A couple of years back when I was in Pakistan a friend told me how jang was no longer the most popular urdu newspaper and a new one called “express” held the honurs. I think i read express a few times online but to me it looked very similar to jang. These guys now have a tv channel as well, which I dont think is broadcasted internationally. I like Javed Chaudhry’s “Kal tak” aired on Express news channel. As a columnist on jang, i thought Javed was a big time choRoo, but i like his balanced interview style in Kal Tak.
This is quite a revealing interview by Makhdoom Amin Fahim and although he didnt come out strongly, probably because he is a gentlemen although some would argue that he is a politician without any balls. Makhdoom sahib discusses the new karta dhartas in PPP and how the old leadership has been sidelined. Mushahid and Makhdoom sahib also reveal some details of the NRO. Surprisingly Musharraff has lived up to his promises and now PPP has to fulfill theirs, which I think is quite evident that they are working towards. I dont want to reveal too much from the interview so it is better you guys watch it for yourself and then we may have a discussion on it.
I just wish Javed had asked about the deposition of judges in November. My theory, and I have some very good sources upon whose revelations i based it on, is that it was done on BBs request/ demands.
Here is another interesting interview of Aitezaz Ahsan. If you read the comments it feels that Aitezaz came out as a winner, however I think Aitezaz was cornered. I feel sorry for Aitezaz. What actually happened that dharna was not given in front of the parliament? Did Aitezaz realized in the end that the long march was hijacked by Nawaz Sharif and or PTI and JI? Details will come out eventually and we ill know the truth but Aitezaz has been proven wrong that the decision was not based on consensus of the lawyers body. Hamid and Kurd, to name a few, wanted dharna. bakol shair
haiN kawakib aur (kuch?)
nazar atay hain aur (kuch?)
I am wondering when Musharraf will pull off the NRO and exile all the major politicians...lol
Musharraff doesnt need to, you have Ch. Iftikhar for that. What else do you think Zardari's biggest fear with the reinstatement of previous judiciary is?
The most well known are '88 and '92, in 88 the establishment agreed after a long delay to letting the PPP in power if Afghan policy, foreign affairs were left alone and the presidency was given to GIK instead of the movement for restoration of democracy nominee Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan. The PPP agreed to this faustian bargain and saw the establishment rapidly back away from the deal through exploiting differences between the governing parties and propping up the IJI with large sums of cash (google mehran bank scandal if you will, for the list of names) , in '92 the exact opposite happened when an embattled president GIK struck a deal to stay in power with BB, the end result was Zardari was out of prison and the PPP was back in power..**but GIK didn’t get his re-election. **
The moral of the story is a day (what to say of an year) is a long time in politics..
With reference to the old guard in the PPP read the following:
What about President Musharraf? Has he thought of who will replace him?
“Whom would you like as your president?” he queries in response. “A man elected by a majority of the parliament or someone struggling to keep his job, too eager to compromise just so that he can hang on?”
There have been too many ambiguous statements already, ambiguous but very deliberate it seems. Isn’t that putting his party under too much pressure?
**
“The politburo has to be broken,” he says referring to the old guard or “uncles” within the PPP.
“We cannot get anywhere with the politburo intact,” he says without batting an eyelid. **
ye oont kisi karwat nahi bethey gaa. they will have to demonize Iftikhar and force Aitezaz to sit home for sometimes. The character assissination is about to start. The think tank has been working ever since Ifti refused the deal that Zardari crafted for him. Both Zardari and Mush will be in trouble if judiciary is reinstated to Nov 2 position.
Nawaz will have hard time bringing people on street to put more pressure on Zardari. People are haunted by hunger and power outages.
Question is should we let judiciary to slap military for once and for all, or call it ego clash and move on with Mush/Zardari coalition?
Zakk, I am aware of the Mehran bank scandal and the formation if IJI. Funny how all those individuals are acting pavitar today and working against Musharraf/ zardari with zardari's PPP probably being their primary target.
