Comparing India with Pakistan

Twenty-five thousand years ago, haplogroup R2 characterized by genetic marker M124 arose in southern Central Asia. Then began a major wave of human migration whereby members migrated southward to present-day India and Pakistan (Genographic Project by the National Geographic Society; http://www.nationalgeographiccom/). Indians and Pakistanis have the same ancestry and share the same DNA sequence. Here’s what is happening in India: The two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and would still be left with $30 billion to spare. The four richest Indians can buy up all goods and services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still be left with $60 billion to spare. The four richest Indians are now richer than the forty richest Chinese. In November, Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex flirted with 20,000 points. As a consequence, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries became a $100 billion company (the entire KSE is capitalized at $65 billion). Mukesh owns 48 percent of Reliance. In November, comes Neeta’s birthday. Neeta turned forty-four three weeks ago. Look what she got from her husband as her birthday present: A sixty-million dollar jet with a custom fitted master bedroom, bathroom with mood lighting, a sky bar, entertainment cabins, satellite television, wireless communication and a separate cabin with game consoles. Neeta is Mukesh Ambani’s wife, and Mukesh is not India’s richest but the second richest. Mukesh is now building his new home, Residence Antillia (after a mythical, phantom island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean). At a cost of $1 billion this would be the most expensive home on the face of the planet. At 173 meters tall Mukesh’s new family residence, for a family of six, will be the equivalent of a 60-storeyed building. The first six floors are reserved for parking. The seventh floor is for car servicing and maintenance. The eighth floor houses a mini-theatre. Then there’s a health club, a gym and a swimming pool. Two floors are reserved for Ambani family’s guests. Four floors above the guest floors are family floors all with a superb view of the Arabian Sea. On top of everything are three helipads. A staff of 600 is expected to care for the family and their family home. In 2004, India became the 3rd most attractive foreign direct investment destination. Pakistan wasn’t even in the top 25 countries. In 2004, the United Nations, the representative body of 192 sovereign member states, had requested the Election Commission of India to assist the UN in the holding elections in Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah and Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan. Why the Election Commission of India and not the Election Commission of Pakistan? After all, Islamabad is closer to Kabul than is Delhi. Imagine, 12 percent of all American scientists are of Indian origin; 38 percent of doctors in America are Indian; 36 percent of NASA scientists are Indians; 34 percent of Microsoft employees are Indians; and 28 percent of IBM employees are Indians. For the record: Sabeer Bhatia created and founded Hotmail. Sun Microsystems was founded by Vinod Khosla. The Intel Pentium processor, that runs 90 percent of all computers, was fathered by Vinod Dham. Rajiv Gupta co-invented Hewlett Packard’s E-speak project. Four out of ten Silicon Valley start-ups are run by Indians. Bollywood produces 800 movies per year and six Indian ladies have won Miss Universe/Miss World titles over the past 10 years. For the record: Azim Premji, the richest Muslim entrepreneur on the face of the planet, was born in Bombay and now lives in Bangalore.India now has more than three dozen billionaires; Pakistan has none (not a single dollar billionaire). The other amazing aspect is the rapid pace at which India is creating wealth. In 2002, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh and Anil Ambani’s father, left his two sons a fortune worth $2.8 billion. In 2007, their combined wealth stood at $94 billion. On 29 October 2007, as a result of the stock market rally and the appreciation of the Indian rupee, Mukesh became the richest person in the world, with net worth climbing to US$63.2 billion (Bill Gates, the richest American, stands at around $56 billion). Indians and Pakistanis have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup. We have the same genetic sequence and the same genetic marker (namely: M124). We have the same DNA molecule, the same DNA sequence. Our culture, our traditions and our cuisine are all the same. We watch the same movies and sing the same songs. What is it that Indians have and we don’t? Indians elect their leaders. =========

