Pak Tea House » Entries tagged with "Musharraf"
Tale of Musharraf’s Coup in 1999
Parvez Musharraf, ex-Dictator, landed in Karachi today, amid much fanfare(and while wearing a suicide jacket). He was ousted democratically on 18th August, 2008 and left the country. Pakistan has successfully completed transition from an elected government to a caretaker setup without direct intervention of the Military for the first time in its history. This does not mean we forget the history of military interventions and the disastrous consequences. To commemorate the arrival of Musharraf, we … Read entire article »
Filed under: Anniversery, Army, Civil Service, Constitution, Democracy, drama, History, ISI, Islamabad, Pakistan, Politics, Society, state, Uncategorized
Our Educated White Collar Class, Qadri Freak Show and Democracy
Raza Habib Raja I remember watching a standup comedy by Bill Maher who I think is one of the wittiest political satirists. One of his normal practice is to mock Americans, particularly, the Republicans for their dumbness. At one point he said, “ Oh America, I can never leave you, you amuse me.” Well If Mr. Maher was to visit Pakistan, I am sure he would immediately understand that for entertainment purpose, nothing even comes close to Pakistan. Imagine this: A Mullah with dubious credentials materializes out of nowhere and asks his followers to march to Islamabad to force dissolution of all the governments and formation of a caretaker government who would first cleanse the system. He apparently has the financial as well as logistical backing. And he further complicates the situation by presenting … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Democracy, Elections, Islamabad, Judiciary, Parliament
Redefining national interest
Raza Rumi Courtesy The Friday Times: – The elusive quest for peace between India and Pakistan remains hostage to the military-industrial complex at both the global and regional levels. Such is the dynamic unleashed by two imagined “nations” that their existence as states is dependent on a perpetual state of confrontation. More so for Pakistan, given its deeply embedded paranoia, which has assumed a reality of its own. Sixty-two years ago, it was hardly envisioned that the two states would erect an iron-curtain and fight forever. From actual wars to propaganda campaigns the task seems complete now. The oft-repeated phrase ‘trust deficit’ is a natural culmination of this ugly process. Of late, another dimension has been added, i.e. information-deficit as India had marched towards a new phase of its economic development, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
Hating Zardari
Hit and run By Shakir Husain The News, May 17, 2010 Whenever people ask me about the funniest Asif Zardari joke I’ve ever heard, my response is always, “That he is the most successful president in the 63 year history of Pakistan.” I can picture readers cringing, noses wrinkling, and people asking to be passed the sick bag. What makes this nauseating sensation worse for most is that if you can get past the silly grin, the last name, the face – whatever your pet Asif Zardari peeve is, you will realise it’s true. Before you abandon this piece here to go and fire off a nasty email to me and the Editor, think about this rationally by removing the last name from the presidency, and just objectively look at what the man … Read entire article »
We Shall Overrun: The Young, Urban, Middle Class Pakistani Manifesto
By Nadeem F. Paracha http://blog.dawn.com/2010/03/20/we-shall-overrun/ 1. Asif Ali Zardari is the devil incarnate. 2. The Pakistan Army is the saviour. 3. The Taliban are resisting American imperialism. 4. We hate American foreign policy unless it suits us. We are against American imperialism if it means we have to ditch the Taliban as that would be against the aspirations of our founding father, Mohammed Bin Qasim. We will no longer shop at Marks and Spencer because they are somehow connected to Israel. However, that does not mean we will switch off our computers and cell phones whose chip technology has been made possible due to major contributions from Israeli scientists. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Benazir Bhutto, Democracy, FATA, Humor, India, Iran, Islam, Islamabad, Pakistan, Punjab, Punjabi, Religion, Taliban, USA, Writers, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
Giving credit where it is due
Published in the Daily Times Giving Credit Where it’s Due (Daily Times 04/26) By Agha Haidar Raza Pakistan recently had two major delegations visiting the US. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi led the first contingent under the auspices of a new ‘Strategic Dialogue’ with the US. In the second trip, Prime Minister Gilani led his team to President Obama’s first Nuclear Summit. Attended by over 47 heads of state, the summit was the largest gathering of world leaders to descend upon the US soil since the 1940s. Recognised as one of the world’s safe-keepers of a nuclear stockpile, Pakistan gained a nod of approval from the world’s seven nuclear bomb carriers. I am unaware if many journalists or citizens in Pakistan read foreign newspapers, magazines or even blogs, but over the course of the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Benazir Bhutto, Constitution, Democracy, Economy, Egalitarian Pakistan, India, Islamabad, Judiciary, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Pakistan, public policy, state, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
PTH Exclusive: Interview with J. Jawwad Khawaja
Posted by Raza Rumi We are grateful to Babar Mirza who has translated an interview given by Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja to Sohail Waraich in June 2007 which is recorded in Waraich’s book ‘Adlia ke Arooj-o-Zawaal ki Kahani’. The interview is a must read for all those who are interested in Pakistan’s politics and institutions. A biographical note is also available for those who wish to know more about the life and times of J. Khawaja. The latter resigned when J. Iftikhar Chauhdry was illegally deposed by the Musharraf regime. Later, he was part of the lawyers and judges movement and he was re-inducted into the Supreme Court after J. Chauhdry was restored as the Chief Justice in 2009. The interview also explains why Justice Khawaja took oath unde the 2000 PCO during the Musharraf regime. Just as in any other … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Judiciary, Justice, Law, lawyers movement, movements, Pakistan
Pakistan's economy: Hard times
