Nation's senior judge, family savor freedom

Smuggling of goods, homework comes to an end—as does boredom

By Kim Barker
March 26, 2008

For almost five months, friends smuggled what the family needed over the back wall: mobile phones and phone chips, two birthday cakes, a remote-controlled toy car, extra groceries and homework.

Inside, the two teenage girls and their younger brother rarely opened the curtains to view the hills behind their home. If they did, men from the intelligence agencies stared back through the chain-link fence. Telephones in the house were tapped or shut off. And police were everywhere, outside the front gate and blocking the two entrances to the neighborhood.

On Monday night, those blockades were finally lifted, and the agency men were sent away. Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the deposed chief justice of Pakistan, and his family, held under house arrest 142 days since President Pervez Musharraf declared an emergency Nov. 3, were told they were free.

"I didn't believe it yesterday when I heard it," said Ifrah Iftikhar, 19, Chaudhry's elder daughter, on Tuesday. "It's been five months."

For many, the decision to free Chaudhry suggests that parliament may soon reinstate the fired judges —a move that would set up a confrontation with Musharraf and could lead to his ouster. The new ruling coalition has pledged to restore the Supreme Court within a month, and this court could take up cases against the president.

Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror who seized power in a bloodless 1999 military coup, is bitterly opposed to Chaudhry, whom he tried to fire in March 2007, a move that led to nationwide protests, a large drop in Musharraf's popularity and Chaudhry's reinstatement last July.

Musharraf alleged that Chaudhry was corrupt and guilty of misconduct. Analysts and lawyers said his independence threatened Musharraf's hopes to stay in power.

In November, as the Supreme Court was preparing to rule on the legitimacy of his election as president, Musharraf fired the senior judges and imposed emergency rule for six weeks.

U.S. officials have not called for reinstatement of the judiciary and have largely ducked questions about Chaudhry, who has been given several awards by American legal groups and law schools. Instead, U.S. officials have emphasized the need for an independent judiciary.

'A great day for Pakistan'
On Tuesday, hundreds of well-wishers visited Chaudhry, carrying flowers and walking past a framed photograph hanging inside the house—a picture of Musharraf swearing in Chaudhry as chief justice in 2005. Politicians, lawyers and even a museum curator came to visit, hugging Chaudhry.

"It's a great day for Pakistan," Syeda Abida Hussain, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., told the former chief justice.

Chaudhry, who celebrated his 59th birthday under house arrest with a smuggled cake, recently told lawyers he would go to the Supreme Court as soon as he was released, but on Tuesday he opted to stay home. Journalists waited in the street. If Chaudhry goes anywhere, he likely would be mobbed, as he is now one of the more recognizable figures in Pakistan.

A Chicago Tribune correspondent was the first Western reporter allowed into Chaudhry's home after the house arrest was lifted. The ousted chief justice does not give interviews to the news media, but he let the reporter meet his guests and talk to the three youngest of his four children.

For many Pakistanis, the decision to keep the entire family at home during Chaudhry's house arrest was particularly offensive. His younger son is disabled and was not allowed regular physical therapy; his elder daughter missed most of her first year of college.

Since November, the family remained inside the home as Pakistan changed outside. Musharraf stepped down as army chief. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Her party and other opposition parties won parliamentary elections Feb. 18, largely because of people who said they were tired of Musharraf and wanted an independent judiciary.

During those months, Chaudhry read newspapers and books, watched television and prayed, his children said. Their mother prayed for relief, they said. They played video games—Ifrah Iftikhar mastered Godfather — and they fought over petty things, such as the remote control and who was sitting where. Even though the house is large, with five bedrooms, they mostly stayed upstairs.

"What should we do downstairs?" asked Palwasha Iftikhar, 16. "So boring."

Palwasha, nicknamed "the commander" for her ability to coordinate smuggling and to speak out for her father, said she read the most recent Harry Potter book more than 50 times and spent almost eight hours a day playing video games, mostly Need for Speed.

