Story of My Shoe - Speech of the Man Who Threw Shoes at Bush

Sunday, September 20, 2009

“In the name of God, the most gracious and most merciful.

Here I am, free. But my country is still a prisoner of war.

Firstly, I give my thanks and my regards to everyone who stood beside me, whether inside my country, in the Islamic world, in the free world. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act. But, simply, I answer: What compelled me to confront is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot.

And how it wanted to crush the skulls of (the homeland’s) sons under its boots, whether sheikhs, women, children or men. And during the past few years, more than a million martyrs fell by the bullets of the occupation and the country is now filled with more than 5 million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. And many millions of homeless because of displacement inside and outside the country.

We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shiite would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ, may peace be upon him. And despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than 10 years, for more than a decade.

Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. Until we were invaded by the illusion of liberation that some had. (The occupation) divided one brother from another, one neighbor from another, and the son from his uncle. It turned our homes into neverending funeral tents. And our graveyards spread into parks and roadsides. It is a plague. It is the occupation that is killing us, that is violating the houses of worship and the sanctity of our homes and that is throwing thousands daily into makeshift prisons.

I am not a hero, and I admit that. But I have a point of view and I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated. And to see my Baghdad burned. And my people being killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, and this weighs on me every day and pushes me toward the righteous path, the path of confrontation, the path of rejecting injustice, deceit and duplicity. It deprived me of a good night’s sleep.

Dozens, no, hundreds, of images of massacres that would turn the hair of a newborn white used to bring tears to my eyes and wound me. The scandal of Abu Ghraib. The massacre of Fallujah, Najaf, Haditha, Sadr City, Basra, Diyala, Mosul, Tal Afar, and every inch of our wounded land. In the past years, I traveled through my burning land and saw with my own eyes the pain of the victims, and hear with my own ears the screams of the bereaved and the orphans. And a feeling of shame haunted me like an ugly name because I was powerless.

And as soon as I finished my professional duties in reporting the daily tragedies of the Iraqis, and while I washed away the remains of the debris of the ruined Iraqi houses, or the traces of the blood of victims that stained my clothes, I would clench my teeth and make a pledge to our victims, a pledge of vengeance.

The opportunity came, and I took it. I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan.

I say to those who reproach me: Do you know how many broken homes that shoe that I threw had entered because of the occupation? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? And how many times it had entered homes in which free Iraqi women and their sanctity had been violated? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.

When I threw the shoe in the face of the criminal, Bush, I wanted to express my rejection of his lies, his occupation of my country, my rejection of his killing my people. My rejection of his plundering the wealth of my country, and destroying its infrastructure. And casting out its sons into a diaspora.

After six years of humiliation, of indignity, of killing and violations of sanctity, and desecration of houses of worship, the killer comes, boasting, bragging about victory and democracy. He came to say goodbye to his victims and wanted flowers in response.

Put simply, that was my flower to the occupier, and to all who are in league with him, whether by spreading lies or taking action, before the occupation or after. I wanted to defend the honor of my profession and suppressed patriotism on the day the country was violated and its high honor lost. Some say: Why didn’t he ask Bush an embarrassing question at the press conference, to shame him? And now I will answer you, journalists. How can I ask Bush when we were ordered to ask no questions before the press conference began, but only to cover the event. It was prohibited for any person to question Bush. And in regard to professionalism: The professionalism mourned by some under the auspices of the occupation should not have a voice louder than the voice of patriotism. And if patriotism were to speak out, then professionalism should be allied with it.

I take this opportunity: If I have wronged journalism without intention, because of the professional embarrassment I caused the establishment, I wish to apologize to you for any embarrassment I may have caused those establishments. All that I meant to do was express with a living conscience the feelings of a citizen who sees his homeland desecrated every day.

History mentions many stories where professionalism was also compromised at the hands of American policymakers, whether in the assassination attempt against Fidel Castro by booby-trapping a TV camera that CIA agents posing as journalists from Cuban TV were carrying, or what they did in the Iraqi war by deceiving the general public about what was happening. And there are many other examples that I won’t get into here.

But what I would like to call your attention to is that these suspicious agencies — the American intelligence and its other agencies and those that follow them — will not spare any effort to track me down (because I am) a rebel opposed to their occupation. They will try to kill me or neutralize me, and I call the attention of those who are close to me to the traps that these agencies will set up to capture or kill me in various ways, physically, socially or professionally.

And at the time that the Iraqi prime minister came out on satellite channels to say that he didn’t sleep until he had checked in on my safety, and that I had found a bed and a blanket, even as he spoke I was being tortured with the most horrific methods: electric shocks, getting hit with cables, getting hit with metal rods, and all this in the backyard of the place where the press conference was held. And the conference was still going on and I could hear the voices of the people in it. And maybe they, too, could hear my screams and moans.

In the morning, I was left in the cold of winter, tied up after they soaked me in water at dawn. And I apologize for Mr. Maliki for keeping the truth from the people. I will speak later, giving names of the people who were involved in torturing me, and some of them were high-ranking officials inthe government and in the army.

I didn’t do this so my name would enter history or for material gains. All I wanted was to defend my country, and that is a legitimate cause confirmed by international laws and divine rights. I wanted to defend a country, an ancient civilization that has been desecrated, and I am sure that history — especially in America — will state how the American occupation was able to subjugate Iraq and Iraqis, until its submission.

They will boast about the deceit and the means they used in order to gain their objective. It is not strange, not much different from what happened to the Native Americans at the hands of colonialists. Here I say to them (the occupiers) and to all who follow their steps, and all those who support them and spoke up for their cause: Never. Because we are a people who would rather die than face humiliation.

And, lastly, I say that I am independent. I am not a member of any political party, something that was said during torture — one time that I’m far-right, another that I’m a leftist. I am independent of any political party, and my future efforts will be in civil service to my people and to any who need it, without waging any political wars, as some said that I would.

My efforts will be toward providing care for widows and orphans, and all those whose lives were damaged by the occupation. I pray for mercy upon the souls of the martyrs who fell in wounded Iraq, and for shame upon those who occupied Iraq and everyone who assisted them in their abominable acts. And I pray for peace upon those who are in their graves, and those who are oppressed with the chains of imprisonment. And peace be upon you who are patient and looking to God for release.

And to my beloved country I say: If the night of injustice is prolonged, it will not stop the rising of a sun and it will be the sun of freedom.

One last word. I say to the government: It is a trust that I carry from my fellow detainees. They said, Muntadhar, if you get out, tell of our plight to the omnipotent powers’ — I know that only God is omnipotent and I pray to Him — ‘remind them that there are dozens, hundreds, of victims rotting in prisons because of an informant’s word.’

They have been there for years, they have not been charged or tried. They’ve only been snatched up from the streets and put into these prisons. And now, in front of you, and in the presence of God, I hope they can hear me or see me. I have now made good on my promise of reminding the government and the officials and the politicians to look into what’s happening inside the prisons. The injustice that’s caused by the delay in the judicial system.

