The 2007 harvest of honest leaders - Anjum Niaz
Another tongue in cheek beauty from Anjum. Here are some excerpts. To read her column in full click on the heading;)
Mushy
Our leaders are not ambidextrous. They don't practice deceit. Pakistan is fortunate that it does not have fraudulent rulers; leaders who speak with forked tongue.
Two Supreme Court judges who played a significant role in the restoration, justices Bhagwandas and Ramday, later paid dearly for their judicial activism. They had to be let go as did many Supreme Court and High Court judges when emergency came. General Musharraf never lied about liking these lordships. He found them rebellious and openly contended that they wanted to "oust" him. They wanted to "destabilize" Pakistan, the general told one and all.
Pinky
Benazir Bhutto too is honest. She never lost sleep over Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's humiliation at the hands of the establishment. Her silence during the time when the country was up in arms spoke louder than her words. She was busy bloviating the fruits of democracy, openly meeting Musharraf's messengers in Dubai. She was busy receiving debriefings from the Bush administration in Washington all summer long about her victorious return to Pakistan on the coattails of the US, while back in Pakistan, common people were having their backs broken and heads cracked by the security agencies for daring to defy the writ of General Musharraf.
Benazir Bhutto never feigned friendship with judges who got the sack after the emergency. Why should she? These same lordships under their chief justice could have ruled against the infamous NRO, the brainchild of Musharraf that wiped clean her and other politicians', notably the MQM's, cases of corruption. With the euphemistically titled 'National Reconciliation Ordinance', everybody other than the Sharifs literally got a 'get-out-of-jail-free' pass.
Brother Sharipov
Enter Nawaz Sharif. He too is an honest man. Never mind as prime minister he had the then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah stormed inside the Supreme Court; today he stands firm behind the deposed judges of the superior judiciary. His is the lone voice in the wilderness being echoed by two other loners: Imran Khan and Qazi Hussain Ahmad. The lonesome three can go hoarse shouting that judges must be reinstated, but who's listening. While we know that the silent majority is on their side; the chattering classes (only good at chattering) want Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry reinstated; the media is unanimously behind such a move; the students are orchestrating the same demand; the incarcerated four are signalling from behind their prison walls -- Aitzaz Ahsan writes an open letter; Munir A Malik writes a moving piece, Justice Tariq Mahmud and Ali Ahmad Kurd speak passionately; but all these people will become history very soon.
Judiciary
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry along with his other justice colleagues Rana Bhagwandas, Mian Shakirullah Jan, Sardar Mohammad Raza, Nasirul Mulk and Ghulam Rabbani have been told to get out of their official residences. These men -- the real heroes of this story -- will become textbook examples of truth and honesty for the future generations to read and marvel. Unfortunately, they will soon be erased from present times and will be but forgotten by us all.
Mushy
Our leaders are not ambidextrous. They don't practice deceit. Pakistan is fortunate that it does not have fraudulent rulers; leaders who speak with forked tongue.
Two Supreme Court judges who played a significant role in the restoration, justices Bhagwandas and Ramday, later paid dearly for their judicial activism. They had to be let go as did many Supreme Court and High Court judges when emergency came. General Musharraf never lied about liking these lordships. He found them rebellious and openly contended that they wanted to "oust" him. They wanted to "destabilize" Pakistan, the general told one and all.
Pinky
Benazir Bhutto too is honest. She never lost sleep over Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's humiliation at the hands of the establishment. Her silence during the time when the country was up in arms spoke louder than her words. She was busy bloviating the fruits of democracy, openly meeting Musharraf's messengers in Dubai. She was busy receiving debriefings from the Bush administration in Washington all summer long about her victorious return to Pakistan on the coattails of the US, while back in Pakistan, common people were having their backs broken and heads cracked by the security agencies for daring to defy the writ of General Musharraf.
Benazir Bhutto never feigned friendship with judges who got the sack after the emergency. Why should she? These same lordships under their chief justice could have ruled against the infamous NRO, the brainchild of Musharraf that wiped clean her and other politicians', notably the MQM's, cases of corruption. With the euphemistically titled 'National Reconciliation Ordinance', everybody other than the Sharifs literally got a 'get-out-of-jail-free' pass.
Brother Sharipov
Enter Nawaz Sharif. He too is an honest man. Never mind as prime minister he had the then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah stormed inside the Supreme Court; today he stands firm behind the deposed judges of the superior judiciary. His is the lone voice in the wilderness being echoed by two other loners: Imran Khan and Qazi Hussain Ahmad. The lonesome three can go hoarse shouting that judges must be reinstated, but who's listening. While we know that the silent majority is on their side; the chattering classes (only good at chattering) want Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry reinstated; the media is unanimously behind such a move; the students are orchestrating the same demand; the incarcerated four are signalling from behind their prison walls -- Aitzaz Ahsan writes an open letter; Munir A Malik writes a moving piece, Justice Tariq Mahmud and Ali Ahmad Kurd speak passionately; but all these people will become history very soon.
Judiciary
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry along with his other justice colleagues Rana Bhagwandas, Mian Shakirullah Jan, Sardar Mohammad Raza, Nasirul Mulk and Ghulam Rabbani have been told to get out of their official residences. These men -- the real heroes of this story -- will become textbook examples of truth and honesty for the future generations to read and marvel. Unfortunately, they will soon be erased from present times and will be but forgotten by us all.
posted by temporal at 12/10/2007
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