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December 29, 2011
Parties and numbers, the two facets of electoral politics which are considered indispensable, are also invidious. If freedom of choice amongst political parties is an essence of democracy, partisanship on the basis of parties is a poison of democracy. Such partisanship may not be a fatal poison. But it certainly has the capacity to paralyze. Both the Lok Sabha in India and the US Congress have often been at a standstill during 2011 due to acrimonious confrontation. And if the number of votes obtained is essential to determine success, one winner and many losers rarely represent the true picture in a given constituency or country.
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Estranged Siblings: Pakistan and Bangladesh, 40 years later | Daily Times
December 17, 2011
16 December 2011 marks exactly 40 years since1971, when Pakistan became the first State to disintegrate after World War II. Vastly outnumbered, completely encircled, grossly disadvantaged Pakistan's Armed Forces numbering only 45,000 were ordered to surrender to Indian troops which invaded East Pakistan 3 weeks earlier to ensure the secession of Bangladesh.
Some beginnings also contain their endings. Pakistan's birth in August 1947 alongside India
as the only nation-state created with 2 wings with each wing containing significant parts of the population
separated by 1000 miles of hostile territory represented the vision of an awkwardly-constructed yet
inspiringly ideal dream-state. The premise was that the faith of Islam shared pre-dominantly in the 2 wings could transcend distance and bind enormous diversities of language, ethnicity and culture.
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One Re-appraisal Required | The News
December 16, 2011
Beginning with 1971, on every 16 December a wound in the psyche of Pakistan re-opens with piercing pain. 40 years ago on this day, a unique vision for a nation-State became a traumatic vivi-section. East Pakistan seceded --- with decisive Indian help --- to become Bangladesh.
Even as remembrance brings grief and conditions in today’s Pakistan demand renewal rather than regression, the need to re-visit some aspects of 1971 remains critical and unmet.
Some elements which comprise the catastrophic failures after the polls of December 1970 of both the political and military leaderships, in West and in East Pakistan are established truths that require no revision
One of the major facets that deserves re-appraisal is the charge of genocide allegedly conducted by the Armed Forces of Pakistan, by Biharis and other West Pakistanis
seeking to exterminate the Bengali people of Bangladesh including specially the Hindu population and supporters of the Awami League. Over the
past 40 years this accusation has been so often repeated in Bangladesh, India and particularly in western discourse that it has come to
be accepted as the truth.
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Democracy and Disasters | DAWN.COM
September, 2011
Can we redress the deep pain and damage caused by the natural disaster
of heavy rains in Sindh when we have already made democracy at its core level
a man-made disaster?
If a democratic system is the strongest foundation for societal capacity to cope
with challenges like emergencies, then the foundations of democracy were demolished well before the flood havoc of 2010 and the rain
havoc of 2011.
Soon after the 2008 polls, instead of removing flaws, the elected Local Government structures began to be replaced by the
appointed Commissionerate system. Many of the people who sometimes literally have to eat grass at the grass-roots level are now deprived of of participation in decision-making and in implementing relief
campaigns precisely when such mechanism are most needed. There is almost complete unanimity amongst persons in the affected areas with whom this writer spoke about how badly the Union Councils are missed at this time.
This is not to suggest that the mere existence of directly elected Union Councils, and of indirectly
elected Nazims and Naib Nazims at the Tehsil and District levels alongwith their respective forums
would be magically able to effectively handle the crisis. It is to stress that vital components required for
an efficient, timely, orderly response to the large-scale distress are missing altogether. Their current
absence compounds the problem.
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Make voting compulsory | Opinion | DAWN.COM
August 16, 2011
PAKISTAN has an electoral democracy but not a representative democracy. Post-1971, in eight general elections, the voter turnout has almost always been less than 50 per cent of registered voters.
Or one out of every two voters has never chosen a candidate or a party. Compulsory voting alone will redress this enormous gap between the unknown truth and the known election results.
If casting a ballot becomes as obligatory as possession of a national identity card is today, every adult citizen will establish a direct, physical interaction with the democratic process. The act of participation will reduce the alienation and sense of distance presently felt between at least half the population and the political democratic system. Even for those who vote and still feel alienated, the knowledge that the election result is the reflection of the totality of adult society will help shrink the cleavage.
