The Comedian of Pakistan; Musharraf's punchlines

By Ahmad Faruqui

TIME magazine has declared Vladimir Putin as Man of the Year, even though he has severely restricted civil liberties in Russia and slowed its march toward democracy. The argument is that he has brought stability to the country and restored its status as a great power. What must also have weighed heavily in the magazine's choice is that Putin remains very popular in Russia. He can even count Mikhail Gorbachev among his supporters.
Being a dictator and restricting civil liberties is of course not a sufficient condition for making it to Man of the Year. No one knows this better than Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf. Like Putin he has been in power for eight years. And like Putin he is trying his best to extend his tenure. But unlike Putin, his popularity has tanked. Events have gone downhill since he declared an emergency on the 3rd of November. Things did not improve much when he lifted it on the 15th of December. All of this is a self-inflicted wound which began when he decided to "suspend" the Chief Justice of Pakistan on the 9th of March. That event set in motion a country-wide protest by the attorneys the like of which the country had never seen. This protest threatened the army's dominant role in society since it was designed to institute the law in the country. It brought out the worst in Musharraf.
That is why he was not on the short list released by TIME for its Man of the Year competition. This is ironical, since the general was featured extensively in the magazine just a few years ago as having "the world's most difficult job." His picture in uniform, taken as he stood overlooking a panoramic view of the white government buildings in Islamabad, spanned two pages.
This year, as a consolation prize, perhaps the magazine should have created a special category and declared him "Comedian of the Year."
On the global stage, Musharraf is the undisputed king of dark comedy. But mind you, Musharraf's humor is very different from the slapstick humor you might see on the Monty Python show, the kind that would leave you in stitches.
Musharraf's comedic device is the utterance of non sequiturs with a stern demeanor. And it is this austere visage almost bordering on anger that imbues his acts with an inimitable touch.
Who else would say the following? "Against my will, as a last resort, I had to impose the emergency in order to save Pakistan." You see, he is a man of many wills. The president in him did not want to impose it while the Chief of Army Staff in him did. Hah!
And what does it mean when he says, "As a last resort?" This is an admission, albeit a very indirect one, that without the emergency, he would no longer have remained president. Just the thought of Pakistan without him as president is enough to bring a smile to most people's face.
The script continues, "The conspiracy was hatched to destabilize the country." But the conspirators were never named. Dame Agatha Christie would not have approved of such an incomplete story but it is funny in an old fashioned way.
He goes on to say, "I cannot tell how much pain the nation and I suffered." Alice would have said, "Goodness gracious, general, you had complete freedom of movement, you could go visit relatives, stop by your office if you were in the mood for working and, come to think of it, you could even go shopping. So what caused you to suffer?"
Maybe he felt the police would pick up him up because he was openly expressing his opinions on TV, which was contrary to his own diktats.
But wait. Maybe the suffering was moral. As he went to bed every night, he lay awake thinking of the people that he had put in jail that were lying awake in rotten surroundings. To relieve his suffering, all he had to do was release them.
But did he? Of course not! He had declared an emergency precisely to make them suffer. How dare they rise against him on the streets, agitate against military rule and file petitions in the Supreme Court. He was going to fix them once and for all.
The emergency was not entirely unexpected. For a while, he had been dropping hints that he might impose an emergency if (a) the senior judges of the country joined in a "conspiracy" to end his eight-year rule and (b) if street riots caused political chaos that would hobble the fight against Islamic extremism.
Musharraf went on to say that the Supreme Court, which had been poised to rule on the legality of his October re-election, was acting beyond the constitution. Now that calls for a good round of applause.
The person who suspended the constitution was acting constitutionally and staying within its boundaries but the apex court that was seeking to prevent the abuse of power by that individual were acting beyond the constitution. Says who? Perhaps the Mad Hatter at his tea party.
He concluded his 20-minute address triumphantly by saying that "Now [that] the conspiracy has been foiled [i]t is my commitment to the entire nation and the world that the election on January 8 will be on time and will be absolutely free and transparent."
He threw the gauntlet at those political parties that plan to boycott the polls because they feared that the polls would be rigged. Musharraf warned, "This is all baseless and they must desist from it." To alleviate any doubt, he said the government would invite "any number" of foreign observers to come and watch the fairness of the polls. Whether the invitations have been sent out is an open issue. Whether they have been accepted is another open issue. And whether they will show up to monitor the polls is the $64 million question.
The dictator's comments beg the question of what is free and fair. Pakistanis have had a few elections under military governments. Perhaps the fairest was held by Yahya in 1970 and the most unfair election by Musharraf 32 years later. In both cases, the results were disastrous because the military was not prepared to share power with the elected representatives of the people.
Yahya refused to hand over power to the Awami League and plunged the country into a disastrous civil war that ultimately dismembered the republic. Musharraf pretended to hand over power to parliament but never did.
In his speech during the presidential inauguration, he took a swipe at the West and lambasted it for seeking to impose democracy on Pakistan. He said it had taken the West centuries to get there and they should not expect a poor nation like Pakistan to get there in just a few decades.
So why was he now proceeding to hold free and fair elections? Pakistan is either fit for democracy or not fit for it. Perhaps he was telling us that he likes to hunt with the hound and run with the hare. That is Musharrafian humor for you.
Like the three dictators before him, Musharraf is exploiting the fact that Pakistanis have not had much success with democracy. When he says that he intends to bring "the essence of democracy" to Pakistan with the next elections, he forgets that India has been a successful democracy for the past 60 years and that it has achieved this result without a single army intervention.
It is true that India under a single prime minister (Nehru) had better luck with democracy than did Pakistan under seven prime ministers in the 1950s. But the army has been in power in Pakistan since 1958 for all but a single decade. If feudalism was the barrier to introducing democratic traditions in Pakistan, the army could have eliminated it. Surely, the generals with their big guns had more power in the country than the civilian Nehru did in India.
But that presumes that the army wanted to eliminate feudalism. The truth is that the army had no interest in bringing democracy into the country because it would threaten its prima donna status in the country. Moreover, in Pakistan, the feudal lords and the army are two of the country's leading oligarchs.
Musharraf concluded a fairly difficult interview with the Washington Post's Lally Weymouth recently by lashing out at Weymouth at the end, saying that the interviewer was implying that Pakistan was either "small" or "a banana republic." The irony is that because of the army, it has become both.

Denial won't change the reality. But repeated denial will evoke a good laugh. That is why the man who was trained as a commando, the retired general who attacked Indian in Kargil and the former army chief who seized power illegally deserves to be declared "Comedian of the Year."

Dr. Ahmad Faruqui is author of "Rethinking the National Security of Pakistan," available from Ashgate. He can be reached at Faruqui@pacbell.net.

Pictures, Account of Hunger Strike at Karachi Press Club

The Karachi press club hunger strike ended at 4.00 p.m on the 26th of December. The event was started at 10:00 p.m and included activists from civil organizations, like the Aurat foundation, Labour party leaders, Nasir Mansoor and Abdussalam , National Worker Party, APDM leader Yousaf Masti Khan, Dr. Azra and Wali from Roots, Uzma Noorani , Usman Baloch, HRCP Representatives Asad butt, Abdul Hai, Ejaz, Nadeem from PILAR, and social activists Afiya Zia, Sophia and Saleha. Many Trade Union leaders and Fisher folk representatives also visited and expressed sympathy with lawyers and media. The overall response from people was great and many felt it was an overall success.

