Farrukh Khan Pitafi's Official Website

My column on Balochistan government titled Who should form govt in Balochistan, has been delayed. It will now appear on Monday. However plz note that I do not believe that PMLQ has any right to form government in the province. For reasons you’ll have to wait till Monday. However the presidential quarters should stop conspiring to form one before that. Sir you are jeopardising the federation. So for God’s sake stop

Posted by farrukh at 06:34:48.

Today I received an email from Manal Ahmad on behalf of American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)’s Frontline/world and Christian Science Monitor. The mail invited our readers to preview an investigative video report (See Part 1/ Part 2/ Interview of the reporter) on the Talbanization in Swat and Musharraf’s imposition of emergency (I call it martial law though). It is an excellent and thought provoking work and one should congratulate the reporter and the project team for undertaking and doing full justice to it. Since it features also Pakistani intellectual heavy weights like Aitzaz Ahsan and Ahmad Rashid, the report is highly recommended. You can reach it also through the project’s homepage.
Since I have also been asked to comment I want to clarify two points in the report. In the report Benazir’s assassination and Amir Zeb’s demise have been mentioned in quick succession. That is chronologically correct. However somehow it seems to the observer implying that Benazir Bhutto was also assassinated by the Taliban. Had that been a clear message one would have complained that the project team was taking side of a beleaguered regime on the issue. However that is not clearly the case and let me only limit myself to one clarification. While there is no gainsaying that terrorism and Talbanization pose the single most taxing challenge to the future of the nation, it is a bit premature to conclude that the Taliban were behind Benazir’s assassination. View Full Article »

Breathing space | February 28, 2008

The internet that we use today is nothing new. Decades ago the Yanks had it in their military operations under the name of ‘Arpanet’. The idea was that since during the Cold War an attack could take out the data centres causing all information to fail in an instant, it was wise to decentralise the information base by introducing a peer to peer network ensuring that if one peer was taken out, enough databases would survive to the restore the back up. That was, however, the military use. The situation at the scholarly or the public level was, however, quite different. View Full Article »

Geo Television has brought back Hamid Mir in its program Capital Talk. This certainly marks the change of heart at PEMRA. According to the reports PEMRA’s opposition to Nusrat Javed and Mushtaq Minhas’s return on Aaj TV has also mellowed down. This according to the sources has been possible owing to the international pressure and the solidarity shown by world media and the rights groups. If these crusading journalists ever thought that they were left alone, they know better now. I congratulate these stalwarts and request the ones still under censure to get their dresses ready for their shows. Likewise the ban on YouTube has also been lifted. Democracy is back in the Islamic Republic.
Let me also thank the world media for the solidarity shown. Early yesterday Blogger News Network (BNN) carried my story Musharraf’s inquisition: Reason why Youtube was blocked in Pakistan
Apart from the political motivation behind the ban I also pointed out how Pakistan’s best anchors were being kept away from their responsibilities. The world interest proved to be enormous as within no time the story had been viewed near nine thousand times and was widely quoted. While the foolishness of the authorities must have added to this forced U-turn, the world interest in the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. Thank you very much.

Posted by farrukh at 10:32:50.

There is a lot of talk going on regarding the fate of the war on terror expecially after the change of the tide in Pakistani politics. Most of these concerns are misplaced because the real partners, the legitimate ones in this war are now taking charge in Islamabad. Pakistan People’s Party the leading part in the alliance has lost its most dynamic leader in a terror attack and will surely work to stall the growth of the scourge regardless of who actually perpetrated the crime. Likewise the Awami National Party is also a perpetual victim of terrorism and extremism. During his tenure Nawaz Sharif also made it evident that he was no friend of the terrorists. If you remember it was during Nawaz’s tenure that the special terror courts were established. What the main parties need to do is to keep Nawaz league away from the splinters of the religious MMA like the Jamaat-e-Islami. PML-N in every aspect is a mainstream national party and its radicalization can really wreak havoc for there would be extremist agenda in the country then. For the time being however there is no imminent threat because the People’s Party is playing its role laudably. View Full Article »

