comfortably numb…

 

Justice (Retd) Wajeehuddin Ahmed was speaking today at an event which I happened to cover.

He is the person who had refused to take the oath of allegiance to a provisional constitution order (PCO) in 2001 under Pakistan’s military ruler President General (Retd) Musharraf who resigned a few months back and is now living a retired life and writing his second book.

Justice (Retd) Wajeehuddin Ahmed was also the presidential nomination by the lawyer’s community on October 6th, 2007 against Musharraf.

While addressing the audience, he said that there is no future for Pakistan if we do not have the Rule of Law.

So what is the Rule of Law?

I have studied a few law courses at school.

Law I believe is twisted, and that is because with a different presentation of facts and arguments you have the power to send an innocent man to jail.

But that debate is a different debate. Here we are talking about the comparison between what is in the law books and what is applied. 

In Pakistan, on the streets the reality of the Rule of Law is much different. There is no understanding or sense of law. No body respects the law-enforcers neither does anyone abide by any law. And even in the corridors of power, within their closer doors, there is no weight given to law. And this government or the previous are in no way any different – even today the man who committed heinous crimes and violation human rights is sitting in the country and thinking about joining politics after he gets done with his house building project. Musharraf should be tried but no one except a few seem to be pursuing that story.

The Rule of Law has miserably failed in Pakistan over a number of occasions.

The Rule of Law in Pakistan has failed because our judiciary gave death sentences to leaders like Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, and while a man who has set a precedent for generations to come to have no respect for law is comfortably living in freedom. The judiciary sided with the military and beauracrats every time there was a moment of leadership crisis.

So then when the hierarchy reflects a total disrepect for law, with a few exceptions of course, why then should we feel that rule of law will bring change?

And what is that change we are talking about?

An end to violation of our borders? An end to inflation? An end to the energy crisis? An end to the economic meltdown of the country? An end to poverty? An end to ignorance?

So are we justified in asking for establishing the rule of law to get rid of the above mentioned problems? Will law bring such a promised change?

I do not believe so. 

Being just is not an inspiration one needs to derive from institutions. Its a mental check one needs to perform.

And that is missing from the people of Pakistan today.

We live in a country where every man is enjoying the lawlessness but complains about it when he is asked about it.

Our problem is not lawlessness.

It is being comfortably numb within the lawlessness.

Pakistan – The Path (Prefix: Psycho-) to Democracy…

Google Pakistan.

And few of the results in the news section will include a suicide attack, a failing economy, violation of borders, energy crisis, food insecurity etc…

Surely one wonders is that all Pakistan has been left with?

On February the 18th, the Pakistani public came out to vote. But when one inquires friends, colleagues, and strangers whether they casted the vote… ? Majority say they did not.

So who voted for those elected today? According to official statistics, less than 44% of the total voters participated. So even if the elections are fair, they do not truly represent the public.

That is where mandatory voting laws come into play.

Researching countries with mandatory voting laws I found out that in Ancient Greece – where the concept of democracy originates, it was every citizen’s duty to vote.

I came across the following while trying to ascertain arguments in favor and against mandatory voting:

• …. where advocates of compulsory voting might argue that such a system has a higher degree of representation, some supporters of voluntary voting assert that low voter participation in a voluntary election is itself an expression of the citizenry’s political will: it indicates satisfaction with the political establishment in an electorate. Unqualified generalizations of this sort should be treated carefully however, as low voter turn out could be interpreted by others to indicate voter dissatisfaction or general political apathy…
• freedom and responsibility go hand-in-hand, and there is no greater responsibility in a democracy than voting. That is how we come to SHARE responsibility for the government we elect. Under our present system we can end up with leaders who not only receive less than a majority of the total votes cast … the votes they do receive can actually represent but a small fraction of those ELIGIBLE to vote…

So which one is the case in Pakistan?

But before I let you ponder more on that thought – here’s a fact that may be interesting to consider while assuming that such a “law” in Pakistan should be implemented.

There have been less than 5 Judges in Pakistan’s 61 years of independence who have not taken oath under a violation of the Pakistani Constitution.