In all its different forms and manifestations, the struggle continues.

Honour among thieves, while starving people for profit

Ministry declines to share names with other departments

by ARIF RANA (Courtesy The Business Recorder)

Islamabad: The Ministry of Food and Agriculture is not willing to share the list comprising the names of wheat hoarders with other ministries, thus undermining the government efforts aimed at taking the hoarder mafia to task. According to well-placed official sources, the denial by Ministry of Food to share the names of alleged hoarders with other government departments is said to protect some leading lights of major political party, whose mills reportedly have huge storage facility in Punjab.

Sources told Business Recorder that Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Planning Commission (PC) had approached the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for the list of the mills involved in massive hoarding of wheat. They said the ministry of Food and Agriculture shrugged off the pleas of MoF and PC. They said both the MoF and Planning Commission repeatedly asked for the name of hoarders but each time their requests were turned down by the ministry. Sources said secretary MoF, Ziaur Rehman, read out a few names from the list of the alleged hoarders during a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet in October and then suddenly closed his folder, saying the details would be provided to the concerned departments after the meeting, but it never happened.

Sources said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is protecting some senior leaders of a major political party who have huge storage facilities in Punjab. Some very influential politicians from NWFP were also involved in export of atta to Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics (CARs) for years and they make billions from their 'business' every year. The atta businessmen-cum-political leaders are so powerful that they can easily manage atta smuggling into Afghanistan and other CARs as much as they want. An atta businessman told Business Recorder that a difference of Rs 500 per 40kg atta in Afghanistan is a great attraction for powerful Pakistani mafia. He asserted the mafia is making huge money through this illegal business.

Re-inventing the Sharif Brothers

By Dr. Haider Mehdi

“Like piano players,” wrote a distinguished scholar, “leaders also need to be adept improvisers, willing to set aside their scripts and listen for signals, follow their instincts, and imagine a future that has not yet arrived.”

Imagining a future that has not yet arrived is what Pakistan’s contemporary politics is all about. Our future demands revolutionary changes from the political status-quo that has prevailed in this country for the past 6 decades – and from the anticipated political future, where the present political dispensation will continue after elections should the Musharraf-Benazir team be at the helm of political affairs. In a coalition government, the Sharif brothers’ role as leaders of a major political party (not as members of Parliament) will have to be defined as outrightly revolutionary.

This is how they will politically survive and contribute to the nation’s well-being in the volcanic future that awaits Pakistan, starting post-elections. Failing to reinvent themselves as such, the Sharif brothers will become lame ducks, as good as dead, politically. Musharraf’s 8-year rule, resulting in deformed political institutions in the country, has put the Sharif brothers in the spotlight. Being the leaders of the most powerful political party in Punjab, and with a reasonable following throughout the country, the burden of responsibility for revolutionary democratic change in the political landscape of Pakistan and its power structure rests squarely on the Sharif brothers now.

But the question is: Can they handle it? Are they capable of doing the needful and save Pakistan and its people from another impending future political atrocity? Are they aware of the historical role that has been entrusted upon them by the turn of events in the country? Can they honor their own commitments? Do they understand the demands of civil society? Can they comprehend the lawyers movement? Do they follow in earnest the constitutional damage that has been inflicted by removing the Chief Justice of Pakistan and other judges of the apex courts? Can the Sharif brothers deliver to the masses what they demand? Can they conceptualize the difference between minor changes in the status-quo and revolutionary change? Are they politically competent to enact ground-breaking changes in Pakistan’s polity? Are they politically proficient enough to take on the challenges and constructively confront grave dangers that confront Pakistan now and after the elections, should the present political structure prevail? Are they able to differentiate between political managers and political leaders? Can the Sharif brothers re-invent themselves and transform their political role into revolutionary leadership?

In the historical and evolutionarily political context, the Sharif brothers can be best described as political managers. During their stance of power, they worked to preserve the political status-quo, pursued business-friendly economic policies, maintained the traditional rhetoric of promoting political and economical stability, enfranchised military with more economic and institutional power, remained faithful to the historical foreign policy linkage to the US and the West, and did not do much to enact fundamental changes in the power-structure and in the decision-making processes of the country.

In addition, many close associates of the Sharif brothers saw their main faults as being remote, dictatorial and disinclined to listen to the concerns of the party and its allies. There was a common perception that a “Kitchen Cabinet” invariably prevailed in all national and provincial political decision-making. It was in this context that decisions were made to appoint Rafiq Tarrar as president and General Pervez Musharraf as the COAS – in a unilateral decision-making anti-democratic mind-set.

In re-inventing themselves, the Sharif brothers will be required to transform themselves from political managers (which they have been so far) into political leaders (which they need to be to survive politically in future Pakistan).

Political management is a process that gets the work done through others. It involves planning, organizing, leading and controlling, which are critical steps in the process of getting the national agenda accepted. It is an essential component of an efficient state organization, but it is not a substitute for political leadership.

Political leadership, on the other hand, is fundamentally a different notion and involves a different set of dynamics. It involves developing a vision, an ability to influence others, creating willing followers, an appreciation of situational appropriateness, and consistent and constant communication with all levels of society (examine the present political regime in Islamabad in this context to understand the lack of political leadership in Pakistan).

“Perhaps… the distinction between the two perspectives is that managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right things.” Leadership involves strategic and tactical skills in innovation and change, and constructive and productive dealings with national political turbulence. Political managers rely on authority and positional power to maintain so-called economic and political stability and pursue the status-quo. (Progressive democratic regimes do not impose a state of emergency or martial law. -- Again examine the incumbent administration in Islamabad in this context and see its recent failures.)

Political leadership, on the other hand, is the art of influencing others, adapting to the situational circumstances, effectively energizing followers, listening and using feedback, creating multiple channels of communication and recognizing public opinion in the making of national policies (it is evident that the present political establishment has failed on all of these accounts). An effective political leadership, in absolute essence, alters the political status-quo.

Can the Sharif brothers alter the decades-old political status-quo in Pakistan now? Can they stop relentlessly harping on the need for so-called economic and political stability as a cover-up for the reactionary and regressive politics of successive military dictators, civilian regimes and traditional right-wing politicians? Can they suspend the politics of fear imposed on the nation in the so-called “war on extremism and terror”? Can they terminate the nature of the contemporary American connection with Pakistan? Can they put the military back in the barracks? Can they restore the judiciary to pre-November status? Can they influence the followers and invigorate the voters? Can they heal the sufferings of Pakistani masses? Can they give an alternate model of economic development? Can they provide a new VISION? Can they engineer a White Revolution in Pakistan -- symbolizing a part of the nation’s flag and the metaphorical purity implicit in the name of the country (just as the Yellow Revolution signifies peaceful revolutionary democratic transformation in Kyrgyzstan by people’s power)?

These are the million dollar questions that only the Sharif brothers can answer. Due to the fact that the elections have not been boycotted (which they had pledged to), the task of national reconstruction and re-habilitation will become far more difficult and problematic.

And yet, the Sharif brothers can re-invent themselves to meet the challenges – but it needs imaginative vision and a departure from the politics of status-quo.

Will they do it? Time will be the judge.

“…leaders are like contributing members of an improvisational jazz group. The musicians carefully listen to each other and use the interplay to create new directions.” The nation awaits the Sharif brothers re-inventing themselves!

But will they? That is the real question…!