A powerful bomb hit today the car of the Surgeon General of Pakistan, the senior most post of the Army Medical Corps (AMC), killing him and seven others on the spot. The attack certainly carries in it a number of messages. For instance what comes in your mind when you hear this? Oh shoot, Pervaiz Musharraf was our man to fight terrorism and now that he has lost and new party is coming in power no one will be able to fight the menace. Likewise you may start doubting the credibility of the army to fight the war when it cannot stop a general from being killed by terrorists so near its own headquarters. But like always the truth may lie elsewhere. View Full Article »

Here is the profile of the assassinated Pakistani general. I will update it if I get any important information.
A graduate of King Edwards Medical College, Lahore, Lt. Gen. Mushtaq Ahmad Baig joined Army Medical Corp in January 1976. He was promoted as Lieutenant General and appointed Surgeon General Pakistan Army and Director General Medical Services (Inter Services) on Feb 8, 2007.
He was an Ophthalmologist. He has many publications to his credit and attended many national and international workshops on Ophthalmology.
He has served as the Principal Army Medical College, Rawalpindi also.
He was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military), in recognition of his meritorious services.

Posted by farrukh at 09:58:59.

Before the elections I kept on reminding my readers that the people of Pakistan especially the lawyers and the journalists were writing an altogether new chapter in the history of democracy. The results have shown just that and have quashed the claims that Muslim countries cannot think democratically. Unfortunately at this time not the people of this country but the western governments are showing that they are not happy with uncontrolled democracy in Muslim or poor countries. Admissions of our struggle have started coming. Here are some of very articles. I will keep updating this post so kindly keep checking.

Where voters are heroes [The Economist]
The End of Musharraf? [Newsweek]
This is Pakistan’s War [Fareed Zakaria - Newsweek]
Pakistan: Elections Prove Islam, Democracy Are Compatible, Expert Says [Radio Free Europe}

And a glorious piece on future of conservatism (remember I have been arguing this for long that conservatism the world over is declining and needs to be defeated?):
The End of Conservatism [Fareed Zakaria - Newsweek]

Posted by farrukh at 14:58:50.

In the last book of the Narnia series, there is a very instructive episode where everyone resisting the onslaught of an invading power is thrown to die in a small hut, which turns out to be the door to the paradise. But while everyone benign finds himself in paradise, an unruly group of dwarfs known for attacking both good and evil alike allow their disbelief to make them imagine that they are still trapped in the small cottage. When others try to rescue them, it is learnt that nothing would dissuade the dwarfs from their lack of faith and sheer blindness. We are later told that this happens because they do not have faith in the deep benign magic of ‘Narnia’. While Narnia is an imaginary world, every world imagined or real has its own deep magic or set of natural principles. When you go against these principles you are bound to lose, at the very least, in the end. Let us see what is the deep magic for our world? I think apart from the long known and well-established principles like the respect for human life, faith in virtue and humanism there is one that often gets ignored: that the millennia-long human evolution and its outcome cannot be simply rubbished.

