Raids are currently going on to arrest all the political leaders and lawyers.

Raids are going on since yesterday all over Pakistan.
Imran Khan's house in Islamabad was raided and many PTI workers are arrested both from Islamabad and also from party headquarter in Lahore.
Aitezaz's house was also raided, but they were not able to arrest him. Athar Minullah was arrested and then later released.
News are continuously coming about raids in all over Pakistan.

PPP and PML-Q to make joint Govt. in Punjab. Session called on the same day as LONG MARCH.

Finally the rumors are out there that PML-Q is going to sit in Punjab Govt. with a party whose chairman pronounced it as "QATIL LEAGUE".

But, even then they dont have numbers. Thats why Salman Taseer has called the provincial assembly session on 16th of march. The same day as LONG MARCH. So, that no one from PML-N can attend the session.

Government gone crazy!!! Dismissed SP Gujranwala on refusing to arrest innocent people.

Government has seriously gone insane. One SP in Gujranwala refused to arrest innocent people on using their right to protest. The government removed him from his post.

It shows that there are people who listen to their conscious, but only person who seems to be totally without conscious right now is Zardari. He doesn't even seem to care what people of Pakistan think.

A good article

Professions of peace on the part of those who sponsor mass movements may be sincere. Our experience shows that when people in large numbers come out on the streets they will not remain content with chanting endearing slogans. Orators will use their way with words, highs and lows of voice and body language to arouse them and call them to action. They will then set private cars and buses on fire, break windows and plunder stores, clash with the police, kill and get killed.

Supporters of the present government brand Nawaz Sharif’s protest movement as the politics of confrontation that is liable to strain the country’s fragile democracy beyond endurance. This is specious reasoning. People protesting on the streets are a part of the democratic tradition. They are a needed warning to rulers that they cannot get away with arbitrariness and usurpation of the citizen’s fundamental rights.

There are times when it is beyond the government’s capability to meet the protesters’ demand. That is not the case in Pakistan at this time. Reinstatement of Iftikhar Chaudhry, the deposed chief justice of Pakistan, along with the related issue of judicial independence, is the principal objective of the lawyers’ movement and their intended long march. The same objective informs the PML-N’s plan for a protest movement. Mr Nawaz Sharif says he will call off his movement if Justice Chaudhry is reinstated.

It is thus open to Mr Zardari’s government to reinstate the gentleman, send the protesters home and return our city streets to peace and tranquillity. It is possible that Mr Zardari’s personal pride and stubbornness are keeping his government from making this simple move to resolve the current crisis. If that is indeed the case, it is an awful shame that this government has chosen to keep the country in turmoil merely to appease a single individual’s ego, even if he be the president of Pakistan.

The writer, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, is a visiting professor at the Lahore School of Economics.

EMAIL

anwars@lahoreschool.edu.pk

Full article at Random Thoughts

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Don't Make Pakistan's Enemies Happy

THERE are some pundits in this country waxing eloquent on the unfortunate incident in Lahore on Tuesday. They demand to know why our cricketers were sent to Pakistan, which they say is not a safe place — as if Sri Lanka were! Yes, Pakistan is experiencing some problems and it may not be the ideal place for us to play cricket at this moment….

Sri Lanka … knows how hurtful it is to be questioned on her ability to provide security to visiting VIPs….

In 1996 … several cricket-playing nations did not want to play in Sri Lanka in view of terrorist threats…. But, Pakistan and India came here and demonstrated to the world that the situation was not so bad as it was made out to be….

So, it was Sri Lanka’s turn to stand by her all-weather friend, Pakistan, when she was invited to play cricket on the latter’s soil. And she did. Unfortunately, the least expected happened….

It is being claimed in some quarters that the Sri Lankan team had not been provided … adequate security. What is ‘adequate security’? No security is adequate where terrorism is concerned. In a world where the Pentagon has come under a terror attack and well-protected world leaders have perished at the hands of terrorists, there is always an element of risk in any kind of security arrangement….

Therefore, can we afford to complain about security arrangements in other countries?

Most of all, when its High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Bashir Wali Mohammad came under a terrorist attack in Colombo in 2007, Pakistan did not fault Sri Lanka. Instead, it gave an assurance that nothing would affect Pakistan-Sri Lanka relations. That is how friends should handle difficult situa tions…! Our cricketers are pre cious to us and we heaved a sigh of relief when they escaped death and returned home safely. Now that the boys are back, we must put the unfortunate Lahore episode behind us….

