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| June 29, 2007 | Friday | Jamadi-us-Sani 13, 1428 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Cricket- Tendulkar becomes first man to 15,000 ODI runs BELFAST, June 29 (AFP) India's Sachin Tendulkar became the first man in cricket history to score 15,000 one-day international runs when he reached fifty against South Africa at Stormont here on Friday. The 34-year-old reached the landmark in his 387th match at this level with a 79th fifty, off 64 balls with one six and nine fours. (Posted @ 22:44 PST)
Israel kills Fatah militant NABLUS, West Bank, June 29 (Reuters) Israeli troops killed a Fatah member Friday in a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus. Officials of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah said the 28-year-old militant belonged to their group, and that Israeli soldiers had shot him as he fled arrest. (Posted @ 20:48 PST)
Cricket- England's Morgan to become ICC President in 2008 LONDON, June 29 (AFP) David Morgan, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), will become International Cricket Council (ICC) president in 2008, the global governing body announced here on Friday. Morgan's appointment was confirmed at a press conference at The Oval following a two-day meeting of the ICC's executive board in London. (Posted @ 20:30 PST)
Mortar bombs strike Baghdad Green Zone BAGHDAD, June 29 (Reuters) A number of mortar bombs struck the Green Zone in Baghdad Friday and Reuters reporters saw smoke rising from the vicinity of the U.S. embassy. There was no immediate report of casualties from the attack. (Posted @ 19:48 PST)
President Musharraf underscores media role ISLAMABAD, June 29 (PPI) President Pervez Musharraf said that the media has a vital role to play in protecting and promoting national interests and responsibility towards safeguarding national sovereignty, integrity and security. Speaking at the conclusion of first National Media Workshop organized by the National Defence University here Friday, the President warned that any effort to damage integrity, security and sovereignty of Pakistan would be countered massively. The President said he was a firm believer in freedom of media but media freedom goes along with the responsibilities towards the country and its national interests and media must play its role towards guarding national and public interests. He said media however can speak out about the shortcomings of the government but there should be no vested interests or ulterior motives into it. President Musharraf said Pakistan Broadcasters Association must work out a code of conduct and violators should be identified mutually and also penalized. (Posted @ 19:22 PST)
Gordon Brown appoints ex-commander of Royal Navy to security post LONDON, June 29 (AP) British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Friday picked a former chief of the Royal Navy to take a lead role in promoting national security. Retired Adm. Alan West was named minister for security in the Home Office, the government department responsible for crime, security and immigration. (Posted @ 19:02 PST)
Iran invites Musharraf, Manmohan to Iran for signing IPI deal NEW DELHI, June 29 (APP) Iran Friday invited President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Iran for inking a tri-nation IPI Gas Pipeline deal, media reports quoted Special Representative of Iranian Petroleum Minister Dr. Ghanimi Fard as saying. The supply of gas is expected to start from 2011. (Posted @ 19:00 PST)
Lebanese troops kill three Palestinian protesters BEDDAWI, Lebanon, June 29(Reuters): Lebanese troops fired at Palestinian civilians demanding to return to their homes at a besieged refugee camp on Friday, killing three protesters and wounding 50, witnesses and hospital sources said. (First Posted @ 18:26 PST Updated @ 18:50 PST)
Israel kills militant from Abbas's Fatah movement NABLUS, West Bank, June 29(Reuters): Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant from President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement on Friday on the second day of a large-scale military raid targeting armed loyalists of the Western-backed leader. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad accused Israel of trying to undermine Abbas's Western-backed emergency cabinet despite the Palestinian leader's vows to take steps to disarm gunmen. (Posted @ 18:44 PST)
Israeli president resigns over sex offences JERUSALEM, June 29(AFP): Israel's disgraced President Moshe Katsav resigned on Friday after signing a controversial plea bargain that will see him convicted of sexual offences but escape jail for initial rape charges. Katsav sent a letter of resignation by courier to parliament speaker Dalia Itzik, a senior aide to Katsav told AFP. His resignation will take effect in 48 hours. (Posted @ 18:38 PST)
