Dear friends,
I would say that democracy has suffered long in this country. It must now be given a chance. The crooks in the infamous establishment never want it to flourish in Pakistan. Here I would again repeat the common saying that the worst democracy is always better than the finest dictatorship. Today I see those people who are now out of parliament-mainly due to their own whims-are at loggerheads with the democratic government. The president, certainly not from angels, has been made the main excuse to topple the democratic government. We cannot say that this democratic government is above ills. But it must be given the time to show its credibility. Only the people of Pakistan are sovereign, and they must be let hold their elected government accountable. The military and its proxies have no right to rush to stab the government.
Amidst many ills, the present democracy has performed far better than the previous 'dubious' government of the dictator. Take the example of the war against militancy. During the era of Musharraf hundreds of soldiers would be "kidnapped' or made 'hostages' by scores of Taliban in FATA. Then there were deals with them. In Swat the FM Mullah was deliberately left to haunt and hunt the people for a couple of years. The former phases of the military operation in Swat were like war games. This procrastination, rather covert support to the militants, forced the local people lose their trust in the state of Pakistan. This was the real cause of the people fear to raise against the militants. This game was going on in the valley. The dictator did not harness the militants for two reasons: the then NWFP government was helping the dictator clandestinely; and secondly the dictator was not willing to reign the militants in order to expose him indespensible to the West. Between these two mill stones of the dictator's policy the people were grinded. On the one hand Musharraf was 'apparently' fighting the militancy but on the other he was grooming them.
Now take the example of the democratic government. It has in its credit a number of achievements: for the first time a spurious operation was launched against the militants in Swat. Credit of this must be given to the ANP government of the province and the PPP government in the center. So far the February 2009 deal with the militants is concerned it was not by the government. It was done by the military establishment with the sole purpose of providing some safe haven to the endangered militancy in FATA. This was done. Many ANP leaders will not deny that they were then helpless before the military. I have many a talks shows on record where the provincial government has then shown their helplessness, though iimplicitly. The ANP government has tried to build pressure on the military. The ANP leader Asfandiyar was not in the US for a recreation tour. He was there to build the pressure on the powerful Trojan Horse (military establishment) to act decisively. Then came the SWA operation, though still doubtful to be successful yet a good start. Another great achievement, though many will deny, of the democratic government is the Kerry Lugar bill (now Act). The Act was not a product of a few days or weeks. The PPP is well aware that they cannot reign the military establishment until they do so by the very lords of it-the US. They negotiated the issue with the US and finally came with the bill which has the conditions of bringing the military under the civilian command in practice, too. A big chunk of the aid is for the development of institutions and development of the social sector. The military reacted on the bill and came up with its version of reservations. Nowhere in the world the military has a say in the political decision. It is Pakistan where the military can even make its concerns public by issuing statements to the media. The military in Pakistan has always tried to step into the shoes of the civilian government. It was also an achievement of the democratic government that it did not approve the NRO from the parliament. Think of a dictator what it would have done with the NRO. This monster was the product of a military dictatorship.
Now the establishment is hell bent to dethrone the democratic government with the help of media and judiciary. The number of the NRO beneficiaries is 8041. Among them only 34 are politicians, and yet all the shit is thrown upon them in the media; and even among them one person is most targeted-the president. What about the rest? There might have been some generals. But where have they fled. I am not a partisan political worker. But this is what I see. We have no choice other than to make our democratic institutions strong enough to lead the country further. Now we can see the establishment seems to have hired a number of politicians who are shot loose to malign the democratic government. This government needs to complete its tenure, whatever the case be.
Now a few sentences about the name: if the majority of the democratic government has decided to have Pushtookhaw/Pukhtunkhwa as the name for the province I should have no objection. And let me hope that the ethno-senstized government will give proper sapce for the preservation, promotion and recognition to the less indentified communities and their culture so as to enable me to confidently advocate their(the government) case. But as I told earlier that we, who call themselves enlightened civil society, should keep a check and balance on the government in order to enhance its performance so that we may not wheel in the vicious circle, rather to move forward. Otherwise the military establishment and its proxies will have their chance to drag us back into the stone age.
Thank you for bearing with me so long....
Zubair Torwali
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