With the NRO mess not going away, and more stories of corruption by Sharif Brothers making the news, more and more signs are pointing towards the two families (three if you can call MQM a family) joining hands to cover each others back.

First was the attack by PML-N stalwarts against Zardari detractors and today we learn the two are collaborating not only on NRO-Plus and plan to pass it unanimously, but have jointly written a script to blame someone else for their corruption in order to ‘prove’ all cases were ‘politically motivated’ and they are clean as a whistle:

PPP’s New Line:  “Jehangir Badr, whose prime target was no other than former President Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari during the entire press conference, said that not only the NRO beneficiaries, but those who had to pay billions of rupees to banks should also be held accountable.“

PML-N’s New Line: “Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif Wednesday said it was Farooq Leghari who filed lawsuits against the leaders of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).“

Please remind me which is the ruling party and which one is the opposition?! And isn’t Shahbaz forgetting about Saif-ur-Rehman???

Note: No doubt I agree with Jehangir Badar that “Farooq Leghari, his son Awais Leghari and other members of their family, should be held accountable for their various corruption scandals such as cooperatives and PTCL scandals” but it should be done alongside the holding accountable PPP and PML-N and other NRO beneficiaries and not instead of it, as seems to be the plan. And why didn’t Badar think of this before???? Farooq Leghari’s corruption did begin when PPP was in power. Also, how is PPP going to deal with the fact that Zardari’s henchman Malik Riaz of Bahria Town is a business partner of Farooq Leghari?

I am surprised Badar left out the name of his colleague Senator Jamal Leghari, the elder son of Farooq, who is no less corrupt. That Farooq and Awais are guilty of corruption, there is no doubt about that either. It is a fact that Farooq Leghari (and Jamal and Awais jointly) had less than 1250 acres of land when he became president but today Farooq Leghari alone has acquired more than 12,500 acres of agricultural land (I have no clue about the acquisitions by Awais and Jamal Leghari but they have been on a land buying spree as well). And this does not include other property and bank accounts. Awais alone built his house in Islamabad at a cost of Rs 8 crore. His cousin Sumaira Malik of the ‘Cat House’ fame has spent twice that. Her sister Ayla Malik’s (these days with DunyaTV)   husband (now ex) Sardar Rind has bought another 12,500 acres in the same area as Farooq Leghari. Farooq’s cousins of course are not only among NRO beneficiaries but also big loan defaulters (but sitting pretty in the National Assembly or as Nazims)

Note: Let me remind Mr Badr that it was Awais Leghari who became Privatization Minister for a day to sign the sale of Pakistan Steel Mill (PSM), the sale that was over-turned by CJ Iftikhar and was the main and last straw that led to the CJ’s dismissal by Mush. I am sure Awais got offered a pretty penny to go along with that scam.

Recently money laundering by Sharifs was exposed in the press (but they have somehow managed to quash it or it lost attention of the press due to the NRO issue). It is also a surprise how the owners of 10 sugar mills managed to stay clear of the sugar scandal when there are no doubts of their involvement.

Now we are told they are certainly involved in many others and might have stayed clear by forcing the removal of  chairman of NAB, Lt Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz. Their parners in crime? President Asif Ali Zardari, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Humayum Akhtar, Jehangir Tareen, Altaf Saleem, Nasarullah Dareshak, Anwer Cheema and Mian Azhar in scams relating to sugar, edible oil, stock exchange and petroleum products.

Related:

Shabaz Sharif set to sell government property (which will be anything but ‘transparent’

Shahbaz on way to London to meet Altaf Hussain

PML-N colluding with PPP on NRO-Plus, the new ‘accountability’ bill

Written by Sarah Khan of Pakistan Daily 5 Oct 09

Rehman Malik (Urdu: رحمآن ملک ) (born 12 December, 1951) is Pakistani absconder civil servent, senator, alleged MI6/FBI asset, and the current Interior Minister of Pakistan. Under the Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani administration. He was upgraded to latter position from Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs and Narcotics Control after he was elected in the Senate of Pakistan. He took the oath as the federal minister on 27 April, 2009. He has been the interior adviser since 27 March, 2008.

