Offender of the universe

Yes I have, of course. Update your blogrolls, find me now at http://iraza.net/space. The same inconsequential banter, now even more proprietary and at my own expense. So stop checking this space. But don't do that alone, start check the new one also.

Last night's migration effort from the clunky MSN Space to the slick BlogEngine.Net. Good thing both supported the MetaWeblog API, with a few lines of code and not so perfect xml-rpc library I migrated all the post with the categories to the new site. It was one tough nut. Still couldn't migrate the timestamps so everything is published on tomorrows date for the moment. This will improve later on. Images had to be done with even more caution, still some things broke but that I can fix (yeah sure, like I always do). So adorn the site with your thoughtful comments and ratings, but remember, moderation is enabled.

Reading the news piece Zardari expects world to come up with $100bn, I noticed a number of interesting "changes" that have come about considering his new stance on the whole situation.

NEW YORK, Oct 4: Citing the threat posed by militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and the possible economic meltdown, President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the international community to give Pakistan $100 billion in grant to ensure the country’s survival.
“I need your help, if we fall, if we can’t do it, you can’t do it,” Mr Zardari repeatedly said during an interview with Wall Street Journal’s columnist Brent Stephens, published on Saturday.

Asking for money once again? Using the same terrorism card? May be not, may be it is just the reality of our situation and everyone has to deal with it similarly.

In the interview, Mr Zardari also called for a broader free trade agreement with India and said: “India has never been a threat to Pakistan. “I, for one, and our democratic government is not scared of Indian influence abroad.”

Now this is called confidence building measure!

Stephens said in his column that Mr Zardari spoke of the militant groups operating in occupied Kashmir as “terrorists”, adding that he had no objection to the India-US nuclear cooperation pact so long as Islamabad was treated “at par” with New Delhi.
“Why would we begrudge the largest democracy in the world getting friendly with one of the oldest democracies in the world?”

I am going to cry now, he is such a dear.

On Mr Zardari’s request for $100 billion in grant, Stephens says that he “has a simple and powerful argument to make that the world cannot allow his government to fail – not when it’s becoming increasingly plausible that Pakistan itself, with its stockpile of as many as 200 nuclear warheads, could be toppled by Al Qaeda and its allies”.

Ah the nuclear problem, why not end the nuclear threat itself so that nothing can get in their hands.

In asking the international community for infusion of $100 billion into Pakistan’s economy, Stephens said Zardari was keen to insist that it not be described as aid.
“Aid is proven through the researches of the World Bank . . . (to be) bad for a country,” Zardari told WSJ. “I’m looking for temporary relief for my budgetary support and cash for my treasury which does not need to be spent by me.
“It is not something I want to spend. But (it) will stop the
(outflow) of my capital every time there is a bomb. . . . In this situation, how do I create capital confidence, how do I create businessmen’s confidence?”

Are you asking for a loan?

On US-Pakistan differences to conduct the war on terror, Mr Zardari was anxious to downplay any differences with the US. “I am not going to fall for this position that it’s an unpopular thing to be an American friend. I am an American friend,” Zardari said time and again.

American friend! Am I hearing this correctly? Why is there no hue and cry over him selling out? Of being the friend (usually pet) of Uncle Sam? Are we being selective here?

On the incident last month in which Pakistani troops allegedly fired at US aircraft, Zardari told WSJ: “It was merely an incident, and while incidents do happen, they are not important.”

I thought the nation was celebrating it as a sign on the fact that we are still a sovereign nation and no one can violate our territorial boundaries. Sadly, it was just a mistake.

He goes off the record to describe sensitive military subjects, but acknowledges that the US is carrying out Predator missile strikes on Pakistani soil with his government’s consent. “We have an understanding, in the sense that we’re going after an enemy together.”

We are in this together. Why does that not surprise me?

Have a happy and joyous Eid and don't be shy to celebrate it as it the celebration of your patience and commitment to God's word during the whole month of Ramadan. Even if your fasts left something to be desired, at least you kept your fasts and made it all the way. Be happy about it and share the joy.

