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Showing posts with label Column. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Column. Show all posts
A frivolous case
THE commission tried to be charitable. It threw in the bit at the end that the “PTI was not entirely unjustified in requesting the establishment” of the commission. It referred to the “suspicion of a sinister design”.
But we don’t have to be charitable. In the end, the PTI case of mass fraud and manipulation hung on two claims. Both those claims the commission took on in detail. Both were demolished in their entirety. Both — in the end — were nothing more than political smokescreens.
The first one, from the commission report: “562. The PTI has alleged that the Provincial Election Commission Punjab had employed 200 extra persons, picked up from the Urdu Bazar Lahore, just 48 hours before the polling and surreptitiously printed ballot papers to be delivered to unknown constituencies.”
Election officials are not the ISI. There’s little that can be kept secret at the constituency level.
That was the core of the PTI’s case and it went something like this: the ECP colluded with the senior Punjab bureaucracy handling election-related matters and with the caretaker chief minister to print bogus ballots in an unauthorised location and then had them delivered to specific constituencies where the PML-N trounced the PTI.
But it was fairly obvious what had happened, and the commission quickly unearthed it — astonishingly, from the very evidence given by the very witnesses that the PTI itself called to prove its claims.Basically, a lazy ECP realised late in the game that it had screwed up oversight of the printing of the ballot papers.
The Printing Corporation of Pakistan was supposed to print all ballots, but didn’t have the capacity when the final numbers were given to them by the ECP — so the Printing Corporation roped in the Pakistan Postal Foundation to help print roughly 20 million ballots for Punjab.
Amazingly, the numbering and binding of ballot books is done by hand — manually. Nearly two hundred million ballots. Numbered and bound by hand. In the 21st century. Welcome to Pakistan.
Of course, if the Printing Corporation doesn’t have an automated process, neither does the Postal Foundation — so the Postal Foundation handed several million unnumbered ballots to the Printing Corporation and left the Printing Corporation to deal with the headache. On the eve of the election.
A desperate and frantic Printing Corporation then had to hire more people at the last minute to number and bind the loose ballots supplied by the Postal Foundation — and for this the Printing Corporation initiated a pretty standard chain of actions: it contacted the ECP, which had its provincial appointee contact the Punjab administration and so were located the necessary workers.
Thirty-four experienced and qualified individuals — similar to the 80 already hired from all over the country to number and bind the ballots — were hurriedly found and sent from Lahore to Islamabad to get the job done.
It was, yes, an ad hoc arrangement that should never have been needed if the ECP had been more competent and alert — but it wasn’t surreptitious, and it involved many agencies coordinating transparently among, literally, hundreds of people and under the same multi-layered supervision and security applicable to the rest of the ballots.
The second allegation: “567. PTI had pointed out that in many constituencies ballot-papers in excess of total number of registered voters had been delivered, raising serious doubts that the same was done for ulterior motive and so as to facilitate rigging and manipulation.”
Basically, the PTI’s claim was that the ECP Action Plan for Printing of Ballot-Papers for General Election 2013 required the Provincial Election Commissioners, who report to the ECP, to determine the ballot count for each constituency based on the total required at each polling station rounded off to the next hundred.
The big gotcha moment for the PTI was that in Punjab, the Provincial Election Commissioner left it to the Returning Officers in each constituency to determine the number of ballots requested — the Punjab ROs, who were lower court judges, being in the pocket of the PML-N via then-CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry, according to the PTI.
So the commission again did the obvious — it looked at how the excess ballot requests were made. It was essentially a mess. The ECP didn’t really care about its own Action Plan, the PEC wasn’t interested either and the ROs came up with their own formulas — formulas that were based on arithmetic and that had nothing to do with who the candidates were in the constituency.
Instead of polling station-level calculations, polling booth-level calculations were made (a polling station usually has two or three booths). On top of that, additional margins were added by some ROs. That bloated and left uneven the excess-ballot count across some Punjab constituencies.
But — and this was really the crux of the allegation — the commission found no pattern to the excess ballot distribution; it found no evidence the excess ballots were systematically unaccounted for; and it found no evidence — direct or circumstantial — that the excess ballots were systematically used to benefit any party.
Basically, the commission found that the PTI had spun administrative anomalies into a vast conspiracy — but, at the most cursory of probing, the conspiracy collapsed into very ordinary explanations of a quintessentially Pakistani administrative cock-up.
Ah, but you’re thinking, that’s the state’s fault and the PTI only pointed out very real flaws and demanded they be investigated. Well, no. The PTI case was built on a sophisticated understanding of the election process — even your average candidate probably doesn’t know the intricacies of excess-ballot requests and printing arrangements.
You can’t possibly argue that you know the detail of printing arrangements, but not the reasons for them, especially when no one made any attempt at all to hide the explanations all along.You also can’t possibly argue that you know the details of excess-ballot requests, but not that they revealed no pattern that disadvantaged your party or helped the PML-N. Election officials are not the ISI. There’s little that can be kept secret at the constituency level.
The commission didn’t — couldn’t — say it, but the PTI case was frivolous. It was, though, a frivolity based on Imran Khan’s deadly serious quest to knock out the government and become prime minister.
But we knew that already. Onwards, to the next PTI gimmick.
The writer is a member of staff.
Twitter: @cyalm
Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2015
Imran Khan and his love for misquoting history
An ardent fan of Mozart, the renowned symphony writer and composer, once asked him:
“I am thinking of writing symphonies. Can you give me any suggestions to get started?”
Mozart replied: “A symphony is a very complex musical form. Perhaps you should begin with simpler lieder and work your way up.”
The admirer, not pleased with the answer, hurriedly jumped in:
“But Herr Mozart, you were writing symphonies when you were eight years old!”
“Yes. But I never asked anybody how.”
Neither did Imran Khan when he started quoting – rather, misquoting – history repeatedly, until he became a master at it. From quoting William Dalrymple when he compared Madrassahs in Delhi in early nineteenth century to Oxford and Cambridge, and equating it to the present day madrassahs of Pakistan at the Ulema Convention, to the bogus quote accredited to Lord Macaulay on India’s educational system, to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Gandhi – he’s got a lot of historical fabrication to his credit.
