Around 100 tragic deaths of heart patients have occured due to fake medicines provided by the Punjab Governments’ PIC (Punjab Institute of Cardiolology).

This is yet another blunder by chief minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif. Since three weeks, he was waiting for more death toll just like a monster, not much different from his slow-motion response to the dengue epidemic.

In March 2011, National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad and federal government had requested the Punjab government to take necessary steps against impending dengue outbreak. National insititute of health (NIH) is Pakistan’s leading scientific research institute, it plays important role in diseases, the biological effects of environmental contamination and provision of vaccine.

It also has an early warning disease system. NIH had warned Punjab government about possible consequences but they paid no heed and as dengue outbroke, Shahbaz’s reponse was too poor; late in fumigations and lack of public awareness campaign led to edpidemic in Punjab.

Moreover, most effective way to control dengue virus transmission is biological method. No appropriate and prompt measures were taken. Dengue fever took 1000 lives in the Punjab.

Shahbaz Sharif must resign over increasing deaths due to substandard life saving drugs and poor health services in the Punjab.

It is a fact that the PIC is the largest cardiac center in Pakistan. It is the first ISO certified hospital in the government sector. But during Shahbaz Sharif’s four years administration, PIC has been put to dubious deals with unauthorized local pharmaceuticals like Alfalah Pharma, Mega Pharmaceuticals and Pharmawise laboratories. Many of these laboratories are known to provide kickbacks to Punjab government in order to earn expensive contracts and supply fake medicines in return.

According to the Drug Act 1976, The Quality Control system at the federal and provincial level is supported by the professionally
competent drug inspectorates and laboratory services.

This is absolutely criminal negligence on the part of the Punjab government, another faux pas within ten months. It is incredible that instead of tendering his resignation, CM Shahbaz Sharif is still trying to fool the nation that substandard life saving drugs are of imported brand.

Such incompetent Chief Minister must be removed by no-confidence movement in the Punjab assembly without any delay, so that peoples’ lives in the Punjab could be saved, and such tragic incidents are averted in the future.

Woke up early in the morning at 8.30 am. Had pancakes and coffee for breakfast. Drove to the university. Used internet to solve surprise quiz in class. After all, it’s fair to do so, it’s not Corruption. Only Politicians do corruption. Was also helped by a class-mate. Socialism is cool, until practiced during exams. Hung out with my group after that. Discussed inqalab and the latest episode of Heroes and Breaking Bad. Reminisced about Strings performance at The Jalsa. Came home and slept till 6 o clock. Got up, checked facebook statuses on my iPad. Removed people from friends list who had criticized ‘Chairman’ today. Flagged the “Aalu Anday” video as Inappropriate.

Stalked a few female class fellows. Later, checked latest news via twitter. Was pleased to know that Chairman had formed a committee to vet all our party candidates. Exchanged furious tweets with some anti-Chairman, anti-revolution people. Switched the TV on but turned off after channel surfing. I don’t understand why this liberal fascist media doesn’t understand that “Chairman” is not pro-Taliban and is not being backed by the Brave Khaakis. That meeting with Pasha was just for congratulating him on Afridi’s performance. Can’t wait for 2013 when Kaptaan and our party will sweep the elections and we can show the pessimists that Inqalab is Possible. We will talk to the Taliban, cut off all relations with the big evil Amrika and may be; just maybe we will be able to convince other Muslim countries and Cheen to form a combined state, our Khilafat. Ham dekhain gay, lazim hai kay ham bhi dekhain gay. Talked to some girls on phone. Ate some chicken bread and dozed off.

Diary of a typical PPP Worker

Woke up early in the morning at 6 am. Asked wife to prepare lunch box while I sipped tea. Walked for half an hour to reach bus stop where factory bus picked me up. Shift started at 8.30 am. Around 10 am, a co-worker got his arm injured due to some machine malfunction. He was not even provided first aid. We decided to stop work and protest in front of manager’s office. After all, we have that right because Bhutto Shaheed made labour laws for us. Shift In charge finally called 1122 and our co-worker was taken to the hospital. Manager announced that half our today’s pay will be cut because we are not allowed to protest.

Now I will have to pay my daughter’s fee from the Income Support Program. I wish I had gone to Dubai when the party was sending people in droves. At the very least I could have gotten a better job. If Mirza can get sugar mills from the party, I should have gotten a departmental store if not anything else. The party has gone to the dogs now. My shift ended at 5 pm. Reached home at 7 pm. Dinner consisted of same saalan that I had for lunch. Watched PTV news at 9 pm. Talked to my daughter. She wants to become doctor. I will have to start a part-time job next year to afford her fee. Jiye Bhutto and good night.

Diary of a typical N-league suporter.

Woke up early in the morning at 8.30 am. Took a light breakfast of desi ghee paratha and 4 omelets. Reached my shop at 9.45 am. Watched repeat telecast of last nights’ talk show. I cannot understand why the TV walas invite these godless secular-liberal types to their programs. They are the scum of earth. Just wish musharraf had not conspired against Mian sb, he would have been Amir ul Momineen by now and we would have eliminated the godless numpties. I will advise ameer sahb on upcoming Ijtema to plan a strategy against secularism as well.

They also deserve our tableegh. Maybe my next Seh roza would be to Islamabad. Sale went well till around 1 pm. Then there was load shedding. Why on earth does Zardari not understand our misery and give us electricity. Asked a worker to fetch me lunch from Gourmet at 2 o clock. Shezan is located closer to the shop but you know, we don’t do business with people who claim to be musalman but they are not. Who knows what they mix in their pasteries,cakes,sandwiches or beverages.

Attended a meeting of local trader association at 3 o clock and it was decided unanimously to close our shops for 2 hours from next Jumma till Ghazi Mumtaz Qadri is released. At least our nation is united on that front. Came back to shop and received shipment from abroad. It did not come through legal way but who cares anyway.

A molvi sb came to collect money from the box that is present in my shop and which asks musalmans to donate money for mujahideen. Molvi sb inquired if I was interested in sending my elder son to his madrassa for free education. May god have mercy on him,he is such a gentle soul, he didn’t know my son was already at an expensive english medium school. One of my cousins has a mentally handicapped child,I referred Molvi sb to his shop.

Reached home at 8 pm and had dinner with the family. Watched a pakistani soap drama. Elder son asked me to buy him a mobile or at least a PSP. asked him to wait till my brother comes back from Amrika. Slept while watching a sports channel.

Source:

Is it really fair to say that the PPP is now pro-establishment (when in fact it has decided to tow the line simply to survive and protect all the good legislation enacted by its government) or equally is it fair to say that Nawaz Sharif is anti-establishment when his brother’s Punjab government has sympathies with Jamat ul Dawah?

Nawaz Sharif aparently doesn’t approve unanimous resolution of the APC, which was held after US allegations of Pakistani state support for the Haqqani network, one should appreciate his stance in the APC. But in last few public appearances, he has demanded quick implementation of APC resolution, which makes things a bit  confusing and contradictory to his previous stance.  If he did not support APC resolution (in fact an ISPR press release), then why he is now demanding its quick implementation?

Tribune 

He also asked for the implementation of the agreements that the country political parties had come up with in the All Parties Conference.

After Nawaz Sharif’s excellent statement it was expected that PML N would support civilian government’s decision of awarding MFN status to India ; instead PML N sided with the Jamad ul Dawah .

PML-N has reservations on MFN status to India

“He said he had strong reservations against the declaration of India as the Most Favoured Nation and called for taking it up in the Parliament.

PML N and Jamat ul Dawah Reject MFN Status 

Raja Farooq Haider, convener of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Maulana Abdul Aziz Alvi, chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the charity wing of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, assured support to Geelani.

“The entire nation is ready. We will not step back an inch from our stance because freedom is our destination,” Alvi said. A 20-year insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir has left tens of thousands dead.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi to meet Nawaz , November 22

 

Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday said that Qureshi is an “old and respectable friend” and that he will be meeting him soon. Speaking to the media in Bahawalpur, Nawaz said that Qureshi is a “mature politician” and he will meet him when the later returns from Dubai. Qureshi, on Tuesday, had said that he still maintains “excellent” relations with Nawaz.

Sire , my sincere advice to you, as a political activist , is that if you are really interested in correcting the civil-miltary imbalance then you should stop supporting  the Jamat ul Dawah and opportunists like Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Imran Khan’s successful public rally in Lahore has made many tongues to wag. Political analysts are now forced to revise their earlier estimates about Imran Khan’s potential to create a niche for himself in the existing political set up in Pakistan. The most notable impact of Imran Khan’s jalsa has been on the politics of Punjab, especially in its urban centres, considered till recently Nawaz Sharif’s stronghold. In this article an attempt has been made to bring into focus the possible changes which might take place in the electoral politics of the central Punjab during the coming elections. Therefore, I will first trace the trajectory of electoral politics in Punjab since 1946 to demonstrate the transformations that have taken place in the society and polity of Punjab and how have these changes been reflected in the electoral fortunes of various leaders and political parties over a period of time. It will help us establish a framework whereby the dynamics of changing patterns in the electoral history of the Punjab could be delineated so as to make an informed study about the possible changes in the political landscape of the central Punjab with the advent of Imran Khan as a key player.