APDM Boycott campaign started

Thousands of people attend today on 24th December, the first national rally held at Pesheen in Baluchistan. Mehmood Achakzai convener APDM declared that there are only two camps in Pakistan one of those who are contesting elections and those who are appealing for boycott. Those contesting the elections are in the camp of General Musharaf who is eager to legitimize all his dictatorial actions through elections. People will boycott and side with the lawyers movement which has become a symbol of struggle, he declared.

More such national public meetings are planned at Quetta, Hyderabad, Karachi Lahore and Islamabad during the next 10 days. The Punjab APDM met here today in Lahore to finalize the arrangements of the public meeting of 5 th January that is to held at Minar_I-Pakistan. The Karachi meeting will be held on 30th December at Nishter Park.

The Punjab APDM decided to set up boycott camps at all divisional headquarters of Punjab and public meetings at all the cities of Punjab till 5 th of January. It has also planned several corner public meetings in Lahore.

It also decided to participate in all the rallies of the advocates and civil society organizations whenever it is been called by them. It also announced to join the advocates call on 3 rd January as a day of action for the boycott campaign.

Labour Party Pakistan is producing its own literature for the boycott campaign alongside with APDM. Posters, stickers and leaflets are being printed to be distributed all over Pakistan during the campaign.

SAC boycott leaflet

Black day rally at Aiwan-e-Aadal

Tomorrow, 26th December 2007, there is a black day procession at the Aiwan e Aadal at 10 30 am.

This call has been made by the lawyers.
Students and other civil society groups should display solidarity by taking part in this procession. The situation is Pakistan has taken such a turn that with urgency, with thought and with clarity, we need to proceed at a pace that should not be stopped, cannot be stopped.

Veto the ballot box; Vote in the judiciary

Asma Qadir

Just a month and a half earlier, a few days after the proclamation of emergency, standing in front of the Vice chancellor in lieu of sporting the black band for just those three days, I proclaimed that there was no way that we would miss out on our very first chance to vote as he challenged the maturity of our political consciousness, consistently trying to associate us with those who squander their chance to express even their misgivings while busy sniveling and complaining about the political situation of the country in the comfort of their drawing rooms. That was before the election schedule had been announced; before the emergency and PCO and the dismissal of judges had settled down as a reality.

Today the excitement of that first vote has been replaced by a genuine gloom. Who do we vote for? The NRO-bequeathed, the deal-acquitted, the “anti establishment” establishment party, for BB? Or for the billi of a sher who kept lying about this deal with the Saudi Messiahs after having fled in fear of a death sentence (which was never to be-once being enough for every nation) or worse, a life sentence-a LIFE SENTENCE??? Pity the nation whose leaders bask in the illusions of invincibility-theirs or their detractors’. And now having dumped the civil society movement and the judges and the lawyers for the expedient of all expediencies, should we be trusting this Kashmiri/Lahori “tiger” to stand up to the uniformed lords? Or more interestingly restore the judges who stand much taller than his dwarfed esteem? Not to forget, the orange clad sage of all political turn arounds, Fazlur Rehman. Should we be voting for his cheekiness or his sickly smart no-confidence motion take-on or the delayed resignations that he can splash around to adorn himself with some cheap imitation of the martyr’s halo? Mention of the Surrey Palace and the Swiss accounts and the Ittefaq Mills and the Diesel of a Maulana being too repetitive for any piece on today’s politics, I’d spare the readers of the effort which brings me to the abandoned Kings’ party. Hah, who’s interested, anyways? Snubbed! High time we learnt that art, of bringing sycophants to their actual fit, of ignoring the inconsequential-courtesy Kamran Shafi from Centre Point, Dawn News.

And then, should we be voting at all? The above mentioned reasons alone should not deter people from voting in the polls-alas, if it were just a genuine democracy with some prospect of the choice between the bad and the worse improving to one between good and the better. But when the judiciary stands deposed, when civil society leaders like Munir A. malik are mistreated into Kidney failures or the likes of Aitzaz Ahsan and Iftikhar Chaudhry denied a hearty eid celebration, when lawyers are forced to test all their guts on the streets? When the last guarantee to a just dispensation in this country, the transformed judiciary is treated like trash, should we be going to the polls? All that as one individual twists and distorts the law of the land on his own dictates, eying longevity in mortality-when one man becomes the nation and the nation becomes one man. The elections would just be a distraction, another dead end, pretend-to-be-merry, time pass activity as the usurper runs away with this country and its actual interests, another jewel besides the presidential referendum, the 2002 elections, 17th amendment and the 2007 presidential elections, in his crown. No one will talk about the sacked judiciary once the air gets thick with the political wrangling of a hung parliament which it will be as of elections 2008. One visit by Negroponte was enough to turn Benazir on her heels, to realize the importance of institutions versus personalities, the institution obviously being just the judiciary, as she continues insisting on an amendment to the third time premiership legislation which also happened to be one of the major bargaining chips in the NRO deal talks.

Though still holding on to the restoration-of-judiciary card, Nawaz Sharif did switch sides just recently when he said that the first casualty of a military coup is the Parliament. Like Duh! As if that’s not apparent enough. The simpletons may fall for just another expression of the obvious. For the keen eyed, the politics-honed it should have been the judiciary to be politically correct/sincere. And no wonder, we have politicians taking turns to remind us of the dirty linen of the sacked judiciary, their first time oaths under the PCO, forgetting that their defiance in front of a military dictator is far more real than the stifle of a sacrifice of self exiles and pretended banishments and en-masse resignations at the end of full five years in power. And as Maulana Fazlur Rehman keeps citing the inevitable participation of the people in the polls as a reason for his parties’ whenever he is cornered into spilling out the beans, a boycott would serve to discredit the deservedly discredited, those who have always used our name to justify their petty politics.

Numerous elections have passed in the tarnished history of this country, most held to pass dictatorships, one-man reigns as the most liberal of democracies, as most inclusive of all governments. All have led back to square one, to leave us bemoaning in vain our unconscious role in the perpetuation of the worst of traditions, those which sprang from Justice Munir’s judgment. That small stint with an independent judiciary has raised our standard of expectations. The lawyers’ movement showed us the possibility of a conscientious judiciary in our country. It raised hopes, it empowered people triggering the civil society movement. For the first time in our history, a movement is aiming at a change of system and not just of the faces. The jargon of ideological divides used to rally people into electioneering, the Benazir-Nawaz divide, the nationalist-religious tussle is not the issue today. Justice is our ideology; independent judiciary being the only hope to securing that right to choose, of heralding an era of constitutionalism.

A boycott would keep alive the hopes of the restoration of an independent judiciary. The boycott will afford us some high ground to shoot off our demands from. Elections are a clowns’ play meant to pull away supporters of this movement. They are just another addition to the morsels thrown our way by the ruling elite and which we are expected to accept graciously only because similar or worse circumstances have existed in this country. But yet another dictator cannot be allowed to get away with the vandalism of the highest order of this land. If at all this movement withers away without any apparent results, it would have at least set some positive precedents for tomorrow.

Vacancies are still available in the ranks of Iftikhar Chaudry and Bhagwandas and Ramday, Munir A. Maliks, Aitzazs and the Kurds. The vote will not settle their cause; a veto may.

Iftikhar, Aitzaz to sue Musharraf for defamation

Deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Supreme Court Bar Association President Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan are suing President Pervez Musharraf to claim damages worth two billion rupees through a defamation suit.

