Poll rigging: PTI’s Haripur MNA suspended

ABBOTABAD: The Election Tribunal Abbottabad suspended Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Dr Raja Amir Zaman’s assembly membership on charges of rigging on Tuesday and ordered re-elections on seven polling stations of NA-19 Haripur.
Dr Zaman defeated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Ayub Gohar in the general elections, who later challenged the results. Dr Zaman emerged as the winner after the recount on all 437 stations of the constituency.
Ayub, however, moved the Supreme Court and sought a re-election. According to his petition, several polling bags did not have relevant voters list or counterfoils of ballot papers; indicative of rigging.
The apex court referred the case to the election tribunal which then suspended Dr Zaman’s membership and ordered a re-election on polling stations Alloli, Mamrial, Bagra Number 2, Kalinjar, Ghazi Hamlet and two polling stations of Khalabat Township.
Dr Zaman had defeated Ayub from these polling stations with a heavy margin.
The tribunal headed by Ziauddin Khattak also dismissed a petition filed by Shahid Amin Khan, a former union nazim, who sought Dr Zaman’s disqualification on the basis of concealment of assets and non-payment of taxes.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2014.

Blast in Peshawar kills woman, two children

PESHAWAR: A blast in Peshawar killed three people including a woman and two children, Express News reported on Monday.
The blast, which took place at a house, left another child injured. The child was taken to a local hospital for medical assistance.
The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) reached the blast site and initial investigation revealed that explosives were planted inside the house.
Previous blasts
The city is not unknown to explosions and has been a victim of several blasts these last few months.
On December 16, a remote-controlled blast on Sheikh Muhammadi Road in Peshawar had killed four Bomb Disposal Unit personnel and seriously injured another person.
Two people including a police officer were injured, on November 16, in a roadside blast on Kohat Road in Peshawar. The blast had taken place near a police mobile which was on its routine patrol. According to BDS, four to five kilogrammes of explosives were used in the blast.
On November 13, an Army convoy had escaped unhurt in a remote controlled road side bomb blast on Ring Road in Peshawar. The convoy was on its way from Hayatabad to Kohat Road. The explosion, however, had occurred when the convoy had passed and there was no damage or loss of life in the attack. The BDS had inspected the site of the explosion and said that it was a home-made low intensity device of around one kilogram.

Pied Piper of Lahore`

 By:Harris Bin Munawar

The people of Pakistan want change. They are not happy with the status quo and want to get rid of the corrupt turncoats, the regressive clerics, and the meddling retired generals who currently share power in Pakistan and are responsible for the state we are in. But is Imran Khan capable of bringing that change?

Malik Zaheer Abbas Khokhar won the 2002 elections on a PPP ticket. But when he realised his party was not ready to side with a dictator, he rebelled and became part of a group of PPP dissidents that joined the Pervez Musharraf government in return for favours. Eventually, he joined the establishment-backed PML(Q). The PML(Q) lost in 2008 and the military ruler fell. In 2010, Malik Zaheer Abbas Khokhar made a comeback. He contested a by-election in Lahore on the ticket of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.

Ijaz Khan Jazi belonged to the faction of Muslim League led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. After General Pervez Musharraf ousted Nawaz, Ijaz Khan was one of the many turncoats who parted ways with Nawaz. After the fall of Musharraf, Jazi Khan also made a comeback in 2010. He contested a by-election from Rawalpindi on the ticket of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.

One key member of the establishment-backed PML(Q) in Punjab was Mian Mirajuddin. He was the senior vice president of PML(Q) Punjab and a provincial minister for Excise and Taxation in the cabinet of chief minister Chaudhry Pevaiz Elahi. After the fall of PML(Q), Mian Mirajuddin did not resurge. But his son entered politics in 2010, contesting a by-election in Lahore, on the ticket of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.

Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, who is credited with organising this week’s surprisingly large public meeting at Minar-e-Pakistan, was a nazim of Islami Jamiat Talaba, an organisation accused of sabotage, violence and moral policing in a number of universities in Pakistan, including beating up girls and boys who interact, and professors who resist the group’s authority. In 2007, when Imran Khan arrived at Punjab University to speak to students as part of his campaign against Gen Musharraf, members of the IJT beat him up, dragged him around, and then shut him down in a room until the police arrived and arrested him. In 2008, Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed was made the president of PTI Lahore, ad hoc.