….The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

Indonesia: General Soeharto

Soeharto breathed his last in the quiet confines of Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta in stark contrast to the hundreds of thousands that were compelled to breathe their last in agony in prisons, caves, rivers or places of detention during his rule. There were cases of victims being shot or the heads chopped off at the mouths of caves – no one knowing how or under what circumstances they died in those caves. Only a recent excavation at Wonosobo revealed the signs of misery that these victims may have suffered prior to their ignominious deaths in the cave. A similar fate had awaited those who were imprisoned on Buru Island which is still known as “Soeharto’s Gulag”. The famous Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who for many years was not allowed to publish his writings, was imprisoned on the island for 14 years. Until recently there were several cemeteries on the island to marking the graves of those who died of starvation, torture and disease.While Soeharto’s era might be over, many of his political allies are still continuing policies of political discrimination from within the current governing league in Indonesia. Their attempts to cover up the atrocities committed by Soeharto and themselves continue to distort the historical picture of the nation. Indonesia is trying to establish an identity based on values of democracy and human dignity, but what Soeharto and his supporters did and are doing is blocking an honest appraisal of his time in office. Many of the victims are still alive unable to find redress which is amalgamated by a lack of acknowledgement of their sufferings through a distortion of history. The persecution commenced in 1965 by Soeharto continued for decades with various forms of humiliation, deprivation, discrimination and isolation used under his watch. The victims were punished for generations. It was made difficult even for the children of these ‘ex-tapol’ prisoners to gain access to a good school, employment or social benefits. The worst of it all was the destruction of a system by which justice could have been obtained by the victims. While there is a plethora of praises for the so called “father of development”, the greatest disrespect that he brought to the nation, has not been said. He not only introduced autocratic patriarchy under a system of ‘Pancasila’, which in a subtle manner undermined not only the system of democratic governance, but also the all important system of prosecution. The rural Pancasila served as the suppressing ideology. Under this guise bodies were created even in the most remote villages to monitor and conduct surveillance in order to stifle any form of freedom of expression and association. The same ideology provided the justification of all power both political and economic concentrated in the hands of Soeharto which eventually lead to staggering corruption and nepotism. Transparency International once declared Soeharto as Asia’s most corrupt leader.To his dubious credentials must be added the forceful annexation of the eastern part of Timor. The harsh repression of the democracy movement in East Timor is estimated to have resulted in the deaths of over 180,000 persons. The same callous treatment was applied to the situations in West Papua and Aceh. ”General Suharto has died in bed and not in jail, escaping justice for his numerous crimes in East Timor and throughout the Indonesian archipelago,” was the remark made by the group East Timor Action Network, as was quoted by the Bangkok Post. The real success of Soeharto was his elimination of any form of justice being meted out to the victims, and thus allowing impunity to reign. All attempts by civil society organizations and more recently by the attorney general to stand trial were thwarted by the persistent claim by his lawyers and the doctors that he is unfit to stand trial. A large section of the people see the death of Soeharto as a missed opportunity for sentence to be passed on the justice system itself crippled and plagued with its own culture of impunity. This harsh reality was revealed in the trial of the Indonesians accused of war crimes and human rights violations in East Timor at the Ad-Hoc Human Rights Tribunal. Ironically all Indonesians, except for an East Timorese, were found not guilty.Aliawah hopes that the death of Soeharto be the beginning of a new hope for the reign of justice – a reform of the police, the attorney general and the judiciary, thus heralding a rebirth of the entire prosecution system that was ruined by the legacy of Soeharto.

Unanswered Qs about BB Assassination

(1) How could the British police team be certain about the cause of death in the absence of an autopsy and based solely on X-rays of Bhutto’s head, the attending doctors’ hurried notes and the accounts of family members to Pakistani police?

(2) Why didn’t Pakistani authorities exercise their right in murder cases to order an autopsy after Bhutto’s husband, [Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman] Asif Ali Zardari, refused to permit one?

(3) Several witness accounts spoke of a bullet wound in Bhutto’s neck, but the X-rays and doctors’ reports say nothing about her neck. The report says that a British pathologist couldn’t “categorically” exclude a gunshot wound but that other unspecified evidence “suggests there is no gunshot injury.”

(4) Who ordered the crime scene to be cleared and hosed down within two hours of the attack, destroying crucial forensic evidence?

(5) Why was there scant police protection and no security cordon as Bhutto left the Rawalpindi rally? Why were government-provided jammers that prevent cellular telephones from being used to trigger bombs apparently not working?