Talking to The Nation on Thursday, Aitzaz made his intentions known when asked to comment on a statement of President Musharraf in which he charged former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Aitzaz Ahsan, senior deposed judge Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday and PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif for hatching a conspiracy to throw him out of the presidency. “A time has come when he will see a controversy behind every curtain”, said Barrister Aitzaz while playing down the allegations levelled by President Musharraf. “We are consulting our lawyers and will soon file a defamation suit of two billion rupees against Musharraf for leveling false allegation and bringing our name into disrepute without any substantial evidence”, said Aitzaz, who was released earlier in the morning for three days.

Defending the credibility of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Aitzaz said the ‘misconduct’ charges against his client were thrown out of the box by a full court. “Any such impression is not only false but also absurd,” he added. “We will sue him for two billion damages through a defamation suit”, he reiterated. Former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is also reported to have said the charges of President Musharraf are actually “his self-created fears”. Athar Minullah, a civil society activist-cum-lawyer, who has a frequent access to the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, informed The Nation that Justice Iftikhar has absolutely dispelled the impression that he, along with Aitzaz and Justice Ramday, were hatching a conspiracy to overthrow the rule of President Musharraf.

“He (Musharraf) was all praise for Supreme Court on September 28 when it dismissed petitions against his qualification to contest presidential polls but now he is talking about conspiracies”, Athar quoted deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, as saying during his latest interaction the other evening with the latter after the statement of President Musharraf was carried by media. “Chief Justice has also said the government lawyers not only had to withdraw corruption charges against him but also sought apologies, besides paying one hundred thousand rupees fine when they brought the corruption charges to the apex court”, Athar Minullah also quoted the former CJP as saying.

Meanwhile, commenting on Pervez Musharraf’s statement that Aitzaz and some judges had plotted a conspiracy against him (Musharraf), Aitzaz said these are the emotions of a ‘defeated gambler’. He said that after consultation with the lawyers he would file a damages suit of Rs 2 billion against Musharraf and the amount will be recovered after selling out his national and international assets.

Who will lead the New Pakistan Freedom Movement of Jinnah?

(Courtesy Information Press -www.informpress.wordpress.com)

By Ayesha Khan

At his book launch in New York, Pervez Musharraf mocked a definition of democracy which was fixated on elections, praising himself instead for initiating a free press and stressing the importance of institution-building. Yet, barely a year later, there has been a merciless attack on the vital organs of the Pakistani state that could nurture a sustainable democracy, as the Mush regime desperately seeks an electoral exercise to validate its illegal actions.

Few have pinned hopes on the January 2008 parliamentary elections as a means to enhance participatory governance. To the contrary, the will of the people is perhaps best represented by those who have opted for a boycott. As the two sides emerge, on the one hand, the high and mighty bullet-proof elite deciding to contest, and on the other hand, the lawyers, accessible to the masses, jailed with the masses and boycotting for the masses. It is an interesting phenomenon and one that deserves our further attention.

In 1986 - the year that a single, young Benazir had come to Pakistan to stand for change and battle the harsh General Zia-ul-Haq - I was a schoolgirl in Islamabad fascinated by the prospect of a woman becoming Prime Minister in a Pakistan where PTV newscasters were fired for a mere slip of the dupatta and the late Nazia Hassan was banned from television for swaying to a rhythmic number she sang.

In November of that year, I could not believe my luck when I reached Islamabad Airport and discovered that Benazir Bhutto was on my Lahore-bound flight. In the departure lounge, she was surrounded by a crowd of burly men, so I, desperate for her autograph, planned to dodge the PIA stewardess in-flight and trespass from economy into business so that I could obtain the much-desired inscription. But once I boarded the aircraft, I realised that Ms. Bhutto, like me, was flying economy and was seated just a few rows from me.

There was a feeling of resurgence in the economy cabin of the airplane that day, a notion of people power, of a leader travelling with the public for a common cause. A sensation that we in economy class were better off than those up front, in the wider business seat with greater leg room and better food, because Benazir Bhutto had chosen us over them.

How much has changed since then. How many hopes dashed. On short-hop trips to Dubai, Ms. Bhutto is whisked away in Bentleys from the tarmac. Luxury bullet-proof vehicles are imported or gifted into Pakistan from elitist sheikhdoms ahead of the Bhuttos and Sharifs. Not surprisingly, they are contesting elections. They have much to gain from the status quo, not to mention the alluring prospect of chartered state airplanes for Hajj and Umrah visits.

Contrast that with the lawyers’ movement. A beleaguered Aitzaz Ahsan carries the dual burden of not just lead counsel but also chauffeur to the Chief Justice of Pakistan. They travel in a 1994 Pajero with no fanfare, no motorcade, certainly no VIP movement inconveniences. Only common folks line the streets, in solidarity, for commonality of purpose, dancing to the beat of independence.

On the day that they advance to the Election Commission to file nomination papers for Justice (R) Wajihuddin Ahmed and contest those of Pervez Musharraf, the collective leadership of the lawyers’ movement marches in unison with civil rights advocates. The esteemed Muneer A. Malik, Tariq Mehmood, Ali Ahmad Kurd and others, who have protested on principle, make no attempt to distinguish themselves from the masses that follow them. They bear batons, bricks and police brutality, humbly, for the greater good of the Pakistani nation. They display to us that public service is an honour and privilege, but not a birthright.

Not far from them, are the ministers in a fleet of tinted-glass Mercedes. They travel speedily, restricting the movement of all other lesser humans in their wake. As they approach, doors to the Election Commission fling open, and hastily, they dash in, from one air-conditioner to another. Their purpose is to show solidarity with the ruling General. As they exit, a sit-in of angry media persons victimised by the police blocks their way. But how can unarmed civil society compete with the powerful Mercedes tires willing to trample over any average citizen standing in its way?

Protests continue but the bullet-proof few remain safely secluded, exclusively comfortable in their bubble. Every now and then, they fashionably offer twisted examples from American history to justify their pitiless treatment of the commoners. The contrast between the two sides is so glaring that even some of the more dubious sympathisers of the lawyers’ movement reluctantly acknowledge its popularity. After a number of undecided editorials and Wall Street Journal pieces that read as if written by a Musharraf loyalist rather than an objective analyst, Najam Sethi, in a recent piece, finally gives Aitzaz Ahsan the credit he deserves. For a change, I find myself in agreement with Mr. Sethi when he makes the point that much of the goodwill Mr. Ahsan has cultivated may be eroded if the necessary steps are not taken to channel this positive energy into an independent political movement.

Aitzaz Ahsan is uniquely placed to lead such a purist political party. That he is one of Pakistan’s best legal minds is without question. But, there is more good news. His decision to boycott is not the first time he has taken a principled stand. He refused to join government service during General Ayub Khan’s military rule, even though he stood first in the CSS exam. Later, he resigned from the PPP under protest when police opened fire on a lawyers’ rally demonstrating against the alleged rigging of elections by the PPP. As a competent and sincere man, he is not insecure, and therefore likely to encourage other great minds to work with him. More importantly, he is also a symbol of unity in a painfully divided Pakistan. With support in all provinces and bar rooms across the country, he appeals to conservative and liberal alike.