It is thanks to friends like Pakistan that Sri Lanka remains undivided. But for Pakistan’s un stinted support for Sri Lanka’s war on terror, perhaps there would have been no country for Mahela and others to rep resent in international cricket. Several were the occasions when Pakistan was so generous as to part with even the ammunition stocks reserved for its use to en sure that Sri Lanka’s war would go on…. No sooner had the Sri Lankan team been attacked than a sinister campaign was launched to discredit Pak istan…. Let no contribution be made to that deplorable move. Sri Lanka can rest assured that Pakistan will investigate the incident thoroughly … and bring the terrorists concerned to book. So, there is no need for pundits amongst us to tell Pakistan what to do.

That is the best way they can show their gratitude, if any, to a friendly nation in crisis struggling to avoid an adverse propaganda onslaught. — (March 05)

Source: http://epaper.dawn.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=07_03_2009_007_008&typ=0

Let’s honour the Lankans

A QUARTER of a century ago, The Economist carried on its cover a poignant close-up of Junius Richard Jayawardene with a tear rolling down his cheek.

Jayawardene was then the Sri Lankan president and the teardrop was actually the map of his island nation, which was bleeding from a debilitating insurgency.

In Lahore on Tuesday, another Jayawardene was leading the Sri Lankans. This time it was the cricket team. His performance was to be his swansong as captain and the island-nation’s team came perilously close to becoming a teardrop – albeit for Pakistan.

One has come across many people, not all of them with even a nodding acquaintance with cricket, since the events of Tuesday, who have shed tears at what happened at the Liberty roundabout in Lahore. Others who were more tuned in to the intricacies of what brought the Lankans to Pakistan looked on with disbelief as the terrorists struck, for they knew what this would portend for Pakistan – and Pakistani cricket, in particular.

There was a collective sigh of relief when the visitors returned home ‘in one piece’ as a jaded Jayawardene told reporters at the Bandaranaike International Airport upon arrival.

To begin with the ‘Pearl Island’ – as Sri Lanka is popularly known – showed great character in the face of intense pressure from India not to tour Pakistan after Islamabad reached out to Colombo following the cancellation of the Indian cricket team’s scheduled tour of Pakistan last January. According to news reports, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried his best to nudge Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa into declining Islamabad’s request to fill the void left by New Delhi’s refusal to send over its team.

In the heat of the Mumbai mania – not to forget the geographical disposition of India vis-à-vis Sri Lanka – it was not an easy decision to make. However, Rajapaksa managed the diplomatic tightrope walk with grace. Although India succeeded in driving a wedge in the originally drafted series of three Test matches, five ODIs and a Twenty20 in Pakistan, Colombo did not turn its back on Islamabad. There is a bit of history involved in the Sri Lankan gesture of solidarity with Pakistan.

Sri Lanka won Test status in 1982 primarily due to a support campaign spearheaded by Pakistan. The people of Sri Lanka still remember with fondness how a combined team from Pakistan and India played friendly matches on the island to show solidarity with them when some teams, led by Australia, refused to play there during the 1996 World Cup.

But most of all, they have not forgotten how Pakistanis swarmed the Gaddafi Stadium with Sri Lankan flags to support them when, as poetic justice would have it, Australia had to face Arjuna Ranatunga’s tigers in the final of that World Cup in Lahore. No prizes for guessing who won.

But Sri Lanka’s ties with Pakistan go beyond a game both nations love and consider second only to religion. Sri Lanka’s geographical ties with India which has led to the latter being accused of fomenting the secessionist campaign of the LTTE through a sea route at the tip of the island in Jaffna has always been an albatross around Colombo’s neck. Subsequent Indian involvement – a result of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s decision to send peacekeeping troops to the island under an agreement with Colombo – gave rise to bitter resentment among the Sri Lankans, who felt that the action compromised their sovereignty. The agreement unravelled in due course with Gandhi paying with his life in a suicide attack in India.

All this while, Pakistan not only lent diplomatic support to Colombo but also provided military assistance. Even though they are not geographically linked, the Sri Lankans have since embraced Pakistanis – and not the Indians – as their neighbours of choice.

It is a measure of how much the Sri Lankans value this relationship that, despite the dastardly act by militants on Tuesday, no official in Colombo, no member of Sri Lanka’s cricket board, no player in the Jayawardene-led team that returned home after a miraculous escape, no one from the intelligentsia or among ordinary fans has reacted to the horrific event with anger. After all, it would have been perfectly justifiable to do so. This amazing grace should not go unnoticed.

