Breaking the fast and the law!
Last evening I met up with old friends for iftar at a restaurant. The five of us have been together for a good 15 years now! Ever since we have started our professional careers, we get very little quality time together. It is a blessing from Allah to have such friends who stick with you through thick and thin.
After iftar, we all decided to go to one of our friend’s house where we could have some tea and catch up with old times. We talked about a variety of topics from leisure, to business, to the crazy traffic in Dubai and at the very end, politics. Four out of the five of us are Pakistanis (including myself) – the fifth being a Muslim Indian – and so most of our political chit-chat centered on Pakistan. We mainly discussed selected topics from Musharraf’s recently published memoirs as well as some history related to the partition era.
During this conversation with my friends I realized something about us Pakistanis that actually our Indian friend once alluded to – we are damn proud of our contempt for rules and laws! This is a very disturbing trend in self-professed “moderate” and “progressive” Pakistanis. I was surprised to see how all my friends (including the Indian friend!) supported the extra-judicial killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti – a tribal leader of the Bugti tribe in Balochistan – by the Pakistan Army. To them, Nawab Akbar Bugti was a “state within a state” who had to be taken out in the “national interest of Pakistan”.
Granted Pakistan can do without the “sardarana” tribal system of Balochistan, but to support the blatant modus operandi of the Pakistani army in bombing a 2-time former chief minister of a province and a citizen of Pakistan is quite reprehensible. Doesn’t such high-handedness reduce to rubbish institutions such as the judiciary? What about the rule of law? What is more is that they were all agreeing that the Constitution of Pakistan categorically states that the President of Pakistan cannot hold 2 positions at the same time. Yet they support Musharraf’s illegitimate tenure at the office in clear violation of the Constitution of Pakistan! Their reasoning varies from Musharraf being the only person capable of leading this nation through these times, to their disappointment, which I share as well, with the political parties of Pakistan, to the more crude “rules are made to be broken” line of reasoning!
It is weird that all of these friends of mine lament how the law and order situation in Pakistan is so bad and how there’s no respect for the law. If only we could see how we have ourselves contributed to the lack of rule of law and due process!
After iftar, we all decided to go to one of our friend’s house where we could have some tea and catch up with old times. We talked about a variety of topics from leisure, to business, to the crazy traffic in Dubai and at the very end, politics. Four out of the five of us are Pakistanis (including myself) – the fifth being a Muslim Indian – and so most of our political chit-chat centered on Pakistan. We mainly discussed selected topics from Musharraf’s recently published memoirs as well as some history related to the partition era.
During this conversation with my friends I realized something about us Pakistanis that actually our Indian friend once alluded to – we are damn proud of our contempt for rules and laws! This is a very disturbing trend in self-professed “moderate” and “progressive” Pakistanis. I was surprised to see how all my friends (including the Indian friend!) supported the extra-judicial killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti – a tribal leader of the Bugti tribe in Balochistan – by the Pakistan Army. To them, Nawab Akbar Bugti was a “state within a state” who had to be taken out in the “national interest of Pakistan”.
Granted Pakistan can do without the “sardarana” tribal system of Balochistan, but to support the blatant modus operandi of the Pakistani army in bombing a 2-time former chief minister of a province and a citizen of Pakistan is quite reprehensible. Doesn’t such high-handedness reduce to rubbish institutions such as the judiciary? What about the rule of law? What is more is that they were all agreeing that the Constitution of Pakistan categorically states that the President of Pakistan cannot hold 2 positions at the same time. Yet they support Musharraf’s illegitimate tenure at the office in clear violation of the Constitution of Pakistan! Their reasoning varies from Musharraf being the only person capable of leading this nation through these times, to their disappointment, which I share as well, with the political parties of Pakistan, to the more crude “rules are made to be broken” line of reasoning!
It is weird that all of these friends of mine lament how the law and order situation in Pakistan is so bad and how there’s no respect for the law. If only we could see how we have ourselves contributed to the lack of rule of law and due process!
posted by al-republican at 8:05 AM
11 Comments:
I hate Politics!!!