Lately, he has been recognised globally, with The Seattle Times reporting in a profile piece, for instance, that the “biggest threat to Musharraf stands 5-foot-7.” It is not just 38 American Senators who have called for Aitzaz Ahsan’s release, but also human rights activists Tighe Barry and Medea Benjamin, heartlessly deported from Pakistan without due process of law. In a recent Washington Post article, Mr. Ahsan teams up with U.S. Congressman John Tierney, asking both Musharraf and Bush critical questions. He is clearly cognisant of the fact that we face a global struggle if we try to bring about a new world order. It appears he will not shy away from that struggle or bow down to influential external actors, but is willing to join with Pakistanis and non-Pakistanis alike to bring about effective and meaningful change.

There is only one problem, however. Aitzaz Ahsan is still officially a member of the PPP. The PPP was once undoubtedly an “anti-status quo” party. It was also once a socialist party that attracted liberal, left-leaning Pakistanis. But failed promises and opportunism have left the people searching for suitable alternatives. The fact that Mr. Ahsan is President of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a member of the PPP did not initially present a problem. After all, Mohammad Ali Jinnah had held joint membership of the Congress and the Muslim League for six years, and between 1916 and 1919, he was President of the Muslim League and still a Congress Party member. But there came a point when the conflict of interest surpassed other conditions. That’s why Mr. Jinnah had to choose and he chose the League and went on to do great things for the Muslims of the South Asian subcontinent.

A boycott call by Aitzaz Ahsan is a step in the right direction. I trust that, like M.A. Jinnah, he too will announce his choice soon and lead Pakistan to a better future.

[Ms. Ayesha Ijaz Khan - a lawyer, author and human rights activist - is a Member of the Pakistan Justice Forum (PJF) - www.JusticeForum.info - of the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) based in London, UK.]

Details on Legal Relief Fund

Lawyers' who spoke out to protect our constitution have been hardest hit in this hour of trial since November 3rd. Their crime being making the effort to uphold the rule of law and reminding everyone of their fundamental rights and the way these have been usurped over the years. The lawyers' biggest crime has been to raise a voice against wanton destruction of a pillar of the state, the judiciary.

They have borne the brunt of state repression as a result. Cases are arbitrarily being decided against these lawyers' clients to put further financial pressure on them. There are still many in Sahiwal who have been physically abused with lasting burn and other injuries. Several other stories can be told of lawyers' suffering from almost every city of the country.

An account has been opened to host a relief fund to help members of the legal community who are facing hardships. This account is operated under the supervision of luminaries such as Justice Wajeehuddin Ahmed and Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid among others.

Account details:

Bank: Habib Bank Limited
Branch: Sind High Court Branch (branch code 0606)
City: Karachi
Country: Pakistan

Account Title: Legal Relief
Account number: 0606-7900027203

For international funds transfer (wire transfer):

Swift code: H A B B P K K A A 0 0 7

Cash donations in Pakistan:

Simply visit any HBL Branch nearest you and give account details (as above) and send money using the bank's facility. In case of any problems, reply to this email and ask for instructions.

Cash donations outside Pakistan:

Simply collect the money and send wire transfer direct to the fund using swift code given above. No intermediaries required.

Let us know the amount sent so that we can confirm whether it has been received in the account. The reason we will do this is because, occasionally, State Bank of Pakistan stops a few remittances and you will never get to find out unless you ask from your local bank.

Formation of Student Action Committee in Karachi

After the huge success of SAC chapters in Lahore and Islamabad, SAC is looking for students, lawyers, doctors, and other members of the civil society in Karachi who can assist in the formation of a Student Action Committee Chapter in Karachi. For this reason one of the SAC members from Islamabad is in Karachi and will be holding meetings with people there. If you are interested in assisting the formation of SAC here please get in touch with S.K. He can be contacted at 0300 5599085 for the next few days.

The NAB Diaries - Part One

Courtesy Teeth Maestro (www.teeth.com.pk)

By Amer Nazir

My name is Amer Nazir. I live in exile in London. It is a forced exile. I left Pakistan as soon as NAB took my name off the Exit Control List after a period of three years. If I had not left, probably I would have also disappeared forever like my best friend Ahmed Shujaudin – a leading architect.

God willing and the Teeth Maestro permitting, I intend to write about my journey from a modest middle-class background to one of the top IT entrepreneurs of Pakistan before I fell to the extent that I became homeless. Once a familiar face in the so-called corporate social circles in Karachi it came to a point where no one was willing to take my phone call – after all, I was a NAB accused. I was never to be convicted but it did not matter. The logic was straight forward. If Shuja had been kidnapped then surely Shuja must have done something terrible to cause it or else at least deserve it…

The scope of these four narrations hopefully to be published during the next four weeks is to narrate a very brief account of my business journey, my labor of love, after a briefest possible introduction of myself, the major space will be given to my NAB experience, the actual inside account, and the behavior and the attitude of our kings of the castle.

The hope is that some of you may see a part reflection of your own lives in this account and it may perhaps help you in some way. Another hope is that once it reaches the Free World and once fully investigated the world will realize that the common Pakistanis have never had the chance and that they deserve an honest break. There is also this hope to try and shame the shameless. And last but not least, and though it is a long shot, perhaps even Musharraf may realize the extent of damage he has done. He may finally understand, that although it is true for every institution, but especially when it comes to matters of justice, a self-designed system, a crude accountability set-up which is from day one formed on principles that are outside universally accepted rule of law – is soon bound to become abusive and corrupt itself…

For the non-Pakistanis, NAB is the acronym for The National Accountability Bureau. The flag ship of Musharraf. The main reason he gave for assuming power. He said that the nation had become too corrupt. NAB is composed of serving and retired army officers with unlimited powers. They are answerable to none. Present in every major city, each NAB office has a jail within its compound where prisoners are kept without any possibilities of bail. Some of them picked up from the streets, most from their beds at dawn. Several have died during interrogations…

And lastly, my narration will detail how a proud Pakistani was forced to claim asylum in his wife’s homeland. Who although married to a British national for twenty years had never applied for the British nationality and had instead sponsored his wife for the Pakistani nationality instead…

I belong to an educated middle-class family which never had sufficient savings in the bank. I studied in Cathedral School and then Cadet College Hasanabdal and finally Government College Lahore. Now in retrospect, when one has a 20 by 20 vision, I think I was naive from the outset. I was not ready to compromise. I could never reconcile to the fact that I could actually be less than any high and mighty that I came across. I rejected constraints. I could do anything… as long as nature was just…

And then however it happened, starting from a salary of Rs. 1800 after graduation, I eventually became the Founding Director of Hi-Tech Business Machines at the age of twenty-four and few years later it’s Chief Executive. This company was the first IBM dealer in Pakistan and it later re-launched Compaq in the country as well. With offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad it employed 100 personnel which were to increase to 250 over the years.

Hilinks Pak was my next venture which launched hilinks.com the first international portal from Pakistan that was accessed in 56 countries. The first cyber based financial instrument the e-card was also launched by this company prior to Citibank. The next milestone was the first Telco-grade ISP in Karachi called Hinet which had twenty-five thousand users before it was forcibly closed down one day.

Collectively, the companies were called the E-Tech Group of companies. This set-up was the only one of its kind in the country. With an ISP, a hardware and software company, and an advertising company in the portfolio, and with products such as a portal and an e-card about to be granted credit and debit function by participating banks – all this enabled the group to conduct the first B2B and B2C transactions in Pakistan in local currency. Along with many other firsts in the market, the Group also successfully managed remote trading for the first time on Karachi Stock Exchange on a trial basis. It was already providing access to KSE at zero delay free of cost to the visitors on hilinks.com with the assistance of Reuters.

