Guns sustaining justice?

The Swat deal highlights the conundrum the country is in.  On February 18, 2007, in the shadows of Taliban threats, tens of thousands of people of Swat voted for the ANP and the PPP to represent them in the national and provincial parliament so that the problems of security and lack of justice could be solved. 

But a few armed men lead by warlord like mafia have managed to trump the democratic process by defeating the Pakistan security and military forces.  The politicians who the people voted for have mostly run away from the fear of guns.  

The only possible 'reason' offered for the complete breakdown of the state in Swat is said to be the post 1974 integration of Swat into the Pakistan legal framework and the consequent lack of justice for the people.  The people of Swat had justice under the tribal-sharia of the Wali of Swat.  Once integrated into Pakistan's legal codes, corruption and inefficiencies built up resentment of the people against the new system creating a field for militants rise as alternatives.  

While justice denied is a source of the angst, the militants are not the solution.  If anything, they are a consequence of the problem and do not bring justice, but fascism and fear.  This is why these militants cannot imagine running for elections in which the people vote freely and choose their representatives.  

The fascism unleashed in Swat cannot be put back by military means (which stand defeated and humiliated) not can be addressed rhetoric.  The only anti-dote is to make the legal system work expeditiously and effectively as was being briefly done when CJ Iftikhar Chaudhary was reinstated from July 20 - November 3, 2007.  The speed with which pending cases were being judged is what the people all over Pakistan mired in legal tangles need.  

Guns have never sustained justice.  Already the militants of Swat rival the brutality of ancient warriors like the Aztecs or Mongols.  Perhaps the brutal violence will prove to be a force of catharsis, convincing people that barbaric forms of punishment are not the foundation for sustaining 'justice'.  The criminals of Swat who have adopted these means have nevertheless convinced many that the quest for justice is not to seek answers from the 7th century, but move forward with the legal codes we already have and provide an independent and impartial justice system.  

The Swat 'peace deal' is an acceptance of defeat but defeat was the only option.  The government should implement a better alternative - and there is one - and follow it up.  This is the only way to defeat the decadent ideology of the militants.  

Aitezaz has it tough

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCD_XN9naZc

Aitezaz's continuing insistence that the PPP is his party and he can never leave it,  adds fuel to the fire.  When he arrived at Lahore Airport with the CJ on January 24, 2009, he was hounded by lawyers and political activists chanting:  "Bibi kis nay maaree hai?  Zardari hai! Zardari hai!"  

That slogan, even if of dubious credentials, was yet another beckoning call made previously, that Aitezaz's current role of leadership demands he completely distance himself from his party of many decades.  

Aitezaz has it tough.  At best, people give him the benefit of the doubt by saying he has been 'misunderstood'.  After being the leading face of the lawyers movement since March 2007, the bad taste of the long march in the summer of 2008 was attributed toward him.  That the successful long march failed to achieve the result of restoring the judges was a big let down.  Aitezaz chiding the crowd for wanting the 'dharna' added insult to injury.  

It remains to be seen how the next month's long march turns out, but Aitezaz, though still trusted by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary, no longer commands the trust as the unquestioned leader.  

Lawlessness rising in Lahore

The article in The News gives the stat that street crime this week was 50% higher than the previous one.  What's particularly perturbing is that the police, commonly known to collude with criminals, have no qualms engaging in crime these days.  The ease with which the police contribute to crime is remarkable.  However, I wonder if political instability is an invitation for criminals (and eager policemen) to do their rounds with ease.  

However, there is another side to this.  

Yesterday a distant uncle was driving with his wife and daughter to the motorway via the Canal Road.  As they entered the Canal Road off of Ferozpur Road, a few men in a car started driving parellel to them and took out their hand guns indicating uncle to pull over.  A tractor-trolley was plying the road in front which uncle used to maneavre himself out of the threat and speed away.  The robbers were left stranded in the rear.  Apparently.  

Some miles down on Canal Road, uncle came across three policemen in their patrol car.  He informed them of the robbers who were just left behind.  While Uncle is explaining to the police, the robbers arrive again and first pull out their guns at the police who promptly run away.  I do not know if the police who ran off were armed or not.  However, the robbers then turn to their road victims and take away the mobile phones and cash before driving off into the sunset.  

