MicroPakistanMicroPakistanMicroPakistan looks at Pakistan through a microscope. It doesnt concern itself with the big picture. There is no need for facts and figures here. This blog is about things that concern Pakistani people as a nation. It concerns human developement, not Articles
Pakistan?s Turbulence May Have a Silver Lining By Nasim Zehra
2007-11-27 05:03:00 Musharraf’s draconian measures are forcing Pakistan ’s people to rise up and search for a better future Nasim Zehra Sunday November 25, 2007 Guardian Unlimited It is now a daily and highly impassioned affair. In the heart of Pakistan’s capital hundreds of journalists, activists, students and lawyers gather outside the Islamabad press club to reject government’s draconian rules clamped ... More About: Silver Lining , Silver , Emergency
Run, Al, Run - Gore for President of Pakistan?
2007-11-26 06:30:00 Here’s an interesting piece that appeared on CounterPunch. By OMAR AZFAR If you’re sure Al Gore is not running for the US election, think again. He’s trading at a 3.2% chance of winning the US elections. In case you are not very impressed ... More About: President , Pakistan , Emergency
If You Were to Seek My Counsel, General by Dr Ijaz Shafi Gilani
2007-11-26 05:43:00 [Many people have been saying that since the people are not out on the streets and everything is normal that people are satisfied with the martial law. Here’s a piece by the Chairman of Gallup Pakistan who argues that things are not what they seem. 67 percent of Pakistanis are opposed to martial law and ... More About: General , Shafi , Seek , Emergency , Were
Choking the Channels
2007-11-25 17:58:00 Here’s a Newsweek piece on the shutting down of Geo News and ARY One World. Shahid Masood’s voice cracked during his last live appearance on Geo News. Broadcasting from Dubai, the Pakistani pundit and talk show host was defiant over the news that his nation’s most popular private news channel had been ordered off the air. ... More About: Media , Channels , Emergency
Crossed the Line by Michael Dorf
2007-11-23 07:27:00 Here’s a post by Michael Dorf on his website ‘Dorf on Law’. He’s discussed President Bush’s comment that Musharraf hadn’t crossed the line and, in fact, done a great thing by releasing lawyers, judges, activists etc. Crossed the Line According to President Bush, Pervez Musharraf “has advanced democracy in Pakistan,” and not just a long time ago ... More About: Law and Order , Emergency
Musharraf?s Global War on Journalism - II
2007-11-23 07:17:00 By Anil Kalhan (Posted at Dorf on Law) So Gen. Musharraf appears to be engaged in a global war on journalism after all. Two weeks after commencing his crackdown on Pakistani civil society, which effectively turned news into contraband, Musharraf has now begun to allow some independent television networks back onto cable television ? but only ... More About: Journalism , Press , Global , Emergency
Where We Went Wrong In Pakistan By Michael Gerson, Washington Post
2007-11-22 07:26:00 President Bush’s democracy agenda, the argument goes, is radical, hopeless, failed, dangerous and destabilizing. And he is a hypocrite for not applying it vigorously enough in Pakistan ; the administration, it seems, should be more principled and energetic in pursuing a discredited foreign policy. But perhaps the need for freedom is not so discredited after all.Pakistan ... More About: Washington , Washington Post , Post , Michael
American Special Forces in Pakistan: Back to the Future?
2007-11-22 07:22:00 Encouraged by Iraqi experience, the US is poised to get more involved in Pakistan Paula R. Newberg YaleGlobal, 21 November 2007 WASHINGTON: This week, a Cold War breeze swept across South Asia when the US military revealed unofficially that it is making plans for direct action against militants in Pakistan’s unruly tribal areas. New target: US ... More About: Future , American , The Future , Back
Way Forward: Musharraf Vs Opposition Politicians By Nasim Zehra
2007-11-21 05:21:00 The illegality of the actions taken by General Parvez Musharraf is beyond doubt, their destabilizing effect on Pakistani State, security, external relations and economy evident, the opposition to these actions in public spaces is obvious and their ability to have tremendously undermined general Musharraf as the transition man also manifest. Above all the November 3 imposition ... More About: Politicians , Emergency , Forward , Politic
Musharraf and the media By Moeed Pirzada
2007-11-21 05:13:00 In a rather interesting extension to Pakistan’s ongoing political crisis, President Musharraf has persuaded the UAE media watchdog to shut down two satellite news channels of Pakistani origin: GEO and ARY. Both were broadcasting from Dubai’s much-celebrated Media City. One of them had moved to Dubai from London, to save costs. Ironically, this exhibition of ... More About: The Media
Deposed judges release ruling against Musharraf
2007-11-20 06:47:00 [I would definitely like to see the content of this judgment. And maybe compare it to the one released by the ‘other’ SC yesterday.] By Rauf Klasra ISLAMABAD: Three defiant judges of the Supreme Court, who are presently under house arrest after imposition of emergency, have now declared in their detailed judgment submitted before the SC last ... More About: Musharraf , Judges , Release , Judiciary , Ruling
Why Musharraf Should Go by Pervez Hoodbhoy
2007-11-20 05:24:00 Pakistan’s problems start at the top Musharraf ’s military rule has damaged his country’s ability to fight Islamist insurgents. By Pervez Hoodbhoy November 18, 2007 Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in Pakistan eight years ago, claiming that the army had to step in to save the country from corrupt and incompetent politicians. Since then, he has run both the army ... More About: Emergency