Shireen Mazari was the director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad, a think tank funded by the foreign office and linked closely to the security establishment. She continued to work with the institute until 2008, despite Pakistan’s decision to support the US in its war on terror. In 2008, she fell out of favour and was removed. In November the same year, she joined Tehreek-e-Insaaf after a meeting with Imran Khan and was then made a vice president without elections.

Gen (r) Hamid Gul was one of the architects of Pakistan’s policy of strategic depth in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The policy involved creating private religious militias with weapons and money from the US, and it backfired when many of those groups began to resist the authority of Pakistani state and committing acts of terrorism in Pakistan. Veteran columnist Haroon Rasheed said in a column in August this year that Hamid Gul had sent him to Imran Khan to persuade him to join politics. The two have recently been accused by philanthropist Abdus Sattar Edhi in jointing PTI. Hamid Gul is Imran Khan’s mentor.

Flanked with people who are part of the problem, how is it possible for Imran Khan to be able to identify and resolve it?

Imran Khan held a huge public meeting in Lahore this week. Tens of thousands of his young followers see him as a messiah. But that reminds me of the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Someone who had come to rid the town of plague was not paid what he had been promised, and took away their children. The story probably refers to Nicholas of Cologne, who claimed to have had religious visions and lured away a great number of children on a disastrous Children's Crusade in 1212. Imran Khan has claimed similar religious visions in his new book. But the establishment will not give him what he wants, and he may lead our children away to somewhere they might never return from.

The writer is a media and culture critic and works at The Friday Times.He tweets @paagalinsaan and gets email at harris@nyu.edu

KPK LG polls: PTI decides to form alliance with PPP

PESHAWAR (Dunya News) – In the most unpredictable move, Paksitan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) has decided to form alliance with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for local bodies (LB) elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the sources said on Sunday.
A consultation session will be held within next two days with PPP leaders at the residence of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chief Minister s adviser Yaseen Khalil, the sources added.
The session is likely to be attended by PPP’s Syed Zahir Shah and other party leaders while Jamaat-e-Islami members will also participate in the negotiations.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s PTI decided to form alliance with opposition party PPP to sweep in LG polls, the sources added.
Earlier on Saturday, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CEC said bio-metric system was significant for fair polls.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government conducted trial voting under new biometric system in an effort to hold free and fair local government elections across the province on Saturday.
The demo polling was arranged at village council Badhai, ward Wadpagga and neighborhood council Sir Buland Pura in Peshawar.
Earlier, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said he would ensure transparency in upcoming local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

http://dunyanews.tv/index.php/en/Pakistan/206530-KPK-LG-polls-PTI-decides-to-form-alliance-with-PP#.UsBAKNIW3zz

I tweet that IK's house in Bani Gala is built in violation of the CDA master plan -- apart from abuses and insults not one person denied it
— omar r quraishi (@omar_quraishi) December 29, 2013

Whither principled politics?

