Protests by journalists today

For those in Karachi.

Despite yesterday's brutal use of force by police, journalists remain undaunted and plan to hold another protest today outside Karachi Press Club (Wednesday) at 2.30pm. Everyone is invited. Support is needed especially especiallyfrom civil society groups and students, so do you part.

One more time, Strength in numbers!

Civil society condemns lathi charge, arrest of journalists - Press Release

KARACHI, NOV 20: The civil society coalition People's Resistance condemns in the strongest terms the brutal police lathi charge on unarmed journalists outside the Karachi Press Club and the arrests of Karachi Union of Journalists' President Shamimur Rehman, Karachi Press Club President Sabihuddin Ghausi, Secretary General of the Association of Pakistan Television Journalists Faisal Aziz Khan, Ahfaz-ur Rehman and Najeeb Ahmad among others. Journalists as well as members of civil society had gathered in solidarity with the nation-wide protest call given by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) against restrictions on the media, particularly the electronic media. Several journalists, including women, were injured when police launched a second attack on them outside the Press Club. The People's Resistance salutes those who subsequently peacefully offered arrest in solidarity with their arrested colleagues and in protest against the police refusal to let the journalists to take out a peaceful procession to Governor House. About a hundred journalists and several civil society members were among those who courted arrest, including senior journalists Idris Bakhtiar, Owais Tohid, Qaisar Mahmood, Afzal Nadeem Dogar, and Kamal Siddiqui. They were carted off in several mobiles to police stations across the city, many flashing victory signs and shouting slogans for the freedom of media and against dictatorship. People's Resistance calls upon all professional groups, NGOs, trade unions, student unions and individuals to join the platform of resistance in its peaceful campaigns for the restoration of the Constitution of Pakistan and basic rights, the judiciary and media independence.

Police baton-charge, temporarily arrest 200 Journalists in Karachi

(Photos courtesy Geo News - http://www.geo.tv/)

Karachi: Police, on Tuesday, baton-charged journalists protesting against the closure of Geo News, outside the Karachi Press Club. Several journalists were wounded in the police charge. Subsequently, the arrested journalists were released at night, following relevant orders from Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad. The media representatives were scheduled to approach the Governor House to speak with the authorities but they were accosted by the police. Thereupon, the journalists staged a sit-in protest, but the police began to arrest them. When the journalists began fleeing, the police chased them into the Press Club and began the baton-charge, wounding several of the media men.

After the Emergency

Asif

One is just waiting to see how Musharraf will cope with the situation after the emergency is reversed, the curb on media channels lifted and the fundamental rights of citizens restored. The media will come back stronger and all that happened during the black-out phase will be exposed and shown for weeks and months to come. The civil society will be even more mobilised than it was before the emergency. Wide spread condemnations will continue by all and sundry. Will the final conclusion to all this mayhem for Musharraf be – game over, you win?, certainly not. Does he expect the people of Pakistan to just say ‘yes sir’ and accept him in a civilian role after demoralising and bulldozing the once revered institutions such as the army, more recently the courts and not to mention the parliament and senate which just abided by whatever policies were chalked out by his cheer leader, Shaukat Aziz?

After Musharraf assumes a civilian role he will certainly have lost his power base – the army, the winds will not always be in one direction then, and his influence will dwindle. Unless the next Government bails him out by continuing to walk in his shoes (read America’s DMS), there’s no way out for him. Even if the next Government does go bonkers and keeps the ball rolling in the same direction as it has been for the last 6 or so months, that will surely result in their political death. No matter which party comes into power, whether through rigged elections or otherwise, the repercussion of doing so will be grave.

The beginning of the end has started for Musharraf and if he has the most miniscule bit of self respect left in him, he won’t have the audacity to even accept the slightest roles of public service in the future setup. The nation is fed up of him and his stooges. The very corrupt stooges that he brought to power through blackmail will be the first ones making him the scapegoat. There will be no one to scratch the back of Musharraf after the emergency rule, the sooner he realizes this, the better.

