NRO and Aftermath of 2008 elections

By Bader Al Hussain

Today, undoubtedly Pakistan is going through abominable and atrocious times with its economy growing at the lowest rate in the region, terrorism engulfing major areas of Pakistan and the morale, dignity and respect of Pakistan armed forces is all-time low since 1971.

Under these tiring times 2008 elections has blessed this country with the most corrupt government since its inception. The government which came into power through NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) that was formulated by USA and some elements of establishment; hence, there should be no diffidence that the elections were engineered as 45.67% of the votes were bogus according to The Supreme court of Pakistan.

Thus, these fictitious elections were held with the purpose to elect subservient government, in which nearly every party is in power, to pursue Musharraf’s policies that were pro-American and perfidious to Pakistan.

As a result of this inept and lethargic government, law and order situation in the country has only gone worse as number of terrorists attacks are increasing year by year.  Some of these attacks are in response of drones’ attacks which has claimed numerous innocent lives, Prime minister on one hand term such actions as “counter-productive” but tacitly has granted USA a permission to carry on with these attacks.

According to Obama’s War, a book written by an American investigative journalist, wrote; “Kill the seniors,” Zardari said. “Collateral damage worries you Americans. It does not worry me.”; Reporting this startling statement. If our President says such words about killing of his fellow citizens by a foreign force then God knows what would happen to this country.

As far as economy is concerned, it is in nosedive situation since the People’s party (PPP) government has taken over. If we take a look at past three governments of PPP, economy had always in peril even during Bhutto’s era. But now it has gone bummer, the inflation rate has never been in double digit for three years consecutively, in a history of Pakistan. Moreover, Pakistan has borrowed more money in 3 years from international multilateral institutions, than it has since its inception. 

Public enterprises are being plundered by various incompetent cronies of the government. Recently an opinionated article was written by Harris Khalique in “The news”, which clearly shows the mockery of merit in state institutions. In addition to that, due to maladroit behavior towards state owned enterprises, today these corporations are occurring more than 300 billion loss to national treasury which is in a way bleeding the Pakistan’s economy.

In conclusion, after three years today, Pakistan does not have full time foreign minister. Other federal and state ministers are in utter state of torpor, marauding as much as possible, building stock of worriment for abutting government.

The writer is currently a student at NBS

Biased Against The Army?

By Muhammad Sannan

Americans came. Americans did their job. Americans went home, and all this while our army slept. That is what is being shouted around by the citizens of Pakistan, the analysis of the operation now colloquially known as the ‘Abbotabad Raid’. The aftermath of this military operation has had it all. Feelings of Joy on the end of terror, Spasms of angst on the great Martyrdom, Allegations of incompetence by the media, Some allegations of complicity by the same media, a lonely few cries proclaiming the breach of sovereignty. And the ultimate conclusion put up by our countrymen, announcing that for all its purpose, the army has come out as being practically useless. What were they being paid for?

It couldn’t even defend its own territory.

Fine. Lets discuss this. We’re saying that the ‘Army Walay’ couldn’t hold their own against an army, implying that they are utter losers, incapable of defending the land whose existence isn’t justified anymore. Normally, I would agree with this. But against which military were we (supposedly) trying to defend ourselves. The American Army. Yup, that’s right. The same army which is waging war on two fronts simultaneously and still has enough force left to monopolize UNSC and NATO. The same army, of which all the countries worldwide import equipment, including Pakistan. The same army which has a defense budget of more than 600$ Billion against Pakistan’s tiny 5$ Billion. I can simply go on and on about it….Against them, Yes, a failure means our army is incompetent!

Preposterous!

But still, most of our countrymen do think this way. And this is wrong in fundamentals.
And even worse is, our ‘youth’, the ultimate deliverers of Pakistanis from their drudgery, the personification of objectivity and liberalism, is taking it all in quite a similar way. And they have been demoralized because of it all, I fear, almost irreparably.

I remember the time in my university, right after the attacks. All of us, had suddenly started liking library a little more. Not for any academic purposes though, rather only to discuss the current news. Normally a dull place, It had become pretty active, with loud discussions going on everywhere. They were a charged few days, and I got to hear all sorts of post-action analysis by the students. And they weren’t optimistic.

' It’s a defeat ….', said one of my friends.

‘We have totally lost our honour…….’, said another.

Loud debates were going on all around me, and I remember myself thinking at that time, is this even an issue?  Is basing the performance of our military against that of Americans, a legitimate comparison?