Yesterday two irresponsible statements came on record. The first one out of Garhi Khuda Baksh from an emotional Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who equated the massive presence of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) to a non-tsunami only comprising of water in “chaar lotay”. It was Bilawal’s mother’s death anniversary and also seemed to also mark his debut as an active politician.
The second statement came out of Karachi from Dr Arif Alvi — the elected representative for Karachi’s NA-250 — in the form of a campaign on social media, encouraging residents of Karachi to demolish the wall surrounding Bilawal House in these words: “Join the movement at Bilawal Chowrangi on 29th Dec 1pm — come with flags, banners, shovels & spray paint — let's take this illegal wall down — help spread the word!”. In a matter of hours, the campaign appeared to gather a lot of online support.
Here is why both statements are immature and shortsighted. Bilawal, aiming to enter mainstream politics with rumours of him contesting the NA-204 by-election, must be humble enough to realiSe that he stands to benefit from the glory and achievement of two Bhutto generations before him. If today Bilawal is allowed to take centre stage in Gahri Khuda Baksh, it is because of the struggle and mass following of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. Bilawal, on his own, is yet to prove his merit.
On the contrary, PTI is Imran Khan’s brain child and much of what it is today has a lot to do with its chief’s struggle and perseverance. It cannot be ignored that in this year’s election Khan rose to give every major political party a run for its money. And if Bilawal is indeed serious about politics he stands to learn a lot from PTI and its achievements rather than dismissing outright that party’s credentials.
Now coming to PTI, Dr Alvi’s campaign against the wall surrounding Bilawal House is devoid of political maturity as it doesn’t seem that it’s being done in the name of justice but more so as a hasty and emotional response to Bilawal’s banter. Secondly, given that PTI has had a dismal performance in the Clifton Area of Karachi (UC-38), this could also be construed as a political maneuver to mobilise popular support before the local body elections scheduled for Jan 18, 2014.
It cannot be denied that on Sept 4, 2013, the Sindh High Court on a case relating to blockades installed near Bilawal House and in other parts of Karachi directed the authorities to ensure that freedom of movement of citizens as guaranteed under the law be ensured. Also, it is true that the wall surrounding Bilawal House still stands appearing no less than a slap in the face of the common citizen as it displays disgraceful violation of laws by the rich and mighty. When I contested the election in May, I too had included the removal of illegal blockades around Bilawal House and other establishments as part of my manifesto. The people in the Bilawal House neighbourhood have only suffered from the wall as it occupies a service lane, a three lane main road and poses regular traffic disruptions.
However, it is not befitting to elected representatives like Dr Alvi to encourage people to pour into the streets, take the law in their own hands and bring down walls under the garb of justice when in fact they may very well be motivated by political animosity. It is even more unbecoming when Dr Alvi is aware of the illegal construction of a dental hospital, a commercial establishment in the residential area of Block 4, Clifton, only a few kilometres away from the Bilawal House wall. According to the Clifton Block 4 Residents Association, the hospital is a project undertaken by a member of his immediate family. The residents of Block 4 have complained to Dr Alvi regarding the illegal construction on more than one occasion and the same have been ignored. The structure is almost complete and its design and architecture is testament to it being constructed for commercial use in violation of the by-laws of the residential area.
Both Bilawal House and the under-construction dental hospital fall under NA-250. The MPA from that area, PS-112, is also a member of the PTI which makes me curious as to whether that party’s representatives in the country’s legislatures differentiate between illegal construction by members of opposing parties and that done by its own. If they don’t and if they indeed strive for justice as the name of the party suggests, then they should first put their own house in order.
In view of this, I would expect Dr Alvi to call off the campaign that asks civilians to illegally demolish the wall especially when the same can cause clashes. However, if they have the right intentions and they must stress on a protest then I would like to advise them to gather people outside Bilawal House. In fact, gather them in thousands but without taking the law into their own hands and member of the protest may even sign affidavits which would be attached to a plea to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the authorities that did not carry out the Sept 4 directives of the SHC.
A political party that speaks of tabdeeli (change) is expected to make its supporters more aware of their rights and obligations rather than encourage them towards anarchy and menace. At least, that is the tabdeeli I expect from the ‘educated’ brand of politicians.

 Polio worker killed, two others injured in Peshawar firing

Gunmen shot dead a health officer supervising an anti-polio vaccination campaign after storming a hospital where children were being immunised in Pakistan's troubled northwest Saturday, officials said.
Two other hospital staff were injured in the attack at a government-run hospital in the town of Mattani, on the outskirts of Peshawar.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the killing, but Taliban militants have been targeting health workers and security personnel during vaccination campaigns.
"Two men riding a motorbike stormed the office of an immunisation officer located inside the premises of Civil Hospital Mattani and shot him dead," senior police official Ijaz Khan told AFP.
"Two other local staff of the hospital including a woman were injured in the attack," he added.
Khan said the gunmen fled on the motorbike soon after the shooting.
Provincial health minister of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Shaukat Ali, confirmed the attack.
"Routine immunisation of children was going on in the hospital at the time of the attack," he said.
The Taliban imposed a ban on polio vaccinations last year as they view inoculation campaigns as a cover for espionage.

http://www.nation.com.pk/national/28-Dec-2013/polio-worker-killed-two-others-injured-in-peshawar-firing

Its unfair & criminal of the fed govt to buy electricity from KP at cheap rates & sell back at high rates and that also in lower quantity.
— PTI (@PTIofficial) December 23, 2013

PTI leadership believes in democracy n respects elected people,all 53 PTI MPAs in KPK have been accommodated and given some appointment.
— Asad Munir (@asadmunir38) December 23, 2013

The change PTI is gunning for, if succeeds, we will have just spare change in pockets & end up for Gaya Pakistan instead of Naya Pakistan!
— Murtaza Solangi (@murtazasolangi) December 22, 2013

Imran to sons, "Muslims don't have girlfriends" #Ahem
— Jemima Khan (@Jemima_Khan) October 1, 2010

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - COMMENT : Is PTI turning into a fascist party? — Yasser Latif Hamdani

