Friday, November 11, 2011
TOP NEWS FROM PAKISTAN: Imran Khan: the myth and the reality
TOP NEWS FROM PAKISTAN: Imran Khan: the myth and the reality: WHEN Imran Khan launched the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf in 1996, then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto rhetorically asked, “Can Imran win 51 per c...
Imran Khan: the myth and the reality
WHEN Imran Khan launched the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf in 1996, then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto rhetorically asked, “Can Imran win 51 per cent seats in parliament to form a government?” A decade and a half later, the same question haunts Mr Khan even when he has recently gathered together the largest public assembly of his entire political life. His supporters, critics and opponents are asking if he will ever get the parliamentary strength he needs to realise his aspirations of becoming prime minister.
There are, indeed, genuine reasons for scepticism. First, the nature of his politics and the political character of his supporters are such that transforming his public support into electoral success will be a challenging task. Second, the quality of his prospective, and previous, election candidates leaves much to be desired, and lastly, his political agenda is so briefly simplistic that it runs the risk of having limited appeal for most voters in the country.
Mr Khan’s inaugural political plank in 1996 was that all politics and all politicians are bad, and so it remains even today. This leaves him very little room for political manoeuvring, the alliance-making and deal-cutting that brings people to power in Pakistan and helps them throw their opponents out of it. His is, in fact, anti-politics — a non-political ideology that discredits what he calls “professional politics” in order to replace it with, you guessed it, politics.
Mr Khan conflates politics as practised by everyone else other than him with money, greed, corruption and the abuse of public support for personal gain, and thereby gives his replacement politics the lofty moral mantle of service, welfare, reform and change. But, like everyone else in the political arena, his purpose in running in an election remains as mundane as becoming the head of a government. For many years before he took part in the 1997 general election as the head of his nascent PTI, he was confused about whether he wanted to launch a movement for social reform, create a pressure group for weeding the bad stuff out of politics or launch a political party. What he came up with in the end was a cross between a social movement, a think tank and a loosely organised collection of highly educated technocrats and avowed Islamists.
Having propagated an anti-politics credo, Mr Khan ensured from the start that he repelled more voters than he attracted. Those who voted for a political party or an election candidate because they needed help in bending, bypassing or even violating the complex, corrupt and ineffective administrative and legal structures of the state would always hesitate to vote for him or his candidates. And such ‘bad’ voters have been in the majority — at least until now.
Leaders of Pakistan-India working for peace: Gilani
ADDU: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Friday said he respected comments of his Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh who described him as a “Man of Peace”, following his talks on the sidelines of the Saarc summit.
“I respect his sentiments,” Gilani told reporters when asked to comment about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks.
“We all are working for peace. He really wants better relations with the neighbours,” Gilani said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the reporters Thursday he always regarded Prime Minister Gilani as a man of peace.
“Every time I have met him in the last three years, this belief has been further strengthened,” Manmohan Singh had said.
Prime Minister Gilani when asked to comment on “time has come to write a new chapter in the history of our relationship” by his counterpart, Gilani said “We will see soon.”
Talks with India positive, purposeful: FM Khar
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Friday said Pakistan welcomed India’s readiness for a broad ranging engagement and had agreed to finalise the calendar of meetings.
A statement quoting the foreign minister said both sides had also agreed to convene technical working groups prior to the holding of the Pakistan India Joint Commission.
Khar said Pakistan had positively evaluated the talks between Prime Ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Manmohan Singh at Maldives on the sidelines of the Saarc Summit.
She said the talks had contributed to impel a seriousness of purpose to the process of engagement with both sides reaffirming their commitment to the pursuit of peace and discussing all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir in a result-oriented manner.
Foreign Minister Khar said both leaders noted terrorism as a common problem and said that instead of remaining mired in accusations and counter accusations, the real way forward was “cooperation”.
She said the interior and home secretaries of the two countries had been mandated to discuss measures involving counter terrorism and counter narcotics.
The foreign minister said that Mumbai, Samjhota and other terror-related matters needed to be addressed by both sides in the interior and home ministries’ segment.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
TOP NEWS FROM PAKISTAN: SC says will not tolerate corruption in PR
TOP NEWS FROM PAKISTAN: SC says will not tolerate corruption in PR: The Supreme Court building in Islamabad. ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that it will not tolerate corruption in Pakistan Ra...
SC says will not tolerate corruption in PR
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that it will not tolerate corruption in Pakistan Railways (PR) and directed the Lahore High Court to complete the railways scrap scandal case as early as possible, DawnNews reported.
During the hearing, former Railway Minister Shaikh Rasheed Ahmed told the court that cheap locomotives were available in Spain, China and several other courtiers but the government was adamant to buy locomotives from a particular Chinese company.
He also blamed the government for destroying the system of the organisation.
Rasheed said that corrupt offices working in the Railways purchase department should be sacked immediately.
Chief Jusitce Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry warned the General Manager of the Railways that he would be held responsible if violation of rules continued.
Gilani for more effective SAARC body
ADDU, Maldives: Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani Thursday assured Pakistan’s full support to make South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) a more effective organisation.
Addressing the 17th SAARC summit here at Addu Atoll, Gilani said there was a need to rationalise and consolidate the SAARC activities for the benefit of the people of the region.
He said the gap between the promise of the organisation and reality of its accomplishment needs to be bridged.
The premier also emphasised the need for effective implementation of decisions taken in the previous summits.
Referring to the theme of the summit “Building Bridges”, he said: “We should build on convergence, minimise divergences and most of all seek to augment complementarities for the greater good of the people of this region.”
He said the theme reflects common desire for promoting mutual understanding and reaching out to each other to create win-win scenarios.
He said it resonates with SAARC’s avowed goal to enhance intra-regional connectivity by 2020.
He said South Asia has the potential to become an important engine for global economic growth and that it has all the necessary ingredients in terms of human and natural resources to work the economic miracle of this century.
Gilani said time has come for the organisation to lead the way in a historic transformation of region.
He said South Asia is unique in many ways, adding “we must place our people at the centre of the SAARC processes.”
He said, “We must enable SAARC to capture the imagination of our peoples and contribute to creating strong mutually beneficial bonds as this alone will assure a glorious future of peace and prosperity.”
He said interfaith and inter-culture harmony must find special emphasis in SAARC’s programmes and interactive process in this domain will contribute to reveal the beauty and strength of a true South Asian identity.
Gilani said, “Pakistan completed its democratic transformation and is now well on its way to realising democracy’s dividends by pursuing development at the grass roots level.”
The premier said, “We must strengthen regional cooperation through sharing of experiences, best practices and establishing institutional linkages.”
The government of Pakistan, he said, has prioritised poverty reduction and has taken major initiatives including social safety nets.
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