5 Friends ?!
Their Martial Status ?
Their Salary ?
Their identity ? (i.e. Salafee, Wahabee, Ahul Hadeeth ...)
i read the discription of your blog not his post,,
i really dont think what you try for is possible
the apocalyptic clash is coming! and its in hadeeth, not to mention belived by christians and jews
although i do believe that not all the west is uniform and there are many which do understand,
yet this ayah is suffice at this moment :
Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with thee unless thou follow their form of religion. Say: "The Guidance of Allah, that is the (only) Guidance," wert thou to follow their desires after the knowledge which hath reached thee, then wouldst thou find neither Protector nor Helper against Allah.
q81bloger-
Indeed! Translating that Verse in English loses the "flavor" of the message behind it. The contemproral understand of the word "religion" is quite different from the orthodox one.
It could be better stated as "way of life" and that is EXACTLY what Bush keeps parroting: battle of ideologies, way of life, spreading of democracy, free trade etc.
Political democracies are limited in that officials seeking re-election will never do anything to jeapordize their re-election, even if it is in the interest of the country. Even the most developed and mature democracies have this problem. Humans by nature are self-serving and politicians are the rule, not the exception.
Pakistan is a weak democracy, partly because men like Bugti have undermined and made a mockery of this democracy for decades. No judicial action was ever going to solve his problem. Pakistan can not allow nationalists of any kind to get too optimistic, otherwise it may cease to exist.
Do I need to paint a picture to impress upon you how royally that would suck?
fair enough
makes sense
although it could be argued that such ideologies are religions in themselves just as religions can be refered to as ideologies
but you havent adressed the first part of my comment on the clash
peace
Moose-
It is not just Bugti who had made a mockery of democracy. How about the PPP and PML? Even MQM for that matter? They have all made a mess of Pakistani politics. However, is bombing them a solution? I think not! 1971 is a case in point. How many people actually know what was the reason for the deadlock between the balochis and the government of Pakistan? They had 3 legitimate grievances that Musharraf's own PML(Q) had addressed. But, when has the Pakistani army ever listened to anyone?
It is for this reason that even Musharraf's puppet PML(Q) league denounced the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti. Do not forget that he was THE most patriotic of all the balochi tribal leaders! His alliance goes back as that of Muhammad Ali Jinnah with whom he directly liased to enter willingly the fold of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
q8ibloger:
Yes, I think the clash has already begun. My blogs are actually meant to shed light on the "unpopular" side of events. This is an effort to reach out to the sensible Westerners as you yourself allude to in your first post.
5 friends and only one with a different perspective. No points for guessing who was right and who was wrong or as in some cases proven many times. Time shall take its toll to convince my friend here that the people of the islamic republic of pakistan do not know how to spell " D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y", let alone understand its true meaning.
We're better offer with our chief executive cum general as compared to the punjab feudal lords and money spinning goons from the heart of Sind.
Lets not forget what we discussed with the Nazim system introduced after a long time, this is the closest we have come to democracy ( well democracy with a scare of the army) not bad to keeep you moving in the right direction.
until another dinner and chai...lage rahoo musharraf bhai!
Don-
You are able to spell democracy and even understand it's true meaning. So why are you supporting the blatant hegemony of the Pakistan Armed Forces?
By the way, like we discussed over chai, Mushy has shot himself in the foot with his memoirs. Now NATO generals are saying that Pakistan needs to be "either with us or against us" and dismantle the ISI as the ISI is aiding the Taliban in regrouping!
So there you have it, now NATO is trying to force Musharraf to "war game" and dismantle the ISI! My opinions might be unpopular, but I certainly try to keep educated ones. And I certainly don't claim to be "popular" when I am not :P
I like the name. Good stuff.
Nice name, good stuff!
DON!!!!
hmmmmnumnumm shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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