While Musharraf keeps the entire nation in the dark, he opts to give a minute by minute update to his mentors in Washington. Is this his version of ‘Pakistan First’? We get to know what his next step will be (or what blunder follows) from the State Department rather than our own ministries and media. His three prong strategy that he flashes to the western world so cohesively has so many countless other prongs protruding from the sides. Where Alberto Gonzales had to resign as attorney journal of the U.S for making the judiciary too politicized, in stark contrast, in our country judges were removed for being too independent. It’s high time we stop being dictated by neo-cons whose values remain intact in their own homeland but export the deformed and compromised form of their values to other countries. People in power are threatened to be aligned towards goals of the western world or face a reduction in aid. The day our leaders took money in exchange for our independence, the day we sold out on true democracy and prosperity. Had we not taken the money the first time around, we would’ve been much more independent and democratic by now. We are far better off without it, the money that is sent is only used by people in power to flash the economic prosperity card and clamp down on any rational movements, and nothing goes into real sustainable development.

Of late, people are getting wiser and more involved in the politics played by the ruling elite. The order of the day would be to end this emergency rule, have free and fair elections, and the current rulers have a somewhat respectful exit from the scene. If however, the power seats are clutched even harder, there will be an irreparable damage to not only the country as a whole but the army will feel the brunt of the entire nation by looking down upon them for years to come.

There’s a fast way of killing a nation and there’s a slow way. The day the NRO was signed, a piece of us died. The day the constitution was held in abeyance and the PCO promulgated, another piece of us died. The day the police beat and thrashed the intelligentsia of our nation, another piece died – and so the slow death continues.

We are worse off than Burma (it's a fact)

Your fact of the day:

Pakistan now ranks below Burma in the United Nations Human Development Index's social indicators—a fact not terribly surprising given that Musharraf, in the last eight years of rule, has invested only 2% of GDP on education.

This interesting article demonstrates how not only have the leaders of this country succeeded in turning this country into a vultures politics bait in the upcoming US presidential elections, but their track record in achieving social progress in this country, should make the junta in Burma quiet envious of them.

US Senators demand Aitzaz release

Finally someone in US has awoken and taken notice of whats happening down here.

Dawn News reports:

US senators have demanded immediate release of Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan.

The demand has been made in a letter addressed to President Gen Pervez Musharraf and signed by 32 senators, a copy of which was faxed to Dawn on Thursday.

Recognising Pakistan’s role in the region and in bringing Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda to justice, the senators have, however, expressed concern at the detention of Mr Ahsan.

“...Mr Ahsan is a highly distinguished attorney and political leader. He is a former government minister and former opposition leader in the Senate of Pakistan,” the letter said, adding: “A senior advocate in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, he consistently earns the highest rating in rankings of legal professionals in Pakistan.”

The communiqué recalled that Mr Ahsan had represented a variety of high-profile political figures, including former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif as well as deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

But, it said, he was arrested last Saturday during a press conference he was holding in Islamabad and was probably being jailed in Rawalpindi.

“It is simply not right that Mr Ahsan is being jailed for doing his job as an attorney by defending rights of his client.

We ask you to immediately look into this mater and urge you to release Mr Ahsan from prison immediately,” the communiqué said.

Meanwhile, some local politicians claimed that US embassy officials had told them by phone that President Musharraf had given them commitment to doff his uniform by Nov 15.

The officials, the politicians said, were contacting political parties as well as civil society members to seek first-hand information about the public response to the emergency.

Moreover, there are reports of Munir Malik's torture during detention. Infact his family has gone underground due to harassment from agencies.

Musharraf leaving to meet Saudi Monarch (and Nawaz?)