Thank you. And may God’s peace be upon you”

The Octagon of Governance

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Published on March 4, 2007


Amid various international country ranking reports where Pakistan is fast approaching the victory stand of corruption, terrorism, lack of accountability, transparency and rule of law despite being a front line state in war against terror, one is inclined to see the larger canvas of overall governance in the country.

The term governance is being increasingly used in the latest development literature, among development professionals and political analysts all over the world. The gospel of governance, in simple terms, is the way where certain decisions are taken (or not taken) and implemented (or not implemented) to manage a society’s political, economic and social affairs. The onus of all the evils of a society is conveniently put on bad governance. Major donors and international financial institutions are basing their loaning and aid strategies in developing countries on the demand from the respective governments for a broader reform agenda ensuring good governance. In the presence of these “chaperons” for good governance, one can still see all the elements that contribute to the worst form of governance in the entire developing generally and in Pakistan particularly.

It becomes imperative to have a closer look at the term and its components in order to discern Pakistan’s performance on this pitch. Good governance, as the Governance Matters Report 2005 of our financial Vatican – the World Bank – warns us, has eight important elements: accountability, transparency, participation, responsiveness, effectiveness & efficiency, inclusiveness, stability and last but not least, rule of law. A steady performance and progress on these eight indicators would make the octagon of governance look balanced and poised.

Accountability – a self explanatory but largely misunderstood and abused term in Pakistan’s context – is a measure of the degree to which people are able to participate in selecting their government, have freedoms of expression and association alongside a free media. The need of making public officials and people’s representatives answerable for government behavior to the entity from which they derive authority can not be overemphasized. In countries with established democratic ethos and strong egalitarian roots, the accountability is ensured by audit covenants at one level and broadly elected legislatures and narrowly conceived committees etc at another. In Pakistan a simulation of democracy is doing the trick. Pakistan’s percentile rank (0 to 100) for accountability in governance among world’s largest populated twenty countries was 12.6 in 2005. Pakistan was fourth country from bottom, while China and Vietnam stood at the base of accountability pyramid. In South Asia, Pakistan was ranked second last among eight countries in 2005. The least accountable governance was carried by Afghanistan.

Transparency, correlated to accountability explains the accessibility of general public to information and government rules, regulations, procedures and decisions. The difficulty with ensuring transparency is that public access to information might very easily be restricted by the same authority that is responsible for providing that information. So, it is crucial to give the freedom of information a legal and legislative cover. Pakistan, having a scarcely envisioned Freedom of Information Act (which never saw itself explored by the parliamentarians on the floor of the House), is not displaying a pleasing picture on this front. With a country average of 16.1, Pakistan stands at the third least transparent country in its governance practices, rules, regulations etc. among South Asian countries closely beating Bangladesh and Afghanistan with country averages of 15.2 and 10.3 respectively. Maldives secures its place as the most transparent country with very tight regulatory framework among eight South Asian countries having a country average for transparency at 66.2 in 2005.

As far as government effectiveness is concerned, it’s a bit tricky to comprehend the concept and its relevance to good governance. As per definition accepted by most international governance assessment institutions, it measures the quality of civil and public service and degree to which both these services are independent from political pressures. It also gauges the quality of policy formulation and process of its implementation along with credibility of government’s commitment to such policies. Pakistan stands at fifth position among eight South Asian countries having a country average for effectiveness of 34 as opposed to Bhutan at number one with 64.6, India at number three with country average of 51.7, Nepal at number seven with 14.3 and Afghanistan at number eight with country average of 9.1. It demonstrates a devious kaleidoscope of political activity related to government effectiveness. Countries like Bhutan and Maldives may show higher averages of government effectiveness on account of being governed by autocracy and / or oligarchy, which leaves little space for non-state actors to dissent government’s actions. Countries with stronger democratic values may show a mid level average like that of India where government’s effectiveness indicators may confront a potent civil society interference. Countries like Nepal for example may show a major diversion and stay at the bottom as far as effectiveness stats are concerned, in the presence of a strong people’s opposition to autocracy. That explains Pakistan’s comparatively higher average compared to other indicators!

Rule of law, an important cornerstone of governance in any country is the measure of the level of social agents’ confidence in and abiding by the rules of society in particular, the value of writ enforcement, the police, the judiciary and the likelihood of crime and violence (we may use the word terrorism complying with emerging international linguistics). Pakistan ranks sixth among eight South Asian countries with a country average at 24.2 compared with Bhutan at number one with 64.7, Maldives at number two at 60, India at number three with an average of 56.4, Sri Lanka at number four with 54.1, Nepal at number five with 25.1, Bangladesh with 19.8 and Afghanistan with 1.4 at numbers seven and eight respectively. A country with greater value for democracy and people’s voices may display foreign and domestic policies with greater mass acceptance. A factor that minimizes people’s concerns resultantly less violent attitudes, more people-friendly policies, greater political and social freedom and social safety nets. All contributing to a just and equitable society thus leading to rule of law.

Conceptually and rationally, all these elements of governance support and reinforce each other. Accountability is related to citizens participation in decision making processes, which in turn is linked to transparency, information openness, government responsiveness to people’s needs and concerns, government efficiency and predictable decision making of autonomous government agencies. Similarly, the transparency and accessibility can not be ensured with out legal frameworks to balance people’s right to information against governments’ right to confidentiality along side a wide institutional acceptance to accountability. Finally, a democratic system facilitates governments to take informed decisions, incorporate people’s interests and voices in policy formulation, a free media to act as autonomous watchdog that props predictable outcome of governance. It, therefore, appears to be an unmistakable reality that the flag of good governance can only be unfurled under the bright sunlight of democratic system. The octagon has to be perfectly figured if soft image of Pakistan is to be popularized!

Two Courts, Why Not?

Published on:          May 19, 2008

As the judicial imbroglio thickens the air between two coalition partners, the speculative analyses and predictions keep creeping through the op-ed columns and current affairs talk shows on umpteen TV channels in Pakistan. Whatever the analysts say, however serenity and reason PPP leadership tries to bring to the negotiating table, the fact remains that it’s not the dearth of solutions that is leading to uncertainty in reinstatement of judges, its lack of political commitment to do so. The solutions that have came up so far range from an executive order to a constitutional amendment or the act of Parliament. Considering the significant moves on the part of political movers and shakers, it is becoming all the more necessary to reach an upshot as soon as possible. The more time is spent on proving that every proposed way out has more cons than pros, the easier it would be for the anti democratic forces to draw the conclusion that no solution is possible for this political riddle.  

The recent proposal, which was instantly denied by the Prime Minister, was that of establishment of two supreme courts. The idea perceptibly seems to be mala fide and an attempt to appease the lawyer / civil society pressure and placate a presidency that is shamelessly being lactated by the world powers. But at the same time, it deserves a serious thinking and analysis. The two Supreme Courts would mean a judicial system that allows the power of constitutional review to concentrate within a single judicial body. This proposal has a history of being in force in various countries of Western Europe alongside new democracies of Eastern Europe; and has displayed a widely accepted version of constitutional protection and control.