Malik is a former FIA officer who rose to head the Federal Investigation Agency during Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s second tenure. He later joined the Pakistan Peoples Party and was the trusted lieutenant and chief security officer (CSO) of Benazir Bhutto.

Early Life
Rehman Malik was born in Sialkot, Pakistan on 12 December, 1951 in a family of barbers. He got his secondary and intermediate education from Sialkot and did his masters from University of Karachi. His website claims that he also holds an MSc in Statistics and PhD in Criminology. Recently a government website also claimed that he holds these degrees.2 However, neither this information was given at the time of his appointment as Advisor to Prime Minister nor is there any record of him ever enrolling in any Pakistani university.

Career
Pakistani columnist Anjum Niaz’s wrote in his article in Dawn newspaper:

“Malik rose to dizzying heights from a lowly grade 13 or 14 [in Pakistan, officer grade starts at Grade 17] officer. Stories of Malik trying to worm his way through by bribing his seniors are still fresh in our minds. Come promotion time, he’d turn up at their homes with trays laden with designer suits. By golly, it worked!”

Rehman Malik had started his career as an immigration officer and became the top-man in the Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) in the mid 90’s. During 26 years of active service as an officer of Federal Investigation Agency, he has held the post of Additional Director General of FIA besides heading various regional offices of the department such as Crime Zone Peshawar, Immigration, Interpol and National Security Cell. He had been associated with anti-terrorism and anti-money launching operations of FIA which have earned for him recognition by the international law enforcement community. He was bestowed with Sitara-e-Shujaat in 1995.

FIA Deputy Chief

Benazir Bhutto appointed Rehman Malik as the additional director-general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which then launched a secret war against the Islamist elements in Pakistan, which amounted to a direct attack on the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The Pakistani military was equally dismayed by reports of FIA contacts with the Israeli secret service, the Mossad, to investigate Islamist terrorists. The FIA leadership under Bhutto also angered Taliban supporters within the establishment, because they allowed the extradition of Ramzi Yousef to the US for trial on the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

One of the first acts of President Farooq Leghari after dismissing Benazir Bhutto on 5 November, 1996 was to imprison Ghulam Asghar, head of FIA, suspended on non specified corruption charges, and Rehman Malik, Addl. Director General FIA, was also arrested.

Accusation against Sharif and Assylum
In November 1998, Rahman Malik termed the termination of his service by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif an “act of retaliation” because of the 200-page report, which he had sent to then President Rafiq Tarar, disclosing large-scale corruption of Sharif family. Rahman Malik then fled to London and made corruption accusation against the Sharif brothers. He was soon given British nationality.

In London Rehman Malik started his security company Shaffaf Group in 2000, which specialized in providing intelligence to businesses (in other words he was openly selling Pakistani classified and security information to the highest bidder). Besides Shaffaf Group he started a number of other ventures, included the DM Digital Network with the head office at Manchester.

Oil for Food Scam in Iraq in 2005
Petroline FZC (registered in Sharjah) was part of the Bayoil network and was involved in the infamous United Nations oil-for-food scandal. Benazir Bhutto was the chairperson with 34% shares while Rehman Malik and Benazir Bhutto’s newphew Ibrahim Jaafry/Hasan Ali Jaafry were 33% owners each and directors in the company. According to the Volcker’s inquiry Petroline FZC traded $144m of Iraqi oil, and made $2m of illegal payments to Saddam Hussein’s regime. Through Petroline FZC, Saddam Hussain got over US$1.4 billion commission deposited in a Bank of Jordan branch.

