Pak Tea House

This is a passionate and rather heartfelt piece from our young contributor Shaheryar Ali

Re-throne Iftikhar Chaudhry and hang Zardari, and sing all Faiz and Jalib on Geo. It will be the same. That’s the bitter truth…

“What I call middle-class society is any society that becomes rigidified in predetermined forms, forbidding all evolution, all gains, all progress, all discovery. I call middle-class a closed society in which life has no taste, in which the air is tainted, in which ideas and men are corrupt. And I think that a man who takes a stand against this death is in a sense a revolutionary. Fervor is the weapon of choice for the impotent.” Frantz Fannon

The quotes from Frantz Fannon form the basis of my thoughts on the problem of libertarian politics in Pakistan. The problem that has been disguised in the fervor of middle class intelligentsia, civil society and the so called lawyer’s trade union “movement” to reinstate the judges who were “not called” to take oath under the PCO of General Pervez Musharaf.

The first casualty of this movement was “clarity”, quite understandably when middle and petty bourgeois classes and institutions of a post colonial state are the stalwarts of a “libertarian movement”. When I am writing down these lines the “count down” to the end of days is over in Pakistan. The serene voice of Iqbal Bano singing Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s epic revolutionary poem Hum dekhen ge is glorifying the “Judicial Movement.” The day promised by Faiz being the day the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan should and must be “re-throned” in his “Castle of Justice” in Islamabad.

This and this alone is the solution to all Pakistan’s problems. This and this alone was the goal of all libertarian politics of Pakistan, from Syed Sajjad Zaheer to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This and this alone was the meaning of all progressive discourse, from Manto to Faiz, from Jalib to Faraz. Any other view is treason, anyone suggesting an alternate view is a “sell-out.”

Pakistan Peoples Party and its evil leadership, its evil supporters have betrayed the revolution, the Messiah of liberation incarcerated for months in dungeons, the dungeon being official residence of the Chief Justice in Islamabad with his family. Mr Ten Per Cent spent 8 years in jail without conviction and bail, never saw his children growing up, enjoying a “married life”, half of which was spent in friendly imprisonment in the worst of Pakistan’s jails, where his back was broken and his tongue was cut!! (Bol keh lub aazad hein tere). Yea our Messiah of Liberation was manhandled during his long march from his palace to the court, the haircut was destroyed, the black coat martyred. And all in front of cameras.

Mr Aitzaz Ahsan, the Marxist lawyer, who charges six-figure fees and delivers justice to 80% of the people of Pakistan who earn less than 2 dollars a day, speaks, his voice crackling with passion over the fate of the children who were forced to live with their parents in their own house. Has anyone ever heard from him any names other than Balaj and Palwasha? Any names like Bilawal, Asifa, and Bakhtawar who grew up without a father, who were not allowed to see their father for years and years. Who were not allowed to live in their country. When they got their father, their mother was killed. Who killed their mother? Did anyone talk about any “countdown” to start a probe into murder of leader of people of Pakistan? Of course it’s the destiny of Asifa to live half her life without a father and the rest of her life without her mother. Destiny!!

The Glorious Judge:

A military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, imposes martial law, suspends the constitution and takes over. Army surrounds the Chief Justice House, arrests the Chief Justice. Our glorious Judge Iftikhar Ahmad takes oath of personal loyalty to General Musharraf accepting him as the “source of law”

The great Judge sits in 4 benches of the supreme court declaring : (more…)

In a café, at the airport
In the corner
Sits there, Chillchinga
The young US soldier
With cigarettes and an empty look
Tired from those battles
Easily seen, the scars
Gained and given
From confrontations
In a distant land
The only desire now
To go home
To converse few words
In Spanish as he pays the price
For migration and adventure
In the distant time

Sit three in the corner
McMillan and Richardson
Spectacles on their tiny face
Turned away from scenes of horror
Of participation and of discussion
Away from those big monitors
News of Iraq and Afghanistan (more…)

by Khaled Ahmed writing in the weekly Friday Times

The lawyers are passionate, the retired judges are angry, and those who absent themselves from the country’s biggest display of righteous anger in history keep their mouths shut. The political parties are divided over how to interpret the phenomenon but are clearly grinding their separate political axes, looking for the right purchase on what the lawyers are up to. The anger of the wukla and the enthusiasm of the sahafi combined have not been able to create a consensus in parliament. And it is not a divided parliament, it is a house where everyone is everyone else’s partner in one thing or another.