If the Pakistani government has a conscience – doubtful given the brazen lapses in security at its end – it should immediately move to honour the Sri Lankan team with at least the Nishan-i-Shujaat (Order of Bravery). This is the least the Government of Pakistan can do after letting the moment to offer an official apology to Sri Lanka pass.

The incident is nothing short of a national shame for us regardless of the nature of the beast that we are dealing with, especially given the fact that intelligence about the possibility, style and even the route likely to be used for such an attack was available as far back as January this year.

President Zardari can be sure that even a belated step such as awarding the Nishan-i-Shujaat to the Sri Lankan team would be much more welcomed by Pakistanis than, say, awarding the Hilal-i-Quaid-i-Azam to the likes of Richard Boucher for his ‘services’ in boosting ties with Islamabad.

A deadly missile attack on Pakistani soil by US forces less than 24 hours after receiving the honour with the portrait of Jinnah in the background was Mr Boucher’s chosen expression of gratitude.

We can be certain that the Sri Lankans would be more considerate and we may be able to even retain more than just a sporting contact with the islanders. So let’s hail the heroes with the award on March 23, along with our own policemen who lost their lives in the line of duty on March 3.

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Let’s honour the Lankans

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Back to Square One?

The following was written on 28th February - before the “mobile justice” Presidential Ordinance (finally withdrawn on 3rd March) and before the attack on the Sri Lankan national cricket team - in response to the promulgation of Governor’s Rule in the Punjab and the official obstruction of the Punjab Assembly sessions by the provincial executive authority.

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Some observations:

1. Why does the dis-qualification of the incumbent CM lead to the siege of the PA by the police? Imposition of Governor’s Rule - even if ordered by a democratically elected government - is an attack on democracy, on the right of the people to govern themselves through freely elected representatives. A simpler alternative would have been for the PPP to have said that decisions of the judiciary were not in its control, that they valued the alliance with the PML-N and that they would encourage the PML-N to pursue the case through proper channels - for example, the appeals process.

2. Why do our civic liberties (freedom of speech, freedom of association, etc.) suffer because of a quarrel among the power elite?

3. Democracy needs to be allowed to take root and the anti-democratic measures taken by the central executive authority - imposition of Governor’s rule, disruption of normal proceedings at the provincial assembly - at such a sensitive time may provide just the right conditions (dissatisfaction with performance, overwhelming disapproval of government actions, power vacuum) for the Army to carry out yet another coup.

4. These two points taken together lead to criticism of both the PPP and the PML-N’s handling of the situation: Given the incredibly fragile condition of democracy in Pakistan, it is quite irresponsible of PML-N and PPP not to have worked out a better power-sharing formula. Irresponsible or simply incompetent. Some would say that it was impossible, that the rupture was inevitable. We simply do not have enough information but if some day the story of the behind-the-scenes negotiations between June 08 and February 09 comes out, it may well reveal missed opportunities and/or lack of vision on the part of our “leaders”.

5. A 100g roti need no longer be sold at Rs. 2 - the price ceiling was removed the day after the so-called Supreme Court handed down its disqualification ruling. Why should the completely de-politicised and alienated poor pay the price of a power struggle?

Pakistan is definitely at a critical juncture in its history. Swat has broken away from the jurisdiction of the Pakistani state after more than a decade of intermittent civil war [1] while at the recent CCP seminar on the situation in Swat, speakers claimed that upward of a million citizens have been displaced from their homes in FATA and Swat, forced to seek refuge in de-humanising UNHCR camps or accept the charity of relatives in “safer” cites. This adds to the existing crop of critical issues threatening the country:

1. Hijacked superior judiciary
2. Religious extremism
3. Army operations in Balochistan and FATA
4. Missing persons

It can be reasonably argued that these are merely the most critical manifestations of deeper issues such as:

1. Lack of socio-economic justice
2. Absence of the rule of law / accountability
3. Independent military intervention in the political and economic life of the country
4. Lack of national sovereignty, i.e., inability of the people to influence the important decisions that determine the environment in which they exist

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The events of the next few days - the farce that was the “mobile courts” ordinance and the horror of the attack on the Sri Lankan national cricket team - have strengthened our belief in the essential correctness of our stance on the restoration of the independent judiciary and of the pre-Nov. 3rd. Constitution.