So, after years of preparation, in his is most recent venture, he resolved to write an entire article on Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah, the philosophy of history presented by the historiographer who is considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern socio economics. Imran Khan endeavoured to apply the length and breadth of theMuqaddimah to the tribulations of present day Pakistan. The article was published a few days ago and fortunately did not catch much attention in the clamor of the Axact scandal. Realistically, it appears as if someone wrote a cursory synopsis ofMuqaddimah and later on had a light bulb moment and applied it on Pakistan. I was reminded of my school days, when some avant-garde I knew, wrote a paragraph on the postman and used it for the English B paper for essays on “My profession of choice”, “My choice of profession”, “My best friend”, “My father”, “An honest man”, “My ideal”, “My next door neighbour” and a range of other topics.
Long before I mastered the art and science of using a machine to socialize, I grasped the fact that history always tells a story. So delete it before your dad or kid uses the computer.
Yes I am still very much on the point. My point is that I yearn to understand Khan Sahib’s point in this article. I am not a historian. Neither am I a sociologist nor a scholar of economics. Nothing close even! I am a physician with some interest in history and politics, and yes, I am sentimental – thin-skinned enough to be a poet. Yet, in all sincerity, I have always strived to understand Imran Khan’s obsession with citing references from Islam and history. That is, after years of my personal fascination with Imran Khan whom I saw as a shirtless cricketer in a poster hanging on my wall in my teen tears. Yes, I confess that I was a typical Pakistani teenager of the eighties. Thanks to the undeservedly frequent sermons of my devoted dad and my caring mom’s invariable hush, the rebel and the fan inside me died soon. A few years later I became a Physician, the one who takes the Hippocratic Oath. He was a very brainy gentleman of his time to say:
“There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.”
I know that facts are to be known, and to acquire knowledge from, not to opine anything about them. Imran Khan, as a favor to his readers like me, rarely writes. I remember reading his Selective Islam in Pakistan few years ago and then again during the election year. Whether he is writing Selective Islam in Pakistan, or Naya Pakistan or the latest Ibn Khaldun article, he draws on history as his individual account: a circumstantial narrative that fits his ideology or the lack thereof. Hence, the reader finds himself puzzled on whether Khan sees himself as a neo-Jinnah or wants to follow the example of Gandhi and his tooth and nail, unforgiving politics. He is equally divided on the vices and virtues of the Western societal norms and justice system. In his account of his assimilation to the religion of Islam, Selective Islam, we see him confusing the values of the Eastern culture with the moralities of the religion. Further perplexed is his assertion at times that religion is the axis of morality. No matter how one defines secularism/ non-righteousness/atheism/non-belief, it’s relativity to rectitude and morality is not that straightforward.
Whereas we see him applauding the society and ‘system’ of the West in the recent Ibn Khaldun article, it is essentially opposite to his previous writings on the subject where he bestows the West with his trifling criticism of materialism, crime rate, racism, the “fear of getting old”, plastic surgery, old peoples’ homes, etc. Khan paints an all-negative picture as he talks about divorce rate in the West, the joint family system in the East and its security blanket. And few years later, the same Imran Khan verbosely eulogizes the justice system, educational standards and human rights practiced in the West. Yet, while commending the “Scandinavian countries”, he conveniently upholds his biases for the torch-bearer of liberty, the US, untouched and preserved.
I do know people and ideas evolve with time. They should. I value the leaders who adhere to their principles rather than their whims. So is Imran Khan’s changing views the sign of a leader’s growth? I doubt that, because I see too many U-turns in his elucidation and manipulation of historical references – unfortunately, as many U-turns as in his politics. I might have accept this as a learning curve only if he had gained a better grasp of history and Islam, and an equitable application of the two into his politics. The former is his choice as long as it does not impinge on others. The latter is a requisition that I seek from a leader of a major political party.
Otherwise, a few hundred years from today, let us assume we will have historians who will write the history of our contemporary world, and let us assume that they will have nothing better to write about than the “causes of the fall of Imran Khan”, they will write that the first and foremost cause of the beginning of his end was his irrepressible aspiration to quote history – untimely, erroneously and in complete contradiction to his own preceding account.
Winston Churchill rightly said:
"There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you."
Allow me to add here that writing an article on the Muqaddimah, is the third most difficult thing for some – like you and me, Khan Sahib!
Can Imran change?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be justified in conferring India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, on Imran Khan. Last Sunday at the PTI rally in Islamabad Imran threatened to shut down Lahore on December 4, Faisalabad on December 8, Karachi on December 12, and, finally all of Pakistan by December 16 if his demands were not met.
The Bharat Ratna was instituted in 1954, and, in the 60 years since then it has been conferred on only two foreigners – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890-1988) in 1987 and Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) in 1990. Mother Teresa (1910-1997) also received the honour in 1980 but she had become a naturalised citizen of India. However, Imran Khan stands out in a category by himself in promoting India’s national security and foreign policy priorities.
His container-top rhetorical outburst in Islamabad on November 30 was one of the many outlandish statements that Imran is in the habit of making. The next day the vice chairman of the PTI, former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told the media that the Lahore event had been postponed to December 15 and countrywide demonstrations would now be held on December 18.
He was also at pains to explain that by ‘shut down’ Imran Khan had never meant that the major cities and the entire country would come to a grinding halt. What had been planned were massive rallies on the thoroughfares of important urban centres and business transactions would not be disrupted.
In the rough and tumble of politics, leaders sometimes say and do absurd things. Shah Mahmood Qureshi is particularly adept in making notoriously inaccurate statements. His claim that commercial life will not be interrupted by the huge PTI demonstrations in the major cities of Pakistan defies logic. But Qureshi has always been a dreamer and his imagination often runs riot because of his inability to think things through rationally.
Subsequently, he told the media on Tuesday that the PTI could consider postponing the launch of countrywide protests if the government agreed to resume the stalled negotiations on his party’s demands. Though this has been readily conceded it is far from certain what the eventual outcome will be.