1946

Till 1940, the Unionist Party was the single most influential party in Punjab. It comprised of land-holding elites drawn from all religious communities of the Punjab. Their loyalty towards the British rulers was unflinching and they extended all possible cooperation to them in the war efforts on the occasions of two world wars. The British reciprocated by decorating them with medals and honours, and granting them lucrative tracts of land in canal colony districts which helped them to not only sustain rather enhance their power and prestige over the local populace. It was, hence, a mutually symbiotic relationship.

Political situation changed after the commencement of the Second World War. As Congress did not cooperate with war efforts, the British government turned to its traditional allies among the aristocracy.  Muslim League sided with the British government on the plea that Nazi Germany and its allies were common enemies of the whole of civilized world. While prominent leaders of the Congress were incarcerated, Muslim League was given a relatively free hand. It was done so as to dilute the significance of Congress in the Indian politics or at least among the Muslim majority areas from where bulk of military recruitment and resources were being drawn. Muhammad Ali Jinnah used the political vacuum to his advantage and re-organized his party and successfully mustered support for its agenda at the grass root level. His popularity reached its zenith at the time of the historic event in 1940 when Muslim League held its annual meeting in Minto Park Lahore. Such a powerful show of strength was followed by intense membership drives throughout Punjab and North India in which students of Aligarh Muslim University and other colleges played an active role. As Tahir Kamran has noted in his well-researched article on the elections of 1946 that such slogans as Muslim hai tu Muslim League mai aa were raised to gain sympathy for Muslim League and the cause espoused by it. Thus, Muslim League, under the charismatic leadership of Jinnah, emerged as a party which outsmarted all its rivals. It had the vibrant support of youth and, most importantly, an agenda for the rights of Muslims which touched a chord among overwhelming majority of Muslims in India. Because of these factors, the Unionist Party felt threatened. They could see the winds of change blowing in the direction of Muslim League. Therefore, many among them shifted their loyalties from Unionist Party to Muslim League. Despite all his charisma and popular support, Jinnah could not have won elections in Punjab without the support of Daultanas and Mamdots. This was also because of the fact that the urban base in Punjab was narrow and the franchise was limited.

Muslim League grabbed 73 out of 86 Muslim seats in Punjab and only a few of Muslim Unionists were able to retain their seats. These

Khizr Hayat Tiwana became a non-entity in Punjab politics post creation of Pakistan

results were in stark contrast with the elections held in 1937 when Muslim League had managed to win just two seats of which at least one was from an urban area (Malik Barkat Ali from Lahore and Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan from Rawalpindi who later crossed floor to Unionist party to earn the stigma of lota for the first time in Punjab’s electoral history). This was indeed a radical reversal in electoral fortune for Muslim League at the expense of Unionist Party. But even after the elections of 1946, Muslim League was unable to form a ministry in Punjab as Khizr Hayat Tiwana mustered support from Akali and Congress party to keep himself afloat as the premier of Punjab. It should be noted here that while all the Unionists shifted loyalties before the elections of 1946 (such as Mumtaz Daultana) or after the creation of Pakistan (such as Muzaffar Ali Khan Qizilbash) and became prominent leaders of Muslim League, Tiwana remained committed to his stance which opposed the creation of a separate state in the name of religion at the expense of centuries old pluralist traditions which had kept Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs together. After 1947, Khizr Hayat Tiwana became a non-entity in the politics of Punjab and spent the rest of his life in political wilderness. 

1970

First general elections in Pakistan at the national level with universal franchise took place in 1970. In these elections, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto emerged victorious in West Pakistan by winning 82 out of 138 seats whereas Sheikh Mujibur Rehman grabbed 158 out of 160 seats in East Pakistan. While reasons for Mujeeb’s absolute victory are understandable, the Bhutto phenomenon has intrigued historians and political scientists.

In the late 1960s, after resigning from the cabinet in anticipation of public outcry against the provisions of a peace agreement with India at Tashkent, Bhutto led a political campaign against Ayub Khan’s martial law regime. The so-called era of reforms and progress under Ayub Khan had led to industrialization and mechanization of farming practices in Pakistan. But the dividends of this economic development were unevenly distributed. A select elite comprising of 22 families – a figure popularized by economist Mehbub-ul-Haq – was widely believed to be holding 80% of country’s wealth and resources. In addition, the burgeoning urban based middle classes were now yearning for a fair share in the political decision-making.  It was also the high point of leftist movements in Pakistan. At no other point in Pakistan’s history were the leftists more active and politically relevant. The leftist intellectuals were instrumental in the political successes achieved by Bhutto. The likes of J. Rahim, Mubashir Hassan and Sheikh Rashid were among the founding members of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) who drafted its manifesto and painted it reddish with the slogan “Democracy is our politics, Socialism is our economy and Islam is our religion.” What benefited Bhutto the most was his ability – and that of his key advisers like Rahim and Mubashir Hassan – to transform Peoples Party as an umbrella organization in which various splinter groups with leftist leanings were incorporated.

Peoples Party emerged, to the surprise of everyone else, as the most popular political party in the central Punjab. In the elections of 1970, out of the total tally of 82 seats, 62 were won in the Punjab, 18 in Sindh and 1 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Thus, Punjab was the epicentre of Peoples Party electoral sweep in West Pakistan. Within Punjab, it was the central region of the province with its urban base which went Bhutto’s way. As reported by Andrew Wilder, Bhutto won 50.8% of popular vote in central Punjab and 43 out of 44 seats – more than double the seats that he won nationwide.

Just like Muslim League in the 1940s, Bhutto’s electoral strategy had the right ingredients. He was a charismatic leader and brilliant speechmaker. He realized that there was a political vacuum in West Punjab which he was able to fill with an ideology which struck a chord with the poor and the emerging middle classes who had been denied a fair share in the benefits accruing from economic progress in Pakistan during the 1960s. Most importantly, he had a dedicated cadre of young but experienced leftist workers who carried out his campaign in an efficient manner. Unlike Muslim League, however, Bhutto did not have the support of influential feudal figures in rural Punjab. It was more because such traditional power holders could not foresee the prospects of Bhutto’s electoral sweep. Hence they demurred to side with him in the elections of 1970. Needless to say, those who won on Peoples Party ticket,  were, thus far, political non-entities though they were well qualified and had years of experience working at grass root level. But they succeeded simply

A youngish Dr. Javed Iqbal was beaten by ZAB in 1970 elections

because they were ticket holders of PPP and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. It was no small achievement that a Sindhi feudal Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was able to defeat farzand-i-Iqbal Dr Javed Iqbal from his home constituency in Lahore! This phenomenal success popularised the adage that even if Bhutto had awarded a ticket to a khamba (electric pole), people would have voted for it. Ironically however, by the time elections of 1977 took place, Bhutto, swayed by political exigencies, relied heavily on traditional feudal families of Punjab. Instead of committed party workers and leftist cadres, Bhutto accommodated traditional elites. This was one key factor in disenchantment of the various leftist groups and individuals within PPP.

1990 and 1993

Bhutto’s performance in central Punjab during the election of 1970 was repeated by Islami Jamhuri Ittihad (IJI) – a conglomeration of rightwing political parties formed at the behest of establishment – led by Nawaz Sharif in 1990. It was a radical reversal in fortune. While in 1970 a conglomerate of various leftist groups had swept the polls, the same feat was repeated by IJI in 1990 when it also grabbed 50.8% of the total vote and 51 out of 60 seats in central Punjab. What can explain this extraordinary change in the electoral fortunes of the central Punjab? The foremost explanation is the role played by Pakistan’s Establishment which provided unlimited funds to coalesce an alliance of anti-PPP political parties. Through the rightwing Urdu press, a smear campaign was launched against Benazir Bhutto and her spouse Asif Zardari. The same press built Nawaz Sharif’s stature as an alternative national leader.