Iskandar Mirza (1956)
"By 1958, realising that the 1956 Constitution was contributing to political instability, Mirza declared martial law on October 7th with the view to introducing a new constitution "more suited to the genius of the Pakistani people" in November. However, it is disputed that even though, he became the first President of Pakistan under the new constitution, he was not very fond of it. He is quoted in the book, Shahabnama ^[1], holding the constitution in his hand, and referring it as a "trashy book." Mirza's efforts and energies, as Shahab relates, were geared to one principal purpose, his continuation in office. Mirza was apprehensive that general elections could lead to a change in the Office of President and so elections had to be deferred under some pretext or other, which led to his declaration of Martial Law on October 7, 1958. He appointed the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army, Ayub Khan, as the martial law administrator. Once the deed was done, he realized that he had forfeited his own political legitimacy. Less than three weeks into martial law he was ushered out of the Presidential Palace, first to Quetta and then to exile in London. He thus precipitated his departure from the Office of President rather than prolong his tenure. Ayub Khan declared himself President on October 27th after a bloodless coup d'état."

Ayub Khan (1958)
In 1962, he pushed through a new constitution that while it did give due respect to Islam, it did not declare Islam the state religion of the country. It also provided for election of the President by 80,000 (later raised to 120,000) basic democrats—men who could theoretically make their own choice but who were essentially under his control. The government "guided" the press and, while Ayub permitted a national assembly, it had only limited powers.

General Ayub Khan who had assumed office of the commander in chief in 1951 dismissed the first constituent assembly on the grounds "The constituent assembly being power hungry and having a tendency of being corrupt." Molvi Tammizudin the first speaker of the assembly challenged the dismissal (he had to take a rickshaw, wear a burka and go through Sindh court backdoor to seek for justice for a nation). Sindh court accepted the appeal but the Federal Court dismisses the Sindh court judgment as the "Doctrine of necessity", Later on the decision has been the basis of all autocratic adjustments in Pakistan.

Ayub was persuaded by underlings to award himself the Nishan-e-Pakistan, Pakistan's highest civil award, on the grounds that to award it to other heads of state he should have it himself and also promoted himself to the rank of Field Marshal. He was to be Pakistan's second Field Marshal, if the first is regarded as Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck (1884-1981), supreme commander of military forces in India and Pakistan in the lead-up to independence in 1947.

In 1969, he opened up negotiations with the opposition alliance, except for Maulana Bhashani and Zulfiqar Bhutto. However under increasing pressure from Bhutto and Bhashani who were allegedly encouraged to continue the agitation by elements within the Army and in violation of his own constitution which required him to transfer power to the speaker of the assembly. Ayub turned over control of Pakistan to Commander in Chief General Yahya Khan on 25 March 1969, He was the President's most loyal lieutenant, and was promoted over seven more senior generals in 1966 to the army's top post.

Yahya Khan (1969)
The results of the elections saw Pakistan split into its Eastern and Western halves. In East Pakistan, the Awami League (led by Mujibur Rahman) held almost all of the seats, but none in West Pakistan. In West Pakistan, the Pakistan Peoples Party (led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto) won the lion's share of the seats, but none in East Pakistan. Though AL had 162 seats in the National Assembly against 88 of PPP,this led to a situation where one of the leaders of the two parties would have to give up power and allow the other to be Prime Minister of Pakistan. The situation also increased agitation, especially in East Pakistan as it became apparent that Sheikh Mujib was being denied of his legitimate claim to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Yahya Khan could not reach a compromise, and instead cracked down on the political agitation in East Pakistan with a massive campaign of genocide named by "Operation Searchlight" which began on 25th March, 1971, targeting, among others, Muslims, Hindus, Bengali intellectuals, students and political activists. 3 million people in the east Pakistan were killed in the next few months along with an another 0.4 million women were raped by the Pakistan army officials within the cantonment area. Khan also arrested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman upon Bhutto's insistence and appointed Brigadier Rahimuddin Khan (later General) to preside over a special tribunal dealing with Mujib's case. Rahimuddin awarded Mujib the death sentence,[citation needed] and President Yahya put the verdict into abeyance. Yahya's crackdown, however, had led to a civil war within Pakistan, and eventually drew India into what would extend into the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The end result was the establishment of Bangladesh as an independent republic, and this was to lead Khan to step down. After Pakistan was defeated in 1971, most of the blame was heaped on Yahya.

Yahya became the highest-ranking casualty of the war: to forestall further unrest, on December 20, 1971 he hastily surrendered his powers to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, age 43, the ambitious leader of West Pakistan's powerful People's Party. On the same day that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto released Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and saw him off to London, Pakistan President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in a supreme irony, ordered the house arrest of his predecessor, Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, the man who imprisoned Mujib in the first place.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (1971)
Bhutto's party won a large number of seats from constituencies in West Pakistan.[9] However, Sheikh Mujib's Awami League won an outright majority from the constituencies located in East Pakistan. Bhutto refused to accept an Awami League government and famously promised to "break the legs" of any elected PPP member who dared to attend the inaugural session of the National Assembly of Pakistan. While supportive of the army's genocide and working to rally international support, Bhutto distanced himself from the Yahya regime. He refused to accept Yahya's scheme to appoint Bengali politician Nurul Amin as prime minister, with Bhutto as deputy prime minister. Indian intervention in East Pakistan led to the defeat of Pakistani forces, who surrendered on December 16, 1971.