President Musharraf’s amnesty dropping corruption charges against public officials only covers the period 1986-1999. The Petroline FZC transactions came after that, which means that in theory a charge is possible.3

Benazir’s trusted aide
Rehman Malik emerged as the deal broker in Benazir-Musharraf reconciliation talks in Abu Dhabi in July 2007, and replaced Makhdoom Amin Fahim as the most trusted political lieutenant of Benazir Bhutto. Fahim was Benazir’s aide since 2002, when he formed the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians and acted as the leader of PPP in the absence of Benazir and her husband Asif Ali Zardari. It was also reported in The News that after Rehman Malik took over the role of top “adviser and broker” of Benazir on important matters ranging from politics to business, Fahim seemed to have become an “obsolete political commodity.”

Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
Rehman Malik was the person responsible for security of Benazir Bhutto. After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto there were many accusation against Rehman Malik for lax security and his absence from the scene. While some have also accused him of being a key player in the Benazir Bhutto assassination.

However, he was brought into the limelight for his past service to Asif Ali Zardari and PPP, and was made an adviser on interior affairs and narcotics control to the PPP Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, with the status of Federal Minister. He was later upgraded as Interior Minister of Pakistan.

Assets
Muhammad Sajjad Haider currently FIA’s Deputy Director is considered the right hand man of Rehman Malik inside FIA. He worked hand-in-hand with Rehman Malik in the cpature of Ramzi Yusuf and then against Mujahiddins in 1994-94.

Personal Wealth
Starting at assets of a couple of million dollars in 2007, Rehman Malik has increased his worth to a few billion rupees in two years of his ministership.

Family
He has one brother Khalid Malik who has become a “very” successful businessman in the recent years (from 2008 onwards).

Disclaimer: The views expressed by this Writer do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Pakistan Daily News

I VG, torsdag 8. oktober, kunne man blant annet lese følgende om hverdagen på Sharifs Dekksenter: “Dekk-Sharifs arbeidere: Vi må jobbe gratis. *Bruker ulovlig innleieselskap. * Latvierne får ikke overtid. (…) Jakov Helgeson driver “Sjanse Limited”. Selskapet råkjører for å skaffe Tommy Sharif billig arbeidskraft. VG har fulgt i fotsporene til latviske menn, fra landsbygda i Latvia til Sharifs Dekkservice på Romerike, som drives av ikke ukjente Tommy Sharif. Vi kan avsløre: * Arbeidere hevder de er tvunget til å jobbe 60 timer gratis i opplæringsperioden. *Selskapet som formidler arbeiderne er,  ifølge Arbeidstilsynet, feil registrert. *De innleide arbeiderne har ikke fått fem øre i overtidsbetaling, selv om de systematisk har jobbet overtid. Overfor VG erkjenner Tommy Sharif at hans leverandør av arbeidskraft har drevet useriøst. (…) Russeren Jakov Helgeson driver bemanningsfirmat Sjanse Ltd. (…) Sjanse Limited er ikke registrert som utleiefirma. Ifølge Arbeidstilsynet driver de ulovlig. (…)”

Nok en gang lover Tommy Sharif å rydde opp. Jeg nøyer meg med å konkludere med følgende: Det er ikke rart at Tommy Sharif ga pengegaver til Høyre, FrP og Venstres Abid Q. Raja, som alle arbeider for å svekke stillingsvernet i arbeidsmiljøloven.

All the ‘R’ needed was a curve. A tiny…minute little curve, and suddenly the whole damn word is readable…

Just goes to show … we are truly blind. I managed to figure out the necessity of the curve by writing out the letter 50 times, in various handwritings, then analysing them. Glad to say my knowledge of letter structures, gradually expanding, has just been temporarily sated.

Host of the program “Awam Ki Awaz” on CNBC visits city courts in Karachi to see the improvements made by the much vaunted (by “civil society” and the “honorable lawyers”) Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

I guess it was a fair trade to give away Musharraf and 2 years of Pakistan, and get Iftikhar Chaudhry in return ?

To see normally “harami” lawyers portrayed as great saviours of “civil society” by Geo and AAJ TV.

Whoever thought up THAT script ? Could it be someone who was not familiar with the realities of Pakistani lawyers ?