(6) On the night Bhutto died, doctors at the hospital first said that her death resulted from a bullet wound. What made them change their story to say that it was shrapnel?

(7) If, as the report says, Bhutto’s head disappeared into the vehicle escape hatch 0.6 seconds before the blast, how did she collide with the hatch?

(8) Was the short distance that her head would have moved to hit the hatch capable of generating enough force to cause a fatal injury? A leaked Pakistani investigation report suggested that the distance was too short.

(9) Why were the biggest questions – who did it [who killed Benazir Bhutto] and why? – put off-limits to Scotland Yard?

Voter Turnout in Karachi

According to Election Commission of Pakistan data more people in Karachi came out to vote in the elections in 2008 than in 2002.  In NA 252, where there were 277,553 registered voters, 117,550 votes, i.e. 42%, were cast, as against 33.27% in 2002, showing an increase of 9.08%. Similarly, in NA 253 from a total of 398,527 registered voters, 156,342 i.e. 39% votes were counted, as against 32.40% in 2002, showing an increase of 6.83%. The largest difference, 9.50%, was seen in NA 256, where 165,160 votes were cast out of the 371,067 registered voters. The same trend was reported from NA 257 in which out of 386,376 registered voters a total of 188,363 i.e. 49% votes were polled as compared to 41.73% in 2002, showing that 7.02% more people cast their votes.

Saifullah Paracha in Guantanamo Bay

Sixty-year-old Saifullah Paracha was a businessman and a prominent social worker in Karachi City, Sindh province. He was first reported to have disappeared on 6 July 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand while on a business trip, but his relatives found out later through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Islamabad that he had been arrested and subsequently detained in Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan on charges of terrorism. He was accused in having been involved in the September 11 attack. He was kept incommunicado there for over a year.