Bhutto announced the nationalisation of all major industries, including iron and steel, heavy engineering, heavy electricals, petrochemicals, cement and public utilities. In January 1973, Bhutto ordered the army to suppress a rising insurgency in the province of Balochistan and dismissed the governments in Balochistan and the Northwest Frontier Province.^[11] On March 30, 59 military officers were arrested by army troops for allegedly plotting a coup against Bhutto, who appointed then-Brigadier Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq to head a military tribunal to investigate and try the suspects. The National Assembly approved the new constitution, which Bhutto signed into effect on April 12. The constitution proclaimed an "Islamic Republic" in Pakistan with a parliamentary form of government.

Dissidence also increased within the PPP and the murder of dissident leader Ahmed Raza Kasuri's father led to public outrage and intra-party hostility as Bhutto was accused of masterminding the crime. Powerful PPP leaders such as Ghulam Mustafa Khar openly condemned Bhutto and called for protests against his regime. The political crisis in the NWFP and Balochistan intensified as civil liberties remained suspended and an estimated 100,000 troops deployed there were accused of human rights abuses and killing large numbers of civilians.^[11]

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (1978)
Despite the dismissal of most of the Bhutto government, President Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry was persuaded to continue in office as a figurehead. After completing his term, and despite General Zia's insistence to accept an extension as President, Mr Chaudhry resigned, and General Zia also assumed the office of President of Pakistan on September 16, 1978. He thus cemented his position as the undisputed ruler of the country.

In the absence of a Parliament, General Zia decided to set up an alternative system. He introduced Majlis-e-Shoora in 1980. Most of the members of the Shoora were intellectuals, scholars, ulema, journalists, economists, "lotas" (technical meaning floor crossers, but common name for opportunist politicians in Pakistani political parlance) and professionals belonging to different fields of life. The Shoora was to act as a board of advisors to the President. All 284 members of the Shoora were to be nominated by the President.

General Zia eventually decided to hold elections in the country. But before handing over the power to the public representatives, he decided to secure his position as the head of state. A referendum was held in December 1984, and the option was to elect or reject the General as the future President. The question asked in the referendum was whether the people of Pakistan wanted Islamic Sharia law enforced in the country. According to the official result, more than 95% of the votes were cast in favour of Zia-ul-Haq, thus he was elected as President for the next five years.

General Zia-ul-Haq promulgated an ordinance on 26 April, 1984, banning members of Ahmadiyya community to perform their religious ceremonies and prayers. This was called Ordinance XX. [7] He declared "This Ordinance may be called the Anti-Islamic Activities of the Qadiani Group, Lahori Group and Ahmadis (Prohibition and Punishment) Ordinance, 1984". Although in 1974 Pakistan's National Assembly under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's deal with Islamic parties declared Ahmadis as non-Muslims for the definition of the law.

To many, his nomination of Muhammad Khan Junejo as the Prime Minister was because he wanted a simple person at the post who would act as a puppet in his hands. Before handing over the power to the new Government and lifting martial law, Zia got the new legislature to retroactively accept all of Zia's actions of the past eight years, including his coup of 1977. He also managed to get several amendments passed, most notably the Eighth Amendment, which granted "reserve powers" to the president to dissolve the National Assembly.

President Zia now found himself in a position to demand billions of dollars in aid for the Mujahideen from the Western states, famously dismissing a United States proposed 325 million dollar aid package as "peanuts". Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and Special Service Group now became actively involved in the conflict, and in cooperation with the Central Intelligence Agency and the United States Army Special Forces supported the armed struggle against the Soviets.

After assuming power, the government began a program of public commitment to enforce Nizam-e-Islam (Islamic System), a significant turn from Pakistan's predominantly Anglo-Saxon Law, inherited from the British. As a preliminary measure to establish an Islamic society in Pakistan, General Zia announced the establishment of Sharia Benches.

On May 29, 1988, President Zia dissolved the National Assembly and removed the Prime Minister under article 58(2) b of the amended Constitution. Apart from many other reasons, Junejo's decision to sign the Geneva Accord against the wishes of General Zia, and his open declarations of removing any military personnel found responsible for an explosion at a munitions dump at Ojhri earlier in the year, proved to be some of the major factors responsible for his removal.

