Iftikhar Chaudhry vs Musharraf!

If I mock the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and all the sheep who are slaves of 'definitions' such as 'free judiciary', I might be labeled a right wing loony. But I've read Riaz Basra's trial as well as Asia Bibi's. I have edited news about lawyers boycotting courts at least twice a week. I know that a worker cannot even afford to file a case against employers because the law favours those who are privileged. There are countless women awaiting hearing in Hudood cases.

And among all this, we have a judge, who decides who shall have what, who has behaved well with him and who has not. Since it has become a personal matter, an 'us' vs 'them' scenario, the community has inflicted a moral jury on one of its members because it has stamped him in some degree or dimension an outlaw. If in these circumstances, I judge the judiciary as biased and carrying out a personal agenda against Musharraf, your 'rants' would be nothing more but arsenic tirades negating your 'public support claims'. 

'Public' is not a homogeneous group, so stop associating and claiming it to be some archetype which wants what you want, and which demands what you think they 'must' demand. Not all public is offended by what Musharraf did in case of Lal Masjid, or Bugti case. Also, not everybody thinks he should be given precedence above all because he is an army general, or has been. Everybody does not have to care about terms like 'democracy' and 'dictatorship'. Stop fitting such a diverse group of 'public' in a box that is within your head, which is stuck in some theory books fed to you at some elite school, or at the dinner table of your bureaucratic father's home.

When you do this, it only brings out your bias and want for power. Where you see 'public' as an empowering tool. A public that is tailored for what your vision is. A union of your desires to sit on a thrown, be it political, philanthropic or just an egotistic one, and lest you forget, in our local context, a judicial one.

2012 ends for better or worse

What have we earned what have we lost during 2012?

To make a list of problems in Pakistan, one needs an encyclopaedia. As wishes and prayers start pouring in for the new calendar, I have only images and flashes of what transpired this year - Pictures of Vijanti, Rinkle and countless others like them; video of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi beheading Shia men in Quetta; images of Shia men killed in Parachinar, Chilas, Mastung, Quetta, Karachi, of limbs scattered around bomb blast sites, desecrated graves of Ahmedi Muslims in Lahore, burned and looted churches and temples in the name of religion, mass migration of Hindus from Sindh; Shahzeb Khan, who gave the urbanites a chance to unite; and of Bashir Bilour.

We have everything to offer, from terrorism to sexual harassment; feudalism to malnourished children; corruption to religious extremism; and yellow journalism to public vigilantism. Everything one needs to qualify!

Among all this, there is one big happy family. Yes! Hard to believe, but true. It is the most prosperous family we have had for decades. They've lost some members over the years. But still they stand tall. For them the new year will bring many exciting things.... Like letting go of terrorists, getting new cars, pampering spoilt brats. Do not ask them to reassure that the court would punish terrorists like Malik Ishaq from Lashker-e-Jhangvi, and rapists/rape-supporters (yes we have those too) like Sharjeel Memon and not let them free for lack of evidence. Not that we would have peace and not be counting dead bodies and relating bomb-blasts. 

Who cares if Rinkle, Vijanti, Kasturi, Asha, Koshalia, Hakeema and countless others get justice next year in this land of pure. It is still a Happy New Year!

Note: If there will be no rapes, no target killings, no bomb-blasts, no deaths due to hunger and lack of shelter, wish me a new year. Otherwise it’s an extension of the misery we live in, nothing good about prolonging misery, I support euthanasia.

Time to announce anti-judiciary a-political movement?

The print and electronic media both have been wreaking havoc with the poor, uneducated or half educated people of this country. Opinions are shoved down peoples throat as facts, while facts are brushed aside as heresy or conspiracies. And this is not just any one political party or religious organisation’s norm, nor is it specific to the conservatives or the liberals, it is a viral infection present in almost everybody regardless of their political leanings or their orthodoxy and vise versa.

For me the three most untrustworthy professions were, and perhaps still are, politics, law and journalism. Nevertheless, I still managed to join journalism. My condition is like a sweeper, who holds his breath by grabbing his nose between his index finger and thumb, before he lowers himself in the manhole to go about his business. I still am holding my nose, and am not even sure when I will stop doing so. Because, I feel that all these three institutions thrive on the constantly degrading conditions of this country. We are actually nose-diving at the current rate because of the rampant corruption within these three, [supposedly sacred] professions.

This trio of the unholy-politicians, the corrupt lawyers and judges along with the yellow journalists is the incubator where the filth of this society is conceived, nurtured, in case of injury resuscitated and revitalised to be reintroduced in the already dilapidated system. Of course, someone would think I have lost my marbles for not including the armed forces, as it has become one of the most favourite habits amongst these three to put the blame there. But this is where I am free from looking through their provided myopic lens. Not because I hold the armed forces scot-free, but because I hold responsible the people who call themselves more responsible and enlightened against everybody else. Nobody can stop me from holding responsible the ones who call everybody else responsible for their failures, their short sightedness, their selfishness and their darkness combined with their dark deeds.

Perhaps it is time to announce an anti-judiciary a-political movement supported by an un-biased media.