Comparing the two stories, I am not sure if we would be safer if the police or not.  If arming the police is equivalent of giving them a license to rob, it is a rather self-defeating exercise.  

History of legitimizing despots

"Those who had power, could usurp it.  After assumption of power, he was recognized the legitimate ruler.  It was argued that to keep law and order in the society and to prevent anarchy in the country, the man in power should be recognized as a legal ruler.  Thus, military power became the sourcee of legitimacy and the society readily recognized all powerful military leaders as sovereign in order to get protection.  All crimes of a powerful military leader were concealed once he came to power. " 

- Historian's Dispute (Dr. Mubarak Ali), page 23

The above could have been an explanation for Pakistan's recent history.  Yet it was placed in the context of the Sultanates of nearly 1000 years ago, a period that witnessed a rapid changes in leadership.  

Dharna till the end

Yesterday's reception of the Chief Justice at the Lahore Airport gave plenty of confidence that the movement for an independent judiciary is not only alive, but regaining momentum. The celebratory spirit defied the despondency that emerges now and then seeing the lack of leadership displayed by the elected members.

Actions determine fates of society and this announcement by the lawyers will have plenty of repercussions. Committing to a dharna this time will set the stage for conflict with two entities. The first supposedly obvious one is with the PPP government heads - namely Zardari. While Zardari has plenty of reasons to prefer an impotent judiciary for personal reasons, the conflict with him will pale in comparison to the forces who have more to lose with an independent judiciary.

The long history of coups and acts of treason, the loss of territorial integrity, the loss of rivers, the attacks on Baluchistan and Lal Masjid and consequential losses of innocent lives, the hundreds of missing persons, illegal tapping of phones, detentions...the list of crimes perpetrated by this entity goes on.

How this entity reacts to the brave lawyers movement for building an independent judicary remains to be seen.

I fear that the PML-N, unwilling to take on this entity, and desiring to save its Punjab government, may bargain to forego the movement to restore the Chief Justice in return for the sacking Governor Salman Taseer.

It'll weaken the movement as far as the support from the Punjab Government is concerned, but it won't be the end. The dharna doesn't need any single political party backing it. Those who hope to scuttle or maul the movement will have to do much more than merely making deals with the parties in the assemblies. The more deals the assembly members make, the less relevantt their assemblies will become.

During the last long march, there were fears of some 'extra-constitutional' methods applied in case the lawyers got too tough. Unfortunatley the lawyers decided not to up the ante. This time everyone is on the same page - there is no middle ground left. It's either the unqualified restoration of the Chief Justice, or a volcanic rise in the movement for an indepedent judicary.

Monumental Disasters of PCB

Pakistan's cricket team, once a shining example of possibilities the nation could achieve with the immense talent it has, now rests in line with the rest of the nation, distraught, unwanted, and unsure of what it will do next and where to go.  Many of the leading players of the national team have decided to jump ship despite all the heavy threats by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and joined the Indian Cricket League (ICL).  

While players of many other nations have joined ICL, Pakistan's leading names - primarily rejects from the national team - have joined in large numbers.  When Muhammad Yusuf joined ICL, it became clear that PCB's leadership in steering the ship for the sport had eroded.  

The malaise in cricket reflects the institutional negligeance seen elsewhere.  The PCB still hasn't finalized it's constitution - something the last Chairman, Nasim Ashraf, had promised to do, but remained undone throughout his tenure.  

Now the current news of another 'monumental disaster' in the awarding of a contract by the former COO Shafqat Naghmi to build a VIP pavilion at Gaddafi Stadium.  Whether this is a vendetta launched by the current PCB heads or some very bad mathematics - or as will be popularly believed, yet anther example of runaway corruption - the project was supposed to be completed at 142 million back in September 2008 and remains unfinished requiring another 471 million rupees.  