And the story of the violation of the Constitution… Perhaps some other day we shall explore that topic also…

For now … Let us continue to celebrate the victory of democracy in Pakistan, a state hit by terrorism, economic meltdown, and lawless-ness…

Voters vs. Elected…

News Gathering... ?

Here’s a typical press conference or an event with a political gathering…

The government representative will obviously make a speech whether or not appropriate.. and speak for as long as he or she wants, and will start to compliment the present ‘change’ and rhetorically blame the last ‘9′ years for causing the woes of today.. ( which are nothing more than a supply-chain management issue, i.e. we are hoarders)

Anyway coming back to the point… so this minister will go on and on… and the journalists will be looking for the sexiest headline in the speech… something catchy like judiciary, impeachment, trial, fraud, dictatorship, musharraf, coalition, operation, inflation, and such few other words… and when the journalist sends the information back at the newsroom, there it will be rephrased so thats its “catchier”..

But some journalists wait for the after-press conference interaction. They then jump for the opportunity of a headline which may get termed as exclusive… and if it better than any other channel… the editors of other channels will make their reporters get a better soundbite… and the game goes on…

So what does jumping for the opportunity of a headline mean? Well… its more like feeding in words… in to the mouth of your subject… most politicians seem to fall for it… but there are the clever ones who do not fall in the journalists’ trap…

Here’s a scenario…. A journalist gets a chance to talk to… let’s say, shahbaz sharif… now he need to know what shahbaz sharif is ‘hot’ about nowadays? and what he will say about it will cause others to start following? For example, he can questioned on a few things as far as my knowledge is concerned… for example, in the current circumstances he is a subject for

1. the future of the coalition?
2. the restoration of judiciary?
3. how his brother was not allowed to contest…?
4. the military operation and their consent?
5. the relationship with the punjab governor?

So when the journalists ask such a set of questions ‘HOT’ for that time – it can and has a chance of becoming headlines…

But, the politicians were smarter… because now headlines change from hour to hour…

That is the kinda trap the media has fallen into… the journalists are always in pursuit of headline news and sometimes even feed the words and get a soundbite consisting of that word… like asking a question saying something like ‘the coalition is seeing cracks many say… the operation was without consulting the coalition parties, and ANP might fall out too.. are their differences?’

Now the answer will include at least one of the above HOT words which can make headlines… like cracks, consultation, differences, ANP, operation, etc…

And there will be a good headline…

But the problem are the repeated number of “LIVE” sessions of today’s political class…

Different political faces come on TV every hour forcing almost all channels to go LIVE…

And why is that?  To follow someone else “breaking the story first”.

Someone is always first.. for that matter GEO News does a good job in breaking the story.. the “TAAZA TAREEN” ticker.. which at times has said things like: ‘… islamabad aur pindi mein halki halki baarish’… LOL! 

Any how following the political identities is what most channels are falling into the trap of.. and that is why we see headlines changing from hour to hour…

Journalism was meant to focus on public issues so that the government acted on resolving them.

Journalism was to give ‘Voice to the Voters’… instead it has given ‘Voice to the Elected’…

1429 Hijri, The Mourners of Muharram

I i looked up and saw an armed helicopter conducting aerial survey… There were armed personnel on many rooftops looking at us down below,  there was a convoy, belonging to different security forces, crawling in front of what appeared to be a huge crowd of both, old and the young, male and the female… and most of them were clad in black.

They kept chanting the same thing over and over again… and that is when i saw the first gleaming silver blade in mid-air, attached to it was a chain…

i was trying to make sense of why it had suddenly swung up, when with the same force that it had come up just a few seconds ago, it went down… and i heard a loud cry as this man who was already bleeding, started to bleed more…

the mourners had begun…

I spoke to a young boy who was part of the procession and he complained that the turnout was low, and although to me it seemed like a huge crowd… He insisted that last year there were more people… What kept them indoors? I asked him. The boy replied - ”Fear…”

Putting everything at risk, these procession mourners were out on the roads… and doing something extra-ordinary… inflicting pain on oneself… it made me wonder what was going through their minds?