Balaaj Iftikhar, whose muscle problems make it difficult for him to walk, celebrated his 8th birthday Dec. 25 with a smuggled cake and a single smuggled gift, the toy car. For almost a year, he had planned to celebrate this birthday with 25 friends and a costume party with a Barney-the-dinosaur theme.

While at home, Balaaj, described by human-rights groups as the world's youngest political prisoner, tried to keep up with his classes, doing smuggled homework and secretly sending out his answers.

Neither Palwasha nor Ifrah, who have both decided to become lawyers because of the experience of the past year, wanted to talk about Musharraf. When asked about the president, Balaaj wrinkled his nose and said simply, "Bad boy."

Source: Chicago Tribune

US Meddles Again - Challenge to Pakistan's Sovereignty

Image Source: Dawn

The Other Chaudhrys

Op-Ed by Wasim Arif

The word “Chaudhrys” remains synonymous in Pakistan today with the effervescent Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and his cousin Pervez Elahi. However, this article is not about either of them.

It centres on the “Other Chaudhrys,” Chief Justice Ifthikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, and his wife and their four children, Arsalan, Ifra, Palvasha and Balaj, who were released in accordance with the instructions of the new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani.

It was Euripides who said that “those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad,” a phrase that finds resonance with the actions of one General Musharraf on March 9, 2007. That was the fateful day when General Musharraf blundered with his “judicial Kargil,” committing the supreme folly of dismissing the holder of one of the highest offices in the land, the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

Even as the nation celebrates now, it continues to mourn the fact that its chief justice and his family remained under illegal house arrest for nearly five months. Such circumstances never prevailed even in mediaeval times, as the chief justice himself remarked in one of his recent statements.

Palwasha Chaudhry is only 16 years old. She had the honour of undertaking a British A Level examination under house arrest, courtesy of our former colonial masters. She gave hope to a nation starved of hope, through her passionate letter to the nation.

The letter, titled “I am a proud child,” captured the imagination of the nation, because its author demonstrated in the letter a confidence and a sense of purpose beyond her years. “We should be proud that Allah chose us to sacrifice for this country. Yes, it is indeed a sacrifice which we have to bequeath, not for ourselves but for this country.”

Balaj, the youngest child of the chief justice, is only seven. His angelic features and smile represent the innocence of childhood and the eternal hope of a better tomorrow. Yet, Balaj too has been under house arrest even though he is ill and requires regular medical treatment. T whole family continued to suffer but remained steadfast by drawing inspiration from their patriarch and role model, Ifthikhar Muhammed Chaudhry

Friend or foe, no one can fail to admire the resolve of the chief justice, not least in that now infamous meeting with the khaki king General Musharraf and his sidekicks, lasting several hours held in Army House. His utterance of “No, I will not resign” must have rocked the sound foundations of the GHQ, resulting in an unexpected desi dose of shock and awe that surprised one and all.

Today these “Other Chaudhrys” are the heartbeat of an entire nation and the sons of the soil, all of whom remain steadfast and supremely confident of their victory and sure in their belief that the struggle of the lawyers will soon bear fruit.

It is true to say that the nation has suffered enough death and destruction and Pakistan has had its unfair share of Tommy-gun and trigger-happy dictatorships. From the Ayub era to Musharraf’s rule, Pakistan has remained imprisoned and at the whims of a coterie of khaki kings, who have raped the Constitution, put it in abeyance and run the country on the power of a fully loaded gun, rather than the will of the people.

The eminent commentator Ayaz Amir hits the nail on the head when he remarks that this is a struggle “about the nation’s future, what is our destiny, is it the worshipping of false gods or a republic based upon law as our founding fathers intended?”

A lawyer founded Pakistan in 1947. This lawyer worked over sixteen hours a day to create the country, hastening his own death as the final price, and thereafter breathed his last for a Muslim homeland fashioned on the glorious principles of Islam. Yet a Pakistan founded on truth and justice has so far eluded us, it remains a pipedream after sixty years, but hope has finally arisen, thanks to a new Pakistan Movement that begun just over a year ago, led by the legendary lawyers’ movement.