This quote nevertheless will keep the controvery alive and provide many juicy insights:  

“The whole project is a monumental disaster, utter wastage of PCB funds and is a tribute to the management ego and vision of grandeur. The project was to be completed by 31st August 2008. It was sheer negligence and incompetence of the previous management that the project has not been completed in time and there has been a colossal cost increase. The amazing aspect of the whole fraudulent tender is that a hefty advance has already been paid to the contractor.”

Religulous

"Jesus Christ wrote no account of himself, of his birth, parentage, or any thing else; not a line of what is called the New Testament is of his own writing. The history of him is altogether the work of other people; and as to the account given of his resurrection and ascension, it was the necessary counterpart to the story of his birth. His historians having brought him into the world in a supernatural manner, were obliged to take him out again in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have fallen to the ground." 

- "The age of reason" by Thomas Paine

 

"I don't know." 

- Bill Maher in his film "Religulous" 

 

Bill Maher's movie keeps it real.  It's funny, thought provoking while straying clear of boredom as often happens in intellectually motivated films.  But then, the role of religion in contemporary politics prefers a rejection of intellectual debate.  Muslims refuse to question their faith and text, Christian Evangelicals are inspired by theirs and use it to 'spread righteousness' such as in Iraq, and the Jews, despite the community's contribution to reason and science, are hell bent on keeping Palestine burning no matter how many innocent humans are slaughtered. 

One of the points that came out in the movie was how contemporary mindsets shape the interpretation of old religious texts.  For example, the monk in Amsterdam was more interested in what the Bible 'meant' to say rather than its literal interpretation.  Thus according to him, God does not want homosexuals to change, rather they should be happy with who they are.  The Bible 'means' to say this!  

The female Muslim politician interviewed in Amsterdam rejects that the Quran calls for the slaughtering of infidels.  And the parts that do make such calls are 'time specific' and something of the past.  

It reminds me of Imam Ghazali, the most famous Sunnni Islamic scholar whose book 'Ihya-ul-Uloom' has a section titled 'Etiquette of Marriage'.  In it, the 'Proof of Islam' - a title Ghazali has been honored with by subsequent Sunni scholars - argues that the Quran considers the place of women almost equal to slaves.  Women should never leave their homes - unless absolutely necessary, and even then, only with an accompanying man, and they should always serve their husbands as their primary and most important duty.  There are other extremely mysogonistic arguments targetting women, but Imam Ghazali's inspiration for such statements is the Quran. 

However, a thousand years later, many scholars, using the same inspiration of the Quran, the same text, reject such ridiculous dehumanization of females.  

The same text was used to both degrade half the human population, and the same text is used to give women somewhat a sense of equality.  

Is this 'flexibility' seen in religious texts a virtue, a strength or something less noble?  That the same religious texts can take on completely different meanings based on time reveals the strength of time rather than anything else.  That religious doctrines are left to play 'keep up' with time reveals the gap between reason, science and faith.  

Faith insists it knows everything - how everything began and how it will end.  It uses this knowledge of the beginning and end to control everything that happens in between.  

Science only plays with what it know, in the gaps in between and doesn't much care for the beginning or the end.  

There may be many questions that emerge from science's lack of assurance on some critical metaphysical issues, but at least it strays clear of fabricated historical accounts such as those highlighted by Thomas Paine which require continuous fabrications to uphold.  

Using songs to hack computers

Whether this report accurately reflects the process hackers use to destabilize computers or not nevertheless achieves the objective of discrediting a business - albeit, one without legality.

www.songs.pk is a famous website music lovers use to download songs - for free. Naturally it was bound to gain popularity since most of the desi land would prefer to acquire the intangibles without having to pay for them.

The accusation made, as per Press Trust of India, by Indian intelligence agencies, is that Pakistani hackers have embedded codes within the songs which when downloaded can provide access to anyone's computer when desired. 1.2 million computers around the world could be at the mercy of a few hackers.

However, songs.pk have issued a notification rejecting such allegations meant to hurt its business of freely providing a service without having to pay.

War hysteria and Pak-Indo tensions are spilling over into the music scene. Already there have been calls within Pakistan to ban the extremely popular Indian films that were regularly shown to sold out crowds which had been helping the cinemas breathe again.