The presence of Constitutional courts gives rise to the anomalies of overlapping jurisdiction of Federal Constitutional Court and the supreme civil court, their absence critically contradicts with the principles of sovereignty of parliament and judicial review especially in democracies like Pakistan and India whose constitution remains a major source of this paradox. In India, where no Constitutional Court exists, the constitution has successfully fought back to be the supreme law of the land; in Pakistan, it still is a political instrument that every regime uses to consolidate its power. This fundamental difference in political cultures of both the countries makes them incomparable as far as judicial system is concerned. The emerging democracies in the European world, on the other hand, might offer an attractive judicial package to be replicated here in the backdrop of fierce battle between the state and the judiciary in Pakistan over last one year - a case much similar to postwar Germany when Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) was established.

The German Constitutional Court had to encounter five branches of specialized courts already well established in the pre-Natzi tradition of German judiciary. The specialized courts had to overcome the failure of their immediate past, whereas, the Constitutional Court was offered a considerable chance of success by the climate of postwar reform. If in Pakistan, the existing Supreme Court takes on the jurisdiction of civil, criminal and administrative cases and a new Federal Constitutional Court is established with the mandate of constitutional interpretation, it is expected to correspond well with the democratic tradition of separation of power and centrality of constitution.

It should, however, be kept in mind that developing a commonly accepted model of cohabitation at the supreme judicial level will be extremely difficult and would require stronger political commitment from parliament, the existing Supreme Court as well as from other power players. The answer to fundamental question of distribution of judicial power between the two courts would largely depend on the intent of establishment of such bi-faceted judicial system that divorces American system of diffused judicial review. If the sole objective is to keep one single individual from heading the apex constitutional court, and limiting his power to civil and criminal suits, the new system may lack vision and design to sustain and might not produce popularly desired results.

The apprehensions of some experts, as reported in media over last few days, about the establishment of Constitutional Court in Pakistan weigh much lesser compared to the positives of it. If established on the following lines, the system can, by design, respond to most of the apprehensions:

1.      The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) should be structurally independent with respect to the Executive Branch and to the Supreme Court

2.      The FCC should be mandated to develop the concept of direct applicability of the Constitution (including its guarantees of fundamental rights) and to impose that concept on other segments of the judicial branch.

3.      Procedures of the constitutional complaints should be such designed that they should extend the applicability of complaints to all the situation involving conflicts with fundamental rights of individual liberty

4.      The FCC, while preserving the last word in the wake of a controversy, should not claim a monopoly over application of the Constitution but, rather, should act as a coordinator of that process.

5.      The FCC should be vested with the competence to review ordinary statutes and other legal regulations as well as to annul them in case of unconstitutionality or nonconformity with any international instrument to which Pakistan is a party. Such decisions of the FCC should be universally binding i.e., also binding on all other courts, including Supreme Court.

6.      Each court (Higher and Supreme) while resolving an individual case should consider whether the statutory provisions based on which the judgment will be give, are in conformity of the constitution or not. In case of a doubt expressed by the complainant or the judge herself about the constitutionality of such provision, the judge should refer that issue to the FCC as a legal question. The decision of FCC should be binding on the other courts to be applied to the case(s).

7.      The FCC’s composition should be such that all the provinces and other federating units are equally represented.

While smoothening public opinion on any set of judicial solutions, we need to keep in mind that present crisis has a hidden opportunity – the opportunity of making our judicial system more relevant to a parliamentary democracy and constitutionalism. Change is sometimes uneasy, but it surely bears the fruit of development. And the key to change is . . . let go of fear!

Positive Thinking or Self Delusion?

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

September 2, 2009 — Marvi Sirmed 

The phrase “Positive Thinking” has always been intriguing to me, for the misconceptions and myths it has been carrying from time to time, from culture to culture. In modern world, this beautiful concept is being excessively used politically for its deceptive nature and the intent deeper than one could think. So, I have been trying to find resources to understand the concept in as deeper a manner as possible, and about how it has been used by the movers and shakers of societies since long. But this particular piece is triggered by a Facebook link uploaded by a friend. The link asks for being positive in all situations and in fact gaming with ourselves in trying to find a positive aspect of every happening around us. It also termed our mind as a sacred enclosure in which nothing harmful should enter except by our permission. Now that’s where my problem starts.

Let me take you to the journey this concept has been through, before indulging in an uncomfortable discussion! The concept of ‘positive thinking’ is probably as old as human civilization. But it emerged in an organized form, from Christian religious dissertations in early 1920 s. When Joseph Murphy(1898–1981) wrote his famous “The Power of Your Subconscious Mind”, he probably did not know how this psychological concept would be turned to a sociological phenomenon and resultantly, would be used politically. It did not take very long for the Vatican to base its texts and lectures by a host of religious figures, on the concept of ‘No Negative thinking’ and ‘positive attitude’. These were the years of great depression in a democratic America. It seemed a very effective strategy to put a permanent stop on questions. See all positive. That was the potent message of that era.

And then there was Second World War. It was again surprising for me to realize that father of the modern concept of Positive Thinking (PT), Norman Vincent Peale (1898 – 1993) came up with his best seller “The Power of Positive Thinking” in a troubled post WWII era. He, like Murphy, had come from a religious background and made himself conspicuous for his religious works like “In God We Trust: The Positive Faith for Troubled Times” and “Faith is the Answer”. The state has made optimal use of clergy for manipulating people’s collective thought. With love terrorism, so peculiar of religious elite of the time, Peale refuses to allow his reader to hear, speak and see an evil, and looking for only positivity in whatever they feel and see. This was, by the way, the era when budding women liberation feminist movement was seen as villain among religious quarters in America. So much so, that the wise and the mature of that time called these women Feminatzi (Femina + Natzi). Positivity was selective it seemed!

In recent times, this term took a new turn after 9/11. In almost all corporate training programmes, self development courses and even in school curricula in few states of USA, the concept of PT became prominent. Bush administration wanted people to see everything positive on ground zero as much as Musharraf led Pakistani establishment became too worried about Pakistan’s negative image because of the fact that people of Pakistan “. . . think negatively and are overly obsessed with their faults rather than achievements”. In every paper, programme, adverts, official interviews, everybody got stuck in PT. Our self-righteous lot of “learned” TV anchors and columnists regurgitated the PT propaganda with such vigour that otherwise reasonable thinkers went into the hands of few opinion leaders. Popularizing Pakistan’s soft image through making positive statements internationally and through looking at every phenomena with a closed mind (lest anything negative might not enter it) and an eye blinded by the overly emphasized Positive Thinking, became the key propaganda points.