While many people would say that they are heartily sick of the lawyers’ movement and their continuous agitation, we maintain that at the moment, it is the only movement that holds out a chance to resolve one of the basic problems facing us, i.e., the absence of accountability. We further hold that we are, in fact, extremely fortunate to have a second chance to force the elected representatives of the people to respect their campaign promises and the overwhelming popular mandate to revoke the policies initiated by the Musharraf regime.

The Long March 09 is a historic opportunity that we cannot afford to waste. Join us in the struggle to make a positive difference!

[1] Excellent compilation of information on the troubles in Swat

Source: Emergency List

[Emergency] Declaration adopted at the National Conference Islamabad

Declaration adopted at the National Conference for the restoration of independent judiciary held at Islamabad on 4^th March, 2009

This National Conference having deliberated upon the need for the restoration of the independent judiciary in the country and for that purpose it was necessary to undertake a peaceful and non-violent Long March to Islamabad and then to peacefully undertake a sit-in (Dharna) in front of the Parliament House, adopts the following resolution:

WHEREAS: This Conference is of the view that the actions taken by the General Musharaf on November 03, 2007 were wholly illegal, malafide and unconstitutional and therefore cannot be sustained;

AND WHEREAS: The action of November 03, 2007 ought to have been reversed by executive action and all their effects ought to have been purged immediately after General Elections of February 18, 2008 but was not done;

AND WHEREAS: The martyred leader of Pakistan Peoples’ Party Mohtarma Shaheed Benazir Bhutto had promised a Long March to ensure the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Choudhry and his independent colleagues; while Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, the Co-chairman Pakistan Peoples’ Party has thrice through formally written and signed declarations, promised the restoration of the judges to the position that prevailed on November 02, 2007; but these promises have not been kept by the Federal Government;

AND WHEREAS: The people of Pakistan demand for an independent judiciary so that the nation may attain stability, prosper, progress economically and develop into one of the leading states in the comity of nations, as an independent judiciary is the most essential element to ensure the sustenance and stability of the democratic order, to ensure economic growth and to attract investment, that will then address the problems of unemployment, inflation, crimes, law and order to make Pakistan a terror-free and peaceful place;

AND WHEREAS: This Conference is of the opinion that after the failure to fulfill its promises the Government has left the nation with no option whatsoever but to take recourse to a peaceful and non-violent Long March and Dharna as proposed by the Lawyers of Pakistan;

AND WHEREAS: The Conference has taken note of the unconstitutional steps taken by the Federal Government in imposing Governor’s Rule in the Punjab and ousting the government of a Party that continues to display that it has mandate of the people of the Punjab. The Conference is aware that this illegal step has been taken to attempt to subvert the Long March and Dharna but has resulted in such a designed turmoil in the Punjab Police that resulted in the security lapse resulting in the tragic attack on Sri Lankan Cricketers in Lahore. Had the malafide transfers not been made, and had the Punjab government not been ousted this tragic incident would have been prevented.

NOW THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED THAT:

This Conference calls upon the entire nation to participate wholeheartedly in the Long March scheduled to start from Quetta and Karachi on March 12, 2009 so as to reach Islamabad on March 16, 2009 and there to stage a peaceful and non-violent Dharna (sit-in) until the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Choudhry and his colleagues judges are restored to the offices they held on 02 November, 2007.

New Tarana for Dharna, made by US Lawyers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lldsSDV0Zyk

Ansar Abbasi Shares an Intelligence Report

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Indian Hand in Lahore Shootout?

بھارت ملوث ہوسکتا ہے۔
بظاہر لاہور کا حملہ اسی انداز میں کیا گیا ہے جس طرح ممبئی میں دس دہشت گرد حملہ آور ہوئے تھے۔ چنانچہ پاکستان کی سیکورٹی اسٹیبلشمنٹ اور میڈیا کے بعض حلقے ان خطوط پر سوچ سکتے ہیں کہ بھارت کے کسی ادارے نے اسکور برابر کرنے اور پاکستان کو مزید بین الاقوامی بدنامی اور تنہائی کی جانب دھکیلنے کے لیے یہ حملہ منظم کروایا ہو۔ یہ بھی ہوسکتا ہے کہ دونوں ممالک کی ایجنسیاں اپنی اپنی حکومتوں کی پالیسیوں کے برعکس دوبدو جنگ میں خود کو جھونک چکی ہوں۔