Imran Khan has probably realised that he was carried away by his own rhetoric. He has admittedly galvanised massive public support as was evident from the unprecedented turnout at the rally in Islamabad. But it is just not possible for the PTI alone to paralyse the entire country, or, for that matter even the major cities. Imran has bitten off more than he can possibly chew, and this is what has prompted the offer of negotiations with the government.
Politics is a game of snakes and ladders where the main players are serpents. The Pakistani variety is particularly deadly and will go to any extent to reach the top even if this implies damaging national interests and disgracing the country before foreigners.
Last week Imran Khan proudly told thousands of his supporters: “I made it clear to the Chinese ambassador that we have no objection to Chinese companies doing business here, but we want to make sure that the Sharif family doesn’t have any personal stakes in these businesses – that’s simply not acceptable.”
But the PTI leader is not the only politician to have stooped so low as to malign his own government before an envoy of a country that has taken a decision to invest heavily in Pakistan. The sense of national pride and self-respect often falls by the wayside in the frenzied race for power.
Thus barely three years back at the height of the Memogate affair, then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told a correspondent of the Peoples’ Daily of China that the former COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the director general of the ISI at the time, Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, had violated the constitution and had acted illegally by submitting affidavits to the Supreme Court on the scandal without the approval of the government.
This is probably without parallel as never before has any sitting prime minister gone to the extent of vilifying his own army chief and head of intelligence in an interview to foreign correspondent. Even worse, the accusations were made at a time when General Kayani was on an official visit to Beijing and had been received by the Chinese premier.
The shame and embarrassment that had been caused to the country was of little consequence to the prime minister who justified his disgraceful comments by claiming that the interview had taken place after the COAS’ return to Pakistan.
Three times prime minister, Nawaz Sharif has been even more indiscreet in his dealings with foreign correspondents. In an interview to Kim Barker, the Chicago Tribune’s South Asia bureau chief from 2004 to 2009, he disclosed that Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks to be captured alive was from Faridkot, a small town in the Okara district. In her 2011 book, The Taliban Shuffle, Barker writes: “For us, this was big news – a senior Pakistani confirming what the government had publicly denied: The attackers were from Pakistan.”
At other places the author succumbs to journalistic sensationalism. For instance Barker claims that during one of her several meetings with Nawaz Sharif, he said: “I’m fat and I’m old. But I would still like to be your friend.” In February this year there were reports in the international media that the book will be adapted as a feature film, and on June 30 Paramount Pictures announced that it had short-listed directors.
The Wikileaks cables show that Maulana Fazlur Rehman approached US Ambassador Anne Patterson, who was accredited to Pakistan from 2007 to 2010, and sought her help in becoming prime minister. In return he promised to promote American interests in the country.
The crooning leader of the MQM, Altaf Hussain, who provides frequent entertainment through his speeches from far away London, went to the extent of writing to the British prime minister on September 23, 2001 urging the dissolution of the ISI. The letter, which was delivered to 10 Downing Street by Nirj Deva currently a member of the European parliament for Southeast England, reads: “The ISI secret agency must be disbanded otherwise it will continue to produce many Osama bin Ladens and Talibans in (the) future.”
Such is the depressingly low integrity of those who arrogate to themselves the role of leaders. Despite their claims, none of them are capable of transforming the country. Even then, Imran Khan emerges as the best out of a bad lot but the problem is that he has an undergraduate mentality.
If the PTI leader really wants to establish a ‘new Pakistan,’ he will first have to change himself. This has to be followed by rectifying the fundamental flaw in the 18th Amendment by instituting constitutional checks and balances in the powers of the president and the prime minister. Without this there cannot be any real transformation of the country.
Imran Khan’s plan to shut down Pakistan is crass stupidity. He and the leaders of the other political parties have failed the country in the past. But is there any genuine remorse for the bleeding wounds they have inflicted on the nation? Have they reformed? Or is a new force, yet incipient, emerging that can put the country back on the track of political, economic and social equilibrium?
In the last seven years there has been significant change inasmuch as an independent judiciary has been restored. The massive popular outpouring prompted by Pervez Musharraf’s March 9, 2007 presidential reference against the former chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, led to the latter’s reinstatement on July 20. The political parties were mere bystanders in the countrywide lawyer-led upsurge.
This was the first sign of a spontaneous wakening of civil society from its slumber and could have been harnessed into a popular political force. But the opportunity was squandered. Can Imran Khan reignite such a movement? Till now he has only said and done silly things. Will he change? Or is this only a forlorn hope?
The writer is the publisher of Criterion Quarterly.