Two killed as Lebanese troops fire on Palestinian protest BEDDAWI, Lebanon, June 29(Reuters): Lebanese troops fired at a protest by Palestinians demanding to return to a besieged refugee camp in north Lebanon on Friday, killing two protesters and wounding 20, witnesses and hospital sources said. The troops fired automatic rifles at the protest inflicting the casualties. (Posted @ 18:26 PST)
India clears way for mega fighter plane deal NEW DELHI, June 29(Reuters): An Indian defence panel approved the invitation of bids to buy 126 fighter jets on Friday. The Defence Acquisition Council headed by the defence minister gave its clearance for an early issue of the Request for Proposal (RFP), or invitation of bids, after a meeting in New Delhi, a Defence Ministry statement said. (First Posted @ 16:22 PST Updated @ 18:24 PST)
UN inspectors reach shutdown 'understanding' with N.Korea BEIJING, June 29(AFP): UN inspectors on Friday said they had reached “an understanding” with North Korea on how to monitor the closure of its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, China's state media reported. “We have now moved to an understanding on how to do ratification and monitoring on Yongbyon facilities when they will be shutdown,” Olli Heinonen, head of the inspectors, told the Xinhua news agency. (First Posted @ 09:54 PST Updated @ 18:20 PST)
Olmert should forget about Saudi meeting: Hosni Mubarak CAIRO, June 29 (Reuters) Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who called in April for a regional conference with Arab leaders, should “forget about” holding talks with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. In an interview with Israeli television Mubarak said circumstances in Saudi Arabia prevented the Saudi monarch meeting Olmert. “Forget about meeting with the king... The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has circumstances that differ from those of any other state. They have holy lands and men of religion,” Mubarak said. (Posted @ 17:22 PST)
Russian Federation keen to make FTA with Pakistan: CG KARACHI, June 29 (APP) The Consul General of Russian Federation Vladimir V. Seliverstov has said that his country desires to strike free trade agreement with Pakistan to expand bilateral trade. He was talking to President Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FPCCI) Tanvir Ahmad Shaikh during his visit to Federation House here Friday. He pointed out that there was difference in tariff on goods imported from India and Pakistan because Pakistan did not have free trade agreement with Russia. “It is our ultimate goal to have free trade with Pakistan as well”, he said and also mentioned that a Russian company has offered to construct the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project. (Posted @ 17:20 PST)
NATO never 'intentionally' kills civilians: de Hoop Scheffer OHRID, Macedonia, June 29 (AFP) NATO forces in Afghanistan would never “intentionally” kill civilians, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a conference of the alliance and its partners Friday. The comments were in response to criticism last week from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who accused the NATO-led ISAF force and separate US-led coalition of killing about 90 civilians this month, most of them in air operations. “Let me make one point unmistakably clear - NATO has never killed and will never intentionally kill innocent civilians,” de Hoop Scheffer said in an address to the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) security forum. (Posted @ 17:04 PST)
UN inspectors, North Korea reach agreement on reactor shutdown TOKYO, June 29 (AP) The U.N. nuclear watchdog and North Korea reached an agreement on how the agency will monitor and verify shutdown of the country's main nuclear reactor, a top official said Friday. A team from the IAEA returned Friday to the North Korean capital from a two-day trip to the Yongbyon nuclear complex, broadcaster APTN reported. ''We have concluded this understanding, what our monitoring and verification activities are in principle,'' IAEA Deputy Director Olli Heinonen said. (First Posted @ 09:54 PST Updated @ 16:52 PST)
Three killed in rocket attack on Ivory Coast prime minister's plane ABIDJAN, June 29 (AFP) Attackers fired a rocket Friday at a plane carrying Ivory Coast Prime Minister Guillaume Soro as it landed at an airport in Bouake, killing at least three people, but Soro survived, a top advisor told AFP. (Posted @ 16:34 PST)