Consequently March 9 is now a date to remember, for it has proved to be a defining moment in Pakistan’s history and turned out to be the equivalent of a 9/11 for our khaki kings. Furthermore, the entire crisis has turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it has served as a wakeup call to a comatose nation sleepwalking itself from one disaster to the next.

A few weeks ago the media carried reports about 76-year-old Iqbal Bali and 65-year-old Jahangir Akhter and their six-day hunger strike to protest at the illegal arrest of the children of the chief justice. These are men older than Pakistan itself. However, such is the magic of the “Other Chaudhrys.” No doubt, their sacrifices will be written about in golden letters. The soil of Pakistan salutes the chief justice and his family, for they have made Pakistan the land of the pure once again.

The writer blogs at www.otherpakistan.org/

Source: The News

How the Deposed CJ was Portrayed Pro-Terrorist

The Bush administration and the world was deliberately and systematically presented a mutilated and distorted image of the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, according to well planned strategy of the Presidency so that Washington may not raise serious objections when the Nov 3 coup against the judges was carried out.

The main objective of this strategy was to convince the US that Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was soft on terrorists and could create serious problems by asking for the production and release of all missing persons, most of whom were handed over by Pakistan to US.

Top government officials holding key positions in the previous government have revealed in separate interviews that the Presidency had reached the conclusion that it had no option but to take extra constitutional steps to remove the apex court judges, which was impossible without taking the US into confidence.

According to the officials, the government had decided to take advantage of the missing persons’ case which was being heard by the apex court then.

A key plank of the strategy was to produce some of the missing persons but not provide any evidence to the court so that the judges had no legal ground to keep them under detention. “The court was being forced to release these missing persons which would then be presented as a proof of Justice Chaudhry’s sympathy for terrorists,” one official said.

The chief justice and some lawyers had smelled a rat. The chief justice thought it may be a good idea to accept a request for a meeting pending with him from the US Ambassador Anne Patterson and explain the situation. But he used the official procedure and asked the Pakistan Foreign Office to give clearance for the meeting as is required under the rules.

But according to the government strategy, this meeting could be damaging, so the Foreign Office did not give permission to the CJ to see the US ambassador. Accordingly, the CJ declined the meeting with Ambassador Patterson.

But the denial was presented by the Pakistani officials as part of Justice Chaudhry’s anti-American tilt, an official said. “Refusing a meeting with the US ambassador easily conveyed the wrong message to the US government that the sitting judiciary was adopting a hard line on the war on terror,” the official added.

The chief justice had received the Saudi Ambassador in Islamabad on December 8, 2007, but when a US diplomat was then asked whether Ambassador Patterson also wanted to see him, the diplomat was quoted as saying no.

Explaining his answer, the US diplomat had said that Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had turned down the request for a meeting with the US ambassador twice after his re-instatement on July 20 and before imposition of emergency on November 3. “Now, we don’t feel any need to request for an appointment with Justice Iftikhar as he may also refuse,” the senior US diplomat had told ‘The News’.

Deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on knowing the US embassy concerns had informed two lawyers in contact with him about the actual situation. Justice Iftikhar told them that it was not he, but the Foreign Office, which had instructed him not to meet the US ambassador.

“It is mandatory for any top official of the judiciary to inform the Foreign Office before meeting such a high profile diplomatic official, and especially in the situation the country was passing through. On our intimation to the Foreign Office, we immediately received a message that we could not meet with the US ambassador and subsequently there was no option other than regretting the US ambassador’s request,” Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said in his message. The same situation was also conveyed to the US ambassador, credible sources told ‘The News’.

A senior government official said that when the Supreme Court started hearing of missing persons case after restoration of the chief justice on July 20 last, the attorney general and other government officials repeatedly promised the court to provide credible evidence about the alleged involvement of these “traced” missing persons, but never did so.

According to reports, in the post July 20 scenario, cases of only three traced missing persons were decided and subsequently they were released, in the petitions filed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and former senator and Pakistan People’s Party’s spokesman Farhatullah Babur. These were Naeem Noor Khan, Aleem Nasir and Hafiz Abdul Basit.