It would be unfair to give all the credit for this bankruptcy of vision to Bush and Musharraf duo, though. In Pakistan, for example, this has been done since at least five decades through a very organized campaign of killing every germ that could germinate into self criticism. People have been made absolutely ready to fool themselves by not doing any exercise of trying to find the truth through examining situations with fair eye. People absolutely forgot that in order to value our selves, it is absolutely necessary to criticise ourselves, and not let this self-criticism become guilt and self-loath. So much so that after 62 years of our existence, if someone tries to indulge in self-criticism, s/he is termed as the one who is obsessed with failures, who is self-loathing and is against the collective wellbeing of the nation – in other words, is a traitor!

Blowing up small time achievements, as couple of kids who sing well, a sports team who wins the nation a sports event once in five years or a high achieving software engineer for example, is self destructive in a big way. It leads to self delusion, which does not let us concentrate on bigger problems we face as a nation – the problems that have their root cause in not recognizing them in initial juvenile stage, in not nipping the evil in the bud. It makes us insist on, “I’m looking good”. This self delusional positive thinking takes you where we are right now – abyss of oblivion. It compromises your readiness to acquire knowledge and being aware. It makes it difficult to come out of the cult of the “self”. It makes us believe that Positive Thinking is the route to success, whilst it is only intelligence, hard work and fairness.

I think the real test of positive thinking comes when we become centre of criticism from others. To deal with it positively, we need to understand where the criticism stems from. It has two scenarios, as far as I can think of. One: it comes from real friends who genuinely want us to change in a positive manner. Two: From those who have no interest in seeing you improve. They are doing it to probably make you look smaller than them. In either case, this is where positive thinking comes to operate.

In this way, positive attitude does not come in conflict with the self criticism. It, rather, complements later by being honest with ourselves and valuing ourselves by knowing true strengths and weaknesses.  If we can learn to be honest with ourselves our conscience will prevent us from undertaking regrettable actions, thus no negative image, no bashing from outside world. It’s just about recognizing the true us. But it requires guts. I’m sure we do have these guts as nation. Let’s discover us from within ourselves, lost since ages under the layers of falsehood and self righteousness.

Amar Shonar Bangla - Some More Random Thoughts

April 23, 2009 — Marvi Sirmed 

Hameeda Hossein - An Indra Gandhi Look-alike

This is the end of my third day in Dhaka and I’m back to my little room in BRAC Inn, a guest house facility of BRAC. We had long discussions in the morning about parliamentary oversight and consented on a set of recommendations to be given to SAARC countries’ parliaments to increase transparency and openness to civil society / people / media. The deliberations ended with a comprehensive document carrying specific recommendations for each country in South Asia. On the previous day, broad framing of issues had been done around Judicial, parliamentary and government regulations. There were around 30 delegates from all the SAARC countries save Bhutan. As usual, the discussion was dominated by Indian and Pakistani delegates. Pakistani delegation was led by revered I. A. Rehman and comprised Advocate Asad Jamal, Mukhtar Ahmad Ali, Executive Director CPDI and the author.

Among the delegates, Yamini Mishra immediately got my attention due to her focussed approach and for her knowledge on budget and government accountability. Also, my eyes kept slipping from one face to other looking for Amitabh Behar, for his first name – he is namesake of my favourite actor !
Well, all these details need to be pushed to a later writing for we had an excellent evening after the session that deserves a mention here. Shaheen Anam and Hameeda Hossein were worried about me ending up in overspending on sarhis. Shaheen zealously kept on jotting down names of shops and marketplaces where I can get good variety of Jaamdani and silk sarhis in reasonable prices (little did she know that I have already spent major chunk of my cash on the first day, in Arung!). Hameeda was concerned about my ability to get to a roadside shop to get matching Teeps. These passionate women wanted to be as much of help to me as possible. Sweet!

Before I could barely move out of this crowd, Rehman uncle was seen suddenly leaping towards me against all odds- the randomly placed chairs in a tight Board Room. I was alerted for a moment, did I say something wrong during the discussions? God, how should I control my emotionally charged harangues during political discussions? Well, lets see what did I do recently to deserve a chide from Rehman uncle in his usual slight way. And he has reached where I am. Tick tick tick… please uncle speak up . . . Ji Khatoon, kia programme hay aap ka? What? Aahh . . . Rehman uncle actually wants me to accompany him somewhere! He wanted to get a shopping comrade to go to Arung with him, where he wanted to buy something for his grand children. As soon as we snaked our way out of the Board Room, we saw a de-hyderated Asad Jamal and a routinely calm Mukhtar who too wanted our company.

It was very humid but pleasantly airy outside. For the first time I did not mind absence of a car. I normally use rent-a-car service of the hotel I’m staying in, when I travel in our outside the country, for being an extremely lethargic person. But today, it felt really good to be with people, walk along crowded roads without footpaths lined with encroachments and with lungi clad men, sarhi clad women waiting for transport. Public transport is in shambles. Busses can merely move, taxis are few and very expensive, auto-rikshaws are abundant still not enough for an ever increasing middle class of Dhaka city, cycle rikshaws are most popular and most abundant. I could not make it out. Around the world, everything that involves human hand and effort, is far more expensive than the machine based work. Here, cycle rikshaw was much much lesser in price than any other transport! From Mohakali to Beli Road, we had given 250 takas to a taxi, an auto rikshaw (I checked later) would charge around 100 taka, while a cycle rikshaw would be extremely happy if you give him 30 takas instead of his expected 20 takas.

Anyway, we kept waiting for any transport to be available until a fan of Rehman uncle reached out to us and sweetly offered a lift in his small Maruti sized car. Before uncle or any of the gentlemen could say anything, I accepted his sweet offer, in an equally sweet manner! He dropped us at Arung in Gulshan. We got stuff from there and moved to the road once again to get a transport back, while holding all those bags in our little hands! While waiting for an angel at the road, Asadf got this brilliant idea of eating out. I called Usman to guide us to a restaurant, who immediately took it upon himself to host us a dinner. So sweet!

After an effort, we were able to get a taxi. We were unable to convey the taxi driver that we want a drop at Street 7, Gulshan 1, while he has to take Uncle back to Mohakali . . . language barrier. Most of the Bangladeshis do not understand Urdu, hindi or English. Their education is largely in their mother tongue – Bengali – till graduation, except few science subjects, which too are not enough for communicating in English without difficulty. We somehow managed to drop uncle first and then going to street 7, where the rendezvous with Usman was a book shop Words and Pages – city’s only big book shop.

Words and Pages was a small sized deserted shop which did not have most celebrated works like Nazrul, any history book covering pre 1971 period and about personalities like Sirajud Daula, who had hailed from Bengal. The culture of reading, the sales manager told us, was rapidly diminishing from Dhaka. We could not find anything that we were excited about. One badly printed version of Lalun ( a sufi saint poet of Bengal) and Tagore was surely there. A corner was allocated to the music CDs but sadly, we could not find Firdausi Begum, Shehnaz Begum or Nazrul geeti sung by anyone, Tagore Shongeet etc. Big disappointment indeed.