Email: iftimurshed@gmail.com
برائے فروخت میڈیا پرسن عمران خان کے پاس بہت ہیں
مران خان پاکستان کا ایک ایسا سیاسی نام ہے جس کو سن کر ہر سوجھ والا اور پڑھا لکھا شخص سر پیٹ لیتا ہے۔کیا پاکستانیوں کی قسمت اتنی بری ہوگئی ہے؟ کہ ایسے رہنماؤں سے واسطہ پڑ رہا ہے کہ جن کی زبان اچھی ہے نہ دل و دماغ اپنے ٹھکانے پر ہے!!! اور خواب اعلیٰ ایونوں میں راج گدی پر بیٹھنے کا ہے۔گذشتہ تین مہینوں سے پر روز خواب میں وزیر اعظم نواز شریف استعفےٰ دیکھتے ہیں اور رات بارا بچے تک اسی سحر میں گم رہتے ہیں۔لندن پلان بنوانے والوں نے انہیں خوب ہی سُہانے سپنے دکھائے تھے۔چونکہ یہ بوٹ بردار جمہوریت کے حامی ہیں لہٰذا ہر روز کپتان کی انگلی اُٹھنے کا انتظار رہا مگر کوئی بودی باشاہ ان کا خواب باوجود وعدوں کے پورا کرنے نہیں آسکا اور انُ کی وکٹیں ایک کے بعد ایک گرتی چلی جا رہی ہیں۔اب وزیر اعظم کے استعفے سے رجوع کر لینے کے بعد ۔انوکھے لاڈلے کا نیا مطالبہ سا منے آچکا ہے کہ عدالتی کمیشن دھاندھلی کے الزامات کی تحقیقات کیلئے بنایا جائے جس میں ایم آئی اور آئی ایس آئی کو شامل کیا جائے ۔یہ کمیشن 4، سے6 ،ہفتوں میں تحقیقات مکمل کرے۔پہلے موصوف کو تصدق حسین گیلانی پر مکمل اعتماد تھا مگر اب انہیں عدلیہ غیر جانبدار دکھائی نہیں دے رہی ہے۔یہی وجہ ہے کہ ان کی منشاء یہ ہے کہ اب ایجنسیز کے لوگ سیاست میں داخل ہو کر ان کے ارادوں کے مطابق انہیں اقتدار دلا کر ان کی تشفی کر دیں جو فیالوقت ت ممکن دکھائی نہیں دیتا ہے مگر انوکھا لاڈلہ کوئی بھی مطالبہ کر سکتا ہے۔دوسرے جانب اس غیر آئینی مطالبے حکومت نے اور دیگر سیاسی جماعتوں نے یکسر مسترد کر دیاتھا۔س نا معقول مطالبے کی سیاست کے ایوانوں میں سے ہر جانب سے مخالفت سامنے آرہی ہے۔
عمران خان پاکستان کی سیاست میں ایسا نام ہے جس نے اپنے نا معقول بیانات کے تسلسل سے کئی اپنے اچھے حمائیتوں کو بار بار سوچنے پر مجبور کر دیا ہے۔ان کے عتاب سے چوہدری برادران اور شیخ رشید جو غالباََ موجودہ سیاسی دورانئے میں ان کے سیاست کے میدان میں استاد کا درجہ رکھتے ہیں کے سوائے کوئی بھی نہیں بچ سکا ہے بلکہ ان کے اسٹیج سے وہ جس قدر مسلم لیگ ن اور اس کے سربراہ کے خلاف بد زبانی بد کلامی کر سکتے ہیں کرتے ہیں انہیں کوئی پوچھنے والا اس لئے نہیں ہے کہ زبان درازی میں عمران خان ان سے بھی لمبی زبان رکھتے ہیں۔بلکہ عمران خان نے توجب موقعہ ملا اپنی حلیف جماعت، جماعتِ اسلامی کو بھی رگید کے رکھ دیا کیونکہ وہ نظریاتی طور پر پی ٹی آئی کے جماعتِ اسلامی کے مقابلے میں زیدہ قریب ہیں۔اپنے لوگوں کے سمجھانے پر جماعت اسلامی کے امیر سے معافی تلافی کر لی ورنہ خیبر پختونخواہ کی حکومت لزہ بااندام ہونے کے قریب تھی۔
لوگوں کا خیال ہے کہ جس کے پاس خاندانی عزت و وقار ہوتا ہے وہ کبھی بھی کسی کی پگڑی نہیں اچھالتا ہے۔ہماری دیہاتی زبان میں ایک مقولہ ہے کہ’’جس کی اُتر گئی لوئی اُس کا کیا کرے گا کوئی‘‘ اتنی بری زبان تو کسی انتہائی اُجڈ شخص کی بھی نہیں ہوسکتی جتنی بری اور ناشائستہ زبان شیدا پنڈی اور کر کٹر عمران خان کی ہے۔ان دونوں کو کسی کی بھی عزت و وقار کا پاس ہے نہ اپنی بری زبان کا احساس ہے۔ کیا یہ ہی پاکستان کے 20 ،کروڑ عوام کے بادشاہ بننے کے خواب دیکھ رہے ہیں؟؟؟یہ دونوں تو زبان و بیان کے حوالے سے اس قابل بھی نہیں ہیں کہ ان کو کسی مزار کی جُوتیاں ہی سیدھی کرنے پر معمور کیا جا سکے۔چہ جائے کہ پاکستان کا حکمران بنایا جائے ۔وہ شخص جو عقل سے عاری اور کانوں کا کچا ہو کیا کسی معمولی سے عہدے کے بھی لائق ہے؟ افسوس ان ڈانس پارٹیوں اور سنگرس پارٹیوں پر ہے جو ایسے بد زبان اور شُتر بے مہار کو اپنا لیڈر مانتے ہیں۔میرے محلے کے بچے تو عمران خان کی تصویراخبار میں دیکھتے ہی کہہ اٹھتے ہی’’اوئے اوئے‘‘کیونکہ ان کا ہر جملہ اپنے مخالفوں کے لئے اوئے سے ہی شروع ہوتا ہے اور اوئے پر ہی ختم ہوتا ہے۔۔عمران خان اس ملک کی بد قسمت تاریخ کا ایسا رہنما ہے جس کی زبان میں کہیں بھی شیرینی تو دکھائی ہی نہیں دیتی ہے۔’’ ہر بات پہ کہتے ہو کہ تو کیا ہے تم ہی بتاؤ کہ یہ اندزِ گفتگو کیا ہے؟‘‘
اب ان کی ٹون میں ایک عظیم الشان تبدیلی واقع ہوئی ہے۔ اب انہوں نے نے سیاست دانوں کا پیچھا چھوڑ کر صحافیوں اور میڈیا ہاؤسز کی خبر لینے کی ٹھانی ہے۔ماضی کی طرح ایک اورجھوٹ کی پوٹ کھولی ہے۔جس میں وہ کہتے ہیں کہ حکومت نے صحافیوں کالم نگاروں،تجزیہ کاروں اور اینکر پرسنز کا ضمیر خریدنے کی کوشش کی اور اس مقصد کے لئے انہوں نے 270، کروڑ روپے ان لوگوں کو دیئے ہیں۔مگر یہ بات بھی گذشتہ سینکڑوں جھوٹوں میں شامل کرلینا چاہئے جو وہ گذشتہ تین ماہ کے دورن گھڑ گھڑ کے پیش کرتیرہے ہیں۔آئندہ دنوں میں یہ جماعت اسلامی کی طرح صحافیوں کے آگے بھی ہاتھ جوڑتے دکھائی دیں گے۔کیونکہ متلون مزاجی ان کا شیوہ رہی ہے ان کی چولی میں برائے فروخت میڈیا پرسن بہت ہیں جو ان کی جنگ میڈیا پر لڑتے ہوئے بری طرح سے نا صرف بد نا نام ہوئے ۔بلکہ آج عدالتوں کے بھی دھکے اپنی مصنوعی کار گذار پر کھا رہے ہیں ۔
وہ جو نیا پاکستان بنانے چلے تھے خود بھی پرانے ترین ہوتے جا رہے ہیں ان کا مسئلہ یہ ہے کہ ’’عمریہ ڈھلتی جائے ،وزارتِ عظمیٰ ہاتھ نا آئے‘‘اس ماسک چڑھے ستر سالہ جوان سے وزیر اعظم پاکستان نے سوال کیا ہے کہ عوام نے نیا خیبر پختون خوا بنانے کے لئے ووٹ دیا تھا وہ نہیں بنا تو نیا پاکستان کیسے بنے گا؟؟؟دوسری جانب آئی ڈی پیز خیبر پختون خوا کی حکومت کی جان کو رو رہے ہیں۔ااُن کے ساتھ ان کی حکومت کا روئیہ نہایت ظالمانہ ہے۔جسٹس طارق محمود کا کہنا ہے کہ عمران خان کے ہاتھوں کسی کی عزت محفوظ نہیں ہے۔وہ اپنی زبان و بیان سے نئے پاکستان کا کلچر متعارف کر رہے ہیں۔عاصمہ جہانگیر نے عمران خان کی بد زبانی پر انہیں’’ بونگے خان ‘‘ کے خطاب سے نوازا ہے۔
