[pakeditor] Attack on GEO -- Attack on GEO as it was happening and more.. President Musharraf appologizing to Hamid Mir and more

Yeah right - like he means it. How many more lies shall we hear while the country, the writ of the Constitution, 1973 constitution mind you is undermined time and time again. Enforcing the writ of the Government of Pakistan - a famous line of Musharraf, well what shall we call this act? If not an unconstitutional act, undermining the writ of the people, the Constitution (and not the General's infamous LFO).

I am sorry apology not accepted. You need to try harder to appease your country men and women for the latest acts committed out of shear desperation of protecting your kursi. Because that is what it is, nothing but a selfish act on your part - disposing of the Chief Justice, as a result undermining the judicial system, thus throwing the country into constitutional turmoil.

We joke about Nawaz's incompetence and how he was distracted by his patti when being briefed about Kargil. However, you General Sahib are no better . As some of us wanted to believe in you, we were looking and seeking for the solution to Pakistan and thought you had it within your power to deliver.

What happed to practicing what you preach -- what is that famous line "Enlightened Moderation". A grand phrase, but these are mere words - what about observing enlightened moderation in the Chief Justice's dismissal, or before sanctioning the raid on the GEO News office?

All these acts cast a further negative brand upon the country, a country which already is suffering from negative media coverage has to now deal with this? Not to mention undermining all the good works done by many many people - who have selflessly tried, and continue to work towards dispelling the negative brand image of the country abroad. How is one to show face to our friends of Pakistan, many of whom we have defended Pakistan and many of your policies to. Justified why this time it is different and not a repeat of General Zia's regime.

So how much shall I, this Pakistani-American say or not say - frankly after this latest round of attacks on one of our icon media houses, GEO News how can we trust what you say? How do we know you mean it when you say the press is free, you are open to criticism? How do we know the IB, ISI, FIA or MI, or the police is not going to coming knocking down any one of our doors? Are we, the people of Pakistan truly safe and secure under you?

It is your job as the self-appointed President and head of our armed forces to protect the people of Pakistan, not harass them? If not as the President then at least as a soldier this is what you were trained to do - protect the country from external forces that try to undermine the writ of the Constitution, not undermine it yourself.


Pakistan Pindabad! Long Live, and God protect Pakistan!

Abdulrahman Rafiq
(A Concerned Citizen)

NB: This post as been posted to http://rabitazone.bligspot.com (or http://www.pkblogs.com/rabitazone)


Syed Asif Alam <asifalam@aopp.org> wrote:

http://www.geo.tv/important_events/attack_on_geo/pages/video.asp


S. Asif Alam
President, AOPP
http://aopp.org

Musharraf apologizes for attack on Geo office

ISLAMABAD: President Pervez Musharraf has regretted attack on Geo News office in Islamabad Friday and apologized for the incident. In an exclusive chat with Hamid Mir in Geo News programme "Capital Talk" the president condemned the attack. "We support freedom of journalism and want its supremacy," Musharraf said. The incident should not been happened, he said and termed the incident a conspiracy to sabotage the whole process. President Musharraf also apologized with Hamid Mir what happened with him. He said the people involved in the incident would be taken to task today.

Printable Version

--

CJ of Pakistan Sacked by Musharraf

March 9th: BREAKING NEWS: The News reports that the President Pervez Musharraf has just filed a reference against the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed under section 209 and has replaced him with Justice Javed iqbal who has already taken oat as an acting Chief Justice of Pakistan, the oath was administered by Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.[Read on at Teeth Maestro...]

Also read "An Executive Assault on the Judiciary"

What Is Behind Public Humiliation of Supreme Court Chief Justice?

Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq

CJ of Pakistan's sudden removal.....Whats next?

Following are CNN, BCC and GEO TV reports on the recent removal of the CJ of Pakistan Supreme Court. What are the immediate political ramifications of this recent incident? Further, how do we explain the timing of Benazir's recent op-ed in the Washington Post? Are Musharraf's days numbered? Is Benazir planning a grand come back to power? Further, we must ask is the recent incident withe sudden dismal of the CJ a solely domestic issue, or has ramifications beyond the borders of Pakistan?

These are but a few questions which come to mind while I, a Silicon WadiWallah tries come to grips with the gravity of the situation back in his motherland. Following are snippets from various local and international news agencies.....

CNN Report of CJ's Dismissal from the SC:



BBC Urdu Report:



GEO TV Reports:







GEO TV: Capital Talk - Removal of CJ

Part 1:


Part 2:


Also see

coverage on All-Things-Pakistan, an "alternative" blog by Adil Najam, and Voice of America (VoA) report


Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq

A city by the sea...a glorious city indeed....

A City by the sea...http://www.dawn.com/weekly/review/review2.htm

Clifton Beach - A wrecked Oil tanker Karachi Nuclear Power Plant from French Beach (or Bulehjo)

Though I have known Karachi for three decade as well - I should say two decades since, I do have early memories from age 5 or so - it was even then (early 80's) a gentler city, less population, traffic, pollution. Defence was considered far from the city - where from Phase 5 down Khayaban-e-Shamsheer to Seaview it was more or less virgin land. Shamsheer was a single carriage road. New town (Guru Mandir) area was still a smart area - and now look at it, it is in bad shape - dilapidated pre-partition buildings situated immediately behind the Quid's mazar - is this how we honour the father of the Nation? Have we no respect for the man we owe our existence to - the man who against all odds fought for this land?

Then you could go out, sit at street side restaurants and enjoy a meal, a cup of tea or a coke. Now, though you can still go to street side eateries, you want feel like sitting for long - for one the pollution will get to you, the people after a while will get to you - not the people per say but the immense "jahalat" will get to you. The city seems to have lost its sense of self.

