On a private TV channel this morning elaborating upon the further
processing of the review petition filed by the government in the
case of Sharif brothers’ disqualification, the Deputy Attorney
General said that the disqualification could be set aside by the
Supreme Court and that the Election Commission of Pakistan might
restore the Punjab Assembly membership of Mian Shahbaz Sharif,
though temporarily pending final decision of his case as was done
earlier by the CEC, which could enable him to be the CM of the
province again.
The DAG seemed to have a well charted road map for the Sharif
brothers leading them to their final destination of power. Since the
review petition is to be heard by the same bench comprising of the
same judges who had earlier disqualified them, the Supreme Court
might well find itself in a quandary of ‘to do or not to do’. If
they do it even if the case merits so, they could be blamed for
repaying the brothers for what they did for the judiciary. And, if
they do not, they could be suspected of succumbing to someone not
very happy with the Sharif brothers. Uneasy lies the head that wears
the justice’s wig. —Rawalpindi
Happy moments
Zohra Hussein
Nation is so happy on CJP reassuming his position despite
obstructionists who tried every possible trick to thwart it. May
Allah guide him to execute justice and relieve people from
evildoers. Amin! However, I would request CJP to punish corrupt in
civil, military, business, trading, stock market, commodity, estate
development, satabaz, manipulators, looters in industry,
agriculture, education, health and all sectors. In this year alone
around 100 trillion may have been devoured, mishandled in all
sections as above especially electricity, petrol, gas, CNG,
fertilizers, import, exports of every product including food grains,
etc .It may be probed and culprits punished. They get away by their
influence, power of money, NRO, NAB etc.
Please put stop to lavish, gold and glitter marriages of late
evenings running into late night .It is only fashion display
occasion accompanied by songs and dances taking hours to finish in
style of Indian films putting relations, guests to unnecessary
strain and stress. I may say that one percent corrupt, illegally
rich or expatriates make life of 99 percent miserable who perforce
follow it as social norm. —Hyderabad
Private medical college
Sabir Ali
I would like to invite your attention towards private and public
sector medical and dental colleges. Owners of private medical and
dental colleges are looting money and producing medical and dental
doctors who are not up to mark as they should be according to guide
lines by ministry of health, Government of Pakistan or by PMDC.
Owners of these private medical/dental colleges are getting huge
money yet are not providing services like trained teaching faculty,
laboratory equipment, trained laboratory staff simply disappear.
Owners of private medical/dental colleges hire trained professors,
associate professors, assistant professors and well trained
laboratory staff of different departments from medical colleges of
the public sector on very attractive salary packages at the time of
admissions to show their standard teaching in the institute but
after start of the session they reduce the salary package of the
trained faculty, well-trained laboratory staff, sufferer are only
those students who got admission in the institute. —Via email
Heavy schoolbags
S R H Hashmi
The above issue keeps propping up every now and then, complaining
about the exceptionally heavy, crippling, schoolbag. This was
followed by letters from myself (Feb 15), Imran Khan Sial (Feb 20)
and from ‘A citizen’ (March 2) apart from letters and editorials in
other newspapers. Not surprisingly, to the best of my knowledge,
there have been no comments from school management, politicians,
government officials, human rights or other organizations. There was
not even a small protest by parents holding placards outside the
press club or some other venue. I suppose all this is because the
issue lacks the ‘glamour” (read halla-gulla) that usually propels
our collective movements, and is too mundane to appeal to the
masses.
Not having given up quite yet, I would now appeal directly to the
school management, officials in the education department, members of
parliament, human rights organisations (notably Ansar Burney Welfare
Trust - the issue involves cruelty to children and forced flabour),
other concerned bodies / individuals, and to parents, columnists,
television channels, etc to do all they can to get this matter
sorted out in an organized and peaceful manner. As stated by one of
the writers, the older generation got educated quite well, without
having to carry donkey-loads to school. The problem does not even
require massive funding or foreign consultants to solve it and can
be sorted out simply by setting proper time-tables etc and adopting
a caring attitude. So, there simply is no reason for it to linger on
and for the children to keep suffering unnecessarily. I sincerely
hopes somebody makes a serious move now.—Karachi
Win, win situation
Dr Ghayur Ayub
After March 16th 2009, the popularity graph of Nawaz Sharif has
climbed steeply to an extent that even the American print and
electronic media have started taking him seriously. If an election
is held in Punjab in the near future, PML-N will surely win it with
majority. Salman Tasir, in an interview with Kashif Abbasi, has
hinted that Asif Ali Zardari may promulgate an Ordinance
preemptively stopping legislators from voting against their own
parties. If it is true; it would politically bury PML-Q and PPP in
Punjab. How?
Keeping Nawaz Sharif’s popularity in mind, the 32 MPAs of PML-Q may
decide to resign and seek fresh elections on the platform of PML-N.
After all, they have been calling themselves as the ‘Unionists’ and
Nawaz Sharif would accept them with open arms. Their resignation
will destroy the plan hatched by PPP and PML-Q, as the absence of 32
MPAs would mean that the PPP and PML-Q coalition plus the remaining
9 MPAs would not be able to reach the desired number.
If for the sake of the argument it is decided to go ahead with the
counting without the 32 MPAs, (which according to law they can’t),
the number needed to show the majority would come down from 187 to
170. In that case, the PMN-N instead of looking for the support of
18 (which they need in the present situation) would need only one,
and there are four independent members on whom the preemptive
deflection clause of the new Ordinance would not apply. As opposed
to this, the PPP along with PML-Q would not be able to muster the
desired number without flouting the Ordinance. Let us hope, the sane
voice of the PM prevails in the crowd of the political dwarfs
surrounding Asif Ali Zardari and he lets the governor and the
Governor Rule go and gives a chance to PML-N to form the government.
—London
Sanity must prevail
M Tariq Ali
In politics there is no room for men who are stubborn or obdurate to
lead successfully and meet the challenges posed by a media with a
wide ranging audience and capability to deliver. Parties which have
in-house capacity to exhaustively debate matters can survive. There
is no room in politics for men with the desire to emulate the
dictatorial lifestyle of mogul princes or emperors. Politics in
Pakistan has been hostage to men with mediocre capabilities, who
have neither the vision, nor the capacity to face crisis. They
desire to surround themselves with courtiers, people willing to be
ridiculed and humiliated, so that their so called party leaders can
boost their egoistic desires and the courtiers can make hay whilst
the sun shines.
All the major political parties in Pakistan suffer from this
calamity, some more than the other. It is for the party members,
their CECs and general public to stand up and be counted. Democracy
can only survive and flourish in Pakistan, if major political
parties are willing to reform themselves and the role of dynastic
politics is curtailed to an acceptable level. In the larger interest
of Pakistan, one hopes that major political parties are willing to
let sanity prevail. —Lahore