انہیں زرداری اور نواز شریف کے پیسوں کی تو بڑی فکر ہے ۔وہ اس بات کی بھی تو وضاحت کریں کہ جو ابتک لگ بھگ 42 ،کروڑ روپے کے اخراجات انہوں نے گذشتہ تین ماہ کے دھرنوں اور جلسوں پر خرچ کئے ہیں یہ پیسہ ان کے پاس کہاں سے آیا؟کیا یہ اس بات کی زحمت گوارا کریں گے کہ وہ کونسے ان کے ذرائع ہیں جہاں سے اتنی بھاری رقم انہوں نے خرچ کی ہے۔ظاہر ہے یہ لندن پلان کا ہی کمال ہوگا جو اس قدر خطیر رقم خرچ کر کے بھی مطمعن دکھائی دیتے ہیں۔جہاں ناکامیوں کے سوئے ان کے ہاتھ کچھ بھی تو نہیں لگا ہے۔ان کے اسپانسر اب کہہ رہے ہیں کہ ’’چڑھ جا بیٹا سولی پر رام بھلی کے گا....یہی وجہ ہے کہ حکومت کو انہوں نے ایک اور ڈیڈ لائین 30،نومبر کی دے کر اپنے لوگوں کا اطمنان دلانے کی کوشش کی ہے۔
http://qudrat.com.pk/column-tajziya/20-Nov-2014/45691
The PTI’s hatred for all
Politicians commonly attack their opponents because at the end of the day, they have to compete against and beat them in order to win power. Unfortunately, to this end, too many depend less on their own credible achievements and more on discrediting, demeaning and delegitimising their political opponents and competitors.
On the other hand, media commentators, analysts and opinion-makers, while not expected to be objective, are meant to offer an independent perspective. Such analysis should not resort to name-calling, personalisation, accusations and irresponsible claims.
Accordingly, this article should not be characterising Imran Khan and his followers as permanent or fundamental haters of opposing activists, feminists, liberals, Christians, Ahmadis or any minorities or indeed of PTI-critics. However, when a political stance becomes a consistent pattern and revealing thought-process, then it is worthy of challenge and serious objection by calling it what it is. The PTI harbours a clear and revealing hatred for practically all people who do not support the PTI, for ‘lesser’ or non-Muslims and liberal women and their feminised politics.
The recent spate of contempt for Pakistani individuals and institutions, as expressed not just by Imran Khan but also his party’s official spokesmen and women (which include entertainers and celebrities as key thinkers), is not just a symptom of political hatred, it is revealing of the fundamental base of the PTI’s politics.
Many have commented on the social media misbehaviour of the PTI supporters. However, public commentary, statements, positions and accusations are part of the formal and on-the-record discourse. These statements and positions also make history – a discipline that the PTI leadership is critically deficient in and which allows them to make it all up as they stumble along their unravelling.
While many amongst us have been scathingly critical of the same institutions (the judiciary, the Election Commission, the media, NGOs) and even the leadership of the PML-N and the PPP, the difference is that the purpose of critique is always to lend ideas so as to improve these or enhance their functions and strengthen justice, service delivery, democracy, information dissemination, education or rights for the people. It has not been to derail, destroy or denigrate just because we aren’t getting our way. Different from criticism, critique does two things – it points out specific existing problems in any system or text and/or it points out what is missing from these altogether.
Unfortunately, the PTI leadership offers neither critique nor criticism. Instead, its analysis depends on accusations, indictments, threats and an alternative that is defined by the replacement of existing governance with their own party, instead. This is why the call of the ‘revolution’ (that is fast becoming a compromise) is still holding on to the confused and negative slogan of ‘Go Nawaz Go’ even though the PM’s resignation is no longer considered the path to liberation. Similarly, the slogan for ‘Aavay Aavay Imran’ defies logic because he is already in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and, unless there’s a military coup or the party is actively rather than symbolically resigning, is going to stay there for the next few years.
The deflation of the party’s outer apparatus comprising dharnas and political performances by way of slogans, song and dance has revealed an ugly and startling ideological core. The essence of the PTI shows no inclusive or pluralistic thinking but instead exposes the instinctive self-love and sense of privilege and superiority that its leaders spout daily.
