the cohorts of little men who are floating around.

_______________________________________

Reader’s are welcome to list their examples of mean little men, if they wish to.



Pakistan

Poor Shaukat Aziz

Shaukat Aziz was taken seriously by the public at large during his near five-year stint as Minister for Finance. But this ended the moment he got rather shamefully elected from two-rigged by-elections in Tharparkar and Attock, rural constituencies where most of the illiterate rural voters had never even heard of him previously.

In Pakistan everyone, other than perhaps some members of PML (Q), acknowledges that the country is being ruled by a uniformed autocrat backed by the might of the army. That leaves poor Shaukat Aziz little room to project himself as a head of government as he has been completely overshadowed and subsumed by Musharraf.

So it’s not surprising that the man is constantly making trips overseas. After all it is only when he travels abroad as the ‘constitutionally appointed’ prime minister of Pakistan is he accorded the attention and importance due to a head of government.

So how much did Pakistan spend on Shaukat Aziz’s overseas trips last year?

According to newspaper reports a sum of Rs. 750 million (or US$ 12.5 million).

One might say that it is rather hefty price to pay for Aziz’s sensitive ego.

Pakistan

Hot Time for Musharraf in the US?

According to book publisher Simon & Schuster Pervez Musharraf has a hectic US schedule to promote his forthcoming book ‘In the Line of Fire”. The promotional road show will commence on 24 September with an appearance on CBS’s ’60 Minutes’ and finish with Musharraf on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on 1 October. Along the way he will also appear with humorist Jon Stewart on ‘Comedy Central’.

However, I suspect that it will not all be plain sailing for Musharraf in the US this time. Much of his ‘heroic’ anti-terrorist image in the US has suffered deep erosion in recent times. Notably, in the past week he has been at the receiving end of several brickbats from major US newspapers.

A few days ago the New York Times thundered in its post-Bugti killing editorial ‘The Wrong Battle in Pakistan’ :

When General Musharraf comes to the United States, he loves to be lauded as a leader in the war on terrorism. Back home, his government too often acts like a garden-variety military dictatorship.

And yesterday the following op-ed appeared in the Los Angeles Times:

Pakistan: Friend or Foe?
The U.S. shouldn't prop up President Musharraf's military regime.
By Selig S. Harrison

PAKISTAN'S President Pervez Musharraf is supposedly a key U.S. ally in the "war on terror." But is he, in fact, more of a liability than an asset in combating Al Qaeda and the increasingly menacing Taliban forces in Afghanistan?

Since 9/11, the Bush administration has been propping up Musharraf's military regime with $3.6 billion in economic aid from the U.S. and a U.S.-sponsored consortium, not to mention $900 million in military aid and the postponement of overdue debt repayments totaling $13.5 billion. But now the administration is debating whether Musharraf has become too dependent on Islamic extremist political parties in Pakistan to further U.S. interests, and whether he should be pressured to permit the return of two exiled former prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who have formed an electoral alliance to challenge him in presidential elections scheduled for next year.

Musharraf's most vocal defender is former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who has urged continued support for him "no matter how frustrated we become at the pace of political change and the failure to eliminate Taliban fighters from the Afghan border." Musharraf is better than what might come after him, Armitage argues, and is a moderate who has done his best to fend off the entrenched forces of Islamic extremism in Pakistan.

But this argument does not hold up against mounting evidence that, as an ally, Musharraf has been an opportunist from the start who has continued to help the Taliban (just as he had done before 9/11 ) and who has gone after Al Qaeda cells in Pakistan only to the extent necessary to fend off U.S. and British pressure.

On Sept. 19, 2001, Musharraf made a revealing TV address in Urdu, not noticed at the time by most Americans, in which he reassured Pakistanis who sympathized with Al Qaeda and the Taliban that his decision to line up with the U.S. was a temporary expedient.

To Taliban sympathizers, Musharraf directed an explicit message, saying: "I have done everything for the … Taliban when the whole world was against them….We are trying our best to come out of this critical situation without any damage to Afghanistan and the Taliban." He has kept his promise to the latter.

Taliban forces continue to have unrestricted access to Pakistani border towns as staging areas and sanctuaries. Pakistani soldiers look the other way when Taliban units cross the mountains at Bormoi. With U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan suffering increasingly heavy casualties in the face of a Taliban offensive this summer, their officers no longer mince words about Pakistan's role. Col. Chris Vernon, chief of staff of British forces in southern Afghanistan, charged recently that the Pakistan border town of Chaman serves as the "major headquarters" for a guerrilla network in southeast Afghanistan.

