Baithak Desi May 24: Swat Agreement, Rafia Zakaria, Rahimullah Yusufzai, Zardari, Shaheen Sehbai, Headlines, Cartoons

On the substantive level, the Swat agreement presents even more pressing problems....providing the imprimatur of legal legitimacy to the edicts issued by Qazi courts presided over by local mullahs further sullies the name of Islamic law that has already been dragged through the mud in Pakistan...With its now habitual disregard for the scholarly requirements necessary for Qazis, the government is essentially allowing all variety of tribal practices and customs to be defined as “Islamic” and be imposed in bereft populations plagued by bloodthirsty violence. By empowering the Taliban to justify their reign of terror as “Islamic” not only in their book but also in the eyes of the government, the NWFP may have created an even bigger monster than the one already ravaging the Swat valley. Rafia Zakaria


And here is Rahimullah Yusufzai in the News: "The secular ruling coalition comprising the ANP, a nationalist party championing Pakhtun rights and originating from the Khudai Khidmatgar of late freedom-fighter Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, alias Bacha Khan, and Benazir Bhutto's PPP, has been criticized by political rivals in Pakistan for appeasing and making deals with Islamic militants who beheaded opponents and tried to forcibly impose Sharia on the peaceful people of the scenic Swat valley."


Who is fooling whom here? The public, Zardari had said, was telling the PPP that, “We don’t want bread, we don’t want electricity, but we want him out”. Comments about Musharraf were not outburst: Zardari


Does Zardari know the fallout of the game he is playing? He can say that he is clever enough to have covered his flanks by putting his cronies and buddies in strategic positions, has kept Americans happy and has astutely sidelined the rival Amin Fahim and also the troublesome Aitzaz Ahsan. He may think that his constitutional package would empower him and his government to take care of a crafty president and a meddlesome coalition partner. He feels that a Supreme Court dominated by the PCO judges and wings-clipped chief justice would not be able to question the validity of NRO. Little does he realise that there is something called the Murphy Law which lays down that "If anything can wrong, it will." Inayatullah


In my last session with him, with Dr Shahid Masood of Geo TV also present, about two weeks back in Islamabad, he had gone even one step further. “If they pressurise me too much, I would rather pack up the National Assembly, call fresh elections and let them deal with the president and the Army,” he had said. Shaheen Sehbai

Zardari is almost sold out to the idea that if the sitting PCO judges cannot be retained after the restoration of the deposed ones, then all those who ever took oath on any PCO must be thrown out and a totally new judiciary be recruited, through a process of parliamentary scrutiny. This he calls the true spirit of the Charter of Democracy and says it will weed out all the unwanted judges, both who are liked or disliked by the PPP and the PML-N and give the judiciary a fresh start. Shaheen Sehbai


Headlines

Shooting from the hip - and mouth
Zardari-Mush tiff in the open
Wife: Saudi activist taken by secret police
CZECH REPUBLIC: Read the Papers And Fear the Muslims