"(AGI) - Riyadh, 19 November - Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, will be in Saudi Arabia tomorrow to meet with King Abdullah and he may hold talks with former Pakistani premier and leader of the opposition, Nawaz Sharif, who lives in exile in the Kingdom. The visit has been announced in Riyadh by the official Saudi news agency SPA. This will be Musharraf's first visit abroad since he announced the state of emergency on 3 November. In the Pakistani media, a possible encounter between Musharraf and Sharif was announced with Saudi mediation. Collaborators of the ex-premier have announced that the only purpose for the meeting could be the finalization of a strategy for the unconditional political retreat of the Pakistani president. Sharif has indicated that he has already refused the request to meet Musharraf twice."
http://www.agi.it/world/news/200711191500-pol-ren0049-art.html

APDM calls country-wide strike on Nov 23

All Parties Democratic Movement held a meeting today in Islamabad which was attended by by the entire APDM parties including PML-N, PTI, MMA (JUI, JI & others), ANP & regional parties including PONAM. The meeting concluded with a unanimous call for a country wide protest on Friday 23rd of November against this martial law enforced by General Pervaiz Musharraf.

How to save Pakistan

By Imran Khan

Make no mistake; Pakistan faces a grave threat from the creeping chaos, a by-product of the most shameful demonstration of power politics. There are many threats confronting our society. The threat of extremism is just one which is essentially a consequence of policies that serve foreign interests at the cost of the fundamental rights of our citizens. On 9/11, yes, we should have stood with the US when it was attacked by terrorists. But our cooperation should have been within the ambit of our constitution and law. No civilized society will ever allow its own army, raised and armed at a great cost to society, to be used so mercilessly against its own citizens and expect business as usual. In a society where the majority is without fundamental rights, without education, without economic opportunities, without healthcare, the use of sheer force will only expand the extremist fringe and contract the majority moderate.Our military rulers are incapable of understanding that the real owners of the country are its people who must have the right as, political sovereigns, to decide without fear and coercion who should rule them. In India the only qualification for Lalo Prasad or his domestic housewife Rabri Devi to rule Bihar was the mandate of the people. Can we imagine our ruling elite ever accepting a similar peoples verdict. This fundamental question of ‘Who Owns Pakistan’ must be decided once and for all.
In the absence of democracy and rule of law, extremism and religious fundamentalism will continue to grow at a frightening pace. The more the present regime bows to Washington’s desire to “do more” and the more innocent Pakistani blood is shed under the garb of fighting the war on terror or curbing extremism, the more Pakistan moves towards becoming a “failed state”, and the more people would resort to picking up arms against the security forces

Imran Khan on Hunger Strike

(Courtesy AFP)

Pakistani cricket hero Imran Khan began a hungerstrike Monday in the prison where he was sent last week for protesting against emergency rule, his spokesman told AFP.He said Khan, who now heads his own opposition party, wanted a restoration of the constitution and reinstatement of judges sacked when Persident Pervez Musharraf imposed the emergency just over two weeks ago."Imran Khan has gone on hunger strike for an indefinite period,"spokesman Saifullah Niazi said."He is demanding the restoration of the judiciary and restoration of the constitution," Niazi said. Khan is in Deraghazi Khan jail, normally used to house terror detainees and hardened prisoners.He was picked up last Wednesday and charged under a section of anti-terror legislation which stipulates a minimum punishment of atleast seven years and up to life in prison.Khan had been put under house arrest after emergency rule was declared on November 3 but slipped the net and went into hiding, communicating via email and video.He was arrested after emerging from hiding last Wednesday at a university campus in the eastern city of Lahore. Lahore police said then that he would face charges for inciting people to pick up arms, calling for civil disobedience and "spreading hatred." Khan, who led Pakistan to cricket World Cup glory in 1992, had called for Musharraf to face the death penalty for imposing emergency rule.

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, butthere must never be a time when we fail to protest - Elie Wiesel

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man'sinclination to injustice makes democracy necessary - Reinhold Niebuhr

Videos of London Protest, 19th Nov

Videos of the protest in London on the 19th of November, featuring interviews with British MP George Galloway and Jemima Khan are available on http://pkpolitics.com/2007/11/18/protest-at-london-embassy-18-november-07/#more-739 .