Is the penny going to drop finally this week? At the time of writing nothing looked final and there were only two days to go for the deadline of April 30 when the National Assembly had to pass a resolution demanding restoration of the 60-odd judges fired on November 3, 2007. As the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Mr Asif Ali Zardari rested in Dubai, the reports were that the two parties had agreed to restore the 60 judges and increase the strength of the Supreme Court bench to 27 from the old 17 to re-accommodate Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry & Co without getting rid of the post-November 3 ‘PCO judges’ that the lawyers have been boycotting. (more…)

by Faisal.K

When we were having elections in this country, the mood was tense but upbeat. Everyone was watching Pakistan and its politics to see what leadership would emerge from the great ashes of one-man rule, or what we frequently refer to as “dictatorship.” I am sure the truth is quite stark and shining in front of all now.

I often have arguments with my friends because i insist that democracy, in the very western form of the word, is not applicable to Pakistan. It’s not that i do not want the average person here to have any rights or a good living standard, but that we need to have leaders who would listen and actually engage in some work to solve the various crises at hand in Pakistan.

The people who have won the last elections have till now made absolutely “zero concrete steps” towards true democracy. In fact if one would have to analyze the current government’s modus operandi, it is not more than a Dealocracy.

The evidence of this lies in the fact that they are trying to solve all problems in Pakistan by striking deals with the parties involved on both sides of the issue. For instance:

a) Problem in FATA

(more…)

Faced with problems of commerce and trade,
In slogans we raise, our misery and fate
Great comfort we draw from rallies and protest
From voices we raise, from beatings we take
Remain there in place, the old hate in wait
From practitioners and proponents of their faith
Hold us in nearness as we move into this state
As change will come as it’s never too late!

Kashkin

First Chapter of Bhutto’s recent book courtesy the NYT

‘Reconciliation’

 By BENAZIR BHUTTO

 The Path Back

(more…)

By Raza Rumi

An overwhelming majority of Pakistan’s population finds itself hostage to narratives of ‘terror’ that are either alien to its ethos or are constructed by its home-grown theologians and opinion-makers. This is not to say that the issue of suicide bombings is easy to define and understand. They are essentially complex and located in decades of Pakistan’s evolution into a society that is difficult yet again to label: Islamic in name, struggling to be democratic and a republic it is not, well, not yet.

If we take the viewpoint of liberals, it is our war as much as a war of others. If we were to hear the west, it is about countering terror and preserving world peace; and if we listen to Pakistan’s right it is someone else’s battle fought on our land — the land of the pure lest we forget.

Where does this leave the confused, battered citizen who now has to strive for personal security among other daily struggles of existence? There are no clear answers and if one were to probe further, the questions are as murky as their geneses.

One thing is clear though: to identify the recurrent suicide bombings in the name of theological, tribal and imperial grievances is at best a half-truth. The genie is far more complex than a response to the reductionist narrative of “war against terror” and such other imperial phraseology. At the core of this phenomena, if one were to be rather blunt, lies an exclusive, bigoted ‘ideology’ of a few men of holy intentions orchestrating a script written by others. (more…)

By : Beena Sarwar

Just over a year ago, Pakistan’s all-powerful president and chief of the army staff was firmly entrenched at the helm of affairs. He had taken several steps to ensure his absolute power; the ‘corrupt’ politicians were in exile, and their parties were in disarray. Indeed, analysts were predicting that Pervez Musharraf would remain in power until 2015.

Three factors, occurring over a span of two years, changed this course. First, former archrivals Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif, both then in exile, joined hands in May 2006 to sign a ‘Charter of Democracy’, aimed at ousting the military from Pakistani politics. Second, an increasingly independent judiciary began taking on previously taboo issues, including the disappearances that had taken place at the hand of the intelligence agencies since Pakistan’s alliance with the US in the ‘war on terror’. Third, dozens of independent television channels, which had sprung up since 2002, were covering events critically and energetically.

