Pervez Musharraf Returns Home After Five Years


pervez-musharraf

Finally, Pervez Musharraf decided to return to his home country after a five year self imposed exile in United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates. Will he be able to run his election campaign? Rather, I think we should ask will ‘they’ allow him to run for election?

In a couple of days situation will be more clear but if you ask this question today then answer is Nawaz Sharif has the money and Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudary has the animosity and power to take the revenge. That is the answer. This is the way politics is played in Pakistan.

Highest Security For Former President Pervez Musharraf


Highest-security-for-former-president-Musharraf

Interior Ministry has issued very strict instructions to heads of all the security agencies in Pakistan including home secretaries, frontier corps, rangers and inspector generals of all the provinces to provide foolproof security to former President Pervez Musharraf.

According to the notification issued by the Ministry, it is mandatory to provide optimum security to the former president where ever he goes. The Inspector General of the province will be responsible for his security.

A bullet proof vehicle will be provide to former president along with the security escort on evacuated roads.

Interior Ministry and security officials will stay in contact with the former president all the times.

This notification was quite unexpected. What is the reason for issuing this notification at this time is not known. Either Pervez Musharraf is not satisfied with the present security arrangements or USA has shown some concern about his security. Recently, Richard Boucher US Assistant Secretary of State visited Pakistan. There was no news that he met former president but about the security of Pervez Musharraf may have come under discussion with the government officials.

When former president resigned it was part of the arrangement that Pakistan government will provide security to former president. Further, there was an understanding that no case will be raised against Pervez Musharraf. News published in the foreign media indicated that US, UK and Saudi Arabia are guarantors of this arrangement.

Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari and Iftikhar Chaudary – Head-On Collision?

Nawaz-Sharif-Asif-Zardari-and-Iftikhar-ChaudaryAre they going to have a head-on collision. It seems so. Let us see what are their problems and how possibly they are going to tackle. Nawaz Sharif During the previous elections Nawaz Sharif had made very inflamed speeches against Pervez Musharraf. One of the issues he raised against Pervez Musharraf was removal of Iftikhar Chaudary then the chief justice of Pakistan supreme court.

Nawaz Sharif and other politicians including PPP they did not have and still don’t have any action plan for the development of the country so they look for such things on which they can create a sort of agitation and gather the people and get votes. All these politicians use the same strategy. Basically they highlight an issue and present themselves as a solution. Nawaz Sharif promised in a big way that if PML-N came to power they will re-instate Iftikhar Chaudary along with other judges. After showing his first success of removing the president then came the second thing to re-instate the judges which seems now a stumbling block. Nawaz Sharif wants to bring back Iftikhar Chaudary to achieve his own motives namely to get himself entitled to participate in the elections, and get decisions against Pervez Musharraf in future cases which may be brought in the supreme court later. This is to pacify his revenge. Asif Zardari Asif Zardari as such was not very interested in removing the president but when he saw the wind direction he joined the mob. Now comes the re-reinstatement of judges. Like any other Pakistani politician he looked for his personal benefit first.

Though he was not very enthusiastic but he did not mind to join others to become champion of democracy. Zardari particularly did not want Iftikhar Chaudary to come back. He believes Iftikhar Chaudary is responsible for his extended stay in jail. Since Zardari has a enmity with Chaudary so he believes Iftikhar Chaudary may give a decision to void the NRO against which it became possible for Zardari, Shahbaz Sharif and others to participate in the politics. Zardari is not worried about Sharif or others but he is worried about himself. That is why you had heard before re-reinstatement of judges minus one or minus two etc. Now it seems Zardari has stuck. Nawaz Sharif wants to bring Iftikhar Chaudary back for his own purposes and Zardari don’t want him because of his own concerns.