Aunt Benazir?s false promises By Fatima Bhutto
2007-11-20 05:22:00 By Fatima Bhutto KARACHI — We Pakistanis live in uncertain times. Emergency rule has been imposed for the 13th time in our short 60-year history. Thousands of lawyers have been arrested, some charged with sedition and treason; the chief justice has been deposed; and a draconian media law — shutting down all private ... More About: Politics , People , Promises , Benazir
World Must Make Musharraf Restore Supreme Court ? Financial Times editorial
2007-11-19 11:24:00 What Musharraf must do now Published: November 18 2007 19:26 | Last updated: November 18 2007 19:26 The current political situation in Pakistan is a perfect illustration of the maxim that democracy is about much more than voting. After declaring a state of emergency, dismissing most of the Supreme Court and locking up many leading intellectuals, it ... More About: World , Financial , Editorial
A Message from America by Kelly Wright
2007-11-19 05:51:00 [Here’s an email I received yesterday from Kelly Wright who lived in Pakistan in 2005.] I wanted to send you a picture of this painting. In 2005, I lived in Pakistan and managed the National Democratic Institute’s Political Party assistance program. This painting is displayed in the Capitol Rotunda, and is considered one of our nation’s greatest treasures. ... More About: America , Message , Emergency
How to take a holiday in Pakistan By Hugh Sykes, BBC News
2007-11-18 19:24:00 [I think most of us who saw or heard about the News week cover claiming that Pakistan was the most dangerous nation in the world found it absurd and slightly insulting. Here’s a foreigner who traveled to Pakistan recently and arrived at a similar conclusion.] How to take a holiday in Pakistan Suicide bombs, battles in tribal ... More About: Holiday , Hugh
The Path of a Patriot By Hassan Baig
2007-11-18 09:06:00 Guest Post By Hass an Baig Opposing General Pervez Musharraf is not a cause worth endorsing solely by itself. General Pervez Musharraf is not the man he was when he first usurped the seat of Pakistan’s government. Over time as his political age has advanced, he has undergone a staged metamorphosis: from an amateur idealist, to a practitioner of temperate Realpolitik, and then finally to an outright Machiavellian Prince. It will be profoundly self-righteous of any single one of us to contend with authority that if exposed to the General’s temptations - the troika of International interests, institutional weaknesses and a manipulatable judiciary - we ourselves would not succumb to a similar fate. Opposing General Pervez Musharraf is therefore akin to focussing on the proverbial symptoms of a malady, and not its root, when in fact ours should be a struggle against the method of perpetuation of our affliction and not its recurring product. We are merely opposing a masque... More About: Patriot , Path
General Kiani - Pakistan military’s No. 2 seen as poker-faced, apolit
2007-11-18 07:58:00 [Here’s a piece on Gen Kiani, the man who will replace Musharrf when he quits the army. He is already a very important man and many eyes have turned to him to see what is in store for Pakistan . The following article gives us a little insight into the man.] By Laura King Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 15, 2007 ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — While Gen. Pervez Musharraf was preparing this month to issue a sweeping emergency decree, his No. 2 in the military was nowhere to be seen in the corridors of power. Instead, Gen. Ashfaq Kiani was far afield, visiting Pakistani troops engaged in a difficult and demoralizing struggle with Islamic insurgents in the jagged hills along the Afghan border. In Kiani, Musharraf’s heir apparent as head of the Pakistani military, Western military officials see a competent soldier who has little desire to involve himself in affairs of state — something of a refreshing antidote, in their view, to an army chief like Musharraf, who led a co... More About: Poker , Military , General , Poke
Pakistan’s One-Man Calamity By Nawaz Sharif
2007-11-18 07:48:00 Saturday, November 17, 2007; Washington Post, Page A17 JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — My country is in flames. There is no constitution. Judges have been sacked on a whim and arrested, political leaders locked up, television stations taken off the air. Human rights activists, lawyers and other members of civil society are bearing the brunt of a crackdown by a brutal regime. Extremism has assumed enormous and grave proportions. All of this is the doing of one man: Pervez Musharraf. He first struck at the core of democracy on Oct. 12, 1999, when he dismissed my government at gunpoint. My government was chosen by the people of Pakistan in free and fair elections. But Musharraf so feared my popularity that he banished me from the country and won’t allow me to return. After Pakistan’s Supreme Court declared this year that I have a right to return, I flew into Islamabad in September. But Musharraf brazenly refused me admittance to my own country. (more…) More About: Nawaz Sharif , Shari , Hari , Sharif
How to Save Pakistan By Imran Khan
