PTI's Azadi March 14th August 2014 l Updates and debate.

[VCheng]

Heck I'm going tomorrow. Here is an opportunity to discard all sense of tune and melody along with everything I know about music, and indulge myself in such classics as "Ne Heeray!" and "Saali". ..along with the timeless "Asan de jana Billo de Ghar". Morerover, TuQ has also arranged Qawwali so essentially Pakistan's main government boulevard is the scene of intense quasi-pop/classical spiritual music convention. Forget woodstock, this is the new hippism and I for one am going tomorrow and taking a dollop of some of the magical weed along to smoke and share with the babes there( a friend of mine is indulging in this as we speak). This is a partayy and I intend to join it.


P.s.. I heard there may be some political activism out there but who cares.. YOLO!

The best part is that you will get to claim for eternity, "I was THERE, man!".

 

[Meengla]

The best part is that you will get to claim for eternity, "I was THERE, man!".

Yes, you would have claimed to have gone to the 'Woodstock of Pakistan 2014' which combined Sufi Music with Rock n Roll, BhangRa dance with twist dance--all costing a mere few hundred billions to Pakistani economy.

[Alright, I can't be as good as @Oscar with words. Sorry]

 

[WishLivePak]

Pakistan's political path: Two steps back | The Economist

IMRAN KHAN, a former star cricketer turned politician, is overly fond of cricketing metaphors. For the past six days he has delivered speeches peppered with corny references to the sport, to cheers from the thousands of followers he has protesting on the streets of Pakistan’s capital.

Unfortunately for his own role in the metaphor between sport and politics, Mr Khan lacks a certain basic level of respect for the umpire. Having failed to win last year’s election Mr Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), is determined to have the result overturned. He makes his case on claims of massive “electoral match-fixing”—which have not been supported by independent observers.

Undeterred, over the past week Mr Khan led a slow-moving convoy from Lahore to Islamabad. He and his procession crawled along their 300km course without picking up the kind of throngs he had been hoping to find. In Islamabad Mr Khan’s stalwarts began a long sit-in on one of the capital’s long avenues. They heard their hero repeat his demand for the resignation of prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who leads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and controls an overwhelming majority in parliament.

Pakistan’s commentariat was unimpressed, with many pundits declaring the whole thing a flop because Mr Khan failed to get anywhere near the 1m people he had rashly predicted. While the crowd has ebbed and flowed as the monsoon rains have come and gone, it is generally thought to have peaked in size at around 20,000. Whatever the numbers, he has been outdone by Tahir ul-Qadri, a Canada-based cleric with a devoted following. Mr ul-Qadri is running a parallel demonstration demanding a revolution that will lead to an entirely new political order. In their aims the crowds have much in common, but their comparison in numbers is not flattering to the leader who claims to have won a national election.

Mr Khan will probably remain a national hero to many Pakistanis regardless of their politics. But he has attracted an unusual degree of public scorn after using his pulpit on Sunday night to call for a taxation strike. In a country where tax evasion is already rampant, he suggested Mr Sharif could be forced to step down within just 48 hours, if only enough people refused to pay their taxes and utility bills.

The political drama has proved a great distraction from other crises besetting the nation. On August 14th commando teams of Pakistani Taliban fighters attacked two separate military installations in the restive province of Baluchistan, killing 13 security forces. On August 18th the new government of India, led by Narendra Modi, signalled a tough new line when it cancelled high-level talks that had been planned between the two countries. The Indians were protesting against a meeting that Pakistan’s high commissioner had with Kashmiri separatists in New Delhi.

Mr Sharif is apparently unwilling to help Mr Khan back down from his extreme demands. And so the PTI leader doubled down, announcing that all of his party’s 34 parliamentarians would quit their seats in protest. The PTI members of the country’s four provincial assemblies will also resign—but not those in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the party controls the government—which is prompting accusations of hypocrisy.