Musharraf sees the Taliban as a pro-Pakistan counterweight to Indian influence in Afghanistan and wants to keep it strong in case Afghan President Hamid Karzai is overthrown and Afghanistan collapses into chaos. As a sop to Washington and London, he ordered raids on two small Taliban encampments in July, and he occasionally rounds up key Al Qaeda figures — but in many cases only after the FBI and CIA have confronted Pakistani police with communications intercepts pinpointing their hide-outs.

Even if Musharraf wanted to remove Taliban and Al Qaeda forces from Pakistan, his ability to do so is limited by the political pact that he made with a five-party Islamic alliance in 2004 to win state elections in the two key border provinces. As a result, Al Qaeda and Taliban activity is openly supported by local officials there, and Pakistani groups allied with Al Qaeda are thriving, notably Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba. This prevents Musharraf from carrying out his pledge to crack down on madrasas (religious schools) linked to terrorist groups.

The Islamic parties are flourishing under the protective umbrella of the Pakistani armed forces. Their growth would be slowed if secular political forces had a chance to assert themselves through free elections and a parliamentary system liberated from army manipulation. Under Musharraf, the army has seized much more power than past military regimes, installing military officers in hundreds of government posts previously held by civil servants. Army-sponsored conglomerates control multibillion-dollar enterprises and will not be easily dislodged. As a Pakistani editor commented, "Most countries have an army, but in Pakistan, the army has a country."

The U.S. should use its aid leverage to promote three goals: Bhutto and Sharif should be permitted to return and organize freely. If Musharraf wants to run for president again, he should step down as army chief of staff and run as a civilian. Finally, he should turn over power to a neutral caretaker government that would conduct the elections. This would be welcomed in Pakistan even by elements within the armed forces. An open letter in July from a group of retired generals called for "the disengagement of the military from political power." As one of its signatories, Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, observed, "There is a genuine urge and demand in the country to revert to democracy and give a fair deal to all the parties."

During his last US-visit Musharraf had to be led off the podium by Ambassador Jehangir Karamat after he lost the plot by loudly venting his spleen at a bunch of Pakistani women questioning him about Mukhtaran Mai and Pakistan’s other rape victims.

Let us see what Pakistan’s military leader gets up to on this visit.



Pakistan

Former 'Warrior' says: Musharraf’s a threat to Pakistan.

Over the nearly sixty years of Pakistan’s existence there are perhaps a handful of remarkable individuals that have impressed your Blogger with their ability, integrity and intellect. And one of them is Air Marshal Nur Khan, who proved himself in the PAF, then the PIA, and in the management of national cricket and hockey and, not forgetting, as governor of what was once West Pakistan.

During the crucial 1965 war it was his command of the Air Force that led to a remarkable victory in the air, while the Army plodded into near defeat (causing the self-inflated Field Marshal to enter into psychological gloom that he never completely recovered from).

As Pakistan faces yet another crisis created by yet another egotistical General, here is what Nur Khan has to say about it.

(This should be especially read by those monotonous people who regularly bandy the word ‘traitor’ at the drop of a hat)

Killing of Bugti a blow to national unity: Nur Khan

ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: Former Air Force chief Air Marshal Nur Khan has roundly condemned the ruling Muslim League leadership, specially its president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and its secretary-general Mushahid Hussain Syed, for continuing to serve the Gen Musharraf regime even after the murder of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti at the hands of a contingent of Army.

They claim to have been very good friends of the late Bugti. Shujaat never tires of expressing his indebtedness to the Nawab for saving his father’s life when Z.A.Bhutto, the then prime minister, had reportedly instructed Bugti, then governor of Balochistan to have his father Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi who was then in the provincial jail, killed. And look at Mushahid. He was among the three whom Bugti had named for hearing his case and had promised to accept whatever their verdict. Is this how one pays back trusted friends? asked Nur Khan.

The two seem to be running with the hare and hunting with the hound, he added bitterly.

Nur Khan said, it was the PML which is providing the military junta the all important political life support, without which, Gen Musharraf would not last single day.

“But without Gen Musharraf the PML will not last a single minute and that perhaps is why it feels compelled to go along with the military dictator no matter what the moral and political price”, he added.

Nur Khan, who as the governor of the defunct West Pakistan, had negotiated with the estranged Baloch Sardars, including Akbar Khan Bugti, in the late 1960s and brought them back into the mainstream politics, said he had found all these Sardars to be highly patriotic and devoted to Pakistan.

“I would trust them more than I would trust any other Pakistani to die for Pakistan”, he said.

They were alienated because of the way the
Centre was treating them and their people. Because of the continuous neglect a
sense of deprivation had taken hold of them. They needed to be given a sense of
belonging.

“They were all men of honour. So, it was not all that difficult for me then to negotiate with them and get them back into the mainstream”, he added.