According to these reports, Naeem Noor Khan, a computer expert and resident of Karachi, was released by the agencies holding him on the grounds that he cooperated with them, and because of his help the agencies managed to arrest Musaad Aruchi, who was alleged to be a senior member of the al-Qaeda leadership.

With the information provided by Naeem and his help the UK police arrested a terror gang of 13 people. The Supreme Court was informed on August 20 last that Naeem Noor Khan was released and had reached his home. “The court was never provided with the details of the crimes in which Naeem was involved, otherwise no judge could order release of a person even allegedly involved in such heinous crimes,” a member of the bench hearing the case told a senior lawyer.

These facts are also evident from the Supreme Court record as well as from the media reports published in all leading national dailies in the month of August 2007.

Aleem Nasir, a German national, was arrested by the ISI from Lahore Airport on July 18, 2007, while on his way to Germany on charges of smuggling precious stones and was missing from the same day. He was never even charged by the government of being involved in some terrorist activity, according to a senior former official of the Supreme Court.

“The government did not come up with any proof against Aleem, and he had to be released by the apex court on August 21, 2007,” the official added.

The most important case was that of Hafiz Abdul Basit, who was allegedly involved in a terrorist attack on General Musharraf, according to the official.

“Basit was arrested from Faisalabad by police and was subsequently handed over to the Military Intelligence (MI) on Pindi Bhatian Interchange of Lahore-Islamabad Motorway on the instructions of the then Additional Inspector General of Police Tariq Pervez, who was DG-FIA at the time of hearing, as court was informed by the police officials themselves.

The attorney general was quoted by all the newspapers of Pakistan on August 21 and 22, telling the apex court that proof of his involvement in heinous crimes will be provided to the court. This was never done.

When Attorney General Malik Qayyum was approached by this scribe last week and asked why the Supreme Court was never provided with authentic proof of involvement of Basit, Aleem and others, his response was: “This is an old case, and I don’t remember anything about it.”

Another important case heard along with these three persons was that of Imran Munir, a Malaysian Pakistani. According to one official this case seriously damaged the credibility of the whole process of detaining civilians by secret agencies on terrorism charges.

“Imran was in love with the niece of Brigadier Mansoor of ISI. He was invited to dinner by Brigadier Mansoor and went missing from that day,” Imran Munir’s attorney, Mujeeb Pirzada, told the Supreme Court on Aug 20, 2007, after Imran was traced in Mangla Cantt.

Imran’s sister provided evidence that her brother loved the niece of Brigadier Mansoor of ISI. This, she did outside the Supreme Court building the same day.

“This was the first incident which told the world that some of the missing persons in the custody of intelligence agencies of Pakistan were not just terrorists but also lovers. It was the worst case which demolished the credibility of intelligence agencies,” the former Supreme Court official said.

He added: “The most interesting point was that government officials never came up with any allegation of involvement of Imran in any terrorist activity but shockingly, he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment by a military court, Field General Court Martial (FGCM), on spying charges. Loving a niece was equal to spying for a military court, it proved.

This conviction had been set aside, and his retrial was ordered by another military court, the SC official said. But this higher military court did not order Imran’s release because of the serious nature of allegations levelled against him.

According to the former senior official of the SC, the SC bench hearing these cases comprised deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice M Javed Buttar, Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed.

“The bench was of the view that all the missing persons should be produced before the court and should be prosecuted and kept in jail in accordance with the Constitution,” the official said, adding: “The bench never made even any observation indicating that it wanted the release of those persons involved in terrorist activities.”

The official also repeated that the allegations regarding supporting terrorism levelled by the General Pervez Musharraf at the time of imposition of emergency on Nov 3 against the apex judiciary was about the Lal Masjid case.

The official said that it was worth mentioning that Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar and Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi, who first took suo moto action and then heard the case, were both invited for taking oath under PCO on Nov 03 last.

Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry himself had told The News on Nov 04 last that if any alleged terrorist was released by the Supreme Court, it was not the judges’ fault but the government never provided any evidence justifying the arrest.