Now clearly you see some Musharraf men in Zardari's frontline, is it a fight between IJI and PPP+Musharraff again?
smooth, i have said many times here that the real game is much biger than the judges issue. Lawyers will be the first group that will be used and abused. That has happened, blame is being laid on Aitezaz now.
Zakk mentioned mehran bank and suddenly I see all IJI players, the ones who were at the front and the ones who were behind the scenes acting as an alliance.
Pro-Jihadi elements of ISI may be active in this to bring back their blue eyed jihadis back into a position of power. Previously, Nawaz was their biggest supporter.
Pro-Jihadi elements of **ISI **may be active in this to bring back their blue eyed jihadis back into a position of power. Previously, Nawaz was their biggest supporter.
ISI begin a state within a state, so obviously the army leadership, let alone Mush, is not in direct control of all ISI assets. Many western analysts have written papers on this already.
NEW YORK - Former US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark, a prominent liberal, has paid high tributes to deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for his struggle to restore independent judiciary.** “What you and your colleagues have done has never been done in the history of the world. The whole world is indebted to you. You are an inspiration to all of us,” Clark said in a tele-conference with Justice Chaudhry that set up by the Pakistan American Democratic Forum, an organisation devoted to defending democracy in Pakistan.
“The whole world is indebted to you,” he told the former chief justice. “Sir, it is an honour to talk to you… You’re an inspiration to all of us. Please let us know whatever service we may be able to provide (to you).”
Clark had gone to Pakistan in 1976 to defend Zulfikar Ali Bhutto but was prevented by Gen Zia’s regime from appearing in the Supreme Court.
On his part, Justice Chaudhry said that he was struggling to restore the supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law in Pakistan. “We are trying to establish rule of law to make ourselves truly civilised people,” he said. “No nation can be free without the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution.”
He told the audience, which besides former attorney general Clark, included Senator Mike Gravel, an assembly member from Iowa, Abdul Samad, and Chaudhry’s lawyer Athar Minallah, that the lawyers’ long march was achieved after remarkable sacrifices by the legal fraternity. The lawyers, he said, would continue their struggle until it achieves its objectives.
Chaudhry noted that an international civil society was already emerging and in today’s world it was no longer possible to stay aloof from the struggles of other people. The international community, he said, cannot allow Pakistan to return to the kind of ‘barbarism and despotic rule’ demonstrated on Nov 3, 2007.
He said on issues like the one championed by the lawyers’ movement in Pakistan ‘people do not look at countries and boundaries; they look at rules and principles’.
The deposed chief justice said that his struggle was not for personal goals but for a larger cause, ‘to transform the Pakistani society, which stands at a crossroads’.
Pakistan, he said, can either take the path that goes to suicide bombings and mob rule or go in the direction of rule of law and justice for the common man. “We want to establish our system on principles, not on the whims and desire of an individual,” he said.
Zakk, I am aware of the Mehran bank scandal and the formation if IJI. **Funny how all those individuals are acting pavitar today and working against Musharraf/ zardari with zardari's PPP probably being their primary target.
Now clearly you see some Musharraf men in Zardari's frontline, is it a fight between IJI and PPP+Musharraff again?**
I'd say the most common misconception is that there is such a thing as permanent establishment friends, **even the Chaudhrys of Gujarat have been on the receiving end of the establishment in their own time (albeit very briefly). **Nawaz Sharif before 1993 and after were two very different people, as was ZAB before 1966 and after. The Sharifs are playing the populist card (which in truth is the "badal" card") while the PPP is playing the realpolitik card.
My own reading is that the establishments primary instinct is to distance itself from Musharraf now, it would prefer a "soft landing" and Mush leaving quietly unfortunately Mush seems to determined to go in the worst possible way .
Foreign powers might guarantee Mushs safety to a point, but he has always been an ineffective but loyal and expendable ally. As far as the "kala coat tehrik" is concerned, it seems to be in transition to the phase of being less activist and more political.
