Crackdown on protests

There's been a massive crackdown on protests today. Protests have been led by lawyers. In Karachi, there was an intense protest starting at 9:40 a.m. during which lawyers shut down the city courts, and the Karachi Bar Association president was arrested. Later in the day, in Karachi and Hyderabad, 200+ lawyers were lathi-charged and arrested. Lawyers are continuing their occupation of the courts.

The Sindh Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed refused to take a fresh oath on Saturday. In his place, Justice Soomro was appointed. Local lawyers then sent around text messages saying "Sabihuddin is our chief justice." Justice Sabihuddin attempted to go to work as chief justice today, and has subsequently been placed under house arrest (his son, a lawyer, has also been arrested in the protests).

Protests occurred in the Lahore courts as well. Details aren't available yet but here's a pic:


A protest has been called at 4 p.m. today (Monday) at the Karachi Press Club. Massive show of military force and mass arrests are expected.

Despite this show of force, Musharraf hasn't been able to consolidate his latest coup. According to some reports, more than 50% of judges have refused to take a fresh oath under the new Provisional Constitutional Order (the one declaring martial law). So the tussle between Musharraf and the judiciary appears to be going in favor of the judges. The tv channels also remain off air, which suggests to me that Musharraf hasn't been able to fill the judiciary and bring the media under control. (A meeting with media owners is planned for tomorrow.)

Under these circumstances, I think it's likely that there will be a counter-coup. After all, the military isn't monolithic. There is a fundoo faction that is sympathetic to the Taliban and their ilk, and are unhappy with the War on Terror. But there is another faction as well which consists of the "professionals" - those who believe in the professionalism of the army and signed up to be soldiers, not politicians. This faction is the one that the U.S. has always depended on (it's the group Musharraf comes from as well), and this group is extremely unhappy with this latest imposition of martial law.

There are in fact rumors from Islamabad of a counter-coup. Stay tuned.

Sunday update

The most exciting news of the day is that Imran Khan has somehow managed to escape house arrest. It's not clear where he is but if he managed to get away even for a bit, that gives me so much joy! (I just hope he doesn't go and join Osama now.)

The most depressing news of the day is that there were mass arrests today, about 500 or so. The most high-profile ones were done during a raid on the HRCP office in Lahore, with the arrests of I.A. Rehman, Salima Hashmi, etc. There was also a raid on the Aaj TV office and equipment was damaged and removed, as was done at the FM103 station (this station provides hourly Urdu BBC News updates). There are rumors circulating that the internet is going to be cut off any minute now.

As expected, elections have been postponed but it's not clear until when. Shaukat Aziz said they could be delayed upto a year.

A meeting was called today at the Karachi Press Club, attended by about 100-150 people. Several people spoke movingly. Mention of lawyers and judges got HUGE applause. It's been decided to have a protest tomorrow(Monday) outside Karachi Press Club at 4 p.m., in support of the lawyers' strike nationwide. Below is a pic of the meeting.


I'm not sure how big the street actions are going to be. I see two problems. One, people are genuinely afraid, with good reason, of the army. No one supports this martial law at all (not even conservatives, corporate types, etc.). But the fear of being beaten up is very real now because Mush is pissed off and he's ready for a fight. Two, I think the really big numbers aren't going to come out unless the political parties (and by that I mean the PPP) get involved and mobilize their people. It is significant that Benazir announced today that she is going ahead with the Pindi rally on November 9.

In Karachi, army presence seems to be light, although we did see police and Rangers standing outside the Press Club:


I think we need a BIG push from the Pakistanis in the West. That would make a huge impact at this point. In Mush's speech, he made a big show of speaking to the expats directly. He needs their support, and he doesn't need the bad press. So please, if you're outside Pakistan, plan regular protests at Pakistani embassies, consulates, high commissions. There was a protest in NYC on Sunday, and there is one planned for Monday in London. You can see details here.

One more thing. PLEASE don't call this an "emergency." This is martial law, and it needs to be called martial law. The rhetoric of "emergency" allows Musharraf to make this seem as if this is a minor step that is being done for the good of the country or some genuine short-term crisis, when of course it's being done to keep him in power. By the way, one of the funny moments in his speech/tantrum last night was when he was criticizing the media. He noted that when he came in 1999, there was only PTV, and that he had brought so many new channels since then. The irony of course is that for the last one and half days, we are back to PTV only!

