Farrukh Khan Pitafi's Official Website

Sorry folks for not having updated the website for long. I have been very busy not only owing to my professional engagements but also because our second daughter was expected. I am pleased to announce that Sophie Khan Pitafi is now with us. Born on February 23 she had to endure a lot of trouble. Doctors took a while to identify the source of her sickness. Finally after admitting her it was learnt that she suffered from congenital pneumonia. After five days of rigorous treatment she has been discharged with a taxing condition that we have to take her to the same hospital twice a day with each visit lasting more than an hour. I am sure within no time she will be just as fine as our Oxana. My these two little angels are my world and my family has finally been completed.
This definitely explains a lot about my absence from the blogosphere. However now I am back and soon new posts will start appearing. Please don’t forget to pray for Sophie’s health and if you want to catch more of Sophie I have added some more pics of my daughter on my facebook account. In case you have not seen it in my contact details please visit my FB account through this link: http://www.facebook.com/people/Farrukh-Khan-Pitafi/666098627 .

With Mr Ban Ki-moon’s announcement of the establishing of the UN inquiry commission on Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the moral stand of the Pakistan People’s Party led government. It ought to be remembered that it was the demand of the Pakistani federal and provincial assemblies to seek the UN’s help in investigating the tragic tragic episode. It is sad that in its flagrant opportunism the PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal is now questioning the rationale behind taking this issue to the UN. Oh yes it is opportunism given the fact that the N-league as it is often called cashed the assassination electorally and gave the impression during the election that it was totally alligned with the People’s Party.  Now all of a sudden you are speaking in the establishment’s dialect. What is so bad about going to the UN, I ask you? Perhaps the PML-N is afraid that the propaganda and smear campaign it has unleased against the PPP on the issue of Miss Bhutto’s assassination, especially in vogue in Punjab, will fall apart upon an unbiased UN inquiry.
You know from day one that I have been in support of this probe. Why? Because as the forensic evidence was immediately destroyed on the spot, a true inquiry can take place keeping in mind a bigger picture and all possible background contexts. Only UN can do it better than any other group or institution. And then there is an added benefit too. Whenever a ruling party or its government carries out an inquiry, those implicated or apprehended call it political victimization. This is almost inevitable since the government in power usually has enormous levers to influence the outcome of any such inquiry. Hence what better way than to bring in a neutral party. How can those who brought in the Scottland Yard to probe the forensic evidence of the very same tragedy now complain that the UN should not be consulted?
And then some who show their concern over this intervention behave as if the inquiry commission is going to rush to the nuclear installations of the country. How stupid? Every inquiry commission has a clear mandate and cannot indulge in anything except its clearly defined mandate. Likewise in this world of Google Earth, western jorunalists and opinion makers have been, in last eight years, given access to uncountable sensitive facilities. So why should anyone have any objections on the inquiry folks? How many national mysteries have been uncovered by our local investigations after all. Why not do something more concrete and fruitful? President Zardari after all had a point when he perceived the assassination as a part of a plot to Balkanize Pakistan. When the country’s parliaments and the elected governments want it, it should be viewed as a moral victory. Nothing less.