One thing that I could not miss in Dhaka was, women engaged with all aspects of life. Economic activity, intellectual discourse or arts, women are everywhere. Gender segregation practically does not exist. Music is a pet of every household. A very religious practicing Muslim, Nirupama Abdul Waheed, wakes up early in the morning to say Fajar prayer, and cannot think of missing her riaz on harmonium immediately after namaz. People’s names are quite misleading as well. Nirupama Abdul Waheed, Uttam Biswas s/o Ghulam Haider . . . and many.

More later!

Amar Shonar Bangla - Some Random Thoughts

April 23, 2009 — Marvi Sirmed 

Rabindra Nath Tagore

“Where’s Pakistani girl with teep?” was the sweet voice that embraced my ears while I was smoking in a quiet corner of BRAC Centre where our conference was being held. A warm and loving Shaheen Anam from Manusher Jonno was looking for me for something. My Teep (bindi) was a good news for South Asians who had gathered in Dhaka to deliberate upon the South Asian perspective of the Right to Transparent Governance. Most of them, however very familiar with empowered women of Pakistan like Asima Jehangir and Hina Jilani, did not know this strange way of defiance a woman could indulge in Pakistan. Bangladeshi friends including Naila Khan, a politician, Dr. Shirin Sharmeen Chaudhry, CEO of a local NGO and Ms. Hameeda Hossein, a veteran rights activist and at the forefront of women’s empowerment movement in Bangladesh, all Muslims but sarhi and teep wearing women, were absolutely at loss to understand why in Pakistan people have started taking Teep as something that threatens their religion? It remains a part of accessories women use to adorn themselves and it should be accepted, they say, by the Pakistani mullah as so.

Despite a raving frenzy (and a justified one) of a common South Asian about Bangladesh being rapidly arrested in religio-mania, I could not see as many mosques as I see in Islamabad. Although the number of mosques has increased by leaps and bounds as it was in 2003 when I last visited Dhaka. People are ritualistic and believe in structured religion but are generally much deeper than that. Number of Modrassas seems to be very low in the capital but one can see more women with Hijab now than were seen in 2003. I could see no hubbub and over excitement about “Waqfa-e-Namaz” (the prayers’ break) during the sessions, which is normally overly played in all the conferences in Pakistan. People, who want to say prayers, would quietly move out of the Lunch or the proceedings and would not make it a point to break the flow of discussions just because they want God on their side. Although you get to see many Bengalis with typical white Muslim caps and beard, their body language doesn’t seem threatening to the existing social fabric.

Bengalis don’t even need an excuse to sing and dance! On the humid evening of April 21 Shaheen invited all the delegates to her cosy and lavishly decorated apartment in Lake Breeze, Gulshan. With its neighbourhood rubbing shoulders with a horribly downtrodden slum area, Lake Breeze is an extravagant apartment building which is home to the upper middle class “intellectual elite” of Dhaka. The evening started with A Nazrul Geeti Keno asheley bhaobashiley followed by a folk number, a feminist song asking the world where’s a woman’s home. Two beautiful young students of a dance school performed Bharat Natyam before the delegates of every country were invited to sing a song. The evening was a very nice departure from dry discussion on how to improve regulations in SARC countries to make the governments more transparent.

Earlier, Usman Qazi, my lovely friend, who works with UN for displaced persons and is based in Dhaka, gave a call and excitedly invited for a chat. We went to Arung, a chain of BRAC’s sales centre for the products prepared by the women BRAC works with. Usman kept on telling me about his experiences in Dhaka throughout his now over two months stay here. “I love this city”, Usman washed away all my intention to talk about the disappointment about the city I got immediately after I left the airport for Mohakali. I have been earnestly following Usman’s Ramblings from Dhaka, his little notes on his experiences in the city. So, I knew he has his own unique and fairly deep perspective to look at the people and the socio-political phenomena there.

Dhaka has all the problems an overly populated city could have. It has been facing a Dhaka-targeted urbanization from all over Bangladesh being the only metropolis of the country. Power outages have surpassed Pakistan’s performance on this front. Every hour, in fact it can go out any minute for indefinite time. No wonder people came out on streets outraged by outage, stormed power sub-stations, blocked roads, damaged vehicles and got hurt in large numbers amid all kinds of allegations on the government for corruption in the energy field instead of resolving the issue in favour of people. Sounds familiar?

Today’s breaking news was allegations levelled by Abdul Jalil, General Secretary of ruling Awami League, against many members of the cabinet of being agents of DGFI (Bangladeshi equivalent of ISI). Civil society is uncomfortable with a seemingly anti-establishment, comparatively progressive Awami League’s absolute power in the country (with 4/5th majority in unicameral parliament), its corruption and its ongoing clandestine talks with religious right, the modrassas and Jamat Islami Bangladesh.

Well all this is diluting my homesickness to some extent! South Asia has a character of its own!!!

Things about Me: You Might or Might not Know

April 15, 2009 — Marvi Sirmed 

1. I hate to follow, but am doing it only because I like this idea! It took an hour or so to take stock of myself to write these 25 points! But why 25????

2. I can’t believe I’m actually doing this…..I had always believed that human brain is incapable of truly random thoughts

3. I love to challenge, especially the stereotypes and the established norms . . .so I used to challenge the class attendance requirement during my college days!

4. I am better at coming up with ideas than following through with them.

5. I try to live in a manner that affords me the ability to be an open book, but with very-difficult-to-decipher codes . . . My heart is not a garden where everyone could walk in, rather, it remains like sky – visible to everyone, where everyone wants to reach, but only the PRIVELEGED can get to it!!! (no no its not mean . . . it’s just about class!)

6. I’m a daughter of desert – a son of Cholistan married a daughter of Thar, and I was born!

7. Being the only daughter of the family, I was a pampered child. I’ve two brothers who were raised in a seminary in Bahawalpur, who love me because I’m their only sister but hate me for what I am!

8. I am a political animal, but it always excites me to be a “king maker” rather than a “power seeker”

9. I used to be very uncomfortable in mingling with communities in khuli katchehris etc. Grand pa would not approve of this attitude and term it as “elitist”. But believe me the only problem was that people used to smell really bad!!! Sorry grand pa  You know what, I lost my sense of smell after grand pa’s death . . .and now village meetings? Not a problem!

10. Despite my repeated attempts, I could not develop the taste for music other than Bhajans, old filmi music of subcontinent, daadras by Roshan Ara Begum, ghazals sung by Begum Akhter, Fareeda Khanum and Iqbal Bano, Sufi kalam by Baba Bulhay Shah, Shah Hussain, Baba Fareed, Bhitai, Sayeen Sachal etc. Aur kuch samajh mein naheen aata 

11. I like Urdu because that’s the only language I’m good at . . .I have to struggle with all the other languages including my mother tongue Punjabi and our national father tongue English!