He said Bugti’s death would add a new and perhaps even a violent urgency to the demands of provincial autonomy by the smaller provinces and the Centre would ultimately be forced to concede to the very demands for which Bugti and his clan had taken up arms against the Musharraf regime.

Referring to Musharraf’s warning that whoever wanted to harm Pakistan nationally or internationally would have to fight him first, Nur Khan advised the president “to have a look in the mirror”. He would find that he himself is the guilty party.

He said Bugti’s murder had dealt a severe blow to the unity of the country.

_______________________________________

I wholeheartedly agree with the honourable Air Marshal. Musharraf should either start a serious fight with himself or better still summarily sack himself.


Pakistan
Balochistan
Bugti
Musharraf
Nur Khan

The Murder of a Proud Baloch

It would be fair to say that the killing of the Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti has shocked many if not most of Pakistan – the 99.65% civilian part that is.

The general feeling is that this was one step too far for Musharraf to take.

Many people believe – including your Blogger – that the little man in Musharraf was incensed by the derision Akbar Bugti often directed towards his burgeoning sense of self-importance. This was made obvious when he made pejorative references to Nawab Bugti as a ‘pygmy’ and ‘non-Nawab’ in his televised speeches.

The first attempt to kill Bugti was made on 17th March 2005 when high-tech TOW missiles rained all around the Nawab as he moved around his private grounds in Dera Bugti. Then luck was with him as several of people accompanying him perished in the sudden aerial attack. Sadly seventeen Hindus of Dera Bugti, who had taken shelter nearby, also died after being subjected to a direct hit.

The second attempt to assassinate him took place in early July 2006 when after some PAF bombing sorties and dozens of helicopter gunship missile attacks, elite SSG commandos were dropped near Bugti’s mountain hideout. In the ensuing firefight in which the commandos suffered heavy casualties, Nawab Bugti made a successful escape and sought sanctuary, as we now discover, in the Bhambore hills, between Kohlu and Dera Bugti.

On Saturday the Army said their interception of a satellite phone call led security forces to Bugti’s latest lair. A ferocious firefight took place in which it is believed that 25 commandos and between 24-37 Baloch rebels died – including the venerable Nawab Akbar Bugti. Upon hearing the news of Bugti’s death, Dawn reported, Musharraf was quick to congratulate his troops.

__________________________________________________

Not surprisingly the news of Nawab Bugti’s killing led to a frenzied response in Balochistan as the whole province came to a standstill amid public protest.

Caught on a hop Musharraf began dissembling. No, said the ISPR spokesman, Bugti had not been a target – which is pure piffle. Then came an extremely muddled response from the usually glib ex-Jamaati Minister for Information. Durrani prattled on about a cave which had seemingly collapsed with the Nawab in it, ‘We are now searching for his body’, he said.

Hang on, Akbar Bugti was an eighty-year old man incapacitated with a muscle-wasting disease and unable to walk. How could the army have so confidently announced that they had killed him if he had been trapped within the depths of a cave?

On the other hand the account of the BLA spokesman Azad Baloch, broadcast last night on BBC’s Urdu Service, is much more credible. According to him, having tracked down the Bugti chief on a hillside the commandos and the Baloch engaged in a bitter battle out in the open. Outnumbered the Baloch were all killed and Akbar Bugti’s body was identified among the slain. The army has no intention of handing over the deceased Nawab’s body to his heirs, hence the subterfuge about digging out the cave searching for a body that will not be found.

And, why is Musharraf so scared of handing over the body to the Nawab’s family?

Simply because his grave will become a focal point, a shrine for all the Baloch as they vent their rage over the army’s merciless actions in Balochistan.

Your Bloggers parting comments:
1. Nawab Akbar Bugti was a man who was prepared to die for his beliefs. He will be eulogized by the Baloch, even by the unborn Baloch generations yet to come.
2. Musharraf is a disaster for Pakistan. He is a little man wearing boots of a size much too large for him.

akbar bugti
bugti
Balochistan
Pakistan
Musharraf

The Coming Farce is Already Upon Us...

One cannot fault the Establishment’s competence in one choice discipline – the pre-rigging of elections.

A year before the 2007 elections this activity is apparently in full swing in the rural constituencies in most parts of Pakistan, with particular emphasis in the key province of Punjab and Sindh.

So far I have been able to establish three separate strands of these going-ons.

1. Intelligence Agencies are currently engaged in the business of vetting and pre-selecting candidates for the Establishment.