by Raza Rumi Two years after the civilian government took office, there are few signs of economic recovery and this does not augur well for the fate of democratic governance in Pakistan. We are somehow doomed to bear the brunt of authoritarian regimes in social and economic terms. By the time a civilian government puts its house in order, the long and short marchers are ready to take over. The story this time has been no exception. Following the trends of the 1960s and the 1980s during the Musharrafian decade, unsustainable growth rates were touted as the raison d’etre for the apparent efficiency of a military regime. It is true that the Musharraf era inducted Pakistan into the globalized economic system, boosted domestic demand for consumer products and attracted huge doses … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
General in the Hood
(The views expressed here are not necessarily subscribed by the PTH – Editors) THE TIMES OF INDIA By Indrani Baghchi March 22, 2010 Those who know him say he is a brooder. But those who know him well will tell you that’s just one of the layers to the deeply complicated and thinking mind of Pakistan army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The bluster that marked Musharraf has been dumped for quiet gravitas as the man from Rawalpindi goes about turning friends like the US and Britain into closer allies and outmanoeuvering not-so-friendly neighbours like India and Afghanistan at international fora. In a country brought to its knees by terror, corruption and an inept political system, the former ISI chief is putting up a masterly show as he calls the shots. Sitting with foreign minister S … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Army, Benazir Bhutto, FATA, India, Islamabad, Pakistan, south asia, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
A Conversation With Air Marshal (R) Asghar Khan
Asghar Khan speaks about democracy and clarifies his alleged ‘invitation’ to Gen Zia ul Haq to take over; and his (in)famous comment about hanging Bhutto at Hala Bridge. He talks about his petition to the Supreme Court in relation to the ISI bribing politicians (a.k.a. the Mehran Bank scandal). Here’s the 2nd of 3 parts of the interview. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6TIagGt_rA] and here are Part 1 & Part 3 In case you are interested, this is Ardeshir Cowasjee writing in Dawn of 26 April 2009 about the Jinnah Award winner Asghar Khan’s address to the Jinnah Society. … Read entire article »
Let's refocus: Kashmir, not Kabul
We are publishing a Canadian view here at PTH. This op-ed was published today in the well respected Canadian Newspaper The Globe and Mail. It is written by Doug Sanders, Globe’s respected Pulitzer Prize winning Chief of European Bureau. Mr. Sanders urges the West to help resolving the Kashmir Issue. This issue has been used by Pakistani Army and the Establishment to keep the impoverished nation of ours mainly as an India competing nation. The issue has contributed towards our inability to focus on developing our society as a modern, progressive entity; a society that focuses primarily on protection, health and education of all of its members (PTH) By Doug Sanders, cross post from The Globe and Mail, Published February 20, 2010 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/lets-refocus-kashmir-not-kabul/article1475138/ Acting like an especially convivial nightclub manager, Pervez Musharraf storms the room and opens with a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Army, Democracy, Economy, Education, Identity, India, Islamabad, Kashmir, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
Coming Full Circle
By Cyril Almeida From www.dawn.com, Published February 12, 2010 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/13+cyril-almeida-coming-full-circle-220-za-02 Our boys in uniform have a spring in their step again. Domestically, they have taken on two enemies and appear to be winning: the civilian government has been reduced to parroting the army’s line on security issues, while the TTP is a significantly degraded force. Regionally, they can barely suppress their grins. In a few short weeks, the Americans have gone from threatening a ‘Pakistan first’ option in the war against Al Qaeda and associated movements to desperately seeking someone in Islamabad, or more accurately Pindi, who can put them in touch with the Taliban’s so-called ‘reconcilable’ elements. It’s not quite a wave of triumphalism that is sweeping over the army but there definitely is a widely shared sense of validation. And that should worry … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, Democracy, Egalitarian Pakistan, FATA, India, Islamabad, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, People's Pakistan, Taliban, USA, war, Yusuf Raza Gillani, Zardari
Former corps commander, 2 ISI officials booked
Daily Times 04 Feb 2010 Case registered in line with orders of Supreme Court over disappearance of Quetta resident Ali Asghar Bangalzai By Malik Siraj Akbar QUETTA: Police in the provincial capital registered a case on Wednesday against former corps commander Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch and two senior ISI officials, in line with orders of a Supreme Court bench hearing a case related to the disappearance of a resident of the city, Ali Asghar Bangalzai. The family of Bangalzai, a tailor master, registered the first information report (FIR) with the Sariab Police Station against the former corps commander, former ISI Quetta chief Brig Siddique and another senior ISI official identified only as Col Bangash. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, baluchistan, Democracy, Justice, Law, lawyers movement, Pakistan, state
Defining "Strategic Depth"
By Kamran Shafi From Daily Dawn, Published 19th January, 2010 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/14-defining-strategic-depth-910 And how does it help us? We are engaged in the Great Game in Afghanistan, we are told, because ‘strategic depth’ is vital for Pakistan due to the fact that our country is very narrow at its middle and could well be cut into half by an Indian attack in force. Strategic depth, we are further informed, will give respite to our armed forces which could withdraw into Afghanistan to then regroup and mount counter-attacks on Indian forces in Pakistan. I ask you! I ask you for several reasons. Let us presume that the Indians are foolish enough to get distracted from educating their people, some of whom go to some of the best centres of learning in the world. Let us assume that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Great game, India, Islamabad, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, Punjab, quetta, state, Taliban
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