It was on 23 August 2003 that Saifullah’s family learned of his detention from the ICRC in Islamabad. However, his family was unable to communicate with him while he was detained there. One year later, in September 2004, Saifullah’s family was once again informed by a person from the ICRC that he had been transferred to Camp-5, a maximum security U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.It is reported that each cell is approximately measured 6 feet wide and 8 feet high. The lights are switched on 24 hours a day and the prisoners are allowed out of their cells only two hours in a day. The prison guards periodically change the temperature of the cells from extreme cold to extreme heat. For a week they turn up the air conditioning system to maximum freezing the prisoners who are given only a thin cotton sheet at night. This is then taken away the following morning. Then the following week the guards turn off the air conditioning system and raise the temperature to a stifling 35 degrees Celsius.The only communication his wife, Farhat, has had was through his lawyer. She also sometimes receives electronic mail from some human rights organizations. Though she can receive replies from Saifullah to her letters, it can take four to five months. Also, the manner in which the letters are written she described as “short, hurried scribbling” and written at the back of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) documents.Since Saifullah’s detention there, he has experienced severe chest pains and shortness of breath on several occasions but has never been taken to a hospital facility for treatment. He had been diagnosed to have suffered a chronic heart disease prior to his arrest. Some of his relatives also had a similar history and died of such ailment. Thus, the denial by the prison authorities to have him treated in hospital and medical facilities outside the prison poses a serious risk to his life. Saifullah is suspected of having links with al-Qaeda. According to his lawyer Mr. Zachary Katznelson, senior counsel of Reprieve, an organization based in UK working for prisoners in death row, the charges against him were reportedly over his alleged involvement in a plan to smuggle explosives into the U.S. for al-Qaeda. He was also alleged to have spoken to al-Qaeda’s Osama Bin Laden. Farhat said her husband has never denied the fact that her husband had met Bin Laden sometime in 1999 but she denied the charges against him. In fact, Saifullah use to brag that he had met Osama and was somehow taken in by his soft-spoken voice. He said he had wanted to interview Osama to give his version for his private production house in Karachi City.The serious concern over his deteriorating health and continued deprivation of adequate medical treatment was due to a number of deaths of prisoners detained there. Reprieve has reported that five prisoners have already died due to illness and disease in Guantanamo prison. They were not afforded adequate medical attention.BACKGROUND INFORMATION:Prior to his arrest, Saifullah Paracha ran a business of exporting garments, construction of private buildings and a private production house for radio and television channels. Towards the end of 2002, Mr. Majid Khan, a person who allegedly had links with Al-Qaida, booked an apartment, which Saifullah owned. The said apartment project was then incomplete when purchased by Saifullah which he named as the Cliftonia at Clifton beach in Karachi City after having it renovated for his business of selling the apartments. However, at the time, neither Saifullah nor the Pakistani authorities knew of Majid’s identity.Saifullah’s 25-year-old son, Uzair, who joined his father’s business after completing his Masters Degree in Business Administration, was also present when the booking was made. When Mr. Majid came to know that Uzair was then on a scheduled trip to the U.S. for study he had requested him to check the status of his citizenship at the U.S. Immigration office in Manhattan. Majid had claimed he was concerned over his U.S. citizenship after having been outside the country for many years. Uzair nevertheless promised to do so. Sometime in March 2003, after Uzair arrived in the U.S. he went to the immigration to inquire into the status of Majid’s citizenship. Unknown to Uzair, at the time Majid was already wanted by the U.S. government in connection with the September 11 attack. Soon after, Uzair was himself arrested on 23 March 2003 over charges that he had links with Al-Qaida. He was reportedly not provided any lawyer for his defense when he was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in 2005.SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the concerned authorities in Pakistan for them to intervene to ensure that Saifullah Paracha is given adequate medical attention he requires promptly. To deny any assurance that their citizens’ welfare are looked into in foreign prisons threatens the life of this prisoner. They must also ensure that Saifullah and other Pakistani nationals continuously detained in Guantanamo prison are afforded with ordinary criminal procedure.The AHRC is writing separate letters to the UN Special Rapportuer on the Question of Torture and Working Group on arbitrary detention calling for their immediate intervention in this matter.To support this appeal, please click here: SAMPLE LETTER:Dear __________,PAKISTAN: Life of a prisoner in Guantanamo is at riskName of the prisoner: Mr. Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani national
Place of detention: At Camp 5, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Period of detention: >From September 2004 to present
Status of his condition: Saifullah had been suffering from heart ailment and his condition while in detention has since worsened. He has never been taken to any hospital or medical facilities for treatment and was denied of his request for medication outside the prison.I am writing to draw your attention to the plight of Mr. Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani national presently detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After his arrest in 6 July 2006 in Bangkok, Thailand, he had been detained there soon after his transfer from Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan in September 2004. Mr. Saifullah had been detained reportedly over charges of having been involved in the September 11 attack in the U.S.I have learned that prior to his arrest, Saifullah had already been suffering from heart ailment and that some of his relatives have also already died because of this disease. Since his detention in Guantanamo prison, I have learned that his medical condition had worsened. He had been experiencing difficulty in breathing and had severe chest pains several times in a week. Though the prison authorities are aware of this, they fail to afford him adequate medical attention, particularly of admitting him into hospital or medical facility outside the prison with sufficient medical service. I have learned that although there as medical facilities inside the prison, these were reportedly not sufficient prompting Saifullah’s refusal to have him treated there. His request to be admitted and treated outside the prison was also denied. His condition as a result deteriorates posing serious risk to his life. To deny this person adequate treatment he requires and that the failure of the Government of Pakistan to ensure the welfare of its citizens is unacceptable. I urge you to take whatever intervention is necessary to look into the welfare of this prisoner and other Pakistani national reportedly been detained there.As a Pakistani national, the government of Pakistan has responsibility to ensure that welfare of their citizens detained in foreign lands is looked into. It should also take action into reports that Saifullah has not been taken for trial nor produced in court for the charges laid on him. He was detained in Afghanistan for over a year and was later in Guantanamo since his arrest. However, I have learned that Saifullah has not been subjected to a normal criminal procedure. To deny this prisoner, as well as other prisoners detained there of equal protection to law, is tantamount to the denial of their fundamental rights envisage in the international laws. The continued deprivation of this prisoner’s right to obtain adequate medication is a violation to the basic and minimum standards on treatment of prisoners under the international law. It is the utmost responsibility of the Government of Pakistan to protect its citizens.I trust that you will take adequate action in this case.Yours sincerely,—————————
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTER TO:1. General Pervez Musharraf
President
President’s Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 922 1422, 4768/ 920 1893 or 1835
E-mail: (please see – http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/WTPresidentMessage.aspx)
 
2. Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights
S Block
Pakistan Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2628
E-Mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk 3. The Minister
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Government of Pakistan
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 7008
E-mail: minister@mofa.gov.pk 4. Mr. Ansar Burney
Minister for Human Rights
6 Hassan Manzil
Arambagh Road
Karachi City
PAKISTAN
Fax: + 92 21 262 3384 / + 92 21 920 5837
Tel: + 92 21 262 3382 / 83
E-mail: humanrightsuk@aol.com 5. His Excellency Mr. Mahmud Ali Durrani
Embassy of Pakistan
3517 International Court N.W
Washington D.C. 20008
U.S.A
Fax: +1 202 686 6373
Tel: +1 202 243 6500
E-mail: info@embassyofpakistanusa.org or ambassador@embassyofpakistanusa.org or ambassador@pakistan-embassy.org PLEASE ALSO COPY YOUR LETTERS TO:1. Michael B. Mukasey
U.S. Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
U.S.A
Fax: +1 202 616 2278
Tel: +1 202 353 1555
E-mail: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov  2. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson
American Embassy
Diplomatic Enclave, Ramna 5
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Tel: +92 51 208 0000
Fax: +92 51 227 6427
E-mail: ACS_Islamabad@state.gov  3. The Honorable Donald C. Winter
Secretary of the Navy
1000 Navy Pentagon
Washington, DC 20350-1000
U.S.A
E-mail: http://www.navy.mil/submit/contacts.asp4.  The Honorable Claude M. Kicklighter
Inspector General
Defense Hotline
The Pentagon
Washington D.C. 20301-1900
U.S.A.
E-mail: hotline@dodig.mil

Family Politics Continue

By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

 

Lahore. Hamza Shahbaz Sharif looks almost wistful as he considers why he decided to run for a parliamentary seat in the elections scheduled for Feb. 18. “You know, in all these third-world countries, the whole family gets dragged into politics,” he says.

As the nephew of Nawaz Sharif and the son of Shahbaz Sharif, former chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s most powerful province, he speaks from experience. And his words have a particular resonance in this election campaign.

In a country where politics is a birthright and power is often an inheritance, Pakistan’s three greatest political clans are introducing their next generations. The most famous, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is 19, was named chairman of Pakistan’s largest political party after his mother, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in December. But he is enrolled at Oxford University and cannot run for office for six years.

By contrast, Hamza is the only Sharif with his name on the ballot this February, since both his father and uncle have been banned – a legacy of their feud with President Pervez Musharraf, he says. Meanwhile, Moonis Elahi – whose father is mentioned as Mr. Musharraf’s favored choice for prime minister – is seeking a seat in the Punjab Assembly.

Both are in their early 30s, but are distinct characters – Mr. Sharif modest and earnest in a garishly orange jacket, Mr. Elahi full of purpose and youthful panache in a suit coat and designer loafers.

But together they embody the future of Pakistani politics, both its promise and its problems.

In separate interviews, the two men come across as open, frank, and idealistic – a blend of their Pakistani roots and Western ideals gained from studying abroad. The question for them, as well as Pakistan, is whether they and the new generation they will lead are earnest in their desire to recast the nation’s politics of corruption and divisiveness or whether they will merely be consumed by it.

“People say, ‘This is the way things are done in Pakistan,’ ” says Elahi. “If I can’t [change] that, there’s no point in me staying in politics.”

For Mr. Bhutto Zardari, this election has come too soon. Because of Bilawal’s youth, his father, Asif Zardari, will run the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for the foreseeable future. In Bhutto Zardari’s public press conference, held in London on his way back to Oxford, he freely admitted that he was not yet ready for politics.

“Although I admit that my experience to date is limited, I intend to learn,” he said. “Unless I can finish my education and develop enough maturity, I recognize that I will never be in a position to have sufficient wisdom to enter the political arena.”

More than 10 years older than Bhutto Zardari, Sharif and Elahi have already gone through that transformation, though in different ways. How they arrived at this moment – becoming the candidates their bloodline always suggested they would be – has deeply influenced what they hope to accomplish in the future.