I think I saw a pattern in those few days. Today, as we all happily blast away at the failures of the armed forces, the issue doesn’t even remain one of this particular incident. It is now about the thoughts pervading in the society. The mentality that the ‘Army’ is useless for all but property dealing.

 Regarding that, I asked another one of my friends, Muhammad Saad, about what he thinks about the competence of our Military. And again, I didn’t quite get the attitude I was looking for.

“When has Pakistan ever been able to defend this land? Take any statistics from war of 48' to the war on terror; we have always lost our land. If only our generals made some effort to resolve the conflicts within the army and the establishment. They can’t seem to get enough time from playing golf and buying plots in the Defense Society…..”

And he went on and on…..

“……As testified by the former Naval Rear Admiral, radicalization is on ever high with the armed forces. Many of the air force pilots refuse to fly their planes to Waziristan area because they "supposedly don’t want to kill their fellow innocent country men”. According to NY Times "Everyone seems to know ISI's job except the ISI……"

Alright.All I want to ask is, why are we even so fussed about the Army’s incompetence and not so much about the failures of the nation in general? Whatever has happened, be it the ever continuing terrorist activities, or the Military's internal conflict and politics, it is not a thing that should cause us all to be so finicky about the Army. The Military is an institution of this land, and just like the whole society that already has, it is going to be affected by the ongoing crisis as well. Of course there are going to be some shortcomings then. So, why are we still so critical in our judgments about the army? May be it is because we have always considered them to be the flawless, ever present reset-button that will set things straight after we have messed up all that we can. But this reset button is not functioning anymore. Load-shedding is the order of the day, and there is no electricity left in the military ‘machine’ to protect us from the consequences of our actions.

The thing to be understood is that we should take all the events surrounding the armed forces in an objective manner.  We complain about the military being unable to stop the suicide attacks? Just take a minute and imagine yourself tasked with stopping an anonymous looking terrorist among millions in (let's say) a market, or protecting the base under your command from a terrorist attack, not knowing when a person might emerge from the swarm of people and explode. It must be pretty straightforward right? NOT!

 Or is it that we complain about the army subjugating to Americans? Then, put yourself in Gen. Kiyani’s position. You are the protector of each and every citizen of Pakistan, with the fate of millions thrust in your hands. What would you do? Wage a blind war against the ‘infidels’ for daring to encroach on our airspace or try to prevent a conflict, and stop the utter annihilation of your countrymen.

Now, dont even think, as many will, that i am being an 'Army' lover zealously trying to defend it's actions, as i'm not. I am in no way trying to justify their failings. The fact that our military isn’t prepared for unconventional threats as the terrorists, doesn’t absolve them of the responsibility of protecting us, the Pakistani citizens. Nor is the inferiority of the army, a justification for them to continue bowing to their American masters. No matter how hard it may be to deal with these influences, a failure is a failure nonetheless. It is necessary for us, however, to take it all in a patient and rational manner, not letting our emotions cloud our thinking and putting it all in context. That's all i'm saying.

In the end, what is required is that we look at the performance of the Military in a manner, unburdened by biases. We should not let the Anti-Army hatred get the better of us. Instead, we can serve our energies in a positive way. By providing a solution to various command deficiencies in the military, or about other inefficiencies like the ones stated by Saad, the tendency of the army to focus more on their comforts rather than on the battlefield. But again, it is vitally important not to let the Anti-army bias creep in. Objective discussion and debate is the order of the day, and is the only way we can move forward.

                                                     The writer is currently a student at NBS

  

Erdogan, An Emerging Turkish Leader and Zardari

By Bader Al Hussain
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a Turkish prime minster and a chairman of AK party (also called Justice and development party) which holds majority of seats in Grand National Assembly of Turkey since 2002.

As a teenager Erdogan used to sell lemonade sesame buns in the streets of Istanbul to earn extra money. He started his political career as a student activist by joining National Turkish Student Union (anti-communist action group) in Marmara University where he studied business administration. In 1976, he became head of Beyoglu youth branch of the Islamist National Salvation Party (MSP). Later in 1980’s military coup, Mr. Erdogan was among the follower’s of Erbakan whose welfare party which was dissolved in 1998 after coming into power because it was suspected of having Islamist agenda and accused of violating the principle of secularism embedded in sacred Turkish constitution.