But more than anything else it was the policy of nationalization followed by Bhutto and Islamization by Zia-ul-Haq which had definite impact in bringing about a decisive transformation in the society and polity of urban Punjab. In the initial phase of nationalization policy, Bhutto targeted the filthy rich – the proverbial 22 families against whom he had led a charged rhetoric in his election campaign. Nationalizing banking sector and large industrial estates was, hence, a populist move which greatly added to Bhutto’s political power. But his later round of nationalization which targeted small and medium enterprises had disastrous fallout. While Bhutto became a messiah for the poor through these reforms, he lost – it seems forever – the support of newly urbanized industrial middle classes. Those who were hit by these reforms comprised mainly of migrant families who had, after decades of struggle, established their businesses as they were forced to forsake their homes and hearths as well as source of livelihood in India at the time of partition. The best example of such a migrant family was that of Nawaz Sharif. When an anti-Bhutto alliance was formed in the elections of 1977, it drew support – both political and financial – from those financially hurt by Bhutto’s policies. When Zia-ul-Haq came to power, these traders and businessmen threw in their lot with him as he gradually pursued a policy of de-nationalization whereby industrial units were given back to their original owners. Furthermore, Zia used the slogan of Islam to legitimize his rule. As positivist tradition in sociology suggests, newly urbanized classes – uprooted from their rural background and traditional clan ties – seek comfort and new associational patterns in religious observances and gatherings. Zia’s Islamization, therefore, received wide support from newly urbanized Punjabis.

Nawaz Sharif got the necessary space courtesy Zia ul Haq

Zia’s legacy of an Islamized society and support for trading classes was inherited by Nawaz Sharif who was ideally suited to such a designation. He was a scion of a migrant, business family steeped in traditional and religiously conservative ethos. He cashed on anti-PPP and pro-Islam vote bank to the maximum. As prime minister between 1990-92, Nawaz Sharif initiated a whole new era of liberal economic reforms which eased restrictions of capital transfer, facilitated industrial credit and loans and focused on building communication infrastructure. A policy of privitization was also quite vigorously pursued. These policies brought about a period of short-lived economic boom which greatly benefited the industrial base in the central Punjab and helped transform many medium sized industrial units into huge commercial enterprises. The benefits of this economic boom also trickled down to the trading classes in general. This established Nawaz Sharif as the single most popular figure in urban Punjab, especially among the trader community. In the elections of 1993 in which he had briefly fallen out of favour with the Establishment, Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N percentage of vote was greater than its rivals in the central Punjab. PML-N won 46.6% of vote in comparison to 46.1% won by PPP and its allies. Still, PML-N managed to get only 28 seats while 31 seats went to PPP and its allies. But PML-N’s sweep of the urban constituencies in places like Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sheikhurpura was almost complete. This was despite the fact that an influential portion of PML-N’s rightwing vote was sliced off by Jamat-i-Islami which, instead of keeping an electoral alliance in the form of IJI, fought the election on its own under the banner of Islamic Front.

The urban centres of the Punjab remained supportive of rightwing and pro-Establishment PML-N between 1990 and 1997. Since 1999, PML-N – especially Nawaz Sharif – turned anti-Establishment after his own government was toppled in a military coup and he was imprisoned and later exiled to Saudi Arabia. For the first time, it became possible for a popular leader of the Punjab to raise tirade against the military. While other provinces had all suffered because of military’s role – whether in politics or because of its operations in the name of suppressing nationalists – Punjab had remained pro-military throughout the history of Pakistan. Till now Nawaz Sharif is holding on to his anti-Establishment rhetoric. His statements provide ample testimony to his anti-establishment stance in which he has asked for a commission to be constituted for the probe into Kargil fiasco and lashed out at the military leadership for its failure on Osama Bin Laden. Will he be able to continue with such an anti-Establishment rhetoric after a radical change seems imminent in the politics of urban Punjab by Imran Khan?

2012 or 2013

Till the beginning of 2011, Nawaz Sharif was still the most popular leader in Punjab. But now change in the Punjab politics seems in the offing. After his successful public rally in Lahore, Imran Khan has suddenly been catapulted to the national scene as an alternative leader. His coming out of the political wilderness and assuming the centre stage was on the cards for quite some time. His rise to this level of popularity has reminded many of the successful electoral campaigns of Jinnah and Bhutto. There are some reasons for such a sudden change. First, there is a political vacuum of sorts. Nawaz Sharif has had flak for being too friendly an opposition. His party despite controlling 60% of Pakistan is putting all the onus of the current mess squarely on the shoulders of PPP alone. Secondly, there has been widespread resentment against the Zardari government yet Nawaz Sharif has not capitalized on it. He probably is shying away to launch a movement against PPP, saying that he will not revert to the politics of confrontation reminiscent of the 90s. Thirdly, and most importantly, anti-American sentiments have soared to an unprecedented level. PML-N, as the main opposition party, could not come up with a clear stance on the war against terror. In this situation, Imran Khan is the only political figure who has a clear agenda no matter how much one dislikes or disagrees with that agenda. He is saying things which touch a chord among vast majority of Pakistanis. His anti-American rhetoric is high-pitched and he is using such innovative methods of public spectacles as overnight dharnas to convey these feelings. Like Jinnah’s idea of a separate state for Muslims and Bhutto’s slogan of roti kapra makan, Imran Khan too has conjured up political slogans which might be vague and (unlike Bhutto) extremely rightwing, but they have mass appeal. As far as masses in general are concerned, the ability to transform political slogans into effective policy measure is relevant only once the protagonist is elected into power.

Like Jinnah and Bhutto, Khan too has a dedicated set of followers. While Bhutto politicized the masses, Imran Khan has become the only person in Pakistan’s history who has successfully drawn the upper middle and elite interested into politics – at least temporarily. There are other differences between Bhutto and Imran Khan as well. Bhutto was left leaning while Imran Khan has gravitated to the rightwing. Most importantly, Bhutto rose to political power by championing an anti-Establishment cause. Khan, on the other hand, is advancing a cause which corresponds quite explicitly with the strategic purposes of the Establishment.

Imran Khan is fully cognizant of the importance of social media for propagating his political ideology. In this regard, the overwhelming majority of the “clicking youth” is supporting him. They can be found all over the web and they religiously project Imran Khan as a beacon of hope and change in Pakistan. What is disturbing, however, is that they resort to almost fascist tactics in silencing their critics through abuse and threat (Imran Khan is personally responsible for such behaviour because in his public speeches and interviews, he uses a similar language of ridicule and abuse). This is because large majority of these dedicated cadres of Imran Khan do not have any genuine training in politics nor do they have much of an idea about the history of Pakistani politics. It is because of their ignorance about politics that they are unable to see that Imran Khan’s agenda is vague, problematic or potentially disastrous for Pakistan. For them he is simply an iconic figure who is untainted from allegations of corruption and will bring about much needed radical change. Due to this lack of firm grounding in politics, many commentators are dismissive of the efficacy of this cadre in the electoral politics of Pakistan. Contrary to what many observers believe, I think these clicking youth may be politically naive and hail from a “burger” background, but they will definitely vote for Imran Khan in the coming elections. Previously this class of voters had predominantly been apolitical but this time they will turn up to vote for Imran Khan and will use social media effectively to make sure that each one of them exercise his/her right to vote.

There are two major sources of electoral power which Imran Khan has been able to tap successfully. First are the Pakistani middle class professionals (lawyers, doctors, MBAs, IT experts) and upper middle class or elites. Ever since Bhutto transformed Pakistani politics by empowering the masses, these elites and professional classes have been at a loss. They do not find popular politics amenable to their tastes. It is because this mode of politics limits the chances of these elites to play an effective role in politics. They usually look down upon the ability of the masses to exercise their right to vote in a rational manner. These elites had always prospered during autocratic regimes such as those of Ayyub Khan and Parvez Musharraf which accommodated ‘technocrats’ in various ministries and government organizations. Hence, there is no coincidence that these elites (along with upper middle classes and professionals) – before joining the bandwagon of Imran Khan – were enthusiastic supporters of Parvez Musharraf. For these elites and professional classes, Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari were too corrupt and Nawaz Sharif too boorish for their tastes. Imran Khan is equipped with not only charisma but also has a clean financial past, rightwing anti-American rhetoric and a degree from Oxford – all the traits admired by Pakistan’s middle or upper middle class. Most importantly, unlike Ayyub and Parvez, Imran Khan has the chance to bring about a bourgeoisie revolution in Pakistan through electoral means. In other words, as my colleague Umber Ibad puts it, “the question of the possibility of revolutionary change by Elites is successfully making resistance against elitism redundant.” Perhaps for the first time in many decades, the elites, professional and middle classes will determine the outcome of the elections through their votes. The spectacle created at the PTI jalsa was the highest point ever for elitist politics in Pakistan. It might set in motion a domino effect possibly affecting the lower middle classes (if not the poorest) into believing that since the elites and privileged sections (i.e. most educated) are supporting Imran Khan, he is inevitably the right choice. But at least for now, in the words of Imtiaz Alam, Imran Khan does not have the support of bazar and the poor. The bazar (small and medium traders) side with Nawaz Sharif in central Punjab and the poor are divided in their loyalty towards PPP and PML-N.

