PPP’s Political Death - A Myth or Reality?

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was founded on 30^th November 1967 in Lahore, where democratic-socialists and left-wing intellectuals gathered to meet with Bhutto at the residence of Dr. Mubashir Hassan, and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was formed.

In Lahore, the newly formed party's members elected Quaid-i-Awam Z.A Bhutto as its first chairman and its manifesto, titled "Democracy is our Politics; Socialism is our Economy; Power Lies with the People", was written by Bengali communist J. A. Rahim, and first issued on 9 December 1967.

The manifesto identified the party's ultimate goal, main objective and raison d'etre as being the achievement of an egalitarian and "classless society", which was believed to be attainable only through socialism. It called for "true equality of citizen's fraternity under the rule of democracy", within "an order of social and economic justice." In 1968, a massive public-relations program was launched by the party, beginning in Punjab. Bhutto's program directly targeted the country's poverty-stricken masses. The left-wing oriented slogan, "Land to the Landless", proved irresistible to the peasants and labour-force, as the party promised not only to abolish the fundamental feudalism that had plagued the country, but also to redistribute lands amongst the landless and the peasants. The working class and labour movement quickly flocked to the party, believing it to be a party dedicated to the destruction of capitalism in the country.

Eventually, the socialist-oriented catchie-phrase Roti, Kapra aur Makan ("food, clothes, and housing"), became a nationwide rallying-call for the party. By the 1970s, the PPP had become the largest and most influential leading socialist and democratic entity in the country.

So, it was Punjab generally and LAHORE in particular where PPP laid its foundations but the recent bi-elections in NA 122 held where PML N candidate Sardar Ayaz Sadiq bagged 76,204 votes and Abdul AleemKhan of PTI was the runner up who secured 72,043 ballots.

The painful and pondering thing is that PPPP candidate Barrister Mian Amir Hassan bagged ONLY 819 votes in Lahore where the party was founded which might have caused the trouble for the souls of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto who will be suffering from restlessness even in the heaven.

The question is WHY IT HAPPENED in 2013 general elections and WHY IT IS HAPPENING now with PPP?

Apparently, there are various reasons to answer this poisonous question but main reason for this worst defeat of PPP is because Bhutto along with his comrades formed the party with a slogan “Power Lies with the People” but in today’s PPPP “Power Lies with the Feudals”. Bhutto further raised another slogan with his strong and bold voice "Land to the Landless", to abolish the fundamental feudalism and to redistribute land among the landless people, but today’s PPPP is one of the prominent land grabbing group in Sindh. Moreover, Bhutto uproared another catchy slogan “Roti, Kapra aur Makan” (bread, clothing and shelter) but today’s PPPP is busy in looting the public from their own public tax money.

A party which was meant to be the party of people has now become “Pakistan Paisay-walas Party – PPP” and the ideological element in the party is replaced with the narrative of “Seat Nikalo Policy”.  Bhutto formed the party for the establishment of an "egalitarian democracy" and the "application of socialistic ideas to realize economic and social justice". Today, except few old ideological comrades and jiyalas, nobody knows even the definition of “Socialism” and how can you expect from the mighty feudals like Sardar Ali Gohar Khan Mahar, Sardar Ali Nawaz Khan Mahar and Sardar Ali Mohammad Khan Mahar of Ghotki who remained allies of Pervaiz Musharaf in his tenure, to define socialism.

PPP is dying not only in Punjab but it is taking last breaths in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan as well. PPP’s ongoing feudocracy in Sindh has kept itself alive apparently but it has distanced itself from the masses for whom Bhutto said “Power Lies with the People” and there is still a chance for the existing party’s (sensible) leadership to cure this disease before it gets political death in the country.

Let's Praise the PPP

For many people, the five-year rule of Pakistan People’s Party was a period of dismaying catastrophes which brought the country to the socio-political and economic collapse. People were desperately looking for undefined change in the country as they were neither happy with Zardari’s parlor cabinet nor with his kitchen cabinet. PPP’s co-chair Asif Ali Zardari and its parliamentarians especially Rehman Malik were on the bull’s-eye of mainstream media and social media as well. They both were hated as much as the Jews and Americans are hated by the right wingers in Pakistan.

Suddenly, I found people praising PPP’s leadership especially Asif Ali Zardari and Rehman Malik after the recent political turmoil in Lahore and Islamabad when Tahir-ul-Qadri introduced his second episode of his revolution which pushed the current government of PML-N in crisis where many people lost their lives and several got injured and the rule of law was puffed away in the capital of Pakistan. People on social media started missing the previous government and started praising them.