As the specter of the Taliban movement seems more and more daunting  and winter of our discontent simmers, our heroes, the democrats, are fighting among themselves. A verdict is now awaited regarding the disqualification of the Sharif brothers, which if it goes as expected would mean the end of Punjab government. Meanwhile, in desperation, Nawaz Sharif and his peers are launching ever more jittery assaults on the federal government of the People’s Party. There is no solace, for the country today is under severe strain from a multitude of corrosive forces, from the Talbanization to the economic chaos, from the challenges of the resuscitated lawyers’ movement to India’s ever growing pressures, and finally to the centrifugal sentiments brewing in the smaller provinces. How did this moment come to pass?
It is clear that both Nawaz Sharif’s party PML-N and Asif  Zardari’s PPP have fallen victim to Pervez Musharraf’s highly divisive legacy but there are other factors at play too. When Zardari formed government at the center Musharraf was still there as president. Power was only transferred on a long list of preconditions. It is clear that this list included a refusal to reappoint the sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, especially it was stated upon the insistence of the Bush administration because the deposed judge was questioning the handover of the Pakistani citizens to the US without any extradition treaty. But the PPP may also have other reasons not to restore him. It needs to be remembered that from the judicial murder of Zulfi Bhutto to the successive dismissals of the PPP governments, the party has never found any solace from the Punjabi dominated judiciary of the country, quite unlike Nawaz Sharif whose dismissed government was once restored by the bench. This certainly has sown the seeds of ever growing suspicions. Since Nawaz Sharif has consistently stuck to his professed principles, this has undoubtedly alienated the PPP which is now convinced that the PML-N has some sinister agenda especially now when it unfortunately seems that Justice Chaudhry’s refusal just like Justice Dogar’s capitulation was based on mere instinct of self preservation.
Could Nawaz Sharif have chosen not to have upped the ante? Well he jolly well could have. But there are some serious concerns. On the face of it Sharif’s stance makes perfect sense. Until Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, Sharif could have claimed to be the biggest political victim of Musharraf regime as his government was overthrown as a result of his coup. It is quite natural for him to stand firm on his promises to the members of the APDM. But he is also forgetting that none of the members of the APDM were even supportive of his return to the country ending his exile. Nor was any particularly miffed at his overthrow. Was it not Jamat-e-Islami which had distributed sweets upon his dismissal? Was it not Imran Khan who had stood with Musharraf even during his referendum? It was Imran Khan again who was really critical of  Sharif even during his exile and after his return especially on his decision not to boycott the elections. Does it take great courage to recall that it was Benazir Bhutto who had advocated his return, who had convinced him not to boycott the elections, and finally Asif Zardari who had pleaded with him not to boycott after her assassination. Why would Nawaz Sharif overlook this subtle difference?
Well it started with Musharraf’s continued stay in power. The PPP had no option but to tolerate him for a while and the decision made Nawaz Sharif more than a bit uncomfortable. Suspicions started to resurface. Meanwhile the two sides had already pledged to restore the judges. As the PPP faltered on its promise, Musharraf’s surrogates started pumping venom against Sharifs in Islamabad’s PPP dominated power corridors. Simultaneously, the constituents of the APDM who had boycotted the elections upon Jamaat-e-Islami’s manipulation, Jamaat being keen to boycott the elections not because it was so committed to principles but because it had lost face and would have lost all seats in a contest, started to weigh heavily on Sharifs. Imran Khan after having been exploited by Musharraf had now been exploited by Jamaat and hence boycotted the elections. Now all these elements being absent from the parliaments are keen the houses fall so that they can take part in the fresh elections. Hence suspicions and point scoring between the PML-N and the PPP have reached to a monstrous proportion. Nawaz is being told that if fresh elections take place his party will win. Likewise the pro-Musharraf elements within the army are spreading the rumor that if confrontation between the two parties results in the dismissal of the democratic governments, an army rule may return. None of this however is possible. No one has quite understood Qazi Hussain Ahmed (Jamaat’s Amir)’s game. Since the fall of the Taliban in Kabul he has been eulogizing the retrogressive movement. Even now his party, quite different in its ethos from the Taliban, is full of their praise. With a pang one realizes that Swat now inundated with the Taliban is only 250 kilometers from Islamabad. If the secular political set up gets destabilized, especially now that we are expecting great destabilizing hustle and bustle in March, neither army nor any other party will be able to take advantage. On the contrary, there might be so much chaos that the Taliban may rush and take over Islamabad. Do you have any idea what it would mean? Pakistan is nuclear armed and a powerful country. I know many may dismiss it as another doomsday scenario but is it really? I think not. Not until the Taliban took over Kabul did anyone realize how lethal they were. Please do not let me country go to the dogs.
While Qazi Hussain is trying his best to keep PML-N away from the PPP, so is his old pal, the Taliban’s mentor and the federal government’s coalition partner now, trying to keep the PPP away from the N league. It is worth pointing out that whenever Fazl is in power the Taliban movement registers huge growth. Can we let the fanatics take charge of the country? If the PPP tries to throw out the PML-N of the coalition it may risk losing it and hence Punjab province to the religious fundamentalists. Please remember that a majority of the suicide bombers have come from the seminaries of the Southern Punjab region. It is need of the hour to stand united against the forces of fundamentalism and chaos. The best way for both parties hence is to do away with the differences, reach a settlement that courts are not used against either of the two in any case even if the deposed CJ is restored and then restore the CJ. This mark you is not the time to squabble. The enemies of democracy want to divide you and then do away with you individually. This is the most desperate appeal. After all both Musharraf and Bush are now gone.