To increase the pressure on the streets, Mr Khan ordered his youthful supporters to push into Islamabad’s sensitive “Red Zone” of government buildings and embassies. By the early hours of Wednesday morning, August 20th, thousands of Mr Khan’s and Mr Qadri’s supporters had removed barricades, pushed past police and camped themselves directly in front of the parliament building, with the two leaders repeating their demands for the removal of Mr Sharif.

While it still looks unlikely they will get their wish, the standoff has created perfect conditions for the army to reassert its traditional role, wielding the same power which Mr Sharif has used his first year in power to try and reduce. The fact that the army, which until Wednesday had remained silent on the matter, rushed to call for “patience” from all the “stakeholders” involved in the dispute has led many to conclude the whole affair was secretly orchestrated by the generals.

The military establishment has been anxious to regain its authority over foreign and defence policy, which was once unquestioned. The generals have been at loggerheads over Mr Sharif’s impassioned desire for warmer relations with India; Pakistan’s overgrown army exists largely to confront the giant neighbour. It is also unclear whether the army can tolerate Mr Sharif’s wish to drop the country’s decades-old policy of interfering in Afghanistan.

Whether or not Mr Sharif survives, coup-prone Pakistan’s strides towards greater democracy have been severely damaged. The 2013 election was historic for being the first time the country had ever experienced the peaceful transition of power after a democratically elected government survived its full five-year term for the first time. It only made it that long because Mr Sharif’s PML-N, then in opposition, refused to use street power to bring it down early.

It is not only Pakistan’s recent progress that is at stake. Given the evidence of growing public discontent with his haphazard campaign, Mr Khan also risks undermining his own chances of building on last year’s electoral success. In choosing to play what he has described as his “final match” against Mr Sharif, Mr Khan could end up losing everything he built for himself too.


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@Chak Bamu @MalikBrother @Jzaib @orangzaib

foreign paid media! noora paid media! economist spreading propaganda!

PTI die hard fans will still not believe how badly this march is failing. Any Pakiatani news websites I quoted, they'd accuse them all. Now let's see what they've to say about the economist. Also guardian posted similar article.

 

[VCheng]

Yes, you would have claimed to have gone to the 'Woodstock of Pakistan 2014' which combined Sufi Music with Rock n Roll, BhangRa dance with twist dance--all costing a mere few hundred billions to Pakistani economy.

[Alright, I can't be as good as @Oscar with words. Sorry]

No matter how you word it, the hangover from this "partay" is going to be splitting.

 

[WishLivePak]

also pti has no seat in balochistan.another lie

 

[VCheng]

While it still looks unlikely they will get their wish, the standoff has created perfect conditions for the army to reassert its traditional role, wielding the same power which Mr Sharif has used his first year in power to try and reduce. The fact that the army, which until Wednesday had remained silent on the matter, rushed to call for “patience” from all the “stakeholders” involved in the dispute has led many to conclude the whole affair was secretly orchestrated by the generals.

The military establishment has been anxious to regain its authority over foreign and defence policy, which was once unquestioned. The generals have been at loggerheads over Mr Sharif’s impassioned desire for warmer relations with India; Pakistan’s overgrown army exists largely to confront the giant neighbour. It is also unclear whether the army can tolerate Mr Sharif’s wish to drop the country’s decades-old policy of interfering in Afghanistan.

The above two paragraphs bear repeating and comprehending the deep implications for Pakistan.

 

[WishLivePak]

The above two paragraphs bear repeating and comprehending the deep implications for Pakistan.

I think if there will be coup, it'll not be by raheal sharif or even a general. The army sure feels sorry for mush, but it carries a lot of sentiment in junior officers

 

[Meengla]

Mushtaq Minhas has a point. Really, which leaders worthy of historic changes would dwell on threatening national heroes to join or they won't be 'Pashtuns'? If Imran had to 'kill time' there are plenty of ways to do: Plenty of legit ways to take apart this govt. But Immi is an intellectual dwarf!! Perhaps that's because being born into a rich family, winning the world cup (which was NOT his solo doing--without others, especially Miandad there wouldn't be the world cup!), and being adored by Pakistanis he has stopped using his puny intellect.