Ghulam Ishaq Khan (1988)
Ishaq Khan's position was considerably strengthened by the Eighth Amendment to the constitution, introduced by President Zia, which allows the president to dismiss the government and to override the government's choice of army chief. When the previous army chief died unexpectedly, President Ishaq Khan reportedly turned down the government's choice and named General Abdul Waheed to head the army. General Waheed, who is not known to have any political ambitions, is from the same ethnic group as Ishaq Khan--the Pakhtuns of the North-West Frontier Province.

While the Prime Minister is the Head of Government, Khan was able to dismiss the governments of both Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif on charges of corruption, mismanagement, and nepotism, thereby triggering new elections, which the incumbent parties lost. The second dismissal of government exacerbated institutional and political opposition to Khan, leading to his resignation in 1993.

Farooq Leghari (1993)
In 1993, with the express support of the Pakistan Peoples Party he ran for the office of President and won the election against Wasim Sajjad. In November 1996, utilizing his powers under Article 58 2(b) of the Constitution of Pakistan^[1], he dismissed the Peoples' Party Government of Benazir Bhutto on charges of corruption, lawlessness and extra judicial killings.

Following the word of the Constitution of Pakistan he held elections for the National Assembly in 1997. The elections were won by the Pakistan Muslim League and Nawaz Sharif was elected Prime Minister. A decisive majority in the lower house of parliament led the Sharif Government to remove the controversial 8th amendment from the constitution of Pakistan. Leghari saw this as a threat to his power and conspired with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sajjad Ali Shah, to sack the Sharif Government. This led to an uprising against him and Shah, forcing both to resign.

Rafiq Tarar (1997)
Due to his retirement in March 1997, Tarar moved from a legal career to a political career. He was elected as member of the Senate with the PML(N) Party and later in the same year he was elected as the President of Pakistan on December 31, 1997.

During his presidency, Tarar was mostly a figurehead ruler. The Presidency of Pakistan's powers had been slowly removed over the years, culminating in 1997 Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan which removed virtually all remaining reserve powers, making the office almost entirely symbolic in nature as per the true spirit of the Pakistani constitution.

Tarar was not removed from office when Pervez Musharraf seized control of the Pakistani government in 1999. While Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was deposed, Tarar was allowed to remain in office until 2001, at which point Musharraf assumed the presidency in an attempt to both gain legitimacy and restructure Pakistan's model of government to a more presidential system rule.

Parvez Musharraf (1999)
Musharraf became de facto Head of Government (using the title Chief Executive and assuming extensive powers) of Pakistan following a bloodless coup d'état on October 12, 1999. That day, Sharif attempted to dismiss Musharraf and install Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director Ziauddin Butt in his place. Musharraf, who was out of the country, boarded a commercial airliner to return to Pakistan. Senior army generals refused to accept Musharraf's dismissal, which was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Shortly after Musharraf's takeover, several people filed court petitions challenging his assumption of power. However, he got The Oath of Judges Order 2000 issued. It required the judges to take a fresh oath of office swearing allegiance to military rule and to state they would make no decisions against the military. In an attempt to legitimize his presidency and assure its continuance after the approaching restoration of democracy, he held a referendum on April 30, 2002 to extend his term to five years after the October elections.

In December 2003, Musharraf made a deal with Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a six-member coalition of Islamic parties, agreeing to leave the army by December 31, 2004. With that party's support, pro-Musharraf legislators were able to muster the two-thirds supermajority required to pass the Seventeenth Amendment, which retroactively legalized Musharraf's 1999 coup and many of his decrees. In late 2004, Musharraf went back on his agreement with the MMA and pro-Musharraf legislators in the Parliament passed a bill allowing Musharraf to keep both offices.

On March 9, 2007, Musharraf suspended the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. In an interview about the matter given to Geo TV, Musharraf stated that Chaudhry himself wished to meet with him and Musharraf then presented him with evidence related to charges made against Chaudhry for abuse of office. Other sources maintain that Chaudhry was summoned by the General at his Army residence in Rawalpindi and asked to explain his position on a list of charges brought against him from several quarters. On July 20, the Supreme Court reinstated Chaudhry. It also dismissed misconduct charges that Musharraf filed against him. But Musharraf retaliated by declaring a state of emergency in November and finally deposed the chief justice and other senior colleagues.

Asif Ali Zardari (2008)
What Next?