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I have met Rajdeep only once on the sidelines of the peace process between India and Pakistan. I must submit here that as I respect NDTV a lot and he was then part of the network I was his fan too. Add to it the fact that his own work has been quite commendable in the past, you’ll understand what I mean. However following the Mumbai carnage I must submit that I am deeply disappointed in his person. Why? Because the channel which he heads has been dishing out heavy doses of  warmongering without any consideration.
I am distressed because folks like these during the exchanges between Indian and Pakistani media have been advising us on the import of not inhaling the government’s propaganda. Or may be they always meant the propaganda of the Pakistani government alone. I say it because I have had another 72 hour war warning from the authorities here and feel that while we on this side of the border are trying to fight down the war mongers, I barely see an effort on the part of the Indian media to firefight.  Kindly consider this for example: Can India afford to remain frozen in inaction?
Simultaneously Stratfor whose intelligence reports I have never seen being fulfilled has projected that India has given Pakistan a deadline and the time is running out. What an unfortunate moment to indulge in such reckless speculations. Folks, when Interpol and Scotland Yard are not convinced that there is any substantial proof why egg your government to wage war. It must be remembered that in modern world proof doesn’t constitute a man’s statement. Would you believe my words if I hijack a plane and claim to be an Indian? Of course not. Proof constitutes DNA and forensics. I don’t understand why people like Sardesai want India to wage war just now. Are they afraid that delay will expose India’s claim of concrete evidence? That they want the back of the UPA government? Or they want India to change the strategic equation in South Asia in India’s favor before Obama takes over? Or then they actually are not working for the BJP but the Indian defense establishment which wants this episode and then ensuing war to hide its own skeletons in the closet? I am disappointed and absolutely clueless. More >

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsen has been recognized by the Foreign Policy Journal as the world’s fifth best public intellectual. Here is the link: The World’s Top 20 Public Intellectuals. Read it yourself.
There has surely been criticism too especially because the journal claims that top ten of the world intellectuals are Muslims. Yet on my part I have never doubted Barrister Aitzaz’s intellectual stature. Congratulations sir! We all are proud of you, as a leader and as a personal friend.

Here is his introduction by the journal:
President of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association, Ahsan has been a vocal opponent of President Pervez Musharraf’s rule. When Musharraf dismissed the head of the Supreme Court in March 2007, it was Ahsan who led the legal challenge to reinstate the chief justice and rallied thousands of lawyers who took to the streets in protest. He was arrested several times during the period of emergency rule last year. Today, he is a senior member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, formerly led by Benazir Bhutto, and one of the country’s most recognizable politicians.

News has just arrived that Salmaan Taseer has been nominated for Punjab’s gubernatorial gadee. While it is still unconfirmed, contrary to many sentimental types, I consider it a welcome development. Primarily because it shows that the role of army officers, both serving and retired, in government is now ebbing. Lt General (retired) Khalid Maqbool was an ex-serviceman and I think even Pakistan Army principally agrees that it should have nothing to do with politics. I consider it yet another masterstroke of Asif Ali Zardari. Not only has he replaced an ex-army officer (who would have proven very difficult to remove) with a man who is trusted by the Pakistani establishment, a proof of which is his recent stint as a Federal Minister in a caretaker set up, but who has long term ties with the People’s Party. In one stroke of genius not only has he removed a political liability in shape of Maqbool, but extended olive branch to someone who is not only influential in his own right but also whose loss would have driven the liberal class of the country irreparably.