Punjab = World for Imran Khan

The second major source of popular vote for Imran are young voters in Pakistan. It is this newly created vote bank on the basis of which Imran Khan claims to have brought about a ‘tsunami of change’ in Pakistan. Of all the political parties and its leadership, he saw the potential of tapping this huge reservoir of political support. Just a few months back, videos and photos glorifying Imran Khan for such feats as winning the world cup, building a cancer hospital and sleeping on the floor along with other participants of a dharna against US drone attacks started getting viral on social networking sites. Impressed with what he was doing, the clicking youth picked up Imran Khan as a “cause” in the same way they had taken up the cause of, lets say, “Justice for Aiman Malik” and “Justice for Mughees and Muneeb”. It was a classical rendition of “Rang de Basanti” kind of youth activism. The young ones felt important by acting as a krantikari for Imran Khan’s cause and hence contributing something positive to Pakistan as patriotic citizens.

Other than his “own” vote bank, there is also a question whether Imran Khan will be able to take a big chunk of rightwing vote bank belonging to PML-N in central Punjab (lower middle class, traders etc mentioned above) – at least in main urban centres especially Lahore. Since this article is limited to a study of urban Punjab alone, I would not discuss in detail the electoral prospects of PTI in other parts of Punjab and Pakistan. At the most, about rural Punjab, I would simply repeat that even Jinnah was not able to win the elections in rural Punjab without the support of Daultanas and Mamdots. A gathering in Minto Park Lahore was not enough. Imran Khan is cognizant of this fact. Already leading families from South Punjab like Khakwani, Leghari, Qureshi and Tareen are lining up to forge an alliance with PTI. Since 1970, such influential families with a “guaranteed vote bank” have learnt a valuable lesson. They are careful to feel the public pulse before time. Mostly, however, they join a political force whose fortune is favoured by the Establishment.  If this trend continues then Imran Khan will have little to worry about the prospects of his electoral success in South Punjab even though it would mean accommodating tried and tested politicians.

This brings me to my main point about electoral prospects for PTI in central Punjab and the portion of rightwing votes sliced off from PML-N. I think Imran Khan is overestimating the importance of Lahore. Lahore is no longer as significant as it used to be in 1970. Back then Lahore gave an intellectual lead because of the predominance of Urdu print media in Lahore. Now the sources of information have become manifold. People are no longer dependent on newspapers and journals to develop an informed political opinion. Even within the politics of Punjab, regional power players do not necessarily take cue from what is happening in Lahore. Therefore, it is naive on part of Imran Khan to think that he will be able to repeat what Bhutto achieved in 1970 simply by establishing Lahore as citadel of its political support. At the same time, however, one cannot underestimate the importance of Lahore either. After all it is the Lahore jalsa which has made people talk about Imran Khan and take him seriously for the first time in 15 years. This is no small an achievement in itself and will go a long way in helping him lay foundations for his political party.

My point is that on the basis of one jalsa alone, it is too early to predict whether Imran Khan will be able to grab a major chunk of PML-N’s rightwing vote bank. It will depend on several factors.

First, Imran Khan is largely seen as yet another venture by Pakistani Establishment to keep itself dominant in the political process of Pakistan. Ever since Nawaz Sharif turned anti-Establishment, there had been a slot open for grab to anyone who could prove his popularity in which Establishment could consider investing its resources. Imran Khan may not be a direct recipient of funds (at least there is no documentary evidence from now; in case of IJI as well such evidence only emerged a decade after its formation) from the Establishment but there are several in his party who are well-known for such activities in the past. This includes, most prominently, General Hamid Gul and Mian Muhammad Azhar. It is possible that Imran Khan has turned a blind eye to such transactions and hoping to severe such links once he achieves desired political acclaim, support and popularity.

Secondly, it is also questionable whether the Establishment would risk building Imran Khan as a highly popular leader at the national level and not just in Punjab. On one hand the Establishment does realize the importance of a national leader for the benefit of the federation but at the same time it would be vary of ‘creating’ a figure who will, most certainly, grow out of its influence once fully established. Till now, most commentators thought of Imran Khan as a ploy by Establishment to achieve a fractured mandate in the coming elections so as to ensure that no single political party or popular leadership emerges to challenge its authority. Whether Imran Khan will be catapulted into a national leader or reduced to a status where he simply divides the electorate, will become evident during the coming months. In case the first strategy is adopted by the Establishment, we might see such developments as droves of ‘electables’ from influential families in Sindh  (such as Mehr, Shirazi, Jatoi, Sumroo etc who do not depend on PPP for an electoral victory) join PTI; close to elections, nationalist groups in Baluchistan might boycott the elections allowing the incumbent group of ‘representatives’ win the elections once again; MQM might follow the same pattern for either national or provincial elections; overseas Pakistanis are given a right to vote which would mean another one million voters for Imran Khan; there is an intensification of corruption scandals against Zardari and Sharif brothers; (possibly a disqualification as well); bye-election is held on some urban constituency in Punjab in which PTI candidate sweeps the poll against PML-N and so on. But if the latter course of action is favoured by Establishment then it might become evident through such means as a major financial scandal accusing leading PTI members or even charges of embezzlement in the charity run by Imran Khan. This will cut Imran Khan down to size and provide a levelled playing field for all the political parties in the coming elections so as to achieve a fractured mandate.

Thirdly, there are also reports are in circulation suggesting that Saudi Arabia wants PML-N and PTI to join their forces against PPP and its “Shiite” leader Asif Zardari. If this happens, then it would bring a premature end to Nawaz Sharif’s brief stint as a champion of anti-Establishment politics in Punjab. Even if he does not enter into alliance, it is certain that PTI will prosper with the support of Establishment. In either case, Punjab would be the main loser as it will yet again miss the opportunity to be consistent in its efforts against the Establishment. Needless to say that such an alliance would be disastrous not only for Imran Khan but for the progressive political forces of Pakistan as well.

Fourthly, the possibility of Imran Khan’s entering into an alliance with Jamat-i-Islami also lurks at the horizon. Both share their thoughts on the issue of the war against terrorism. It may slightly scuttle his popularity among the elite sections but it may be compensated with an added support he might muster from Islamist groups, especially in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Finally, there is another scenario – which seems most likely and feasible for Imran Khan – in which PTI takes a solo flight. Unlike other commentators, I believe if the elections are held now, Imran Khan has a fair chance of establishing his dominance by denting PML-N’s vote bank. Currently the political ambience is favourably poised for him and there is wild optimism in the air. As the time progresses, some of Imran Khan’s supporters might lose faith in him as he starts making political compromises by inducting tried and tested leaders from other parties like Abdul Aleem Khan whose past is  tainted with scandals of massive corruption. Obviously it is unrealistic to expect that Imran Khan will be able to scrutinize credentials of all those who wish to become part of PTI. But then it should also be noted that there is no way Imran Khan was completely oblivious of the credentials of some of the prominent politicians who have recently joined his party. If Imran Khan is taking such a high moral ground against corruption in politics, there is no margin for error for him. This is the price that he will have to pay for maintaining his reputation. Even a slight blemish on the financial record of any key leader of PTI will get noticed and highlighted by the opponents of Imran Khan to prove that he or his party are no different from other political parties. Those who hold pointing figures on others with an arrogant sense of moral superiority are reprimanded more severely if caught cheating even on a minor scale.

The kind of rhetoric employed by Khan against his opponents till recently and an irreconcilable and uncompromising attitude he has betrayed over the years will badly hurt his reputation once, under the compulsions of power politics, he starts making political adjustments and compromises (for example dealing with MQM in urban Sindh, especially Karachi). Already Imran Khan has become politically more pragmatic while his supporters are still idealists and relatively naive about real politik. After his successful public gathering in Lahore, a tired Imran Khan was asked by a journalist whether he will consider entering into an alliance with Nawaz Sharif. Even before the reporter had finished his question, Khan’s supporter standing behind him started nodding his head in negative. But Imran Khan, on the other hand, responded that he might consider it provided Nawaz Sharif declares his real assets. This is just an indication that there is already a yawning gap between the political pragmatism of Imran Khan and naive idealism of his followers who worship him as an idol of hope, change and clean politics in Pakistan.