  Moreover, Mr. Erdogan became the party’s Beyoglu district chair in 1984, and in 1985 he became the chair of the Istanbul city branch. He was elected to parliament in 1991, but barred from taking his seat. In 1994 local elections he was elected as a Mayor of Istanbul and initiated numerous development projects and solved most of the problems that the city was confronting.

In 1998, Welfare party of Erbakan was banned in Turkey after military coup. Mr. Erdogan became a constant speaker at the demonstrations held by his party colleagues of Welfare party.He was given a 10 month prison sentence (of which he served four) for reading a poem in Siirt in December 1997, which, under article 312/2 of the Turkish penal code was regarded as a violation of Kemalism by the judges. It included verses translated as "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...." The poem was a work by Ziya Gökalp, a pan-Turkish activist of the early 20th century. Mr. Erdogan has in his defense said that the poem had been approved by the education ministry to be published in textbooks.

With the conviction, Mr. Erdogan was forced to give up his mayoral position. The conviction also stipulated a political ban, which prevented him from participating in parliamentary elections. He completed his sentence on 24 July 1999.

In 2001, Mr. Erdogan established a moderated Justice and development Party (also known as A.K.P.) which won landslide victories by scoring 34%, 46.6% and 50% votes in 2001, 2007 and 2011 general elections respectively. Hence, showing vividly the increasing popularity of Mr. Erdogan’s A.K. party, this was due to political stability, economic growth and growing Turkey’s international stature.

During this period, Turkish economy was tripled, from 39^th largest economy it became 17^th biggest economy of the world and joined the elite club of G-20. As aspiration grows, Turkey is aiming towards becoming one of the top ten economies of the world in 2023 and second voluminous economy in Europe after Germany in 2050. Turkish exports which were merely 36 billion dollars in 2002, now sprang up to about 135 billion dollars approximately. Turkey has a large and growing automotive industry, which produced 1,147,110 motor vehicles in 2008, ranking as the 6th largest producer in Europe (behind the United Kingdom and above Italy) and the 15th largest producer in the world ranking as the 6th largest producer in Europe (behind the United Kingdom and above Italy) and the 15th largest producer in the world.

Furthermore, according to Semih Idiz, a columnist for the newspaper Milliyet and foreign policy specialist, Turkey under the current leadership of Mr. Erdogan is reaching out to the people rather than the establishment” of countries around the region, Mr. Idiz said. “It’s a new approach” to the challenges of the Arab Spring, he added. “Human rights and democracy remained in the background” under that approach, Mr. Idiz said. Now that is changing, he said, and Turkey is casting itself as a “champion of human rights and democracy” in the region.

Recently, youths from countries around the region visited Turkey after an invitation by the governing party to observe the election campaign and learn how to run a democratic election.

“It is this kind of ‘soft power’ engagement Turkey is trying to project,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The policy is also about moving Turkey out of the shadow of the United States, its traditional ally, and making it a regional player on its own terms.

On the other side, Asif Ali Zardari who is the current president of Pakistan brought up in a wealthy family, and after graduating from the University which did not exist on the face of this earth, came into politics and joined Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Faced by the charges of corruption after every PPP government, he was sent to jail for about eight years.

Furthermore, he also earn the title of “Mr. 10 percent” which after becoming president in September 2008 changed to “Mr. 90 percent”. Embroiled with mega scandals such as Swiss bank black money, kick-backs from purchase of Agosta submarines etc., but such discoveries had a little impact on his voters.He came back in politics after the assassination of his spouse (Benazir Bhutto) who was at that time was PPP chairman and till that time served twice as Prime minister of Pakistan.  

Zardari’s political party came into politics through NRO deal which was formulated jointly by US and some elements of Pakistani establishment. As a result shame democracy came to power, after getting 24% votes in 2008 elections. In addition to that, later on 46% votes in this election were declared bogus by the Supreme Court.

During his Presidency, Pakistan’s economy went haywire accompanying with double digit inflation, stagnant growth in GDP and exports and rising unemployment. Pakistan went up among the most corrupt nations according to the transparency international Pakistan. With his popularity nose diving, he is struggling to save his government by allying to almost every opposition party in parliament even to those, to whom he accused of the murder of his wife. Moreover, he blatantly rejected most of supreme courts verdicts. 

In conclusion, Pakistani leaders should learn the lesson from their Turkish counterparts by making Turkey a role-model. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has changed the course of Turkey from lethargic secular state into more progressive welfare state.
The writer is currently a student at NBS