12. I love reading. Books are my best friends. I would be the happiest person if you leave me alone in Hawai for 15 days with my books 

13. Things I have enjoyed most (so far) – been arrested, delivering political speeches in small Jalsaas, performing on stage, sleeping while Musharraf was talking in presidency in 2006 and people told me he knew and was disturbed about it, asking Gen. Shaukat Sultan who he was (when he was DG ISPR), playing with children from servant quarters when I was a kid, watching Sholay, marrying Ameetabh Bachan and going to Niagra with Bogart (the last one was a dream, silly!)

14. I hope I never stop learning and growing.

15. I will stop procrastinating tomorrow, promise!

16. I find that semantics come into play far more often than I would like.

17. I feel that most religion does more harm than good and that the good that is done could be done without it.

18. At this point in life I am an atheist.

19. I think life would be easier if I were religious again, but I can’t lie to myself.

20. I believe it human to be selfish, but we can rise above it.

21. I hate apple. They brought out a new iPhone a week after I bought my 8gb one. Bastards.

22. I’d be 37 this summer, and I still think there’s something about sex that I don’t know!

23. I worry too much about letting people down.

24. If I am depressed, sad or menstrual I will sit and eat bowls and bowls of plain rice and lentils (Please note, I eat rice in bowl. lols)

25. I have the ability to fall asleep anywhere and I have. While driving, at work, standing in line, during sex, on the toliet, while eating, you name it. I’ll be talking and then someone is waking me up. I would sleep all the time save night!

26. I have no career goals and my romantic life (what on earth does it mean??) is ok anyway.

27. I have boxes and boxes of books I have no intention of re-reading just in case someone comes by and says, “Do you have a copy of Radha Krishnan’s Geeta I can borrow?” I feel this is my duty. I also can not throw a book away if it is ruined. I’ll keep the tattered pages until they are shredded so much that I can’t tell what book they used to be.

28. I don’t understand why people go out if they don’t drink, they don’t dance and they don’t want to talk to anyone there. Me? I’ll be over here doing all three and probably throwing a little bit of some extra stuff in the mix as well. I am the best (behaved) drunk on Earth. I’ll talk to anyone and I have no problem getting other people to dance. When in doubt, you should invite me. No, seriously. You really should.

29. I am full of ideas for movies, books, songs and I plan them in my head almost to completion. Then before I can write them down, I come up with a new idea which pushes the old one out. Lack of a pen, laziness and general forgetfulness are the reasons I haven’t done most f the things I talk about.

30. I’m proud of my accomplishments (way too many to list here, hehehe). I worked hard to get where I am today, against all odds and in spite of myself.

31. Thank you Muna and Shaan for allowing me to take a look/see into me again….I must do this every once in a while to take stock and to see just how far I’ve come, or not!

32. See, you asked for 25, I gave you 32 – that’s me!

Save Pir Baba - Another Sufi Saint Likely to Be Attacked

April 11, 2009

Shrine of Hazret Pir Baba

As the news comes in about Taliban’s moving into new Buner areas, one is left wondering about the missing writ of the state, lack of competency and the willingness of security paraphernalia and a flagrant and shameful inability of Pakistan Army to get rid of terrorists. According to the latest news pouring in from the fateful Buner valley lying north east of Peshawar bordering NWFP, Taliban have moved into the new areas. Earlier, they had their presence in the valley but promised on last Thursday, April 9, 2009 to leave the valley. But by the mid day on Friday, April 10, they had crept into the heartland Buner and occupied it without any resistance from the law enforcing agencies.

As the word goes, most of the policemen and FC personnel are either scared of Talibaan or are ideologically close to them. In either case, it is glaring defeat of the state to keep its writ unchallenged (which is not very women/people-friendly anyway).

According to the inhabitants, Taliban are roaming around in the valley scot free while police and FC men are keeping themselves confined to their posts. Does it bother now? It is now an old and familiar story. People of Islamabad witnessed it in 2007 when armed men and women from Laal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa tried to takeover the writ by openly challenging it on streets, abducting and beating women who they thought were not following shariah. It was followed by a bloody war between the militants and the law enforcing agencies. The whole gory incidence happened under the nose of Inter Services Intelligence, country’s apex spy agency whose Head Quarter lies within the range of 2 kilometers of Jamia Hafsa/Laal Masjid. No one sacked ISI’s Director General who must have been either in the know of transportation of heavy ammunition in the seminary, or may be a part of it. If neither, then he must be the most incompetent person in Pakistan to head such a sensitive organization. Our army of TV anchor persons (who’re normally quite apt at castigating politicians for their “corruption” and incompetency) could not even utter this strange discrepancy in the role of state’s spy network.

Now in Buner valley, we’re witnessing another dimension of agencies’ role. Whatever the motives of these agencies have been, it is quite clear that their designs have not worked in favor of neither the people nor the country. Last night’s TV reports showed people of Swat talking about Taliban’s “benign” character with a visible and unmissable fear. Most of the people spoke about how wrong the decision of establishing Lashkar has been. This viewpoint coincided with the news item that homes of tribal elders who established Lashkar have been occupied by Taliban. Why the police and the FC is not doing anything was manifest when a police officer (with a fogged face obviously!) was seen on the TV screen telling that higher authorities have ordered not to mess with Taliban. Sounds familiar?????

The tales of agencies’ involvement in such a mess, Taliban’s Islam and its implications on women, all aside, one gets extremely upset to know that the occupying force of Taliban has captured the Shrine of sufi saint Hazret Pir Baba. The shrine has been locked by Talibaan and people have been asked not to visit the shrine.

Hazrat Sayyed Ali Tirmizi, commonly known as Pir Baba, was a 16th century saint. His family migrated from Afghanistan to Delhi when his father joined the army of Emperor Hamayun. He moved from one place to other throughout his life spreading the message of love, humanity and peace. In the last years of his life, when Emperor Akbar consolidated his rule, Pir Baba settled in Buner permanently. Later, his followers made the shrine a rallying point for struggle against British imperialism.The village where his shrine is located came to be known as Pir Baba. Baba’s magnificent mausoleum attracts thousands of people every year in the spring season. One would hardly find a Pathan who does not know Pir Baba and revere him. Those of the southern districts of Kohat and Bannu sincerely believe that a prayer offered at Pir Baba’s shrine for marriage is invariably granted; disappointed lovers go to Pir Baba even to this day.

Earlier, the Taliban terrorists have destroyed shrine of revered Saint sufi poet Rehman Baba. It is absolutely lamentable that these sufi saints who attracted thousands of people to the folds of Islam by their message of kindness, humanity, love and peace are being persecuted posthumously by these primitive killers. And more despicable is the fact that all of us are seeing silently as if nothing is happening. Love is under trial, peace is being persecuted, sufism is being harrassed and people are being coerced to distance themselves from the symbols of these values, why doesn’t it bother?

It's Not 4 Fs: A Rebuttal to Ms. Anjum Niaz

March 19, 2009

“Welcome Back, My Lord!” was Ms. Anjum Niaz’s piece that made way to the opinion page of The News (Page 6) on March 17, 2009. An otherwise fair columnist, Ms. Anjum  got probably carried away in siding with her old time friend Sherry Rehman. While Sherry’s action in standing up for the freedom of media is duly respected by all and sundry, it should not be forgotten that in our emotional streak we may not be unfair with others. 