Perhaps we, especially those among us who wield power, need to keep this principle in mind for it is being overlooked repeatedly. Musharraf and his allies have often claimed that the Western-style democracy and media freedom are not suited for Pakistan. I wonder if our nation has such a unique culture where civil liberties and democracy cannot function without a dictator in sight, then why the machines, technology and other cultural products invented in the West are readily accepted by the high and mighty? While our discussion on democracy can wait for another time, it is media freedom that I want to discuss here. There is no doubt that we in the media are enduring one of the darkest periods of our history. I say it because while the regime allowed media space to grow in the country during its tenure, it has invented uncountable ways to control it too. And apart from the intricate masonry of controls, the sheer volume of the media enterprise ensures that when overt censorship is imposed, as is the case these days, its impact and the pain inflicted is zonkingly intense compared to that experienced in the past. If you do not understand this point, just ask any employee of any media organisation under official censure how painful it is to see his organisation being stifled so ruthlessly.
The fact that the media organisations are still being suppressed or forced to undergo self-censorship so mercilessly and is functioning under a perpetual threat of closure leaves us with one question: what have we done so wrong that we have to face such dire consequences? The answer is simple, but not often understood fully. Our only crime is that we are doing honestly what we are supposed to do. The first responsibility of any independent media organisation is to report facts to its audience as quickly and in detail as is humanly possible. Its second responsibility is to help the audience make sense out of these facts. Since independent media is essentially private business, it is believed that every mistake will be quickly corrected through the ruthless market forces and the consumer input. And then almost every media organisation has a vigilant system of oversight that ensures that the end product is free of ethical lapses. Now this is exactly what we have been doing. No more, no less. Someone may then ask if everything was as perfect as I claim, why are we being punished? The answer lies more in the worldview of the rulers than our practices.
Dictators, it must be remembered, have a long history of obsession with image, not reality. They believe that if the opinion leaders are ready to lie through their teeth and project a make-believe rosy picture, everything will become peaceful. They do not show much interest in changing the ugly reality because subconsciously they know that even if everything else changes, the nature of their illegitimate stay in power cannot be altered.
Hence, they rely more on deception than reform. When we know that unfettered democracy is the only solution, how can the conscientious media practitioners bow to the pressures of dictators? And even if we want so, we cannot hide the fact that the country is enduring such humungous crises of energy, food items, law and order, legitimacy, supremacy of law and democracy. If we try to muzzle the truth, our audience will shift to other, maybe foreign, outlets for this is the world of cyber technology and dish antennas. After all, we are paid to tell the truth. Hence, the government evidently has a problem with both our responsibilities. We are told that we cannot report all the facts or show the footage and we are barred from interpreting the facts for our audience.
Unfortunately the state’s instinct to gag the media and dissent is not in its own interest. From the fall of East Pakistan to the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the media could have played a very constructive and pre-emptive role. Meanwhile, the capital investment in the media now ensures that not only will it survive but if the rightful space is denied to it, it may shift to safe havens. Today, the people of the country have more faith in the media than the entire state machinery and the officially endorsed political parties put together. If the media has to finally resort to open revolt, the state along with the ruling elite will suffer the most. Time has come for the rulers to realise that censorship is only weakening them and that the true solution lies in changing the reality and not imposing fake perceptions. Meanwhile, the independent media outlets need to stand together, for their unity and courage are the only things that can ameliorate the lot of the poor people of this country and their own.

Posted by farrukh at 14:28:18

It is being claimed by the telecommunication authorities in Pakistan that youtube was blocked for featuring allegedly blasphemous documentaries. While this move if triggered by this motive is as foolish as burning an entire library just because on a page of one of the books someone has scribbled a couple of words against you, it is far from truth. Actually Musharraf is a very self centered and insecure man these days and has recently learned from his sycophants that Youtube carries many videos critical of his government especially his torture on lawyers and political captives and since during this campaign technology played critical role in influencing people he wants to block out every kind of criticism. Again many citizens have reportedly uploaded video clips showing rigging under process in the constituencies where his allies either won or managed to dilute the verdict. There is distant though connected evidence why this must be true.
The day when the government decided to block Youtube two things happened. First Aaj TV brought back on air two of its anchors banned by Musharraf. The channel was immediately blocked by the satellite operator. The crime of the two anchors (Nusrat Javed and Mushtaq Minhas) was only to doubt Musharraf’s previous claims thinking out loud on television. Musharraf’s this ban has affected many of Pakistan’s leading anchors and opinion leaders of which I am aware of Dr Shahid Masood, Hamid Mir, Asma Sherazi and Kashif Abbasi apart from the above two.
The second thing that happened was the airing of an investigative report by Geo television which showed footage of rigging in the constituencies of Musharraf loyalists made through hidden camera. This too has reportedly not gone down well with Musharraf. Since in the past the regime also tried to block google’s weblog hosting service blogger.com in the name of countering blasphemy, the ban on youtube does not seem anything different. But Musharraf’s toadies are not happy with Pakistani blogs and cable channels too. So a similar ban may follow on these outlets too unless the west pressures him not to do so. This episode however has exposed Musharraf’s liberal credentials and committment to fighting extremism yet again.

Posted by farrukh at 14:22:37