Bahria University administration clamps down

A piece of paper titled FLASH, literally threatening students involved in demonstrations and political activities was pasted to walls and passed through the corridors of Bahria University. It stated that those involved would be subject to strict disciplinary actions including but not limited to expulsion, cancellation of degrees as well as legal action. These ‘punishments’ would be for all those wearing black bands and protesting on as well as outside campus. The administration made an even more obvious show of their insecurity as they closed the university on Monday, the day on which a protest organized by Bahria and Air University students was scheduled. Perhaps one can not blame the administration of such universities, run by the Navy and the Airforce respectively, but their attempt to silence the opinions of their students is truly shameful.

Musharraf's Supreme Court dismisses challenges to his Rule

The Dogar-headed Supreme Court on Monday threw out five major challenges to President Musharraf's re-election, leaving one to be heard later in the week, the attorney general told AFP. “There were five petitions, they have all been dismissed. There is only one left and that will be heard on Thursday,” attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum told AFP. The PPP earlier said that it had withdrawn its challenge as they did not recognize the sham courts sworn in under the emergency rule. It was not clear if the appeal filed by the PPP was among those that had been dismissed.

LUMS Students hold Flash Protest in DHA

Around 20-25 students from LUMS had a flash demo in Defence Market, H Block on Monday. They assembled at the spot at around 4 PM, wearing black armbands and carrying pamphlets pertaining to the nature of their cause. They then undertook a round of the Market, raising slogans and distributing the pamphlets as they went along. A significant crowd gathered in the market to witness the procession, with many bystanders joining in the sloganeering. Around five minutes into the procession, the students dispersed, amid reports that the police were arriving. Overall, the protest was a huge success, with a heartening response from the bystanders witnessing it.
The movement continues..

In Complete Unity

Protest at Aabpara, Islamabad

A demonstration attended by students, political organizations and civil society members was held at Aabpara chowk at 3:00 p.m. There were many slogans heard but soon the protest shifted venue to Geo’s office in Blue Area. Journalists spoke at length with regard to the curbs placed on the media as well as the various abductions of journalists. The police stood watching complacently and even smiled shyly at the occasional "Police ko azad karo (Free the police)" slogans.Later in the day, a meeting was held to discuss further action. A student action committee was formed which had sub-committees within it for greater mobilization and organization. The agenda is nearly finalized and we hope to see pamphlets being printed and distributed soon.

Patriotism and Common Sense

Ali

The Article by Mr. Baig entitled 'Path of a Patriot' is a much needed starting point for a debate that has been burning around campuses since the imposition of Martial Law. Before beginning my analysis, I would like to highlight that discussion on this point should continue since it is essential for understanding the present situation. While I completely agree with Mr Baig that the removal of the General is not a cause worth endorsing on its own, I have serious reservations about what has subsequently been said in the article. Let me first highlight what I conceive the General's removal to mean. I agree that if the General were removed today, and another military ruler took over, we would not have moved an inch beyond where we stand today. This means that the fundamental fight is NOT against General Musharraf as a person, but the institutional role of an unelected, hierarchical entity in Pakistani politics, i.e. the military. This is an underlying point on which my response to Mr Baig's article would attempt to build upon. This means that Mr Pervaiz Musharraf, contrary to what Mr Baig believes, DID not go through a metamorphosis from an Idealist, to a proponent of realpolitick and finally a Machiavellian Prince. Rather, the very removal of Nawaz Sharif by a military General shows how the ROOT of the malady facing Pakistan, is not Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Sharif; it is the continued interference of the army in the polity of the country, masquerading as our saviour.

It is natural therefore, that the present struggle is a struggle against this institution that has thwarted any attempts for democratic consent to exist in this country ( ignoring the argument that we are not ready for democracy, often found in elite circles and more recently in the General's martial law imposition speech). Ofcourse, politicians have always been a support mechanism for military regimes, but the overiding power has always existed with the army. The assertion that Benazir is a more vociferous proponent of international interests is absolutely incorrect since BB's party atleast has roots within the masses Pakistan, unless ofcourse, Mr Baig conforms to the same elitist sensibilities that PPP supporters are nothing more than illiterate peasants, easily duped by their leader everytime. General Musharraf has absolutely no roots within this country (his referendum can be testament to that) and Mr Bush still calls him America's 'Staunch ally' in the war on terror. Who can forget the billions of dollars received by Pakistan to butcher innocent Afghani's, massacre its own people in Waziristan and Swat to counter 'Terrorism' and the selling out of Pakistan's assets (including telecommunications) to foregin companies. Even the General's Prime Minister, Mr SHORTCUT Aziz, a man with no political constituency in Pakistan, is like a 'Gift' to Musharraf from International Donour Agencies. No one represents international strategic interests more than the General, and the reason for this is the fact that dictatorships in Pakistan have never found popular support amognst the mass. Insteadm the have relied primarily upon international powers (with a few local renegades thrown in, like the Chaudry brothers today).

