Not the Only Sher in Punjab – Sahar Khan

Source: NYT

Yesterday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the political party of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, held a rally in Lahore against the ruling coalition. According to the Express Tribune, “More than 100,000 supporters [some sources say 200,000+] gathered as a show of strength in what is traditionally the PML-N stronghold,” as Khan made strong remarks about an array of issues facing Pakistan, from minority & women’s rights to corruption. Below, Sahar Khan, a PhD student in politician science, relates her experience while attending the rally yesterday:

From the rooftop of Andaaz restaurant in Hera Mandi, the red light district of Lahore, one gets a full view of the Badshahi Mosque. Just beyond the minaret of the mosque, one can see the top of Minar-e-Pakistan. Although the view was spectacular, it was not the reason for my excitement. I was just about to go to my first political rally in Pakistan and I couldn’t wait!

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) was holding its first rally in Lahore in Iqbal Park where Minar-e-Pakistan was built to commemorate the 1940 Lahore Resolution, which had been the first formal call for greater Muslim autonomy in India. The symbolism was hard to miss. If this rally went “well” it could prove to be a game changer for Pakistani domestic politics. But I remained skeptical of the turnout. In a city of rallies, where Abrar ul Haq held one on October 27, and PML-N held one on October 28, why was this rally such a big deal? The best way to find out was to go there.

We left Andaaz a little after 3pm. Near Iqbal Park, the road was full of people, carrying flags of PTI, banners with catchy phrases like “Ab nahin tau kab? Hum nahin tau khaun?” (“If not now, then when? If not us, then who?”), posters of Imran Khan titled as Quaid-e-Inqilab (“Father of Revolution”), and placards of “Only Hope” and “Make Peace.” The air was charged with adrenaline. People were walking with a purpose, shouting things like “Agla prime minister khaun? Imran Khan! Imran Khan!” (“Who’s the next prime minister? Imran Khan! Imran Khan!” and “Zardari kuta hai!” (“Zardari is a dog!”) and of course “Pakistan Zindabad! Imran Khan Zindabad!”

At the Rally (Photo by Sahar Khan)

As soon as we reached Iqbal Park, a man selling round badges that were decorated in PTI’s red and green colors with Khan looking thoughtful as he rested his hand near his chin, almost in an Allama Iqbal-like pose. The pose made me chuckle. The badge said, “Qadm millao, Qadm barhoa, mil kar Pakistani bachoa” (“Unite and step forward, save Pakistan together”). Seeing no problem with that message, I decided to buy one and pinned it on my shirt.

The numbers were increasing fast but miraculously the crowd was orderly. Each section had three security checkpoints, where every purse and bag was checked after going through a metal detector. There were male and female police officers at each point and scattered around, enforcing security. Many of them looked shocked and asked me in Punjabi, “Where have all these people come from?” I don’t speak Punjabi so just said, “Lahore!” He laughed and said, “Lahore jag uta hai!” (“Lahore has woken up!“).

We had a good view and managed to secure some plastic chairs, which turned out to be a good idea. Hearts were pounding, slogans were being shouted, and flags were being waved. There were even automatic toy planes flying around with a PTI flag! The stage looked huge even from where I was. The backdrop was inspirational, and at its center was a large crescent from Pakistan’s flag. On one side was Jinnah and smaller versions of Allama Iqbal and Minar-e-Pakistan. On the other side was Khan. The highlight of the backdrop, however, was the message: “Tub Pakistan banaya ta, Ab Pakistan bachao gae” (“You have made Pakistan, Now you will save Pakistan”). A call for democracy indeed!