He had then said: “I have never been lenient towards the terrorists, but it was not possible for the judges of the Supreme Court to start punishing people without any evidence against them.”

He had also revealed that out of his serious concern over terrorism, he set up a committee under him that included judges from each provincial high court to expedite terrorism cases. Every month, he had said, the said committee used to meet and review the cases of terrorism to ensure that there were no delays.”

The official said that all the drama of presenting some innocent people as alleged terrorists and criminals was the part of a conspiracy against the country’s judiciary just to deceive the outside world that our judges were supporting terrorism and were hard liners.

Source: The News

MQM Rigging Video - Pakistan Elections 2008 [updated link for google video]

This video is from NA-250 (Karachi), where Khushbakht Shujaat (the lady former vice president of the Karachi Arts Council often appears on the electronic media) was standing from MQM and Ikhtiar Baig from PPP. Khushbakht Shujaat (MQM) won from this constituency. This video is one part of a series of 4 videos that were intially on YouTube but the other videos have been deleted.

As YouTube is currently banned in Pakistan, this video along with the parts can also be viewed on Google [CLICK HERE]

GEO News Undercover Video Exposes Rigging

An alternate link for this video is available in case this does not work for Pakistan [CLICK HERE]

The News reports:For the first time in the history of the country, the Geo News on Friday aired a video unmasking rigging in the February 18 elections.

In the video, the scenes of polls rigging from two polling stations of Karachi and Lahore were aired. In one of the scenes, some armed persons were tearing ballot papers and were stuffing ballot boxes for their favourite candidate at a polling station. One of the women at the polling station was heard saying to one of the armed persons to take away his rifle.

An unidentified female polling officer was also heard saying that the armed persons harassed them at the gunpoint and bogus votes were polled after occupying the polling station. The video showed the armed persons tearing ballot papers from a book and besides putting their thumb impression, stamping on the symbol of their favourite candidate.

At one of the polling stations, the seal of the ballot box had been broken and an unidentified man was seeing in it after removing the cover. The video showed the armed persons entering the polling station and one of the officer was also questions as to how many armed persons entered the poling stations and how many bogus votes they cast.

The video showed that bogus votes were also being cast at one of the polling stations in PP-152 constituency of Lahore. When Geo News contacted, Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad said he did not watch the video but asked for sending it to him so that he could take any decision in this regard.

Pakistan More Sinned Against Than Sinning

Haroon Siddiqui

Blaming Pakistan for the mess in Afghanistan is to get the equation backwards.

Pakistan has problems galore, and they are getting worse by the day. The jihadist insurgency there, with mounting attacks on the army and suicide bombings against civilians, is a spillover from Afghanistan, not the other way around.

The problems of Afghanistan thus have to be resolved mostly in Afghanistan – just as the problems of invaded Iraq have to be resolved mostly in Iraq, not in Iran or Syria.

John Manley's panel on our Afghan mission seems to understand, offering some nuanced observations.

"The crisis in Pakistan, which shares a lawless border with Afghanistan, adds new danger and confusion to Afghanistan's future."

It does. In fact, "Pakistan's own political disarray magnifies the destabilizing threat of the insurgency both to Pakistan and Afghanistan." (Emphasis mine).

"The conflict in Afghanistan is a continuation of almost three decades of war involving many of the same players, not all of which are Taliban." Correct.

During the 1980-88 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Pakistan provided a haven to the mujahideen, who used the same porous border to drive out the Soviets. Al Qaeda, including its foreign recruits, and the Taliban are by-products of that enterprise, which was paid for by the U.S. and its allies.

Manley: "The (current Afghan) insurgency benefits from easy resort to safe havens in Pakistan, where it is refinanced, rearmed and replenished with new recruits, including those from other countries."

Equally, "the insurgency receives external support and financial assistance from a number of global actors, including private sources in the Gulf states, as well as support from alienated local tribes, opium producers and other criminal elements within Afghanistan."

