Aftermath of the Miscalculations of the Presidency

The Constitution Avenue, in front of the National Assembly still has the traces of the very much remembered Lawyers’ Movement against the then ruler, General Pervez Musharraf and we have a new same sort of movement waiting in the wings. The road blockers, barbed wires are still there which were put by the administration to keep the protestors away from the sacred buildings of the state. Only thing which has changed is that now these hurdles stand there in the name of security measures.

The President’s valentine gift to the judiciary, in the shape of notifications for appointing judges against the will of the Chief Justice brought much controversy. Rumours of emergency were looming around when the apex court ruled out the notifications and kicked in the teeth of the Government. This surely is a great test for the Zardari Administration to stand firm and show it still has the popular support with them which brought them to the Presidency.

The advisors to the President sure as shooting got it all wrong and triggered all the elements which were waiting to have a go at the President alone. This act has got all the guns pointing towards the President. Even though the issue is merely of a constitutional nature but the media and the politicians have grabbed the opportunity to malign the already much maligned regime by making it political.

Presidential camp can argue on the merits of their decision, which of course according to the seniority basis is correct. Another question may arise is that why the CJ wants the judges of his choice, perhaps building his own camp. This certainly doesn’t go well with the Presidency.

The repercussions of this surely will be long lasting as the previous movement had. In fact the previous lawyers’ movement was a launching pad for the removal of the then potentate. The reaction of the lawyers after the decision of the three member bench of the Supreme Court was the same as it was before. Different political parties including the second largest party in the Pakistan has indicated their intentions with full aggression.

Mian Nawaz Sharif in his press conference singled out President Asif Ali Zardari as the root cause of all the problems and called him the biggest threat to democracy. This singling out is a real statement of intent from PML-N. PML-N has been labeled as friendly opposition by many factions but the truth is that it is the PML-N, who has forced the Peoples’ Party to take these unpopular decisions.

What awaits after all this doesn’t differ from the previous situation. There will be mass-protests all around, conspiracies to malign each other. In fact Peoples’ Party has already put their foot on the accelerator and started to show their street power and they are in the mood to counter the opposition both in legal manner and also in the streets. It won’t be very easy for the opposition parties to gather the large numbers especially when the Lawyers’ leadership is scattered and divided unlike before. This time PPP has taken the bull by the horn and are in full mood to answer all the questions put at them. The ball is now in the court of PML-N to respond as PPP has made themselves very clear by showing their anger in the streets. Onus will be on PML-N to respond and it won’t be very easy for them because Nawaz Sharif doesn’t want the Mid-Term elections.

Looking into the activities and engagements of President in the last couple of months, we can easily tell that PPP was planning for all this. President was looking for the support of the masses to tackle the arrows pointed towards him. He visited two of the main provinces of Pakistan i.e. Sindh and Punjab. Gathered large number of masses and showed his stance. This time around PPP will play on the front foot and has employed the maneuver of “Attack is the best form Defense”.

This Royal Rumble between the political parties will affect the masses of Pakistan who are already plagued with load shedding of electricity, gas and shortage of food commodities. Pakistan is already surrounded with uncounted problems. These mass protests will only damage the already lingering economy of Pakistan. Price hike has killed the people of Pakistan and a new turmoil will add to the miseries of the people. These protestations will fend off the international sponsors and donor agencies from further investment as it happened last time around.

It is very difficult to conclude any positives from the current situation. Removal of one person or the old cliché “Minus One” won’t solve the problems. The problem lies in the very core of the system. The prevailing system is full of flaws. A uniform system based upon the ideology of the masses is required to solve our problems. Decisions according to the will of the people can only be taken if the system implemented is embroidered from the thread of their minds.

Who's the Boss?

Attack on the General Headquarters last Saturday rang the bells in many quarters of the country. This was the first time when the terrorists broke into the headquarters of those who are considered as one of the best army in the world. It was a very unique situation in the heart of Rawalpindi.

Pakistan has been plagued with the terrorist since the inception of military operation in tribal areas and Waziristan area. We have seen a whole bunch of incidents in which Security Personnel, Political Leaders and even the President/Chief of the Army Staff were attacked.

Two militant outfits have come out and taken the responsibility of the incident, which makes it difficult to figure out who’s the real culprit. Besides these two terrorist organizations, there are many other incidents which lead to the GHQ attack.