 

[SQ8]

The best part is that you will get to claim for eternity, "I was THERE, man!".

Yes, you would have claimed to have gone to the 'Woodstock of Pakistan 2014' which combined Sufi Music with Rock n Roll, BhangRa dance with twist dance--all costing a mere few hundred billions to Pakistani economy.

[Alright, I can't be as good as @Oscar with words. Sorry]

Well, I suppose I should take this instead of this along. Might as well make some cash while Im at it

 

[Viper0011.]

While today due to storm 5 more people died with 12 injuries in KPK. the province is left un-attended and i am starting to think that he will get violent if the situation doesnt pan out the way he wants it too.

That is my point. Taliban Khan at such a bad time has taken away ALL resources from where they were needed. The ENTIRE government is focused on getting him out of Islamabad as one incident would be really bad for Pakistan and its images across the globe (not that its any better as is). Where the military, police, the government officials are needed, they are not there as they are trying to save a system from two religious fanatics who are insanely bi-polar.
A monkey living in Pakistan right now knows how big and bad of a situation the IDPs are under. But when was the LAST time someone heard IK talk about suffering humans?
The 2 Trillion the country lost, it could've made brand new homes for EVERY SINGLE displaced family. Why didn't he work his crap out with the Parliament or the Courts? Sitting with a few members outside of Parliament with media coverage would've done a MUCH BETTER impression than the extremist based violation of the constitutions on the streets.
At the end, this idiot doesn't even win anything. The establishment will get more power. NS will stay and even if he goes, he'll come back due to his vote bank. But IK.....has ruined his political future no matter how you look at it. People are dying in his own governed province but there is no word on anything. But he thinks he can build an "independent" Pakistan by ignoring millions displaced that needed help last month. Not with the "new and Talibanized Pakistan" that IK wants to build!

 

[Meengla]

I think if there will be coup, it'll not be by raheal sharif or even a general. The army sure feels sorry for mush, but it carries a lot of sentiment in junior officers

God forbids if Junior Officers launch any coups! That would be complete anarchy. As much we may despise coups the Army has retained the unity of command where the COAS called the shots. If Junior Officers take matter into their own hands then Pakistan is really finished because that would mean breaking up of one integrated institution.

But, I don't think there is going to be a direct coup. Chances of that are 0% under current scenario. And that's because, unlike anytime in the past, the military has no accomplices other than some Chale huwey Kartoos politicians and the dancing zombies of the Pakistan Woodstock 2014.

But what shape and form an indirect coup might take?

 

[Bratva]

God forbids if Junior Officers launch any coups! That would be complete anarchy. As much we may despise coups the Army has retained the unity of command where the COAS called the shots. If Junior Officers take matter into their own hands then Pakistan is really finished because that would mean breaking up of one integrated institution.

But, I don't think there is going to be a direct coup. Chances of that are 0% under current scenario. And that's because, unlike anytime in the past, the military has no accomplices other than some Chale huwey Kartoos politicians and the dancing zombies of the Pakistan Woodstock 2014.

But what shape and form an indirect coup might take?

Have you heard of Danday wali sarkar with green eyes who would rule Pakistan?

 

[Meengla]

Have you heard of Danday wali sarkar with green eyes who would rule Pakistan?

no?

 

[Bratva]

no?

Islam and Pakistan: Predictions By Dr. Nazir Ahmad Qureshi

 

[Sedqal]

Islam and Pakistan: Predictions By Dr. Nazir Ahmad Qureshi

I'm pretty sure khakis have spread these predictions around (who can be danday wali sarkar but a general?) there is another making rounds (Nojawanoun kee hakomat) which also points to khaki officers taking charge