Update: And if Mr Farooq Naek or Mr Latif Khosa think that they will not let this solution prevail then they must go too. Why? Is it any less tragedy that the man pleading case against Nawaz Sharif (it seems on the behest of Messrs Khosa and Naek) is none other than Ahmad Raza Kasuri, the man in plain words responsible for the judicial murder of Zulfi Bhutto. I mean both the parties need to take a deep breath and reflect on what they are becoming.
To be updated – Keep checking for any updates.

My very dear friend and former colleague Muhammad Najeeb is no more with us. He passed away a day before yesterday at 41. Najeeb bhai as we used to call him was the founding executive director of Intermedia Pakistan (http://intermedia.org.pk). I am cross posting here two obituaries published in Pakistani press but before that please take a minute out and write in the condolence book placed on the following link: http://intermedia.org.pk/gb/

In winter of discontent, the

death of a soulful journalist

By KAMRAN REHMAT

IN a winter of discontent, this week has been one of profound sadness. Around Thursday noon, the journalist and NGO community in Islamabad lost one of their most endearing souls, someone who made himself count and yet did not quite paint the town red.

Muhammad Najeeb’s shocking death from cardiac arrest at a relatively young age — he was three months shy of his forty-first birthday — has left a gaping hole in the lives of his family, friends and colleagues.

A gem of a person, his unassuming demeanour belied his passion for work and unswerving commitment to fulfill the varied demands of the job at hand.

Before becoming the executive director of Intermedia, a media development organization that he co-founded in 2005, Najeeb had already served as News Editor at The News in Rawalpindi in the mid-Nineties and subsequently, as Editor of News Network International (NNI), a private news agency, for four years.

Later, he also became a chief contributor to the India Abroad News Service, an independent wire service that caters to dozens of clients globally.

But what distinguished him from many others of his ilk was his unflappable temperament, especially under pressure. It was Inzamamul Haq like — and he was nearly as strongly built!

Why he would be particularly missed however, is down to that earthy nature, which enabled him to go to great lengths to help people without so much as — as the idiom goes — his left hand knowing what the right was doing.

Only an hour before his death, a former colleague called him to seek his help in a difficult professional task, but he responded positively within minutes to the amazement of this ex-colleague, who was devastated with what happened in the aftermath.

Najeeb’s three children, Saad(12), Hassan(10), and Sheheryar(5), were all at school when they first heard how the world around them had collapsed, never to be the same again. Poignantly still, five-year-old Sheheryar is not even alive to the reality of his loss as he played around Thursday evening with his father’s remains lying in a coffin nearby .

While it moved many mourners to tears, few would know the extent to which Najeeb loved his children. The youngest has a genetic heart condition, which led his worried father to meet each of his teachers separately at school and request them not to ever punish him and take care to prevent him from indulging in physical sport.

Recently, his eldest son, Saad, persisted with Najeeb to buy him a mobile phone but a concerned father felt it was too early to hook his son to a gadget, which could distract him from studies or, in a worse case scenario, even lead to undesirable consequences that such leniency potentially, entails. 

However, seeing Saad’s disappointment, the paternal instinct in Najeeb led him to give a handsome amount that was enough to buy a decent cell phone but with express instructions that it was not an option at this stage. Obviously, he did this so that his son would not feel it was for want of incurring expenditure that he had been forbidden to tread the territory.

Perhaps, this love was borne out of Najeeb’s own fate: he lost his mother at the age of four after which his eldest sister nurtured him along with his father. Until early teens, Najeeb was not even aware that the one whom he addressed as mother was actually his sister.

Few people would know that until his death the other day, Najeeb never failed to meet this sister, who lives in Islamabad, every week — if he was in town — for 26 years. While such bonds are not exactly rare, the frequency certainly is.

At the end of the day, Najeeb’s passing away once again reinforces the unpredictability of life. He had a thousand dreams in his bosom, not in the least ambitious plans to provide the best he could for his children so that not only would they be cocooned from omens strewn along life’s path for most but also live life to the brim.