India to announce huge fighter jet contract NEW DELHI, June 29 (AFP) Indian defence officials were meeting Friday before handing out a contract for 126 war planes potentially worth up to nine billion dollars, officials said. (Posted @ 16:22 PST)
Five soldiers killed, seven wounded in attack on their combat patrol BAGHDAD, June 29 (AP) Five American soldiers were killed and seven wounded in a coordinated attack in southern Baghdad involving a roadside bomb and rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. military announced Friday. The soldiers were on a combat patrol when a roadside bomb exploded near them Thursday, the military said in a statement. Shortly after the blast, insurgents attacked with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, it said. (Posted @ 16:12 PST)
Sri Lanka says eight hurt in blast COLOMBO, June 29(Reuters): Roadside bombs wounded eight people including two school children in Sri Lanka's far north on Friday, the military said, a day after a pro-rebel politician was killed in the restive east. A type of mine commonly used by Tamil Tiger rebels exploded in the northern district of Vavuniya, wounding four civilians, including two school children aboard a passing school bus, and a soldier, the military said.In a separate incident, two soldiers and a civilian were hurt in the army-held northern Jaffna peninsula by a bomb. (Posted @ 15:46 PST)
Australia says no to job for Prince William CANBERRA, June 29(Reuters): He may be second in line to the British throne, but Australia's political leaders say Prince William is unsuitable to be their country's governor-general because he lacks the right pedigree. Tina Brown, author of a new book about William's late mother Diana, But Prime Minister John Howard, moved quickly on Friday to rule out the young prince as a future governor-general. (Posted @ 15:38 PST)
Italy's first lady hit by car outside palace ROME, June 29(Reuters): Italy's first lady, Clio Napolitano, was hit by a car as she left the presidential palace late on Thursday, fracturing bones in her leg and arm, the president's spokesman said on Friday. Although not seriously injured, the wife of President Giorgio Napolitano was being treated at a military hospital in Rome and was expected to undergo further checks on Friday. She was hit while on a pedestrian crossing just outside the Quirinale palace, in the historic centre of Rome. The driver of the car was a 74-year-old woman. (Posted @ 15:36 PST)
Police find bomb in London, launch terrorism probe LONDON, June 29(Reuter): British police defused a bomb in a parked car in London's theatre district on Friday and launched a counter-terrorism investigation. Sky News quoted unidentified sources as saying the bomb was “potentially massive”.Explosives officers were called to examine a car parked in Haymarket, a busy street in the tourist heart of central London, early on Friday morning, London police said.“They discovered what appeared to be a potentially viable explosive device. This was made safe,” they said, adding that counter-terrorism officers were investigating. A police spokesman confirmed the device was a bomb. (Posted @ 15:32 PST)
Army launches heli-borne rescue, evacuates 400 persons in Balochistan KARACHI, June 29 (APP): Pakistan Army launched a heli- borne rescue operation and evacuated around 400 individuals stranded on coastal highway in Aghor area due to heavy rains and flooding of Hangul river in Balochistan on Friday morning. Around 50 Hindu pilgrims on pilgrimage to Siri Mata Temple were also rescued. Army helicopters, doctors and paramedics also participated in the rescue and relief operation (Posted @ 12:56 PST)
21 suspected militants killed in raid, clashes in Afghanistan KABUL, June 29 (AP) U.S.-led and Afghan troops raided three compounds in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing four suspected militants and detaining 16 others, while clashes and airstrikes in the south left 17 more militants dead, officials said. “Taliban forces inside two of the compounds attempted to engage Coalition forces as they approached,” the statement said. “The forces fired on the militants, killing the assailants and quickly securing the compounds.” Malek Zaman, an elder of the village where the raid took place, said the U.S. troops used explosives to go through the house gates in an operation that killed four people-- a local man, two of his sons and his grandson. (Posted @ 12:55 PST)