Geo and AAJ happen to run programs made by foreign government agencies (Voice of America – VOA) and run them so they are indistinguishable from their own programming. Which media channel would tolerate that kind of brand dilution – especially in Pakistan where airing a U.S. propaganda channel would not exactly be a commercially profitable move.

How much are Geo and ARY “overpaid” for their services ?

In the same way that the USIS overpaid for printing material at the Jamaat-e-Islami printing presses in the 1960s – as a way to clandestinely (and “legally”) fund them ?

This video has lawyers fighting with the reporter instead of accepting realities (so that they can prepare themselves to fix them).

One lawyer lies by saying he has never seen a policeman take a bribe. The reporter says she has seen it already in her short trip to the city courts.

This is the result when lawyers refuse to condemn their own. Why ? Because they have a “lawyer’s biradari” (a term they seem to be quite proud of).

Which explains why a complaint against Iftikhar Chaudhry was not examined by the Supreme Judicial Council but was squelched by his colleagues on the Supreme Court. What was so damaging in the accusations against Iftikhar Chaudhry that they did not want to bring it up to scrutiny ? What were the reasons for refusing to look at the accusations ?

The Pakistani public still does not know if there ever was an analysis done of the accusations against Iftikhar Chaudhry – were they correct or were they incorrect ?

The public is split between people who could see what was happening, party workers (each supporting their own), and the rest were non-thinkers. Asma Shirazi on Geo TV is one of those. At least Hamid Mir knows why he hates Musharraf or why he wants to make it appear that he hates him. Yet it is presenters on TV like Asma Shirazi who cannot control their facial expressions – they are so SURE that the story told by the “media” is the correct one, and anyone supporting Musharraf MUST be mistaken.

Evidently she did not feel any sign of disgust when she glad-handed the many parliamentarians on her former show “Parliament Cafe” on Geo TV. Fine specimens of integrity those.

Asma has now been replaced by an equally naive and perhaps even more jahil lady presenter on Geo TV, who has her own show where she is utterly incapable of asking any incisive question of her guests.

Links:
1/3 Awam Ki Awaz – CNBC Pak – Oct 8, 2009
2/3 Awam Ki Awaz – CNBC Pak – Oct 8, 2009
3/3 Awam Ki Awaz – CNBC Pak – Oct 8, 2009

A rough, 10 minute sketch. I’m not too happy with the way the ‘R’ turned out in ‘Zehra’. I’m thinking about making it Upper Case, incorporating it’s curve into the curve of the ‘H’ (opposite side).

I’ve also though about making the ‘H’ on the ‘Sharif’ side Upper case…

We’ll see
I’m just glad that i have a good base to start from. This design could turn out to be really neat.

Eieren av Sharifs Dekksenter, Tommy Sharif, ga økonomisk støtte til både FrP og Høyre under årets valgkamp. Han heier på Høyre, for øyeblikket. Gjennom mesteparten av valgkampen heia han på FrP. Han ga dessuten pengestøtte til Venstres Abid Q. Raja også.

Mange av høyresidas politikere roste ham opp i skyene. Han hadde visstnok gjort en kjempeinnsats for landet, og var visstnok en ordentlig kjernekar.

I Romerikes Blad, 17. september, kan vi lese at Arbeidstilsynet fant det de karakteriserer som “alvorlige brudd” på reglene da de sjekket overtidsbruken ved Sharifs Dekksenter. Etter årets tilsynsbesøk i april i år krever Arbeidstilsynet at Sharif må få på plass kontroll og oppfølging av at arbeidstidsbestemmelsene overholdes og rutiner som hindrer ulovlig bruk av overtid.

Dette er ikke første gangen Tommy Sharif får refs av Arbeidstilsynet. I 2006 påpekte Arbeidstilsynet følgende mangler hos Sharif etter etter tilsynsbesøk på Sharif Dekksenter: * Manglende overtidsbetaling. * Arbeidskontrakter manglet. * Slurv med bruk av verneutstyr. * Dårlig merking av farlig utstyr. * For dårlig internkontroll på opplæring og bruksanvisninger.