To me, it seems totally pointless to perform these acts of torture… But whether it is right or wrong is not the debate i want to get into…

I wanted to highlight that the first month for the Islamic Calendar coincides with January…

Two News Years within 2 weeks – sounds like its going to be a heavy year.. And although it can be regarded as random superstition … 2008 feels like the Year of Mourning…

The Speculative Black Gold

 

Pakistan is a living example of the threat that persists because of depletion of ‘energy’ resources, which are rapidly decreasing around the world… but is that true? 

Will, for example – Oil… really finish?

I came across a survey done by British Petroleum, published by the name of Statistical Review of World Energy - 2007. It can be found the on the website of BP.

I did some calculations for oil and found out that the total production of Oil for the total world has increased by 16.78%, and the total consumption of oil by 17.11%…

The change I calculated was for the last ten years, (1996-2006) …

That surprised me because recently prices touched a $100 per barrel so I decided to find out the average oil price per barrel in 1996, and it was $26.77 (calculated in terms of today), and in 2006, oil prices averaged out to be $65.14, and for 2007, I came across the figure in an online financial journal, to be around $78…

So the prices gained more than 100% increase in ten years but the production and consumption have relatively grown together… it cant be because dollar is reducing its value, because we have taken into account the devaluation aspects… 

It reflects that in the last ten years, the oil industry has increased revenues by more than 100%, although the supply and demand have relatively matched each other… So speculation is the major reason that has led to an increase in price… And speculation regarding the geo-political situaiton of the Middle East has fueled the prices most…

One wonders who benefits from the rise in oil prices the most? And more importantly which countries have contributed to worsening the geo-political situation in the Middle East…?

The speculative price movement of the Black Gold has made some people very rich…

The Economic Enlightenment…

Today my formal ‘economics’ education restarted…

The fact that there is a formal and an informal separation in the educational setup of most developing nations bothers me…

What they teach at business universities can’t be applied to realities of life. Theories explained in economics or business books look beautiful but they’re rarely applicable as real life scenarios involve many unknown variables that cannot be encompassed into a theory. A theory works for an ideal situation where the rest is kept constant… and as cliched as it may sound – Change is the only constant, as many say.

So how do we bridge the gap between the formal and informal educational setup?

It comes with the habit of documentation. The fact that many of us forget to write but only to speak well eventually has no impact because words spoken disappear… words written stay forever. And the lack of economic and business publications in Pakistan about Pakistan is a major flaw in our educational system, because without knowing about the local dynamics and its relation to economics, we will learn nothing that we can apply. 

We have a serious lack of local literature on social sciences… Concepts taught at universities concerning ‘management’ issues are not localized and the culture is such that when students are using reference guides, the books reflect a level of superficiality because the understanding is that as developed economies are successful - ”lets apply their concepts to our worlds”…

But our worlds are very different. We may be in a leadership crisis in Pakistan, but more importantly we need to focus on ”Economic Enlightenment”… 

Pakistan to succeed has to apply a localized economic agenda…

The revolution should not be about driving away power hungry men, so to speak, but fighting and demanding Economic Justice…

Pakistan: A Dead End…

The The roads are empty… the streets are silent… there is a trail of smoke rising to the skyline of the city… Welcome to the place where I live – Karachi…

Almost every corner has traces of violence… Cars burnt, shops ransacked, and other public property damaged… All in the name of a tragedy that should ensue a deeper understanding of the changing global dynamics… and not the destruction of thought and ideologies that define us as humans…

What will violence bring about? A further aggravation to the resentment. When I was out on the roads today, there was an edgy-ness all around…

While on the way to work, on one end I saw Rangers patrolling, and the armed man looking out for any miscreants… on the other – I I Chundrigar’s boys were out playing cricket in front of Jang Press, which is on the main road.. So ya… not a lot had changed in some people’s life….

I went for lunch in one of the lanes, and the restaurant was open and full… ”Life was going on” – I thought to myself… Then I spoke to a friend of mine and his car was burnt down last nite when he was on his way back home… so for some life wasnt really going on….

The assasination of Benazir Bhutto… on 27th dec.  she was not the only one to disappear, alongwith her, having sanity to live in the world we inhabit did not make sense… you gotta be mad to be living in this mad world… its compulsory.

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