As for corruption, who can compete with the Army's billions of dollars of legitimate corruption, using the state appratus to obtain loans and grants for businesses, from construction to corn flakes. The Army is also the biggest land holder in the country, fleecing several thousand peasants off their lands to make poultry farms and farm houses. Field Marshals, like Khattak Abbas Khan are known to have recieved kickbacks of 180 million rupees through the sale of mirage fighters. Countless other cases of corruption exist that are never investigated due to the fear of the military, while all attention is cast upon the corruption of politicians. The Armed forces already recieve more than 50 % of the budget to kill its own people in Balochistan, Swat and Waziristan and sells nuclear weapons to other countries. The reason for viewing politicians as corrupt and ignoring the biggest corruptor, stems from years of a 'sytematic demeaning of politics' in this country, the brunt of which has been borne by the PPP. This comes as no surprise since the PPP is perhaps the only party with a consistent record of fighting the military establishment. Notwithstanding the fact that Benazir is corrupt, the biggest danger to unity today stems from creating fissures in the opposition by calling an end to Benazir along with the General. The reasons are quite simple. The fight against dictatorship can only succeed if a democractic government of National Unity is formed, something that all political parties, including the PPP is calling for. Democracy without BB would ignore the biggest political opposition to the Military Establishment, without which any democratic set-up is unforseeable atleast in the near future. We definitely need to bypass BB at some point in time, just like we need to bypass the PML (N), or the Jamat-i-Islami. This is only possible, however, if we allow democratic processes to find their course, citizens to scrutinize their leaders, and most importantly, if we reject the misguided notion that we need UNIFYING LEADERS. We do not need unifying leaders to be our saviours, this would be the same as the General's claim. We need democratic institutions to be allowed to take route, and the only way for that to happen, is if the military is taken out of the power equation permanently, and a democratic government of national unity through free and fair elections is allowed to function. Any other path can create discord amongst the opposition and turn our attention away from the main struggle of the present time.

The Path of a Patriot

Baig

Opposing General Pervez Musharraf is not a cause worth endorsing solely by itself.

General Pervez Musharraf is not the man he was when he first usurped the seat of Pakistan's government. Over time as his political age has advanced, he has undergone a staged metamorphosis: from an amateur idealist, to a practitioner of temperate Realpolitik, and then finally to an outright Machiavellian Prince.

It will be profoundly self-righteous of any single one of us to contend with authority that if exposed to the General's temptations - the troika of International interests, institutional weaknesses and a manipulable judiciary - we ourselves would not succumb to a similar fate. Opposing General Pervez Musharraf is therefore akin to focussing on the proverbial symptoms of a malady, and not its root, when in fact ours should be a struggle against the method of perpetuation of our affliction and not its recurring product. We are merely opposing a masque today.

It is high time that we question our motives before treading any further with placards in hand and slogans on tongue. The return to democracy we yearn for today can potentially be a rude awakening since General Pervez Musharraf's successor – in the wake of an all-pardoning National Reconciliation – is set to be Ms. Benazir Bhutto. Notwithstanding those forgotten corruption charges of fraudulently amassing roughly $1.5B of the nation's wealth[1], she is a more vociferous representation of strategic international interests than the General; she is the proverbial soldier of fortune.