Alas! it has all come to naught.

The story of Najeeb’s life is significant because his is a familiar tale in our part of the world. He struggled to make the grade like any other player of his trade in Islamabad years before the media boom. It wasn’t for trying but the poor economic conditions that prevailed for decades. Those were the days, when getting a salary — at all — was a boon, never mind how meager it was.

Looking at Najeeb’s sons quietly grieving at their father’s grave yesterday brought home the fragility of how vulnerable are the practitioners of the fourth pillar of the state. It’s a struggle in life and a tragedy in death — for those they leave behind.

• The writer is News Editor at Dawn News. He may be contacted at kaamyabi@gmail.com
   

Media community loses a sincere friend
Friday, January 23, 2009
By Shahina Maqbool
ISLAMABAD: Prominent journalist, former edition in charge of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad edition of The News, and a much-valued friend of the media community, Mohammad Najeeb, died of sudden cardiac arrest here on Thursday afternoon.

Najeeb, 41, was rushed to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), where he allegedly expired for want of emergency treatment. According to one of his colleagues, “The initial report prepared by the attending physician mentions him as having arrived with low blood pressure and low pulse; subsequently, however, doctors declared him as having been brought dead to the hospital at 12:15 pm.”

Available at the Intermedia website, a brief profile of Najeeb states that he had started his journalistic career as a sub-editor with ‘The News International’ in 1991 and was the news editor when he left the publication in 1997. He was a popular figure in the newsroom. His ready wit, encyclopedic knowledge, grace of expression and gentle demeanor endeared him to many. The last byline that this correspondent shared with Najeeb was for an article announcing the death of Syed Nadeem Hussain, another colleague at The News, who died on June 6, 2007. Nadeem, who died a month before his 43rd birthday, was one of his closest friends.

Najeeb remained the editor of News Network International (NNI), Pakistan’s first private news agency, for four years till 2000. He had since been writing on Indo-Pak issues, politics and peace for Indo-Asian News Service. He also worked on development issues and remained associated with TheNetwork for Consumer Protection for 18 months in 2002-2004.

In 2005, Najeeb joined the Intermedia, a media development organisation, as its founding executive director. His ambition was to strengthen journalists’ faith in their craft. “If the purpose of journalism is to provide citizen-consumers with the information they need to govern themselves, then the obligation of journalists is to look for information that citizens need, not what advertisers want,” he states in his profile.

Only on Wednesday night, Najeeb had returned from Quetta via Karachi, where he had been conducting consultations. He was accompanied to the trip by Muddassir Rizwi, a close friend and former journalist who worked with him at The News. “We were relatively free yesterday in Quetta. At night, Najeeb and I went to the market on Jinnah Road where, for hours, he kept searching for remote-controlled ‘bay blades’ for his two younger sons, and eventually found them. He also bought some books for his eldest son from the bookshop at the Serena,” he said.

“On Thursday, Najeeb went to office as usual, and then visited his landlord’s house where, during conversation, he suddenly fell unconscious after a brief spell of shivering. They immediately rushed him to hospital, where he was pronounced dead,” said Najeeb’s eldest brother-in-law Mohammad Irshad, former deputy controller, Radio Pakistan.

The PIMS spokesman, Dr. Waseem Khawaja, told The News that the preliminary report shows that he was brought dead to the hospital. “He said that the executive director of PIMS had, nonetheless, constituted an inquiry committee headed by Dr. Arshad, Director Emergency, to ascertain the facts.

Najeeb is survived by his wife and three sons Saad (12), Hassan (10) and Sheheryar (5). He was the youngest of three brothers and three sisters and had lost both his parents. Najeeb’s funeral prayers will be offered today (Friday) at a mosque close to his sister’s house (House No. 60-C, Street No. 3, Sector 1, Khayaban-e-Sir Syed, Rawalpindi) at 9 am.