(more…)

By S. Akbar Zaidi,

WHILE Pakistan’s hesitant political transformation falters further, one has to note that developments over the last decade or so have given rise to numerous substantive changes, which have altered social relations and societal structures.

Always undergoing a process of change, many of these developments are affecting our social, economic and political relationships.

Perhaps the most important factor that, sadly, many Pakistani social scientists still do not comprehend is that Pakistan is neither a so-called feudal, agricultural, rural or even a traditional society or economy. Only those social scientists who write their papers on anecdotal evidence still talk of Pakistan as being feudal. Even a cursory examination of any kind of economic data suggests that this is not so. With the share of agriculture as part of the GDP falling drastically from 26 per cent in 2000 to 20 per cent in 2007, agriculture has lost its predominance in the economy. (more…)

This is an engaging piece by Ali Eteraz who writes with much intellectual energy and passion. The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily subscribed by the Pak Tea House.

Hindus in Pakistan have suffered grievously since the founding of the nation in 1947. Recently, in the southern province of Sindh, a Hindu man was accused of blasphemy and beaten to death by his co-workers. This comes at the heels of the abduction and dismemberment of a Hindu engineer. (more…)

This is a forcefully eloquent piece on the incidence of violence in Karachi. PTH does not necessarily agree with its contents and the arguments - by  Rukhe Zehra Zaidi

It seems that recycling storylines and repeat performances are not solely the prerogative of cinema and theatre. In Pakistan, the plot of politics is often repeated and rehashed until the performance has become a fine tuned and much rehearsed drama on the ongoing tussle between democracy and the military. Dictators replace democrats, democrats negotiate and bargain with each other and the army, and the masses stand by much like the citizens of fair Verona caught in the crossfire of the fighting between the Montagues and the Capulets. And although the actors change on a seasonal basis, the transition is now almost seamless and perfect. Costume changes require minimal refitting as the Ayubs make way for the Zias and Musharrafs, and the MMA of today steps into the shoes of the Islamic Democratic Alliance of yesterday. And repeated though it might be, the performance is by no means dull as bloody assassinations, behind the scenes plotting and scheming, horse-trading, and even exploding helicopters all add to the political experience in Pakistan. (more…)

By Yasser Latif Hamdani

The oddest point in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s career as a politician and a statesman was when his National Assembly voted to constitutionally
ex-communicate the Ahmaddiya community from the circle of Islam. Odd because, barring Jinnah and some ethnic leaders from small sub-nationalities, Bhutto was till then the most secular politician in
Pakistan. His support base was mostly left and no where during the election campaign had the PPP given voice to the demand for Ahmadis to
be ex-communicated. There are many theories as to why Bhutto would do it, but an investigation into the history of Ahmadi conflict in Pakistan leads to some astonishing conclusions about the role of
Pakistan’s military and civil establishment and their blatant use of
religious clergy in creating the conditions which might have forced a
popular national politician like Bhutto to opt for such a drastic and
draconian measure.

Pakistan was created as a result of the inability of the Congress
Party to recognize the legitimate secular concerns (such economic and
political safeguards) of the Muslim bourgeoisie represented by the
Muslim League. Instead of relying on secular and liberal Muslim
leaders like Jinnah, who had for much of his career been described as
the Ambassador of Hindu Muslim Unity by the Hindu leadership, the
Congress co-opted the Muslim religious clergy to prove its secular
credentials. Soon the Congress found itself out of sync with the
mass of Muslims. Since Muslims themselves were fragmented into
several sects and schools of thought, Jinnah and the Muslim League
kept theological and purely religious issues out of the main political
discourse. This allowed Jinnah to bring Sunnis, Shias, Ismailis,
Khojas and Ahmadis on one table despite major doctrinal differences
between these groups. It was for this reason that after Pakistan was
created, Jinnah extended his policy of keeping religious doctrine out
to state governance. To drive the point home, he included in his
cabinet a Hindu (Jogindranath Mandal) as a law minister and an Ahmadi
Muslim (Ch. Zafrullah Khan) as his foreign minister.
After 1947, the religious clergy that had opposed Jinnah and the
creation of Pakistan found itself like a fish out of a pond. They
would have all but lost political significance had it not been for the
political weakness of the ruling Muslim League. By 1951 the Muslim
League was without both Jinnah and Liaqat Ali Khan, the two leaders
who had recognition and mass appeal. Khawaja Nazimuddin who took
over after Liaqat Ali Khan was known as a good honest man but was not
known as a decisive leader. That he was from East Pakistan was an
additional factor which made him undesirable for the West Pakistani
establishment. By January 1953, the religious parties including
Maulana Maududi’s Jamaat-e-Islami had formed the “Majlis-e-Amal” whose
demands were the removal of Ch. Zafrullah Khan as the foreign minister
and declaration of the Ahmadi community as “Non-muslim”. Khawaja
Nazimuddin refused to entertain this demand and when informed of the
chance of 100 000 crazed Mullahs marching onto the Prime Minister
House, merely ordered the doubling of his guard. Violence broke out
in Lahore and Karachi.
Iskandar Mirza, the then Secretary of Defense, took note and wrote to
the Prime Minister:

