Thank you. My last words on this tiff: I’m sorry. You’re a decent guy and I don’t like to make you so upset. Again, I’ll be more sensitive next time.

Anyway — Musharaff told the PML(Q) legislators that he will decide the “future” of the assembly, meaning the election date, on November 14. If he holds a snap election, it would benefit Benazir, who would stop protesting. As Chachaji said elsewhere, lawyers and judges are not enough. Maybe Musharraf can ride this out.

The comments about Modi should have stayed in an article about gujarat, bjp, modi, in my opinion. vy?

–> Because it didnt fit into what the post was trying to say. The author had mentioned checks and balances didnt work in the case of gujarat right after mentioning centre intervened in gujarat. If the author is trying to make a point, he can at least make sure it backs up his original assertions. Given commenters are assiduously encouraged not to distract from the main post, why should the author be treated any differently ?

Why mention all of this on a thread about Pakistan? Because regardless of the author’s intentions, the comment threads here on posts relating to other South Asian countries are often overrun by Indian nationalists who get off on talking about how screwed the rest of South Asia is.

–> The author carries ‘the south asian burden’ whenever he posts ? I didnt knew authors on this board carried that much conceit to take it upon themselves to balance the ‘south asian’ perspective irrespective of the ground realities. Good to learn about it though. Indian nationalists = Hindu nationalists ??? Given that the discussion is about whether modi fits into discussion about democracy. Was it Kalpana Sharma who said a while back(paraphrasing), ‘The opposition to hindu right mirrors the rigidity of the hindu right itself’ ?

As for Gora, I certainly didn’t intend to call you a “race-traitor”, or something stupid like that. I’m just pointing you do not bring the same level of insider knowledge to this issue that you do to other Desi issues, which makes the post (not the delightfully handsome brown man) not very Sepia. But I can see that you’re upset, so I will try to be more polite in my disagreements and sensitive to your feelings. Sorry.

Anyway, back to substance — Chaudry Shujaat says the emergency won’t last more than 3 weeks. And no political party has led mass protests yet. They either support Musharraf (PML(Q), MQM and JUI) or are leaderless (PML(N) and Imran Khan’s party). Only the PPP is on the streets, and Bhutto benefits, just like Musharraf, from a weak judiciary. This “coup against the courts might” work.

Also, the Barnett Rubin post linked above is really good. For Americans, supporting an illiberal dictator who is unwilling to fight terrorism is not realism.

Oh, you mean substantive as in how you called me a “Gora” on the other thread for disagreeing with you. Besides a huffy-puffy chest and insults telling me (and now Vinod) that we don’t “understand” you got nothing Ikram. You are no different than the far right Republicans except you are on the far left. If someone disagrees with you then they shouldn’t write (I mean, we wouldn’t want to pass that “Radcliffe line” would we?). What a pompous…

If you started a blog I’d love to see your substantive take on it and I could be an anonymous commenter there.

http://icga.blogspot.com/2007/11/memo-to-media-supporting-musharraf-is.html

Having just returned from the scene of the crime, his analysis is insightful and sad. I’m afraid that the weather, for now, is not looking too good.

Living in lahore during the summer or anywhere else for that matter must suck. The power grids are juiced b/c everyone’s on the A/C, so they routinely shut down the power at different times of the day to allow their powerplants to calm down, grab a breather and prevent catastrophic explosions. 100 degree weather in Punjab is not exactly my idea of fun… although lately I’ve been willing to risk it because damn, those punjabi babes… they’re somethin else yo

back to my pimping duties.

Whoa whoa whoa… hold on a second there patnah

bro, i know you’re a good guy and you’re certainly smart, but i think you’re a tad off there. I’m not sure what Pakistan you’ve seen, but almost every time I go back I see the wrong developments benefiting the wrong people.

You’re telling me that this past Ramadan nearly every person in Pakistan had enough food to put on the table? The cost of flour, milk, rice and beef has risen substantially in Pakistan and subsequently, many people in the country were left suffering or having very little to put on the table for their family. click to see table of items here. Seems like most folks at the central bank of pakistan could care less for the inflationary movements of simple goods. you want to talk about why there’s so much support for Bhutto and her socialist ideals from the poor? there’s your answer.

next issue…

I’m from an area known as Punjab (sialkot to be exact), and as lush and as beautiful the countryside is, we’ve got some serious issues powering it. As you may know, the wonderful fertile region shared between india + pakistan has about 5 strong rivers that run through it. However in Pakistan, there has been a massive delay in deriving power from these various rivers + tributaries.

WAPDA, Pakistan’s water and power development authority has a history of commissioning projects only to delay their actual development at the end. Here’s an example of one:

DUBER KHWAR HYDROPOWER PROJECT – Est. Completion: 2010 (revised from ’08) Delays due to: * Late issuance of Construction Order (05 Oct. 2005) due to delay in completion of access roads. * Effects of devastating earthquake of 8th Oct. 2005 in form of frequent slides on Thakot-Allai road & project sites resulting form after shocks. * Scarcity of local labour in the area after earthquake. * Adverse climatic conditions.

While you may cite the effects of the earthquake as being a primary factor in the delay, it doesn’t make any sense to me that other areas that are quite far from the earthquake region are similarly being held up.

With Pakistan receiving over 10 billion dollars in “aid” since 2001, it makes you wonder why simple improvements such as water/hydroelectricity plants are not at the top of the list, creating new jobs and providing new life for economy.

Here’s a map of their projected projects and current status, if you’re curious: Map of Hydro Electric Power in Pakiland

I mean…. come on homey, you’re telling me McDonalds/KFC/Pizza Hut/Pizzeria Uno + Dunkin Donuts are picking up the slack in the Employment + Food departments? We don’t need fellow pakistanis any obese than they already are, and that’s certainly not the stimulating type of work that’ll lead future generations.

you want to talk brain drain? Sure, iraq is screwed, but pakistan? just as screwed, if not worse.

everything homeboy abhi dropped was completely relevant, and could be construed as the foundation to the current jacked up situation in pakistan. all of those are underlying factors being swept aside by busharraf (yup, i just made this word up, thanks!) to satisfy their pursuit of guns + glory in the ranges of the NWFP + Baloch.

Don’t believe me? peep my homeboy Suroosh’s funny ass video on Pak’s market o’ guns: VBS.TV – Watch this video! You’ll see some crazy shit you ain’t neva seen befo!

Yea. Pakistan is pretty much screwed. That’s about it.

aizazi

Food, water, sanitation, security, electricity, employment. Ask the Iraqis.

none of this is an issue in pakistan and has no relevance to this discussion.

As Ikram pointed out rightly, this isn’t about Musharraf trying to reform the pakistani legal system etc. Apart from being the henchman for the U.S interests, Musharraf’s interest does not align with the interests of pakistani people. – 8 years in power all he did was systematically eliminating threats to his position. With all its flaws, Pakistan did have democratic governments (however corrupt they were, let’s not have illusions about corruption in india either) and even a woman prime-minister, so let’s be a little bit more understanding of the pakistani people. What upsets me most is that once the democratic institutions are demolished, it is not an easy task to re-instate them.