Pakistan is just now skeptical. Since when has any change in the US, meant anything good for Pakistan? They say even when the governments change in Washington, the country’s policies hardly ever change. A prolonged campaign of disinformation spread by the fundamentalists, whose faith actually forbids them to indulge in anything as bad as rumor mongering, has convinced people that Obama had given a statement showing his resolve to attack the holy shrines of Islam. Then there is this issue of the neverending US assaults in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Obama’s statement that he would show hesitation to order operations within Pakistan if had actionable intelligence of Osama’s presence here. But then Pakistan is passing through a cynical age. There is such an immense pain here that all sanity has been driven out of us. During last seven years, Pakistan has lost no less than 14000 (fourteen thousand) precious lives of its citizens in terror related incidents. The country’s economy is in tatters and it doesn’t seem a likely place where the dream of democracy is to be realized absolutely in near future. Then you have to understand that not too many people can appreciate the true promise of an Obama presidency.
 Not too many people in Pakistan are aware that Samuel Huntington, the git who successfully exploited Toynbee’s reductionist definition of civilizations and propounded the thesis of clash of civilizations, is dead. They are in so much pain that they have forgotten to dream, quite forgotten to realize that we after all are one civilization, the human civilization. And the fact that the ever growing power outages have made it impossible for many of us to even his inauguration.
But amidst all that gloom, in their heart of hearts, all Pakistanis sincerely hope that Obama can bring about the change that he promised. Behind cynicism is hidden the roots of sheer respect for a nation that has put an end to the divisive  legacy of racism. Personally, January 20 happens to be my marriage anniversary, the second best thing that ever happened to me after my daughter Oxana’s birth (Jan 10), and I am becoming rather fond of this day.

It is my belief that the sad days of unilateralism are over. The coup of the conservatives is over and the world is warming up to change. A change which has no room for any Bushes or Bin Ladens. I believe the world has changed with the changes in the United States and  world will finally move towards the long cherished dreams of collective security. Long live hope, long live democracy!
(Post script: As I was finishing this post I had to endure another hour of power outage. We call it loadshedding. I guess we are shedding the load of some unknown sins. Watch us angels then for we have shed a lot of load already. Anyway, that’s why the post got delayed). By the way, Obama you rock!!!

It was only last night that I sat on the Lucman Show speaking emphatically in support of the political class. It has been my earnest desire to see the democratic process system thriving in Pakistan. If you remember when Musharraf imposed his second martial law, my immediate reaction on this website titled, “My revolt”, stated “I as a citizen, tax payer and voter of this country refuse to accept infringement upon my rights through the Martial Law imposed by General Musharraf under the garb of emergency. I refuse to accept the unlawful appointment of Dogar as the country’s Chief Judge and dismissal of the country’s legitmate judiciary. I am revolting against the restrictions on the freedom of expression in the country. I refuse to accept the state’s so called right to treat us an impotent herd of sheep. The decision is with you. If you think the same way, it is time to stand up for your and your country. If we let this happen this time, we may not see tomorrow. I am a pacifist, but am ready to die for this cause. Time for action is passing, do something, anything. Long live Pakistan, long live people of Pakistan, long live civil liberties and the constitution.”
Tell me how should I feel then when now that a democratic government is in place and Musharraf is gone but the central issue remains the same. Today a court has ruled that the petition against Farah Hameed Dogar, the Musharraf installed CJ’s daughter, ’s increase in numbers landing her in a medical college holds no merit. That is not enough. The verdict is being interpreted in a way that would clip the wings of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education and bar it from taking up the issue. I know no angels are sitting in the standing committee either but this one is a bit too far. The standing committee atleast consists of people chosen by the people, whereas the court has no representative mendate. At a time when when David Miliband is in Pakistan and he has arrived here after arguing that Pakistan’s judicial system is strong and thriving, this travesty of justice will not go unnoticed. Please note that we are not supporting the democratic government for any personal gains, we do so to ensure that institutions are built and the transparent system prevails. We have repeatedly eaten our words only out of the consideration for the democratic system. But if the purpose of this entire exercise was to ensure only the retention of a corrupt status quo then I am sorry I am not a believer in it. That would mean that Benazir Bhutto died in vain and that my friends I am not ready to believe. If the cause she gave her life for has not been achieved, that would mean that the war is not yet over. Either the government changes the way things are happening or the last chance for democracy will be over much before we blink our eyes. The issue why this case  was brought to the court was clearly political. Such political matters should from now on be solved by the political class without referring it to the courts. Please have mercy on us all!