Blogging from Karachi

I'm in Karachi for a few months and had planned to set up a new blog, but haven't got around to doing it and figured I'd just report here about what's been happening in Pakistan in the last 24 hours. Musharraf has imposed martial law. He's calling it an emergency but it's martial law. The constitution has been suspended, major opposition figures are under arrest, elections have been called off, censorship laws have been put in place, and the judiciary is being gutted and replaced with compliant judges.

In his address last night, Mush said he had taken this act because he couldn't bear to see Pakistan commit suicide. Well, actually, it's Musharraf's actions that are suicidal, both at a personal and national level. He has most likely put Pakistan on the path to disintegration and chaos. He has definitely sealed his own fate and I expect he will be gone within 6 months (whether violently or not, I can't say).

This moment is akin to 1970, just before civil war broke out. The situation was different then in that it was a majority of the country that was being oppressed. But the similarity is that we have the military yet again using brute force and oppression as the key to solving political problems. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that using even more force against then-East Pakistan was absolutely counter-productive and served only to hasten the pace of Bangladeshi independence. We can see today that sending in even more U.S. troops into Iraq is absolutely counter-productive and will never secure peace. Then why can't the idiots at GHQ see that what they have just signed on to is absolutely suicidal? Of course, I know why. It's because they are, above all else, power-hungry and desperate, and if things don't go exactly according to their plans, well then, it's time to get serious and impose martial law. Musharraf is like a petulant 5-year old boy who isn't winning the game so he takes his ball away and goes home. But in this case, he's set himself up for a fatal end.

WAQFA

You may have noticed that the blog has been inactive for many months now. We're retooling and are also busy with various developments in our personal lives (yes, we have personal lives!!). Stay tuned for the resumption of activity on the blog in a few weeks, after this waqfa.

Saudis and Nationality... And Us

From the Daily Times comes news that the Saudis have denied granting nationality to a Pakistani man's children, even though they were born in Saudi Arabia, and their mother is a Saudi national:

Saudi Arabia has denied citizenship to the daughters of a Pakistani man and his Saudi wife, highlighting the kingdom’s continued employment of gender-biased laws...

The Shoura Council recently approved legislation whereby Saudi citizenship is now to be granted to foreign-born wives and widows of Saudi men. However, the problem, as Mohammed Noor Baksh — a 60-year-old Pakistani driver married for the last 27 years to a Saudi woman — discovered is that the new legislation fails to afford citizenship to the non-Saudi husbands of Saudi women. But even in such cases, the law still offers more protection to the male children of non-Saudi fathers. Boys, on reaching 18 years of age, are eligible to apply for citizenship. By contrast, the only hope for girls to attain citizenship is if they marry a Saudi man.

Guess what, Daily Times? That's the exact same law in Pakistan. In fact, there were moves to change this law in parliament recently, by members of the People's Party - but the government party refused to allow this change. Too bad we recently missed a chance at rectifying the kingdom's, oops I mean Pakistan's "continued employment of gender-biased laws."

PIA Mystery Solved - Kind Of

A news item in the Pakistani press may shed some light on the PIA mystery. It appears that the Pakistani government has now offered to buy a number of Airbuses from Europe to replace part of its aging fleet. This would allay any security concerns that the EU has. How funny. I guess all we needed was to reassure them that they're boss, and that we're willing to plow millions of dollars from the impoverished treasury of Pakistan into the already-swollen coffers of the EU countries. Pakistan's treasury is already under deep pressure as another report noted that Pakistan's public and external debt have ballooned over 50% since 1999.

So it seems that PIA can fly to Europe unfettered. But this naked display of greed on the part of the EU creates more problems in turn. Because if PIA buys Airbuses, it might appear like a snub to Boeing and our US masters. So what's the beleaguered national airline to do? Well, there are apparently moves to reassure the Americans - behind the scenes, of course - that PIA will retain some of its Boeing planes and might buy a couple of new ones to make it all look just peachy.

Oh wait - you say that PIA is Pakistan's airline, right? It should be serving the people of Pakistan first and foremost? My, how old-fashioned of you.