The rally finally started at 4pm. As PTI members came up one by one to address the burgeoning crowd, I looked around. There was a never ending sea of people behind me. Some people sat on plastic chairs while others stood on them to get a better view. Some sat on the grass while others simply stood. There were spontaneous eruptions of patriotic slogans or simply “Imran Khan! Imran Khan!” The crowd was becoming restless. They wanted to see their leader. And he finally arrived! The crowd went crazy: the sky was filled more flags and the shouts became louder. Time flew by as PTI members came and spoke. The main announcer kept the crowd alive with his booming voice and updates on the size of the crowd—“ab aik lakh log hain!” and “ab dair lakh log hain!” and “ab 2 lakh sey zaida log hain!” (“there are now 1 lakh people” and “there are now 1.5 lakh people” and “now there are more than 2 lakh people”). The best update, however, was “ab cable bund kar diya gaya hai!” (“Cable has been shut down!”). The crowd responded by “Hakumat dar gee! Zardari kutta dar gaya!” (“The government is scared! Zardari the dog is scared!”).

A mixture of excitement and restlessness made the crowd react louder to each speech. When we thought that the time would never come, Khan rose and addressed the crowd. The adoring crowd roared, and I was one of them. We stood on our chairs and clapped till our hands were raw and our throats were sore. We waved those flags till our arms became numb. And we absorbed every word that Khan sahib said. I think I just witnessed the making of a national leader and I was awestruck.

I can go on and criticize and analyze his speech, but this blog post is more about the fact that over 200,000 people gathered in Iqbal Park on a Sunday afternoon to show their frustration with the current administration. This kind of jalsa, the enthusiasm, the excitement, the sheer numbers have not been seen in a long time. This is not because of a lack of political ambitions; there is room for numerous political parties in the Pakistani political plain. Unfortunately, very few parties seem to have that special something about them—and PTI just proved that it is not one of them.

When I asked Omar Cheema, the Chief Information Officer of PTI, why the rally was so successful he said, “The youth of Pakistan has decided to take the future in their hands.” The youth may be PTI’s not-so-secret ingredient for success but it is yet to be seen whether or not PTI can translate this rally’s outcome into an electoral success. I look forward to the show as much as everyone else.

The contribution is the sole opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the opinion of CHUP. If you would like to contribute a piece to CHUP, please email Kalsoom at changinguppakistan[at]gmail[dot]com. Pieces should be no longer than 800 words please. For past contributions, click here.

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I Know We’ve Got Some Bad Leaders…

But at least they’re better than this guy:

Source: Telegraph

Libya‘s Muammar el-Qaddafi appeared to be trying out for My Fair Lady yesterday when he addressed reporters, his first statement since protests broke out in his country. He appeared for about 30 seconds on Libyan Television, saying, “I want to have some rest…Because I was talking to the young man at Green Square, and I want to stay the night with them but then it started raining. I want to show them that I am in Tripoli, not in Venezuela. Don’t believe those dogs in the media.”

Denial is apparently not just a river in Egypt.

Mubarik & Qaddafi. Two Peas in a Pod.

Update: Qaddafi spoke again on state television Tuesday. It was just as incoherent. (He will never leave Libya. He will die a martyr. The protesters are on drugs. The protests are happening because of “greasy rats and cats.” Um. Yeah.)

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The WTF List of 2010

LOL Cat's like, 2010. WTF.

It’s New Years Eve today, and what a year it’s been. 2010 has been littered with many a Pakistan-related WTF moment, and I thought it best to go beyond the “Top Philosophical Things You Should Be Doing With Your Life” type lists (mainly because they make me feel bloody inadequate) and give you a list of the developments, quotes, and fuzziness that really made me go, “What the EFF,” [for the first WTF-related CHUP post, see here]:

WTF #1: Politicians. They iz catty mean girls. Ok. We knew this already. But certain moments made this year seem particularly ridiculous, from MQM’s Waseem Akhtar calling PML-N’s Chaudhry Nisar “Mr. Bean” this week (via @desmukh) to the Facebook comeback kid Pervez Musharraf calling Nawaz Sharif “brainless” (while making a dig at his hair plugs), there were no shortage of name-calling and cattiness. Back in June, there was even a physical cat fight, when two female legislators from the PPP had an all-out brawl before a budget session. Rawr. (That was my cat noise.) Let’s not even get started on the Wikileaks’ release and the comments made by foreign dignitaries about each other. I mean, really. Who needs trashy reality shows when we have this for entertainment?