“The problems created by your personal enemies including Mullahs, if
not dealt with firmly, will destroy the administration of the country…
is religion to destroy the very foundation of the administration of
the premier Muslim state? In Cairo, Sir Zafrullah Khan is being
received with the utmost honour and respect… while in Karachi he is
being abused in public meetings and his photographs are being spat
upon… what then is the position of Pakistan today internationally… for
god’s sake become a courageous leader and take decisive action. Once
you do this, the whole country, with the exception of the rascals,
will really round you…”

(more…)

I have no comments on this news-item published in the Daily Times. Since it is still not verified by either of the parties, it remains uncertain whether this incident ever happened?

NAUDERO: PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari is reported to have ticked off Aitzaz Ahsan in an after-dinner gathering of the PPP’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) members in Naudero on the subject of the restoration of the judges, independence of the judiciary and the threatened long march by Aitzaz and his supporters. According to sources present on the occasion, Zardari took Aitzaz to task for constantly threatening to launch a long march to force parliament to restore Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and the other deposed judges. Zardari advised Aitzaz to go ahead with his long march if he was so keen on it instead of constantly threatening the PPP about it. He told Aitzaz that he was wrong to think that the lawyers movement had forced General Pervez Musharraf to take off his uniform or hold the elections. He said that honour belonged to Benazir Bhutto who had compelled Musharraf to do so and paid for it with her life. He said the entire credit for restoration of democracy went to Ms Bhutto and Aitzaz and the judges and lawyers could not rob her of her victory. Zardari also reminded Aitzaz that while he was incarcerated for eight long years none of these heroic judges had given him justice, even when he had asked for one day’s reprieve to attend a funeral of a close relative. Zardari is reported to have said that Justice Chaudhry had politicised himself overtly and ruined his case as an advocate for an independent judiciary. He also cited other instances when some of these judges had not conducted themselves with any degree of integrity or independence in the past. Aitzaz tried a feeble defence but could not deflect Zardari’s irritation. “I thought Aitzaz would get up and leave but he just sat there,” said the source. staff report

By Beena Sarwar

KARACHI, Apr 2 (IPS) - Pakistan’s new prime minister has announced
what many term a `revolutionary’ agenda: continue the `war on terror’
but on Pakistan’s terms, lift the long standing ban on student and
trade unions, raise minimum wages, revoke `black’ media laws, provide
relief for farmers and observe austerity.

Yousuf Raza Gillani revealed his ambitious initial 100 day plan for
his government after obtaining an unprecedented unanimous vote of
confidence in the National Assembly. The plan has breathed fresh air
into this nuclear-armed South Asian nation where military-dominated
politics has long been marked by acrimony, bitterness and
vengefulness.

A new in-house advertisement on the popular television channel Geo TV
captures the mood: clips of various politicians bantering, smiling
and laughing. The slogan, `Jeo, muskura kar’ (`Live life with a
smile’).

The country that gave the world its first Muslim woman prime
minister, Benazir Bhutto, now boasts the world’s first Muslim woman
Speaker of the Assembly. Dr Fehmida Mirza, 51, thrice elected from
her hometown Badin in Bhutto’s native Sindh province, sometimes looks
startlingly like her slain leader and friend. So Gillani could be
forgiven, in his inaugural speech, for twice inadvertently referring
to her as `Madam Prime Minister” instead of “Madam Speaker”. (more…)

How could we claim to be a democratic country where academics, ostensibly a sacred profession if one were to follow our own rhetoric, are mauled for speaking up?? I am posting a press release from the citizen’s group, People’s Resistance that gives a detailed account of the rotten incident.