Granted that in recent days Mr Taseer had chosen to side with Musharraf yet may we ask was it not natural for a liberal man to lean with someone who had brought a message of moderation not extreme, especially in a vacuum where the leadership of the country’s mainstream parties was in exile? Mr Taseer’s newspaper Daily Times, it must be remembered before the second imposition of martial law had continuously argued in favor of engaging the mainstream political class rather than relying on political left-overs or religious zealots. Perhaps this decision can prove to be the beginning of an era when the liberal class of the country can start uniting again to pull the country out of the mess that an eight year dictatorial rule has brought it into. Pakistan People’s Party it must be remembered is a liberal party and any liberal man who has stayed with the party for quite sometime like Salmaan Taseer and Hafeez Pirzada cannot be considered outcasts even though they might have had close friends outside the party.
Let me also make a crucial point here. Those who have been criticizing the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDA) comprising PPP and PML-N in failing to integrate absolutely overlook a fact that both parties have formed a coalition even though their leadership agrees that they basically have different set of priorities. Do whatever you like the PPP will remain a liberal party and the PML-N a relatively conservative force. Their coalition is not like the MMA where all religious parties representing same set of principles sit together and yet fail to integrate. The alliance is meant for a transition from dictatorial rule to democracy. Once unfettered democracy is restored in the country, these parties will have the right to pursue their individual agenda independently. Yet I do not doubt that this alliance was meant to last and my hunch is it will during the period of transition. Unfortunately if it is weakened for a while that is basically because of the trigger happy lawyers, parties that boycotted the elections and then regretted on February 18 (and I am not talking of Achakzai or Hai Baloch, who are requested to pull themselves out of the APDM mess), and to an extent the judges. Please remember that there is a key difference between friends and exploiters. While exploiters only use a carrot and sticks policy to obtain what they want from you, friends show tolerance for your momentary failures and help you get on with life despite such failures. Friends don’t impose deadlines on you even though you yourself may have committed the blunder of issuing one voluntarily. By pushing the coalition too hard, the lawyers and the APDM parties have weakened their own power base. But while coming under pressure from these elements the PML-N might have committed a blunder of exiting the federal cabinet in earnest, I am sure it is a pragmatic party and will soon rejoin the ministries once it sees that the people’s party means what it says. I think the PML-N should act wisely by going a bit low key till the time the issue of judges is resolved. However as far as I understand Mr Taseer’s appointment does not present any challenge to the Punjab government. Had the PPP wanted to bring Punjab government under pressure it would have chosen to retain Maqbool rather than bringing in a politician.
I remember that when a few months back when I had published here a list of Pakistani traitors and included all of the caretaker ministers with the exception of Salmaan Taseer and Mubashir Lucman, someone had questioned these two omissions and I had replied tersely that you’d have to wait and see. I think the time has come to show how right I was.
To cut the long story short it is a very wise decision and while we keep losing sanity to emotions from time to time, there is no gainsaying that the reunification of the country’s liberal or even its start is a very very very welcome development. While the damage done by the dictators can one day be undone, the essence of democracy is liberty and freedom. The liberal class then needs to accelerate the process of overcoming the rifts caused by dictatorial rule and their mutual integration. Welcome back Mr Salmaan Taseer and best of luck.

Today the Supreme Court of Pakistan is expected to rule on something only too crucial. It is being said that the verdict on the issue of graduation as the necessary qualification for the legislators will be announced at 4 PM (Pakistan Standard Time) today. Now much has been made of this case. While some marvel at the about face of the Attorney General of Pakistan Malik Qayyum who sounds now like the plaintiff’s lawyer rather than that of the government, others speculate that this might have something to do with the qualification of Asif Zardari. To me both these arguments are beside the point. What matters here is democracy and nothing but democracy. I believe that the law barring non-graduates from the contest is as dark as the South African apartheid or the law in Florida disqualifying the felons from the vote. It is my firm belief that a man or woman’s nature, stature or potential cannot be assessed through his degrees. In history we had uncountable instances of unlettered people really gave to humanity which no one else could give. Why do you go elsewhere? The Objectives resolution (an inappropriate but very influential constitutional device) states that the state’s religion would be Islam. Now may I ask who was the founder of the Islamic faith? I am sure that my readers know that the Prophet of Islam who was also its first head of state was unlettered? Does it not make this clause not only discriminatory, inhuman, undemocratic but also unIslamic? Now there are people who think that while this law is discriminatory, the supreme court cannot allow the bye elections to take place without it for the legislators already elected had to go through the scrutiny. Well this is hogwash. You cannot use a discriminatory device again and again only because it has been used in the past. That otherwise would be the law of necessity which the lawyers and judges so vehemently abhor. The judges should remember that their mandate is also not an absolute mandate. They exercise their judicial powers on behalf of the people of the country and on the basis of the constitution of Pakistan. They hence are also being judged in the wider court of the people’s opinion. They can certainly benefit their old benefactors by supporting the discriminatory law. However they should remember that they have already managed to taint their own image among the people by taking oath under and validating the provisional constitutional order and the martial law. They now need to know that the matter is no longer of their professional survival but that of their personal survival. The people have already buried the doctrine of necessity and the general mood is that of burying those who support this black convention.