The final glory of the group was the mutual co-branding of the e-card and the PIA frequent flyer card with PIA. This was announced in a press conference by the COO of PIA and myself. We had already re-launched the PIA site and had signed an agreement that gave the E-Tech Group rights to sell PIA cargo space and passenger seats on-line and on a worldwide basis, manage the last minute auction of seats, and establish the PIA call centre. Several international travel related industry partners including hotels and banks showed their interest to join the alliance which would have brought PIA at par with modern airlines in terms of customer services. It is worthwhile to note here that the E-Tech Group did not charge any fee to PIA for the services rendered. All profits were based on new and increased revenue streams because of the turn key solutions that we had offered to implement. In fact, the group saved PIA one million dollars to start with which otherwise would have gone to a foreign company when it linked the sabre system with the frequent flyer database.

And this was the stage when NAB came in… and since then PIA has struggled to follow the vision that we gave them… the actual outcome of which is for the people to judge themselves.

A burning ambition is an excitement that does not let you be. It sets you out on strange adventures. On a lonely path that promises great fortunes in terms of wealth, satisfaction, and recognition. The concept of being self-made seems as the ultimate prize, a dream – at the risk of waking up one dreary morning to discover that it is at best only a rationalisation which is suppose to somehow justify the precious time that has gone by unnoticed, when it may even seem like a half-hearted consolation, perhaps even self-deception, with the rewards coming too late if they do come at all and when too much cost has already been paid in advance. And yet the yearning of a good life, of a purposeful and eventful life can still be felt in the wake. Even when one is forced to think that perhaps inherited wealth is the only solution – that it is the only wealth that can be truly enjoyed since it may not demand much sacrifice or responsibility… but yet there will remain people like me who will never draw a line, who will never learn, who will never be content with whatever they are born into, and they will still attempt, they will do it all over again no matter what the cost until the very end…

I did manage to have my share of excitements. My group provided the first internet connectivity to ICTN Asia and Musharraf gave me a trophy, the photograph was carried by all the major newspapers. I had met Musharraf earlier also at parties when he was the Corps Commander Mangla – but that is another story… I was also frequently invited to dinners at the Governor House when Soomro was governor. We had contributed financially and technically to his Caravan Karachi endeavour and he had given me a trophy in recognition at a public event at the Governor House…

However, the worse aspect of entrepreneurship especially in a non-structured economy is raising capital. The only form of capital available is through equity participation and I don’t think there is any need for me to say more… this tells a story by itself…

On assuming powers Musharraf had declared IT as a major sector for development that his government would pursue. Perhaps, he had been told by his advisors that IT had the potential of becoming the cottage industry of Pakistan and that we will soon beat India at her own game – but that did not mean that the banks were ready to invest in intangibles with there being plenty of tangible plots and textile loams available for mortgage and re-mortgage. The banks did not find any consolation in the human collateral either – it being the most inconsequential especially when it comes to Pakistanis.

But there was no stopping the Presidential courtiers. On the last day of the first ITCN, I was approached by the convenors of the exhibitions and was told to declare at a press conference that I had signed foreign contracts worth US 35 million. I refused… A month later, when I returned from a presentation to the Pakistani/American IT entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, the first few newspapers that my secretary placed on my desk had screaming headlines that included my group having signed major international contracts for the said amount… the statements came from our Minister Dr Atta Ur Rehman… this must have pleased the President tremendously even though not even ten percent of this revenue was ever expected to realize and it did not also in the end…

Coming back to raising capital, a classmate from Cathedral, a PIA captain, had approached me several times in the past to make PODF which stands for Pilot’s Occupational Disability Fund and which is the financial arm of PALPA as my partner – but I had refused each time… I had personal reasons. My elder brother is a PIA captain and an ex-air force officer. And I had walked out on him several years ago, the reasons for which I have so far refused to publically discuss in spite of much provocation by the NAB officers… I always told them to ask my brother instead… but his version was already known and that too officially and on paper… I was a financially corrupt man beside the several other major flaws in my character… which even to this day, when not much has been left of me and my family, he insists on forwarding to newspaper editors..

However, in 2002, just when I was close to a partnership deal with Faisal Investment Bank which was later absorbed by Faisal Islamic Bank, my captain classmate insisted day after day that I should not allow a project of national importance to fall into the hands of foreigners… and finally I succumbed once he and the PODF board assured me that my brother will never have anything to do with it…

I was burning with ambition as usual. I was willing to do anything that could make my group achieve what I had envisioned. The terms of the new partnership were unconventional but I was willing to go to any extent to see my dream come true. PALPA did not pay me for my fifty percent equity in Hilinks that I passed on to them – but it did not matter to me, I was overjoyed that they would invest to take the project forward and that they will also act as the Lender Of Last Resort to the group. However, they did pay me for half the share holding of Hi-Tech, and that entire amount I deposited as my equity in Hinet the next day – the new company that we formed immediately and which owned the ISP… And as time was to tell, subsequently, PALPA also refused to pay me salary for the next two years as the Chief Executive… for the entire period of our partnership. It is therefore no wonder that having put everything in a group that I believed in, including the proceeds from the sale of my thousand yard house in Defence Society, into a business that I had nurtured for eighteen years… I was bound to become penniless and homeless soon after…

My brother did not take the news well when he heard about the new partnership. The events that were to unfold in the next two years therefore were a result of some serious manoeuvrings. The PALPA board came up for elections every two years. And this time, a very senior captain named B was not sure whether he would be able to win or not. He had been elected a few times in the past and now wanted a last stint as President before he retired – but he was not confident about winning this time around since he had just been acquitted from a rape case… But there was good news as well. The entire country was excited about the accountability initiative in Pakistan and the Chairman NAB was Captain B’s personal friend, while the Vice Chairman was my brother’s colleague from Air Force. It was a comfortable setting – rather perfect in fact, almost impossible to ignore. Accountability was the war cry in the streets of Pakistan at the time. People had developed fresh hopes due to Musharraf’s promises of eradicating corruption forever. In their minds they hoped to see the corrupt swinging from trees from their bedroom windows when they got up in the mornings – and at the same time, it was also easy to accuse anyone and be counted amongst the moral… and thus, it should not take much imagination to guess what happened next…

My brother and Captain B declared in front of the PIA captain community that the current trustees of PODF ( serving captains) were embezzling huge amounts of money from the Group along with me… and that they had solid evidence. They also declared that the Chairman NAB had promised to put all the culprits behind bars and recover all the money… It was to be honest a rather battered old election slogan but which now possessed a fresh breath of life due to the nation’s leader whose own bread and butter depended on it. And therefore, it should not come as a surprise that the panel of vigilantes won the election rather easily and it now came upon them to make good their election promise…

There were a few technical problems though. Firstly, the case was outside the mandate of NAB since government, public or bank funds were not involved. Secondly, the Group had signed arguably the biggest co-branding in the country and a contract that could return the entire investment within perhaps even a year, and thirdly there were these several audits… the latest, a third-party audit, conducted by Ferguson only few weeks ago accounted for each and every penny. And then ironically, Ferguson was also the auditor of PALPA and PODF as well at the time… there could not have been any valid basis for suspecting foul play.