 They have used pictures from the Balochistan earthquake and Gaza as evidence for their claim that drones killed innocent civilians in the recent Hangu drone strike

When I voted for the PTI on May 11, 2013, I did so for very good reasons and none of them had anything to do with drones. That Imran Khan, the tallest figure in Pakistani politics, was contesting from NA 122 — my constituency — was just icing on the cake. I felt that the PTI had not only managed to bring the apoliticised urban middle class into the democratic process but had also managed to wean a significant portion of the right wing vote from traditional right wing parties. The hope underlying my decision was that the PTI would become a party of the centre right and, with time, would absorb other right wing parties and lead Pakistan towards a genuine two party system.

The results, however, returned PTI as the second largest party of the right. Having been placed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and in opposition at the centre, the PTI positioned itself to the right of the centre right PML-N, which had the overwhelming majority. The impact therefore has been precisely the opposite of what one had expected of the PTI’s rise. Instead of pulling the extreme right to centre right, the PTI has allowed itself to be pushed into the extreme right. To be fair, the first indication of this came when the party abandoned its principled stance on equality of citizenship by targeting an already demonized group, the Ahmadis, just before the elections. Next came the angst on display in Lalak Chowk in DHA, Lahore. The hitherto apoliticised urban middle class was upset that, despite having voted for Hamid Khan — the PTI candidate from NA 125 — the PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique won the election. He did so because the overwhelming majority in NA 125 was not of DHA dwellers but of the slums around it. Saad Rafique had done his homework. Hamid Khan failed to do his. Yet PTI supporters were unable to reconcile themselves with the results; they wanted to know why, when they had braved the heat in May to vote for their favourite candidate, he was not elected. This is a dangerous attitude in a democratic process.

The PTI won fair and square in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It did so because its anti-corruption slogan and pro-development stance resonated with the people in that province, who were sick and tired of the previous government’s woeful performance. Admittedly the PTI’s government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been unable to overcome the multitude of problems confronting their province, and it is also not their fault. Instead of working hard at delivering on the many promises of their manifesto, the PTI has chosen the easy route; the unconstitutional politics of agitation. The agitation has been centered solely on the drone issue. I do not wish to go into the merits or demerits of drones but suffice it to say that the PTI’s rhetoric on the issue is composed largely of false statements and outright distortion of the facts. They have used pictures from the Balochistan earthquake and Gaza as evidence for their claim that drones killed innocent civilians in the recent Hangu drone strike. The Hangu drone strike killed Afghan Taliban leaders but the PTI’s information secretaries, not just in Pakistan but also in places as far off as New Jersey, continue to mislead the ordinary rank and file of PTI supporters with false evidence.

These ordinarily intelligent and amenable folk become rabidly fanatic when someone holds a point of view contradictory to their own. Their charge is always the same: anyone who disagrees with them is being funded by the US. Imran Khan must share the blame for this. He has openly accused everyone who criticises him on his policies of being a US agent. I do not say that there are absolutely no critics with ulterior motives but to accuse everyone of being an agent is just plain wrong. In a democratic society there can be and there should be many voices. Dissent is the central feature and the strongest attribute of an inclusive and democratic country.

In comparison, we must consider the main attributes of fascism. Obviously, fascism in the 21st century is not going to be the same as fascism in the 20th century. The paraphernalia of the Nazi regime and Italian fascists may be the most enduring historical symbols of fascism but they are irrelevant to the modern reality. The three core ideological components of fascism are said to be the rebirth myth, populist ultranationalism and the myth of decadence. Let us see how the PTI fares on these. The rebirth myth is self-evident in the ‘Naya Pakistan’ (new Pakistan) slogan. Drone agitation is a classic case of populist ultranationalism. Finally, every PTI worker believes that the system is completely decadent and must be brought down by radical politics outside the constitutional realm. The nature of the radical politics that PTI supports is also opposed to all forms of anti-conservative nationalism. These are the makings of a genuinely fascist party.

Let me state here that I believe Imran Khan to be a humanist. His work with Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust and Namal College indicates that he believes in positive and progressive change through education and provision of healthcare for all. His politics through the PTI in recent times, however, indicate otherwise. I hope Imran Khan can pause and reflect on where he is taking his political supporters and whether his political supporters in the end will overwhelm his humanist aspirations. Instead of committing PTI to an extreme agenda, would it not be worthwhile to focus on issues that have been entrusted to him? After all, foreign policy is not a provincial subject and the people of Pakistan have not given him a mandate on the federal level. Is it not prudent then to understand the limitations of the mandate that Imran Khan has received? Pakistan is bigger than any political party and the hour calls for statesmanship and not politics.