Kommer høyrevridde politikere til å fortsette å rose Sharif opp i skyene? Sannsynligvis. For Sharif kommer nok til å fortsette med å gi dem valgkampstøtte.

I dagens utgave av dn.no er han med atter en gang, Tommy Sharif, se: http://www.dn.no/forsiden/naringsliv/article1742124.ece. Det er rett og slett meget godt gjort. For nylig ble tallene for 2008 lagt ut på proff.no sine sider og for å ha bygget opp en virksomhet med driftsinntekter i underkant av kr. 75 millioner er det enestående å få så mye oppmerksomhet av media (se http://www.proff.no/proff/search/companyDetails.c?freeText=sharif&bc=0&c=Z001UNLL&org=979330529) .

Med den omsetningen gjetter jeg at det er ca 1 000 selskaper i Norge som er større enn Sharif’s dekksenter, men jeg tviler på at det er flere enn 50-100 av disse selskapene som får mer mediadekkning enn han. Han har tjent seg rik på å være billigst. En strategi som Porter kaller for Cost Leadership strategy og som i følge ham er svært enkel å kopiere. Men skal man lykkes med denne strategien sier Porter at man bør ha noen av følgende fordeler hentet fra Wikipedia:

To be successful, this strategy [cost leadership reds.anm.]  usually requires a considerable market share advantage or preferential access to raw materials, components, labour, or some other important input. Without one or more of these advantages, the strategy can easily be mimicked by competitors. Successful implementation also benefits from:

• process engineering skills
• products designed for ease of manufacture
• sustained access to inexpensive capital
• close supervision of labour
• tight cost control
• incentives based on quantitative targets.

Uten tvil virker det som om Sharif har gode medarbeidere, hans lønnsomhet er meget god for bransjen i øvrig, og hans egen lommebok er svær nok til å finansiere nybygg på Skedsmo etc. Men fremforalt er genistreken hans mediadekkningen som gir ham et så stort kundegrunnlag, kun ifra en butikk et par mil utenfor hovedstaden. I mine øyne er Sharif meget  vellykket som entreprenør. Jeg liker at han har klart å holde fokus til tross for dansing, Koenigseggkræsjer og politikk. Det er også bra for det motiverer andre gründere at Sharif klarer å få så mye mediadekkning rundt en egenetablert, mellomstor bedrift i Norge. Det motiverer andre til å starte for seg selv, og det motiverer oss andre til å kjempe videre mot nye mål.

Lykke til videre Sharif.

Musharraf interview on Frontline with Kamran Shahid on Express News TV – Sept 13, 2009

Kamran Shahid, representing the younger, and possible more urbane (i.e. post-newspaper era) journalists, who has previously conducted reasonably combatitive interviews with other politicians, here tackles Musharraf.

This interview encapsulates nicely the disparate arguments given earlier in the series “Why Musharraf Was Removed” on this youtube channel (and on this blog).

The answer is that Musharraf was considered cooperative but not totally servile.

Servile observance is much more forthcoming from the feudal elements of Pakistan. They are used to that model of behaviour where their slaves are servile, while they themselves are servile to a bigger entity.

From expansion of drone bases to expansion of U.S. “diplomatic mission” to many acres of land right next to centers of power in Islamabad. And the proliferation of Blackwater (or whatever new name it has acquired) presence.

Also some well placed criticism of the “journalists” like Ahmed Rashid, who sit in the U.S. and act like all too keen advisors. They are akin to the native american scouts who helped Europeans to expand into North America to the detriment of their own people.

However even Ahmed Rashid is probably better than some of the wolf-in-sheeps-clothing “journalists” like Hamid Mir and some others, who are not presenters of truth, but presenters of controversy. Thus they did not highlight the real and budding problems for Pakistan ahead of time, and then wind up blaming Musharraf for them – for example the power crisis.

