The Magicians And The Muffled: Will "Bhej Pagara" Ever Replace "Jeay Bhutto" In Sindh?

By: Mohammad Ali Mahar

(This article was written in December)

After King Khan’s record breaking, mind blowing Jalsa in Lahore, which opened the sluicegates for the ablution utensils from all over the country to roll over to his scrubbing place for purification from the smut accumulated in their previous incarnations, Shaikhul Islam’s politics of ‘Save the state, not politics’ has boggled the serious discerner of the Pakistani politics. Sitting 11,000 miles apart in Canada for eons, what charm was the Allama able to cast over the nation to throng the meeting place he chose for his rally in Lahore? Arranging a gathering of hundreds of thousands remotely is indeed a feat unachievable without some otherworldly assistance. Is he a magician or is he a maulana? Tum qatl karo ho keh karaamaat karo ho (are you a murderer or are you a miracle worker)?

But, be this a checkerboard set by the gurus of the great game or the patzers of the Pakistani agencies, let the players play their pawns the way they please. Let us focus on how Sindh looks at the situation.

What does the allama’s rally mean for the muzzled and muffled of Sindh is the question a Sindhi keeps asking himself. MQM’s cards are already on the board. Their ultimate goal – division of Sindh – is clear, Altaf Hussain’s ifs and buts notwithstanding.  For as long as the governments, provincial as well as federal, will keep feeding on his demands, he will not leave the government. The moment a government showed a desire to deviate, he will resort to the blackmailing. So, there is nothing in MQM for Sindhis for the one’s goals are mutually exclusive to the other.

Sindhis’ past perception about the PPP being the leadership valued their sacrifices and would return their love with love. If Sindhis suffered for the party during the ‘Dollar Movement’ of 1977, when the goons from the immigrant, abaadgaar (settler) communities instigated by the power of dollar and the invisible power instrument ransacked the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad, if they fought the generalissimo’s gestapo in 1983 and lost lives in thousands, it was because they had trust in the leadership they sacrificed for. The Bhuttos on their part for as long as they lived proved themselves worthy of every drop of Sindhi blood.

Sindhi psyche being cast such a way that it favors the underdog. Nowhere in the Sindhi folk poetry will you find a hero who is aggressor. Sindhis resist bullies and love martyrs. For example, when the rest of the Indian subcontinent was embracing Mughals as their rulers, the Mughal saw their worst resistance in Sindh everywhere but mainly by Dharejos in Bakhar and Ranas in Thar. The British had to impose the first martial law in the subcontinent in Sindh when the grandfather, and a namesake, of the current Pir Pagaro organized an armed rebellion and gave British a run for their money. Mughals could not conquer the Bakhar fort until they killed all the resisting Sindhi sardars after inviting them for talks on Quran and mixing poison in the food served to them. The English had to martyr the Pir as well as thousands of his followers to rule the province.

Sindhis have lost wars but they worship their fallen heroes. It is therefore no wonder that, right or wrong, for every life the Bhuttos lost, Sindhis felt more and more indebted to them. It is mainly for this reason that Sindhis have kept voting for the Bhuttos and their party. Another reason for Sindhis favoring Bhuttos was that they felt that for as long as the Bhuttos and their party were there, their interests were protected. Sindhis knew that the transgressions committed against them will be fixed whenever the Bhuttos returned to the power. They reposed their complete trust in the Bhuttos. The Bhuttos, in most of the cases, lived up to Sindhis’ trust.

During the nine long years of Musharraf’s rule of the country, Sindh saw its worst days when the whole province became captive to a minority holding sway over the two of its major cities of Sindh through gun power and gerrymandering. It was during this rule that Sindh got virtually divided in two parts and it became impossible for an indigenous Sindhi to enter a government job or an educational institution in Karachi.

Sindhis knew, however, that as long as Benazir Bhutto was around, the wrong would be righted whenever she returned to the power. In other words, Sindhis trusted a Bhutto more than the State of Pakistan.

The Sindhi people who believed that all the crimes committed against the interest of Sindh and Sindhis would be corrected when the PPP came to power were surprised when they saw them legalized by the regime they themselves brought to power by granting carte blanche in the polls. The current term of the PPP, is a tale of transgression, deceit, plunder and criminality against Sindh. And Sindhis, no fools contrary to the selfish leadership’s belief, saw this all happening with patience and waited for the right time to strike back.

And, then came this huge rally led by Pir Sahab Pagaro! Those present at the rally say that the 72 acres of the land holding the rally was completely jam-packed with the people, some say as many as half million in number. The PML (F) claiming the number to be 1.2 million.