I have never been a fan of the Bhatt family’s work in Indian film industry. What they produce is usually substandard with a lot of high cliches and too much of masala. It was with this bias that I read the news that Mukesh Bhatt has been denied to retain a purported nude scene in his movie Raaz – The Mystery, by the Indian censorship board. Apparently an actress Kangana Ranaut, had agreed to bare all in front of the camera, but the censorship committee thinks it unwise to be shown on the celluloid. Why was it done? To preserve the South Asian family values?
Actually if truth be told it is the very same censorship which is destroying what we are left with of the South Asian family values. How? See in the west movies are produced with age certification. That means if the board thinks that any movie should not be seen by anyone younger than 17 or 18 owing to nudity, sex, strong language or violence, the cinema goers will know before choosing to see the movie. That also means that the movies with universal certification can be a good choice if you want to see it with your ten year old. Since in India and Pakistan, the 18 category is not even thought of what you have is the genre of formula films. That means that even if you bring a movie on a superhero which should appeal to a kid, it will contain not only two or three item songs with girls dancing in wafer thin apparels and quite provocative language.
I am saying it because this kind of attitude in a huge impediment in the development of the specialized categories in television and cinema. We all pretend to be angels and umpteen cinemas in our own lands screen dirty movies without any substantial certification and with halls tightly packed. We churn out edicts anyone who wants to do serious work on stage with circumstantial portrayal of nudity yet there are uncountable theaters in these countries where women come and dance naked without as much of an eyebrow raise from the governments. Why this duplicity of standards?
The fact remains that if you think that in this age of internet and high tech gadgetry if you can slap such bans and stem out what you don’t like then you are just fooling yourself. No country with the exception of China which has great might has been able to do it but then China is not a democracy. It is a serious advice to those who genuinely want to preserve the family values to give what I am about to say a serious thought. The first step in damage control is to recognize that which you fear most. If you want your children to be kept away from the negative effects of pornography, you’ll have to acknowledge that niche for such stuff and in order to ensure that your children see quality family entertainment, you’ll have to let the other category part ways with your entertainment through a legitimate process.
I know that one more argument given is that if you allow screening of nudity in poor countries, the chances of rape will increase. But honestly is it the task of the censor board? Not quite. It is the duty of the police to stop rapes not of the cinema authorities. And even without any official permission for such screening the rate of daily rapes is quite astounding. Does it not mean things are not going fine even now?