Concluding Remarks

Is Imran Khan right in predicting that he will be able to repeat the performance of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the next coming elections? It would mean that any khamba with a PTI ticket will win elections in the central Punjab. If not 1970, will it then be a performance similar to one achieved by Jinnah in the elections of 1946? It would mean that Imran Khan allows entry of traditional power elites from rural areas which might discredit some of his credibility among the upper middle and elite classes. Or will it be a performance similar to that of Nawaz Sharif in the elections of 1990 whereby he swept the polls thanks to the backing of Establishment? Or is it just sound and fury signifying nothing? The elections of 1946 drove Tiwana to political wilderness and Bhutto’s electoral sweep in 1970 brought an end to Daultana’s relevance in the politics of Punjab. If Imran Khan is able to repeat the performance of Jinnah or Bhutto, a similar fate awaits Nawaz Sharif.

At the moment, however, only one thing is certain: for Imran Khan and PTI it is now or never. As a concluding remark I would simply say that in case of a solo flight from PTI in an election which takes place during the next few months, the results might astonish all political parties and analysts. Another way in which Imran Khan can come to power is possible if no elections take place!

About the author: Ali Usman Qasmi is a PhD in South Asian History from the University of Heidelberg and author of Questioning the Authority of the Past: The Ahl al-Quran Movements in the Punjab (Karachi: Oxford University Press).

Lead singer of Beygairat Brigade, Ali Aftab, asks some tough questions about Imran Khan and the sinister role of Pakistani establishment behind his PTI.

And here I am thinking, can PTI clean sweep the next elections? Do they even have candidates in Sindh, Balochistan or Southern Punjab for that matter? Is it going to remain the party of unsullied eggs if the likes of Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Mushahid Hussain join it? And let’s not forget, even if they don’t make an alliance with any party at the moment, won’t they inevitably have to after the elections? Then, who will it be with? Cracking the shell in two, if PTI just ends up placing a pixie dent in PML(N)’s electorate bum, who will benefit from that? Should PPP support PTI for future dharnas in Punjab?

Even if rumour has it, I will have the facts on the rocks: the establishment always assures that there are no hurdles when they support someone in a vested cause. Keeping in mind that it’s Shahbaz Sharif’s government in Punjab, Imran Khan’s impeccably smooth jalsa in Lahore is an unmistakable indication of the above; his peaceful protest against drones in Peshawar is the other. Also, Mian Nawaz’s perpetual grudge against the army was evident in the APC when he addressed General Kayani by saying where there’s smoke there’s fire.

That can be taken as acknowledging the US point of view to some extent and the beef in the establishment’s ‘kosher’ menu card. With Sharif’s guns trained on them, maybe the powers that be are looking for other props?

Moving on, Imran Khan is very determined about keeping a check on the assets of the current political figures. But shouldn’t these good intentions begin at home? A well-known political analyst from PTI said that Imran’s annual income culminates to 2 crores from which he donates around 1 crore to Shaukat Khanum and other non-profit institutions. But one can’t but have conjectures about where the dough is coming from for all his campaigning. The lighting at Minar-i-Pakistan that day was very well. And then there was the new campaign style introduced by IK – inviting singers to jalsas and covering their boarding and lodging.

There were also the caravan of floaters (publicity vans) that roamed around the city with Imran’s posters. These ring a bell in one’s mind about the finances. Given Imran’s insistence that party members aren’t rich enough, one has to ask: where is the money coming from?

Imran Khan also announced his visit to China during his jalsa to which he went and quietly ironically (I must consider it situational irony) he came back on a private plane which seemed to be arranged by state authorities. In what capacity did he go there? A couple of days prior to the eye-opening and white-washing jalsa, China seemingly put Pakistan in a critical position (Though not embarrassing) by asking for establishing military bases in FATA, definitely to counter the rising danger of extremism in Xinxiang. Imran, perhaps would have to take a contradictory position if he agreed to the “demands” put forward by China.

Imran would be supporting the Taliban for their cause in Afghanistan and simultaneously would be discouraging Muslim separatists in Xinxiang. If he goes to Saudi Arabia or the Middle East after this, won’t it be more conclusive that he is playing in the hands of the establishment?

I was terribly disappointed with some analysts as they predicted Imran denting both right- and left-wing vote banks by offering prayers on stage and then letting the musicians play music before his speech. Is playing music all that is required to prove your ‘liberal’ ‘leftist’ credentials? These things once meant entirely something else. That it has come down to this tells us a lot.

The writer is a member of the band Beygairat Brigade that has recently released the single Aaloo Anday.

Source: Pakistan Today

While Pakistan has directed its focus and significant resources to fighting terrorism in the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), the growing activities of banned militant organizations and their influence in Punjab, the country’s most populous province, have been largely ignored.  Militants, most trained in Afghanistan and others ex-inmates of Afghan prisons, have recently surfaced in Punjab and become active in Punjabi jihadi groups.

The Punjabi militant network is a loose conglomeration of members of banned militant groups of Punjabi origin that have developed strong connections with the Tehrki-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), al-Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban and other militant groups based in FATA and KPK. Members shuttle between FATA and the rest of Pakistan, providing logistical support to FATA and Afghanistan-based militants to conduct terrorist operations deep inside Pakistan.

The main banned organizations with leadership and headquarters in Punjab include Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Jummat ud-Dawa (JuD), Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), Harkatul Jihadul Islami (HJI), all working in collaboration with the TTP and al-Qaeda (Central Asia Online, May 10). These sectarian groups are active in the Punjabi cities of Jhang, Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Khanewal, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rahimyar Khan, Muzaffergarh, Layyah, and Gujranwala, leaving the government with the difficult task of eliminating these groups with actions other than those already taken in the tribal areas. [1] The LeT’s governing offices are located in Muridke and Lahore while the SSP is controlled from Jhang district. Similarly, LeJ takes directions from Rahimyar Khan and the JeM is linked with its center in Bahawalpur (Viewpoint Online [Pakistan], July 16, 2011). [2]

Media reports suggest that a large number of militants from Punjab have joined hands with the TTP as well as the Afghan Taliban in recent years. With significant numbers of recruits from Punjab-based sectarian organizations, the TTP has proved to be lethal to government efforts to establish order on the frontier (Outlook [Kabul] May 6).According to the figures of the ten largest jihadi organizations, the number of “martyrs” from Punjab is more than 12,000, of which roughly 4,000 have lost their lives in Afghanistan. [3] An intelligence report recently prepared by the provincial government’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) revealed that 2,487 militants trained in Afghanistan and 556 militants released from Afghan prisons have surfaced in the province and are now active in the Punjabi Taliban Network (Express Tribune [Karachi] August 30).

Terrorist and suicide attacks inside Punjab have increased significantly since the Pakistan military’s offensive in South Waziristan in October 2009.  Most of the terrorists involved in the attacks belonged to a variety of Punjabi cities, with most hailing from the province’s southern region:

• The terrorists involved in the September 20, 2008 suicide attack on the Marriot Hotel Islamabad belonged to Toba Tek Singh, Attock and Chakwal. These militants were members of the HJI, headed by Qari Safiullah (Asia Tribune, July 28, 2009).

• Dr Usman, who masterminded the October 10, 2010 attack on the Pakistan Army’s General Headquarter (GHQ) as well as several other suicide attacks, is a native of Kabirwala.

• Asmatullah Muwaia, a key leader of the TTP in South Waziristan and master trainer of suicide bombers, also belongs to Kabirwala.

• Osman, the head of a LeJ splinter group operating in the southern region of Punjab, was wounded and arrested in the GHQ attack. Recently a military court pronounced a death sentence on the LeJ commander (The News [Islamabad] August 13).

• Similarly, the persons attacking the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters in Lahore also belonged to cities in South Punjab.

A large number of “Punjabi Taliban” belonging to the LeJ, the SSP, the JuD, the HJI and other splinter groups, are especially active in the tribal region (The News [Islamabad] August 18). [4] Interior Minister Rehman Malik has also written to the Punjab government asking them to take action against the anti-Shi’a militants based in Jhang district, following a September 20 attack on an Iran-bound bus in the Mastung district of Balochistan that killed 29 Shi’a pilgrims (BBC, October 4).

According to security officials, Shehbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer, was abducted from the provincial capital of Lahore on August 6 by Punjab-based militants. [5] Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that Taseer has been shifted to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, most probably to North Waziristan (Dawn[Karachi], October 17). The abductee’s family members disclosed that they had received threats from militant groups since Governor Taseer was shot dead earlier this year for urging reforms to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws (seeTerrorism Monitor, February 24). Similarly, responsibility for the killing of Pakistan’s Christian Minorities minister Shehbaz Bhatti was claimed by a group calling itself the “Punjabi Taliban” (AP, March 2). Punjabi militant groups have also played an important role in attacking Ahmadis, Shi’a, Sufis and other civilian targets in the province (seeTerrorism Monitor, June 12, 2010).