Qadri, a Pakistani-Canadian and the main star of “Siyasat Nahi Riyasat Bacho” drama serial, when he returned to Pakistan last year after years in Toronto, accused the PPP’s government of corruption and incompetency, and called for sweeping reforms to be enacted by a caretaker administration before polls. Instead of being the reactionary at that time, Rehman Malik issued instructions for the provision of strict security to rangers and police personnel formed a security cordon around Qadri's truck.

However, the first episode of Qadri’s revolution ended peacefully because it was well managed by PPP where not even a single life was lost and no harm occurred to the policemen. But after watching the second episode of same drama in last few days, people started re-calling the good memories and actions of PPP.

We still remember the words of Qadri which he said in the first episode that, “This president and prime minister…they are now ex-presidents and prime ministers. Their time is over. Dissolve the national and provincial assemblies by the morning. I am giving you until 11 am to step down or else the people will start making their own decisions,” “These millions of supporters have spoken. They have rejected your so-called mandate. You are no longer their representatives.”

Even at that time, PPP government did not lose their temper and managed the whole situation by forming a negotiating committee led by Qamar Zaman Kaira who not only exposed the agenda of Qadri but also cooled down the “Siyasat Nahi, Riyasat Bachao” – an anti-democratic campaign very cunningly. Whereas, the current government of PML-N could not deal it peacefully.

Interestingly, this whole process brought a new praising layer on the previous acts of Rehman Malik who used to be the most hatting subject in the previous government but after the current move of PML-N, people started apologizing Rehman Malik on social media and showered him with the admiration. 

It was also great to see that some senior journalists and civil society activists started giving suggestions to Nawaz Sharif to learn something from Asif Ali Zardari and other politicians of PPP as they started realizing that the previous government of PPP was much better than the current government of PML-N.

No doubt that we suffered from various crisis during the tenure of PPP including the shortage energy, the high inflation, terrorism, corruption and mismanagement but we all have to acknowledge wholeheartedly that there were many great achievements as well for us as nation to strengthen the democratic process. It was PPP who removed the anomalies from the constitution and its restoration to almost to its original shape of 1973. Under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, provincial autonomy to the provinces was ensured by abolishing the Concurrent List from the constitution. Another big achievement was unanimous passage of the 7th National Finance Commission Award, which was long overdue. This move gave new strength to the federation. 

No doubt, PPP came into power when the country’s economy was in messes and the whole country was in the grip of terrorism which resulted in further financial crisis is true. Beside this, PPP’s government had to face the natural disasters of floods devastation in 2010 and massive rains in 2011, which inundated most parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh but they faced those challenges and initiated various programmes for the poor like Benazir Income Support Programme and Pakistan Baitul Maal. They also faced men-made disasters in the shape of Taliban. The Swat Operation is the perfect example of it where both the Army and political elite flushed out the militants and restored peace and order in the area. 

These all achievements at least should be appreciated and credit goes to PPP and its coalition partners of the previous government but the dilemma of our nation is that we do not give due credit in time but when we face the worst scenario, we start praising the past. 

I being a democrat think that we all as a nation should learn to appreciate and admire the steps of all political forces which strengthen democracy in our country as one of the German politician Friedrich Ebert has rightly said that, “Democracy Needs Democrats”.

By:  @AbdullahDayo 

Compassion – A Path to Peace in Pakistan

Few days back my most beloved friend Sidra Saeed wrote a blog “Empty Vessels Make Much Noise” in which she highlighted some thought provoking points about the people of Pakistan who see many violent riots in the country and ignore it by some mere condemning statements but don’t take any remedy actions to eliminate the ongoing sectarian violence under the shadow of religious terrorism. She closed the discussion by leaving a big question mark that “How can we fight the terrorists in our country if we cannot accept each other and without using our “so called brains” we will continue to smoke the whole country?

This brought a typhoon in the silent sea of my mind and compelled me to think over it and try to find out the solution. On the basis of my limited knowledge when I recalled the history, I realized that the conflicts in Pakistan are originally of the political nature but later they become endless ‘holy wars’ with sacred missions having no pragmatic solution. That typhoon put me in more trouble when I reflected that I being the young activist should have the task to create a pluralistic society where all peoples can live together in mutual harmony and respect but again the question arises HOW?

