Economic Crisis in Pakistan | Speak For Change

Economic Crisis in Pakistan | Speak For Change

ECP grants overseas Pakistanis right to vote

ECP grants overseas Pakistanis right to vote

How can Senate elections by existing legislatures be valid?

By Mumtaz A. Piracha, Chairman, Good Governance Forum

The existing legislatures were elected in 2008 on 37.186 million unverified or bogus voters out of total 81.214 registered voters. After adjusting 37 million unverified voters against the total 81 million registered voters, the net figure comes to 44 million verified voters. Only 44% of the total registered voters polled their votes. That means, only 19 million of verified voters voted. How can these legislatures elected on 23% of total verified voters be the true representatives of the people of Pakistan?

Moreover, 36.696 million CNIC holders remained unregistered as voters. Why couldn't ECP register these CNIC holders as voters without physical verification the CNIC holders? Didn't ECP trust the authenticity of these CNICs? How can the physical verification be more authentic than the CNIC?

Will the civil society including the media please raise its voice across the country for postponing the Senate elections till after the next general elections to be conducted on the basis of verified CNICs as voters.

میمو کیس سوالات ، سپریم کورٹ اور جنرل جونز

میمو کیس سوالات ، سپریم کورٹ اور جنرل جونز

Brothers in arms?

South Asian News Agency (SANA) ⋅ January 6, 2012 

Mohammad Malick

Unpredictability has forever been the defining characteristic of Pakistan’s politics but even by our exceptionally erratic standards, January is becoming an alarmingly unpredictable month. Superior courts are seized with legally complicated and politically explosive cases. The judicial investigation into the memo could end up scarring God knows who; imminent action on the non-implementation of the earlier NRO verdict; contempt cases against mighty ministers with apex court judges looking genuinely furious; a high court full bench set to hear contempt cases against the prime minister etc – the bag was never so full.

The Supreme Court is being provoked into retaliating by government ministers in what appears to be a well thought out strategy. Covert political manoeuvrings are adding scouts knots to the already complex situation. A deliberately divisive ill-timed debate on new provinces is bringing out old animosities. Socio-economic deprivations are transforming ordinary powerless folks into powerful raging mobs. The streets are soaked in the gasoline of discontent waiting to be lit. The political and military establishments are caught in a deadly embrace and will disengage only after some heads roll. For the first time ever, even the uniform is no longer a guarantee of safe passage. Only a mighty few know what they are up to, but even fewer know where it all may end. Times were never so unpredictable, so volatile.

The energy-starved country is beset by problems like daily theft of millions of cubic feet of natural gas, not to forget electricity pilferage running into equally abhorring figures. Gas appliances are working at an average 26 percent efficiency, wasting millions more cubic feet every single day, and it can all be prevented by one meaningful executive action. But then, the executive is probably too busy fighting the judiciary. Power appliances including fans (and there are over 50 million operating daily at an average of 11 hours per day, nine months of the year) are working at a lowly 40 percent efficiency level and needlessly wasting precious power. Once again, no power crisis here for our political classes which are more interested in power politics.

Word has it that the PML-N is involved in an undeclared parallel process with its declared arch nemesis, the president. According to a very important senator from Sindh, the PML-N’s top leadership has indicated that it will refrain from resigning en masse from the assemblies and ensure smooth holding of Senate elections provided the government announces the date for the next general elections within the current month. The PML-N can then claim victory for having forced early elections. The PPP for its part would get its cherished Senate elections where it is slated to emerge as the single largest political entity and retain the coveted post of chairman Senate, said to be a heart beat away from the presidency. The possibility of the government holding general elections in Sept-Oct 2012, one year ahead of the normal schedule, is now a near fact with those closest to President Asif Ali Zardari echoing the same time band. An early Senate election in February has also been hinted at.

