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[-
IKRAM SEHGAL -] |
 Double
or Quits?
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According to Ms Benazir, the PPP
will win 150 NA seats in the Jan 8 elections. This
magic “150” figure has also been confidently
claimed by both Mian Nawaz Sharif for PML (N) and
Ch Shujaat Hussain for PML (Q). The grand total of
450 NA seats claimed by the three leaders exceeds
by a cool 178 the 272 NA seats being contested. Given
that MQM, MMA (represented by JUI (F) and three other
religious parties), ANP, the 8 or 9 political parties
in Balochistan which usually win 1 or 2 seats each
and independents all over the country will manage
50-55 seats between them, leaving a maximum of about
220 seats between the three major parties, that makes
less then half being claimed by them.
These leaders tend to exaggerate by more than double
the seats they would normally win. Do they do this
in everything? One would be prudent to reduce by half
whatever they say about themselves, and by that analogy
for others. Given that their own projections can hardly
be met, both PPP and PML (N) have laid the basis for
yelling “rigging and manipulation” to
high heaven after the Jan 8 election. It’s double
or quits! If PML (Q) tally does not reach the 150
magic figure, Ch Shujaat Hussain will probably write
it off as inefficiency of the Pervez Elahi-rigging
machine (PERM).....more
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Selective
Amnesia |
Disfigurement of the superior judiciary
during the last decade first began during the “democratic”
period when Ms Benazir attempted the forcible ouster
of Chief Justice (CJ) Sajjad Ali Shah, consummated
finally by Mian Nawaz Sharif during the second reign.
Notwithstanding that one does not agree with the Nov
3, 2007 aberration, the amnesia inherent in the PML
(N) Manifesto is shocking. The PML(N) “Bhangra”
on the SC premises has been video-taped for posterity,
it is rank hypocrisy for the party’s primary
agenda to be “restoration of the judiciary”
without, at the very least, apologising to the people
of Pakistan for the desecration of the SC.....more
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The
2008 Resolution |
One more atrocity by terrorists and an irretrievable
loss for Pakistan! The great promise that Ms Benazir
had to offer to this country now remains with us only
as frustrated aspirations. Benazir’s assassination
was a tragedy waiting to happen, she knew it and all
of us knew it. To carry on regardless in the face
such imminent and terminal danger requires a special
courage for which no eulogy can be enough.
The demise of one of Pakistan’s foremost political
leaders force-multiplies the need for the correcting
the fault lines in our national psyche before they
permanently scar the future of the country. On 01
Jan 2008 we are in deeper trouble than we were on
04 Jan 2007 when my “Resolution for 2007”
was published. For those in power at every level of
governance, dereliction of that responsibility is
catastrophic for the nation they govern.....more
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Flirting
with Disaster |
The
most devastating cyclone in recorded history hit the
coastal areas of (then) East Pakistan on Friday Nov
13, 1970. The full extent of the disaster was not apparent
even 4-5 days later, estimates of those who perished
range from a maximum 500000 to upwards of 2 million,
the population of dozens of islands in the Bay of Bengal
were washed away alongwith with the entire livestock
of the area. For the handful of helicopter pilots who
flew from before dawn to after dusk ferrying relief
to those who survived, the images of death and destruction
wrought by mother nature can never really be wiped away
from one’s memory. Operations at Dhaka Airport
in Nov/Dec 1970 involved dozens of aircraft bringing
in relief goods landing every hour. This involved parking
the aircraft, unloading the goods, sorting, loading
and dispatching the relief material by helicopters or
by trucks, and on through rail and river. Col (later
Maj Gen) Naseerullah Khan Babar commanded the Army Aviation
contingent reinforcing Logistic Flight (Log Flt) Eastern
Command, superbly led by the soft-spoken Maj (later
Brig) Tirmizi.....more |
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