15 more bodies found in Baghdad Baghdad, June 29 (Reuters) - Four people were killed in a mortar attack in Baghdad’s Al-Fadhil district overnight and 10 more people were wounded in four other mortar strikes in different locations in the city, the Interior Ministry said. In other acts of violence one insurgent was killed and two were detained in Mosul following a clash with police, while one woman was injured after a roadside bomb attack on a U.S. patrol in Kut, police said. Meanwhile, police found fifteen bodies in different parts of Baghdad in the last 24 hours. They had been shot and some bore signs of torture The body of a university lecturer was also found beside a river in Kut, 170 km southeast of Baghdad, one day after he was kidnapped, police said (Posted @ 12:30 PST)
Pakistan police fire tear gas at cyclone victims TURBAT, June 29 (AFP): Police fired tear gas and bullets in the air to disperse a protest by cyclone victims on Friday as rescuers battled more bad weather to get aid to 1.1 million affected people. Around 1,000 people marched on the local government office in the flood-hit town of Turbat, saying they had received no relief goods since Cyclone Yemyin struck on Thursday. “Our homes have been destroyed, there has been no water and no food for the last four days,” Ghulam Jan, 27, a farmer from a nearby village, said during the protest. “No government official or agency is helping us. We have no place to go, there is water everywhere,” Jan said. Most of Turbat was submerged and people sat on the roofs of their huts and mosques. After days of braving the rain they now face blazing heat after the clouds finally cleared from over the town near the coast. Helicopters bearing aid were again grounded because of continuing downpours in Quetta, aid officials said. Khuda Bakhsh Baloch, the Baluchistan provincial relief commissioner, said that 1.1 million people were now known to have been affected by the cyclone and subsequent floods. Around 250,000 of them are homeless. “The situation is serious,” he told AFP. (Posted @ 12:00 PST)
U.S. soldiers kill 4 Afghan civilians KABUL, June 29(Reuters): U.S. soldiers killed four civilian members of the same family during a raid on Friday in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar, an Afghan rights body said. The soldiers also arrested 15 civilians during the pre-dawn raid in Khogiani district which lies in the foothills of the provincial capital Jalalabad, the head of Afghanistan's Human Rights Group said. Those killed in the raid were an 85-year-old man, Mohammada Jan, two of his sons and a grandson, Lal Gul told Reuters. “The American soldiers blew up the gate of Mohammada Jan's house and then martyred him along with his three family members,” Gul said. (Posted @ 11:42 PST)
One killed, seven hurt in rare tornado in Myanmar YANGON, June 29(AFP): One woman was killed, seven injured and hundreds left homeless after a freak tornado ripped through Yangon, police said Friday. The tornado hit Thursday evening and damaged more than 500 homes and three factories as it cut a trail of destruction from near downtown Yangon to a suburban industrial zone, a police officer in the city's south end told AFP. (Posted @ 11:36 PST)
Four killed in anti-Taliban raids JALALABAD, June 29(AFP): Afghan and foreign troops killed four men in anti-Taliban raids in eastern Afghanistan Friday, police said as a local insisted the dead were villagers with no links to the rebels. The US-led coalition said Taliban forces had opened fire on troops during the early-morning operations in the eastern province of Nangarhar and the soldiers had returned fire, killing some of them. It did not say how many. Sixteen militants were also arrested in the raids, the coalition said in a statement. Nangarhar police spokesman Samonwal Abdul Ghafoor said four men were killed. The incident occured in Nokrukhel village, about 45 kilometres west of Jalalabad. (Posted @ 11:35 PST)
Three more sites given World Heritage status WELLINGTON, June 29(AFP): A Roman palace in Serbia, more than 6,000 ancient rock drawings in Azerbaijan and a modernist university campus in Mexico were added to the list of World Heritage cultural sites Friday. UNESCO's World Heritage Committee finalised this year's additions to the coveted World Heritage List at a meeting in the New Zealand city of Christchurch. (Posted @ 11:22 PST)
India, Iran, Pakistan closer on gas pipeline deal NEW DELHI, June 29(AFP): Representatives of India, Iran and Pakistan are set to meet for a second day on Friday here amid reports they were getting closer to a deal on a multi-billion dollar pipeline to transport gas from energy-rich Iran through Pakistan. India and Pakistan have agreed to pay Iran $4.93 per million British thermal units for its gas, the Press Trust of India news agency said, finalising one of the thorny issues in the fuel negotiations. The three countries are due to meet again on Friday to hammer out issues such as how often pricing should be revised, the news agency said. (Posted @ 11:20 PST)