It took me around two days to find the brightness on the other side of tunnel and finally found out the heart of all faiths and religions which is called Golden Rule – for which every religion professes ‘Never do to others as you would like them to treat you’. Same thing was uttered by Prophet Mohammad on an occasion where he said: ‘Not one of you can be a believer, unless he desires for his NEIGHBOR what he desires for himself,’ – which shows that Prophet used the word neighbor without putting any foot notes – he did not say that neighbor should be a pure muslim – here neighbor means any human being no matter from which faith or sect he belongs to.  

Categorically when we see in the history of Pakistan; we find religion has been the root cause of all wars (including proxy wars) and other conflicts. In fact, it is greed, envy, and ambition that cause conflict, but all too often these self-centered emotions are given a religious justification which is common in our country. On one side, the terrorists are using religion to authorize their atrocities by quoting scriptural verses from Quran out of context and violating some of the most sacred values of Islam which they claim to defend and on other side, the religious leaders who wait for their turn like the vultures add more fuel to the fire as recently done by the chief of religious party, Jamat-e-Islam - Syed Munawar Hassan (born and raised in India) who passed the misguided statement on the death of Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud by calling him the “Martyr” and disrespecting the martyrdom of Pakistani soldiers who lost their lives in the attacks by Taliban.  

Coming back to the main discourse that HOW to co-exist peacefully – I think it is not something impossible because we have the history where our ancestors lived together peacefully.  The only thing is to understand and realize the word “Compassion” and “Golden Rule” which only says, ‘feel the pain of others and own it’. Karen Armstrong has beautifully defined it in her “Charter for Compassion” in which she says, ‘we need to look deeply into our own hearts, discover what gives us pain and then refuse under any circumstances to inflict that pain on anybody else.’

Reciting Holy Quran or any other religious manuscripts will be of no use until and unless they are put into practice. It is very much obvious to see in Pakistan that the compassionate voice of religion is getting drowned by the voices of extremism, prejudice, and self-righteousness. So here comes our role, we need to amplify the compassionate voice which is in the favor of mankind and bring it to the forefront of people’s attention in our society and beyond but this is not an easy going job. You can easily operate a brand new micro-wave oven or any other household electronic machine by reading its manual provided by the manufacturer but you can not learn to swim by sitting on the side of the pool and watching how other people do it. So the full meaning of compassionate teachings will only become clear when we try to put them into practices of our own lives.

It is common practice in our society that we keep our children away from understanding the other faiths and traditions which makes us the part of these conflicts unintentionally. Once, I happened to visit my friend (belongs to a moderate muslim family) where I found him having a theological discussion with his 5 years old nephew. His nephew was of the view that “Hindu janwar hotey hai aur muslimaan achay hotey hai” (Hindus are animals and muslims are good people) which was very shocking for him but the way he handled the discussion was wonderful. He firstly made that child to understand the word “Humans”, I was the passive listener only as my friend took 30 minutes to have a very polite discussion with her nephew where he shared the values of being human which is superior than all the attributes. Interestingly, he asked from that minor child about his favorite hero – he abruptly replied, ‘I like Harry Potter’ than my friend said – look, Harry Potter is not muslim but even then you like him and then the child realized and said “Hindu achay hotey, sab insaan achay hotey hai” (Hindus are good, all human are good). Story doesn’t end here, actually it is the start, we all need to be curious, in the best sense about others which will help us to broaden our horizons and expand our sympathies. We should engage ourselves as well as our younger generation to have deeper understanding of other faiths, sects and traditions which will surely challenge some of the misconceptions or unconscious prejudices as that minor child was having. Purpose of telling this story is to let you realize that many people (like my friend) are on the right path and they are doing their best to break the empty vessels and the day will come soon when their efforts will kindle the fire of peace and co-existence.

I am at peace now because I have finally found the answer of that big HOW. If you also want to get inner peace then it should be your prime duty to preach the message of compassion in order to counter the cruelty and terror of your time. This is not the time to throw up your hands in despair. Let’s break those empty vessels by changing ourselves. Don’t wait for things to change because change doesn’t start out there, change starts within – most importantly – all change starts with YOU and you will see a new dawn emerging in our society sooner or later.

Sahir Ludhyanvi – I still standby with your lines in which you said:

Wo subah kabhi to aayegi, wo subah kabhi to aayegi,

In kaali sadiyon ke sar se, jab raat ka aanchal dhalkega,

Jab dukh ke baadal pighalenge, jab sukh ka sagar chalkega,

Jab anbar jhoom ke naachega, jab dharti naghme gayegi,

Wo subah kabhi to aayegi, wo subah kabhi to aayegi ……..!