After his nationalistic proclamations and refusal to team up with the reviled ruling regime, most of the Sindhis see a messiah in Pir Pagaro. However, his less than impressive past history makes him tread the tight rope more carefully than any other politician. His deceased father’s record, who sided with the enemies of Sindh whenever Sindh needed his support, makes going even more difficult for him. His meetings with Yousuf Raza Gilani and the nominated governor of the Punjab, Makhdoom Syed Ahmed Mahmood have raised many eyebrows already, the Makhdoom’s subsequent resignation from the party notwithstanding. My own excitement is giving way to suspicion.

It is too early to chant ‘Bhej Pagara’. The Sindhi people having been bitten repeatedly by the leaders they followed will take a little time before they start trusting the Pir Sahab and his party. There being still some time before the next elections, the Pir has to prove himself worthy of Sindhi people’s trust. Only then will the chant of ‘Jeay Bhutto’ will turn into ‘Bhej Pagara’.

But, what puzzles me more is the very large presence of the folks at all three rallies. Is it really that the people of the country have finally become disenchanted with the two big mafias that pass for the political parties in Pakistan? Or, is it the otherworldly powers playing their hand?

But the bigger question is: whom does the Maulana represent, really?

The writer is an independent political commentator. 

Benazir Bhutto’s Alleged Murder Plotter Joins PML-N, Shaikh Rasheed to Follow

By Aijaz Ahmed

Islamabad:  Pakistan Muslim League (N) proudly calls itself a principled party and claims it is against 'lotacracy' and that it always abides by the Charter of Democracy. It also uses the name of Benazir Bhutto whenever it’s leaders want the government to go on the back foot. However its double standards have been exposed as the same "principled" party has allowed an alleged plotter of Benazir Bhutto's murder and a close associate of military dictator Musharraf and the Choudhris of Gujrat to join PML-N.

It may be recalled here that Benazir Bhutto had sent an email in 2007 to her lobbyist in Washington, DC and a family friend, Mark Siegel, containing four names who according to her were plotting her murder according g to her own information. The then Director General IB Brigadier (retd) Ijaz Shah’s name was one of the four suspects nominated by BB herself.

Former IB chief, Brig. Ret. Ijaz Shah

BB’s suspicion of her murder plot was not baseless. She was indeed brutally martyred at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on 27^th December 2007. Brigadier Ijaz shortly after the general elections in 2008 ran away from Pakistan and settled in Australia with the blessings of the man at the helm of affairs at that time and he was no other than Musharraf. As Ijaz Shah was also known as a close friend of PML-N’s arch rivals, the Choudhris of Gujrat, the party had started an aggressive campaign when PPP joined hands with the Q league. It had blamed PPP of selling out the murder of BB “Shaheed”.

The PML-N had vowed to take revenge from the murderers if and when it formed a government in the center. But all the claims, love and respect for BB has proved to be false and a mere political stunt as Ijaz Shah who returned to Lahore few weeks back after a secret settlement with Punjab government has formally joined PML-N few days back and signed the membership form of the party from Nankana Sahib, suburban town of Sheikhupura near Lahore and the place of birth of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikh religion and a great fighter against state repression.

No word of sorry has been tendered by the “principled” PML-N leadership to the followers of BB most of whom had started believing in Nawaz Sharif after losing their faith in Asif Zardari. The reason given by PML-N for taking such people and members of Q league in the party ranks is most interesting. Senator Pervez Rasheed while giving his reaction to a question about the talks with Q league responded positively and uttered that “we will talk with everybody willing to join us against Zardari Raj”. ‘We are in contact with PML-Q and will accept anybody except the Choudhris of Gujrat. We want to isolate them in politics and will go to any extent’, he added.

  

The “principled” PML-N now seems to follow the policy of lotacracy which it talked against so much at one time to stop it’s arch rival PPP from gaining majority in the Senate in March next year. Sumera Malik, a close aide of Musharraf and a cause of confrontation between Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry and General Musharraf has now become very close to Mian Sahib. She is going to join PML-N despite being a member from PML-Q. She earlier tried to join PPP, but her relationship with Farooq Leghari did not prove very helpful.

Next in line is Sheikh Rasheed of Lal Haveli. He has established contacts with his former party and is all set to become a PML-N candidate from NA 55 in next general elections. He was the man who had categorically refused Begum Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif to support a pro Nawaz Movement after 12^th October, 1999 and had later joined Musharraf camp. He claimed himself to be a non-official spokesman of GHQ. One can imagine what will be the situation like when he will walk with Nawaz Sharif who claims to be an anti military dictatorship. But that is surely confined to a dictatorship that removed him from the Prime Minister House. Thus the proverb, that politics has no permanent foes or friend is proved true once again and lotacracy is in the vogue again.

