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(Politicios) Elephants in the room
Reality check
Friday, November 21, 2008
by Shafqat Mahmood
They are in there and yet no one seems to acknowledge their presence. These elephants are realities that all of us can see but because of fear, self-interest, pragmatism, or just plain neglect, we don't talk about them.
Let us take a sample.
Our president Mr Zardari left the country on November 11 and after two days of meetings in New York, has not been heard of since. I am writing this on Wednesday evening and have no idea where he is and what he is up to? One report says he is spending time with his children in London. This is very fatherly of him but he is the president of a country that is inundated with problems. And he is no figurehead; he is practically the chief executive. How can he afford to be away for so long?
According to an estimate in this paper, he has spent half the time so far as president out of the country. In between there have been reports that he would take off at night for Dubai and arrive back the next day. On one such 'quiet' visit, his plane had to land in Lahore due to bad weather. Only then was the trip discovered.
The simple fact President Zardari has to internalise is that honour and responsibility go together. This nation has done him great honour by electing him president. He has to now accept the responsibility and govern. The argument that it is the prime minister's job to do that will not wash because all power within the party and the government flows from him. He has to take effective charge and stop this unnecessary globetrotting and disappearing acts.
If he was here more often, maybe he would better orchestrate his relationship with the PML-N. This is one elephant in the room that has started to become visible. The spat between the Punjab governor and the government of the province is now erupting into open hostility. Taseer has taken up letter writing which is reminiscent of what Ghulam Ishaq used to do in the early nineties. The purpose was to prepare a case for the dismissal of the government. Is this what Salmaan is up to?
The PML-N's response through Rana Sanaullah was partly correct and partly uncalled for. It is true that Taseer is a Musharraf remnant and is seen as such by a majority of the PPP in the province. Since the mid-nineties, he has had nothing to do with the party and was often scathing about the late Benazir Bhutto. His current lack of acceptance is reflected in contemptuous statements about him by the party's Punjab secretary general, Ghulam Abbas. Many others in the party think on similar lines.
Where I differ with Rana Sanaullah is in the distribution of the so-called incriminating photographs. First, we know that photographs can be easily cooked up these days, but more importantly this is opening up a Pandora's Box of personal attacks. Others can retaliate by cooking up stories about the personal lives of PML-N leaders. This game of tit for tat and airing of manufactured or real stories helps no one. Let us keep the discourse within the political domain and leave the private conduct of political personalities between them and their maker.
It is in this context that I would like to express my deep dismay, indeed disgust, about the photographs of Salmaan's family that someone has started to distribute on the net. I have severe misgivings about the political conduct of the Punjab governor but this practice is totally reprehensible. I hope that the political class as a whole takes notice and adopts a public position against such activities.
One last word about the emerging conflict in Punjab. Obviously, the governor is not writing letters or upping the rhetoric on his own. He has been asked by Zardari to do so. Why? Because he wants to play the good cop to Taseer's bad cop. It is the oldest game in town. Zardari wants to keep the pressure up on the PML-N government in Punjab and wants them to come running to him complaining about his underlings. The only trouble is that people on the other side are not fools. If he does not stop these games, they will retaliate and it could become ugly. And that is in no one's interest.
The largest elephant in the room is regarding another forced closure of GEO and ARY television broadcasts in Karachi and parts of Sindh. Everyone knows who is behind it but nobody is ready to name the people or the group responsible. The federal government has come up with a cute excuse. It wants the channels to name the culprits thus putting them on the spot. The channels respond that it is the government's responsibility to find out the perpetrators. And so it goes.
What is involved here is pure and simple fear although you will hear other explanations.
The media will take refuge in the argument that if they name names without solid proof they leave themselves open to a law suit. The government will just keep being coy because it has little interest in taking on a headache it can avoid.
The result is that fascism keeps gaining ground. I have also not named the obvious party because my editors may not let it pass. It is this conspiracy of silence that is taking us all down.
But, let us celebrate what we can celebrate. An elephant that had been haunting our political landscape for years (pun intended) has been thoroughly exposed by this paper's Ansar Abbasi. We always knew that Fazalur Rehman was mixed up with Musharraf but we had no proof. Besides the infamous seventeenth amendment, he had also sabotaged the lawyers' movement and collaborated in Musharraf's illegal presidential election.
Now, Ansar Abbasi has laid it all bare. Fazalur Rehman's cronies and underlings of his brothers became front men for a land scam in which hundreds of acres of land were dished out to them for services rendered. What is most interesting is that it was GHQ land and knowing how jealously the military guards its property, this was quite a feat.
Now Fazal is flailing about accusing this or that agency of deliberating maligning him. Particularly heart-wrenching was his complaint that his nickname 'Maulana Diesel' was manufactured by the ISI or was it the CIA. Poor fellow. Every agency in the world is picking on him but fear not. This targeting is not hurting him one bit. He seems to be getting bigger and better with every adversity.
One last word before I close. It was great to see the 'liberal' PPP disowning the very progressive and pro women recommendations made by the Council of Islamic Ideology. This should not come as a surprise to anyone considering that it has elevated two famous supporters of women, Zehri and Bijrani, to the federal cabinet.