Palestinian killed in ongoing Israeli West Bank raid NABLUS, West Bank, June 29(AFP): Israeli troops on Friday shot dead a Palestinian taxi driver in the hotspot West Bank town of Nablus, as the army continued a second day of operations there, security sources said. Haysam Saleh, 28, was shot dead after he jumped out of his taxi when troops pulled his car over for inspection in the centre of town, the sources said. Dozens of Israeli troops and armoured jeeps poured into the the Old City in the heart of historic Nablus on Thursday, sparking clashes and makeshift bomb attacks that left five soldiers wounded, including two in serious condition. On Friday, Israeli forces began moving out of the city centre and into the Balata refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus. Friday's deaths bring to 5,766 the number of people killed since the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, most of them Palestinians. (Posted @ 10:43 PST)
Five passengers wounded in Sri Lanka blast COLOMBO, June(AFP): At least five bus passengers, including a soldier, were wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Sri Lanka's northern Vavuniya district on Friday, officials said. Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off the mine at Cheddikulam as the civilian bus passed the area, military officials said. A similar bomb attack killed an officer and a soldier in the Jaffna peninsula, further north, on Thursday. (Posted @ 10:33 PST)
Hu Jintao makes first trip to Hong Kong as Chinese president to celebrate handover HONG KONG, June 29 (AP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao began his first trip to Hong Kong as the nation's top leader on Friday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the former British colony's return to China. After stepping off the plane on a rain-soaked tarmac, Hu told reporters, “I am sincerely happy about Hong Kong's achievements since returning to the motherland 10 years ago. I'm even more confident about Hong Kong's future.” (Posted @ 10:16 PST)
3 soldiers electrocuted in Nepal, 6 others injured KATMANDU, June 29 (AP) - Three soldiers were killed and six others injured when their truck struck a snapped electricity wire near Haraiya village, 200 kilometers southeast of Katmandu, the army said Friday. (Posted @ 10:15 PST)
Indian plan to lease degraded forests sparks anger NEW DELHI, June 29(Reuters): A plan to lease out India's degraded jungles to pulp and paper companies has sparked criticism from activists who say the scheme will leave millions of poor forest dwellers homeless and with no livelihood. With inadequate financial resources to meet a target of covering a third of India with trees by 2012, the Environment Ministry plans to invite private firms, particularly from the pulp and paper sector, to help grow forests. Under the “Multi-Stakeholder Partnership for Forestation”, the government proposes to invite bids (Posted @ 10:05 PST)
Mortars hit Georgian breakaway capital MOSCOW, June 29(Reuters): Mortars and rocket-propelled grenades hit Tskhinvali, the capital of the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia, on Friday, Interfax news agency quoted authorities there as saying. The separatists accused Georgian forces of firing artillery at a village, the biggest flare-up in violence for months in this region wedged between Russia and Georgia. One house was destroyed and one person was injured in Friday's mortar attack, a South Ossetian official said. (Posted @ 10:02 PST)
Fire disrupts rail link to Paris airport PARIS, June 29(AFP): Rail traffic between the French capital and its main Charles de Gaulle Roissy airport was disrupted on Friday after a fire that engulfed two dozen campers in a Roma camp outside the city damaged two bridges, the SNCF railway operator said. SNCF said traffic on the RER B line, which also serves many northern suburbs, had resumed at dawn Friday but that it expected one in three trains to operate. No one was injured in the fire near the Stade de France sports stadium to the north of Paris that forced the closure of the rail line, and which firefighters managed to put out within 90 minutes. (Posted @ 09:55 PST)
IAEA team 'satisfied' with N. Korea nuclear tour TOKYO, June 29(Reuters): U.N. nuclear watchdog officials said on Friday they were “satisfied” with a tour of a North Korean reactor complex that the secretive state has promised to scrap under an aid-for-disarmament deal, Kyodo news agency said. The visit to the reactor is the first by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials since Pyongyang expelled the Vienna-based agency's inspectors in December 2002. In South Korea, Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified Foreign Ministry official as saying: “The IAEA could announce the date (for Yongbyon's shutdown) as early as this week”. A diplomat close to the IAEA had said earlier that if the team finalised terms for an inspection mission, the agency's 35-nation board of governors would meet -- probably on July 9 -- to ratify the deal. (Posted @ 09:54 PST)