Pakistan’s Defense Needs Protection! Own Policies Make Defense Establishment Insecure!

By Aijaz Ahmed

Military Headquarters around the world are considered to be the symbol of their military might.  These power centers particularly in societies like ours, which remains in search of strategic depth and happens to be the ‘security state’, becomes more significant as it plays the role of the saviors as well as masters of the all policies. The bloody civilians whenever put in the power remain subservient to the military leadership be it is Pakistan, Thailand, Egypt or any other such state.

Pakistan has further significance and unique situation from its inception, because from the day one it entangled in war like situation with India, and for last thirty years it has been searching strategic depth in its West, thus a nexus has developed between the military Establishment and the civilian jihadi brigades in the name of Afghan Jihad, and war in the name of Kashmir, with the GHQ becoming a source of inspiration and support for such outfits taking the role of a policy framer, which normally is the domain of the elected parliament.

Also the nexus, developed between the jihadis, a section of politicians, traders and industrialists, demanded more orthodox approach for the security of the military installations and headquarters of the corps, the air force, the navy and the intelligence establishments and their buildings have been put on stake.

Terrorists attacked GHQ in the center of large city, Rawalpindi in October, 2009

The brazen attacks on GHQ in Rawalpindi in 2009 and PNS Mehran in Karachi recently in which senior and very efficient officers were killed and two PC-3 Orion aircrafts were completely destroyed have exposed how our military installations and the whole security apparatus is vulnerable. The lately developed nexus between the builders’ mafia and the commercialism in the forces has made these installations more vulnerable and further endangered them.

If one visits the area around the GHQ, he will encounter very busy markets in a radius of just one kilometer around the military headquarters. High-rise buildings are an added phenomenon around the GHQ. The next important place in military terms is ISI headquarters in Islamabad; it is situated on the busiest road of Islamabad near Aabpara. Again it is next to a high-rise building belonging to an Islamic organization, and also exposed to the certain tall buildings of blue area just in the radius of one kilometer. Naval headquarters in Islamabad was also situated at melody up till few years back, but fortunately was shifted towards Margalla Hills and thus maintaining security is bit easier.

Situation in other cities is also not different; a tall commercial plaza is built in front of Corps Commanders House in Lahore. As far as Karachi is concerned, either deliberate or an innocent mistake has been made especially at Shahrah e Faisal. Overheads have been built to ease out traffic, but all overheads have exposed very sensitive installations including the PNS Mehran.

Courtesy, STRATFOR

In addition, all cantonments at Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Bahawalpur, Multan and other major cities are surrounded by civilian and thickly populated localities. It is noteworthy that the Lahore Cantonment was built during the British rule and at that time it was 15 miles away from the walled city.  

In the modern day world technological advancement has made such buildings of very high significance just one hand away from the terrorist organizations, says Munir Baloch, senior writer and analyst. These buildings and military installations are under serious threat and thus emergency steps are needed to shift them at secure place, he added.

It is to remind that the Ayub Khan Government planned sifting of GHQ at Sector D-11 and E-10. The first Bhutto government marked 2400 acres of land at D-11 and 870 acres at E-10 and an initial report was prepared in 1987 to construct GHQ, JSHQ, and defense Ministry at the marked land. This project also included construction of residence, schools and other facilities for 17,000 employees of these organizations.

General Musharraf in 2004 planed to start construction of proposed buildings and facilities which was to be completed in 2007, but civil society, political parties including PPP, PMLN, ANP, MMA and MQM raised strong voice against this project in view of the financial crisis, thus the project was delayed and lately was cancelled by General Kayani.

Similarly Admiral Yastoor ul Haq planned to build a naval port at Ormara Balochistan, as present Karachi port and Port Qasim are exposed to commercial traffic and are adjacent to the city of Karachi. The project was delayed due to unknown reasons. In 2007, Pak Navy made a request to Balochistan government for purchase of 11,000 acres of land in Koh e Imam near Turbat airport, acting on which the provincial government through its order No 14/LU-2007, 10,095 acres of land was handed over to the Navy. Another 2500 acres of land was also acquired in Tehsil Dasht of District Kaich against relatively high price, but still navy is anchored around Shahrah e Faisal and Karsaz.

The situation Pakistan is passing through and in view of the war on terror, the sensitive military and intelligence installations need to be shifted to safer places away from population centers. This will also help in reducing threats to the civilian population around them at present.