The main reason for the emergence of a militant mind-set in Punjab is the rapid growth of religious madrassas (seminaries), most of them tied to militant organizations. There are a total of 5,500 religious madrassas in the Punjab, the majority of them belonging to the Deobandi sect. Students enrolled in these madrassas are from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and KPK as well as Punjab. Religious madrassas based in Punjab provide 40% of recruits to the jihadi outfits. [6] A Punjab CTD report reveals that at least 170 madrassas in Punjab are involved in “suspected activities,” a reference to their role in militant networks, preaching of jihad and spreading sectarian violence against the Punjab’s Shi’a and Ahmadi communities (Express Tribune, August 30).

It is also believed that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and Punjab’s ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), have good relationships with the banned militant organizations. The Punjab government is known to have provided nearly $1 million worth of financial assistance to JuD in its provincial budget while senior leaders of PML-N (particularly law minister Rana Sanaullah) are seen campaigning with militant  leaders and aggravating interfaith harmony (Express Tribune, June 18, 2010).

Although Punjab is not in imminent danger of a Taliban takeover, the expansion of militant activities in the province, if unchecked, could have serious outcomes for Pakistan’s stability, the war in Afghanistan, the Indo-Pakistani relationship and the future of international terrorism. Unlike the Taliban entrenchment in South Waziristan and Swat, Punjabi militants are scattered across a large province instead of being concentrated in a single region where effective counterterrorism, intelligence and police operations are more likely to be able to contain their operations without massive military intervention. An initial step to dealing with the security crisis in Punjab would involve the provincial government and the national intelligence agencies abandoning their “strategic partnership” and selective attitude in dealing with banned militant groups.

Notes:

1. Mujahid Hussain, Punjabi Taliban, Nigharshat Publishers, Lahore, 2009.

2. Interview with Muhammad Amir Rana, Director of Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), August 16, 2011. A government ban on these jihadist organizations merely led them to operate under different names. SSP began operating under the names of Millat-e-Islamia and Ahle-e-Sunnat Wal Jammat, JeM as al-Furqan and Khuddamul Islam, and JuD or Lashkar-e-Tayyaba as Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

3. Muhammad Amir Rana, A to Z of Jihadi Organizations in Pakistan, Mashal Books, Lahore, 2009.

4. Interview with a Bannu-based journalist who requested anonymity, October 16, 2011.

5. Interview with a Lahore-based senior police official who requested anonymity, October 16, 2011.

6. Muhammad Amir Rana, A to Z of Jihadi Organizations in Pakistan, Mashal Books, Lahore, 2009.

Last October 5 the Christian village of Chak 34/16-L in the district of Mian Chanuu, in Punjab, was attacked by a group of extremists who drove the Christian families out in order to grab their land. In the raid a Christian was killed and 38 seriously injured, including women and children.

Director of “Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement” CLAAS) Mr. Joseph Francis told media “The attackers drove families out with violence and without mercy, children were beaten and thrown into the street, even using firearms. Sabir Masih, a Christian youth aged 22, who wanted to defend a woman with children, was killed. ”

Law enforcement agencies have failed to arrest the killers and attackers despite the fact that long period has gone. The minority rights organizations accused that this attack and delay in arrest was not possible without the patronage and the tacit complicity of the police and the district administration.

The minority rights organizations, pointing out the serious problem of “mafia landowners” in Punjab, and ask for an intervention on behalf of the central government and for the protection of minority rights.

The following related report is in Urdu, taken from the BBC Urdu:

پنجاب فائرنگ: ایک عیسائی نوجوان ہلاک

پاکستانی مسیحی برادری کے لوگ مسیحوں پر ہونے والے حملوں کے خلاف مظاہرہ کرتے ہوئے

پنجاب کی تحصیل میاں چنوں کے ایک گاؤں میں مبینہ طور پر اراضی پر قبضے کی کوشش کے دوران فائرنگ سے ایک عیسائی نوجوان کی ہلاکت اور بائیس مسیحوں کے زخمی ہونے کی اطلاع ہے۔

واقعے میں ملوث مفرور ملزم تاحال گرفتار نہیں ہوسکے۔

پولیس کے مطابق 23 افراد کے خلاف قتل اور دیگر دفعات کے تحت مقدمہ درج کیا گیا اور ابھی سات ملزم مفرور ہیں۔ تمام ملزم مسلمان تھے ۔

پولیس کا کہنا ہے کہ یہ واقعہ ایک عیسائی عدیل کاشف کی اراضی پر مبینہ قبضے کی کوشش کے دوران پیش آیا اور اس واقعہ کا مقدمہ فائرنگ سے ہلاک ہونے والے بائیس سالہ نوجوان صابر کے والد کی درخواست پر درج کیا گیا ہے۔

مسیحیوں کے حقوق کے لیے کام کرنے والی ایک غیر سرکاری تنظیم کلاس کے مطابق یہ تنازعہ اس وقت شروع ہوا جب نچلے طقبے کے محنت کش اور ہنر مند افراد جیسے ترکھان اور لوہار وغیرہ کے لیے سرکاری طور پر الاٹ ہونے والی اراضی پر قبصے کی کوشش کی گئی۔

تنظیم کے عہدیدار ندیم انتھونی نے بی بی سی کو بتایا کہ اس ایک کنال ارضی پر اقبال نامی شحص رہائش پذیر تھا اور اس نے مقامی پٹواری سے ملکر یہ اراضی عبدالرحمان اورعنصر نامی افراد کو ڈیڑھ لاکھ روپے میں فروخت کردی حالانکہ وہ قانونی طور یہ اراضی فروخت کرنے کا مجاز نہیں تھا۔

ندیم انتھونی نے بتایا کہ محمد اقبال غیرقانونی طور پر یہ اراضی فروخت کرنے کے بعد دوسرے گاؤں منتقل ہوگیا جس کے بعد یہ اراضی قانونی طور عدیل مسیح کو الاٹ کردی گئی۔

تنظیم کے عہدیدار نے بتایا کہ جب عبدالرحمان کو اس بات کا علم ہوا کہ یہ اراضی عدیل مسیحی کو مل گئی ہے تو اس نے مسلح افراد کے ساتھ ملکر اس اراضی پر قبضہ کرنے کی کوشش کی۔

اس واقعہ میں ہلاک ہونے والے نوجوان صابر کے والد اور مقدمہ کے مدعی بشیر مسیح کے مطابق پانچ اکتوبر کو عبدالرحمان اور محمد عنصر کے ساتھ ٹریکٹر ٹرالی اور موٹر سائیکل پر سوار دو درجن کے قریب افراد گاؤں میں آئے اور ان کے پاس جدید اسحلہ بھی تھا۔

مبینہ حملہ آور عدیل میسحی کے گھر میں زبردستی داخل ہوگئے اور گھر کا سامان باہر پھینکنا شروع کردیااس پر گھر میں موجود افراد نے شور مچایا اور گاؤں کے لوگ ان کی مدد کے لیے وہاں پہچ گئے۔

مدعی کا کہنا ہے کہ میبنہ حملہ آور نے لوگوں کو اپنے طرف آتا دیکھ کر ان پر جدید اسحلے سے فائرنگ کی جس کے نیتجے میں ایک نوجوان صابر کی موت ہوگئی جبکہ بائیس کے قریب مسیحی افراد زخمی ہوئے جن میں خواتین بھی شامل ہیں۔

پولیس کے مطابق سات ملزم ابھی مفرور ہیں اور ان کی گرفتاری کے لیے چھاپے مارے جارہے ہیں۔

In Pakistan’ National Assembly today, the PML-N and MQM traded barb on alleged marriage of Hamza Shahbaz, MNA and son of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, with Ayesha Malik, daughter of Ahad Malik. During the session, the MQM parliamentarians said that Ayesha Malik was being involved in fake cases. The PML-N leader, Mahtab Abbasi said that it was against the ethics to interfere in personal life of any person.