Britain's Brown names new cabinet LONDON, June 28(AFP): New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveiled his senior ministerial team Thursday, a day after taking over from Tony Blair after a decade in power.His first meeting with his new cabinet, including a loyal and trusted ally as finance minister and the youngest foreign secretary for 30 years, lasted about 50 minutes. Alistair Darling, 53, succeeds Brown as finance minister, while David Miliband, 41, replaces Margaret Beckett as foreign secretary. He is the youngest person to hold the post since David Owen in 1977. (Posted @ 09:52 PST)
Strong undersea quake jolts Indonesia JAKARTA, June 29(AFP): A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's Lampung province on Friday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency here said. The earthquake struck 22:37 GMT just 99 kilometres southwest of Lampung's coast at a depth of 50kms, the agency said. (Posted @ 09:48 PST)
IMF chief Rato to quit early, citing personal reasons WASHINGTON, June 28(AFP): IMF chief Rodrigo Rato said on Thursday he will leave his job ahead of schedule in October, citing personal reasons, as the global body struggles with an internal reform effort he launched. Rato informed the IMF executive board that he will not be able to serve the full length of his five-year term as managing director, the Washington-based multilateral institution said. He “intends to leave the Fund in October following the conclusion of the 2007 annual meetings of the boards of Governors of the IMF and World Bank Group,” the IMF said in a statement. The announcement comes as the six-decade-old 185-nation IMF faces criticism that it serves the interests of wealthy nations by trying to impose free-market practices. It also follows this week's change of leadership at the IMF's scandal-tainted sister institution, the World Bank. (Posted @ 09:47 PST)
Storming the redoubts of autocracy By Ayaz Amir
A GATHERING of opposition braves in London should cause the rafters and ceilings of Islamabad to shake. But it hasn’t happened so far.
Why not? Because political capital and credibility lost by our opposition parties — by their fecklessness more than anything else — has yet to be retrieved, lost honour yet to be redeemed.
I too will be going to London because, like a long list of others, I have been invited as an observer. Half my heart will be in the journey, half of it, sad to say, perhaps not.
Who doesn’t want these parties to get their act together? Who doesn’t want them to agree on one or two points of such blinding clarity that all confusion is swept away and the nation galvanised to storm the redoubts of Pakistani autocracy? This is an apt hope in or near the month of July when the Bastille was stormed and the French Revolution broke out. Who doesn’t want this to be a ‘defining moment’?
Fond hopes resting on a bed of sand. What will an All Parties Conference be worth if Benazir Bhutto won’t attend? What will such a gathering be worth if that prince of political comedians, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, does attend?
Benazir’s appendages, a posse of whom will be at the conference, are not the same thing as the mistress of the Swiss diamonds (actually bought in London) herself. Musharraf’s acolytes can sometimes think for themselves. Take the case of friend Mushahid who every now and then is driven to sound like a Bolshevik. Benazir acolytes dare not stray even a centimeter from the party line. Even the army allows some difference of opinion, the PPP none at all.
This is one thing (the only thing I must hasten to add) it has in common with that other bastion of democracy, the MQM. Dissidence of any kind in the PPP invites expulsion into the cold. But that’s about it. In the MQM dissidence fetches a higher price. As the slogan painted on many a Karachi high-rise (there’s one as soon as you leave the airport and get on to Sharea Faisal) puts it succinctly, “Quaid ka jo ghaddar hai, maut ka haqdar hai”. (He who betrays the leader is worthy of death.) The Mafia could not have put it better.
But the question of inner-party democracy in the PPP apart, an APC without the shifting Benazir Bhutto (who nowadays shifts quicker than the wind) loses half its meaning. After all, the PPP is the PPP, one of the two biggest parties in the country, the other of course being the PML-N. How do you draw up a grand strategy with the quintessential Daughter of the East absent?