Joseph Biden, the Vice President elect of the United States is  in Pakistan today for a brief visit. In recognition of Mr Biden’s support to the democratic process in Pakistan, the democratic government will present him the Hilal-e-Quaid. Just for the record though it must be mentioned that an announcement to this effect was made even before he won elections so some of our Indian hawk friends should not consider this another sign of Islamabad’s ’sycophancy’. Likewise the owner of this site has been his admirer for time immemorial now. This post then should also  not be viewed against the backdrop of the Mumbai attacks.
During the election campaign, he made an interesting comment that was misconstrued big time. He had remarked that at the very start of his term Obama’s leadership will be tested. The neocons tried to portray it as something naive. However since the elections quite a few people have tried to interpret it in terms of the momentary developments. When Mumbai attacks took place people thought he meant this. When Israel invaded Gaza we read several opeds interpreting it as Biden’s prediction. This all could be part of the bigger picture but one fact remains. The Obama Biden term has not officially started yet.  So could it be something else that he was referring to? Well the answer depends on the way you interpret his words.
When you respect someone to this extent and when he has such long experience in such matters you tend to treat his words just like those of a poet. We interpret everyone’s views according to our individual understanding. In my view his very statement shows his intellectual stature and should be viewed in light of the recent history. During last decade from Israel to India, from Pakistan to Iran and even the United States various hardliner parties rose to power. While the resulting governments strained the wafer thin global peace, they also posed serious threat to the secular prospects of each polity by inducting and promoting hardliner officials within the state apparatus, especially the defense establishment. Granted that Musharraf was not hardliner after 9/11 but he is now widely regarded as an opportunist and the inducted ambitious opportunists could be even bigger threat than a radical. In India we have repeatedly pointed out the Colonel Purohit phenomenon.  The alliance of the hardliners and the opportunist has been widely indulging in corrupt practices and is widely skeptical of popular democratic governments, led by charismatic and visionary leadership that believes in transparency. These conservative elements certainly do not want the skeletons in their cupboards to be exposed. Hence there is a great chance that they meddle in some conspiracy. In fact if you see the current posturing of India and Israel appears of the similar nature. It somehow seems that the two countries are acting on a cue. In India situation is indeed different from Israel but since the very start of the Mumbai fiasco it has shown little interest interest in solving problems through established mechanisms and has insisted on doing a Gaza in Pakistan. That of course would mean a full blown war between the nuclear armed countries. A full blown war if it is fought in accordance with the hardliner and opportunist agenda would certainly serve their cause not ours. 
The issue here is that while in democracy governments change regularly, the bureaucracy does not change that quickly, hence the new administrations should be doing their best to get rid of the bureaucratic shackles of the past. In that context at least I was happy to see the former National Security Advisor Maj Gen (r) Mahmud Durrani gone.  Just for the record I do not think that his statement accepting Ajmal Kasab’s identity as a Pakistani citizen should have caused his dismissal and the government now says that it was not the cause.  However I have consistently pointed out that his shady background is ill suited for the profile of a National Security Advisor. In my post dated July 29, 2008, I had written: “Now what was the ideal arrangement for the change in Pakistani intelligence? To create the post either of the Director of Federal Intelligence or the National Security Advisor. The latter was recently created but no use. The wrong person got the post. Lt Gen (retired) Mahmud Durrani was appointed the National Security Advisor. In my opinionated view he is the wrong choice. The right choice would have been someone who knows the army inside out but has never abused his post. Two men come into my mind. Lt Gen (retired) Asad Durrani or Lt Gen (retired) Talat Masood. These men are best suited for the post and also to oversee the leadership of the Pakistani intelligence community).” But this is not the only time I had opposed his appointment. Since his appointment as the ambassador to the US and then as the NSA I have repeatedly pointed out that not only is he blamed in the assassination of Gen Zia but was also had a reputation of hatred towards Benazir Bhutto, to an extent that it was believed that he used to practiced shooting on Benazir’s photos when he was in service. His departure brings a relief from a corrupt past.
Something deserves to be said about Leon Panetta’s appointment as the head of the CIA too for too many people seem skeptical of the appointment. Just because a man has never held an intelligence portfolio doesn’t mean he does not have sufficient intelligence to hold such a post. In fact Panetta’s  appointment brings to the fore a welcome desire to free the world’s most powerful democracy of the trappings of a neocon past. I must say here that Panetta is a consensus builder and hence can only bolster the position of a hardworking field operator. Where he promises change is at the directorial level which is lacking in transparency and also effectual counterintelligence. Today Mr Biden’s visit to Pakistan is a metaphor of a change that promises prosperity for all peoples of the world. Most welcome Mr Biden then.

There are no two thoughts that the government is under dire pressure and facing ever burgeoning criticism. Some of this criticism is politically motivated but no one can exaggerate the ever growing absence of electricity, gas, fuel and now even water. No one can deny that things are growing out of control. Purchasing power of the ordinary citizens is declining steadily. And if you have faced a moment when you could not buy medicines for your children or fuel for your car, not because of lack of money but owing to the absence of these crucial items in the market you’ll be aware of the all pervading frustration. 
It must be mentioned here that this blog belongs to an ally  of the government. Not only have I come under fire for the consistent support of the government but I am also a direct voter of the Prime Minister Gilani. But why do I mention these things now? Because the trust deficit against the government is ever increasing and I honestly feel that it is not showing enough of proactivity in answering the questions that are sent its way. When your media managers fail to sell your needed image what do you do? First you try to correct them, then you personally go out and sell the policies of the government and if things are right even then, you change the managers. Likewise when the media raises its voice in unison against any of your ministers or advisors, for instance the interior adviser Rehman Malik, you show readiness to introduce change. Has the government done that? I think not. That is exactly why the deficit of coordination between the media and the government is multiplying. Had media been brought on board in case of a genuine crisis it would at least have helped the government in explaining the odds to the people. It is sad to see a good government going down the drain just because of its desire to stay stuck in the state of suspended animation. 
But unlike Pervez Musharraf’s supporters I would never be so presumtuous to think  that the current crisis is only a problem of perception. Not quite sir. There indeed is a huge problem. Power, gas, water, food items, medicines and umpteen other problems which highlight the absence of governance are there, no matter how much you deny. Of course I have my own theories on that. I believe that the government is facing both international pressures as well as the lack of cooperation from the local establishment dominated by the Punjabis who have always been sceptical of any non Punjabi government. But that at least will change for Obama’s take over will herald a change in international dynamics bringing the local establishment also under control for it thrives on the support of the US establishment right now dominated by the neocons. But that makes the next eighteen days even more important for the government to survive.   The government needs to show ownership, connect with the people and find solutions. Where it has gone wrong it should correct its position, where it has been misunderstood it needs to come up with more appealing explanations. But a word of caution to the wise. There is a limit to the influence of spoken or published word. It can never be a replacement of action. The cabinet has clustered together a number of people who have a history of animosity with the media or else are brimming with hubris. It is the government’s task that the greivances against them is alleviated. And then there are solutions which are actually knocking at the door already like the Iranian offer of Oil and Gas. If such offers are not capitalized immediately the deficit of trust will only increase and may spiral out of the government’s control or imagination. Please do not fail this grand chance offered to democracy.