Moreover, there could also not be any doubts on any other aspect such as the viability of the project in case even if someone was blind to the PIA alliance since there was present a three-week old evaluation report from Ferguson Consultants in their capacity as the local partners of PriceWaterHouseCoopers. The report concluded that the value of the group had increased five fold even prior to the PIA alliance…

The above was a difficult preposition for NAB but the command came from the top. It had to be executed. And therefore, the only weapons in their arsenal, to start with and for the next three years, were the almost fantastic stories by their captain friends and the personal testimony of an estranged brother. Perhaps, there was also this overwhelming hope that I might have made a mistake somewhere which would eventually be discovered. Nonetheless, this was enough for NAB to come into action. They entered the picture ruthlessly, and though for the first year they out rightly refused to hand over any documentation in spite of the fact that my name was continuously on the Exit Control List throughout this period in later years they became either too reckless or else too arrogant and started to leave a massive paper trail as evidence. I yet kept on challenging them and once at a juncture of extreme frustration, they even opened a new and completely un-related case against me and my wife since she was also a director in the companies. And though they blatantly refused to charge us for any specific crime once again or take us to a court, they often threatened to have my wife extradited from UK since she had left for London taking our daughters to safety. As usual, in this particular case as well, the onus remained on us, the accused, to prove our innocence… at times against unspecified crimes – rather than the other way around.

‘But Brigadier Abassi,’ I once pleaded. ‘It has been three years now. Metaphorically speaking, no dead body has been found so far, neither has a murder weapon been discovered, nor is there any missing person whom one can presume as having been murdered, whose body has been possibly disposed and buried somewhere – so can you please tell me my crime?’

‘If we knew the exact details… do you think you would be sitting so comfortably in that chair…’ was the reply.

Imran Khan's Letter to Congressman Bruce Braley

Mr. Bruce L. Braley
Member, Congress of the United States
U.S. House of Representatives
1408 Longworth Building
Washington, DC 20515 USA

Dear Congressman Braley:

(InformPress.com) - I refer to your letter of November 20, 2007 to President Bush.

I am writing to express my gratitude for your strong stance on ending the state of Emergency, restoration of Constitution, release of all political prisoners and protection of Opposition leaders in Pakistan. I was deeply touched by your words, especially demanding my release from prison.

As you know, Pervez Musharraf has announced that his government will be holding general elections in Pakistan in January 2008. I would like to bring to your attention factors that will render the elections farcical resulting in a non-representative and ineffective Parliament.

1. Consolidation of Powers in the Office of the President. In the last eight years since taking over the government through a military coup, Musharraf has systematically removed all systems of checks and balances that are essential to the working of a [real civilian] democracy. Specifically, through the [illegal] 17th Amendment in the Constitution, he has also taken over many powers that should be resting with the Prime Minister in our parliamentary form of democratic government. A recent Gallup poll suggests that 82% of Pakistanis want Musharraf to go.

2. Subversion of an Independent Judiciary. The only thing standing in the way of Musharraf and absolute power was an independent judiciary under [Pakistan Supreme Court] Chief Justice Iftikhar [Muhammad] Chaudhry. By illegally declaring Emergency rule (actually Martial Law), Musharraf [unlawfully] removed all the independent judges (60 out of a total of 95) from the senior judicial system of Pakistan and replaced them with relatively unknown people who are widely perceived as his allies. With all the independent judges under arrest, who will monitor the elections and provide justice to the aggrieved parties?

My political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf [PTI] - along with several other major political parties in Pakistan and civic groups all over the country - have decided to boycott the upcoming elections until and unless [all] the independent judges are restored to the pre-November 2, 2007 status.

Congressman Braley, I request you to educate and inform your colleagues in the United States Congress that without the restoration of an independent judiciary, elections in Pakistan will neither be fair nor acceptable to a majority of Pakistanis and will lead to further unrest and turmoil.

I write to you, not as a politician, but as an individual concerned about the fundamental rights of a people of the world to another who shares his concerns.

Once again, thank you for your efforts in requesting for my release.

Warmest Regards,

IMRAN KHAN
Chairman
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)
(Movement For Justice)

Pictures from the Mazar-e-Iqbal Rally on Sunday

Pakistan's Tyranny Continues..

Courtesy The New York Times

December 23, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
By AITZAZ AHSAN

Lahore, Pakistan

THE chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and his family have been detained in their house, barricaded in with barbed wire and surrounded by police officers in riot gear since Nov. 3. Phone lines have been cut and jammers have been installed all around the house to disable cellphones. And the United States doesn't seem to care about any of that.

The chief justice is not the only person who has been detained. All of his colleagues who, having sworn to protect, uphold and defend the Constitution, refused to take a new oath prescribed by President Pervez Musharraf as chief of the army remain confined to their homes with their family members. The chief justice's lawyers are also in detention, initially in such medieval conditions that two of them were hospitalized, one with renal failure.

As the chief justice's lead counsel, I, too, was held without charge — first in solitary confinement for three weeks and subsequently under house arrest. Last Thursday morning, I was released to celebrate the Id holidays. But that evening, driving to Islamabad to say prayers at Faisal Mosque, my family and I were surrounded at a rest stop by policemen with guns cocked and I was dragged off and thrown into the back of a police van. After a long and harrowing drive along back roads, I was returned home and to house arrest.

Every day, thousands of lawyers and members of the civil society striving for a liberal and tolerant society in Pakistan demonstrate on the streets. They are bludgeoned by the regime's brutal police and paramilitary units. Yet they come out again the next day. People in the United States wonder why extremist militants in Pakistan are winning. What they should ask is why does President Musharraf have so little respect for civil society — and why does he essentially have the backing of American officials?

The White House and State Department briefings on Pakistan ignore the removal of the justices and all these detentions. Meanwhile, lawyers, bar associations and institutes of law around the world have taken note of this brave movement for due process and constitutionalism. They have displayed their solidarity for the lawyers of Pakistan. These include, in the United States alone, the American Bar Association , state and local bars stretching from New York and New Jersey to Louisiana, Ohio and California, and citadels of legal education like Harvard and Yale Law Schools.

The detained chief justice continues to receive enormous recognition and acknowledgment. Harvard Law School has conferred on him its highest award, placing him on the same pedestal as Nelson Mandela and the legal team that argued Brown v. Board of Education. The National Law Journal has anointed him its lawyer of the year. The New York City Bar Association has admitted him as a rare honorary member. Despite all this, the Musharraf regime shows no sign of relenting.

But for how long? How long can the chief justice and his colleagues be kept in confinement? How long can the leaders of the lawyers' movement be detained? They will all be out one day. And they will neither be silent nor still. They will recount the brutal treatment meted out to them for seeking the establishment of a tolerant, democratic, liberal and plural political system in Pakistan. They will state how the writ of habeas corpus was denied to them by the arbitrary and unconstitutional firing of Supreme and High Court justices. They will spell out precisely how
one man set aside a Constitution under the pretext of an "emergency," arrested the judges, packed the judiciary, "amended" the Constitution by a personal decree and then "restored" it to the acclaim of London and Washington.

They will, of course, speak then. But others are speaking now. The parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8 have already been rigged, they are saying. The election commission and the caretaker cabinet are overtly partisan. The judiciary is entirely hand-picked. State resources are being spent on preselected candidates. There is a deafening uproar even though the independent news media in Pakistan are completely gagged. Can there even be an election in this environment?

Are they being heard? I'm afraid not.

Aitzaz Ahsan, a former minister of the interior and of law and
justice, is the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of
Pakistan.