The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore and the author of the book Mr Jinnah: Myth and Reality. He can be contacted via twitter @therealylh and through his email address yasser.hamdani@gmail.com

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) central and provincial leaders have abandoned the workers in the much-hyped protest against the US drone strikes, exhibiting a complete lack of interest in the ongoing sit-ins.
Not a single PTI leader, central or provincial, has so far joined workers at the protest camps set up in four districts, including Peshawar. The protest that entered ninth day on Monday has blocked a key ground supply line to Nato forces in Afghanistan.

The blockade has great national and international significance, but the PTI leaders have chosen not to join it, giving no reason for their continued absence from the protest.

The workers are left to handle such a significant protest, which points to a lack of commitment by the PTI leaders, particularly Imran Khan, who launched the campaign with great pomp and show on November 23. After the Peshawar rally that launched the campaign to block supplies for Nato troops in Afghanistan, Imran Khan did not come to Peshawar or join the sit-in in any district. Other central leaders too have stayed away from the protest.

Most provincial leaders, if not all, are part of the government and cannot participate in the protest as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has distanced itself from the blockade of Nato supplies. This again underlines the importance of separation of government and party offices. Currently, most of the PTI leaders simultaneously occupy the party and government offices, a fact that often makes them the subject of criticism.

PTI provincial president Asad Qaiser is speaker of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and general secretary Shaukat Yousafzai is a cabinet member. Thus, the provincial leadership’s participation in the sit-ins is almost impossible

The central leadership has also no plans to sit in these protest camps this week, according to PTI’s provincial information secretary Ishtiaq Urmar. “The central leaders do take interest in the sit-ins. Imran Khan sometimes asks me through messages and I inform him,” he said. “But none of the central leaders has plans to participate in the sit-in this week,” he added.

He said most of the provincial leaders were cabinet members and the provincial government had yet not taken any decision to join the protest.

The leaders’ failure to join the sit-ins with workers is diminishing their importance. Media is losing interest in it and workers are becoming less enthusiastic. They don’t come to the camp at the Ring Road before 10am, allowing an opportunity to Nato trucks to have more than half of the day to pass through Peshawar. At night, workers abandon the camp.

The PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami workers continued to stop trucks and check their shipment documents on Monday to find Nato containers for the ninth straight day. They forced a container-laden truck to turn back as it was allegedly taking goods for Nato troops.

“The sit-in’s importance is not diminishing,” said Younas Zaheer, general secretary of the PTI Peshawar chapter. “We are not inviting leaders because they attract a huge crowd which we can hardly handle,” he argued.

A PTI worker Malik Tahir Raees and former provincial minister of the Jamaat-e-Islami Kashif Azam were Monday booked on the charge of breaking seal of a container. However, they were not arrested.

Younas Zaheer said he had set 12pm Tuesday as deadline for the police to quash the first information report against the two workers or else the protesters would close the Ring Road to traffic.

Woman alleges sexual assault during anti-war demo

LONDON: A Pakistani woman has alleged that she was sexually assaulted during an anti-drone march here a week ago.
The protest on 23 November was organised by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) to coincide with the start of anti-drones sit-ins and the blockade of the Nato supplies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The huge anti-drones protest started from 10 Downing Street and marched till the US Embassy in London. Nearly a thousand Pakistanis including a large number of women had attended the demonstration which called for an immediate end to the drone campaign against Pakistan and asked the US to stop providing any secret assistance to America’s secret war on Pakistan through the use of unmanned drones.

Both the accuser and the accused, who is in his late 20s, are volunteers in the party. The woman, who is in her 30s and cannot be named for legal reasons, has complained that she was sexually assaulted during the march.

Sources within the PTI have said that the allegation is baseless and the activist who has been named in the police complaint is a “decent worker” who was leading the sloganeering on the day of the protest. The police had been told that the accused allegedly touched the woman during the march on the footpath.

The police arrived at the house of the accused on Sunday to arrest him but he was not present at that time. He handed himself in for questioning at the Charing Cross Police station in Central London on Monday afternoon where he was being interviewed at the time of filing of this report. He was being supported by the entire elected body of the PTI who have said that the accused is of “good character”.