Elahi: CEO mentality?

For Elahi, it is as obvious as his appearance, which is as precise as a stockbroker’s. Elahi presents himself as the eager, fresh-faced reformer – a graduate from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business seeking to bring a CEO’s mentality to the opaque world of Pakistani politics.

The degree has shaped his political agenda most, he says. When he returned from America to help run his family’s sugar factories, for example, “I saw that everything was done more as a favor than on merit,” he says. “It was shocking to me.… I couldn’t apply a lot of what I had learned.”

He has been a controversial figure at times. Opposition leaders allege that he has used his status to his advantage. They have leveled a wide array of charges against him – from hoarding real estate to helping his father steal billions of rupees from Punjab through a front company.

Elahi has denied the charges, claiming he has done everything possible to avoid the appearance of impropriety, turning down bribes himself and constantly monitoring his staff. Whatever the truth, it is the sort of mudslinging endemic to politics here, says Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily News, a Lahore-based national newspaper.

“There’s always talk, but there’s never any evidence,” he says. “If it wasn’t about him, it would be about some other chap.”

Sharif: need for tolerance

For his part, Sharif has seen firsthand how deep political rivalries go in Pakistan – and how they can change lives. At 19, he was imprisoned for six months, the result of a political feud against his family, he says. Then, seven years later, the rest of his family was exiled by Musharraf, who overthrew Sharif’s uncle in a bloodless coup.

From 2000 until late last year, when his family returned, he was the only representative of the Sharif family in Pakistan. “For five years, I was not allowed to meet my mother … and eight years I spent without my family,” he says. “How can you give eight years back to a person?”

He saw the same things in jail as a teenager, watching mothers and sisters who waited in the heat for hours to see their sons and brothers in prison “but didn’t have the money to bribe someone.”

“There is a great gap between the haves and have-nots,” he says. “These things really touched my heart.”

Though also schooled abroad, receiving a bachelor’s degree in law from the London School of Economics, he presents a less polished image than does Elahi. While Elahi looks the part of politician – clearly excited by the prospect – Sharif’s reticence is evident.

In 2002, he declined to run for a provincial or national seat despite his father’s exhortations. Now, with his younger brother overseeing the family business and his father and uncle again off the ballot, he says his time has come.

Drawing from his own experience, he recites what he thinks Pakistan needs most: First, the restoration of the judges that Musharraf sacked during his emergency rule, and second, the ability to separate politics from personality.

For more than a decade, he notes, his uncle and Benazir Bhutto were bitter enemies. But in the days before her assassination, he adds, “Benazir Bhutto would call my uncle several times a week.”

It was, to him, a glimpse of what Pakistan could be. “There has to be an atmosphere of tolerance – it should not turn into personal animosity,” he says. “In a democracy, you have to tolerate criticism if it will make you wiser.”

CPI-m on Pakistani Elections

From: N. RAM <nram@thehindu.co.in>

February 20, 2008
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
On Pakistan Elections

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) congratulates the people of Pakistan for their verdict in the elections to the National Assembly. The verdict is a rejection of authoritarian military rule and the reaffirmation of their faith in parliamentary democracy. Equally significant is the verdict against religion-based parties and sectarian politics.

 

The formation of a coalition government based on the popular mandate will augur well for the transition to a full-fledged democratic system. The elections should have a beneficial impact in the region as a whole. It provides an appropriate setting for the continuance of the Indo-Pakistan dialogue and steps to improve ties between the two countries._______________________________________________
Marxistindia@cpim.org
 

You Should Ve Breakfast

Because the frequency of heart attack, sudden death, and stroke peaks between 6:00 a.m. and noon, with the highest incidence being between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. What mechanism within the body could account for this significant jump in sudden death in the early morning hours?

We may have an Answer.

Platelet, tiny elements in the blood that keep us from bleeding to death if we get a cut, can clump together inside our arteries due to cholesterol or plaque buildup in the artery lining. It is in the morning hours that platelets become the most activated and tend to form these internal blood clots at the greatest frequency.