Call for participation - Student Action Committee US

Ghazia Aslam

All of you must be aware of the political situation in Pakistan. Following the Emergency (which was effectively a Martial Law), the judiciary was deposed, media was gagged and hundreds of lawyers were arrested. The emergency was lifted on Dec 15th but all the laws made under PCO are now part of the constitution and cannot be challenged by the courts or the legislative assembly. Media remains restricted and Judiciary is still under house arrest along with hundreds of lawyers and activists who are now being charged under Anti-terrorist act. Many international organizations have declared that despite lifting the emergency, situation on the ground essentially remains the same. One of the very telling examples of this is the police attack on a peaceful student protest on Dec 17th. 40 students were arrested the same day and were charged under Anti-terrorism Act. (Eye witness accounts of a lot of these events, along with pictures and videos, are available on pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com).

This is not all. Musharraf has categorically said that the judiciary will not be reinstated. In fact his response to a question by Washington Post was "What Judges...they ill never be reinstated." Dr. Nasim Ashraf, on the Capitol Hill, in front of the Congress members and the other educated and informed members of society said that the judiciary was deposed because the Supreme Court started meddling with the functions of the government. Can we let a simple question "Is deposing a whole institution compared to seeking constitutional redress a better solution to a misconducting judiciary " go unasked? There are other questions too like "How can free and fair elections be conducted in a situation where assembly is banned, Election Commission and the interim government is not partial, 70% of the Supreme Court judges remain deposed?"; "How the rights of the citizens are protected when there is no institution that can redress their grievances?" Someone needs to ask these questions.

Call for participation in Student Action Committee: Therefore, in an endeavor to facilitate collective action,I am calling to organize a Student Action Committee (SAC-US chapter). The group will essentially be a part of the Students Action Committee (Lahore and Islamabad) and will comprise mainly of Pakistani and Pakistani American students in the US .The short term objective of the group is to ensure that elections that do not follow a sound political process are rendered illegal by Pakistanis and international organizations. The long-term idea is that the group will become part of the civil society that will keep a check on the excesses of the government, and make sure that the situation of hundreds of missing persons does not arise again in Pakistan. The group will not be affiliated with any political party and will not have any political agenda. Amnesty International US, and Washington-Pakistan Forum (a group of Pakistani American journalists, members of American Bar Association, and students coordinated by Amnesty International) has promised to fully support the group. The efforts are underway to open a London Chapter of the same group. (Please find the expected short term agenda of the group at the end of the email).

Why Should we Participate? A lot of us are skeptical of participating in this struggle because we have all been disappointed by the political parties which will eventually form the government. There is good reason for skepticism but the need to take collective action is greater than that. Our objective is not to depose one government and bring another. The responsibility of making the government accountable to civil society also lies with us. This is the first time in the last four decades that judiciary and media have agitated for independence as institutions. If they (and consequently, we) win this struggle then the political process emerging out of this struggle would not be the same as before, even if the people in the government remain the same. This is about time we realize that democracy is not about people but institutions, that we should stop depending on 'goodness' of the individuals and depend on ourselves by building sound and strong civil society. And students are at the base of any civil society. The only point of democracy is that everyone has a voice. And, if we choose not to exercise that right now, its our fault; why do we even ask for democracy and how are we going to sustain a democracy if it emerges at any point in Pakistan if we remain skeptical of ourselves. We also need this process to create representative political parties in the long run, as effective leadership cannot emerge out of vacuum. If nothing else, participation in an event like this will leave all of us changed. I just cannot resist quoting Faiz at this point; Gar jeet gaey to kia kehnay, haray bhee tu baazi maat nahin!

Very few nations get a chance to reconstitute. We have one now. We are taking advantage of it, as the lawyers, students and other civil society activists in Pakistan have proved. Each one of us needs to play his/her role.

Open House to Discuss "Why Should we Participate? and What Should you Expect from this Participation": If you are still skeptical, please join to discuss the pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages of participation in this group on Dec 26th at 3:00 pm. Venue is 2765 Centerboro Drive, #149, Vienna, VA 22181. A couple of Pakistani journalists in the Washington DC area will also speak.

Short-term Activities of the Group:

The group will essentially be involved in the following short term activities:

coordinating/organizing a protest on Jan 7 before the elections in Pakistan

holding press conferences and attending events in academic and non-academic institutions to make sure that we register our point of view

conducting campus-wide events to raise awareness amongst students about the situation in Pakistan and the need to build democratic institutions. (One suggestion is to hold talks by academics in the area along with documentary movies. Some documentaries are already available on youtube but we can always be more creative and do better using what we have).

Promoting advocacy on the Hill and other international organizations that protect civil rights

promoting media relations which would include maintaining a blog, coordinating with SAC (Lahore and Islamabad and hopefully later London) and communicating with the US media, among other tasks

drafting a sample letter with a fact sheet regarding current situation in Pakistan that can be sent to the Congress members; distributing the letter to the people so that they can send this letter to the Congress members in their respective districts to apprise them of the correct situation in Pakistan (A few meetings with Congress members have shown that they do not know what the real situation is)

Please distribute this call widely. We need to get the skeleton of the group together before the protest on Jan 7th. I know this is a short notice and it is during the holidays but that just means that we have to put in a little more effort at a little more cost. Please let me know if you are willing to participate, the extent and nature of your participation. In case we get better response that expected we can always form sub-committees regionally with a headquarter.

Additional Information: If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. My cell number is 703 663 0960. I would be more than happy to discuss and/or answer your concerns/questions. I would also encourage you to visit the following sites for current information on recent events in Pakistan:

http://pakistanmartiallaw.blogspot.com/

http://emergency2007.blogspot.com/

Discussion by Pakistani Lawyers and Human Rights Activist at Yale Law School: http://www.law.yale.edu/news/5957.htm

Audio conference of house arrested judges with San Francisco Bar Association: https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/playback/Playback.do

Hope to hear from you soon and Happy Holidays!

Vigil at Karachi Press Club in solidarity with Aitzaz Ahsan

Urooj Zia

The CMKP Karachi DC organised a candlelight vigil at 06:00 p.m yesterday (December 21) outside the Karachi Press Club, to protest against the bullshit meted out to Aitzaz saheb while he was on his way to Islamabad yester-morning.

Even though the entire thingum was put together at a very short notice, quite a few people showed up -- around 20 loge thhey, I think. CMKP ki achhi khaasi representation thhee, with comrades Zafar Aslam, Khurram, Adil (who's still suffering from the aftereffects of December 17), Zoha, Jaffer, some of our KU cadre, and myself. Humarey ilawa there was Comrade Sherbaz from the Labour Party, while the rest of the people were from Peoples Resistance (PR).

As always, everyone loved the CMKP's naaras. :-P We're definitely going to miss Comrade Jaffer after January 5. :-D

Oh and then Comrade Khurram got all jazbati and delivered a brilliant speech, which left everyone else k expressions aisey ----> :-O

All in all, great work, team! Although the entire thingum was pretty tame, but given the short notice, we're glad people got together at all! The purpose was to support the vigils in Lahore and Islamabad, so that a unified, simultaneous message could be sent out all across the
country.

We're grateful to everyone who rallied to the call at such a short notice, especially Sabeen, Husna, Azra, Naeem Sadiq, Sophia, Anis, Awab, and everyone else from PR, as well as our comrades from the Labour Party of Pakistan (LPP). : )

Power to the People!!!

In Solidarity