WTF #2: Corruption. They all haz it. Corruption is not a new phenomenon in Pakistan. God no. But according to Transparency International, perceptions are worse than last year (The CPI ranked Pakistan 143 in the world), arguably meaning that we increasingly view this as a problematic issue. According to a Pew poll released in July, 74% of Pakistanis polled say corrupt political leaders “are a very big problem,” compared to 71% last year, 64% in 2007, and 58% in 2002. However, if you’re PPP’s Abdul Qayyum Khan Jatoi, you’d contend that corruption is every politician’s “political right.” Because that’s what politicians are elected for, apparently. To plunder the country. Just call them political pirates, arrr. WTF, matey. [thanks to Twitter friends for the Jatoi reminder.]

WTF #3: Integrity. Not many haz it. This year, scandal erupted over the shocking number of fake degrees claimed by Pakistani parliamentarians. Over the summer, “Up to 160 elected officials [were] accused of faking their degrees in order to meet a requirement for holding office,” reported Al Jazeera English. Regardless whether the education requirement first put in place caused this onslaught of fake degrees, [another debate entirely] the scandal caused some pretty justifiable WTF outrage, particularly when politicians like Aisam Rabbani told reporters, “a degree is a degree whether it’s authentic or fake,” or when the ever-charming Jamshed Dasti, with a fake Masters in  Islamic Studies, couldn’t even multiply 4 times 2 (let alone name the first 15 suras of the Quran). CHUP contributor Usman Zafar used a choice quote from Aesop in his op-ed on the topic, “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”

WTF #4: Cricketz. They no haz it either. Where to even start with the Pakistan cricket team? In August, The News of the World broke a spot-fixing scandal, implicating seven players on the team, particularly Salman Butt (Captain) Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. The development further highlighted a long history of fixing in Pakistani cricket, but also the inefficiencies of the systematically corrupt Pakistan Cricket Board and the strong presence of the gambling syndicates [see Shaheryar Mirza’s contribution here]. Couple that development with ball-biting a la Shahid Afridi, steroids galore, and more than a few disappointing losses, and you get one, giant, WTF. [Also see Five Rupees for this great piece, “Why It’s Really Hard to Care About Cricket Right Now.”] All I have to say is, thank GOD for tennis player Aisam Qureshi. I hearts him.

 

NOM NOM NOM!

WTF #5: Gary Faulkner iz Jack Bauer iz Chuck Norris. I mean. How could we not dole out a big, jovial, WTF to the Bin Laden Hunter? Faulkner was recently found near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border this summer, claiming he was searching for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. It was his eighth trip to Pakistan, and the police who found him (who originally thought him “mentally deranged”), said he was carrying a pistol, a dagger, a sword, and night-vision goggles. This man is my hero. Favorite Gary Faulkner joke? Gary Faulkner destroyed the periodic table, because Gary Faulkner only recognizes the element of surprise. Boo yah.

WTF #6: Blasphemy laws & mob mentality. No LOLz. Since their introduction in the 1980s, the blasphemy laws have been arbitrarily used to legitimize the violence and persecution of Pakistan’s minorities. This year, the case of Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy, sparked outrage and media headlines, further illustrating how often our legislators cow tow to the cacaphony of the religiously ignorant. There was increasing violence as well, [see this piece I wrote for the AfPak Channel], when more than 70 people were killed when gunmen launched attacks on two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore. Just last month, police gave credence to intolerance and prejudice over reason and sensitivity, forcing an Ahmadi family to exhume a relative’s body from a graveyard. The Aasia Bibi and the Ahmadi graveyard examples further illustrate not only the ugliness of ignorance, but also how often mob mentality overruns reason. This was also evident when two brothers were brutally tortured and beaten to death in public in Sialkot back in August.

(Bravo to politicians and figures that did stand up against the blasphemy laws, like Asma Jehangir, Sherry Rehman, and Salmaan Taseer, to name a few.)