Here, then, is the big picture:

The Taliban are Pushtuns who live on both sides of the border. Pakistan, therefore, is home to Taliban and Al Qaeda sympathizers.

Pakistan does not deny that the inaccessible border areas may have Taliban/Al Qaeda sanctuaries, and also be the hiding places of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.

That leaves two main arguments.

Is Inter-Services Intelligence, the Pakistan army's super-secret agency, aiding and abetting the Taliban and Al Qaeda officially or at the behest of rogue elements within?

There is no proof of either but there are accusations galore.

Another argument is over what, exactly, President Pervez Musharraf can do to control the border.

He committed 90,000 soldiers and lost 900. That's more than double the contributions and sacrifices of all NATO nations combined.

That death toll prompted him to strike peace deals with the tribal leaders. But the deals backfired. The jihadists used the lull to intensify the insurgency.

Their quarrel with him is not that he's a dictator but rather that he is doing America's bidding in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

At the other end of the Pakistani domestic political spectrum, Iftikhar Chaudhry, the fired chief justice, also excoriated him for, among other things, copying Bush's tactics: holding terrorism suspects outside the purview of the law.

As for the notion of covert American action or open military intervention in Pakistani tribal areas – as hinted at by Stéphane Dion and clearly enunciated by Barack Obama – it's a non-starter.

A poll by the U.S. Institute of Peace has found that 80 per cent of Pakistanis oppose the idea. And 84 per cent consider the U.S. military presence in the region a far greater threat to Pakistan than either Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

So Musharraf knows whereof he speaks when he says: "I challenge anybody coming into our mountains. They would regret that day."

None of this is to give him a pass for his increasingly autocratic ways, leading up to the Feb. 18 election. Rather it is to point to the futility of scapegoating Pakistan for the West's failures in Afghanistan.

Here's Manley's main point: "Canada, in concert with key allies, should adopt a coherent diplomatic strategy that addresses regional risks and engages all the region's actors, in particular Pakistan."

Haroon Siddiqui is the Star's editorial page editor emeritus.

Source: Toronto Star

Not My Problem

Op-Ed by Masood Hasan

In Pakistan the operating principle is it's everybody else's problem. This absolves all individuals of any responsibility and paves the way for all and sundry to behave irresponsibly at the best of times and break every existing law, intact or already broken. Thus all problems go on magnifying till they become so huge that any solution cannot even be conceived leave alone implemented.

So the mess just gets bigger. Since no one is ever responsible, no one can be challenged. When the proverbial S hits the proverbial C, the axe falls with monotonous regularity on the little guys who take the rap and melt away into the shadows. The big alligators, shed tears, make disapproving noises, mouth a few well-thumbed clichés and move on pretty much without sustaining any hit. This may be a bit simplistic but it's pretty close to what characterises our national behaviour. This can also explain why we are buffeted by one crisis after another.

One month we are gleefully exporting wheat, the next there is a huge shortfall in the country. Riots break out, people raid flour shops, police raid the people, fights erupt all across the land, much abuse on a national scale is witnessed and through it all, the government does its 'lever' bit -- contorting the truth, shifting the blame and accusing those who are not at fault. The great dream-wizard, the king of dubious numbers meantime is lolling about in Davos or his luxury home in London, but he is not to blame. In this century, Pakistanis are learning to live by candlelight whose prices have shot up four fold. Those with lanterns are worse off because there is no kerosene. As for power it is more off than one and generator prices, for those who can afford them, have shot through the ceiling.

There are no times for power cuts. They happen as and when. Gas shortages are rampant and a ludicrous campaign runs on and on, blithely informing suffering consumers that it is not at all load shedding, but load sharing!! Dear God, are our sins so serious? It was WAPDA which inflicted this rubbish on us years ago and now, like a bad ghost, the gas boys have taken it up. Consumers are further asked to move their thermostats from 'hot' to 'warm.' How many geysers has anyone seen with those red caps on and gauges that work? Most just run like gas fires. That's not enough. People are advised that gas heaters are dangerous and must not be used. It is far better to wear warm clothes. In summer I guess we'll be advised to wear no clothes. This in the year of our Lord 2008!