This attitude leads it to attack chief justices and judges rather than critique the specific judgements or lacunae in the judiciary or of procedural law. It leads to attacks on media channels that do not actively support the PTI, while blindly supporting the most vicious and misogynist anti-democratic media personalities who sponsor the party. It leads to attacks on personalities such as Asma Jahangir, not on the mullahs who encourage vigilantism, jihadist organisations who attack the Hazaras or the Taliban who have terrorised the country. Even the Jamaat-e-Islami no longer does that.
This ideological impulse leads the PTI to launch patriarchal jokes attacking the supposed lack of testosterone-inspired politics of opposition leaders but does not censure the machismo demonstrated by its own male leaders – and some women too. The PTI limits its notion of women’s empowerment to that of PTI women who can support its dharnas through public participation but of whose politics we know nothing and who have no feminised voice in decision-making or leadership positions in the party itself.
Revealing too is how one of the PTI’s lawmakers attacks minorities as non-Muslim lesser Pakistanis. The PTI leadership offers vague condemnations of violent acts in the name of religion but does not take any legislative initiative to reform the laws that enable such acts. Recall Imran Khan’s refusal to amend the Zina ordinance, too.
Historical amnesia leads the PTI leaders to contradict themselves as they repeatedly invoke then recant their reliance on the military establishment in order to fulfil their ‘democratic’ ambitions. By pulling the tailcoats of the army they forget the lessons of the 2012 Asghar Khan case and the role of the agencies that is part of public record now. That and the Muneer Report, the Charter of Democracy, the constitution and a plethora of human and women’s rights reports are invaluable sources that the PTI may educate itself on.
Most damaging of all has been the PTI reduction of the notion of revolution itself. Revolutionary ideals have historically risen above parochial interests and for freedoms, equality and liberation or independence towards redistributive wealth and justice. Instead, the PTI commotion has simply been counterrevolutionary in all senses. They struggle neither for the freedoms nor equality nor redistribution of wealth for the people but just ‘liberation’ from an electoral result and the imagined ‘justice’ of gaining power for themselves.
The question is: what’s in it for the majority that is Pakistani women and their emancipatory causes and the minorities that are the most vulnerable in Pakistan – especially, when they are so symbolically and literally loathed and reviled by the PTI?
The writer is a sociologist based in Karachi. Email: afiyazia@yahoo.com
علامہ کی ’’کرامات‘‘...جرگہ۔۔۔۔سلیم صافی
کمال کے آدمی ہیں ۔ ان کے قادرالکلام ہونے میں تو کوئی کلام پہلے سے نہیں تھالیکن اب معلوم ہوا کہ وہ کمال کی حد تک صاحبِ’’کرامات‘‘ بھی ہیں۔ انہوں نے بعض طاقتور اداروں اور ان کے ذریعے میڈیا کو اپنے لئے خوب استعمال کیا‘ عمران خان سے لے کر الطاف حسین تک اور سراج الحق سے لے کر چوہدری شجاعت حسین تک کو اپنے حق میں بیان بازی پر اکسایا ۔ دوماہ تک ملک کو یرغمال بنائے رکھا اور حکومت کو تگنی کاناچ نچا کر اب آرام سے سب کو لاجواب کرکے وہ بڑے سکون اور روایتی تز ک و احتشام کے ساتھ روبہ مغرب روانہ ہوگئے۔ عیدقربان کے موقع پر ان کے کزن نے ان سے درخواست کی کہ وہ انہیں ڈی چوک میں اکیلا چھوڑ کر نہ جائیں تو علامہ صاحب غضبناک ہوگئے۔ خان صاحب کو مخاطب کرتے ہوئے انہوں نے کہا کہ خان صاحب ! بے وفائی آپ کررہے ہیں ۔ لندن میں طے ہوا تھا کہ دھرنے کی تاریخ کا اعلان اکٹھے کیا جائے گا لیکن آپ نے ہیرو بننے کے لئے بہاولپور کے جلسے میں ازخود جلسے کا اعلان کیا۔ لندن میں یہ بھی طے ہوا تھا کہ ہم لاہور سے اکٹھے نکلیں گے لیکن آپ میری ہمسفری پر شرمارہے تھے اور الگ روانہ ہوگئے۔ اسلام آباد پہنچنے پر مجھے آگے کیا اور خود پیچھے پیچھے آتے رہے تاکہ گولی اور ڈنڈے کا سامنا مجھے او رمیرے لوگوں کو ہی کرنا پڑے۔ آپ نے دعویٰ کیا تھا کہ آپ آگے ہوں گے اور پہلی گولی آپ کھائیں گے لیکن آبپارہ سے ڈی چوک جاتے ہوئے آپ لوگوں نے ہمیں آگے کیا اور خود سکون سے پیچھے پیچھے آتے رہے ۔ ڈی چوک پر شاہراہ دستور ہم سے بند کروایا اور خود پیچھے سکون سے بیٹھ گئے ۔وزیراعظم ہائوس اور پارلیمنٹ ہائوس میں گھسنے کا فیصلہ ہوا تو پھر میں اور میرے لوگ آگے تھے ۔ اس روز میرے درجنوں لوگ زخمی اور کئی شہید ہوئے لیکن آپ مجھے بتائیں کہ آپ کے کس لیڈر یا کارکن نے گولی کھائی۔ پھر جب میرے لوگ پی ٹی وی میں گھس گئے تو آپ نے اس سے اپنے آپ کو لاتعلق کردیا حالانکہ وہ بھی اسکرپٹ کا حصہ تھا۔ دھرنے کی تعریف یہ ہے اور طے بھی یہ ہوا تھا کہ مستقل یہاں بیٹھیں گے لیکن آپ اور آپ کے لوگوں سے سختی برداشت نہیں ہوسکتی تھی اس لئے آپ نے پہلی رات ‘کارکنوں کوگھر چلے جانے اور اگلے روز پھر شام کواکٹھے ہونے کی ہدایت دی۔ آپ اپنے بنی گالہ کے محل میں جاتے یا پھر جہازوں میں ٖپھرتے رہے جبکہ میں مستقل کینٹنر میں قید رہا ۔ آپ کے لوگ ایک گھنٹے کے لئے شام کو چند سو یا چند ہزار کی تعداد میں اکھٹے ہوتے اور پھر اپنے اپنے گھروں یا ہوٹلوں کو چلے جاتے جبکہ میرے لوگ آپ کے سامنے مررہے ہیں ۔ آپ ذرا کینٹینر سے نیچے اتر کر میرے لوگوں کی حالت دیکھیں ۔ درجنوں مر گئے ۔ سینکڑوں بیمار ہیں ۔ یہ سب غریب گھروں کے لوگ ہیں اور ان کے گھروں میں فاقے ہورہے ہیں۔ میں مزید ان کے ساتھ یہ ظلم روا نہیں رکھ سکتا ۔ یہاں ان کے کھانے پینے پر روزانہ کروڑوں روپے خرچ ہوتے ہیں ۔ آپ کے ہاں یہ خرچہ نہیں ہے اور جب شام کو کبھی آپ کی حاضری بہت کم ہوتی ہے تو میرے لوگ آپ کی حاضری کو برابر کرلیتے ہیں ۔ یہ کھری کھری سن کر خان صاحب لاجواب ہوگئے اور ٹھیک ہے علامہ صاحب آپ کی مرضی ہے ‘ کہہ کر اپنے کنٹینر کی طرف چل دئیے۔ چوہدری صاحبان چونکہ اوپر والوں کا پیغام پہنچاتے اور روزانہ دس بارہ لاکھ روپے دھرنا دینے والوں کے کھانے پر خرچ کررہے تھے ‘ اس لئے وہ علامہ صاحب کے پاس پہنچے اور دھرنا جاری رکھنے کی درخواست کی ۔ چوہدری صاحب نے علامہ صاحب کو سمجھانے کی کوشش کی کہ اگر انہوں نے دھرنا ختم کیا تو بڑی بے عزتی ہوجائے گی۔ علامہ صاحب نے چوہدری برادران کو قہر آلو نظروں سے دیکھا اور فرمایا کہ چوہدری صاحب !آپ لوگ تو چند منٹ کے لئے چہرہ نمائی کی خاطر کینٹیر پر آجاتے ہیں۔ آپ لوگوں کو کیا پتہ کہ مجھ پر اور میرے لوگوں پر کیا گزر رہی ہے ۔میں دیوالیہ ہورہا ہوں۔ آپ روٹی شوٹی کے لئے روزانہ جو چند لاکھ روپے دیتے ہیں ‘ اس سے تو چند سو لوگوں کا خرچہ بھی پورا نہیں ہوتا۔ میں نے کئی بار درخواست کی لیکن آپ سب اتحادی جماعتیں مل کر ایک ہزار لوگ بھی نہ لاسکے ۔ چلو آج کے بعد آپ اپنی جماعت کے ایک ہزار لوگوں کو لاکر میرے دھرنے میں شامل کرادیںتو میں دھرنا ختم نہیں کرتا ۔ علامہ صاحب کا یہ کھرا جواب سن کر چوہدری صاحبان ‘ ’’ٹھیک ہے ۔ علامہ صاحب تاڈی مرضی ہے ‘ ‘کہہ کر اور سر جھکا کر گرفتہ دل کے ساتھ رخصت ہوگئے۔ پھر ان اینکرز اور کالم نگاروں کو آگے کیا گیا جن کو پچھلے تین ماہ کے دوران علامہ صاحب اور خان صاحب کو گرماکر شاباش دینے اور جمہوریت کو گالم گلوچ سے نوازنے پر مامور کیا گیا تھا۔ انہوں نے علامہ صاحب کو طعنے دینے شروع کئے لیکن پلٹ کر علامہ صاحب نے ان کو لفافہ صحافی کا خطاب دے کر انہیں بھی خاموش کردیا۔ چنانچہ اپنے دو جانشین شہزادے‘ جنہیں دھرنوں کے دوران علامہ صاحب نے بیرون ملک بھجوادیا تھا‘ کو ملک واپس بلاکر‘اپنے کارندوں کا مہار ان کے ہاتھ میں تھما کر اور دھرنے کی برکات سمیٹ کر علامہ صاحب برطانیہ اور امریکہ کے لئے روانہ ہوگئے۔
وہ وہاں کے منصوبہ سازوں کے ساتھ اب کوئی نیا منصوبہ بنائیں گے ۔ پھر جس وقت ان کا جی چاہے گا وہ ایک بار پھر کسی نئے منصوبے کے ساتھ چند ماہ کے دورے پر آجائیں گے۔ علامہ صاحب پچھلی مرتبہ زرداری حکومت کو گرانے کا دعویٰ کرکے اور اب کے بار میاں نوازشریف کو گھربھجوانے اور نظام بدلوانے کے نعرے کے ساتھ میدان میں اترے تھے لیکن پچھلی بار وہ اس حکومت کو گرائے اور اب کے بار میاں صاحب سے استعفیٰ دلوائے بغیر واپس روانہ ہوگئے ۔ اپنی ذات کے لئے انہوں نے حسبِ’’ منشا‘‘ برکات ضرور سمیٹ لیں اور یقینا گنڈا پور جیسے کارندوں کو بھی ان میں برکات میں سے حسب ’’منشا‘‘ حصہ دیا ہوگا لیکن سوال یہ ہے کہ یہ جو ان کے درجنوں اور ان کے بقول سینکڑوں کارکن شہید ہوئے‘ یہ جو ایس پی سمیت سینکڑوں پولیس اہلکار زخمی ہوئے‘ یہ جو ملکی معیشت کو کھربوں روپے کا ٹیکہ لگا‘ یہ جو سرکاری ٹی وی پر میں گھسنے اور پارلیمنٹ کی بے حرمتی سے پوری دنیا میں پاکستان کی سبکی ہوئی‘ یہ جو چین کے صدر سمیت کئی ممالک کے سربراہان کے دورے منسوخ ہوئے ‘ یہ جو وزیرستان اور بلوچستان میں قربانیاں دینے والے فوجی جوانوں کی قربانیوں سے توجہ دوسری طرف ہوگئی ‘ یہ جو دس لاکھ بے گھر ہونے والے وزیرستان کے متاثرین سے ٹی وی کیمروں کا رخ دوسری طرف مڑ گیا ‘ یہ جو سیاست میں گالم گلوچ کا کلچر عام ہوگیا‘ یہ جو عدلیہ اور پارلیمنٹ جیسے اداروں کو بے وقعت کرنے کی کوششیں ہوئیں ‘ یہ جو فوج اور سویلین قیادت کے درمیان تنائو مزید بڑھ گیا ‘ یہ جو پولیس اور سیکورٹی اداروں کے ہزاروں اہلکار عوام کے جان و مال کے تحفظ کی بجائے کئی ماہ سے دھرنوں میں پھنسے رہے ‘ یہ جو اسلام آباد کے شہریوں کا جینا حرام رہا اور یہ جو یہاں کے تاجروں کا کاروبار ٹھپ رہا ‘ ان سب نقصانات کی تلافی کیسے ہوگی‘ کس سے ہوگی اور ان کا حساب کس سے لیا جائے گا؟۔ کیا علامہ صاحب کے ڈرامے کے پروڈیوسروں‘ ان کی حمایت میں رطب السان اینکرز ‘ ان کے حق میں ہزاروں صفحات سیاہ کرنے والے لکھاریوں یا پھر ان کے کزن عمران خان صاحب کے پاس اس سوال کا جواب ہے ؟ نہیں تو کیا ان کافرض نہیں بنتا کہ اخلاقی جرات کا مظاہرہ کرتے ہوئے ‘ یہ لوگ اپنی غلطی کا اعتراف کرکے قوم سے معافی مانگیں؟
Electoral truths
By Fahim Zaman
PAKISTAN Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders have repeatedly claimed there was “massive rigging” in the 2013 elections. Let’s examine the veracity of that claim.
Imran Khan’s allegations have maligned then Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) chief, retired Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry, and the caretaker set-up at the time, because he maintains that they, together with Nawaz Sharif, snatched the last election from him.