Both President Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif, however, have their own trust problems and would like the interlocutor(s) to hammer out ironclad guarantees before any such political settlement sees the light of day. Stung by past broken promises, Nawaz would like to know how and who would ensure that the president will not ‘change his mind’ on some conjured ruse after March 2012, even if he announces in January the date for the next early general elections. For his part, the president wants to be sure that the PML-N will not pull a fast one later and resign en masse from the assemblies. Reportedly, it has also been conveyed that owing to immense internal pressure from his own party hawks, Nawaz Sharif’s hand may be forced on the resignations issue if the general elections are not announced before the end of January.

The force of recent events may ultimately compel the president into agreeing to such a compromise. However, being personally averse to political coercion, the president will ride hard and, aware of Nawaz’s obsessive fear of the khaki’s, appears confident about keeping Nawaz from straying from the assemblies without ceding to his demand of an early election schedule announcement. The president also appears comfortable in the knowledge that after four years of waiting in the wings, Nawaz will never become part of any strategic game that could end up turning the PPP into a political martyr so close to the end of its tenure. A very influential real estate baron is trying to force the two sides into a covenant of convenience, but whether he can surmount immense mutual mistrust remains to be seen. The encouraging indicators are all there.

The PML-N’s top leadership has toned down its vitriolic diatribe against the president. From abandoning its hyped ‘Go-Zardari-Go’ campaign to Nawaz stopping his supporters from raising Zardari-specific slogans in his latest public rally, the signs are too obvious to ignore. In a similar vein, the PPP hawks have visibly eased off on Mian sahib’s person. Of course there is the occasional firing of salvos from both sides but then a front of credibility needs to be maintained till a deal actually happens.

Surely, both sides are likely to deny any such secret overtures but then doesn’t every ultimate political fact in Pakistan start off as a denial? The Mullen memo being the latest example.

And talking of the memo issue, interesting details keep trickling in. Like this little bit about two top political leaders, including a former prime minister, calling upon the top military brass to dissuade them from filing individual affidavits before the Supreme Court. Later events showed that the request went unheeded but attempts to stem the ongoing judicial probe continue. An important member of the Parliamentary Commentary on National Security recently told me in Dubai that immense pressure was being exerted on committee members to pass a resolution requesting the parliament to adopt a resolution demanding an immediate halt to the parallel judicial probe. Clearly the government wants to block any honest probe into the memo affair.

To be fair to Husain Haqqani, he must be treated as innocent till proven otherwise and his latest expressed fear for his life is most distressing. Investigating an individual as per the norms of law and justice is one thing, threatening his life another. No rational human being could ever condone the latter course of action. Sanity must prevail on all fronts. It would have been better if Husain had identified the ‘powerful’ vested interests that he referred to as being his possible assassins. With the government standing squarely behind him, such a revelation would help taking matters to their logical end.

And talking of logic and being logical, I must share an excerpt from Feisal Naqvi’s legally logical and brilliant article titled: ‘An unbecoming tantrum.’ Feisal is an eminent lawyer with impeccable liberal and progressive credentials. He clarifies the deliberately created misperception about the circumvention of due legal process and denial of an individual’s rights in the ongoing judicial probe. He argues, “The commission set up by the Supreme Court cannot determine the authenticity of the memo. Instead, the most the commission can do is investigate the authenticity of the memo and give its report. The conclusions in the commission’s report may form the basis of criminal charges filed against Mr Haqqani, but those charges would still be adjudicated by a competent court after a full trial. In short, what the Supreme Court has short-circuited is not the trial of Husain Haqqani but the investigation into his alleged crimes. Is this textbook procedure? No. Is it unprecedented? No”.

Ironically, the government’s own tactics of funding and whipping up a media frenzy against those seeking an impartial probe and tarring honest judges are contributing the greatest to cementing the impression of guilt even before the issue has had its day in a ‘competent’ court of law.

http://www.sananews.net/english/2012/01/brothers-in-arms/

Courtesy News

Memogate: stop insulting our honourable judges

Memogate: stop insulting our honourable judges

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