Iftikhar Chaudary – The Man in the Dispute After getting out of the supreme court Iftikhar Chaudary participated very actively in anti-Musharraf rallies, political processions practically everything where he could blast against Musharraf. So he became a symbol of anti-Musharraf movement. When political parties saw this opportunity then Nawaz Sharif being the best opportunist grabbed the opportunity and joined them. Sharif got best of the both worlds, person who is anti-Musharraf and he can gather big mobs. Iftikhar Chaudary looked more like a politician then a displaced supreme court judge. Other supreme court judges like Khalil Ramday, Bhagwan Das and may be others associated themselves with different political views. So now politicians support the judges according to their mind affiliations and their political views. What is Next? Any solution to this pollution? Zardari needs Nawaz Sharif to keep his PPP in the government. On the other hand Nawaz Sharif has an upper hand at present. Zardari may lose the government, Sharif will not lose anything. In fact it will give boost to the popularity of Sharif. Zardari may seek support of other parties to stay in power against some other deals.

This is the first issue they have faced and the cracks started appearing. There would definitely be more. Still both coalition partners are not agreed what procedure will be adapted to re-instate the judges, if they are going to re-instate. A couple of possibilities. They may cut a deal with Iftikhar Chaudary that he will not give a verdict against Asif Zardari and not participate in the cancellation of NRO if it comes in the court. Iftikhar Chaudary may go back to his previous position but after a specified period he will be retired or he would resign.

Obviously these types of deals will not be made public so it is your imagination what you can think about other possibilities. Are we heading towards fresh elections? May be too early to say but definitely we are heading with a faster speed towards head-on collisions. This is the first one. More to come.

Re-Appoinment of Sind High Court Judges


Re-Appointment-of-Sindh-High-Court-Judges

Newspapers and TV channels reported in the last couple of days about the reinstatement of eight Sindh High Court judges as a "surprise move by President Pervez Musharraf".

This initiative was not taken by the president.

The PPP took the initiative and Prime Minister after consultations with Law Ministry sent the summary to President to approve. President approved and sent the approval back to Prime Minister for implementation. These judges were going to take a new oath. The government issued the appropriate notification which was later withheld because Nawaz Sharif got angry that he was not consulted.

On Tuesday, the discussions which were going on between Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari at Zardari House were interrupted because Nawaz Sharif got angry and walked out, according to news. Later these discussion were moved to Punjab House and then to Prime Minister House when PPP agreed to defer the implementation of this decision till all the judges are reinstated.

The point to note is that according to the Constitution president does not have any authority to reject the recommendations of the prime minister. So President just followed the constitution. So this was not any maneuver of Pervez Musharraf. This was just another mismanagement of PPP government.

Aitzaz Ahsan – Public Intellectual?


Aitzaz-Ahsan-Public-Intellectual

In the recent issue (July/August 2008) of Foreign Policy magazine they have published a so called Top 20 Public Intellectuals survey where Mr.Aitzaz Ahsan has been ranked on number 5.

Pakistan media particularly GEO TV and Aitzaz Ahsan himself seem to be proud of this ranking.

First let us see the definition of the word "intellectual". The word intellectual is an adjective. The noun is intellect. According to American Heritage Dictionary of The English Language, the meaning of the word ‘intellect’ is as follows:

The ability to learn and reason; the capacity for knowledge and understanding.

The ability to think abstractly or profoundly.

So the person who can do that is called intellectual. Fair enough.

Now let us see what profile Foreign Policy magazine has mentioned of Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan. Here is the verbatim quote;

"President of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association, Ahsan has been a vocal opponent of President Pervez Musharraf’s rule. When Musharraf dismissed the head of the Supreme Court in March 2007, it was Ahsan who led the legal challenge to reinstate the chief justice and rallied thousands of lawyers who took to the streets in protest. He was arrested several times during the period of emergency rule last year.
Today, he is a senior member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, formerly led by Benazir Bhutto, and one of the country’s most recognizable politicians
".

Courtesy: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4349

Do the activities which Foreign Policy have mentioned on which he has been ranked in the ‘Top  20 Public Intellectuals’  makes someone intellectual?

If this is the criteria then we have lots of intellectuals in our country.
What do you think? What is your opinion? Write your opinion in the comments.

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