This implies that there will undoubtedly be an intensification of tribal conflict leading to increased national destability in the event of her election and subsequent government. Moreover, the tide of extremism in Pakistan is unlikely to be subdued by a satellite government zealously enforcing external decree; if anything, it will fuel the same. Overall, such a fanning of the flames could be a fatal development in a climate where the country's social fabric is reminiscent of 1971 and international monitors are preparing contingency plans for securing Pakistani nuclear assets. Quite simply the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is a threat to national security – Ms. Benazir Bhutto's ascent must be stopped. This is as crucial as our government's reversion to democracy and deposition of General Pervez Musharraf; and so we have two objectives to achieve - not just one.

Our struggle at present is predominantly composed of pro-democracy demonstrations marked with an indifference to political positioning. A lot has been said in favor of this strategic non-alignment, and rightly so. However, such apathy is jeopardous on at least one account: the movement is an easy target for political highjack. Even as you read this, the PPP is actively conflating the tide of sentiment in Pakistani youth with its own pressure tactics. And it is no secret that having inherited the devotion of Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's unflappable loyalists, the PPP needs but a small further push to tip the scales completely in its favor. By being non-aligned, we give this party exactly that opportunity. This profound risk should not be overlooked when assessing the true virtue of our neutralism, and its true cost to our future.

We need to elevate our intellectual capital to genuinely understand the crossroads we find ourselves standing at today. In this regard, a study of history can be valuable since there exist patterns in human behavior which accord it a degree of predictability. Our struggle can hence greatly benefit from comparable examples from these archives - hindsight has the latency to impart wisdom no conjecture can provide. And so, the following case is worthy of notice.

There are lessons to be learnt from India. On 25th June 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed emergency in the country - precisely two weeks after the High Court in Ahmedabad UP (where she had won parliament elections in 1971) ruled her recent election win void due to election fraud. Soon the prime minister, aided by the promulgation of President’s Rule, was ruling virtually by decree and thus began the country’s turbulent two-year journey through calculated oppression.

Ms. Gandhi was a proponent of a rather efficient school of oppression management. She administered a generous dose of comprehensive media blackout throughout the land, in effect birthing a communicative quarantine that drove deep schisms through the opposition camp and compartmentalized it into isolated pools. This efficiently dispersed the threat of a backlash. Leaders who took the cause of opposition found their clout limited in the absence of established channels of information flow, and so a unifying figurehead to lead the people of the land in their darkest hour was unable to flourish.

The Indian example can give us a better understanding of our own situation. Firstly, the example illuminates the indispensability of effective communication, without which, the rivers of protest cannot converge to form the ocean of change. Any tyrant understands this modus operandi, and thus does his paramount to disallow it. Secondly, it deconstructs the mechanics of tyranny: a potentially equivalent popular-reaction develops as a direct consequence of oppression, but precipitates only when catalyzed by a unifying leadership structure – or disperses ineffectually otherwise.

It is imperative that we truly understand the function of the aforementioned unifying leader. Unlike days of responsible citizenship, in times when the general populace cries "Revolution!” the role of a leader is less of a mobilizer and more of a focal point. . He is not required to inspire them into action – such impetus already beats within each protesting heart. He chiefly exists as an anti-thesis to the oppressor and gives the separately protesting throngs a locus of confluence. Consequently for such a figurehead to fill the leadership vacuum, the only crucial attribute is universal agreeability – for then, like fire-flies, the masses gravitate to him in expression of their dissent.

Therefore, we can realize our dreams for Pakistan by first designating a popular leader and then by empowering him through our voice, our action; our multitude. Such a platform of focussed patriotism has the potential of setting off a chain-reaction through capturing imaginations and stirring feet into vigor anew. And in this struggle, one good tiding is that we are all the progeny of the information age. In the guise of the World Wide Web, and to some extent cellular networks, we command a dissemination instrument which is pervasive and almost unstoppable. General Musharraf's emergency may have blacked out more conventional forms of media; it cannot restrain our virtual eyes, ears and tongues.