Rather than go into detail, I’ll just quote what Imtiaz Alam, the current affairs editor of The News, recently reported:

As it is quite clear, even much ahead of the next elections, the powers that be are preparing for a far worse election than were held in 2002. Surveys of districts and interviews of the candidates are being conducted by the ISI and other agencies. Provincial and district administrations have been equipped with unprecedented resources to undertake popular schemes. The king's parties are being geared up to have a total sway…

2. Unity of Command – All of the Establishment’s candidates will be chosen expressly by Musharraf.

During my latest travels I came across a PML (Q) office holder from a district in Punjab who told me the following:

Recently all PML(Q) district office holders in the Punjab were summoned to a meeting in Lahore which was addressed by a senior retired bureaucrat. The message he gave to us was crystal clear: All party tickets for the forthcoming 2007 election for both the National and the Punjab provincial assemblies will be handed out by the Presidency, which will be the sole deciding authority. Any dissent against the Presidency’s decision will not be tolerated and be harshly dealt with.

3. The new voting lists are being fixed to favour Establishment candidates.

Considering the voting lists for the 2002 elections were collated and prepared under the auspices of the Musharraf regime why is it necessary to prepare a fresh voting list? All that is required is to ask those who have come of elective age since 2002 to come forward and register (as is done in every democratic country around the world) – but this simply won’t do and the answer is pretty obvious.

Ask anyone in Pakistan what the chances are of the Musharraf regime winning a free and fair election in 2007 and you will quickly understand why Islamabad feels the urgent need for fresh voting lists.

The first step in compiling a fresh voters list is a process called khana-shumari or housing census. Once all the households are enumerated in a particular area, all the adult residents of these households are then called upon to apply to be entered on the voting list.

However there is a hitch. If one’s house has not been counted in the housing census the chances of then getting on the voting list is less than zero.

So what’s now being witnessed in large swathes of rural Pakistan is that many villages and smaller settlements are being effectively ‘erased’ from the public record. Why? Apparently the inhabitants of these places have been traditionally known to vote against PML(Q) candidates.

Obviously in the 2007 elections there will be a dramatic drop in real voting. To avoid this embarrassment the Establishment will most likely resort to a traditional remedy – a number of polling booths set up in the remotest part of a rural constituency, where massive stuffing of the ballot boxes will then take place to counter the drop in voting numbers.

Voila and there you have it!

_________________________________________________

Your Blogger’s Forecast

The way things are being engineered we will witness a virtual reality election in 2007 which will quite ‘transparently’ provide the Musharraf regime with a majority thanks to a well thought out plan of pre-rigging, particularly in the rural areas of Punjab and Sindh.

So what’s new?

But as I’ve said before, and will repeatedly keep on saying: The rigged elections of 2007 have a strong potential of creating violent destability within Pakistan.

Simply put, the newly fashioned vast disparity of wealth has created a deep and perilous social chasm.

The urban poor – which now include many salaried people – are confronting a nightmarish existence. One only has to take note of the steep price increase of basic edibles such as dal, milk and sugar to realize the enormity of the dilemma these people face simply to feed their families.

Columnist Kamila Hyat recently opined:

The obscenity of a society in which the very rich nibble on food flown in from other continents while the very poor quite literally starve, where demonstrations of sycophancy are of supreme importance to bragging rulers, cannot persist forever. Somewhere in the future, widespread violence spurred on by rage may not lie that far away, and in a system where access to justice is increasingly denied, where the rule of law has broken down and where a deep-rooted sense of unfair play prevails, there is no telling quite what form this surge of anger may take.

As I mentioned in a previous blog:

...the rigging of the 2007 elections [might] backfire and set off a protest movement that will quickly get out of the control of the democratic forces and pass into the hands of organized extremists. And woe betide Pakistan then.

Pre-Rigging
Pakistan Elections
Pakistan

The Don on the Great Oaf

(Sorry to have been away for so long…it was due simply to work, work and more work!)

Like most cricket fans (and as a Pakistani) I was bitterly disappointed at the manner in which the 4th test at the Oval disintegrated into disastrous shambles.

Rather than engage in a personal denunciation of Darrell Hair I would much prefer to rely on what the commonly acknowledged greatest of cricketers once said about him.

It was during Sri Lanka's 1995-96 tour to Australia that Darrell Hair began the rather distasteful controversy over the bowling action of Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan, whom Hair blatantly accused of ‘chucking’.

Notably on 26th December 1995 at the MCG Hair declared seven of Muralitharan's deliveries to be illegal 'no balls'.

Well this is what Hair’s countryman Sir Donald Bradman had to say about Darrell Hair's talents as an umpire at the time of this contraversy.

“This was the worst example of umpiring that I have witnessed and against everything the game stands for”.

Bradman also added:

"I believe Hair's action - in one over - took the development of world cricket back by ten years."

One does not need much imagination to work out what the great Don would have said if he had lived to witness Hair’s gross ineptitude at the Oval the other day.


Darrell Hair
Don Bradman
Cricket
Pakistan