According to the ‘principles of electoral swing’, only a small percentage of voters, ie 3-5pc, that traditionally vote for Party A, vote for Party B which gives the latter a lead of 6-10 percentage points, while the remaining disillusioned voters tend to abstain from voting altogether.
The poll outcome was in fact in consonance with statistical models projecting final results. Although the PTI manifesto appealed to urban youth, it was folly to believe it could sweep urban Punjab — the PML-N’s heartland where the party has won an overwhelming number of votes during earlier elections.
In rural Punjab, the PPP’s poor performance during the last five years and PML-N’s incumbency combined to help the latter at the hustings.
The ECP took several measures to ensure poll transparency.
Article 218 of the Constitution devolves the responsibility of holding free and fair elections on the ECP, which “shall consist of Commissioner who shall be the Chairman of the Commission; and four members, each of whom has been a Judge of a High Court from each Province”.
In July 2012, parliament unanimously approved Mr Ebrahim as chief election commissioner (CEC). Under his leadership, the electoral body took several important measures to ensure electoral transparency.
The National Judicial Policy Forum headed by Pakistan’s then chief justice, in response to appeals from the CEC and political parties, placed 900 judicial officers, including sessions, additional sessions and civil judges at the ECP’s disposal to perform their duties as returning officers (RO).
This was done reluctantly because the Judicial Policy 2009, in order to reinforce its separation from the executive, had laid down that the judiciary was to play no role in the electoral process.
The ECP’s efforts resulted in the development of an elaborate Computerised Electoral Rolls System; electoral rolls were printed with voters’ photographs and CNIC numbers; magnetised ink — recommended by Nadra — was produced by the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research to affix voters’ thumb impressions on the rolls. (The special ink was developed to better identify voters through magnetic as well as optical readers.)
Polling stations were assigned on the basis of 2011 population census blocks. An SMS 8300 service was set up to help voters confirm their registration and the location of polling stations.
Electors were provided the opportunity to get themselves enrolled in constituencies of their residence, while CNIC data was used to ensure one vote per individual.
Higher grammage paper, not available in the market, was used to print ballot papers at the Pakistan Printing Corporation facilities in Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi and the Security Printing Press, Karachi. To ensure that electoral materials were not tampered with, strict military cordons were maintained around the printing sites.
During printing, employees stayed at the facilities without access to visitors, mobile phones or electronic devices.
Materials were transported to district ROs’ camp offices under stringent security provided by the army and Rangers.
CNICs were checked, thumb impressions placed on electoral rolls, votes examined and counted, and results announced by the ROs in the presence of candidates’ election agents, and copies of the results were supplied to them.
The Representation of Peoples Act, 1976 provides candidates the right to approach ECP for redress of their grievances and recount of votes. Under Section 52 of the Act, after 60 days, candidates can only file appeals with election tribunals.
The 15 tribunals constituted by the CEC have the authority to open, recount, recheck votes and results. Against 849 assembly seats, a total of 402 appeals were filed before the election tribunals, out of which 312 have been decided.
Out of 241 PTI candidates who contested National Assembly seats, 27 returned as winners, 76 as runners-up and 138 at third position or lower. Only 29 PTI candidates filed petitions with election tribunals — 17 in Punjab, six each in Sindh and KP.
While 18 appeals have been decided, 11 remain pending along with those by 79 other candidates. Even assuming that all 29 appeals were settled in PTI’s favour, how would that have changed the final outcome?
This is not to suggest that individual candidates did not or could not have tried to rig their contests. Nor it is in any way suggested that substantial electoral reforms are not needed.
However, if Mr Ebrahim or the ECP wanted to rig the elections, why would they undertake such elaborate and unprecedented efforts to prevent electoral fraud?
The writer heads the Dawn Elections Cell.
Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2014