From the last six months, there has been an unprecedented movement of the foreign nationals mainly Americans inside Pakistan. Two private security contractors i.e. Blackwater and DynCorp have set up their bases inside Pakistan which is known to everyone. Both these organizations are known to be vicious and deplorable.

These private militias have been operating in Pakistan with no fear and acting like first grade citizens. Their behavior with the Pakistani nationals has been reported as very rude and yokelish.

If we closely take a look at appearance of the Pakistani Taliban from the video footages we receive from time to time, we can see that all the members of TTP we see have beards contrary to the persons who were responsible for the attack except Aqeel. If we analyze the psyche of a Taliban, we can clearly say that they are motivated in the name of Islam, then how it is possible that they will shave their beard (which they consider very sacred and fundamental to Islam) before the attack?

Last month Pakistani security agencies with the help of local agencies raided a local private security company ‘Inter-Risk’ owned by a former captain of SSG (the same group which took part in the operation of GHQ to make it free of terrorists and rescue the hostages) and confiscated heavy ammunition and collared the owner. The owner of the company, Captain (r) Zaidi was known to be providing human resource assistance to these private security contractors. He was recruiting former army personnel for these companies. Aqeel a.k.a Dr. Usman is believed to be the mastermind of the whole event and he himself was an ex-army.

Pakistan security agencies have started to keep an eye on the activities of these private contractors from last few weeks. Arrest of Capt. Zaidi was an installment of their monitoring of these contractors. Pakistan agencies also deported an NGO runner Craig Davis to US but later he came back by getting visa from the American ambassador for Pakistan in Washington, Mr. Hussain Haqqani. All these activities of the Pakistani security agencies didn’t go well with them.

There are many questions which still remain unanswered. These American Mercenaries don’t want their activities to be monitored or their associates arrested. The attack on GHQ is an act which has a very serious motive rather than avenging for the death of Baitullah Mehsud. It looks as if it was a case of settling the scores and telling each other that “WHO’s THE BOSS?”

Pakistan is fighting the war for its very existence against its own people. It is high time that Islamabad identifies its real enemy and stop fighting against its own men.

Ignorance is a Blessing

A lot has been made about the movement of US officials and the expansion of the Embassy of United States in Islamabad. There have been reports that US nationals are allowed to enter in Pakistan without any visa. Local media have already reported about the hiring of furnished houses for the US diplomats.

Few months back it was reported that a private American security company known as XE (formerly Blackwater) was found operating in the capital of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Imtiaz Gul, an engineer, whose home is a few hundred meters from the US contractor’s base on Chanar Road in University Town was quoted saying "Sometimes, these guys stand in the streets and behave rudely with the passers-by, sometimes they point guns at people without provocation. Who rules our streets, the Pakistani government or the Americans? They have created a state within the state". There have been many other incidents like this in Islamabad.

New York Times reported on 20th August 2009, "The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials".

Blackwater came in the limelight in 2005 when its guards were accused of using overweening force in the backwash of Hurricane Katrina. The company became more notorious when it made news in a series of incidents in Iraq when its guards were averred to have caused unnecessary civilian deaths and injuries. Blackwater has been accused of many wrong doings. Two of its former guards have accused the company for smuggling of illegal weapons into Iraq. They also accused its owner Erik Prince of ordering the killing of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating against the company. The former employees also alleged that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe".

Blackwater has started working in Pakistan very rapidly and are recruiting Pakistani ex-military persons for its own objectives. Islamabad Police raided the Inter-Risk Office, a private security company in Islamabad, and arrested its two employees, possessing unlicensed arms and ammunition. The owner of the company, Captain Zaidi, a retired army officer of Special Services Group (SSG) was able to flee successfully.

It is worth noting here that the Capitalists, who believe in privatization of the national institutions, love this policy so much that they are privatizing the war. The US is hiring these contractors because they have lost so much in Iraq and Afghanistan. This privatization of war will lead US nowhere. Infact, it shows the inability of the United States Armed forces that they have to hire private contractors to do what they can not.

One thing is worth noting in all this development that our political leadership including the opposition parties are ignoring this matter. They are only concerned with their point scoring on the tv talk shows by maligning each other and using slang language against their counterparts. It is about time we realize our mistakes. Pakistani people have suffered alot and will keep suffering if our rulers kept the policy of ignorance.