The woman confirmed that she had approached the police and registered a complaint. When asked if there are any witnesses to the alleged sexual assault, she said that “such people don’t do nasty stuff in the presence of witnesses.

They pick their targets and the timing carefully”.She confirmed that some people in the party are “against my activism in the party”.She added: “I have recently become very active in the party affairs and that has not been liked by some people within the party. Some people want to create bad impression about me and want to demoralise me. I will fight back and will work for the vision of the party to promote it.

Touching without consent is a criminal offence in this country and must be investigated.”She said that the matter has also been reported to the party and hopes that the party will scrutinise the matter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2013/12/131201_pti_performance_questions_zz.shtml

پشاور: کنٹینر کی سیل توڑنے پرجماعت اسلامی اورتحریک انصاف کے مقامی رہ نماؤں کے خلاف پشتخرہ پولیس اسٹیشن میں مقدمہ درج، پولیس
— Geo News Urdu (@geonews_urdu) December 2, 2013

پشاور: مقدمہ جماعت اسلامی کے سابق صوبائی وزیرکاشف اعظم اور تحریک انصاف کے کیمپ انچارج ملک رئیس کے خلاف درج کیا گیا
— Geo News Urdu (@geonews_urdu) December 2, 2013

پشاور: دھرنے کے دوران جماعت اسلامی اور تحریک انصاف کے کارکنوں نے افغانستان جانے والے کنٹینر کا سیل توڑ ڈالا تھا
— Geo News Urdu (@geonews_urdu) December 2, 2013

Capital suggestion

To be certain, the PTI’s sit-ins have absolutely nothing to do with the blocking of Nato supply because sit-ins are not required to block NATO supply routes (all that is required is a police constable to do the job). To be sure, the PTI’s sit-ins have absolutely nothing to do with drone attacks. History is witness that in 2011 we had shut down the supply routes for seven months but there were a total of 73 drone attacks that year – th 2nd highest on record.

What then is the circus about? In the simplest of terms it is downright dirty politics. It is an attempt to maintain or build a vote bank by exploiting voter sentiments. In more complex political terminology it is called ‘constituency control’. In political history this is referred to as the ‘practice of creating and maintaining vote-banks through divisive policies encouraging voters to vote on the basis’ of negative sentiments rather than community or national interests. Or the Pakistani coinage, ‘ghairat politics’.

Generally, there are two types of politics: politics of delivery and politics of deception. Generally, politicians who fail to deliver then adopt politics of deception (in order to maintain their vote bank).

The PTI’s election manifesto had 10,160 words. The word ‘corruption’ appears 7 times, ‘law’ 31 times, ‘reform’ 19 times and ‘accountability’ 9 times. There was also a specific pledge to de-weaponise. On February 24, the PTI organised a seminar titled ‘Energy: From crisis to solutions’. Speaking on the occasion, the PTI chairman committed to “end corruption in 19 days and terrorism in 90 days.”

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s real issues are a deteriorating law and order situation, a battered infrastructure, worsening unemployment and a failing social services delivery mechanism. Is there any link between the supply route and any of these real issues?

Has there been a cost-benefit analysis of the sit-ins? For the record, the GLOC Agreement (Ground Lines of Communication) earns Pakistan $1,500 per container for around a million dollars a day; Coalition Support Funds are about $3 million a day and Kerry-Lugar funds are $4 million a day. That’s a total of Rs1 billion a day every day of the year. 

Plus, our exports to the EU stand at $6 billion a year. Plus, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Rs118 billion developmental budget has a Rs35 billion grant component from Nato countries. Plus, $500 million from USAID makes Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the largest of the four provincial recipients. Then there’s Security Council’s Resolution 1386 under which Pakistan is under international obligations to provide logistic support.

The PTI’s circus is going to divert Pak-Afghan transit trade to Iran’s Port of Chahbhar. The PTI’s circus has strategic losses, credibility losses and financial losses. The PTI’s sit-ins are all about maintaining a vote bank – maintenance at the cost of national interests. The PTI’s sit-ins are all about cheap politics. The PTI’s sit-ins are all about petty politics – party interests at the risk of international isolation.

The PTI may complain that the media turns its sit-ins into a circus. As a matter of fact, the circus was already there; the media is merely demonstrating that the performers are bent upon making Pakistan a laughing stock around the world.

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com 

Twitter: @saleemfarrukh


http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-217476-The-sit-in

Express 01 December 2013

KP has over 2,500 schools with one teacher only