2007-11-18 07:43:00 Make no mistake; Pakistan faces a grave threat from the creeping chaos, a by-product of the most shameful demonstration of power politics. There are many threats confronting our society. The threat of extremism is just one which is essentially a consequence of policies that serve foreign interests at the cost of the fundamental rights of our citizens. On 9/11, yes, we should have stood with the US when it was attacked by terrorists. But our cooperation should have been within the ambit of our constitution and law. No civilized society will ever allow its own army, raised and armed at a great cost to society, to be used so mercilessly against its own citizens and expect business as usual. In a society where the majority is without fundamental rights, without education, without economic opportunities, without healthcare, the use of sheer force will only expand the extremist fringe and contract the majority moderate.Our military rulers are incapable of understanding that the real owner... More About: Khan , Imran Khan , Save
When Will This Agony End? By Shafqat Mahmood
2007-11-17 11:48:00 WHEN WILL THIS AGONY END? BY SHAFQAT MAHMOOD How unfortunate can we be? Our constitution was suspended, martial law imposed and the institution of the judiciary destroyed because one man worried about losing his job. He then indulged his anger by locking up sacked judges in their homes, beat up lawyers, jailed pro democracy activists and closed ... More About: Emergency
The Constitution of Integrity
2007-11-17 08:08:00 The Constitution of Integrity Omar Azfar In the past few decades, development economists have come to the understanding that the key driver of growth is honest government, and that the most reliable guarantor of honest government is democracy. Why is this the case? Because sooner or later non-democratic governments subvert the rule of law by firing the ... More About: The Constitution , Emergency , The Con
Geo TV Network Being Shut Down; Geo News closed down
2007-11-16 20:34:00 (Update: There is a certain amount of confusion as to what has been shut down, what is being shut down and what will be allowed to air. Check out Geo News and The News for updates.) This is absolutely shameful! Completely ridiculous! I can’t say that I didn’t expect this government to stoop to this level, ... More About: Media , Press , Network , Shut
PPP denounces smear campaign of Benazir Bhutto: Decides to take legal actio
2007-11-16 05:51:00 An add was placed in the newspapers recently purporting to reproduce a letter written (Click here to see the letter) by Benazir Bhutto in 1990 to a Mr Peter Galbraith suggesting that the government of the time should be brought down, military aid stopped and Indian Army encouraged to engage the Pakistani army at the ... More About: Legal , Campaign , Benazir Bhutto
Lawyer?s Long Fight for Democracy Puts Him in Familiar Place: Jail
2007-11-16 05:36:00 By JANE PERLEZ Published: November 13, 2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 12 ? Twenty-five years ago, when President Reagan treated Pakistan?s dictator, Muhammad Zia ul-Haq, to a White House state dinner, a promising young lawyer out of Cambridge University languished in jail. He had protested too loudly, and too often, about the lack of democracy in his ... More About: People , Lawyer , Fight , Democracy , Place
What?s at Stake in Pakistan by Senator Russ Feingold, The Huffington Post
2007-11-15 10:58:00 Indeed, recent events in Pakistan highlight the administration’s failure to carry through on its stated commitment to promoting democratic reforms and basic human rights. In March 2000, just prior to President Clinton’s visit in Pakistan with General Musharraf, I urged him to press Musharraf to act on his stated intentions to return Pakistan to civilian ... More About: Post , Huffington Post , The Huffington Post , Senator
Failed Compromise by Mohsin Hamid
2007-11-15 10:10:00 VIEW: Failed compromise ?Mohsin Hamid The declaration of emergency represents a failure to compromise. Yet compromise remains Pakistan’s most pressing need. Musharraf should go ahead with his plans to step down as army chief and hold elections in January I was among those Pakistanis who believed that the emerging compromise among rival political forces ... More About: Emergency
In Interview, Musharraf Defends Rule by Decree, The New York Times
2007-11-14 11:52:00 By CARLOTTA GALL, DAVID ROHDE and JANE PERLEZ Published: November 14, 2007 This article is by Carlotta Gall, David Rohde and Jane Perlez. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 13 ? Pakistan?s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf , on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to lift his state of emergency, insisting in an interview that it ... More About: New York , Interview , York , New York Times
Pakistani chief justice to receive Harvard Law School ?Medal of Freedom?
2007-11-14 09:52:00 There you go! Who would have thought on March 8, 2007 that Chief Justice Chaudhry would be an international hero getting the ‘Medal of Freedom ’ for upholding the highest standards of ‘freedom, justice and equality’. This honour is not only for CJ Chaudhry, but every other deposed judge and all those lawyers and members ... More About: Law School , People
The Divine Right of Army Chiefs in Pakistan by Husain Haqqani
More articles from this author:2007-11-14 07:23:00 This piece by Husain Haqqani is very well argued. I couldn’t agree more with this assessment that somehow higher rank army officers have this impression that they can enter any field, any organization and resolve all its problems. There is a feeling of superiority, which makes them commit the kind of errors that no civilian ... More About: Pakistan , Army , Divine , Chiefs , Emergency 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
|
 |
|
 |