ایوان میں شور شرابہ ہوگیا۔

قومی اسمبلی کا اجلاس مقررہ وقت سے تقریبا آدھ گھنٹے کی تاخیر سے شروع ہوا

پاکستان کی قومی اسمبلی میں پیر کو مسلم لیگ (ن) اور متحدہ قومی موومنٹ کے اراکین میں تلخی ہوگئی جس پر ایوان میں شور شرابہ ہوگیا۔

یہ ہنگامہ آرائی اس وقت ہوئی جب متحدہ قومی موومینٹ کے اراکین نے پنجاب کے وزیراعلٰی میاں شہباز شریف کے بڑے صاحبزادے اور رکن قومی اسمبلی حمزہ شہباز کی جانب سے اپنی ایک بیوی کو طلاق دینے اور انہیں گرفتار کرنے کا معاملہ اٹھایا۔

اسلام آباد میں بی بی سی کے نامہ نگار اعجاز مہر کے مطابق پیر کی شام کو جب قومی اسمبلی کا اجلاس مقررہ وقت سے تقریبا آدھ گھنٹے کی تاخیر سے شروع ہوا تو ایجنڈے کے مطابق ایوان میں بجلی کی لوڈشیڈنگ، پیٹرولیم مصنوعات کی قیمتوں میں اضافے اور ڈینگی وائرس کے پھیلاؤ پر بحث ہونی تھی۔

عائشہ احد ملک کو پنجاب پولیس نے گرفتار کیا ہے اور پولیس کی جانب سے ان کا جسمانی ریمانڈ نہ مانگنے کے باوجود عدالت نے پولیس ریمانڈ پر بھیج دیا
فاروق ستار
لیکن متحدہ قومی موومنٹ کے اراکین نے نکتہ اعتراض پر کہا کہ قوم کی ایک بیٹی عائشہ احد ملک کوجو رکن قومی اسمبلی حمزہ شہباز شریف کے نکاح میں تھیں ان سے علیحدگی کے بعد اب پنجاب حکومت تنگ کر رہی ہے۔

پہلے آصف حسنین اور بعد میں فاروق ستار نے کہا کہ عائشہ احد ملک کو پنجاب پولیس نے گرفتار کیا ہے اور پولیس کی جانب سے ان کا جسمانی ریمانڈ نہ مانگنے کے باوجود عدالت نے پولیس ریمانڈ پر بھیج دیا۔

انہوں نے کہا کہ پنجاب حکومت سرکاری وسائل استعمال کرتے ہوئے قوم کی اس بیٹی کے ساتھ ظلم و زیادتی کر رہی ہے اور انہیں بنیادی حقوق سے محروم کر رہی ہے۔

جس پر مسلم لیگ (ن) کے سردار مہتاب عباسی نے احتجاج کیا کہ یہ ایوان کسی کے ذاتی معاملات کو اچھالنے کے لیے نہیں۔ انہوں نے سپیکر اور حکومت کو مخاطب کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ وہ یہاں بکواس سننے کے لیے نہیں آئے۔ اس دوران مسلم لیگ (ن) کے تمام اراکین کھڑے ہوگئے اور ایوان میں شور مچ گیا۔

اس دوران سپیکرنےمتحدہ قومی موومنٹ کے اراکین کو روکا اور فاروق ستار کا مائک بھی بند ہوگیا۔ جس کے بعد حکومتی اتحاد کے چیف وہپ اور مذہبی معاملات کے وفاقی وزیر سید خورشید شاہ نے کہا کہ ایک رکن قومی اسمبلی کا نام لیا جا رہا ہے، یہ ایک ذاتی معاملہ ہے۔

وفاقی وزیر نے کہا کہ قوم کو سنگین مسائل درپیش ہیں اس ایوان کو ان پر بات کرنی چاہیے اور ذاتی معاملات میں نہیں الجھنا چاہیے۔ لیکن اس دوران متحدہ قومی موومینٹ کے اراکین احتجاج کرتے رہے اور مغرب کی نماز کے وقفے کی وجہ سے کارروائی ملتوی کردی گئی۔

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2011/10/111010_pml_mqm_clash_nj.shtml 10 October 2011

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Abuse of power: LHC smells ‘foul play’ in Ayesha Iqbal case
Published: October 8, 2011

LAHORE: The chief justice of the Lahore High Court has questioned the integrity of the police and an anti-terrorism court judge in taking action against Ayesha Iqbal – who claims to be married to MNA Hamza Shahbaz, son of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif – and ordered her release on bail.
Iqbal was remanded in police custody for 10 days by ATC Judge Tahir Pervaiz last Tuesday in an abduction case. “Prima facie [there was] some foul play on the part of the learned judge of Anti-Terrorism Court II,” said a special division bench headed by Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry in a written order at the end of Friday’s hearing.
Sources close to Iqbal, daughter of former PML-Quaid MPA Ahad Malik, claimed that Hamza Shahbaz was behind the case against her as he wanted to keep their marriage a secret. They said that the couple had married in September 2010, and Iqbal’s daughter from a previous marriage, 19-year-old Mahnoor, had captured on video the moment where Shahbaz says he accepts Iqbal as his wife. They said that Shahbaz had been angered to learn of the mobile phone video and had then used the maid, who he had arranged for, to implicate Iqbal in a fake kidnapping case.
Iqbal told reporters during the remand hearing last week that she was married to Shahbaz.
The bench reacted with shock when told that the ATC judge had remanded Iqbal in police custody for 10 days when they had not even asked for it. “It seems that there was malicious intent behind the proceedings,” the bench said, adding that such judges should be de-seated.
Kazim Ali Malik, who is in charge of the LHC human rights and vigilance cell, was told to investigate the judge’s actions and submit a report to the court next week.
The court also questioned the police investigation and told the Punjab Police inspector general to appoint DIG Major (r) Mubasharullah to head an investigation into the actions of the Defence A police station house officer (SHO) and officer in charge of investigation. The DIG has a reputation for exposing corrupt police officers and recently led investigations into a staged encounter at Nishtar Colony and the handling of a case involving a bureaucrat’s son who had killed a motorcyclist allegedly under the influence of alcohol.
“As far as insertion of Section 365-A of PPC [which relates to abduction] in the FIR is concerned, it appears that the police acted dishonestly,” the court said.
The court suspended the ATC order remanding Iqbal in police custody and granted her interim bail till October 13.
According to the FIR registered on the complaint of one ‘Lory Vie P Docog’, a Philippine woman, Iqbal had abused a maid who worked for her. The complainant, who had arranged for the maid, said that Iqbal used to lock her in a room and not feed her, and was refusing to let her go back to the Philippines. The complainant said Iqbal had trespassed into her home, beaten her niece and abducted her son Joseph.
Iqbal submitted in her petition through Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar that the FIR was fictional. She said that the initial FIR did not include Section 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code. She said that a court had granted her and her daughter pre-arrest bail during a hearing on September 28. But the investigation officer then told the court that an abduction charge had been added against Iqbal and her daughter.
The judge called a short break till noon. But before that, the police bundled her and her daughter into a van – allegedly injuring them in the process – and drove them to the station. The judge learned of the incident and summoned the investigation officer, who said that they had been arrested in another case registered under Section 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code (criminal intimidation). The matter was then referred to Anti-Terrorism Court II.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2011.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/269416/abuse-of-power-lhc-smells-foul-play-in-ayesha-iqbal-case/

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Malik Ahad’s daughter sent on physical remand
Staff Report Wednesday, 5 Oct 2011

Lahore – An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday handed over former Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) and film producer Ahad Malik’s daughter Ayesha Iqbal, allegedly involved in kidnapping of a Philippines national to Defence-A Police on physical remand until October 14.
A case has been registered against Ayesha on an application filed by her servant Loyre-Bcog accusing Ayesha and her daughter Mah-e-Noor of kidnapping and receiving Rs 2.2 million as ransom. After registration of the case, Ayesha claimed in front of journalists on October 3 at a sessions court that she was the third wife of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, son of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, due to which she was being implicated in a fake abduction case.
She was brought for conformation of the interim bail in another case and the court cancelled her interim bail despite confirming it. Ayesha said that she had a nikah nama and wedding pictures to prove her claim and she was being tortured on the CM’s orders. She said that she had not kidnapped anyone but a fake case of kidnapping for ransom had been registered against her because she married Hamza against the will of Shahbaz. The anti-terrorism court will resume the case against Ayesha on October 14.

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/10/malik-ahad%E2%80%99s-daughter-sent-on-physical-remand/

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Malik Ahad’s daughter claims she is being harassed

Online Tuesday, 4 Oct 2011

ISLAMABAD – Ayesha Iqbal, the daughter of Malik Ahad, an accused in a kidnapping case of a Filipino, has claimed that she is the third wife of National Assembly Member Hamza Shahbaz, son of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, which is why she is being implicated in the abduction case. Ayesha said she had a nikahnama and wedding pictures to prove her claims, and this was why she was being tortured on orders from the Punjab chief minister.
Online news agency cited sources as saying that when Ayesha was brought to a Women Police Station in Race Course, she raised hue and cry after her interim bail was canceled. She said she had not kidnapped anyone but a case of kidnapping for ransom had been registered against her because she had married Hamza Shahbaz against the will of Shahbaz Sharif. Ayesha might be presented in an anti-terrorism court today (Tuesday).
On the other hand, police have released Mah-e-Noor (17), daughter of Ayesha Iqbal. Ayesha’s Filipino servant Suzi Bakeeni had filed a first information report against her at Defence A Police Station, Lahore, claiming that she and her daughter Mah-e-Noor had kidnapped her brother Jozef and were demanding ransom. However, Ayesha and her daughter had got their interim bail.