WTF #7: Mushy likez Facebook. LHC no likez it. Former President Pervez Musharraf announced his return to politics this year with the formation of his political party, the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) and saying his (nearly 372,000) Facebook fans “wanted him to come back to Pakistan.” Status messages were abound with, “OMGZ. APML Foreva! Lulz” as Mushy played Farmville with fans and “liked” his own link uploads and photos (before APML fans start creating a Facebook application where users throw darts at my face, just remember I’m joking. Musharraf doesn’t even like Farmville). The Lahore High Court, on the other hand, was the Debbie Downer of the Facebook world, when, in response to the South Park controversy (when an episode was censored for featuring the Prophet Muhammad, and sparked an ‘Everybody Draw Muhammad Day!’) and numerous protests, they ordered the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to block Facebook across Pakistan temporarily. So, Comedy Central censorship ultimately led to more censorship. An ironic WTF.

WTF #8: The floods this summer in Pakistan affected over 20 million people in the country, and rehabilitation and recovery will take years. Many argue that the government was ineffective in its response to the disaster, paying lip service and shedding crocodile tears, rather than truly attending to the millions whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed, [PM Gilani even visited a fake relief camp in August].

I realize that this list could be endless, and I have undoubtedly missed many choice WTF’s of the year, so I invite you, dear readers to add your own in the comment section. [Also check out these great lists by Blue Rickshaw and Huma Imtiaz at Dawn.] Happy New Year all!

For your entertainment, and to end the year with a laugh, here is a brilliant video of our favorite right-wing red beret Zaid Hamid showing off his karate skills in 1985 [via @kaalakawaa]:

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Corruption, Perception & Pakistan. Yipee.

 

The Corruption Perception Index (lighter colors = less corrupt, darker = more)

Ah, Pakistan. Not only do we consistently top the Failed States Index [see Alex Lobov’s take down of the “failed state” term over at Zeitgeist], but this past summer, we also ranked number one in the world in sex-related searches, garnering us the label, “Pornistan” (thanks, Fox News). Jinnah Sahib, (aka, Big Poppa), would be so proud.

On Tuesday, Transparency International released their 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures the degree to which public sector corruption is perceived to exist in 178 countries around the world. Corruption, according to TI, is defined “as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain,” encompassing practices in both the public and private sectors. The CPI scores countries on a scale from 10 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt).

Lo and behold – Pakistan, with a score of 2.3, ranks 143 in the world in the index, dropping 0.2 since 2008. Last year, we were ranked 139 in the CPI, meaning perceptions of corruption are worse than before. (We are 34th most corrupt country, versus 42nd last year).

The interesting part of the index is that it quantifies perceived corruption rather than the tangible occurrence of corrupt practices. According to Transparency International, this is “because corruption – whether frequency or amount – is to a great extent a hidden activity that is difficult to measure.” The organization added in its report, “Measuring scandals, investigations or prosecutions, while offering ‘non-perception’ data, reflect less on the prevalence of corruption in a country and more on other  factors, such as freedom of the press or the efficiency of the judicial system.”

Al Jazeera English had a noteworthy discussion today on the reliability of measuring perceptions with TI’s Robin Hodess, former UPI correspondent Sam Vaknin, and David Cole, the managing director of the Atlantic Council. Although Cole affirmed the CPI is a very “well-respected” report with “sound methodology” [the report is an aggregate indicator that brings together data from 13 sources by 10 independent institutions over the past two years], Vaknin contended that perceptions are about psychology, “which is susceptible to manipulation.” For example, he noted, if a government is saying it’s spending an inordinate amount of time fighting corruption, “this may change perceptions about corruption” even if the facts on the ground remain the same.

Although the CPI doesn’t measure citizen perceptions of corruption, Hodess noted there is a close correlation between public attitudes (measured by their Global Corruption Barometer) and the index. For the purpose of Pakistan, I went back to the most recent Pew poll released in July [it should be noted that this wasn’t some scientific comparison]. According to the poll, 74% of Pakistanis polled say corrupt political leaders “are a very big problem,” compared to 71% last year, 64% in 2007, and 58% in 2002.

