New business venture by Pakistan Army

After successful intervention in various business projects Pakistan Army now ventured in to lucrative business of cattle trade on the eve of Eid-UL-Adha.

According to BBC Pakistan Army currently managing a very big animal bazaar in the outskirts of Karachi around super highway. They are making most from this venture by charging Rs 250.00 per sheep and Rs 500.00 per cattle head.

I personally believe that Pakistani Army are not going to fail in their new venture as they have experience of trading members of national and provincial assemblies like a herd of sheep. Furthermore, the way they treat civilians in Pakistan is reminiscent of the way farm owner treats his/her stock. So their new business enterprise makes very good business sense as they have all the skills and experience in this type of trade.

O What a goodly outside falsehood hath!

I was reading a news piece other day about Justice (retired) Safdar Shah's daughter's letter to daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB). ZAB forced Justice Safdar Shah to leave his office. Events took a nasty turn on ZAB and ZAB's case appeared before supreme court bench that also included Justice Safdar Shah. Like a professional and honest man Justice Safdar Shah refused to buckle down under pressure from military dictator Zia-UL-Haq and pleaded ZAB not guilty. After that he was dismissed from supreme court and forced to live in exile.

In her letter daughter of Justice Safdar Shah, Ghazala tired to refresh in BB's memory the plight of her beloved father at the hands of enslaved judiciary and asked her to put her political weight behind lawyers movement for the restoration of judiciary in Pakistan. It was no doubt a moving letter but I believe it is a futile effort to rekindle any such memory in the heart of political BB.
To fight for independent judiciary in only important to those people who have no other choice but to live in Pakistan. Politicians like BB come to visit Pakistan to rule over hapless and hopeless Pakistanis. It does not matter to them whether judiciary is free or not because they know that no matter what they do they can very easily leave with their ill gotten assets to places in Dubai, London or USA.

Free judiciary is for people like you and I. People like Atzaz Ahsan, Ali Mohammad Kurd, Munir Malik and all other lawyers, journalists and members of civil society who made a conscious decision to spend rest of their lives in Pakistan. Therefore we need institutions to safe guard our rights. We need a place where we believe that our pleas will be heard. Where you have to pay for your deeds no matter how much strong you are. And we were beginning to witness this happening under the leadership of Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudary and all those honourable judges who refused to take oath under PCO.

Reading her articles in various well known newspapers, listening her delivering speeches on democracy and human rights and then analysing her politics one can not but conclude that they are poles apart. What she writes or says and what she does do not make any good sense. She appears well before her audience and strikes the right chords and reminds me of The Merchant of Venice of Shakespeare:

The devil can site scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O What a goodly outside falsehood hath!
(1.3.95-9)

During her self imposed exile BB was most worried about her cases in Switzerland and Spain. Why? Because she knew that courts in Switzerland and Spain are free and she can not do any thing to stop legal proceedings unless Pakistan government stop pursuing these cases against her. She showed her anger towards Pakistani judiciary when supreme court issued a stay order on NRO. Therefore expecting her to demand for an independent judiciary is like a suicide for her. She is only here to rule and once her prime ministership would be in any sorts of doubt she will taking any next available flight to Dubai, London or Washington.

Farcical Transition

Few sections of Pakistani press have been claiming since General (reluctantly retired) Musharraf's decision to shed his skin that it is a transition from a military rule to civilian. But I believe anyone who believes in the originality of this transition either is naive or have no clue about the military politics in Pakistan or he/she is simply living in a fools paradise. Old habits die hard. A wolf in a sheep's cloak will still be a wolf, a wild beast. This so called transition is a farce. Would you call it a transition where General Musharraf transfers his powers to General (reluctantly retired) Musharraf? A general so reluctant to retire that he refused to leave his former residence and decided to keep both Army House and Presidential Palace at the expense of tax payers money.

हस बब गोने इंसाने?

In her recent artical in Christian Science Monitor BB elaboratly explained the electoral engineering by governmnet in forth coming elections for her western audiance. She even went into great lengths to claim that ballot papers have already been distributed among PML(Q) condidates and agencies have allocated quotas of seats for various political parties participating in January, 2008 elections with PML(Q) would be the largest party in next national assembly. Having said all this she still wants to take part in these farcical elections. Now I ask any reader of this blog what would you say about a person who knows the futility of his/her action but still insists upon doing it?

I would call it insanity।

What would you rather say?

ATTA Under Musharaf

ATTA though sounds like TADA, anti-terrorism act, has nothing to do with terrorism or law. Though it is not an anti-terrorism act yet it has same terrorising affects for ordinary citizens of Pakistan.

It is one of the great marketing and economic skills of General (Retired) Musharraf's regime that soon ATTA will be one of the luxury items in Pakistan. Few years back ATTA was consider one of the cheapest commodities in Pakistan. Now a days if you ask the say question the answer would be the constitution of Pakistan, the cheapest commodity in Pakistan. If you a COAS do whatever you want with it nobody cares about. It has become the most worthless piece of document in Pakistan.

Had ATTA had any thing to do with supreme court, lawyers, Constitution or media we would have seen Musharraf regime working over time to arrest its ascendancy by using all its might. S

Winter of Jokes

This winter is different from all other winters in that this is the season of jokes and Pakistan is the only blessed country in the community of two hundred plus where government plays a part of a joker.

we heard the first joke of this winter when COAS General Pervaiz Musharraf delegated the authority of withdrawing emergency rule to President General Musharraf.

Then comes another one this time from General Retired Pervaiz Musharraf when he said Chief Justice tried to block his candidacy "illegally" just like Prime Minister in 1998 sacked then COAS General Pervaiz Musharraf "illegally".

Last but not least comes from the office of new COAS when he said 2008 will be celebrated as Army's year as if since its inception in 1947 people of Pakistan have been living under civilian rule.

I used the government in the first sentence because it is Army that call all shots in Pakistan and its COAS is PM, President, FM, Chief Justice or whatever he wants to be in the land of pure.