KARACHI, April 1: The People’s Resistance, a coalition of pro-democracy individuals and organisations, strongly condemns and demands immediate inquiry into the manhandling and beating up of Dr Riaz Ahmed, Assistant Professor of Applied Chemistry at Karachi University by Pakistan Rangers. (more…)

By Raza Rumi 

IT is a truism that media freedom in Pakistan today has been earned after a long struggle which will perhaps continue in the years to come.

Deepening of democratic traditions and their permeation in society are sine qua non for a free media. Whilst there can be no two opinions on the independence of the media, the need for greater responsibility and professionalism has to be articulated in no uncertain terms. Such is the confusion and chaos triggered by an overgrown executive that the issue of responsibility has been sidelined by the overwhelming noises for media freedom especially since the tinkering with the text and application of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Ordinance.

We are now getting used to a television culture that imitates the life of Pakistani tharras, chai-khanas and drawing-rooms where politics is discussed ad nauseum. Rare exceptions include issue oriented talk-shows but they appear bland unless their all knowing hosts inject some political spice into them. Expertise is taken for granted; new-age generalists judge every subject under the sun and occasionally take themselves a bit too seriously. Yes, the commercial imperative of the media dictates programming patterns. But there has to be a method to this disorderliness.

The most recent occasion of electronic media wizardry was the announcement of the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition candidate for the unenviable job of the prime minister. The moment the announcement was made, a leading channel played a popular Indian film song that lamented broken promises. In this case, the fabled promise of the prime ministerial cookie for Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

Admittedly, the party of the people and its allies were secretive about the process. The principle of transparency, ideally, is germane to elected institutions. However, this is neither an ideal world nor is it going to turn into one overnight. The way a momentous decision was trivialised was not in good taste. The news industry forgot that this was a party still recovering from the brutal murder of its omnipresent leader less than three months ago. (more…)

By Ishtiaq Ahmed

Benazir Bhutto’s book, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West (London: Simon and Schuster, 200 published posthumously is very different from her Daughter of the East, in which, besides saying some sensible things, she freely boasted, and exaggerated her paternal ancestors’ landed property and high station in Sindhi feudal society.

This time round, we meet a woman who is devoted to her idea of reconciliation between Islam, democracy and the West. Many years ago, I presented her my first book (which was also my doctoral dissertation), The Concept of an Islamic State: An Analysis of the Ideological Controversy in Pakistan (Frances Pinter, London, 1987), through her close adviser at that time, Fakhar Zaman, the Punjabi writer and intellectual.

There is no doubt she read it thoroughly and carefully, though it is not referred to in her book under discussion. I had argued that it is possible to derive an argument for the most unenlightened, as well as the most progressive, state model by selectively quoting the sacred sources and early Islamic history, but that in the modern period at some point Islam and the state will have to be separated in practice if democracy is to prevail and consolidate.

Her thesis, on the other hand, is that her selection of the sacred sources and pristine Islamic history is the correct representation of the Islamic ethos, while all the fundamentalist and extremist versions that are around are distortions of true Islam. She believes that in practice too Islam and the state can be interdependent, without democracy suffering injury.

In any event, Benazir Bhutto’s book is an admirable exercise in arguing that Islam and democracy are reconcilable. With the help of a team of researchers and advisers, especially Husain Haqqani, Ms Bhutto proceeds to demonstrate that the core spirit of Islam and the Quran is democratic.

She quotes verses from the Quran, Hadiths (sayings and doings) of the Prophet and examples from the way the pious caliphs were chosen to lead the pristine Muslim community, to demonstrate that Islam prescribes freedom of choice and thinking and tolerance for difference of opinion. (more…)

Interview with Husain Haqqani 

Husain Haqqani is back in Pakistan as well as on our television screens. Contrary to common perception, that he is here to become an advisor to the next government, he likes to be introduced as an academic. “I’m much happier being a Professor at Boston University,” he clarifies at the outset. Director of Center for International Relations at Boston University and a senior fellow at Hudson Institute in Washington DC, Haqqani has worked as a journalist, diplomat and former advisor to Pakistani prime ministers. He has maintained close connections with the Bhutto family for the last ten years; Benazir Bhutto in her recent book ‘Reconciliation’ acknowledges him as a ‘loyal friend.’ So will he be speaking as a PPP spokesperson in this interview? “No, I am not in the PPP formally. I don’t have any official position within the party,” he states categorically.