At end, I will add, “WO SUBAH HUM HI SE AAEY GI.”

Tyranny of Jirga System: Kohistan Girls' Case

The veracity of the report about the murder of five girls in Kohistan is still in doubt. They were purportedly killed by a local jirga just for singing and clapping at a wedding ceremony with two male companions.

We are still living in a patriarchal society where women sometimes can’t even breathe out of their own will due to the cultural suffocation and limited choices they face. Even after working hard all day long like machines, their poor lives remain at the stake of jirga which can accuse them of any immorality.

It was encouraging to see various women-friendly bills, including the ‘Anti-Sexual Harassment Bill and the Anti-Women Practices Bill’, being passed by the government which gave a hope to these suppressed women to live with dignity and enjoy their fundamental rights.

However, this incident has deepened their wounds and has challenged the current laws, showing that the local jirga system is superior to the laws made through legislation.

It is our humble request to the people sitting in the powerful corridors of parliament to take serious action against this barbaric act and to present a bill in parliament against these local jirga systems.

I request the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take these brutal tyrants behind bars otherwise a day will soon come when these jirgas will be ruling over us. Besides, they will be openly slaughtering our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters in the streets. 

http://dawn.com/2012/06/07/kohistan-girls-case/ 

By: Abdullah Dayo

Howling Crisis in Pakistan and Role of Media

Pakistan is at the cross roads in its geopolitical history. It is perceived as the source of current terrorism and the centre of attention in the global war against terror. The country is faced with a vicious, prolonged internal conflict (Like; Judicial crisis). But most importantly, after having held elections in February 2008, Pakistan today finds itself in the third year of a challenging transition towards democracy. The present development marks a historic nexus with an opportunity to establish a sustainable democracy. Pakistan is a delicate state, threatened by economic crisis and the effects of a continued mutiny. The civilian government has been facing difficult tasks including the problem of NFC Awards, Provincial autonomy, abortion of 17^th amendment, war on terror and so on.  

Moreover, The Constitution of Pakistan, domestic laws and international instruments prohibit torture, yet torture continues to be practiced and intensified due to Pakistan’s proactive role in the war against terror. Security operations resulted in internal displacement of over 200,000 people, one of the largest displacements in historical time. People are often being tortured having links with the Taliban or extremist groups. Extrajudicial killings, disappearances, mass arrest of suspects by police after any incidence of terror have emerged in the security threatened era. The pre existed culture of impunity augmented by crisis of judiciary and priority shift of state towards day to day emergency response create a vacuum where the issue of torture remained unaddressed.  

Furthermore, Pakistan has a vibrant and free media landscape; among the most dynamic in South Asia. To a large extent the media enjoys freedom of expression in spite of political pressure and direct bans sometimes administered by political stakeholders. More than 40 television channels beam soaps, satire, music programs, films, religious speeches, political talk shows, and news of the hour. Although sometimes criticized for being unprofessional and politically biased, the television channels have made a great contribution to the media landscape and to Pakistani society. Though Pakistani media enjoys relative freedom compared to some of its South Asian neighbors, the industry is subjected to many undemocratic and regressive laws and regulations. During terrorists attacks killings, physical attacks and coercion are constant concerns for many Pakistani journalists. Pakistan is currently ranked number one in the world in the statistics of journalists killed in 2009.  

However, Pakistan is faced with a huge task ahead as it has to establish internal peace and prosperity for its citizens. Aware of the important role the media needs to play in this process, and alarmed by reports of the deteriorating security situation journalists face in large parts of the country but unfortunately the media is currently selling out its products sometime in the shape of Shoaib-Sania’s wedding case and some other unnecessary issues which are beyond the ethics. Being the mouth-piece of common people, media has to highlight the issues of peace, price hike, high inflation, load shading, unemployment and poverty because people having nothing to do with the issues of Shoaib-Sania and Asif-Veena.

(From the old diary as this article was written a year ago.)

By: Abdullah Dayo

Burning of Living Souls

Incidents of fire broke are very much common in the industrial areas of our country but the incident of fire in a garment factory of Karachi where the horrific and deadly jaws of fire engulfed the lives of almost 300 working men, women and children. It is worst incident in the history of Pakistan which has unpacked the mismanagement and corruption of the regulatory authorities who allow the investors to set up any industry illegally in densely populated cities without taking any safety and security measures which results the death of many innocent people.

