Translate
Search This Blog
Featured
Monday, March 16, 2009
Army storms presidential palace
Mission Accomplished!
Your Views |
"Zardari will soon be in a hole - not only from Nawaz's pressure but also the lawmakers'." |
Charter of Democracy
From the point of view of crisis prevention, the 36-point Charter of Democracy outlines sensible measures that could go some way towards resolving the present political crisis. But will the PPP’s offer to ‘negotiate’ an end to the present crisis on the basis of the charter signed by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in May 2006 be taken up? Unlikely. First, the long march is ostensibly for the restoration of the deposed judges, but the disqualification of the Sharif brothers and the imposition of governor’s rule in Punjab have given the march a decidedly political hue. Negotiating an end to the judges’ issue without resolving the political crisis in Punjab is now a non-starter. But on the political front the PPP still hasn’t backed off from staking a claim to the Punjab government, effectively ensuring the PML-N won’t back off from supporting the long march and the planned sit-in. Second, the Charter of Democracy does not have an answer for what is at the heart of the judges’ issue: the restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry to the office of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The PPP has made it clear that it does not want Iftikhar Chaudhry back as chief justice; the lawyers and the opposition parties have made it clear that they won’t settle for anything less than the return of the deposed chief justice. Both sides interpret the charter to their own advantage. Third, the bona fides of President Zardari as a sincere negotiator are in serious doubt. Having reneged on previous agreements on the judges’ issue, the opposition will be leery of trusting him again. Negotiations inevitably take time, and whatever the PPP leadership says right now, the lawyers and opposition will worry that offers to negotiate are just a ploy to see off the threat of the long march and sit-in. More fundamentally, however, the problem has been that neither side has appeared interested in solutions that engender stability. Consider the judiciary. The PPP has baulked at reinstating Iftikhar Chaudhry, but it has also made no attempt to shore up judicial independence. President Zardari has appointed dozens of judges to the superior courts. Could he not have formed a commission to nominate candidates for the vacancies as per the Charter of Democracy? Could a joint parliamentary committee not have been formed to hold public hearings on the candidates forwarded by the prime minister, again in line with the charter? As for the lawyers and the opposition parties, they have consistently demanded of Iftikhar Chaudhry that once reinstated he should clean up politics with no compromise and no mercy. The judge himself has wholeheartedly embraced the idea of the crusading judge. So when nobody is aiming for stability, is it really a surprise if instability is the outcome?
Arab leaders ‘complicit’ with Israel over Gaza: Osama
DUBAI Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused some Arab leaders of being ‘complicit’ with Israel and the West against Muslims and urged holy war to liberate the Palestinian territories, in an audio tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera television on Saturday.‘It has become clear that some Arab leaders were complicit with the Crusader Zionist alliance against our people. These are the leaders that America calls moderate,’ said bin Laden, without singling out any leaders. ‘The countries of the Muslim world from Indonesia to Mauritania are divided into two: Some of them are crooked, while others are even more crooked,’ he added, in excerpts of the tape aired by the Doha-based channel. In the tape, whose authenticity could not be confirmed, bin Laden labelled the devastating offensive by Israel against Gaza at the new year as a Holocaust. ‘The Holocaust of Gaza amid a long siege is an important historical event that confirms the importance of distinguishing between Muslims and hypocrites,’ said the al Qaeda leader, who carries a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head. He called on jihadists to ‘liberate’ Iraq from the US army and then launch attacks on Israel from Jordan. ‘We should work hard and prepare for jihad (holy war) in order to bring about what is right,’ said bin Laden, who is widely believed to have found refuge in Pakistan's largely lawless tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan. ‘There is a precious rare chance for those who have a sincere desire to liberate Al-Aqsa mosque (in Jerusalem), which is by supporting the mujahedeen in Iraq ... and then going to Jordan as it is the best and widest of fronts.’ From Jordan, jihadists should launch into the West Bank and its neighbouring areas, he said. ‘The road to the liberation of Gaza needs real, sincere, independent, strong and honest leaders who are on top of major events,’ he added. Bin Laden suggested compiling a list of people ‘whose efforts serve our enemies’ and said committees should be formed in Muslim countries to raise awareness among citizens. He did not elaborate. The United States downplayed the recording, saying there was nothing new in it. ‘Al Qaeda addresses these themes with some frequency and at this point, there doesn't appear to be anything new here,’ a counterterrorism official told AFP. ‘These are well-worn themes for al Qaeda.’ The tape was the second by bin Laden in two months in which he has focused on the Gaza offensive. On January 14, he called on Muslims across the world to take revenge against Israel for the blitz, charging that the onslaught had been timed to take advantage of the dying days of the presidency of George W. Bush.