Ms. Anjum Niaz’s emotional piece accuses, absolutely incorrectly, four women members of Pakistan Peoples Party for the decline of Shery Rehman from two coveted positions of Minister Information & Broadcasting and Secretary Information of PPP. She calss the group of four ladies as 4 Fs i.e., Farzana Raja, Fauzia Wahab, Farahnaz Isfahani and none other than honourable Speaker, Dr. Fehmeeda Mirza. 

In her sentimental dash demonstrating support for her friend, Anjum Niaz goes so off the deep end, that she forgets the fact that Dr. Fehmida Mirza is holding a position which is much above the Minister of Information status. And that she has nothing to envy of Sherry Rehman. And infact, Sherry and Dr. Mirza have never known to be at odd ends of relationship. 

Here I would like to emphcize couple of important points. First is the respect that is privelege of the chair Dr. Mirza holds. Gone are the days when parliamentary ethics would not onnly prevail among the honourable members of the Houses, but would also overflow into all quarters of society including media. It pains a student of political science to see this deterioration across the range of important actors in a state. The Chair has to be outside these petty political meanderings. And a veteran journalist should be extremely cognizant of this other wise this ethical slip down would see no fathomable depths.

Another important fact that is missed in this piece is that Dr. Fehmida Mirza remains one of thosse very rare Seakers of the Houe our legislatures has ever seen, who could not compromise on their impartiality and nonpartisanship. If Ms. Anjum Niaz had any time to read through the pages of spreadsheet media reporting on National Assembly procedings, she would know that present Speaker has very successfully isolated herself from partisanship not only in the House but also in party circles.

Most importantly, I would like to draw readers’ attention towards a very important fact, and that is, Dr. Fehmida Mirza is silently playing a very strong role in empowerment of women by being torch bearer  in organized campaigning towards this end. She has, on her personal initiative, established a Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, that involves all women members of both Houses. It is to be noted that one such initiative was taken by PPP women members in 2003 as well, but it was thwarted by entirely different ideologies of women representing political parties polls apart. It happened, basically, due to the abssence of a figure who could moderate points of difference among ideologically opposite party representatives within the Caucus at that point in time. Now, fortunately, we had this fggure in the person of Fr. Mirza, who not only carried the role of Chair entrusted upon her, with utter grace, but also gathered all women inthe House around one table. Seeing women from allparliamentary parties working together on women’s issues, across the party lines, was a sight one would never like to miss!

Her nonpartisanship became evident on March 12, 2009 when she hosted a Milaad in Parliament House. Despite a very tense day between government and opposition that day, owing to the commencement of Long March, one could not stop one’s heart pounce with extreme joy on seeing all women sitting together – whether it was PPP, PML-N, ANP or MQM . . . all were there.

Now my question from Ms. Niaz is, what makes her drag this impartial figure into this political tug of war? If it is just her friend Sherry, then she should pay some heed to what Sherry thinks of Dr. Mirza. Dr. Mirza has no threats from anybody in or outside the House owing to her august position.

I would request Ms. Niaz to kindly correct this folly and take her words back.

We have an Unbiased Media!

March 17, 2009

And the much awaited happened! Chief Justice Iftikhar M. Chaudhry was restored with effect from March 22, 2009. Citizens rejoiced, the media was excited and the political workers were dancing. After midnight when the breaking news flashed on the media about the possible resolution of the issue, and the announcement that the Prime Minister was going to address the nation shortly, everybody was waiting endlessly sticking to their TV sets. The speech came at around 9:30 pm the following morning. at 10:30 we saw the footage of dancing people in different parts of country. Despite having very strong reservations about the person of Justice Chaudhry, I had been sincerely wishing for this seemingly impossible to happen. It was basically because of the fact that people’s will and their power was being testified. This will and power had thrown an all-powerful dictator out of power. And now a popularly elected government was resisting people’s will. A contradiction in terms!

When we saw people dancing in the streets of Pakistan, I was overwhelmed. I wanted to dance as well. I wanted to be with rejoicing people. We picked up the keys and left for Aab Para, where reportedly hundreds of people had gathered and were dancing. We rushed to that place. On our way, we stopped at Melody, which is very close to Aab Para and was also reported to be a place of people’s rejoicing according to umpteen media channels. We took our pounding hearts to that place only to find it deserted. I was intrigued. I roamed around in the market, where around 90% of shops were still closed (it was around 11:30 a.m.). Tried to talk to the people, who looked absolutely disinterested. The khaakroon (sweeper), the paan waalah (beetle leaf selling person), the chhaabri waalah (kiosk man), the waiter of a food kiosk and the sales man sitting in a food corner . . . all were but ignorant to the idea that they should be actually celebrating! When asked whether someone was dancing here, they expressed their utter ignorance. Just a man in the street told that there was a shop keeper who was member of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, celebrated by distributing sweets.

Disappointed, we left for the Aab Para market. It was exciting to see the sight of marchers over there. I rushed to them, who were standing in two groups facing each other. One group was holding flags of PML-N and placards with pictures of Mian Nawaz Shareef. The pictures were interestingly displaying MNS in an attire that resembles the image of Asif Ali Zardari – clad in Ajrak and Sindhi topi (cap)! The other group was holding PTI’s flags.

The PML-N group got excited to see me, mistaking me as a journalist, and started shouting slogans of dekho dekho kaun aya, sher aya sher aya (Look who has come, the tiger, the tiger!), with tiger being PML-N’s electoral symbol and general symbol of bravery.

The total number of marchers belonging to both groups was not more than a hundred. when asked about the “dancing” all the channels were reporting about, they told me that they had just arrived there half an hour ago and don’t know about any dancing episode. When asked why they were not dancing, they said they wanted to but they couldn’t find dhol waalahs (the drum beaters).

Once again disappointed, I went on to ask some bystanders about it. I was told that at 10:00 a.m. there was dancing by some lawyers who were there, and that too at the demand of some media persons who wanted interesting footage to fill in air space!

I left from Aab Para and try to comb Islamabad’s other busy centers to find any “rejoicing”, just to find deserted roads!

Aahh . . . so much for “efficient reporting” by an efficient and unbiased media!

A Citizen Cries: An Open Letter to Mr. Asif Ali Zardari

March 16, 2009

Dear Mr. President,

This is a citizen, a voter of Pakistan People’s Party since she reached the voting age. I find it very hard to believe that my (along with hundreds and thousands of PPP voters’) story is a story of betrayal – a naked betrayal. May I take you to the little journey we’ve been through and ask you few questions? 