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2011/10/malik-ahad%E2%80%99s-daughter-claims-she-is-being-harassed/

Hamza Shahbaz kidnaps his own daughter?

The details of the incident are as follows:

RAWALPINDI: In a first for the garrison city, sixty masked men carrying iron rods barged into a girls’ school in Rawalpindi and thrashed students and female teachers on Friday.

The gang of miscreants also warned the inmates at the MC Model Girls High School in Satellite Town to “dress modestly and wear hijabs” or face the music, eyewitnesses said.

Fear gripped the area following the attack and only 25 of the 400 students studying in the college were present on Saturday. The school employs 30 female teachers.

Attendance in other educational institutions also remained low. After hearing about the attack, all schools in the city shut down, an official of the Rawalpindi District Administration (RDA) told The Express Tribune.

A student of the girls’ school managed to inform the administration of the nearby boys’ high school of the attack. “[However,] the armed gang was so powerful that we could not rescue our teachers and colleagues over there,” Noail Javed, a grade 10 student, said.

In-charge of MC High Schools in Rawalpindi issued a notification to the heads of all girls’ schools to take pre-emptive measures to avoid such incidents in future. According to the notification, a gang comprising 60 to 70 miscreants entered into the school from a gate that was “strangely open”.

All the MC school heads were assigned the responsibility of protecting the students by the notification. A school headmistress wishing not to be named said, “How is it possible for us to protect the students from such elements. The city administration should review its security plan.”

The notification also suggested that the heads should not inform the students about the situation, so that they are not alarmed into skipping school. “Police is investigating the matter,” the notification said. Following the notification, the heads of the schools also shared the numbers of relevant police stations with the teachers in case of any untoward situation in future.

Asjad Ali, a student of class 9 at the nearby boys’ high school, said that his younger brother Awais, a student of grade 5, was also among those who were brutally beaten by the miscreants with iron rods. “The police did not come,” he said.

A police official of the New Town Police Station, asking for anonymity, told The Express Tribune, “We were under strict instructions to do nothing.”

District Education Officer Qazi Zahoor and Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed were not immediately available for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2011.

The incident of harassment of women is neither one-off nor isolated, more and more women and minorities are suffering under the PML-N rule and the incident comes one day after 10 Ahmedi students and a teacher were expelled from a government school for being an Ahmedi. Needless to say the news found no takers:

10 students, teacher forced out of schools because of their faith.

“It is extremely unfortunate that my daughters are being deprived of the most basic and fundamental human right such as education … all because of religious intolerance,” Khalil Ahmad, whose three daughters were expelled, told The Express Tribune. “I have no alternative to ensure that their education continues,” he added.

What about the constitutional provisions which ensure equal rights for all? What about the rule of law that says no discrimination can be made on the basis of faith, race, cast and creed, he questions.

“I’ve never seen Christians and students belonging to other religions ever having to deal with such restrictions,” the distraught father says.

“I personally opposed the expulsion on the basis of faith,” Muslim Public School Principal Yasir Abbas responds when contacted by The Express Tribune.

“This is not my decision … the entire village unanimously pressed me to expel all Ahmadis from the school, or else they would forcibly shut the school down,” he added.

A public meeting held in Dharanwali recently was spreading hatred against Ahmadis, Jamaat Ahmadiyya Pakistan spokesperson Saleemuddin says, adding that expulsion came in the aftermath of the intolerance that some religious preachers were bent on evoking amongst locals in the area.

“They went so far as to say that they would never allow for an Ahmadi to be buried in their graveyard, let alone allow an Ahmadi to study in a school with their children,” Saleemuddin alleges.

Soon after the hate speech, ten Ahmadi students and a teacher were expelled from local schools.

The Punjab government’s initiative allowing people to register for schools online makes it mandatory for one to disclose their religion – whether they are Muslim or Non-Muslim. “This was never the case previously. It’s very simply a calculated move to subject the Ahmadiyya community to discrimination and deprive them of their right to education,” Saleemuddin says.

Ahmadis never refer to themselves as “Non-Muslim”, but that doesn’t keep them from being kept away from educational institutions. Similarly, for the first time ever, they’ve introduced this system where religion is displayed on the Roll Number slips. “It’s like they’re making a conscious effort to mentally torture us,” he says.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2011.

Lest we forget, not long ago a number of Ahmedi students were expelled from a medical college in Punjab only to be reinstated on international pressure. The persecution of minorities or assaulting women is increasingly becoming an underlying policy of PML-N. The terrorist Ludhianvi released by a court that shares the ideology in question is doing round all over Punjab declaring a war against Shias under official patronage.

Over past three years from Gojra to Raiwand and onwards a number of churches have been demolished while more recently a Gurduwara was appropriated and converted into a mosque.  This was only supplemented by a barbaric implementation of Ehtraam e Ramzan Ordinance this Ramzan, with dozens of arrests made on a daily basis.  The curator assaulted for wearing sleeveless and spreading fahashi was indeed the cherry on top!

Taking this step is essential if we are to establish a viable federal political system in what is a pluralistic society — indeed, there is now more or less a global consensus that multiethnic societies cannot prosper without the recognition of differences and political accommodation.

There is an unmistakable and influential constituency that opposes the demand for a Seraiki province. Recently, PPP stalwart Senator Raza Rabbani warned his party leadership against the creation of any new province in haste.

Mr Rabbani has advised that the issue be put on the backburner for the time being, arguing that the creation of new provinces will threaten political stability and undermine national integration given the immediate challenges of terrorism, extremism and regionalism.

What he neglected to mention is the fact that enhanced provincial autonomy as envisaged under the 18th Amendment is bound to accelerate group competition given the multiethnic constitution of the existing provinces.

Perhaps more important is the fact that the forces of religious extremism and regionalism tend to be strengthened when distinct cultural and political communities are not given due recognition and made a party to power-sharing arrangements in pluralistic societies.

India`s experience is instructive in this regard. Immediately after Independence, the Congress leadership — and Jawaharlal Nehru in particular — was suspicious of demands for the demarcation of new provinces on a linguistic basis.

Nehru was of the view that the creation of linguistically based states/provinces would increase political fragmentation and encourage separatism, thereby putting the unity of India in danger. In the event, he was compelled to comply with the demand for the creation of the state of Andhra Pradesh after mass protests and riots.

In later years, India`s political leadership accepted that democratic accommodation of ethno-linguistic claims and regional aspirations were rather helpful in withstanding the pull of extreme heterogeneity.

Moreover, democracy was deepened because of the establishment of an interlocking federal structure of power. There were three phases of state reorganisation/federal remapping in India in the mid 1950s, the early 1970s and the late 1990s.

Even today, there are a number of popular regional movements which continue to struggle and lobby for the status of a separate state.

The Seraiki identity movement has its own specific character, claim and candidature. It is unfair and disingenuous to conflate it with other demands for separate political units.

Since its formal genesis in the 1960s, the Seraiki movement has remained completely federalist and non-violent in character. Its concern has been with establishing a civic group identity, namely a sense of political belonging to a particular community/place, while at the same time imagining and feeling itself to be part of a larger polity.

For the last four decades, Seraiki activists have focused on cultivating civic virtues through a wide range of non-violent actions.

Emphasis has been put on cultural communions, the establishment of literary and professional associations, holding conferences and seminars and the publication of books and magazines in the Seraiki language.

The movement has been successful in achieving its objectives insofar as Seraikis have always opted to vote for majoritarian federal parties rather than preferring exclusivist ethno-nationalism in national elections.

However, as scholars of ethnicity and nationalism note, there is always the possibility of a shift from civic identity to ethno-national mobilisation whenever a group/community at the extreme margins perceives itself to be threatened due to misrecognition, economic exclusion or lack of self-rule.

This shift now seems to be taking place in the case of the Seraiki identity movement.

Historically, within Punjab, the Seraiki people perceive themselves to bear the brunt of land-colonisation policies especially in a post-colonial era due to which large populations of settlers were exported to Seraiki regions.

Unlike the migrant communities of central Punjab, the Seraikis are intimately attached to their language, traditions and local institutions.

This love of language in particular is evident from the fact that the Seraiki language planning and development has taken place within society on the initiatives of individuals and collectives, without official recognition.

There is already considerable ethno-national mobilisation in Pakistan. What is happening in Karachi and Balochistan illustrates the growing ethnic cleavages in the country and the failure of the Pakistani state to redress this problem through inclusive policies. n

The Seraiki people live in the middle region of the Indus valley and they constitute an important indigenous majority. Their persistent misrecognition and exclusion will be in the interest of neither state-building nor the cause of democracy and federalism in Pakistan.

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and is editor of the Seraiki journal Sunjjan.

Source: Dawn