Although the power crisis is exacerbated by the PPP government’s refusal to pay the IPPs (independent power producers), and negotiation of newer power contracts at higher rates (perhaps is a way to strongarm the IPPs to pay “commission” to Zardari), there still was a (albeit smaller) crisis in the making because of all the consumer electronics (ballooning of airconditioners) which ramped up consumption.

Where were the big business interests (once again they demonstrate how big business in Pakistan has not graduated from the “Seth” mentality seeking political favour under one leadership or the other regardless of the overall policy impact for Pakistan), and where were the media in highlight the imminent power crisis.

Also the blind spot in the media to the reality of the “Lawyer’s movement”. Their lack of focus on why the Supreme Judicial Council failed to examine the accusations against Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. The financial backing by Benazir to get better terms in NRO negotiations and after the departure of the PPP “former-Jiyala” lawyers, the resuscitation by Nawaz Sharif to a movement that mustered few lawyers, though it compensated with support from Nawaz Sharif voting base.

Add to this the presence of foreign funding to Geo and AAJ TV in the form of payments for airing VOA programs.

And you have the makings of a perfect storm of media coverage that covers one side of the story, but chooses to keep quiet about the moderating caveats in the story. This “movement” has been likened to the “mass uprising” in Iran against the Mossadegh government by Zaid Hamid (the Brasstacks defence analyst). The anti-Mossadegh movement was a CIA operation to remove a leader who was being seen as constraining for U.S. interest at that time.

Although realistically, in the case of Musharraf, even if there was a need for “regime change” by the U.S. it was probably a combination of getting better terms for drone flights, expansion of U.S. embassy as well as reintroducing the policial figures back into Pakistan.

This was a need probably realized by Musharraf himself – the removal of the political forces (which includes feudal and entrenched forces) had created a vacuum, which rather than being filled by educated youth and new idealistic leaders wound up being filled by the religious forces which were primed (with weapons) following the Afghan wars, Saudi funding (proxy war against Iran) and drug money to crimianl elements in FATA.

The corruption probes had mainly affected PPP and PML-N (and PML-Q some of who had been forgiven for exigency sake). Many cases were instigated by PPP or PML-N themselves against the other – and not Musharraf. The cases had languished in courts and the incompetent (and underpaid) legal system had not handled them well. In the absence of these political forces, the “religious” parties saw great opportunity (as if there can be such a thing in Islam – since what is a “religious” in a state full of muslims ?).

The fallout of 911 and the activated anti-U.S. sentiment did not help either – as the religious parties could make that their banner (even though when the time comes they would kowtow to the U.S. even more). Thus the religious parties used this time to foment domestic dissention at a time of great foreign threat to Pakistan.

On the other hand, it may have been used by Musharraf as well – NOT as media is prone to say to “bolster his own position” – but to argue for why Pakistan ‘could not do more”. Yet few in the media understood or bothered to care for these undercurrents.

Links:
1/5 Musharraf interview – Frontline with Kamran Shahid – Express News TV – Sept 13, 2009
2/5 Musharraf interview – Frontline with Kamran Shahid – Express News TV – Sept 13, 2009
3/5 Musharraf interview – Frontline with Kamran Shahid – Express News TV – Sept 13, 2009
4/5 Musharraf interview – Frontline with Kamran Shahid – Express News TV – Sept 13, 2009
5/5 Musharraf interview – Frontline with Kamran Shahid – Express News TV – Sept 13, 2009

Mohammed Mosaddeq

Dr. Danish interviews Musharraf on ARY TV – September 11, 2009.