When virtually every adult votes, democracy will become truly representative of public opinion. At present, election results are often sceptically viewed as being representative of mainly tribal, ethnic, linguistic, and feudal vested interests.
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16th Dec: Towards a New Military Leadership? | DAWN.COM
December, 2010
About 5 years ago, the commandant of the Pakistan Army's most reputed
cadet-officer training academy invited this writer to address the trainees
on a date of my choice in the second half of December .
There were a couple of options other than the date that one finally gave him : 16th December.
The specific date was chosen deliberately. To remind the young
cadets of the date on which East Pakistan separated from West Pakistan.Political
factors and Indian intervention played a decisive role in the disintegration. But the then-
military-led Government of President General Yahya Khan was ultimately responsible
for taking crucial political and military decisions particularly
between 1st March and 16th December 1971. Those decisions by military government
led to the catastrophic disintegration of the original Pakistan.
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3 Days in Southern Sindh | DAWN.COM
September, 2010
3rd, 4th and 5th September 2010 spent driving 60 kms from
Karachi to Thatta and 600 kms onwards to Nagarparkar via
Kotri and Hyderabad provided sights that disturbed and uplifted, contrasts that were vivid and ironic.
Going from Sindh's current capital to one of Sindh's oldest capitals
is also to take with oneself the different time- zones of history that we
simultaneously live in today. Sleek cell phones and laptops inside powerful 4-wheel drive vehicles. Immediately
outside, on the national highway just past Gharo, boys,
teenagers , grown men upset at wretched conditions
in a flood relief camp, refuse to move to a better location offered to them.
They wield poles, axes and branches cut from trees to threaten traffic and block
the road to stage their protest. The sporadic intensity
of their shouts, the fleeting anger in their eyes which look but
but do not see, disturb us. They want to wait till the news media
and cameras arrive. No sign of the police...yet. After about 50 minutes and long lines of stalled vehicles,
our 2 cars are permitted to be carefully steered through the jam.
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2 Days in North Sindh | DAWN.COM
August, 2010
The enormity of the disaster which affects millions of people in all 4 provinces should be a test even for well-established governance and disaster management systems. For our level of preparedness, the official civil system can sometimes look like a disaster itself. Yet one should guard against presumptive cynicism particularly at such a time. Responsibility to cope is a universal obligation transcending all divisions and categories. Each person with any potential to contribute, from afar or near has an urgent duty to render.
Spending 14th and 15th August travelling from Karachi to Sukkur, Shikarpur, Khanpur and the edge of the advancing flood waters informs, despairs – and inspires.
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On 10 Merits of Fat Books | DAWN.COM
June, 2010
At the recent launch in Karachi of a new book by this writer titled:" Criss-Cross Times: selected writings about conflict and
confluence,2001-2009",
three distinguished scholars were unduly generous in their comments about
the
book's merits. In my own remarks of thanks, this writer only fleetingly
referred to
the girth of the book. It runs to only 504 pages with a hard cover. Though
not in the
top league of fat-cats which can go to 800 pages and beyond, my obese
production
still qualifies in the medium-weight fat class.As I did not dwell
at the launch event on the 10 virtues of fat books crystallized from the
sources and experience
of life, perhaps they deserve serious consideration through the courtesy of
Dawn Books and Authors.
To begin with, fat books occupy more space. Therefore, they reduce the need
to buy
more books to fill up your private library. So fat books help cut
expenses and save money. Secondly, when you strongly disagree with someone, you can always throw a
fat book at the
offender. And be reasonably sure it will deliver the message more
precisely than a thin book.If you are in
public office and in power, you can " throw the book " at the miscreant in more
senses than one. For example, going purely by the book, you can file
cases against
him for subversion of the State or possession of heroin while he is still
recovering from the impact of the book. If your target is on a TV talk
show, as a host or as a guest, a fat book hurled at the voice and the
face can be very cathertic. There
is the small detail you need to later attend to regarding the frequent
replacement of
your TV screen.
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