Reality check
Friday, November 21, 2008
by Shafqat Mahmood
They are in there and yet no one seems to acknowledge their presence. These elephants are realities that all of us can see but because of fear, self-interest, pragmatism, or just plain neglect, we don't talk about them.
Let us take a sample.
Our president Mr Zardari left the country on November 11 and after two days of meetings in New York, has not been heard of since. I am writing this on Wednesday evening and have no idea where he is and what he is up to? One report says he is spending time with his children in London. This is very fatherly of him but he is the president of a country that is inundated with problems. And he is no figurehead; he is practically the chief executive. How can he afford to be away for so long?
According to an estimate in this paper, he has spent half the time so far as president out of the country. In between there have been reports that he would take off at night for Dubai and arrive back the next day. On one such 'quiet' visit, his plane had to land in Lahore due to bad weather. Only then was the trip discovered.
The simple fact President Zardari has to internalise is that honour and responsibility go together. This nation has done him great honour by electing him president. He has to now accept the responsibility and govern. The argument that it is the prime minister's job to do that will not wash because all power within the party and the government flows from him. He has to take effective charge and stop this unnecessary globetrotting and disappearing acts.
If he was here more often, maybe he would better orchestrate his relationship with the PML-N. This is one elephant in the room that has started to become visible. The spat between the Punjab governor and the government of the province is now erupting into open hostility. Taseer has taken up letter writing which is reminiscent of what Ghulam Ishaq used to do in the early nineties. The purpose was to prepare a case for the dismissal of the government. Is this what Salmaan is up to?
The PML-N's response through Rana Sanaullah was partly correct and partly uncalled for. It is true that Taseer is a Musharraf remnant and is seen as such by a majority of the PPP in the province. Since the mid-nineties, he has had nothing to do with the party and was often scathing about the late Benazir Bhutto. His current lack of acceptance is reflected in contemptuous statements about him by the party's Punjab secretary general, Ghulam Abbas. Many others in the party think on similar lines.
Where I differ with Rana Sanaullah is in the distribution of the so-called incriminating photographs. First, we know that photographs can be easily cooked up these days, but more importantly this is opening up a Pandora's Box of personal attacks. Others can retaliate by cooking up stories about the personal lives of PML-N leaders. This game of tit for tat and airing of manufactured or real stories helps no one. Let us keep the discourse within the political domain and leave the private conduct of political personalities between them and their maker.
It is in this context that I would like to express my deep dismay, indeed disgust, about the photographs of Salmaan's family that someone has started to distribute on the net. I have severe misgivings about the political conduct of the Punjab governor but this practice is totally reprehensible. I hope that the political class as a whole takes notice and adopts a public position against such activities.
One last word about the emerging conflict in Punjab. Obviously, the governor is not writing letters or upping the rhetoric on his own. He has been asked by Zardari to do so. Why? Because he wants to play the good cop to Taseer's bad cop. It is the oldest game in town. Zardari wants to keep the pressure up on the PML-N government in Punjab and wants them to come running to him complaining about his underlings. The only trouble is that people on the other side are not fools. If he does not stop these games, they will retaliate and it could become ugly. And that is in no one's interest.
The largest elephant in the room is regarding another forced closure of GEO and ARY television broadcasts in Karachi and parts of Sindh. Everyone knows who is behind it but nobody is ready to name the people or the group responsible. The federal government has come up with a cute excuse. It wants the channels to name the culprits thus putting them on the spot. The channels respond that it is the government's responsibility to find out the perpetrators. And so it goes.
What is involved here is pure and simple fear although you will hear other explanations.
The media will take refuge in the argument that if they name names without solid proof they leave themselves open to a law suit. The government will just keep being coy because it has little interest in taking on a headache it can avoid.
The result is that fascism keeps gaining ground. I have also not named the obvious party because my editors may not let it pass. It is this conspiracy of silence that is taking us all down.
But, let us celebrate what we can celebrate. An elephant that had been haunting our political landscape for years (pun intended) has been thoroughly exposed by this paper's Ansar Abbasi. We always knew that Fazalur Rehman was mixed up with Musharraf but we had no proof. Besides the infamous seventeenth amendment, he had also sabotaged the lawyers' movement and collaborated in Musharraf's illegal presidential election.
Now, Ansar Abbasi has laid it all bare. Fazalur Rehman's cronies and underlings of his brothers became front men for a land scam in which hundreds of acres of land were dished out to them for services rendered. What is most interesting is that it was GHQ land and knowing how jealously the military guards its property, this was quite a feat.
Now Fazal is flailing about accusing this or that agency of deliberating maligning him. Particularly heart-wrenching was his complaint that his nickname 'Maulana Diesel' was manufactured by the ISI or was it the CIA. Poor fellow. Every agency in the world is picking on him but fear not. This targeting is not hurting him one bit. He seems to be getting bigger and better with every adversity.
One last word before I close. It was great to see the 'liberal' PPP disowning the very progressive and pro women recommendations made by the Council of Islamic Ideology. This should not come as a surprise to anyone considering that it has elevated two famous supporters of women, Zehri and Bijrani, to the federal cabinet.