In this garment industry when the fire broke, workers tried to rush out through the windows because there were no safety measures taken in the building design. There was no emergency exit. All the people got trapped due to which a big number of workers died from suffocation.

Elected representatives of people were found on media in expressing their deep sorrows; some of the officials were seen and heard for lodging FIR, making investigation and compensating the bereaved families. We as a nation think that taking these actions is not the remedial solution to these issues.

Every terrible incident has a lesson in the end and this incident has uncovered the areas which need to be improved. Not only the owner of this factory but those authority holders who allowed him to set up the factory should be brought behind the bars. All existing industries should be re-visited properly by the relevant authorities and all the security and safety measures should be ensured. Pro-people legislation should be done for the welfare of working people in which life insurance of all the workers should be made mandatory for all the industries and workers should be allowed to form the trade unions where they can raise their concerns and get their work recognized.

If it is not done and this incident gets buried, Pakistani nation will again get the news of same nature in which many mothers will lose their sons, sisters will lose their brothers, wives will lose their husbands and children will lose their parents.

By: Abdullah Dayo

Globalization and Pakistan’s Economy

Pakistan’s economic position in world’s economy is that Pakistan is the 47^th largest in the world in nominal terms and 27^th largest in the world in terms of purchasing power parity. Pakistan’s economy is semi-industrialized which mainly includes textiles, chemicals, food processing, agriculture and other industries but the various socio-economic and political problems are being faced by Pakistan including economic loss due to both the Soviet-Afghan war and ongoing war on terror, energy crisis, low foreign direct investment (FDI) and huge dept trap, poorly managed tax system, low export and high import, inflation, natural disasters, a fast growing population and unemployment, mixed levels of foreign investment and a costly ongoing confrontation with neighboring India which has kept Pakistan in isolation from the rest of the world.

For last few decades, fair globalization has been one of the biggest challenges. The fair custom of how to shape the growing combination of economies and societies in a social and democratic way are widely discussed. In the context of global economy and global governance, Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are mostly confronted with the effects of globalization and ­without having enough opportunities to take a deeper look at the underlying issues and to analyze political options for dealing with the global challenges.

The word “globalization” is having multi dimensions which imply different meaning for different people worldwide. Some focus on the economic dimension and hence emphasize on the global economy, whereas others focus on the trade which includes Intra-industrial trade, emerging market economies multilateral governance and services. Besides this, few others focus on the cultural dimensions of this phenomenon and how globalization has affected different aspects of their culture, still some focus on the political aspects of the structure of globalization.

In a compelling scenario of the sensation of alluring globalization, Pakistan has entered the 21^st century with unsure intuition of hope and gloom in the context of realizing globalization-based economic development. Globalization is indeed the trendiest dynamic in the whole world. Pakistan’s ever-continuing status as a low income country, along with its serious problems of unsustainable economic growth performance and perpetual debt crises which have culminated into growing stagflation and increasing incidence of poverty even in the contemporary regime of globalization, has become a prime cause of the widespread disillusionment and skepticism of Pakistani masses about globalization.

There is difference of opinion regarding the desirability of globalization that simply implies openness and integration of the domestic economy with rest of the world in order to keep pace with dynamics of the international economy. The impact of globalization varies from country to country and from region to region depending on the level of social, economic and political developments as well as macroeconomic policies. Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have gained as well as suffered from globalization. Globalization is the need of the hour and no country can afford living in isolation. LDCs can counter the negative effects of globalization if they unite and adopt policies that adequately serve their genuine cause.

Like other LDCs, Pakistan’s economy requires abrupt reforms to triumph over the challenges because any more delay in initiating much-needed sector-specific reforms would further aggravate the situation. 

In order to sustain the economy, Pakistan has to improve its taxation system because less than three million of Pakistan’s 175 million citizens pay any income tax and its tax-GDP ratio is just 9 percent. In this regard, Pakistani legislators must build a consensus to tax the elite to overcome the economic crisis. In Pakistan, it has also become the need of hour to put focus on the maintenance of law and order and economic stability because it is the only way to sustain the economic growth and creating spaces for developed countries to invest in Pakistan. If the authorities do not focus on prevailing peace in current times of unrest and violence, the investors will take their money elsewhere in other countries where the safety and security is guaranteed.

Last not least, Pakistan also has to revise its economic strategies and should start thinking on ending the restrictions on trade and investment. If there is no quick progress made to overcome the shortage of resources and to solve the economic constraints, it will put huge burden on GDP growth which can lead Pakistan to the further socio-economic and political crisis. 

By: Abdullah Dayo