Where *Can* PIA Fly?

A few months ago, with much fanfare, PIA unveiled a number of nonstop flights between Pakistan and the US. This was exciting news, since it cut down travel time between the two countries to 16 hours. And almost as soon as the flights were announced, they were canceled - because of "security concerns" (that all-encompassing term that hides a million sins of racism and discrimination).

Now, apparently, Europe is following suit. The EU is preparing to ban all PIA planes except for Boeing 777s:

A senior official at the Pakistan High Commission in London told the Pakistan International Airlines headquarters in Karachi that the European Union would bar all PIA aircraft, except for Boeing 777s, from flying to 27 European countries after March 8 because of safety concerns.

This, despite the fact that:

A seven-member Pakistani team of PIA and Civil Aviation officials had just returned from Brussels, where they made a “successful” presentation to the EU’s Air Safety Commission on February 22. They said that in addition to this, last week, a three-member European Air-Safety Committee expressed satisfaction with the measures taken by the airline to improve safety. “The team carried out an audit of our facilities and found that everything was in order.”

Are we near the day when PIA will only be able to fly within Pakistan?

Goodnight

From The Daily Times:

Wagah | Rest in peace

Indian BSF Company Commandant Pardeep Katyal (4th L) is joined by All India Anti-Terrorist Front Chairman Manjinder Singh Bitta (2nd L) and others as they pay tribute to Samjhota train victims before giving their bodies to Pakistan. AFP

Pakistanis Making Money Off Guantanamo

The prison at Guantanamo Bay is currently perhaps the strongest symbol of US imperialism and hypocrisy. I've noted before that Pakistanis are the plurality of detainees at Guantanamo. You would think that this should make Guantanamo a special cause for us, and something we should absolutely refuse to participate in.

Well, you'd think wrong. Apparently, Pakistani bounty hunters "delivered" 18 Uighur Chinese to the US government, 13 of whom are now being detained at Guantanamo Bay. From Daily Times:

Pakistanis ‘sold’ 18 Uighurs to US

WASHINGTON: Eighteen Uighur Chinese, 13 of whom are now in solitary confinement at a prison camp in Guantanamo, were delivered to the US by Pakistani bounty hunters. According to a Washington Post report, the Muslim Chinese dissidents were “sold for bounty by Pakistanis in 2002”. The men had just arrived from Afghanistan, where they said they had received limited military training because they opposed the Chinese government control of their native region. They said they were never aligned with the Taliban or the Al Qaeda. Five of the Uighurs were released in 2005 by a military review panel...

Shame on us.

The Madness of Muharram

Muharram is here - today is 9th Muharram in Pakistan. This means the start of that familiar cycle again, of an upsurge in Sunni extremists targeting Shias, and then Shia reprisals against Sunnis. The government has predictably called in extra police and other security personnel. (Side note: how do governments manage to round up so many "extra" police for such occasions? I'm thinking of this also because of my most recent experience in the antiwar protest.)

I know it's tempting to be nostalgic about one's childhood, but I really do believe that the Sunni-Shia problem did not exist in this fashion before the 1980s. That was when the effects of the Iranian revolution and the Saudi Wahabi-Zia nexus were starting to be felt. In fact, I think of Zia and the 1980s as the time when everything changed, when it all truly fell apart. Yes, I know there were problems, really big and awful problems, but the problems were different. I don't think the Sunni-Shia rift was as keen and meaningful, and it was certainly not as militarized. Now we're living with the legacy of the Saudi-Iranian proxy war that was fought in Pakistan - perhaps it's still being fought, although one would guess that the active battlefield is now Iraq and not Pakistan.

But we're still left with the legacy, as we are with all of Zia's evil. Everyone likes to point to the government and to various Sunni and Shia extremist outfits and place blame there - and certainly they have the lion's share of culpability. But we must also bear responsibility. I think it's become just too commonplace to now ascribe all sorts of qualities and behaviors to "Sunni-ness" and "Shia-ness" - and we need to stop doing that. So the next time you hear someone say, "Shias aren't real Muslims," or "Shias are more loyal to Iran than to Pakistan," or any of the other crap that slips into everyday conversation, call the person on it. Refuse to accept such absurd statements. Let's stop this bullshit one bullshitter at a time.