Excerpts of an interview with analyst Haqqani follow:

The News on Sunday: In one of your recent articles, you’ve explained the term ‘Pakistani establishment’ in which apart from military and intelligence agencies, you have included civil servants, executives of multinational corporations, bankers, beneficiaries of World Bank etc. Do you think the establishment in Pakistan is ready to create space for political forces?

Husain Haqqani: An over-extended and domineering establishment never yields space. Space has to be taken from it. I think the political forces in Pakistan have now created circumstances in which they are ready to get more space. Furthermore, there are cracks within the Pakistani establishment. The military as an institution has realised that its primary responsibility of national security simply cannot be fulfilled by just having the establishment on its side. They need the people behind them. That is why the military’s decision to back away from politics is going to weaken the establishment which has always fired its political shots from the shoulders of the military. The civilian segment of the establishment has always framed its interests in terms of national security.
Pakistan is the only country in the world where alleged corruption of politicians has been treated as a national security problem. Elsewhere the problem of civilian corruption is dealt with within the legal and political framework of the country. Only in Pakistan do international bankers like Shaukat Aziz come into power afterx military coup claiming “I’m going to clean up corruption and strengthen the economy etc,” without any political mandate and popular support. I think that the army’s decision to focus only on its professional tasks will diminish this pattern of manipulation, expanding political space.

TNS: Considering its huge influence and vested interest in this system, how much power is the military going to relinquish and how?

HH: The military has a significant role in helping determine national security policy. In any country, the professional military makes inputs and helps the civilians decide the priorities for national security. But the military is never trained to do big picture political analysis. They are trained in tactical matters and in military strategy. I think the military will gradually move in that direction. Of course given Pakistan’s recent history and the residual impact of the military’s deep involvement in politics, there will still be some people in uniform who will continue to think politically. But the global environment — in which Myanmar and Pakistan are the only two countries run by men in uniform until a few weeks ago — is making the Pakistani military rethink its role. (more…)

Email Picture

K.M. Chaudary / Associated Press

Prominent Pakistani opposition lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, center, is greeted by lawyers at a rally against President Pervez Musharraf in Lahore. While under house arrest, he did what many of his compatriots do in times of personal and political crisis: He wrote a poem. When restrictions on his freedom were eased, TV crews besieged him and, one after another, beseeched him to recite his verse for a country that takes its verse seriously.

(more…)

a typically immature rant by kinkminos

Hear, hear.

With an absolute lack of cynicism i’d like to wish Mr Gillani and the soon to be formed government of Pakistan a memorable term in office. (Memorable for the people that is, not for them.)

Perhaps the best thing that can be said (at this stage, as he has still to prove himself worthy of the post) of Mr Gillani’s election to the office of PM is that his winning means that the other candidate, Ch. Perv. Elahi, is not First Minister (no mere silver lining, imho).

Still, the optimism (thank God there is still some vestige of it left in me, i don’t know why or how) is tinged with a sense of oh-no-here-we-go-againism. For while the freshly minted PM (more…)

 ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Monday elected PPP’s Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani as the new prime minister of the country with thumping majority.

Gilani bagged 264 votes. The rival candidate Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, fielded by the Pakistan Muslim League-Q and its allies secured 42 votes.

In a maiden speech on the floor of National Assembly after he was elected as Prime Minister, he said, “I request the national assembly as my first job to pass a resolution for UN probe into the assassination of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.”

Elaborating the top priorities of the new government, the newly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani vowed to take all out efforts for the supremacy of parliament.

He also said the National Assembly should pass another resolution to apologize to the nation for hanging of Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto.

Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani also said that he would issue the immediate directives for release of the held judges.

Gillani also vowed to take efforts for the resolution of multiple problems of people, saying, “ We realize that the people of the country confront several problems including shortage of electrify.”