But then my early memories of Karachi were through the eyes of an innocent eyes of a boy - a boy who had high hopes for the city, for the country under the Zia dictatorship. An idealistic boy who new only Zia's Karachi, Zia's Pakistan - knew no better - other than what was told to him by his parents and parents friends. But that is mom and dad talking - how else would a boy think when unconsciously he is fed Zia's propaganda through radio and television?

The idealistic boy is still idealistic, however concealed from the world out of fear of being recognized and mocked at. The world is a harsh place, idealism has no place. A very shallow world indeed. Where ones weight is determined in gold - where ones word is attached to ones bank account, ones action is attached to ones worldly success - not to intellect or intellectual knowledge, or wisdom from the ages. Todays world, todays Karachi and Pakistan is about how GREEN is your pocket, how GREEN is your document - GREENER than the green passport, green as being pinkish-white as your GREEN-card or the GREEN-blue combo. It is a Karachi where you are not judged by character but by where in the world you reside and how much you make. Where questions like "you must be a multi-millionaire by now, since you work in the Silicon Valley" are common place.

That Karachi that idealistic 5 year old boy new - the Karachi which actually had a blue sky, the karachi where one could hear the the trees billowing in the gentle sea breeze unlike now where you can hear the bustling traffic of Gizri or Shamsheer from your lawn, the Karachi where if you stood from your porch some 15 miles miles away from the sea, you could see the Arabian Sea - and if lucky actually sea ships in the distance - or better perhaps whales on a clear cloudless day.

It was a sweet Karachi - a quite little town - yes a town, though big enough to be called a City, it felt like a town. With a small airport, and an observation deck where you could observe the activities on the tarmac - where security wasn't such a big issue, though 'tis was a military dictatorship - things seemed calmer and sweeter.

Karachi O' Karachi - Karachi the magnificent, Karachi the glorious what has happened to you. What happened to the charm of the 80's, though some may argue the charm was in the 60's - but who is to say what was charming - when was Karachi charming? There is no definitive answer to that question - it is a relative one that is time dependent - a function of age f(age) it is.

Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq

A Catastrophe in the waiting...

The recent $43B agreement the Federal government signed with Dubai based developers is a catastrophe waiting to happen. This shortsighted decision will result in unimaginable adverse environmental, social and economic issues. According to the DAWN article "The Island Issue", the development of the Islands will displaces and destroy an ancient way of life for countless inhabitants. Also, as a result of urbanization we will see a sharp decline in the precious mangrove forests which upto date has acted as a buffer between the mainland coastal city of Karachi and offshore violent storms and cyclones. Not to mention the affect this will have on the marin life in the region.

Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq

Secret Santa....in the Spirit of GIVING...

The Secret Santa was recently profiled on msnbc. What an amazing thing this is. Something unique in present-day Western society. As the spirit of giving is very much alive in other part of the world--from the Middle-East to South Asia, giving is part of our daily life.

You step out of the home in the morning to go to work or take your lunch break, or leave work to return home. You surely will end up handing out a few rupees to the poverty stricken homeless folk who are commonly found hanging around traffic signals.

This spirit of given is not new, it is in fact something part of all traditions and cultures---whether it be Christian traditions, Jewish traditions, Hindu traditions or the Muslim traditions.

However, due to todays fast pace lifestyle and heightened materialism most of us have forgotten this basic teaching and trait of our respective cultures and traditions. Particularly in Western Society it is a lost tradition, a tradition which corporate marketing/PR engines tend to abuse to there advantage. These corporate entities are like vultures, preying upon a public who are disgruntled, unsatisfied and have a longing for a gentle smile or touch from someone or something. Most people are hungry for emotional gratification, as a result they go out and buy buy buy like there is no tomorrow. All in an attempt to try and satisfy this emotional void within themselves.

Our present-day society is extremely goal oriented, the focus is on action items, running all the time with little or no time to stop and breath. Action item to action item, meeting to meeting, conference to conference, workshop to workshop, and the saga continues. No time to stop and "chill" out, kick back and do nothing. Yes, doing nothing is a great luxury; to be able to do nothing, not even think. Just BE and feel heart beathing within your being, follow your breath as it traverse in and out of your wind pipe.

Thank you secret santa for reminding us the value of life, the value of sharing, the value of giving back. A value which is inherently part of the the Muslim tradition, manifesting itself in the form of Zakat, and Sadaqah.

So here is another commonality Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Bhuddist, etc have. There are more commonalities than differences, whats all the fuss about? Aren't we all one people, sharing one planet, a lonesome planet in the vastness of the cosmos. The only planet for lightyears around that can sustain life as we know it. So what is wrong with us? What is all the fuss about? We as a planet need to relearn the spirit of giving and sharing, a quality which we are born with. Children understand this spirit very well, however as they are introduced to society, through their schools, social circles, clicks, gangs, etc they start to forget. Which is perfectly understandable as one learns very early in life that people are not all that they appear to be. Someone may appear to be very generous, loving or helpful, but can in reality be the complete opposite. People may make you think you are there WORLD for them, but then the very same people will turn around and act as if you are nobody to them.

So this year we should make it our New Years resolution to GIVE. Give back to society, give back to our respective communities. Give to our local schools and homeless shelters. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area we have several organizations from RAHIMA FOUNDATION, San Jose Education Foundation, Hidaya Foundation, Lets rekindle this spirit of GIVING which is ingrained in our human DNA from birth. It is part of who we are. Corporations have learned that giving back to their respective communities is good for business, good for profits. However, don't give for expecting something in return. Your Return on Investment (ROI) is the inner satisfaction and gratification that will fill up the void within you, the void which many of us try and fill through conspicuous consumption. And don't forget to take time out each day. Take time out and relax, kick back and do NOTHING.

Copyright C. Abdulrahman Rafiq