Links:
1/6 Musharraf interview – Dr. Danish – ARY TV – Sept 11, 2009
2/6 Musharraf interview – Dr. Danish – ARY TV – Sept 11, 2009
3/6 Musharraf interview – Dr. Danish – ARY TV – Sept 11, 2009
4/6 Musharraf interview – Dr. Danish – ARY TV – Sept 11, 2009
5/6 Musharraf interview – Dr. Danish – ARY TV – Sept 11, 2009
6/6 Musharraf interview – Dr. Danish – ARY TV – Sept 11, 2009

Dr. Danish examines the truth about Kargil with Siddique Al-Farooq (PML-N), Gohar Ayub (PML-Q, and son of Ayub Khan) and Brigadier (R) M. Ali Jawed (Analyst).

Links:
1/3 Truth about Kargil – Dr. Danish – Aug 22, 2009
2/3 Truth about Kargil – Dr. Danish – Aug 22, 2009
3/3 Truth about Kargil – Dr. Danish – Aug 22, 2009

Yasin Malik criticizes those who take domestic politics and take it overseas in other countries. Compares the unity among overseas Hindus who while critical of each other inside India, do not distinguish between themselves when they are overseas and lobby for India.

This seems to catch Imran Khan in his tracks as he is in the middle of a tirade against our leaders and taking it overseas.

This is one of the weaknesses of Imran Khan, that while railing (correctly) against the (usually nonthinking) Pakistanis who start acting like they are Western themselves and take their case to the West, he himself allows himself to succumb to that. Taking the domestic politics of Pakistan and taking it to the U.K. “advising” them about the unsuitability of such and such candidate in Pakistan. All the while being unthinking about the impression this creates in people in Pakistan. The “going to London” to advise outsiders is not much different from the behaviour he has criticized earlier.

While it maybe borne of frustration as local power centers – feudals and others create very little space for someone like Imran Khan in Pakistani (and esp. non-Karachi) politics, but then he makes the mistake of taking his complaints to the U.K. as if they are his masters. In addition he makes the foolish mistake of going against the MQM – which while flawed in some respects – is the closest thing to a middle class oriented party, and which has in recent years taken pains to bring itself out from the cold (mainly thanks to Musharraf who allowed them the space to conduct themselves with honour and legitimacy in Karachi as opposed to the “choron ki tarha” they had to operate when Nawaz Sharif started military operations in Karachi, or Benazir refused to accept them as a major player in Sindhi politics as a challenge to her heriditary feudal-on-the-inside/populist-on-the-outside “jaagir” of politics in Sindh).

Imran Khan has similarly played his cards incorrectly by going with the Tehreek-e-Taliban when it was becoming clear to the public that the Tehreek-e-Taliban were more like a criminal organization than anything remotely religious (let alone Sufi-like, although they did have someone named Sufi Muhammed in their ranks).

Imran Khan has played the pro-FATA and “Jirga system” card for a number of years, and it may have seemed fine prior to Musharraf when the “bay zaabtagian” of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir were for all to see. However what he fails to account for is the bulk of the middle class in Pakistan which fails to have ANY sympathy for the “with you but apart” system of FATA which seems very close to mini-feudalism, which has been responsible for their car thefts and all sorts of illegal activity. In addition the wiser among the population may have started to see just how anachronistic the FATA system is in this day and age and how full of potential problems it has always been – some of which have been glaringly exposed in the inability of the existing system in FATA to demonstrate any type of people power that can rise against criminal elements who take up residence there. This is because this type of activity was prevalent in FATA – i.e. “sanctuary for money” and all sorts of other activity that would be illegal in other parts of Pakistan. So ordinary citizens of Pakistan would naturally ask “what distinguishes FATA to have rights to do illegal activity that are denied to those living in our cities” ?

Imran Khan is standing on the wrong side of the fence, as public opinion increasingly sees the realities emerging as the existing setup faces the stresses which is exposing it’s weaknesses.

Links:
1/2 Yasin Malik (Kashmiri leader) owns Imran Khan
2/2 Yasin Malik (Kashmiri leader) owns Imran Khan

Assessing Imran Khan

Pakistan after Musharraf resignation. Dawn TV interviews some people (though not enough).

Links:
Pakistan after Musharraf – Dawn TV – Aug 18, 2009</a