However, eating even a very light breakfast prevents the morning platelet activation that is associated with heart attacks and strokes. Studies performed at Memorial University in St. Johns, Newfoundland found that eating a light, very low-fat breakfast was critical in modifying the morning platelet activation. Subjects in the study consumed either low-fat or fat-free yogurt, orange juice, fruit, and a source of protein coming from yogurt or fat-free milk. So if you skip breakfast, it’s important that you change this practice immediately in light of this research. Develop a simple plan to eat cereal, such as oatmeal or Bran Flakes, along with six ounces of grape juice or orange juice, and perhaps a piece of fruit. This simple plan will keep your platelets from sticking together, keep blood clots from forming, and perhaps head off a potential Heart Attack or stroke. So never ever skip breakfast

Tragedy of Oedipus and BB’s Assassination

By Imam Shamil

Milan Kundera, the famous Czech novelist, in his most famous but extremely overrated novel `The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ makes an interesting analogy between Sophocles’ Oedipus tragedy and the dilemma of the members of the Czech Communist Party.

Let us first narrate the tragedy of Oedipus for those who are unaware of it: Oedipus, as an infant, is abandoned and raised by King Polybus in his luxurious palace. One day, in his youth, he quarrels with a dignitary, whom he kills. Later, he marries Queen Jocasta, who unbeknownst to him is his own mother and the wife of the same dignitary, and becomes the King of Thebes. Afterwards, a plague hits his kingdom and people start to suffer badly. When Oedipus finds out that he is actually the cause of this suffering, he puts out his eyes and leaves Thebes wandering blindly.

By making the above analogy, Kundera implied that all the Czech Communists, who, after the Soviet Union’s invasion of their country in 1968, had pleaded they did not mean to invite that horrible suffering on their countrymen, and what they did was an act of ignorance, faced the same predicament as Oedipus. According to Kundera, who speaks through one of his protagonists, the Czech Communists should have put out their eyes even if they were ignorant.

We can draw a parallel between Oedipus’ tragedy and the tragedy of the Pakistan People’s Party, which at the moment is devastated by the murder of its leader Benazir Bhutto.

Surprised, I asked the former Chief Secretary of Sindh and one of the most senior bureaucrats in Pakistan: “Why would the British government try to protect a despot such as Pervez Musharraf?” Khan replied the president was a trusted ally of the West. I should not be surprised or shocked — the West has long protected dictators and killed un-cooperative leaders. What I should have asked, which I did not, is what made Benazir Bhutto so gullible that she trusted David Miliband and Condoleezza Rice? Wasn’t her own father murdered by the US? And that is where the Oedipus analogy takes a new turn.

All the supporters and well-wishers of the PPP that are mourning the death of Benazir Bhutto and are harping about her valour, democratic principles and her martyrdom, including those who brutally criticized her earlier, simply ignore a simple fact: Bhutto’s politics were wrong right from the beginning. Her politics were hypocritical, opportunist, and aimed at getting power at any cost.

And that is the very reason that she chose to become the Premier of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1988, and took pride in the fact that she was the first woman prime minister in the entire Muslim world. Yes, in the entire Muslim world, with its kings, queens, dictators, perverts, dacoits, terrorists and mullahs, Benazir Bhutto happened to be the first lady PM. What an achievement! But in the glory of this “fake” premiership, Benazir was ready to serve the same army that hanged her father a decade earlier — she was ready to wash the army’s dirty linen in public for the sake of becoming prime minister. Yet, she was punished by the same army establishment. Her government was sacked. Benazir later said she was ignorant of establishment’s ill-designs.

A few years later, after begging to become prime minister again, she assumed power. In this tenure, her radical brother Murtuza Bhutto was murdered by policemen in Karachi. Benazir ran to the hospital with her head bare and wailed. She said she was ignorant of the agencies’ conspiracy. “Kill a Bhutto, get a Bhutto,” she said. Yet again, after serving the same establishment, which had killed her father and two brothers, she was removed from power. She went into exile only to finally return in October 2007.

Musharraf could not tolerate a politician of Benazir’s calibre and would not let her come home. Benazir travelled to and fro across the Atlantic Ocean, in an attempt to convince the White House and 10 Downing Street that she was ready to be Pakistan’s Hamid Karzai. Finally, she got the green signal from the Bush administration and headed back to Pakistan.