And how do you draw up a grand strategy with that king of political comedy, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, present? Benazir’s absence will make a difference. The Maulana’s presence is almost guaranteed to wreck the APC. Unwitting disciple of Clausewitz, the Maulana never makes a frontal assault. A master of the indirect approach (which is the essence of strategy), he goes with the flow before wreaking what devastation he can from that position of vantage.
One can only sympathise with the PML-N leadership. They want to forge a united front – the need of the hour. But they are contending with two of the slipperiest eels in the political waters of Pakistan. Is this too much scepticism? I hope it is and I hope that from the entrails of the APC something solid and meaningful emerges. But with the Maulana on board and the Empress of the East playing her own games with the quasi-military regime which has been Pakistan’s lot these past nearly eight years, the APC has an uphill job on its hands.
Incidentally, Benazir’s stand that the holy fathers of the MMA should at least withdraw from the Balochistan government (where they are acting as Musharraf allies) if their democratic pretensions are to be taken seriously, has merit. How can the holy fathers be all things to all people – running with the government, hunting with the opposition? Hasn’t their hypocrisy lasted long enough? But getting the Maulanas out of the Balochistan government would be a miracle worthy of biblical times. We are unlikely to see it.
Our political class can test the patience of a saint. Some good men and women are to be found in its ranks, capable of great sacrifice and commitment, adhering to the path of principle in good times and bad. If the worst thing about Pakistan is the cult of authoritarianism, the best thing about it is the tradition of resistance.
The Chile of Pinochet (of horrid memory) had its Pablo Neruda, Nigeria of the generals, of Gen Sani Abacha in particular, its Sole Woyinka (his memoirs, You Must Set Forth At Dawn, is worth several readings). But not many countries can come close to the nostalgia and wistfulness with which our poets have written of freedom and national redemption.
If we have had our dictators – a more sorry and incompetent lot would be hard to find – we have also had dissenting politicians who have not bent before the wind. And we have had our poets – Faiz, the great Faiz, Jalib, Faraz and the rest – who in their verse have celebrated liberty and denounced authoritarianism. This has been one of the good things about our history. It has been the seedbed of brilliant poetry.
But however much we eulogise this culture of resistance, the fact remains that it is outweighed and outdistanced by the culture of conformity, of sucking up to authority. Every dictator finds his willing political collaborators, every dictator finds his Q League. Names change. In Ayub Khan’s time it was the Convention League. Nowadays it is the Q League, the common thread between these different incarnations being the spirit of blind loyalty and subservience.
But Q League stalwarts can at least claim to be honest. They are with the regime, their interests tied to its survival. The regime sinks, they sink or they look for new havens and new godfathers. But opposition parties can often be downright dishonest. Listening to their rhetoric you could mistake it for Leninism. Seeing them in action, or seeing them make a religion of falsehood, you would despair of politics altogether.
What a pity that where the lawyers’ movement has done so much – where it has caused the edifice of power to shake and its denizens to look foolish – it is largely alone, bolstered only by the sympathy and fellow-democratic yearning of the media and of people at large.
The judicial crisis has shaken the political parties out of their torpor, but they still have to straighten out many things. If the APC is to make a difference and chart a new course of action, it will have to forge a united stand on the most important question of all: the charade of a presidential election from the present assemblies. There should be no prevarication on this score. If the generalissimo goes to these assemblies, what will the political parties do? This is the foremost question before them, all other issues being secondary.
The people of Pakistan are not fools. Why wherever he goes is My Lord the Chief Justice showered with rose petals? Why do people, including women and children, wait for hours on end to have a glimpse of him? He addresses no public meetings. The legal and constitutional subjects he chooses to speak on when he addresses bar associations can’t be of much interest to men and women in the street. He has stirred the nation’s sensibility by standing up to a military figure and saying no to his face. By doing so he has written a new history (which is a fact, not hyperbole).
If the APC is to evoke a similar response, if it is not to be a damp squib, if it is to stir the masses to action, if it is to confound the plans for a phoney presidential election, the challenge before it is to show similar courage and honesty. Only then will the promise of this ‘defining moment’ be fulfilled.
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