When considering the contendership of a unifying leader for our cause, the names of Hon'ble Mr. (Ex) Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Mr. Imran Khan and Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan naturally spring to mind. To my understanding, all three are compelling choices. I am of the view that whereas extremely competent and reasonably charismatic Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan would be nothing short of a grave national risk given his allegiance to Ms. Benazir Bhutto. Unless the good Barrister publicly proclaims his independence from the PPP to eliminate any conflict of interest therein, we should maintain his ineligibility for the position. In between Hon'ble Mr. (Ex) Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Mr. Imran Khan, I would lend my support to the latter, given his hitherto commendable record of public service (the Cancer Hospital), his outspoken patriotism and his public appeal. On the whole, time is of the essence for us to reach a consensus on this choice. Destiny will not forgive, nor forget, our complacency.

The efficacy of our struggle is dependent upon efficient, disciplined micro-management. In this consideration, our foremost duty is that of pervasive information dissemination. And the most effective method of accomplishing this duty is dedicating the greatest amount of time to engaging new, hitherto unaffiliated individuals, instead of repetitively enlightening the enlightened. For we need to significantly expand the pool of our numbers to a critical mass – without which our voice would be lost in the tolling bells of suppression. It must not be expected that such a mass-contact campaign would be easy: we would need to nurture ample mental perseverance given the psychological demoralization inherent in laboring to awaken the apathetic, the bigoted and the morally flexible. We would find ourselves out of breath quite often.

We will harvest the uninitiated with the cruciality of our cause, and with our allegiances. We will not hesitate in revealing the true nature of our common enemy to them, leaving no inroad unexplored. We will resort to patriotic discourse where necessary, to sheer rationale where required and to dialectical resilience where needed in order to convince our audience. We will use all communicative means available to us, prioritizing those which can achieve supreme impact in the least amount of time. Those of us possessing the dexterity of the tongue will use that tongue. Those with writing skills will put such skills to comprehensive use. Those with physical stamina will take to the open sky in a spirited show of constitution-bound demonstrating. And those with all three traits will generously indulge in all quarters.

Unity is the only way to success in joint activism and a splinter-group can undermine an entire cause; much like it takes but one traitor to defeat the whole group. Therefore, in our endeavors we will ensure inclusion along the commonality of ideology, and not stated goal – for clash of ideologies is seldom reconcilable. Secondly, we will maintain our dignity but curb our egos lest they jeopardize our alliance. Thirdly and most importantly, our integrity will be Jinnahite in its infallibility - we will never bend under pressure, we will never yield to fear, we will never succumb to enticement. These three mantras will form the bedrock of our struggle.

The current milieu is a time of flux; like putty it is ripe for molding and shaping. Our founding-fathers have left us with an invaluable blueprint of conflict management, and we are also intellectually well-poised to actualize a popular-reaction. Though we find ourselves outmatched by our opponents' cache of material resources and their Western patronage, we possess a potent counter in the fact that once in unison, we can resonate the realms. And therefore it is critical that we perceive our responsibility to our country's future, and then act upon it. Recognition of this responsibility and its concretization through considered steps is the real path to the fruition of our aspirations - the only path a true patriot knows.

[1] A 1999 US Senate sub-committee report using Mr. Asif Ali Zardari’s money laundering activities as one of the case studies can be read at: http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/110999_report.htm

The General holding nukes as hostage

S.Rehman

Pakistan may face its ultimate destruction because of one person -its own military chief.

Having lost all other legitimacy, Musharraf is now bargaining with the west on a single point agenda.

"Allow me to stay in power, or else the nukes go into the militants hands. Only I (Repeat I), can safeguard the nukes. The west has a choice. Me or nuclear talibans."

If the people of Pakistan can not see through this fraudulent argument and take immediate actions to remove Musharraf from his job as the army chief as well as the President, they are any way going to be doomed. The US will determine its own method of protecting Pakistani nukes.

Musharraf has now publicly admitted that he broke the law by imposing emergency. What does the constitution of Pakistan say for those who violate constitution. It is an act of treason.

The struggle for restoration of democracy and justice must be launched from every street of Pakistan.

Today's Protests in Islamabad

1) Media Solidarity: Ary TV st 62, F7/4 2:25-3:30

2)Civil Society Gathering: 3:45- 5:30 PM, Cricket Staduim, F6/3