The government led by Mr Aziz (anyone remember him?) threw open the country to all kinds of imports. Shops were flooded with hundreds of economically priced air conditioners and as far as the additional power was required to run these, that was not Mr Aziz's problem. He created conditions for thousands of easy-pay cars to flood the market but didn't think twice what this would do to the country's oil imports, the dwindling financial condition of the people or the roads of this country. Banks had a ball but power simply got sucked out. Mobile phones were placed under 'industry' and their numbers used to claim progress, yet he has sailed away into the sunset and even has the gall to take his benefactor out to a Lebanese meal in London rather than treat him at his home.

In our culture, a guest who cannot be entertained at home is not an honoured guest but Mr Aziz gets away once again and in fact complains that his buddies of yesterday, the Chaudhrys of Gujrat Sharif are maligning him and his policies. The president even calls the Gujrat boys and tells them to chill it. So as the buck passes from hand to hand, things just get worse but since no one is bothered to address what really ails the country, nothing is going to change. High profile prisoners saunter away cool as cucumbers from hordes of policemen 'guarding' them, but other than a few lowlies no one is going to have to answer for it. When he is questioned in London, the president flies into a temper and suggests that whipping errant journalists may be quite the appropriate thing to do. And so it goes on.

They say that no one can really solve our problems -- they are just too gigantic in size and scale. There is nothing that can seemingly fix any of the critical issues that now hold us in a vice. Can anyone do anything about it? Ask any Pakistani and all you get is a firm shake of the head. The problems are just insurmountable and because they have been ignored so many years, now have assumed alarming proportions. Almost every Pakistani at an individual level believes that an individual action will make absolutely no difference to anything. This thinking -- or lack of it, makes serious issues even worse.

Consider this. For a country where 40 percent of the people have no access to drinking water, the way we all waste water washing our cars is a matter of great depression. House after house in any part of what passes for urban Pakistan witnesses thousands of gallons of water being poured on cars and drives. Perfectly good drinking water but we simply waste it without a second thought. None of us ever admonish our servants or drivers not to wash the cars daily. We all know perfectly well that an hour later the car will be dusty again and the sparkling shining black tyres will sooner than later fall into a gutter or a dirty puddle but the cars must be washed, summer or winter. I don't know any other country where washing cars is such a fetish.

And it's not cars alone. Rickshaws, motorcycles, vans, trucks, buses even bicycles are washed, washed and washed. Hundreds of service stations use high pressure hoses to clean the under carriage of vehicles as if one was going to eat off them. It is a criminal waste of a precious and dwindling resource and we are depleting our water reserves as if there is no tomorrow. Does anyone care? Has anyone even begun to think of this? Like power and now gas, soon it will be too late but neither is anyone answerable and nor is anyone going to make it his life mission to prevent this.

We are eating into what is God given but it will not last. The earth's resources are not infinite and people who are unaware of the damage they are doing to the environment are simply bringing doomsday closer. We may not be able to hold elections without rigging them, but is conservation of water, power and gas to name three, possible? We are not a people who believe in saving, which probably explains our lowest rate of savings in the world, but unless some extraordinary steps are taken, we'll be history before we know it. Some strong, no-nonsense measures need to be taken and defaulters punished but even while saying this, a niggling thought tells me that we will simply lurch on from crisis to crisis, never knowing our left foot from our right. Perhaps that is our final destiny.

The writer is a Lahore-based columnist.

Source: The News International

Travel photography: winning visions

The best travel photographs of 2007, as chosen jointly by ‘Wanderlust’ magazine and ‘The Independent’. Each category winner earns a photo assignment in South Australia.

People

The runner-up was the work of Jeff Wilson: three wise men scanning for snow leopards in the Hindu Kush of Pakistan. “Chitrali men employed as wildlife rangers can spend hours squatting like this, noticing the minutiae of their surroundings – crucial when looking for an animal as well camouflaged as a snow leopard. They can spot the creature more than a kilometre away.”

Source: The Independent