This is not to say that these perceptions don’t correlate well to reality, (or that the result of Pakistan’s place on the corruption index was all too surprising), but it does raise some interesting food for thought. For example, what role does the Pakistani media play in changing perceptions about corruption, particularly since electronic news channels have increased considerably in the last few years? Were perceptions in 2002 different because corruption was less rampant or because we didn’t have a liberalized media valiantly raising this issue for debate? In other words, are we more aware about corruption now or has corruption really gotten worse in Pakistan?

As I sifted through news coverage of these rankings, I did also find the reactions and headlines to be pretty interesting. First, The News released an article by Ansar Abbasi entitled, “Pakistan Racing to Become No. 1 Most Corrupt Country.” In the piece published the Sunday before the report was released, Abbasi wrote that sources in the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), which contribute to the preparation of the Transparency International report, told The News quite ominously, “You will soon be hearing really bad news about Pakistan.”

A “source” also commented, “It seems the country (Pakistan) is fast racing to become number one on the list of the most corrupt nations.”

This statement – by an anonymous source from one of two different organizations – was subsequently quoted or referenced in the Indian press. Exhibit A: The Times of India headline:

Horse race or Corruption Index?

Exhibit B, the Hindustan Times:

Um, no. That was Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan...

And finally, Exhibit C, or the “Kick in the Babymaker,” One India:

 

Dude. That's cold.

Ok, we get it. Pakistan is a corrupt country. This is and has long been a serious issue. We are in the red – literally and figuratively [see TI’s nifty map]. But we’re not number one – at least not yet. And more importantly, it’s not a competition! There’s no prize for two countries still ranking pretty high on the index, especially if both rankings worsened from last year! Rather than us both puffing out our chests and measuring our worth relative to the other, maybe we could instead concentrate on actually tackling this issue better (a difficult task if there ever was one).

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We Don’t Need No Education

Last week, Aslam Raisani, the Chief Minister of Balochistan told reporters after a provincial assembly session, “a degree is a degree whether it’s authentic or fake.”

Actually, no. No it’s not.

His statement came after the Supreme Court ordered election commissions to vet the education credentials of Pakistan’s federal and provincial politicians. According to Al Jazeera, “Up to 160 elected officials have been accused of faking their degrees in order to meet a requirement for holding office.” An Election Commission official told Reuters, “The Higher Education Commission [HEC] is verifying the degrees of all parliamentarians in line with the orders of the Supreme Court.” On Tuesday, Dawn reported that the commission is currently “pondering” over whether it’s a good idea to invoke the Pakistan Penal Code “to initiate criminal proceedings against lawmakers who are proven guilty of having fake degrees.”

Pakistani politicians tried as criminals? How novel.

But while you’re at it, HEC, maybe you should also try politicians who have defaulted on their loans, who are horribly corrupt, who profited under the National Reconciliation Ordinance, and who continue to to put their own interests above those of their constituents term after term. I’d guarantee that we’d barely have any lawmakers left.

In March, contributor Usman Zafar discussed the circumstances surrounding the resignations of politicians Jamshed Dasti (PPP) and Nazir Jutt (PML-Q), after the Supreme Court ruled that Dasti, a prominent party leader, had lied about his Islamic Studies Masters Degree. When questioned by the six-member bench, the former Chairman of the Standing Committee on Sports not only couldn’t recite the first verses of the Quran, but he even gave the incorrect answer to 4 multiplied by 2. Islamic Studies Masters Degree #FAIL.

Since the inquiry was announced, several lawmakers have already resigned from their posts, including PML-Q MPA Samina Khawar Hayat and PPP MNA Amir Yar Waran, who resigned last Thursday. As the “furore” (Dawn’s word not mine) grows, the fake degree scandal has garnered a call for mid-term elections from parties like Jamaat-e-Islami and Tehreek-e-Insaf, who both boycotted the polls in February 2008. Dawn noted in its coverage, “For obvious reasons Prime Minister Gilani has said that fresh polls were not the solution to the country’s problems.”