Being grown up during Zia-ul-Haq’s black era, our generation was pushed to the political oblivion. Students Unions were banned till we reached the college-going age. We heard the story of the judicial murder of Z.A. Bhutto and courageous political cruise of his able daughter Benazir Bhutto. She came and went twice at the hands of the protégés of Zia. We confess, we could never give PPP full mandate. Our fellow citizens did that for PML (now “N”) who went berserk with power’s intoxication. In their folly of being “all powerful”, they challenged those who had brought them. Not surprisingly, soon they had to be thrown out. We suffered almost a decade of darkness once again.  

But we didn’t lose heart. We continued raising our voice for the reinstating of democracy. Amidst the news of PPP negotiating with Musharraf, we did never stumble in our support for PPP. It is PPP’s right to get back to politics in Pakistan, we argued. And if the cases are based on mala fide, the only way to get rid of them would be through negotiating with the dictator. Were we wrong? And then NRO happened. We were shocked, still we did not stagger. PPP must have this as the only option to get back to politics, we again argued. Were we wrong? PPP opened negotiation window with public face of rightist forces in Pakistan, PML-N. BB must be visioning a reconciliatory politics in coming years, so she is trying to draw her lessons from the politics of 1990s. PPP must have developed respect for people’s mandate which Nawaz League enjoys, we once again argued. Were we wrong? The Charter of Democracy happens. We were happy. The Charter depicted the political maturity of both the parties who have been playing musical chairs all through last decade, we thought. Were we wrong?

The dictator gives us a blow by deposing Chief Justice of Supreme Court. We were all out for the CJ, before thinking too much about his own credibility. We stood for the institution. We were exposed to brutal police violence for doing that. It only energized us against the dictator. And finally we got the good news of CJ’s reinstating by Supreme Court. We danced in the streets and bazaars of Islamabad for the whole night on July 22, 2007. Paan wahlaas, chhaabri wahlaas, shop keepers, students, even the women from ordinary household danced with us that night. Smiles came back to Pakistan after long nights of pitch dark. Little did we know that this smile was short-lived. In September of the same year, we expected a fair judgement from now “free judiciary” on Musharraf’s re-election in uniform issue. We thought that we’ve been able to get the judiciary burry the doctrine of necessity for ever. How naive! The judiciary once again let us down. They gave a short judgement to allow Musharraf contest election while in uniform with election results kept secret till next judgement. And there we felt ourselves on ground zero! But we let the show go on. We still had hopes on judiciary.

We were enraged when the dictator imposed Emergency in the country holding the constitution in abeyance. We stood firm. We were baton charged, we were tear-gassed, we got shells on our foreheads, we were assaulted by security agencies, we were put behind the bars, and so on. But the resolve could not be defeated. Despite the NRO discussions, PPP appeared to be a panacea to us. We were all for a free and transparent elections. We were excited on seeing the elections in the offing. And our smiles were once again snatched, only to be replaced with tears when they killed BB. Our BB was taken away, it was like all hell had been let loose. And then you came. We forgave you for the past. We wanted to move ahead. You carried it with grace in the beginning. But where did it go?

Mr. Co-Chairperson sir,

Let me assure you, we always stood by you whatever you had been saying / doing since February 2008. We were there to defend you on every public forum or little drawing room discussions. You rolled back BB’s decision on premiership of the country. Despite a bad taste, we accepted it. You isolated BB’s confidantes; we took it as party leader’s democratic freedom to build her/his own team. In that bid, you accommodated new faces while compromising on the older party stalwarts. We didn’t raise an eyebrow and took it in democratic spirit. You went on broad based “consensus” and “reconciliation” while making the government at federal level and in three provinces. With a little hesitation we took it. As PPP voters, we claim to be country’s most senior and most penalized group of people who have stood for social democracy with a secular vision. This vision was disturbing us when you were going ahead with removing all opposition by hook or crook. It itched us when you handpicked people, single handed, for all important public offices. Democratic spirit was shrieking. We tolerated it in the name of democracy itself that needed a breathing space here. 

We kept watching when you appointed a controversial figure as federation’s representative in one of country’s thickly populated federating unit. We silently watched that figure disturbing balance of power in that part of our beloved country. With great pain, we were still watching when worst kind of manipulation was being done in supreme democratic institutions. With all the understanding that all this was not one sided on your part, and that the other part was also fully responsible for it, we still hold you responsible for we have greater expectations from our own party.

You kept on dominating the party through your handpicked office holders and short sighted advisors who could not give you an understanding of a dangerous trust deficit you have with PPP workers and voters. You continued to batter us with a shock every day. As innate democrats, we were traumatized when people’s mandate in Punjab was put down the drains. Before that, you had already breached Charter of Democracy, your own agreement signed with PML-N on March 9, 2008, your repeated promises with the nation on reinstating the Chief Justice, your promise to do away with 17th amendment and 58-2(b), your running party office alongside running the presidency, and the list is swelling. To add fuel to the fire, you tried to join hands with those political faces who have been directly or indirectly responsible for BB’s assassination. We understood why PML-N was not pressing upon impeachment of Musharraf. But towing this line from you as PPP’s Co-Chair, never made to our head. You, Mr. Co-Chairperson, have greatly disappointed us on every count.

We are now making a mockery of ourselves by siding with you Mr. Co-Chairperson. We have a serious feeling that our BB’s party has been hijacked by those who have no commitment to the people, to the democracy and to the socialist ideals. People have been arguing with us on your credentials to lead biggest national party of the country. They have been arguing on internal democratic structure and practices that our party lacked. They have been arguing your inability to ensure separation of powers. They have been arguing your mala fide intent in handling Punjab. Why have we put to this position Mr. President? We were still not out of BB’s grief, and you happened to us. The historian will be witness of our open heart towards you, but we’d not let the historian write in annals of Pakistan’s democratic history, that we sided with you even when you were brutally murdering spirit of democracy in this fateful country. We never voted you sir. We voted for BB’s party. We voted for democracy. We voted for political maturity BB showed in signing Charter of Democracy. 

So Mr. President / Co-Chair of BB’s and workers’ party, you have reached a pinnacle of political power whence all ways lead downwards. We don’t approve of this option for our party. We did not come this far to allow outsiders usurp workers’ rights and assault spirit of democracy. We demand as voters of PPP to immediately take following steps to restore party’s image;one: reinstate Ch. Iftikhar with executive order; Two: enter review petition from PPP for disqualification case of Nawaz and Shahbaz Shareef; Three:immediately call Punjab Assembly’s session and let PML-N form the government; Four: Kindly freeze all efforts to manipulate number game in Punjab; Five: Call back Mr. Taseer and appoint a mutually agreeable figure as governor; Six: immediately repeal parts of 17th amendment that compromise the democratic spirit of 1973 Constitution; Seven: lay off 58-2(b) right away;Eight: free all political arrestees and remove any cases registered upon them;Nine: start reforms process, structural and political both, in order to deliver for the people of Pakistan; and Ten: chose one office; President of Pakistan or Co-Chairperson of PPP.

We hope you’ll pay heed to what PPP’s voters say. Thanks.

Best wishes,
Marvi Sirmed
A Common Citizen