“Today, democracy has been restored thanks to the great sacrifice of Benazir Bhutto,” the 55-year-old Gilani, wearing a dark suit and tie, said in his first speech to parliament.

“I invite all political forces to join us because the country is facing such a crisis that a single man cannot save it,” he said.

an unsponsored panegyric by kinkminos

The following item appeared [undated as usual] on the online version of The News:

The PPP finally nominated Makhdoom Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for the prime ministerial slot…. [The] announcement… was made on behalf of Asif Ali Zardari by party spokesman Farhatullah Babar before the media outside the Zardari House. The statement read: “I have great pleasure in calling upon Makhdoom Yousuf Raza Gilani in the name of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto to accept the heavy responsibility and lead the coalition government and the nation to greater heights and a glorious future and Makhdoom Yousuf Raza Gilani is not afraid to lead and he knows the way.”

What struck me as odd was the invocation. Until (more…)

by Yasser Hamdani

The great irony for Pakistan, as the country founded by Jinnah, who
was rightly described as one of the greatest constitutional lawyers of
the British Empire by many including former US President Bill Clinton,
himself a lawyer, is that it is still struggling to find its
constitutional heart and soul.  Yet it is fitting that today that the
country’s legal fraternity is up in arms led by another great
constitutional lawyer.   Aitzaz Ahsan’s great feats as a lawyer and a
politician this last year very aptly find parallels in the Jinnah of
1916 who rose to prominence that year with his defence of Tilak as
well as his contribution in bringing the Muslim League and the
Congress together on one platform in Lucknow.   92 years later,
another Muslim League has also forged a common front against tyranny –
this time with the Pakistan People’s Party thanks to the relentless
struggle and effort of Aitzaz Ahsan.  Let us hope the Murree
Declaration fares better than the Lucknow Pact though.

Pitted against it today are a bunch who also claim to be big lawyers
but their expertise at times seems as hollow as Sharifuddin Pirzada’s
dubious and erroneous claims of having known Jinnah personally- claims
which were rejected by both Fatima Jinnah and K H Khurshid, the
Quaid’s personal assistant.    Take for example the circular argument
put up by the new inductee in the President’s team Mr. Abdul Hafiz
Pirzada – the self styled father of Pakistani Constitution- while
speaking to GEO NEWS .  He claims that a simple resolution cannot
restore the judges and that a two thirds majority is required.
Presumably this is based on the premise that Constitutional Amendment
Order of November 21, 2007 was a legal amendment and that article 270
AAA introduced through it stands valid.   One can imagine how the
genius who suggested this to the president would have both shocked and
relieved him by suggesting automatic validation, affirmation and
adoption of the “competent authority’s”  amendments by the incumbent
“competent authority” himself.  Brilliant stuff I suppose in a world
where good old Sharifuddin is the master signifier.  However in the
real world such an attempt is void ab initio.  The presidential power
to remove difficulties cannot extend to an actual amendment. (more…)

The highs and lows of the last year have politicised hitherto indifferent sections of society and created a new impetus for democratisation. This is a welcome development. But a democratic polity is built neither by dictator’s decree nor Supreme Court rulings. Of course, the ouster of the dictator and the restoration of the Supreme Court judges that defied him are both symbolically important, but neither should be confused with democracy and the creation of a rights-respecting society.

By Ali Dayan Hasan

Today’s inauguration of the new National Assembly is being heralded by many as a new dawn in Pakistan’s political history. A grand coalition of the country’s major political forces will assume government shortly and its stated agenda, as enunciated by Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif on March 9, has won national acclaim.

For now, the army appears to have opted for a strategic retreat from the political arena. Its former leader, President Pervez Musharraf, though characteristically unrepentant and unashamed, nevertheless stands humiliated and diminished. It is a rare moment of vindication for the country’s political class, its democrats and its highly mobilised civil society.

But history teaches us that this moment is as fleeting as it is special.

It would be naïve to assume that one general election that threw up a politically credible result despite a massively flawed process has transformed power relations in the country. Pakistan remains a praetorian state structured and geared to service, above all, the needs of a military that remains every bit as convinced as ever that Pakistan’s national interest is synonymous with its institutional priorities and the preservation of its position as the final arbiter of political power and patronage. (more…)