The apparent source of the fake degree scandal stems from a law imposed by General Pervez Musharraf in 2002, which required political candidates to hold a bachelor’s degree “or its equivalent.” According to Al Jazeera, Musharraf said he imposed the law to “improve the calibre of MPs, but critics alleged the move was designed to sideline certain opponents.” The law was struck down in April 2008, though just after the February elections of that year.

In a country where the education system is lackluster at best, should we expect more from our leaders? My answer is an adamant yes. Education standards aren’t just set to create or enforce a political elite, it’s to ensure that our leaders can actually lead (though the correlation between education and leadership is definitely a worthy debate). And let’s face it: how many today can? How many have the integrity to be an example to Pakistan’s future generation? And how many have the foresight to think past their selfish aims for the greater good of the country? Not many. And while I hope this current scandal doesn’t lead to a distracting witch hunt, I do think it should raise discussion about these very questions. Because as a Pakistani, I am ashamed to call many of them my leaders.

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Happy Pakistan Day!

Image credit: Islamabad Metblogs

Pakistan has always been a focal point in the news media, but I feel like some pretty hefty stories and statements have surfaced in the last few days. Here are the ones I found most noteworthy:

• David Kilcullen, U.S. CENTCOM adviser to Gen. David Petraeus warned, “The Pakistani state could collapse within six months if immediate steps are not taken to remedy the situation.” Kilcullen told the Washington Post Sunday, “Pakistan has 173 million people, 100 nuclear weapons, an army bigger than the US Army, and al-Qaeda headquarters sitting right there in the two-thirds of the country that the government doesn’t control.”
• Pakistan was also raised in an interview with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright on Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher [click to 3:20 in the clip below]. She noted, “For me, Pakistan has everything that gives you an international migraine. It has nuclear weapons, corruption, poverty, extremism…[Bill Maher interjects: “Crazy Muslims”]…well it certainly has enough of those, and also a weak government…”
• Dawn also reported that Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram suggested that Pakistan is “perilously close” to becoming a failed state and that its government is “pretty disfunctional today.”
• Speaking of our government, an article in Friday’s Foreign Policy ranked President Asif Ali Zardari as the world’s fifth biggest loser [just to give some context, Bernie Madoff was number three and Josef Fritzl was first]. The FP’s David J. Rothkopf wrote, “Locked in a bitter struggle with opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, Zardari showed his weakness by capitulating to demands to reinstate Pakistan’s former Chief Justice per Sharif’s demands…He’s on the ropes, his opposition is gaining strength, and meanwhile fraught, dangerous, complex Pakistan is hardly being governed at all.”

Let me just note that none of these statements are very suprising or new. In fact, ever since Newsweek’s infamous cover story deemed Pakistan “The Most Dangerous Place on Earth“, similar labels have been thrown about, sometimes with gleeful abandon. However, maybe because it’s Pakistan Day, maybe because I read the aforementioned stories in quick succession, but I was left feeling especially indignant today. I often wonder if Pakistan would be as singled out by pundits and the media if it wasn’t such a strategic U.S. security issue. It is not that I don’t agree with several of the assertions, [in fact, I was quite amused reading the FP Zardari ranking] – I have acknowledged our weak governance issues, our economic problems, and the danger of rising extremism frequently on this blog.

However, there is a major difference between highlighting the negatives and focusing solely on the negatives. Pakistan is a nation that has many positives – and they pertain mostly to our people. In the past few years, our media has become increasingly influential – and for the most part sees themselves as a check on the establishment. And, despite how you may feel about its outcome, the Long March showed what a stronger civil society can help accomplish in Pakistan. Technology tools like Twitter, Facebook, and the overarching blogosphere have also created a new class of citizen journalists. As for me, I am constantly inspired by the people I have interviewed and the organizations I have spotlighted. What is both amazing and overwhelming is that I really never run out of positive figures or work to highlight. Pakistan is far from perfect, but amid the chaos there are still pockets of light that keep me optimistic. Happy Pakistan Day, everyone.

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