Sights and sounds at the Karachi Literature Festival
Foreign correspondents like conjuring the “books, not bombs” angle to justify the expense of flying down to Karachi to hear a bunch of people talk about politics and their books (in that order). But at this year’s Karachi Literature Festival there were bombs everywhere. Pervez Hoodbhoy led a discussion on bombs of the nuclear kind, Ayesha Siddiqa lobbed a few verbal bombs in Anatol Lieven’s direction for not nursing sufficient hatred for the Pakistan Army while Mohammed Hanif even dropped the deadliest bomb of all: the F-bomb. I began my annual pilgrimage to the Karachi Literature Festival by making a mental ...
Read Full PostHypocrisy and defenders of democracy
Hypocrisy may be the tribute vice pays to virtue but Pakistanis take it too far. Those who have appointed themselves as the defenders of democracy, the protectors of our military or the guardians of an independent judiciary have entered a Bermuda Triangle of political argument, where a black hole sucks in whatever logic once existed in their brains. Let’s start with Mansoor Ijaz, or rather his critics. Here is the man who sparked off the crisis that threatens to engulf the PPP and so he is obviously an enemy of all that is decent and democratic. As a colourful businessman ...
Read Full PostWhen journalists and politicians become friends
If you are familiar with the recent work of left-of-centre reporters and columnists, you will know two things about them: that they consider Babar Awan a fake pipliya who distributed sweets after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged and that Husain Haqqani is the only remaining bastion of liberalism. Why the double standards? After all Haqqani has also taken a slow journey to the PPP, with detours at the Islami Jamiat Talba and PML-N. During his sojourn at the PML-N, Haqqani was also widely believed to have spearheaded a dirty tricks campaign against the sainted Benazir Bhutto and her mother. The answer ...
Read Full PostWho is the ISI reporting to?
You know the game is up when even Asma Jahangir walks off in a huff with the ball mid-match. The indefatigable human-rights lawyer threw a tantrum after the Supreme Court decided that the charges against her client, Husain Haqqani, in the Memogate casewarranted investigation by a commission. Jahangir decided she could no longer represent Haqqani after accusing the judiciary of working in league with the ‘establishment’, a term that means ‘everyone I disagree with in Pakistan’. In this case, she seemed to be referring to the ISI. Earlier, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani more or less admitted that he had no ...
Read Full PostIs the PPP defiant or in disarray?
Christmas Day in Islamabad is like any other day, except for the turkey on dinner tables. Natives still try to procure invites to parties hosted by foreigners and they still speculate about President Zardari’s murky future. The night before Christmas provided further grist for the coup rumour mill as Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani skipped the dinner Zardari hosted for Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo, sending Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Waheed Arshad in his place. The night before that Kayani was a no-show at the dinner Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had for Bingguo. Zardari’s aides have ...
Read Full PostIslamabad diary: Things khakis would have you believe (done)
Only politicians leak; the military simply beams out a coordinated message. The military’s target may change but the story is always the same. Most military briefings on civilian politicians essentially amount to the same thing: look at these hapless men and what damage they are doing to the country. You can judge the amount of contempt and hatred the military has for Husain Haqqani, the former Pakistan ambassador to the US, by the fact that they continue to brief against him even after they successfully ousted him from office. Two versions of the same story were pushed out this week to ...
Read Full PostIslamabad diary: Making sense of Zardari’s sojourn
When the coup comes, will it be a silent one or will it, like most coups do, make lots of noise? Is President Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai for genuine medical reasons or is he seeking a safe haven? Is it the army that is gunning for him or is it the Supreme Court, or perhaps a combination of the two? Such idle gossip seems to accompany nearly every elected government in Pakistan but this time there is a difference. Usually the rumours are spread by the military and their cheerleaders in the media. Now, however, most of the coup ...
Read Full PostIslamabad diary: ‘Neto, Zadari’ rhetoric and nothing else to say
The first thing you notice at a rally organised by religious parties is that they are not very good at spellings. Placards at the Jamaatud Dawa protest at Aabpara on Friday were long on enthusiasm but short on literacy. They demanded that “Neto” must go, vociferously “condomed” its attack and called on “Zadari” to resign. Their synchronised singing wasn’t much better. Chants against the US would have been easier to make out had the participants started and ended their sloganeering at roughly the same time. For such a party, the JuD at least managed a good turn out and ...
Read Full Post‘Sherry Reham’ strikes the right balance
Perhaps it was an indication of how hurried her appointment was, but when the Prime Minister’s House sent out a press release announcing the new ambassador to the US, they called the person “Ms Sherry Reham”. However her name was spelled, the redemption of Sherry Rehman is now complete and, appropriately, she has been given the country’s most important diplomatic post thanks to a two-year charm offensive to win back her doubters in the party. Sources within the party say that Sherry’s appointment was proposed and championed by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani ...
Read Full Post‘Unpatriotic’ Haqqani to unite an otherwise diverging PML-N
If there is anyone more upset than the PPP government about what increasingly looks like the end of Husain Haqqani’s tenure in Washington, it is Islamabad’s press corps. During his time as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, Haqqani was always freely available for comment and loved nothing more than to give an unsolicited titbit or two, ironically enough, usually on BBM. But journalists are also finally realising how Haqqani may have played them. Soon after Mansoor Ijaz wrote his infamous column in the Financial Times, Haqqani was quick to get into action. He was typically vigorous in giving off-the-record briefings, ...
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