Who says India is not a true democracy? Who says India doesn’t have fine politicians? Since 2002 I have repeatedly pointed out that Madhya Pardesh’s former Chief Minister Mr Digvijay Singh is the best example of the Indian democracy and is a person in total contrast with the man in charge of neighboring state of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. A decent politician and a wonderful man, Digiraja as he is well known, is now serving as the Congress Party’s General Secretary. Since I don’t believe in India bashing and always presented India at home as the shining example of a miracle among the developing world even during the days of Gujarat massacre which left 3000, mostly Muslims, dead, I was repeatedly pointing out that with leaders like Digvijay Singh Indian secularism does not need to lose hope. It is my belief that remarkable leaders should always be respected regardless of the caste, creed or nationality. But it seems that his objectivity and stature is unacceptable to the Indian Hindutva fundos and their surrogates in the media.
 But he is not the only one. Nor is he the first one. You have seen what was done to Mr Antulay. Not only expressing one’s opinion different from the well publicized theory about Mumbai is dubbed as  a ‘conspiracy theory’ the conscientious person expressing it is really taken to task. But let me tell you of the other person I adore and yet is being subjected to character assassination. The head of BSP, Mayawati Kumari, seems to be under fire from the same quarters for apparently different reasons. There is much talk of an officer’s murder. But before I move any further let me tell you what I think of her. When Obama won in the elections, Barkha Dutt hosted a program on NDTV asking who could be the Obama of India. Since I watched the program with interest I expressed my views on this very weblog.  I wrote: “If my views as a keen India observer were of any consequence I would have suggested that since India’s form and nature of democracy is much different from the United States we can only talk of the substance alone. And if someone was to fit that description it is none other than Mayawati Kumari. Why? You know about the caste and communal tensions in India and if someone’s profile can promise across the board hope to everyone it hers. I believe that since the Americans broke the shackles of a possible dynastic rule, consider Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton prospects, India too can break the Congress-BJP-Congress cycle by giving another chance to the Left leaning parties”. Now she is under criticism. It seems that the BJP supporting media wants all promising people to be nullified. Why else would Hemant Karkare’s murder would be swept under the carpet while magnifying an engineer’s death in custody? 
Coming back to Digvijay Singh, I believe that he too is being persecuted for expressing his perspective. He has claimed that terrorists had demanded the government to release some terrorists. In the previous post I had questioned whether under Sardesai CNN-IBN was serving the BJP’s agenda. Here is the proof of that. Why stifle a man when he is trying to express his opinion?  India after all is bound to gain from the freedom of expression as a democracy. Consider the IBNLive’s treatment of the story:

Congress leader shoots his mouth; target is BJP 
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/digvijays-conspiracy-theory-has-a-political-plot/81535-3.html

New Delhi: The Congress may be in for some rough weather again because of a senior’s leader’s conspiracy theory about the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has claimed that the militants who attacked Mumbai demanded the release “of certain terrorists” but the Government refused them.

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