Overjoyed to see a million or so people in Karachi, who were facilitated by the same agencies which had ousted her from power earlier, she got carried away. It reminded her of her father, her childhood, when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had roared like a lion addressing such a huge crowd. She thought that now that she was back she could talk to the regime on her own terms. But her caravan was bombed and at least 150 people died. She was saved. It was a reminder.

They finally shot her down in ignorance. The irony was that Benazir was ready again to do whatever she could to save the army from dishonour (the way her father had done after 1971), and was once again prepared to wash army’s dirty linen, but she was not tolerated. She was trapped. She was unfortunately popular.

Yet, members of PPP would say she did it all with good intentions, the way former members of the Czech Communist Party would plead. It may be true. But the fact remains that, like Oedipus, shouldn’t we put out our eyes, avenge ourselves for the pestilence we have unleashed on our countrymen. Even if we are ignorant, it is time we confess it at least.

PPP’s Alliance with the PML-Q?

http://www.rediff.com///news/2008/feb/20guest.htm

Mohammad Shehzad | February 20, 2008 | 

The 2008 elections were the greatest surprise not for the people of Pakistan, but for President Pervez Musharraf and his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid.

The PML-Q has suffered a humiliating defeat, which made Pakistanis think that elections were fair. But the fact is, the elections were adequately rigged — both before the election and on the election day. However, the rigging did not help the pro-Musharraf party to win a majority. There are a few reasons as well. The major reason is Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Her murder made her a martyr. Those who were set to vote for PML-Q either abstained or they exercised their right in favour of the Pakistan People’s Party or the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. Rigging follows a formula. It is never done in a constituency where the victory or defeat of a certain candidate is obvious. It is done in such constituencies where there is neck-and-neck competition.

The “planned rigging” was done for every pro-Musharraf candidate where the competition was neck-and-neck among candidates. But Pakistan voters upset the establishment’s plan. They proved the assumptions wrong by casting votes in favour of the PML-N or the PPP or the Awami National Party.

For example, the number of voters that were assumed to cast their votes in favour of the PML-Q did not. They cast votes against PML-Q. The rigging formula did not fail 100 per cent. It worked at some place as a result of which Chaudhry Parvez Ellahi could win a seat. Chaudhry Shujaat’s brother was able to win a seat from Gujrat. Aftab Sherpao and Maulana Fazlur Rehman could also win. ?Had there been no polling day rigging, the PML-Q could not have bagged 55 seats.

The most vulnerable person after the elections is President Musharraf. His future is extremely uncertain. Rigging has saved him from impeachment. To impeach him, two-third majority is required — that means 251 seats against him.

But his election as President can be questioned in the Supreme Court. If the government formed by the three parties restores the judiciary then there is a real danger to Musharraf. There is a strong possibility that Musharraf could be declared ineligible to be the President. But there is still a solution. Musharraf can dissolve Parliament using his constitutional power as President to save his skin. The country will have new election. But in this case, a massive movement can emerge against Musharraf that could lead to his dismissal.

But, luck seems to be on Musharraf’s side. Only the PML-N is insisting on the restoration of judiciary. It is not the PPP’s priority. In fact, it is nowhere on its agenda. Asif Ali Zardari has said that his party has suffered due to some judges in the past.

The PML-N cannot form the government alone. Musharraf’s special aide Tariq Aziz has become active. He met Zardari on Tuesday and suggested that Musharraf and the PML-Q will cooperate with him fully if the PPP agrees to form government with the PML-Q and the MQM.

Together they have enough seats to form the government. Although, Zardari has ruled out political cooperation with the PML-Q, saying it was never a political party but in politics no stance is considered final.

Politicians have a track record of changing stances and views. Musharraf does not want to see Nawaz Sharif in power. It is possible only if Sharif yields to Musharraf’s terms and in return the President can allow him to contest in the by-elections. Thus Sharif could at least become the chief minister of Punjab. But so far, this is not acceptable to Sharif.

The establishment is working on bringing the PPP, PML-Q, MQM together. It is quite possible that they form a coalition government leaving PML-N and ANP as opposition parties.?